Here, time is more precious than diamonds

I note with interest that I am not the only one experiencing bad weather at the moment and readers in the UK will no doubt sympathise with my bemoaning the monsoon rainfall we are having here. No surprise therefore that we didn't get the concrete poured this week but, we do now have an availability date for John and his team to lay it and we have booked the concrete for Wednesday 27 June. All we need now is some reasonable weather to pour and smooth it over.

Meanwhile I have, between rain showers, started staining the logs. I am using a water based stain and therefore can take a little more risk with the weather than if I was using an oil based stain. I used an oil based one a few years ago and was caught out by a freak thunderstorm that completely wrecked about five hours work. It then took me two days to rub it all down and paint it again. The product I am using this time dries in about two hours and if it does get wet, it only really needs to be gone over again without having to rub it down. It is also much friendlier to work with. Brushes are easier to clean and it comes off the skin much more easily too.

My brother Rod and his wife Pam, who live in Australia, arrived on Wednesday evening having driven over the mountains from Vancouver via Whistler and the Okanangan Valley, where they lingered for a day of wine tasting and who can blame them. They are now safely housed in one of the cabins where I am lodging. Thursday was scorching hot and so we continued the work I had started on staining the logs. The combination of the work, the altitude (2,500 ft) and the heat (30+ C) brought on a migraine for Pam but, fortunately, the trailer (caravan) is still on site and therefore, there was somewhere for her to lay down in the cool and have something to drink.

Rod and Pam, who brought with them some very welcome Vegemite that I have so far been unable to find on any of the local supermarket shelves.

Rod and I preparing the stain for decanting into smaller pots for brushing onto the logs and ...

 … then hard at work getting it on. I am the better looking one - no, on the left.

Rain stopped play at about 1430 hrs on Friday but, we hadn't done badly.

Most of the dormers and lower sections were done, with the bits in between plus the end gables still to do. It is hoped that the weather will permit us to complete this next week and then start on the UV coat that needs to go over the stain.

Normally, I work at least one day of the weekends and depending on the weather it can be either Saturday or Sunday. I didn't feel it was fair to do this with Rod and Pam here, as they are on holiday and should really take advantage of the opportunity to see more of British Columbia than just my cabin and it's surrounding area. So on Saturday we set out for the undeveloped natural Lussier Hot Springs, which are in the wilderness about an hour and a half north of here and free to use. We made a leisurely start but were disappointed to discover that the hot springs were in fact only luke warm and certainly not hot enough for Australians. We therefore went to Fairmont, where I have been before. Fortunately, there the water was piping hot and we spent a pleasant time soaking aching muscles.

Before going up to Fairmont however, I wanted to go on further into the wilderness in order to recce a route that offered an alternative way back to the Bull River Inn. So we set off through some very picturesque country only to be halted about 30 km further down the track by a signpost that warned us of bridge repair work 97 km further on that would prevent us from reaching our destination. We decided it was time to turn back and on the way to Fairmont we stopped to picnic by a river.

The deeper we penetrated the forest and the mountains the further we got away from civilisation until, the only sign of it was the dirt track we stood on. Here, with the blink of an eye, time slips back a millennia or two and it made me think that I was born in the wrong century. Oh to have been here three hundred years ago when no path existed and when the only things of value were the things that one could make use of. Oh to have lived the life of an 18th century frontiersman, exploring, trapping, trading with the Indians, living without the encumbrances of modern life, when and where the only traps were for catching animals and didn't come with small print at the bottom of pages headed Mortgage, Bank Loan, Hire Purchase Agreement, Insurance Policy.

Here the deadliest predators walk on four feet instead of two and where your (four legged) neighbours and the environment you share with them are the elixir that give you life, instead of draining it from you.

Here, time is more precious than diamonds.

Here the drink you sip, the food you eat, the medicines you take and the lotions you rub in all come without packaging, without processing and without preservatives. Even the roof over your head is free here if you have a registered trap line, which you can still acquire for a small licence fee ($40). Here, all these things are a gift from mother nature and all that she expects in return is a silent prayer of thanks and some small consideration to help her.  

It's a long way to Tipperary

It quickly became apparent at the beginning of the week that the team I want to lay the final pour of concrete in the garage etc were not going to clear their backlog of work this week. So it looks like it will now be sometime next week. In view of this I have taken it easy this week and even skived off one afternoon to go to the movies to watch Prometheus. I haven't felt quite so naughty since skiving off Latin prep in the fourth form at Prep School, but feelings of guilt (that never seemed to bother me when skiving prep) took the edge off the movie, which otherwise wasn't bad.

The delay is frustrating but it is not really holding everything up. The latest forecast for the SIPs for the roof is now three weeks, down one week from a month ago. I know that sounds barmy but we are talking building contractors here. If only we could take advantage of the time by doing some staining and parging (cover for the above ground basement polystyrene) but for that we need a few days of good weather and at the moment we are not getting two consecutive days of sunshine. I've got all the stain and parging material, cans and brushes all ready to go and next week it is hoped that we will start this work, weather permitting.

So this week we continued the process of preparations for the concrete laying. On Monday we had a truck load of pea gravel delivered for final levelling and smoothing inside and outside the garage.

We only used a few barrows full and the rest will be used around the cabin to smarten up some of the areas not covered by the deck. New stuff will be brought in for the drive. 

It has made the base for the concrete much easier to sculpture around the corner to the stairs for the Annex deck, where the concrete has to turn, drop and shed water away from the garage.

The apron outside the garage, before the re-bars were added. Actually, we are still awaiting some re-bars to finish the job and they should arrive on Monday, as should the replacement valley for the one we mis-cut a few weeks ago.

Inside the garage we are almost ready. All that remains is to drill holes into the foundation walls to tie the re-bars in and about 50 feet of bars for this end.

I also dug the final foundation for the Annex deck, which somehow got missed first time around. Amongst other things it will support the stairs.

 Apart from that I tidied up the wood off cuts that were cluttering up the area between the front entrance and the garage, in preparation for starting the parging. In this particularly area I am going to put stone, because the foundations will be visible but I have cleared it so I can judge more easily where the boundary between the parging and the stonework will be.

On Thursday, I went up to Calgary to visit a specialist carpentry tool shop. I went with Owen who also wanted to visit an Oil Industry Exhibition, he is doing some work in support of the business in the USA. I bought some tools which I will need for furniture making but they will also be useful for making spindles for the decking. The Exhibition was interesting and there was some impressive equipment on display. Conspicuous in the crowds where the similarly dressed squads of Chinese, equipped with enormous cameras with gigantic telephoto lenses, snapping away at all the displays from every angle so they could go away and make the stuff themselves. It was all a bit obvious.

I took lots of photos myself, mostly of the heavy equipment on display but, the only things that I thought may be of real interest to readers of this blog, was this stand that specialised in small all terrain vehicles.

Does anyone remember Mike Somerton-Rayner's Esarco company back in the 80s that used to produce these sort of things in 6x6 and 8x8. There were lots of trials on Salisbury Plain but I am not sure if the MOD actually bought any in the end, maybe a few for the Paras.

 Andrew Ridgway was involved, as the test pilot, if my memory serves me right. Well, these things are quite popular here.

I don't know if Mike SR actually invented these things but I'm guessing that he would be pretty interested to see them now.

I thought the ornithologists amongst you, and I know there are a few of you out there, may like to see the empty nest of my robins. I have removed it now that the birds have flown, so as to prevent any mould or mildew forming on the beam.

Many of you will have been following Matt Sample's blog and, like me, will be very sad that his around the world trip has come to end. His final days in Germany and mention of the smell of Bratwurst made me suddenly nostalgic for the days I spent in the old Fatherland and so I rushed out and bought some Thurlingian bratties from the local super-market and cooked them up on Tex's bbq. They looked a bit smaller than the one's we used to get up in North Rhine Westphalia and Lower Saxony after a night out on the town, and so I put two on the barbie. As I munched them with the closest thing I could find to senf and swilled them down with cold lager, a whole load of fond memories came flooding back. Autumn manoeuvres in tanks across the North German Plain, low-level flying sorties over the Fulda Gap, flaxen haired frauleins, old comrades, pig roasts ……. The Wall, which was what it was all about. Don't know what I am going to do with the other ten bratties still in the packet. Guess I'd better find a few friends, a few beers and dig out a few sheets of "Its a long way to Tipperary, Bless 'Em All, Widecombe Fair" and all those other old songs we used to sing around the camp fires - those were the days, though we didn't know it at the time. 

❡ It's a long way to Tipperary, its a long way to go …………❡

And then to the rolling heaven itself I cried

Water, water everywhere has been the main theme this week. It has rained almost without interruption for most of the week and the low clouds have dulled the light and our spirits. On Wednesday we had 2 ½ inches and I had to drill eight, half inch, holes in the Annex floor to let the water drain down into the garage below, where we were busy levelling the floor. The temperature also dropped and on the hills and mountains around me the rain fell as snow, much of which is still there. Many of the rivers have burst their banks and the water meadows are now flooding, to be enriched with the minerals and silt brought down from the mountains. The ducks and geese of course are as happy as pigs in the proverbial, but the rest of us are pretty irritated. Even the deer seem to have fled to higher ground.

Consequently, there was a big impact on what we could achieve at the cabin and the biggest disappointment was that we didn’t get the cement poured in the garage. The main reason for this was the unavailability of the laying team who, because of the rain, have a backlog of jobs waiting to be done and the latest forecast for my pouring is now the back end of next week. At least this has given us more time to prepare and allowed us stay out of the rain. Poor consolation.

Flooding in the Kootenay river valley was widespread but houses appear to have been wisely built above the flood plane.

On Monday I helped the team put the roof on an extension to a cabin that they have been building at Rosen Lake in Jaffray. It was the only day when it didn't rain.

We got the job done in a day and it looked good when we had finished.

Having cleared the garage of all its occupants we continued the work of levelling the floor ready for pouring the concrete.

It was harder work than it probably looks and having taken out about 50 wheel-barrows full of dirt we had to bring in a few of gravel to get the surface as smooth as possible and finish the job. There is still work to do before we can pour. Re-bars must be laid and the polystyrene either side of the concrete foundations in the doorways needs to be removed.

Outside, we dug a shallow trough for the garage apron and ...

… extended it around the garage to where we will need a concrete pad for the stairway leading up to the deck outside the Annex. We also need to dig a similar trough for the stairs leading to the front door and one final deck foundation needs digging.

The other great benefit of the rain this week is that it has allowed the robins time and space to bring up their little family with the minimum of disturbance and I am very pleased to report that the birds have now flown the nest. I can’t quite believe how quickly it has all happened. The whole process seemed to take less than six weeks. The humming birds are also noticeable by their absence now, as they seem to have moved on. I am not sure if this is because of all the rain or whether they were just passing through on their way to their summer breeding grounds. I was told that some stay in this area and if so, I hope they will appear again when the sun comes out again. If indeed it ever does.

There has been no word of John Sheppard, the homeless one, and this has left me with some very mixed feelings. One side of me suspects and hopes that he has just moved on and, in the way of the homeless and the down and out, one cannot expect any form of farewell. If this is indeed the case then I am content but, there is also the gnawing doubt that something may have happened to him. There was some considerable animosity towards him in his new location and the only evidence that he left behind suggests that he did not leave in a planned and organised way. Did I do enough for him? I suspect not, and, shamefully, I suspect the feeling of guilt will wither faster than it should.

But while it lasts however, I might as well make the most of it. Save of course for the native peoples here, in living memory this land has largely been spared the horrors of what much of the rest of the world has experienced in the form of war, pestilence, famine or natural disaster. Curious then why, despite all our good fortunes, it seems inevitable that one day we should all invite tragedy to our doors and, almost always, by the way we treat others. Is it that we can’t live without it? For some unfathomable reason is it that we need a broken heart to fulfil our lives or make us feel alive? I used to think that tragedy was the special preserve of the poor and unfortunate, the Russians and East Europeans in particular (and maybe the Irish) who seem unable to escape the cycle of inflated, irresponsible happiness and despondent, hopeless misery. Is it courted; is it driven by events beyond control, or; is it simply a lack of moderation that inevitably brings it to our doors? Many have asked the same question and none have provided the answer better than my favourite polymath Omar Khayyam:

Ah, my beloved, fill the cup that clears

Today of past regrets and future fears.

Tomorrow? Why, tomorrow, I maybe

Myself with yesterday’s seven thousand years.

And then, when that doesn't work, many turn to god (or whoever else or whatever form he now appears to us in).

Then to the rolling Heav'n itself I cried,

Asking, "What Lamp had Destiny to guide

Her little Children stumbling in the Dark?"

And---"A blind Understanding!" Heav'n replied.

And a fat lot of good that does when, what is really needed is a small drop of the milk of human kindness. And that, of course, is just exactly what (for one reason or another) and all too often, we don't appear to be capable of giving, when it is most needed.

Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines

This week has been mostly one of prior preparation and planning for future events. I finished off the last bits and pieces to the stud-walling that I started last week and I began to get things ready for pouring the concrete in the garage, which it is hoped will be done next week, depending on the availability of the laying crew.  I want to use the same guys that did the basement. They were outstanding and I have, I believe, the only basement on the Development that does not have a crack in it. If you saw them on the street you probably wouldn't consider them but, don't judge a book by the cover as they say because, they really were professional, as I think I said at the time.


I also had some good news from the planning department. When my plans were approved and my building permit issued, they stipulated that I had to rough in at least a three piece bathroom in the basement. I didn't really want to do this because I want to keep this area open (save for a storage room and small utilities room) as a large hobby and recreational area. So on Friday I went along to the planning office to see if there was any flexibility on this issue. To my utter surprise, no sooner did I mention that I didn't really want to dig holes in my wonderful basement floor when the inspector informed me that it was no longer a requirement to rough in a bathroom, only to put in a vent pipe up to the roof, just in case a future owner wishes to put a bathroom in the basement. Not quite believing what I had just heard, I asked him to repeat it and I staggered out of their offices much relieved and in a much lighter mood than when I went in.

Last week I promised to show you the top of the doorway into the second bedroom - here from inside the bedroom and ...

… from the landing area.

I dragged my utility trailer out of the garage, to allow us to start levelling the floor, and have now parked it on the edge of what will be the apron. Using the rotten valley (14" x 4" x 26'), some OSB board and some old dunnage that I planed off, I have built myself a sturdy work bench (8' x 28"), which I have put in the trailer. I thought that it was going to take up too much room and that I wouldn't be able to get much else in, but I was wrong and so I spent a day getting most of my large heavy tools, that I bought a few months ago, out of my lockup. I had lots of fun unpacking them, setting them up and learning how they work. I can't wait to start using them, after all, this is what I have bought them for. I just wish we were a little further along with the build, so I could set up my workshop in the garage. There is still the large bench saw and thickness planer to bring out and it is hoped that it won't be long now before I can do this and I hopefully await the moment when we can secure at least the garage.


I was quite glad there wasn't too much really heavy work this week because we have entered the season when 'sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines' and on a couple of occasions the temperature rose above 30c. Not that I am really complaining, its much better than 30 below.

My new workbench in the trailer with a few tools.

There is still plenty of room for smaller tools and enough space to work at the bench, not that I will be doing any major work in the trailer. I also bought the electrical cable you can see on the bottom shelf. We will need to lay some on top of some of the beams just before the SIPs are put in place and, this week, I also routed out some groves for this very purpose.

On Wednesday, Kevin and I hitched up his large flatbed trailer to his pickup and we dragged it off into the forest along with my new licence, in order to salvage some wood for furniture and the decking. We grossly overloaded the trailer as well as his truck but, brought it back safely with some really good wood. I am still reeling over the opportunity and value that this licence represents. Kevin estimated that the value of the wood we collected exceeded $2,500, if we had bought it at a timber yard. There is so much of it in the area that has been allocated to me that we could collect ten times the volume I have been granted and it would scarcely make an impression on what is just lying around.

All the wood you see here was part of our load.

My robins continue to struggle to bring up their young chicks while I work around them. If there is a brighter side to the slowness of work at the moment then it is this. I managed to sneak this photo of the chicks at the beginning of the week, but I am reluctant to intrude any more lest I frighten the parents off. I have tried to help out by leaving bread out for them but they don’t seem to be interested. I am not sure what else I can do, other than leave them alone.

If you look hard enough, you can just make out three chicks amongst all the feathers and beaks

The deer are losing their winter coats but, I have yet to see any of this year's fawns. There are plenty of last year's about and the males are all starting to grow new horns. We always have plenty around the development but at the moment there seems to be more than usual. I'm not quite sure why. I am also having a bit of a problem with gofers, who are digging up parts of my yard. There is a local badger who lives on the common land and I guess he will eventually get around to culling a few for me. Otherwise, I may have to trap a few and take them over to the other side of the lake to start a new life over there.  

John Sheppard, the homeless man, has been reported missing by the people on whose land he has been camping. The RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) don’t appear to be very interested because he is homeless. A number of us are concerned because his dog, of whom he was very fond, was found apparently abandoned in the truck camper John was using. This is very unlike John, who took great care of the dog, and we feel he would have taken it along with him if he had decided to move on.

I am looking forward to the arrival of my brother Rod and sister-in-law Pam in a couple of weeks, who are stopping over on their way from Australia to the London Olympics. They will be with me for a couple of weeks and an extra pair of hands between site seeing, fishing, bear watching and barbarqueing will be welcome. I have ordered all the stain for the logs and this may be a suitable task for them to help me out with. I have also arranged for them to stay in one of the cabins where I am currently living, free of charge thanks to Owen my contractor, thank you Owen. Although these cabins are fairly basic and small, at least they have running water and electricity, which Rod and Pam wouldn't have if they were in the trailer (caravan).

Talking of barbargues, Tex treated me to a fantastic T bone steak on Friday that he had been marinading in grape seed oil for three weeks. It was as big as both my hands layed side by side on a table and I made a salad for us to go with it that didn't really do it justice. The bottle or Merlot I provided however did, and a couple of glasses ensured that the meat was digested without any tummy rumblings in the middle of the night. T bones are one of my favourite steaks and, as they are quite hard to come by in the UK nowadays, it was a real joy.

Tex singeing the T bones.