If you don’t laugh, you will cry.

It has been another week working by myself because my builders have been away in Toronto, in Ontario, attending another trade show. This is the last show this year and therefore it is hoped that there will now be no more interruptions to work on my cabin. Toronto is a three-day drive from here and so they are away for ten days. For me this is very irritating because they should be helping me with the work and I believe it is difficult to justify all of them being away. But, it is what it is and I believe that by making my frustration clear to Owen Kenney, of Creekside Log Homes, the boss, some clarity has now been achieved. 

Contrary to my belief, I have just been informed that the factory in Kellog in Idaho has not yet started to cut the SIPs for the roof and because of this and other reasons, that I won’t go into now, I have decided to abandon the aspiration to put a SIP roof on the house. Instead, we shall be constructing a conventional roof, which will have the same thermal value (R40). One advantage of this is that it eliminates the risk of the large SIPs not fitting together accurately. This has always been a concern of mine as the roof is really quite complicated, particularly in the area of the Dodgy Valley, which even my builders had difficulty in grasping, until I built the model for them. It also means that we can get started shortly after they all get back from Toronto and the materials, which are all standard building products, are acquired.

It has therefore been a hot and tiring week working by myself but, nevertheless a satisfying one in terms of achievement. I have continued the process of staining the interior side of the logs and by midday Sunday I had put two coats on all of the upstairs logs, the prow and the kitchen on the main floor, and the whole of the garage. All that remains is about 2/3 of the cabin main-floor logs, some of which I cannot do because all the French Window doors are leaning up against them. This affects one wall (on the south side of the cabin) and I won’t really get access to it until the doors are put in place. This, of course, has to wait until the roof is put on, otherwise the woodwork on the inside of the doors will get wet and water stained.

There is some water staining on the interior side of the logs, particularly in the garage, but the stain has all but covered it up and what remains serves to add character to them and is pleasing to the eye.

Inside the South Gable where the master bedroom will be and ...

… the en suite bathroom.

The Prow (note the lake at full pool). The logs are actually all the same colour. In the photo the angle of the sun hitting the logs makes it appear that the logs on one side are a different shade - then aren't. The centre left is the closest to the true colour.

La cuisine

The garage.

I also added the framing for the final wall to the garage entrance to the cabin.

I am aware that there are those amongst you who read this blog, who take as much (if not more) interest in the comments I occasionally make about what I will loosely call the “Dream”. It is now almost exactly a year since I arrived here in Canada and I suppose it is as good a time as any to take stock of where I am. I won’t be offended if most of you just stop reading at this point and wait for more news of the cabin-building project in next week’s blog.

For those still reading, you will recall (if not go to the first blog posting) I came here to seek a new beginning, to rebuild my life, to find, as I enter a new phase of my life, a balance between the practical realities of the material world and the transcendental philosophy of shedding dependence on material objects and values and being closer to the natural world in its rawest state.

I am sorry to disappoint the purest transcendentalists amongst you but, as I have said before, it was never my intention to become a hermit living in a cave or a yurt. I want the best of both worlds and believe that I can achieve that here. Full achievement is still some way off because first I must finish building the cabin and once that is done I will be free to focus more on trying to achieve the balance (OK compromise) I seek. The limited exploring of the mountains and forests that I have done so far has confirmed for me that there is enough wilderness close to me here to give me the contact I need with the raw, natural world that I want to get closer to. There is even more further afield that I am eager to explore and look forward to the opportunity to do so in the coming years. For now, contact with it locally has already changed me in ways that these words poorly express.

The wilderness has slowed everything down. I now have time to notice things, time to allow the natural world to have its effect on me, to feel the experience not just to see it or to hear it. I have time for the flora and fauna (and people) that, I all too seldom had in the past. I see the animals and the plants differently now. Having wild deer and other animals in my yard everyday has made me familiar with them. I am sensitive now to their movement, to their curiosity, to their fears and wariness, to their instincts, just as they have become accustomed to me. There is a mutual respect for them in me now that has surfaced from a long period of latent dormancy.

A new awareness has woken within me. Every day I check for signs of new visitors, my ears are attuned to recognise familiar sounds and to listen out for unfamiliar ones. My senses are sharper. I can sense the changes in the mood of the forest, the presence of a predator, an impending change in the weather, even before it comes over the mountain behind the cabin. Without wishing to sound completely barking mad, I can communicate with some of the animals on a basic, fundamental level. My robins for example know me well, they are content for me to approach quite close to their nest and to work around them. The gofers and chipmunks don’t talk to me but they know I mean them no harm and they know when it is lunch-time and there might be some crumbs going on offer.

And within myself, I have found a new calmness. There is a healing power in the wilderness which has helped me to let go of the painful past, to see once more the happy one. Despite the solitude, that can often distort the real world, the wilderness has slowly helped me to see things from a different perspective.

In Ancient Greece they used to say that, if you are sad it is because of your past; if you are worried, it is because you are uncertain about the future; if you are content it is because you have neither regrets nor concerns, and; if you are happy you are either in love or you are mad (maybe both). They also taught us (although you won’t find it many text books) to laugh at ourselves and our gods which, I have always thought was good advice. Laughter is often the best medicine, for surely, if you don’t laugh, you will cry.

So where am I on this Ancient Greek scale of contentment. Well, I guess it is somewhere close to content but, there is still love in my heart and the wilderness has helped find and nourish it. So I must be happy, maybe a little mad and learning (slowly) not to take myself too seriously.

Four foot above full pool

The weeks seem to be passing really quickly at the moment and this one was no exception. Still no sign of the roof arriving but we are in constant contact with the manufacturers and I hope it will be only another week or two until it is ready for collection. I won’t say it will be a relief to get it on, because I know it is coming (eventually) but I will be grateful because once it is on so much more can then be achieved inside the cabin, particularly the wiring, plumbing etc which is needed before kitchens and bathrooms can be fitted out and flooring laid.

In the meantime there is still plenty to do both inside and outside and that is what we have been working on this week. The main achievement has been putting on the parging cover over the exposed basement ICF blocks, where they will be under the decking. We have used an acrylic material that looks a little like stucco when it is finished and dried (not that it ever fully dries out).

The parging material is principally to protect the polystyrene of the ICF blocks to preserve them so they can do their job of keeping the cabin warm in winter and cool in summer. Without it the weather and rodents would soon destroy it. 

A thin nylon mesh is first fixed to the blocks using screws. This helps to bind the parging material together and to resist falling off the wall. Kyle and I put the mesh on after cutting off the foam filling I applied last week to fill the gaps in the ICF blocks.

Kevin was really the only one who was skilled enough to apply the parging material and he did an excellent job. As you can see from the photos, it starts at the front door and comes all the way around the south and east sides of the cabin to the kitchen door. The deck from here along the back of the garage is up at fourteen feet and therefore the ICF blocks here, as to the left of the front door as you look at it from the outside, will be covered in something more pleasing to the eye.

Where the blocks will not be covered by decking, I will put stone work and I have been doing some research into the options for this. The ideal would be to use real stone. However, I am not yet convinced that the local material, that is readily available to me to collect and use, is the right type or colour to compliment the logs and their stain. Buying stone from local producers that is either imported into the region or mechanically hewn from the nearby mountains is very expensive and therefore I am looking at alternatives.

One (the cheapest) is to use a plastic moulding product, which in the store looks quite reasonable and realistic. When I got a sample piece out to the cabin however, it just looked like plastic and if I use it, I believe I will spoil the look of the cabin for a penny’s worth of tar.

This stuff doesn't look too bad in the photograph but a closer look in the flesh reveals that it is plastic and where it is most obvious is where the four foot long panels join together.

So I have been looking at cultured stone alternatives and after initial enquiries here, with local suppliers, I went down to Kalispell in Montana yesterday to a place recommended to me by a neighbour. They have several options that I am currently considering and I brought back with me one sample that I particularly liked. The jury is still out on this subject and, as I have plenty of time for consideration, I won’t rush into making a decision that I might later regret.

On the other hand these cultured stone blocks don't look as good in the photograph as they do in the flesh, but they have a much better feel to them and they stand up to close scrutiny much better. One advantage over real rock is that these can be stacked very close together without the need for 'pointing' between them.

We also spent another day logging in my licensed area, collecting wood for spindles, railings and posts. Shortly after lunchtime it started to rain and it set in for the rest of the day. Towards the end of the afternoon, when we were all tired and wet, we discovered that we had locked ourselves out of the truck and were about 20 kms from the nearest help and no mobile network to call for help on. Just as we were getting cold and miserable I managed to force the rear window with a fork and we were all a bit relieved. Altogether we brought back two loads. The first, was primarily posts and we added them to the pile we already have out at my place. I think we have enough posts now but there are still some we cut and prepared for transporting that we had to leave because the trailer was fully loaded. We also brought back a load primarily of railings, but with a few sticks for spindles as well and we spent a day, later in the week, making spindles for my place and another project. The ones for the other project are not as large as mine and so we have started shipping mine out to the cabin to keep them separate and nearly three hundred are now stacked in the garage, ready to be stained.

Plenty of posts for the decking ….

… and a few railings. There are more at the workshop in Jaffray.

278 (or there abouts) spindles ready to be stained. If you are really sad, you can count them and let me know.

I have also made a start on staining the inside of the cabin. I commenced with the Annex, primarily because it receives the most sun and is therefore more urgently in need of protection than the other parts. I hope to get much more of this done next week.

I started with the North Gable and here you can see a contrast between the stained and the unstained.

Both sides finished.

The shed dormer.

And finally, the two smaller dormers on the west side.

As you are aware, we have been having some fairly violent thunderstorms recently and this week has been no exception. On Friday evening I was having supper with my neighbour Louis, who owns the cottage on the south side of my property. Just before we sat down to eat, a huge cell passed over which generated massive winds that blew down four trees along the road into the Development. One fell across the power lines that bring electricity to the Development which, at the time of writing on Sunday afternoon, has still not been restored. Many more trees have been blown down on various properties on the Development itself, including four on my property. Luckily, none of them fell on the cabin but I am minded to take down at least one other, on the south side close to the cabin, which would do considerable damage if it were to fall and hit the South Gable.

Three of the four trees blown down in the storm. I am going to hold off cutting them up for fire wood incase we can use them for something in the cabin.

I am told that Cranbrook was also badly affected by the storms and that teams are hard at work trying to restore power to nearly half the homes there.  I don’t suppose therefore that they will get around to us for a few days but hey, we are supposed to be living in the bush anyway and if not 'off the grid' at least the odd power cut makes the folks from Calgary feel that they are in the wilderness. Seriously though, the water supply has not been affected because we have a large storage tank and therefore at this time of the year a power outage for a few days is not a hardship. 

The Alder tree that is still lying on the power cables that bring power to the Development.

You cannot see it on the previous photo but there was some serious burning that fortunately didn't spread.

You may also recall that a few weeks ago I scattered some wild flower seeds about the property. Well, several of them have now produced some lovely wild flowers, which it is hoped will spread next year to produce even more. I haven't got a clue what any of them are called but they sure make the place look pretty.

These are all new.

If anyone can put a name to any of them, particularly this one, I would be very appreciative.

These ones were already here along with some wild strawberries and wild raspberries.

Giant buttercup? Everything over here is supposed to bigger isn't it?

The only other news is that today I saw my first bear for 2012. It was on the highway and it was quite small. It has also been confirmed that the lake is at an all time high, a foot above the previous highest recorded level and four feet above 'full pool'. In the last couple of days it has dropped a few inches but, it is still well above full pool.

Play Misty for me

Apologies for the delay in posting this week but I forget to take the iPhone/camera out with me on Sunday morning for a final morning's work before writing the blog and therefore, when I came to write it, I didn't have half the photos that I needed. This week started where the previous week left off,  with applying the final UV coating to the logs of the exterior of the cabin.  On Monday, I worked by myself and managed to complete the South Gable and on Tuesday I had Kyle to help me and we did the lake side of the cabin as far as the kitchen.

The South Gable completely finished by close of play on Monday.

Scaffolding in place ready to start lake side logs on Tuesday.

The prow all finished by COP.

On Wednesday, we decided our time would be better spent cutting wood for the deck framing because there is a chance that the Forestry Department will soon close the forest to cutting for fear of fires as a result of the hot weather. So Kevin, Kyle and I went out to my licensed cutting area and spent the day cutting, loading and transporting wood for spindles, railings and posts. Strewth, it was hard, hot work and I wasn't the only one who felt pretty worn out at the end of the day, which didn't finish until nearly 2100 hrs. Once again, Tex had a meal waiting for us when we got back and we were all grateful. Good on ya Tex.

We started in an area suitable for spindles and railings.

With two saws working, we quickly cut the first load which Kyle loaded and Kevin and I cut. Trailer half full.

For the posts we needed bigger stuff, some of which we found lying on the ground. Often it required quite a lot of cleaning before cutting into lengths but, ...

more often we found better stuff from standing dead wood. These proved easier to find, prepare and …. 

collect ready for loading and …. 

…. delivery to my place. From here they will have to be hand peeled ready to form part of the deck framing. As you can see, Kevin's trailer was on the limit of being overloaded and there are still a few logs, that we cut, that are waiting to be brought in. We'll collect them next week. 

 On Thursday it was back to staining the logs and Kyle and I managed to finish the cabin by mid-afternoon and we cleared the scaffolding and took it back into the main cabin great room ready for putting up the last valley and it's jack rafters next week.

Finally, the lake side of the garage saw the exterior staining task finished. Now I need to start work on the interior staining.

On Friday, I got on with building the platform in the garage, that will eventually provide access into the main cabin, once the steps are added. I should have completed this work on Saturday, but a thunder storm soaked all the wood and boarding, which prevented me from using the glue and so finishing it had to wait until Sunday and, as you know, I forgot to take my phone and camera.

The platform leading up to the entrance to the cabin from the garage. NB all the water from the thunder storm that stopped play on Saturday.

Just about done and ready for floor boards and steps.

Sub-flooring for the utility area in place.

Play Misty for me - the lake in early morning.

That was the week that was

Well, where did last week go to? It went by so quickly that it seemed to be over before it had hardly begun and I don't seem to have that much to show for it. The work this week has mostly been about the repetitive process of caulking the log joints and chinks and applying the final UV protection coat to the outside of the cabin. Not that I haven't enjoyed the work. There is a quiet satisfaction in doing a job well and on more than one occasion I mused what else I might be doing if not this. Flying some desk somewhere maybe or staring at a computer screen in an office worrying about the next deadline. Not that there is anything wrong with any of those, it is just that at the moment I prefer to be working out of doors sharing my day with birds of feather and critters with four legs rather than with birds of the fetter and critters with two legs.

To try to make the enormous amount of work to do less daunting, I have broken down the task of staining the cabin into smaller portions that, I give myself daily as goals to achieve. I have also got better and quicker at doing it as I have progressed, especially doing the caulking. The one thing that has slowed me down, however, is that I have been working alone and continuously going up and down the scaffolding and in particular moving it, has been both time consuming and hard work. And, I don't suppose it is surprising that, if you work outside, the weather should always be pretty forefront in your mind and your scribblings. The long awaited summer has finally arrived and temperatures have soared into the 30s, reaching 36 c on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The latter was a long day and, if I am honest, I over did it and paid the price. I set myself the goal of finishing the front of the house and stubbornly refused to quit when I should have. But, it was important to me to reach my goal and I worked on until after 1930 hours making it a twelve hour day in the sun, with virtually no breaks other than for drinks.

I was very pleased, not to say grateful, therefore to accept an omelette from Tex when I got back to the accommodation cabins and afterwards I had a shower and went straight to bed with a mouthful of pain killers and anti-inflamatories. It was a difficult night. I didn't stop sweating until about three in the morning and put a towel underneath me to stop the sheets from getting soaked. I also had to lie stretched out for fear of cramp in my thighs if I bent my legs. The two and a half litres of fluid I took in before going to bed never came out where it normally does, only through the skin.

The North Gable completely finished (stained, caulked and UV coat applied). You can't really see it on the photograph with the early morning sun on it but, the finish is a bit like an egg glaze and the colour, despite the photo, is even all over.

The garage front finished.

The front of the house as well.

Some examples of the caulking - exterior corner seal before final coat applied.

Two logs joint - before final coat applied.

Upward facing chink.  This shot also gives you a good idea of the final finish covering the log and the caulking.

Caulking and staining wasn't the only work this week and on Thursday, Kyle (remember him) and I put up the dividing wall between the garage and the main cabin.

One of the posts that supports the garage ceiling is incorporated into the wall and won't be seen. The utility area will consist, from left to right as we see it from the garage, of a walk in pantry, counter sunk fridge recess, laundry area, passageway to the garage and two piece bath room with access from the main cabin. Tex and I need to put the plumbing in before we put the floor down. This will have to wait until the caulking and staining is finished and may be iterrupted or further delayed when the roof panels arrive.

All in all it has not been a bad week. Owen (my contractor) has been down in the States all week and won't be back until Wednesday and therefore there is no news yet on the roof SIPs that should be ready soon. The factory phoned during the week to ask for some more measurements, which we sent them, so presumably they are in the process of cutting the panels.

My robins have built a new nest and are now sitting on another three bright blue eggs. I am fairly sure that they are the same pair as before, because they have been very territorial and chased off any other birds showing an interest in my property. The lake has been full for a couple of weeks now and it is higher than it was last year. Many are saying that it is the highest it has every been but, I wouldn't know. Like many of you, we have had a considerable amount of rain this year so it could be true. Ron, my friend on the top of the hill, has been evicted from the house he was house sitting in and on Friday I helped him load up and move his skidoos. I am expecting him to come to work for Owen in about a week's time.  With good weather forecast for the foreseeable future I am hopeful that we will get much done in the next few days and weeks.

Finally, today I had a visitor who came along to inspect the garage.

Men…frequently starve, not for want of necessities, but for want of luxuries

A week, frankly, of going from the sublime to the ridiculous and back again. It started well enough with Rod and I continuing where we left off last week with staining the logs. We completed the front and the south gable and made a start on the lake side of the cabin, before pulling stumps at close of play on Monday. Then the rain, that had been predicted for Monday, finally arrived and on Tuesday we had two inches of it, which caused widespread flooding throughout British Columbia and I was forced to drill more holes in the Annex floor to let the water through to the garage. I also had to drill holes in the floor in the main cabin and let the water into the basement. This should not be a problem as the concrete floor down there is in good condition and the polystyrene walls are not harmed by water either. The dampness has caused some mildew on one or two of the logs on the inside of the main cabin and garage but, this will be cleaned off with bleach.

Even the stream at the cabins, where I am living at the moment, burst it's banks. Thankfully, it only just overflowed and no real damage was done. This (above) turned out to be the high water mark and within an hour it started to go down - lucky.

The rate of flow rose to 1.5 million gallons per minute.

The rain caused the concrete pouring for the garage, that was due on Wednesday, to be postponed another day. At one point I was half expecting it to push back until next week but, with good weather predicted for Thursday and the willingness of the pouring team, we rebooked it for Thursday and thankfully our luck held. So, on Wednesday, Rod and Pam went down to Waterton National Park in SW Alberta and they had a wonderful day site seeing. They managed to add another two bears and a long horn mountain sheep to their bag of wild life sightings. Meanwhile Owen, Tex and I drilled holes into the garage foundations in order to tie them into the garage flooring with steel rebars and we finished wiring it all together.

On Thursday morning it was time to say farewell to Rod and Pam, who set off on the last leg of their visit to Canada and they headed north to Lake Louise and Jasper. It was great to see them and their help with staining the logs is much appreciated.

The lorry with the first load of concrete arrived on time but, as with most things in BC, it didn't go entirely smoothly and John and his team were late because a brake line on their truck was either cut or broken and they had to recover it and change vehicles. They did, however, arrive in the nick of time and got to work without delay. By the time the first truck was empty it became obvious that we had not ordered enough concrete and so, as with the main basement pouring, we had to order more, in total three trucks (two with small loads). The extra expense however was well worth it and I am very pleased with the final outcome.

The pad for the main steps into the house and ...

… the garage and it's apron, all still with the forms in place.

The garage from the outside and ...

… from the inside.

The apron with the forms removed and some temporary pea gravel to protect the edges, until the drive way gravel is laid.

Finally, around the corner to where the stairs to the Annex deck will start.

While John and his team were getting on with the pour, Tex and I carried on staining the logs on the lake side of the cabin, with the aim of completing that side by close of play. It started well and we moved the mobile scaffolding along as we completed each section. However, when we got to the penultimate move and while Tex was lifting the scaffolding, he felt a sudden pain in his right hip area that he thought was a severe cramp in the thigh muscles. He lay down for a while and I brought him some water and a candy bar to restore his blood sugar levels, hoping that he would soon recover. I continued staining but there was no sign of improvement in Tex. By the time I had finished there was still no improvement and it seemed to be getting worse. Judging from the symptoms, I suspected the muscles had gone into spasm and were pulling his lower back, sacroiliac and hips joints out and he was in considerable pain and unable either to standup or to walk at all.

We discussed what should be done and quickly decided that I would have to bring the car around to him and then take him into the hospital in Cranbrook. We eventually managed to get him into the car but he found it very difficult to get comfortable and so it was a painful 40 minutes drive to the emergency unit, where they managed to get him on a stretcher and wheeled him into the triage unit. I hung around for about three hours, while they x-rayed him and gave him some anti -inflamatories and some morphine, before they decided to keep him in for the night. I went back about midday on Friday to collect him and miraculously he was able to walk out without assistance but, it will be a week before he can really return to work.

In hindsight, I shouldn't have left Tex (who has had some severe injuries to his legs in the past) lying on the ground for so long but, the tough old bastard didn't let on how bad he was until I had finished staining the lakeside logs. On the bright side however, the randy old git enjoyed chatting up all the nurses in the hospital and he conned the doctor into giving him a chit saying he should be allowed to fish from his truck. So, in the end, it turned out well and Tex has a grin from ear to ear.

The staining is all but finished with the only piece left to do being this (above) part of the north gable. When this is complete we will caulk all the joins and chinks (cracks - not chinamen) and then apply the final UV layer. Then there is plenty of work to do before the roof SIPs arrive, including putting the final valley in place (which arrived last week to replace the one cut incorrectly) and it's jack rafters. We can also make a start on extending the main cabin flooring into the garage for the utility areas, roughing in the plumbing and getting the deck started.

A different complexion now for the lake side.

With the apron in front of the garage and a pad for the front steps there is a different feel to the front of the house as well.

This week end is the July Long Weekend to mark Canada Day, 1 July, and people all over Canada are having parties and events to celebrate. We were no exception and on Saturday my neighbours, Rod and Candy, put on a pig roast and invited all the other families on the development. Not everyone was here but there were about 50 of us all the same.

Rod's ingenious oven to roast the pig.

Rod and Dan carving the pig. We partied late into the night and ate and drank far more than is good for us.

On Sunday I went around to celebrate Canada Day with James and Caroline in Wardner.

There were lots of little people around too and that brought to mind fond memories of happy days - but that, was another life.

All a far cry from Walden Pond I hear, from those of you who are familiar with Henry David Thoreau's masterpiece on transcendentalism but, I am sure none of you will begrudge me my own interpretation of the philosophy and, of course, the occasional divergence. After all, it was never my intention to become a hermit, only to reject the worst excesses of modern living and as Thoreau once said. 'Men…frequently starve, not for want of necessities, but for want of luxuries.' And, as the imperfect creature that I am, this is probably applicable to me. In my defence though, even the man whom many credit with being the founder of the movement (Ralph Waldo Emmerson) suggested that, the goal of a purely transcendental outlook on life is impossible to attain in practice.

Now, where's my hair shirt? Oh yes, I remember, I burnt it.