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.