Rocks from the Rockies

Forgive me if this post appears brief and a little rushed. I have been working all hours this week trying to get things moving and it is now late on Sunday. The first signs that summer is on the wane and about to give way to the autumn are here and there is so much to do before the winter comes again. I had a new man to help me at the cabin this week. His name is Dwayne and he is just what I need at the moment. He works solidly, normally from 8 but, sometimes from 7.30, in the morning until 5 in the evening with only 10 minutes for lunch. He knows what he is doing and doesn't have to be asked to get on with things. He can also be trusted to produce work of a high quality with the minimum of supervision. So, that's good news. I just hope that Owen can hang on to him.

The other good news is that we now have a start date for the roof. The second sub-contractor, Sean Bain, came along on Tuesday (he couldn't make it over from Lethbridge in Alberta on Monday evening) and he is putting a team together to start on Monday 10th September. He estimates it will take a week to put the additional framing and boarding in place and only a further week to put on the metal. So it should all be complete by the end of the third week of September. Yeh, I know, what you are all thinking - me too but, one has to be optimistic. All Owen needs to do is get the resources that the roofers require to start work delivered to the site this week and we should be good to go a week tomorrow.

I have spoken to my wood burning stove suppliers and installers and lined them up for the back end of the first week to put in the chimneys before the metal goes on in the second week. I will also need to put in some vents for the lavatories.

At the beginning of the week Dwayne and I resumed work on the decking, which was about here.

By close of play on Thursday we had done all that can be done at this stage including giving the boards a coat of stain.

It is now beginning to show off it's size and feels quite roomy, which is the general idea as it will be where I will spend a lot of my time, the idea being to allow the land around the house to return to it's natural forest state.

I expect it to shrink once the posts, rails and spindles are all in place and there are a few flower and herb boxes and some furniture on it and ...

… maybe a few logs stacked against the wall under cover of the roof. So far we have used over 3,000 screws and still the deck by the kitchen door needs to be finished off. We ran out of screws last week and so on Saturday I bought another 2,500 as there is still the upper deck to do as well as the kitchen deck and the last boards around the outside, once the posts et al are in place.

We also put in the four windows in the study and ... 

… dining area. These have to have trimming on the inside and outside and today I loaded the trailer with some wood for the latter. I will have to wait for the interior stuff but, there is no hurry for that.

While I was staining the interior of the windows and the deck, Dwayne started stripping the posts we brought in from the forest a few weeks ago.

He worked tirelessly and without complaint and by the end of the week he had pealed more than half the pile, all but two by himself.

On Saturday Tex and I planned a trip over the boarder to collect a granite kitchen top for the Steins and to get some plywood and mesh for covering the remaining uncovered ICF blocks around my garage and house. When we got to the border post, Tex was refused entry because his passport had expired and he was detained for three hours by US Customs while they investigated his background. It was very frustrating for me because I wanted to get on with things but, I just had to sit and wait for Tex to be released, then take him back to the accommodation in Jaffray and then return to the US by myself to get what I needed. I didn't have time to go all the way down to Kalispell to pick up the Stein's granite but, I did get everything I needed and I stopped for a good western steak in the Trappers' Saloon on the way home.

Sunday I did all my personal admin and in the afternoon drove up into the Rockies to collect some stone for the final veneer covering for the ICFs.

The trip was really a recce to scout out where to take a trailer to collect a more substantial load next time but, I did fill the back of the Jeep with as much as I thought it could safely take without breaking the suspension.

Well, that's all for now folks, I need to get to bed and have a good night's sleep ready to start the week in the morning. I'll be by myself tomorrow as it is a public holiday here but Tuesday Dwayne should be back to give me a hand and I am expecting Kevin and Kyle again on Thursday to help put up the final valley and rafters ready for the roofers to start on the 10th.