Fall Has Arrived

The days are sunny and bright the nights are cool and getting colder; fall has arrived. Yesterday it was -4*C when I got up today it was 1*C at 7 a.m. The days are shorter, and the air is crisp, a great time to be in the north country.

Saw this blue heron as I drove into town yesterday. You may need to click on the photo to enlarge it.

Can you see the hint of colour on some trees? A few more weeks and the colour up here will be at its best.

Construction is making good progress; workers return tomorrow and we should have all the walls completed in another week.

The window bucks sit out about 3 1/2  inches from the outside edge of the wall. This will allow for the vertical and horizontal strapping as well as the steel siding over the spray foam insulation. We should be toasty warm.

West wall not quite done.

Drop by in a day or so for more photos.

Chicken Treats

This blog is for Mary because I know she is missing her chickens and for those of you who have never given the chickens their afternoon treat take a look.

As soon as I called them they came running; looked like miniature ostriches  all legs and wings flapping in the afternoon sun. There was just enough room for them to squeeze around the dish and gobble, gobble, gobble, oh that's turkeys, well you get the point.

Stop for a second and check to make sure no one or thing is sneaking up, then .......................

back to stuffing themselves.

Stop again, eat again .................. that's they way they spend their afternoons.

Next time you are stopping by bring a treat for our "girls" Remember they're vegetarians.

Bucks are Going Up

Took Mary to Peterborough this morning and when I returned the crew had the north and east walls almost complete. The walls are going up quickly because we are dry stacking them and Pat adjusted the windows to reduce the number of cut blocks.

The east wall as seen from our driveway, September 15, 2011.

Kent and Dave seem to be the wall builders; not sure why, maybe because Kent is left handed and can cut block easier. ??????????????

TJ seems to be the buck builder, that's the rough wooden form the windows will sit in. Great job TJ!!!!!!!
Look how closely those bucks line up with the top block. Great workmanship, great design.

The east wall from inside. We are surrounded by forest and the morning sun will fill the bedrooms. Hope you are planning to visit next year.

Looking towards the north wall from the hall. This will be a long corridor with a tall window framed in the end wall; should be beautiful.

At the end of the day what needs to be done?     ........... clean-up.

Have a great weekend, the days are getting cooler.

Moving Skids

Yesterday we had to move the skids of Durisol Blocks into the interior of the foundation. Since it was impossible for my "bobcat" to get inside we rented the Rona Boom truck to lift the skids into place.

I brought the skids to the truck and Jim lifted them into place.

While that was being done the crew began stacking the blocks to build the outside walls.

These blocks are dry stacked and cement is poured down inside them.

TJ bends some re-bar at the front door location.

We will use over 600 blocks to build the walls. Each block weighs 53 lbs. Let's see 53x600= 31,800 lbs. WOW! No wonder these guys have great biceps; that's over 15 tons of blocks they will lift over the next 8 days. I think I'll stick with the "bobcat"

Of course while we were busy building ....................  the hens were busy laying.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by.

Pipe Lake

Yesterday we visited Chris' cottage on Pipe Lake. We discovered we have much in common, airstream trailer, Arizona, quilts, photography and of course living in Bancroft.

Here Chris points out the "bunkie" to Mary.

Chris' cottage on Pipe Lake, just a perfect setting and his choice of decor takes you back to the 1940's

His view from the deck. Hikeing down was no problem, coming back up I was looking for the chair lift.

Cali, asleep on the chair.

Mary and Chris inspect one of his antique blankets.

We had a lovely visit on the deck. Chris even posted pictures of our chickens on Kijiji in the hopes that someone would babysit them for us over the winter. How kind was that!

Company and Work

Seems to be the pattern of life here lately, "company and work". It was great to have Pat and Jeff drop by last Friday. Mary and Pat worked together at Huttonville School years ago and so it's always special when we get together.

Of course we had the trucks rumbling through our patio as we visited.  I think Jeff was a little concerned they were a little too close.

Then it was off to Baptiste Lake to visit John and Barb.

They cleared the bush and built their home eight years ago, much like we are doing now. The view across the valley from their back deck is beautiful.

Saturday morning saw us back at work. Paul came over to dig out the drain lines for the weeping tiles around the foundation. Thanks Paul.

 Once the pipe was in place I backfilled with my skid-steer; great machine to have!

We have just about completed the backfill inside our foundation and plan to start building the walls next week.

See you soon.

Backfill

The building inspector was here shortly after 7:30 this morning and all was well. Pat and crew then left for another site leaving me to backfill around the frost wall and check on the progress of the stone slinger.

This slinger can unload 20,000 kg of gravel in about 20 minutes and place it exactly where you want it to go.

Perfect weather for working outside.

Six loads of gravel, all over 20,000kg. Have you ever tried to shovel this stuff?

Once the backfill is complete, we start building the walls and installing the windows. Oh, mustn't forget to install the drains. Have a great weekend.