Work continues...

I really do get my hands dirty, too. Yes, it looks like Iain is doing all the work all the time, and, well, for the most part that's true; but I'm helping when I can. He's the one with the hunky muscles, though, and digging is just... not my thing, okay?

This is me, helping with the digging!

 Now that the forms were in, the insulation and rebar had to be put in. So GreenR sent up their guys to work on it. Unfortunately, these lads didn't know how to read the blueprints.


The lads putting in the insulation etc.

It was a big job, and they did try to do it right.

This is Marie, the building inspector.  She wasn't impressed with the work done.

The building inspector called Iain after she had been in to check things out.  The work had been done so poorly, she couldn't possibly pass it.  So, Iain had to go up the next day and tear everything apart (again, with the help of Carl and Roger).

Iain working on dismantling the insulation and rebar.

GreenR sent some lads back the next day, and with Iain explaining to them what needed to be done, they worked with him to fix it up.

It would have been easier to do it right in the first place, yes?  But they didn't have the guidance from their boss that they should have.

Finally all done correctly!  Ready for concrete.

Third week of August

The next step:  installing the concrete forms.  It didn't take them long to do it:

Here are the Greenwood guys starting to put in the forms.

The were finishing up 3 hours later.

Mark and Susan, our plumbers, came in and put down their pipes.  Friends watching reported that they were hard workers!

They started one day, and finished the next.

Packing up; work done for now.

When we came up for the weekend, Iain got to work early Saturday morning.

Working on the water feed line.

And we put in some electrical conduit (this is before they were cut to length, of course).

And then it was martini time; we didn't work all weekend, you know.

Cat pictures!!!

When we saw the gang in Ottawa a few weeks ago, I promised Jenny I'd post a pic or two of Onyx.  We had all the cats at the lake during our holidays, and though they didn't get to go outside (except for a few strolls by Jezebel), they had a pretty good time.  Sad to say, there were no mice entertaining them this year (as far as we know).  The chipmunks nesting under the kitchen cupboards did hold everyone's attention now and again, however!



Onyx is doing his impression of a panther. He looks pretty tough!

There are actually four cats in this photo:  Onyx, Jezebel, Snaps and ... hiding beneath the covers... Stitches.

Week Two

So, the 2nd week of our holidays saw more big machines and busy work!

The first load of "A" gravel, which will form the base of the cement pad.

The gravel is spread and packed.  Amazing to watch Ralph at work; he is an artist with the backhoe!  He smooths it out bit by bit, and forms an almost perfect rectangle, just using the bucket very skillfully.

Jean Paul is an excellent worker!  Here he runs the packer.  Not an ounce of fat on this guy.  He just goes and goes and goes.

And then Iain spoke with the slab guy, who, it turns out, has his own way of doing things, a way inconsistent with nicely prepared "A" gravel.  He waned to put the forms on top of this gravel, not dig them in like every other slab layer in the area would do.  Not that he would bother to explain this BEFORE all the work was done on the base.  So then, Iain (with Jean Paul's very necessary assistance) had to dig out the trench for the forms.

Iain and Jean Paul posed when they stopped for a quick break.

There were so many large rocks in the gravel, that a pickaxe had to be used to chip away at them before digging them out.  This had to be done for just about every shovel-full of dirt.

At the end of the first day, Iain was so exhausted he could hardly move!  After two days of work, they were finally done preparing the gravel bed.

Taking Credit

Just a quick rant about credit cards.  If I could give one piece of advice to any young person, regarding finances, it would be to always pay off your credit cards every month!

What brought this to mind?  My Mastercard bill for August.  The grand total on it is just under $40 (a very quiet month, for me), but the estimated time to repay this piddly amount, if I make only minimum payments of $10 per month, is 5 MONTHS!

Why do we allow this sort of usury in our society?  It's disgusting.

End of rant.

About time for an update...

It's been pretty busy with one thing and another, but here we go!

Work began on the building site right after the long weekend, which coincided with the first week of our holidays.  It wasn't the most restful time (the workers showed up before 7:00 a.m. each morning, and we were serenaded by the machines every day), and our apologies go out to our neighbours, who were trying to enjoy their holidays too.

The calm before work began!

Ralph, the very talented backhoe/bulldozer operator.  He has an amazing touch with the machines!

After one day's work, it's quite a change in appearance.

Back at it the next day.  All the gravel had to be compacted as they went.

Iain and I are doing a bit of height marking.  The gravel had to come up to the top of the orange marks on the posts.

More gravel!

More compacting!

The end of one week.  Things are coming along!

More to follow...

Update

Back from vacation, and it's time to update on the cottage:

One of the last things to be done before the landscapers came to change the look of our property forever (if it sounds ominious, well, that's how it felt) was to move the hydrangea bush and a couple more trees, and to save the astilbes from the little garden.

Pine and one of the Astilbes.

The tamarack looks pretty good.

Moving the hydrangea was by far the biggest problem, as it is a bit large and is currently blooming, which I understand is about the worst time to move them. However, we hadn't a choice.

We provided a bit of protection from the sun for a few days.

This was two weeks ago, and though it looks quite a bit more wilted (and in some spots plain dead), I think it'll survive.  Not sure about the pine.... but we tried.

We just about wore ourselves out with holidaying, actually.  Mostly work, this year.  We did accomplish quite a bit though; more pics to come.

Driving to the lake on June 30, it was rescue time for another wee turtle. If you zoom in, you can see that Iain was wise to hold the wee beastie away from himself: that is a stream of turtle pee, yes. And no, I have no idea how there is room for a turtle in that shell with all that pee.

Okay, things have been moving along at the cottage. We went up on Canada Day weekend, and were both happy and sad to see that Steve had removed the cedar and pine trees we'd asked him to cut, and the cedar was nicely piled to dry.

Canada Day was the boathouse-moving day, so Iain prepared a wall that would hold all the electrical and plumbing fixtures that had to stay behind. Very sturdy!

We had lots of help for the move, which was important, because the boathouse will be rebuilt as a shed; Dodie and Myles intend to use it to store their snowmobiles and other items; so we didn't want it to be just torn down, but rather disassembled.

Irene and Carl came early and pitched in. Myles' buddy Richard showed up with a huge trailer and scared all of us by working all day in sandals, when the others had workboots (he says he welds in them, too). Roger came too, and everyone worked very hard. I have a lot more pictures and video, but here are just a few.

Irene and Dodie removed nails and collected fallen ones.  Even so, I think I would like to get a metal detector and clean up thoroughly at some point.

Iain and Carl removing the cap.  We started at 10:00 a.m. and the move was complete by 2:00 p.m.  I never thought it would be so quick.

Mom supervised.  She was enjoying the sun!

A break to discuss strategy, as the walls come down.

Some pics

Some photos for your entertainment:

Despite what you may hear in some places, I have it on good authority that the Ministry of the Environment does NOT DROP DRAGONFLIES!  Nor does any other ministry of which I am aware,except perhaps that of God Almighty, or Mother Nature if you prefer to look at it that way.

I found this recently-hatched flier on the boathouse, near the shell he crawled out of.

These two geese have been living in the area since spring.  I think they are mostly hanging out at Judy's place, but they are occasionally in the field near us, which is where I took their picture.

 It's so nice that Snaps and Onyx are getting more chummy.  If I'm up during the night, they are often together on this windowsill, if the windows are open.

 Iain rescuing a turtle, as is done a few times each year; can't bear to see them squished on the road.

 We found some Ladyslippers growing on the point, and tried to avoid damaging them.

There is a family of groundhogs living under various buildings,including our cottage:  Mom and 4 kids.  Here is a young one peeking out.  I think they are adorable, even if they do eat my plants.

This is a young Mourning Dove waiting for its parents to show up, in our maple tree, front lawn Renfrew.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

One of the hard decisions in building, once you've decided where you want to put the place, is what you will have to change, to make it work. Some changes are easy: Mom isn't up to gardening any more, and I don't have the time for it, so removing the vegetable garden made perfect sense even if we weren't building right there!

You can still see the outline of the garden, but a lot of stuff has been cleared away.

Taking out the boathouse....well, Iain has cleaved his skull on the small doorway my Dad built (and I don't know why he built it so low, as he was about Iain's height, but I'm guessing it had something to do with the length of the boards he had available) so very often that he is glad to see it go. I am ambivalent about losing it, but it looks like it will end up on my sister's property, reincarnated as a shed, so it won't really be lost.

The "skull-cleavingly low door" as Iain calls it.

What has been very hard for me is the decision to remove two large trees. The red pine isn't a huge loss for me - it's never been one of my favourite trees, and for several years has dangled dead branches in a most menacing manner. However, it is a mature tree, and that's always a loss. The one that bothers me is the ancient cedar.

This cedar has stood here as long as I can remember. It shows up in many picture from my youth, and I have a lot of memories with it. Sitting beneath it, hanging chimes in it year after year, planting a little garden beneath it...

Years ago - thirty, probably - a pileated woodpecker took an interest in the tree, and made a number of serious holes in it. We thought, "That's it, the tree's gonna die." But I'd been reading a bit about tree patching and pruning, and took some large wooden stakes my mom had, pounded them into the holes to fill them, and cut them off fairly even with the bark. They're still there, as you can see in this picture.

Now, though, her time has come. She's sparse on top and, like all Eastern Cedars, hollow in the middle. If we wanted to keep her, we'd have to limb up the side next to the new cottage, and she wouldn't look the same. So we are taking her down. Next winter, she'll warm the new cottage as kindling for our fires.