1,2,3...Stand Her Up

Wednesday, January 7
Rob's son, Perry, has come to help raise the walls. By the end of the day all except the rake wall (the sun room south-facing wall) had been lifted into place and braced against the ever present wind. There is now room on the floor deck to build the rake wall.

No More Plywood Windows For Us

Wednesday, January 5
The windows arrived today and, after checking them over carefully, we are happy to report that everything that was ordered has arrived in good condition. We have a front door, a back door and 23 windows. There are more windows that have to be ordered but they are a special order that will go in the sun room and the All Weather Window people have to come out and measure before they can be ordered. For the time being, they will all be stored in the basement.

Help! Mother Nature. Help!

Tuesday December 30 saw Allan joining us again to help get more walls built. They (the walls, not Allan) are all resting on the floor deck awaiting decent weather so that they can be sheeted before lifting into place. New Year's Eve day was too cold and windy to sheet so Rob and Jim worked at getting all the floor joists installed in the basement. We took New Years day off. This shouldn't be news worthy but getting Jim to shut down for some much needed rest isn't always easy. January 2 was very cold and windy with the wind chill at -41C. Rob and Jim, again, escaped to the basement...out of the wind...to start putting the plywood down. Pictured is the basement bedroom. When you come to visit, I promise that the plywood window covering will be replaced by something a little more stylish...a window and curtains, maybe? Today is January 3 and work was called off due to hell having frozen over. It was -41.9C at the airport this morning before wind chill. We're only 15 km due east of there and by 9AM the thermometer read a balmy -40C. I know...I know...we're such wimps...true prairie people would have laughed it off and gone to work in shirt sleeves as an act of rebellion against mother nature. Better luck tomorrow.

Walls, Lazy Sleepy Walls

December 27, 2008
Kathleen is still on days off but her brave and daring family have taken up the sand moving task. Bob has already spent a couple of days re-distributing and, today, was joined by Ian and Coreen. My happy, little elves have almost all the sand work done. I just have to crawl under the trusses and move a little bit along footings.

Bob spotted a vole in the sand... the poor thing probably fell into the basement and, as there is no way out, I expect to find a body when I get back. Sand, sand everywhere and not a drop to drink or eat or anything. Starvation due to stupidity!

Meantime, back up on the main floor, Jim and Rob have been busy building walls and getting ready to stand them up.

The Sun, The Sand and Floor Trusses

It was the day before Christmas and all through the basement not a creature was stirring as Kathleen took the day off. C'mon! I had to get ready for Christmas. After shoveling the snow out of the basement, I distributed sand over the clay. As it was a windy day, Jim and Rob put some of the floor trusses in the basement and managed to stay out of the wind.

Sun dogs and Smoke Signals

December 19, 2008
Yes...it's another chilly one in the cow pasture. This morning started out at -30 but rocketed up to -28 by the afternoon. The ice fog created some amazing sun dogs and some very slippery highways. The locals love to practice ice dancing with their cars and lots of them were entering the ditches at very artistic angles. The farmer in the pasture next to us finally took pity on his cows and moved them. I am sure he has taken them off to the sunny south for a Christmas vacation. That or the feed lot next door. As the wind chill made working on the main floor uncomfortable, we worked in the basement. Jim had to drill into the concrete and set in anchor bolts to hold the basement floor trusses, securely. I continued with my snow removal and when I tired of that, I moved over and chipped ice off of the beams in preparation for truss placement. After I left to return the rented hammer drill, Jim and Rob finished the snow removal and began spreading the sand that is only part of the preparation of the ground that's underneath the wooden basement floor. We still have insulation, poly and washed rock to put down before the floor can go on permanently.

Telus assures us that we will have a phone line in the next 18 months to 2 years. We've fooled them...we're sending smoke signals!

Does This Mean Cows Can Read?

Wednesday December 17, 2008
Leduc County has sent some poor soul around in the cold to place address markers at each of the lots in the subdivision. One wonders what he did wrong to have to work in the sub-zero temperatures with metal posts and signs. He was followed by the local contractors putting their advertisements up on the posts. Curtis Ryll, who owns ARC, asked for our permission, which we gladly gave, as he has been a great help to us with all the dirt work and septic installation.

I worked in the basement shoveling the snow out for most of the day. Jim and Rob worked "upstairs" getting the rest of the main floor down. Rob answered an ad for "help" that we left at the local Co-op. He has been a great help to Jim as he can carry heavy stuff and is pretty handy with the tools. Hopefully, he will stick with us until we can get the old hacienda all closed in. by the end of the day, he and Jim had the main floor all down. I still had nearly half the basement to shovel out.