The topic often chosen by the lazy teacher who has no imagination after two months off sipping crantinies on some cheesy restaurant patio. Thought I'd carry on the tradition for a bit.
Most years, of late anyway, the last week and weekend of August finds me heading to Penticton to suffer it out on the IMC course. By the way, congrats to Kona Johnny, Kyle, Johnny G, Cory and Campbell on their race this weekend. Looked like an awfully hot day. At least it was smoking in Golden.
The parallels between my typical circumstances this time of the year and what I did this year are not lost on me. At the end of the weekend I find myself looking back at my accomplishment saying to myself in some mix of astonishment and pride "I did that!!?? Wow. I've done some crazy sh!t in my day, but that time I really pushed myself to get here. I really didn't think I could pull it off."
When I left last weekend, my goals were high as was my level of ignorance. So here we go..
Saturday August 20:
Run around a lot Saturday morning, get all the stuff I think I need and pack the truck. Get to site pretty late. John Gillis is with me, on his way from Halifax to aforementioned IMC. Great to have the help. When I get there I find John (log-builder not triathlete) has done a great job on the stairs. First time he's ever tried this he tells me. Fine hand with a chainsaw.
Unpack truck. Break out few beers and Q some steaks.
Sunday:
Up pretty early. Start out by realizing I forgot my runners, which means no run training for me for 8 days. That shoots big holes in my October marathon hopes. I start by attacking the wiring for the doors and John gets on stain duty. By end of day we got patio lights, a dining room light and all the doors in. John has stained a good chunk of the left hand side of the cabin.
Monday:
We decide we should tackle the sofift. It's a task I know is a two man job and I only have help for a couple of days.
Tuesday:
Soffit most of the day. Finally get outside the deck done. This was no small job and could not have been accomplished alone. Many thanks to JG for the help here.
Wednesday:
John heads off to IMC leaving me alone to finish what soffit I can. Given the difficulty of the outside piece, I am skeptical I can get any done alone. I am happily mistaken as I find when on a solid level surface you can move pretty fast with this, even on your own. My happiness however soon turns to upset as I find I'm out of wood and HomeHardware in Golden no longer carries the brand I am using. Matching two different t&g boards is no fun at all and nothing I wanted to attempt on my own. So I turn to staining. Start around 4pm on Wednesday where John left off.
Thursday:
Stain. Staging. Stain.
Friday:
Stain. Staging. Stain.
Saturday
Stain. Stain. Stain. There are those who read this blog and would say that I am not a patient person. I think the evidence of my activity over the past 3 days speaks to the contrary. We now have a stained cabin. Nothing 14hrs a day for three straight days, working on ladders and scaffolding in 28 degrees wouldn't fix.
Sunday:
Now is the point in the blog where I hope my mother has lost interest and stopped reading....if she ever reads it at all.
Having run out of stain Saturday afternoon, besides, all the hard bits were done, I look to the next opportunistic task. More wiring???...not urgent. Some plumbing.???...not really necessary. Windows in the basement would be nice....didn't bring them. Sure is cool here in the mornings. Could use the fireplace. I guess I'll tackle the chimney. After climbing up and down the scaffolding to stain the place could this possibly be more challenging.
Builder Dave suggested I put a chimney chase on the top of the roof, which is essentially a box that has a flat roof. This played a big role in my ability to even attempt the installation.
My roof has a 10/12 pitch. That is about 40 degrees. I can say that, with an eave around 26ft in the air, 40degrees is a bit steep, and slipping would be unforgiving. From the inside, the roof is about 22 ft above the living room floor. My task, was to drag a ladder out on the roof and fix it to the chase from the peak, set staging in the house and climb to the roof from there to cut a hole that would fit a 10" dia. cylinder at the box, between the rafters, (by the way this creates an oval for which I can find no equation that would help me simply draw a line to cut it...it was all trial and error) push 3 sections of chimney up there (about 50lbs each), attach a supporting plate to the rafter, scramble to the roof, drop the pipe back down onto the supporting plate, stack and join each pipe so that they are vertical, put the cover back on the chase, put in the interior black pipe, drag the 400lb stove into place and fix the black pipe to the stove. Of course I'm paraphrasing here. 14 hours later, I'd lost count of how many times I'd scurried on all fours up and down the roof, thinking each time, "If you start sliding....". And in the end...."I did that!!?? Wow. I've done some crazy sh!t in my day, but that time I really pushed myself to get here. I really didn't think I could pull it off."
I think I pulled 8 straight 12-14 hour days last week. I'm thinking IMC would have felt better...nahhhh.
I hope my fall vacation is a bit easier.
Cheers
Peter
