Category: Schneidering

We were planning a day out last week and while I waited for my wife to get ready I decided to sweep off the deck. The fir bud covers have been raining down from the trees for a few days now and the deck is absolutely covered in them.

It was probably a good thing I did, because I noticed some sawdust. Now I know I haven’t been doing any work, so who was?

Dang. Sure enough several small round holes in a deck post. I guess it is now my turn to do some carpentry.

Tearing off all the cedar cladding I find what I am now expecting. Something has decided to use my house as their’s. Not sure what it was, as there were no visible critters still there. Ants or beetles most likely.

Unfortunately they did manage to chew up about 20% of the base of the post. I figured the best solution was to replace the entire thing.

It’s complete now. Used pressure treated 2×6’s instead of the spruce that was there. Also added some water proofing membrane to the beam and the first foot of the post, then 18” of tin flashing, then building papered the rest of the post, Overkill probably but it shouldn’t get wet.

I suppose this it the trade off to living here. It has nicer winters than the prairies but back there no one ever tried to eat my house!

For the first time since we moved here we did not have a long scorching hot dry summer. There have only been a few days above 25ºC and we actually had rain every couple of weeks. Last summer was many days above 30ºC and 12 weeks no rain.

In addition to giving the forest a stress break it also means that we have not been shut down by the fire department all summer as we have been in previous years. We had a short shutdown for about 3 days back in early July. That’s it.

The downside is that work continued all summer. No imposed vacation. No shortage of work either, as I have had all the hours I want and then some. Too many actually. We never got much of a chance to hit the beach, or paddle, of camp, or tour. I also never got much of a chance to use the workshop I am renting. Good thing rent is cheap.

I have been making a bigger effort to get to the shop more frequently over the past couple weeks. I have dragged in a few more tools, set up some shelving, and did a few small projects. Made some metal plant supports for Kelly, re-sawed some wood for a client’s facia, and finally made some progress repairing the landlady’s kayaks.

Today I started a new workbench. I am going to make it a hybrid of a Paul Sellers bench and the Moravian knockdown portable bench. This morning while waiting for the dog to be finished at the groomer I completed planing and gluing up the components for the top.

Next stop…lots of hand planing. Then I can start of legs which is lots of mortice and tenon cutting. Should be fun!

Another chance to try something new this week. I worked on a dry stack sandstone wall which surrounds a pond. The homeowner was a bit particular about the look so we did a lot of rock splitting to get a tighter looking wall.

Splitting rock this way involves drilling a series of holes along the line you want to split the rock in, then tapping pins into the holes. The feathers are metal shims places on either side of the pin. As the pin is driven down between the two feathers the rock eventually fails, hopefully along the line of the holes.

It reminds me of old stereotypes of convicts breaking rocks…

With the nicer weather we are finally getting a little work done in the yard. Not that we can’t work in the rain. I just don’t want to.

First was to deal with the goofy soil available here. If you grew up in farming country it is not what you would call dirt. Very light weight with lots of compost in it. Maybe I should call it compostable material, because it has a way to go before I would compare it to the product coming out of my composter. The result is that the soil tends to disappear. Our garden beds probably sunk 8″ over that past two years. So, a couple yards of dirt to top up the beds so we can plant.

I also finally planted the apple trees we purchased a few weeks ago. These will fill up the orchard space and will likely be the last fruit trees we plant. Apples, crab apples, pears, peaches, cherries, sour cherries, haskaps, Saskatoon berry, and hazelnuts. Good list. Hopefully I get some produce this year instead of losing it to the raccoons.

Next up was to finish burying the bricks I bought to line the driveway by the lawn. I laid the first one 18 months ago. That’s embarrassing.

Of course you cannot only remove items from the list, you must also add new items. In this case we added a big one. Last month we scored several 8’x3′ double glazed glass panels and an assortment of single pane safety glass pieces for a ridiculously cheap price. They are currently stored behind the shed waiting to become a greenhouse. I hope to get onto this job in the summer. Seems like a good job to do during the summer shutdown when the fire department says no more using machinery.