The five weeks or so since the last post have seen some work coming together at Ruth's Ridge. The laundry area, which ran into a completion snag when Ruth discovered that the wrong door styles had been sent by Ikea, has been effectively completed. The back porch deck is also now skirted and complete. Oh, and I've tidied up some of the construction-related materials just north of the garage and burned all of the small offcuts from the building process. We now have a two-pump sump system, with the back-up pump sitting 1' higher than the main pump. That should prevent further flooding.Road 88 was breached just west of our place, at the Jackfish Creek one mile east of us (below) and a mile east of the Jackfish. In addition Road 6E (heading south to Balmoral) was washed out in four places.
This 3" of rain came in just over an hour and was a portion of the 5" that fell in less than a week.
One of the big surprises is that ground water levels have dropped dramatically – this despite the record level rains we had back at the beginning of June. In fact, the lawn is starting to suffer from lack of water.
Ruth's garden is doing very well. The squash, rhubarb, tomatoes, potatoes and such are looking quite vigorous.
The last three days have seen the completion of a daunting job: the finishing of the post in the great room. Happily, Lee's newly-found plasterer, Joe, knew of a stone mason and passed on his name. By lunchtime today, Tony, his son, Daniel & I had finished the job of wrapping the post in cultured stone. I took on the dusty job of cutting the stone, while Daniel assisted his father, who did all the stone laying. We are most happy with the result, and with the opportunity of meeting two such wonderful workers and humans.
Tony says I am the spitting image of his older brother in Portugal, so this group shot is kind of like a family photo.
One significant job is still outstanding, that being the completion of casing and baseboard installation. I hope to give it my full attention next week, as I am coming out of retirement briefly to write another annual report at the request of a couple of former colleagues of mine.
I have decided, too, to forgo the forehead-to-wall agony of trying to get the woodstove installed for now, and I am going to wait on finishing the bonus room above the garage so that I can finish the thousand tiny jobs, obtain our occupancy permit and have a party for all the folks who have contributed their skills to bring this project to completion. I want that party to happen before the end of September.
What will become of this blog thereafter, one wonders.
