Doctor, I Have Shingles

Another watershed moment. Well, it will be once the 162 bundles of shingles have been applied to the roof.

Yesterday all the interior braces came down after enough of the great room roof sheathing had been applied. Today, while Delaeno & Nathan worked on tuning the mudroom roof trusses and Davis finished up sheathing the garage and installing the basement window wells, I played char-man by tossing all debris out of the house, organizing the remaining materials and sweeping the floors. In true shlepper spirit, I then cleared all of the exterior debris in anticipation of the shingle delivery and George Taplin's return to do a little more backfiling. Finally, I moved all of the studs for the loft interior walls up to that level, then finished up the master bedroom wall framing.

DND completed the mudroom sheathing and moved on to the last challenge, the kitchen trusses.

Hear no evil, see no evil, do no evil... all sitting down – up – on the job.

The arrival of the shingles signals an immanent move for me from carpentry to electrical and plumbing where, for better or worse, I'll be captain of the ship. Sink or swim time.

A Subterranean & Superstructure Day

Just a quick update this evening... the day's efforts and the warm temperatures have drained my batteries.

A fortuitous call from George Taplin last evening to say they'd be up today to install the septic tank. An unfortunate call from Davis this morning to say that some bad food on Sunday had him playing Pong between his bed and the washroom.

The morning was glorious, though, as the sun filtered through early morning fog. After tidying the site, I started in on the master bedroom interior walls which, of course, prompted the Taplins' arrival. Unfortunately, the utility pump that has been at work in the sump pit for the past few weeks had partially clogged over the weekend, so we set to work draining the basement swamp with the gas-powered trash pump.

Meanwhile Delaeno & Nathan got to work on sheathing the great room and tweaking the trusses as they worked their way around.

By 6:30, the Taplins (with the help of their new hire, Phil) had also trenched about half of the septic line out to the field, the Bros. Rempel had largely completed the sheathing – and finally debugged all the trusses, and I had managed to frame up half of the MBR walls.

Another magnificent four days are forecast for our build site.

Another Day of Summer

Dear Ridge Riders

The things I often forget to do or note. For example, I got no pictures of Ruth wearing my Stihl hardhat while mowing the ridge on her first ever use of the JD hydrostatic tractor. Or the last, long overdue dinner on Niagara with dear friends, Geoff & Barb. I forgot to mention that Cole and his girlfriend, Sarah, stopped by on Sunday. I also forgot to photograph them. A mind of single and boring focus is a terrible thing. There's so much more I would like to – should – comment on, but the level of physical fatigue is mostly overwhelming, and the urge to luxuriate in lactic acid overdose will not be denied. So, the proverbial flying joy is not shared as much as one might wish.

We were back to a full complement of workers up on Ruth's Ridge today. Given the uncertainty of the weather forecast for yesterday (Tuesday), Davis & Delaeno did a careful review of the work potential before setting out from Morden. As it was, we again received only a fraction of the forecast 15-20 mm of rain, all of which fell between 9 and 11 a.m.

D 'n D worked on the verandah lintels and posts, leaving me free to do more clean-up in the trees. I felled another three trees in the garage entry area, then sawed all of the ten or so felled trees to manageable lengths. Then we got to head home to a delicious mixed grille prepared by Ruth for us "woikers" and Claire, and Allison & Pete (with grand-daughter, Kate) just returned from holidays in Nova Scotia.

Today (Wednesday) the skies were again clear, with the temperatures around 13 degrees C. We started the day by weaving a maze of sticks above the great room. This task, perhaps the most complex to date, again required all of us. For a change, your humble blogger was the one perched at the top of the barely-secured trusses. I think Delaeno managed to capture a few photos of my terrified visage as I clung to the trusses with five appendages and hammered nails with my hardhat.

The Bros. Rempel got to work on the verandah trusses, while Davis & I, with Nathan's help, got 30 sheets of OSB up onto the loft floor in preparation for sheathing the roof. Then the white hairless monkeys ascended again into the loft canopy where we managed, by closing time, to have the north half of the loft roof sheathed, the sub-fascia attached on the north and west, and most of the west hip roof covered. Meanwhile Delaeno & Nathan had completed the majority of the verandah truss puzzle.

A wonderful, productive day. To add sweetness to it all, Manitoba Public Insurance called today to offer a generous settlement on the utility trailer that was stolen from our back lane in Winnipeg at the end of July.

The one bittersweet note was the death of our nearly 17 year-old Yorkshire Terrier, Judee, this afternoon. Judee was Allison's 12th birthday present 17 years ago this coming November. She fit into a teacup when she was brought home. I'd come to refer to her as the canine incarnation of the fabled Phoenix: she had been on death's doorstep more often than the number of her years, yet she continued – until this weekend – to bark her enthusiasm for a meal or a walk, and to demand the attention due a grand dame such as herself.

Over the past few years, in addition to encounters with German Shepherds, Rottweilers, a pair of adolescent skunks (I smell a pun there), deafness, blindness, arrhythmia, kidney failure, UTIs, tumours, loss of all but seven teeth, severe arthritis and God only knows what else, she continued to live with fierce determination and indomitable spirit. This weekend, looking rather unsteady on her feet, she exited a most unwelcome bath on Friday and immediately began a wild bark-fest when she sensed a walk was immanent. Back legs flailing wildly and unsteadily, she led the charge down Niagara toward Wellington Crescent. She actually did a block before sideline smells caused her to be swept up in Ruth's arms. On Sunday, the rapid and final slide began. By Tuesday morning around 4 a.m., it seemed she might not make it to daylight, as Ruth held Judee to her chest. But, true to her character, she rallied a little on Tuesday – just to make Ruth & I liars again. This morning, though, it was clear that her spirit could not fend off all the ills that had befallen her.

Ruth took her for one last walk to our vet's clinic, where she was ushered into that grand and limitless woolen mill in the sky, forever to chase and capture the rats that had escaped her in this life. Way to go "The Dude," Lil Dude, Dudilicious, Dudders. Love you, Ruth.

Ah, Labournaught Day

It's been a few days of inactivity on the blog front, although there has been some activity related to Ruth's Ridge since the last post.

By Thursday evening, the garage and workshop looked like this.

Friday started out under cool, clear skies which turned very warm and gusty by mid-afternoon. While the Bros. Rempel finished up the roof on the backside of the workshop before moving on to the mudroom roof, Davis & I worked on the south roof of the garage. Here's how things looked by lunch.
We moved on to the loft trusses after a quick lunch break. We had hung six trusses up on the wall plates at the beginning of the week, with the remainder cluttering up the loft floor. Getting Davis' new wall-hook scaffolding up and truing the walls took about 30 minutes.

However, from the time we started hoisting the trusses into place until all were secured took slightly more than 90 minutes.
The 90 minutes, however, provided for some "high timber" gymnastics by DND. I, as cheque writer, was strongly encouraged not to come up above the wall plate, lest I injure my left hand in the process.
Ruth & I returned to the Ridge on Saturday morning to sweep the house floors in anticipation of the potential thunder showers that had been forecast. We were back again at about 11:30 a.m. on Sunday with the trailered garden tractor in tow. After a few minutes of orientation on the operation of a hydrostatic transmission, Ruth was off on a blissful, goofy-grinned two-hour ride, mowing the ridge north of the house in the process. Meanwhile, I loaded several trailerloads of slash and moved them to the field beside the sand piles for future burning. Then, after moving several loads of logs from the driveway area to the woodpile, we piled exhaustedly into the car. It seems I may have experienced a bit of sun stroke, as the remainder of the day was a blur of sleep.

Tuesday's forecast is for more than 20 mm of rain, so a short week may be further truncated. Our timelines don't allow for this kind of slippage, but there's not much to be done about it.

In Sun We Trussed

Dear Friends of Ruth's Ridge

Another perfect summer day, with temperatures moving above the mid 20s and a light breeze out of the South.

I couldn't believe the size of the load Superior Truss dropped beside the house on Monday afternoon. More surprising is the shrinkage that load has undergone in just over two working days. Admittedly, most of the trusses have only been distributed to their general locations, but the longest and heaviest trusses are up and positioned. The garage trusses span 26' and measure 10.5' from bottom of plate to peak. They each weigh over 100 lbs., I'm sure. Each was carried from the pile on the West side of the house, around to the East side, then balanced upside-down on the two wall plates. Davis & Delaeno then climbed onto the plates, while Nathan & I used 14' studs to push the peak upright, at which point D & D then centred the truss and nailed it in position. The effort was literally staggering.

By end of day, the bonus room above the garage had sub-flooring. By tomorrow evening, I imagine we'll have the remaining trusses over the mudroom and workshop in place. Despite the intense effort and grunt work involved, we are making great progress.

Today the windows arrived, next week the doors show up in Winnipeg. The race is on to get Ruth's Ridge to lock-up by October, when we'll need to be evacuating our home in Winnipeg.

One day at a time.

Movin' on Up

From a snippet of a TV theme song to trusses, that's the story up on Ruth's Ridge.

The trusses that were to arrive by lunchtime Monday did, but it was lunchtime in Vancouver. While waiting, DND busied themselves with more wall sheathing and wall-straightening. I, on the other hand, lapsed back into woodsman mode, cutting down another four trees to make room for the driveway swing-around, then loading several trailer loads of slash, moving them to the field for burning in cool weather, and moving several loads of logs from the driveway area. Around 3 p.m., Nathan announced that the last wall was raised and secured in place. The other highlight of my day, however, was actually driving up and down the driveway.

This morning (Tuesday), I got a call from Paul at Parkside around 8:15 to say the window delivery could not be delayed anymore. Jim & Johanna quickly agreed to let us store the windows at their place for safekeeping should my request of our neighbours, Ian & Vera Soroka, not pan out. I immediately headed next door (0.7 km) but found no one home. I did, however, noticed an RCMP cruiser race past me, then join a large contingent of same at another nearby home. Ominous. What news in the next couple of days?

Back at the ridge, Davis & Nathan forged on with sheathing while Delaeno & I began sorting our way through the incredible bundle of roof trusses. I thought I'd come home whipped a number of times over the past few months, but today was a topper... or, more accurately, a nadir. Much to my surprise, an Epsom Salt bath actually relieved much of the aching and fatigue. It may have been my first therapeutic salt bath, but it will not be my last.

Delaeno's wife, Micki, showed up for her first inspection of the job that has taken him from home for the past six weeks. She happily obliged when I asked if she'd take a few shots of our roof-raising efforts. Based on the results, I may have to offer her full-time employment as photo-journalist for this blog. The following are her shots.

Off to bed now.