January Has Been Very Busy

This is the longest I have gone without blogging since I started doing this 6 years ago.

It has been an exceptionally busy month. 

Plus the fact that we've been moving into the log home for about one week now 

and my Mac has been left at the condo.

I don't like to blog on my phone or iPad.
My favourite sitting spot so far.

We had a lot of snow last week and with Brad doing all the new additions to the electrical

 he has had to move quite a bit of insulation in the attic.

This resulted in hot spots up there which resulted in  lots of ice on the roof.

So the ice is sliding off the roof but I have a guy who is going to blow in fresh insulation 

once all the work is finished.

I did a lot of dump runs this last week .

These guys were at the entrance to our city dump.

Sort of reminds  we that we should be in Florida.

So Ruth did the final cleaning of the interior logs last week.

That was the last big job.

We started sleeping here once she was done.

Daisy is always happy as long as she is with us and she has her toy 

that Wayne and Sue gave to her in Florida.

This is the only toy she owns and she takes it everywhere with her.

She takes it to bed at night and in the morning she brings it out to the living room 

where she hangs out during the day.

I don't think they realized they were giving her such an important gift when they got it for her.

It's the only thing she owns and she cherishes it. I'm very careful not to lose it on her.

So Carrie and I started the master shower yesterday.

First we had to spread a layer of thin set on the walls to hold the waterproof bladder 

which lines the shower stall.

I know that everyone who sees the progress we've made on the log house thinks that I just watch while Carrie works but she did get a picture of me working while she watched.

She's so talented. 

She made a cardboard mask of an Owl that will be raffled off at her Church Fair next month.

I'll add a picture of it once it's decorated. It will look great.

So we're living in the log house now.

We're still under construction but at least we're in.

We've been working on this place for seven months Six to Seven days a week.

Today Ruth started to paint the condo getting it ready for rent.

She never stops.

Another Busy Week In The Frozen North

My new truck is cold and dirty sitting outside of the condo in the parking lot 

while Ruth's car gets to bask in the heat to the indoor parking.

We had Bonnie and Eric over for brunch as well as a snowshoe stomp. 

Very brisk and envigerating.

Anyone who knows Bonnie won't believe she went for a snowshoe stomp with us but she did. 

These are really her legs and feet.

I think she even had fun doing it.

This is a great little mutt. She always looks happy.

Like she's saying "What's Next Rick".

I brought our Pettman sculpture home to the farm this week.

That was a job and a half. 

It weighs over 300 pounds and doesn't have any hand holds to grab on to.

I came out of the elevator last night around 10:00 taking daisy for her final walk of the day 

and found Yvonne touching up the wall by the elevator.

She never sleeps. She's a real asset to our building as well as the Strata vice president.

So friday evening I found 4 guys who don't live in our building sitting in the sauna 

in our amenities room wearing hoodies and smoking cigarettes.

Seemed a little strange. I'm now on strata for this complex so after a few questions

 I kicked them out of the building.

Going back to see where they had been sitting I found a smoke on the cedar bench.

No respect.

This bothered me. Could have started a fire.
It did leave a burn in the cedar.
I also found evidence that they had stolen some mail from the mail boxes.

Guess I should have called the police.

Tonight was a great night.

We had a nice dinner at the farm and then hung out 

watching music videos of the great classic bands from the 70's.

Hard to beat a Saturday night like this.
We'll likely be moved into the log home this week.

Even Daisy liked our laid back evening.

I Can't Believe It Took This Long

Carie's going to laugh when she sees this.

We've been building projects together all of our lives .

I pride myself on having good equipment but my Ridgid chop saw has always had a problem.

We built the stairs together in 2003 going from the main floor of the garage to the suite on the second floor at our lakeshore home and the steps weren't square back then.

It's always driven me nuts. We've tried everything. I could never seem to square the blade.

Carrie spent the day doing baseboards in the addition to the log house today and after she left I was sitting in the kitchen watching Ruth line the cabinets with material when I got a brainwave .

I should ask google how to square a blade on a ridgid chop saw.

You can see how much the blade was out on the square.

We've been setting the blade off of 0 degrees to get a nice cut. 

It's always made a lot of work for us.

Google told me to remove the extension on both sides of the blade 

because there is a set screw hidden  under the extension.

One set screw in the middle behind the blade which is the one

 I have always tried to do the adjustment with.

I didn't know about the one's under the extensions.

No wonder I could never get it to move.

Once I loosened the three screws I set the blade to 0 degrees easily.

I can't believe we've spent 13 years fighting this thing. So frustrating.

I'm looking forward to doing more baseboards tomorrow.