THIS CHAIN SAW IS DRIVING ME NUTS

I think I must have flooded it. 

I've been yanking on this pull start for the last 10 minutes.

SHE HITS THE GROUND RUNNING

So I woke up at about 6:30 this morning and Ruth was no where to be found.

I look outside and see her staining the sunny side of the build.

She's been at it since 5:00 this morning .

She wanted to get it done before the sun hit the west side of the building.

The guys were there working on the build and entertaining her by 6:00 A.M.

THIS IS WHY A SCOTSMAN ALWAYS LOOKS DOWN WHILE WALKING

I was looking down as I headed for my truck and what do you think I saw.

It was a good day.

I love the Queen.

I LOVE TO EAT

And one of my favourite deserts is a Lemon Meringue pie from scratch.

YUMM.

THIS WEEK IS MOVING ALONG NICELY

Ruth offered to sell a kayak for one friend and another friend wanted it.

Yvonne came over with her son to pick it up.

 I had offered to deliver it on my truck rack but I'm glad they came for it instead.

This gave me plenty of laughs as they drove up the driveway.

They didn't even have a red flag.

Haha.

Today the boys craned in the dormer beams.

Finally. 

This build is not as fast as I would like.

I did mention some displeasure on Monday about the speed 

this is happening and they promise to speed it up for me.

The last couple of days have been better.

This crane makes a huge difference.

They use to lift these logs on their shoulders. 

Not a nice job.

When Carrie got home from work today she spent a couple of hours 

finishing up the sanding on the interior walls.

It was a hot afternoon. I don't know how she does it.

The boys also got the posts up for the roof which will cover the deck.

I'm excited to see the dormers finished.

They make the interior look huge.

MY BIRTHDAY WEEKEND

I took a whittling coarse last week.

Monday to Thursday evenings 6:30 - 9:00.

It was great. I started  a walking stick here.

It's harder than I thought but I'll get it.

I'm getting tired of cutting myself.

I turned 66 on Sunday , May 13 and also celebrated my 43 anniversary with Ruth.

Whew. It's been fun. 

We took a ride on the Rail Trail today. What a great Trail.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsGQJ4CWQOg

It follows the lake for most of the way.

It's beauty is world class.

We bought new bikes last year.

What a difference.

Nothing like the bikes we bought in Florida while living on the boat.

There is so much to see along the trail.

We stopped by the water falls for a picture.

I feel like a giant beside Ruth.

So back home I got an angle food cake .

It's a Moir tradition on birthday's.

Ellie did a great job lighting the candles.

She was so happy to get them all lit and was encouraging me to blow them out.

I saw her blowing as well out of the corner of my eye.

Here she was saying , " Actually Grandad , I helped you blow them out".

HAHAHA
Hope I still get my wish.

It sure made her happy to have helped.

She's a hoot.

I think I am likely thinking Oh Crap.

Where's the time gone.

STARTED OFF AS A REALLY CRAPPY WEEK

I had a load for the dump. 

The box of my truck was filled with construction scrap.

I laid the old screen door from the house on top.

I was distracted for a minute while I slammed the tail gate.

The screen door is 1/4 inch longer than the truck box.

Yup. Right thru the window.

On a happier note. 

My cousin , Her sister in law and her Daughter in law came for a visit.

I love all these women. So nice to see them.

They live in Washington state. Not far away but too far away.

The build is strapped and almost ready for the roof.

All we have to do now is put the dormers on.

WHERE HAS THE TIME GONE

We were  in Los Angeles for the NAMM show.

Ruth and I went to the show every year for about 25 years and sometime the kids came with us.

This picture is just across the street from the Anaheim convention centre.

I'm guessing it is about 28 or so years ago.

Sharon pilfered all of our photo albums a few years ago and sent me this picture today.

Those two are just as cute today as they were then.

WE HAD A BUSY WEEK

Our friend Janet is a retired Dr. from Vancouver and is selling her acreage here 

in lake country for two million dollars. Like many Dr.'s I know she is wonderful at her profession but when it comes to little unimportant incidentals . Hmmmm. 

I went over there last week for a visit and suggested she do something with her gate entrance.

First impressions are important. Two million bucks. Come on.

She asked me make it nice but I said I was too busy.

I had a little time on Monday so I shoved a few boards thru the plainer.

I ran over around lunch time and redid her keypad cover.

I never told her I was doing this and at dinner time I got the call. 

Were you here today? Haha

Ruth thought I should have painted it so on Tuesday morning after Jack's dentist appointment we went over to her place and painted it black.

I should have taken a picture. 

It looked pretty good.

After it was painted I took jack up to the house to show him her chickens when 

Hammy her little mutt ran out to see us. Straight to Jack. 

They bonded immediately.

Hammy is such a sweetheart.

I keep telling Janet that we'll take Hammy when she moves.

I don't think that will happen somehow.

She loves this little mutt.

Monday night I signed up for a whittling coarse.

I took one 20 years ago with my buddy Al in Peachland and this guy was the same instructor.

I had a lot of fun.

We did whittling from 7:00 to 9:30 on Monday , Tuesday and Wednesday night.

Thursday he did a knife sharpening class.

My first project was a peanut butter spoon.

Made sense to me.

That's the peanut butter jar spoon on the right. Made from Poplar.

The spoon on the left is actually a small spatula for stirring porridge 

and soups made from applewood.

 Such a hard wood. I won't whittle that wood again.

See the shape of my peanut butter jar spoon.

My instructor was saying he has had one like that for 20 years. 

It gets everything out of the corners.

I started to sand it smooth but stopped after a little bit.

I like the hand carved look. 

It makes me know that it wasn't made in China on a machine.

Fun.

While I was out on my coarse Carrie found us a new exhaust fan 

and installed it .

Our old one was so loud it sounded like a jet engine under power.

This is nice. I should go out more often.

Ruth asked me to plant some poles for her raspberries.

I started digging and came across this pipe.

It's about 2 feet deep and is on a downward slope towards out house.

I had the city come out as well as the water company.

No one knows what it could be.

I went over to one of the old timers of the area to ask what he thought.

He said that the hillside is saturated from underground springs and houses 

up hill use to run sewer lines from their septic fields down hill into ditches

 so that their fields wouldn't fail.

He thought this could be one of those lines.

I cut the line and it was dry.

It looked like it had been dry for years.

I took a close up picture and it doesn't look too good.

This is a flash picture looking up the line.

It could be old septic.

 Not sure but I'm sure it's not a drinking water line.

Anyways, I capped it off.

Whatever it is , I don't want it draining onto my property.

WE'RE ALMOST DONE WITH THE CRANE

We got the first section of ridge beam up on Sunday.

It took a bit of persuasion with the sledge but finally slid into place.

I woke up Monday morning at 6:45 to the sound of the crane warming up.

Ten minutes later we had the other gable up and flying into place.

Thank goodness we have this crane here.

I can't imagine doing this all by hand but john said that's how they use to do it.

It would take 6 guys to grunt something like this into place.

He also said that in the old days he would work his guys like dogs.

No babies on his job site.

We had the gable in place within 15 minutes.

I went on a little too long about how I'm becoming an expert on log home building.

This ridge beam didn't fit.

I think I didn't make the gap quite wide enough. OOPS.

After shaving it with the chain saw we still needed to crank in down 

into place with a come-along.

I'm watching Tim climb up on this ladder perched precariously on the scaffold.

I said something to him and he yelled back down to me 

"Don't worry. Safety first."

What should have been a 20 minute job took almost two hours. Damn.