Dwight's Ramblings
May 1, 2008
A friend had sold their house and had until the end of April to clear the back yard. When I went there last night, I was amazed. What a pile of stuff!!! Of major interest was the thousands of board feet of lumber stacked up. Donny had been building a room to house his gym equipment when he hurt his back. That was three years ago and the building project had been on hold ever since. Various other people had been around to look at buying the wood including ripping down the partially completed 10 x 30 foot structure but hadn’t followed through. I put some 2x4’s on top of the roof rack and a couple of bikes in the back seat and trunk and said I’d be back tomorrow.
I had a Nissan Pathfinder from a friend that I was thinking of buying. I had bought his trailer so on Thursday morning Lucy and I headed in at about 10 AM. The new owners were there with three guys who were cleaning out the back yard which meant pitching everything into a huge container! I said that I was there to pick up some lumber and they graciously let us in. We quickly loaded up the trailer with as much 2x4’s and 2x6’s as we could fit. We also got lengths of insulated stovepipe and a lovely metal trellis, all bound for the garbage container.
After we got home for lunch, I divided the load onto two trailers and brought them down to the tent. I cut up some skids and started to pile up the wood. There are over 90 2x4’s and an assorted amount of 1x6’s, 2x8’s and 4x4’s. With a bit of plywood we’ll have enough to build a shed or two no doubt (I wonder if those are on the To Do List?)
There was still some light left, so I cut up another bunch of pine, dug a bunch of rocks out of the hill road coming down to the trailhead, and filled in my new holes plus other ruts. Oh yes, I also dug a few ditches where the water wasn’t draining.
Lucy called about 7 PM and asked if I was planning on coming home? Yep, just another rock or two to dig out and I’ll be right home in time for dinner.
Saturday April 26, 2004
Did I mention that Lucy and I had a list of about 50 projects to get done? Well one of them was to put up a shelter at the trailhead. While trolling Used Ottawa I came across an ad for a new 20’x 10’ shelter for $200. I picked it up on Friday and up it went on Saturday. I dragged the skidoo into it as well as a number of items stacking up nearby. Because the tent was partially on the trail, I dragged a couple of logs to one side, went up the hill with the Grizzly and trailer and loaded her up with sand. Driving back, I realized that the road was still quite soft and muddy. With the rocks and sinkholes on the hill, I had to put her in differential in order to plow my way back. Luckily it was downhill, I never would have made it up with such a heavy load. I dumped the sand alongside the tent to fill in the holes and sent back for another “half” load.
This only took up the morning so in the aft I proceeded to cut up lots of the pine that was left along the roadside. I think that I got to perhaps ¼ of it in about 4 hours of cutting. I managed to fill two trailer loads and dump them on higher ground on the sand. They should dry nicely here. There is quite a bit of birch and maple to cut as well, enough for a winter or two!
April 24, 2008
The loggers came by today to check out the road. Lucy had sent a note to Jacques, the foreman, noting how the road was full of mud, ruts and rocks, not a bit like it was last spring. Jacques and “Le Grand Patron” arrived at 10 AM. At first the big boss didn’t see anything wrong with the road, but as we continued down towards the trailhead, he admitted that there were a number of items to be put right. In a few places they had bulldozed in the ditches so these would have to be cleaned out. Along one bank where a large amount of sand had been removed, two springs now gushed. A collecting pool and a culvert will keep the water off the road. The hill down to the trailhead is a mess with deep ruts caused by the runoff mixed with large rocks.
The big boss agreed that some work needs to be done. The big bull will come in once the frost is out, probably in a couple of weeks. In the fall, the big shovel will be back and the ditches and culverts will go in then. We’ll get some work done as well, a few culverts here, a few ditches there. It’ll be one nice road!
April 17, 2008
Living up at Lone Wolf cabin is quite the delight but it presents certain commuting challenges that I didn’t face taking the bus downtown from the west end of Ottawa.
First there is the walk across the lake. The ice bridge is holding up nicely but the surface ice on either side is quite thin and you break through into 2 feet of water onto the ice layer below. The water is open at the creek at the far end of the lake and you can hear the geese in the water. With these 20+C days it won’t be long until we’re canoeing across the lake, maybe a week or two.
Next is the walk out along the trail to the trailhead. The water in the creek is running at it’s peak. The trail is still snow covered except for one area where runoff has taken out the snow pack down to the trail. It’s neat to see that we’re still at least 2 feet off ground.
We had loggers in this year and the road from the trailhead to the main road was widened and in two places a yard was created. This has lead to an interesting walk in the morning, trying to find the old roadbed, dodging sinkholes, running streams and small patches of mud. Coming back in the evening is worse as those mud holes have had all day in the sun to get really soft! But then I get to grab a shovel and make lots of canals to divert the water off the road and to the sides. Once all the frost is out and the water is gone, the loggers will be back to fix up the road and we will be able to drive in to the trailhead. In the meantime I’m getting a couple of kilometers walk in twice a day.
Wildlife is starting to come out. So far I’ve seen a flock of wild turkeys and several deer on my walk back to the cabin. There are also literally hundreds of pieces of wood along the road, left over from the loggers. A bit of a mess perhaps but lots of free firewood for next winter.
Lucy and I went to the cottage show last weekend, a very dangerous thing to do. We almost bought a yurt, a bunkie, a hot tub and picked up hundreds of brochures for really cool ideas. I threw a quick project list together and I got up to 43 without having to think about it. Sounds like enough projects for a lifetime.
I wonder what tomorrow will bring?
Dwight
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