Farewell Brico

Years ago, I traveled Vancouver Island from Victoria to Campbell River about every 6 weeks, for work. The Brico was one of the landmarks I loved to see. Once an ocean going cable ship, she was beached at Fanny Bay and became a restaurant for many years. We were heading to the FBI, (Fanny Bay Inn) for some pub fare on the weekend... and she's being unceremoniously dismantled by a couple of excavators. It's sort of sad to see, but she's being headed for the dump... farewell Brico!




Straw Bale House Update: The geriatric construction crew of two, took a long weekend to mend some sore muscles and bad backs.. I hate missing work days when it's sunny, but the back was not cooperating.
It's hard not to notice the building boom in the Comox Valley. There are OSB, (Oriented strand board) houses and condos going up everywhere. We're trying to keep these types of materials out of our home building process. Although the use of borate compounds and formaldehyde levels are relatively low compared to those old kitchen MDF cupboards or that coffee table that you may have, it is possible to use more environmental options.
I got the roofing quote last week. The round dormer roof will be a "torched-on membrane" and the balance will be metal. The quote including labour was $18,000 more than the material-only supply price. Not a typo, three zeros... $18,000 in labour for a relatively small, simple roof. The trickier torch-on portion, Ill pay the pros to do, the savings of over $16000 will stay in my pocket for our tractor fund.
We're in the market for a small tractor to help with the construction and landscaping etc. There is some big time sticker shock involved in tractor shopping... but the roof savings will pretty much cover it. These things don't seem to depreciate, so we're hoping that we can get most of our money back when we're done, either by reselling or renting it out... operator included.

Saturday...we headed for the Old School for a Mason Bee educational talk, put on by the Denman Island Conservancy. There was a good turn-out to hear about the little buzzers from resident experts. We were offered a Mason Bee Condo and a few of the bees in pupa form. The condo has been affixed to the pump-house with a container of pupa lodged on top. The experts predict, that when the temperature reaches 13c, the prolific pollinators will emerge. Given our coolish spring, it may be some time yet.

Kari & I went on a short hike on Sunday and came across some rather large scat. A rustle in the bushes prompted Kari to find a rather large stick, (to be used as a walking stick, she insisted). The usual Denman Island critters wouldn't be responsible for the volume of the scat, so I presume our cougar is still about and minding his own business.