I'll Be Back..... Plastering

Straw House Bale House Update:

The drywall boarding is all done including priming. We have the interior back and the plastering is one week in. Plastering is highly labour intensive. By the time it's all done I'll be sporting Arnold bicepts. I'm guessing that I'm plastering 1200-1500 lbs per day.

A new addition to our family arrives on Denman in a couple of weeks.... "Mikolas" (Mikki) is a Peruvian Paso Gelding.... (He's the one on the bottom).

sun-rain-snow... oh no

Straw Bale House Update: The Humanure Hacienda is all done. We got a load of off-cuts of cedar to use as rot resistant walls. It worked out well and gave it a Daniel Boone log cabin look.
The drywall has taken a little longer than expected, but should be all primed and ready for paint next week. Quotes for doors and kitchen cabinets are in the works. The baseboards for the bale walls have been ripped and can be stained next week. The nice weather has dried things up enough to use the tractor for earth moving to establish the final grade. Our drainage is so good that traditional perimeter drainage around the house and garage are not necessary. We'll be directing water from the roof to either cistern water storage or into gravel trenches. Tyler was up for the week to give a hand setting up some perimeter deer fencing. Kari bought a few fruit trees, which have to be protected from the four-legged mooches that maraud the local gardens.
She bought Cherry (with five varietals grafted on a single root stock), apple, Asian apple and nectarine.
A small snow storm ended the week, but was washed away by the end of the day.
Curt and friends came up from Victoria to camp at Fillongley Park last week and lucked out with some great weather. They also got to experience the herring spawn and all the wild-life racket that comes with it. Between the sea lions, gulls and eagles it's beyond noisy.

Inflatable Beavers? Now that's Canadian!

Straw Bale House Update: The construction stairs have been ripped out and replaced with the framework of the permanent stairs. The finish treads and risers will be built after all the construction traffic. Drywallers have taken over and forced anyone that does not want to breathe white powder outside. Luckily there are a few things that can be finished up under the three foot overhangs. The Humanure Hacienda project is underway. We're using up the rest of the posts that we had milled on-site two years ago. I'm using the same plan format outlined in the "Humanure Handbook" (free online).

After extensive research and Internet finagling, I ordered a new entry level digital SLR camera. Internet shopping is great for guys that have an aversion to mall shopping. I selected the Canon Xsi. The cats were handy and willing subjects for the first couple of shots.

Things that the Olympics can do without:

1- Two-man Luge. Who thought this up? Men don the tightest possible spray-on spandex, then lay atop one-another and careen down an icy half-pipe. (quick switch to sportsnet)

2- Giant inflatable beavers. Yikes, what was that? Flying moose and lumberjacks, I think I know where some cost-cutting could have been considered. I'll be watching eBay for one of them beavers... Or perhaps they could be used for a new Olympic event... the beaver luge.

Best Olympic moment: Jon Montgomery's Beer Sid who?