Watson Lake

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A Change of Pace

Today, I finished the posts in the front and then started some weeding in the RV park. Tomorrow morning and all of Tuesday I will be indoors!!! The owners have a house a few minutes away from Nugget City which they rent out. One of the rooms in that house is awful, with filthy carpeting and poorly patched walls. New tenants are about to move in, so my job is to make that room a bit prettier than it is by patching the walls properly and then painting. Once that’s done, new carpet will be installed.

So, tomorrow morning I will head over there and patch, then I will come back here to finish the staff stairs (forgot to take a picture of those!). Once that’s all done, the patching compound should be dry and I’ll be able to go sand. Tuesday, it’s painting time. I think it will be nice to paint with a pretty green after so many projects involving yellowish or semi-transparent stains, boring white, and the really hideous mushroom coloured stuff that looks surprisingly decent on the staff stairs.

I am irked, however, that this project has come up when the weather is finally clearing! Why couldn’t that room have needed to be painted when it was snowing on Monday?! Ah, timing sure can suck sometimes. 🙂

One thing that will be nice about being indoors is that I can bring my iPod and speaker dock and have music. I don’t like to work with my iPod and headphones because I’m worried I will get paint on it. Using the dock outdoors is not an option seeing as I doubt anyone here will like what I consider to be perfect painting music. So, it will be a real treat to not paint in silence!

Thank goodness I’m so busy because the Itch has come upon me and I can’t wait to get on the road. But I’m making decent money here, so another week or so won’t kill me. 🙂

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Nugget City Projects

Here, for your viewing pleasure, are pictures of some of the work I’ve done at Nugget City. The owner has enough projects left to last me until doomsday and I know he’d love to have a certain painter on staff full-time. Oh well. 🙂

This was one of the biggest jobs I did. The whole front of the restaurant in May was covered in mounds of dirt. Using a shovel, rake, and wheelbarrow, I leveled and cleaned up the space of rocks and twigs.

This was one of the biggest jobs I did. The whole front of the restaurant in May was covered in mounds of dirt. Using a shovel, rake, and wheelbarrow, I leveled and cleaned up the space of rocks and twigs.

The deck that ate up a week in May.

The deck that ate up a week in May.

Just two of the several dozen planters I weeded in the spring, planted, and reweeded in the fall.

Just two of the several dozen planters I weeded in the spring, planted, and reweeded in the fall.

My current project is restaining these posts.

My current project is restaining these posts.

The back of the Ore House. I did two coats each on the white trim and the siding. There's one coat of white left to do.

The back of the Ore House. I did two coats each on the white trim and the siding. There’s one coat of white left to do.

The fence that ate up several days and a shocking number of gallons of stain.

The fence that ate up several days and a shocking number of gallons of stain.

This garage door was sky blue when I arrived and driving the owner NUTS. Staff was relieved when I arrived since it meant they would no longer have to hear complaints about the blue door!

This garage door was sky blue when I arrived and driving the owner NUTS. Staff was relieved when I arrived since it meant they would no longer have to hear complaints about the blue door!

The painting project that started it all! I repainted the yellow strip around the island.

The painting project that started it all! I repainted the yellow strip around the island.

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A Craving for Bananas

I spent the day monkeying around, climbing up, down, and around the scaffolding so I could paint the trim and stain the log siding of the activities building proudly called ‘The Best Little Ore House’!

(Mom et grand-maman, c’est un jeu de mots: whore house=bordel, ore house=bâtiment où l’on garde des minerai!)

It was a HUGE job that took me almost 6 hours to do… and I have to do it all over again tomorrow with a second coat. The longest part was having to constantly climb up and down. The scaffolding is narrower than the building, so I’d have to climb down it then up a ladder to finish a section. The upshot of this was that by the end of the day I didn’t care about the height any more!

The weather has not been cooperating, so the focus now is to finish projects rather than add to my list. Today was beautiful and sunny until about 4 o’clock and then huge clouds rolled in at the same time as a bitterly cold wind. If the sun could have only stayed out, I would be working on the second coat right now. Tomorrow is supposed to be nice all day, though.

Looking ahead at the forecast and the owners’ hunting schedule, my last day will probably be the seventh or eighth, so there’s probably less than a week to go! Time sure flies!

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Moving Day

It was much too cold, damp, and windy to paint this morning so, with the realisation that it’s October 1st (!) it was suggested that it would be a good time for me to move out of the RV park so it can be shut down. I packed up quickly, went to dump, filled up the gas tank, and manoeuvred myself into position behind the restaurant, where they have a few spots with 30A and water. Even though the hookups are on the wrong side, my 30A cable and 10′ hose are sufficiently long enough. It’s not nearly as good a spot as being by myself down in the RV park, but there is one huge advantage: treated water. The water in the RV park is straight out of the ground. Even after filtering it, drinking this water is like drinking blood, it’s that iron rich. Moreover, I am irked by the rust spots in my plastic bathroom sink and toilet, so at least they won’t be getting any worse.