Assiniboia

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A Silk Purse

Southern Saskatchewan has just emerged from a very unseasonable cold and rainy period, brought to us courtesy of Montana, if The Weather Network is to be believed. My friend L says that it was payback for the Polar Vortex…

At any rate, it just rained and rained and rained and rained and rained for four or five days and only cleared up yesterday, Tuesday, although it was still a little chilly. I spent the dreary days in my office typing like mad so I could take some time off once the weather cleared.

It was still a little chilly yesterday, but nice enough in the afternoon to go out and finish cladding the shed. I was on my own and didn’t think I could get it done, but I did! It helps that Charles left me a bunch of tools, including his circular saw. I’d never before last week used such a tool and now I have no idea how I ever did any construction work without one!

So the cladding’s all tacked on and I just have some more screwing to do. Charles came by today and complimented me on my work. I asked him about trim because I am planning to clad both buildings in metal either in 2015 or 2016 and thought that while the trim would make the shed look more finished, it might be a waste of money. Charles agreed. So I’m just going to paint.

This morning, I worked, then went to town for painting supplies and a 12′ step ladder. I’ve been shopping for and looking at ladders for months and decided that this was a good compromise for height and the price was right. I can always borrow ladders, of course, but it’s nice to have my own now even though I will still need to use my neighbour’s when I want to get to the peak.

When I got home, I changed into grubbies and began to attack the interior of the shed. It was HOT, so perfect weather for working with water.

The floor was covered with several inches of mouse poop and seed, very disgusting. I hadn’t wanted to clean it before because the building was too open. It still doesn’t have a door, but it was time.

Like with the cabin, I started by bleaching the heck out of the interior. I demolished the grain chute and then set to work with a manure shovel (that came with the grainery!) to pick up the mess on the floor. I put it all into garbage bags, filling at least a dozen, and I’m still not done!

The floor was partially covered with thin plywood and I decided to pry it up to see what was underneath. To my immense surprise, the plywood was just lying on the floor and covering up gorgeous pristine boards! I was shocked! Unfortunately, the exposed boards have been covered in crud for who knows how long and aren’t as pretty.

Once I had picked up as much as I could, I headed to C&C’s to pick up a length of garden hose (and have a coffee and a cuddle with their dog, of course). I came home and gave the shed its first pressuring washing. This helped lift a lot of the caked on muck.

I am going to let everything dry and do another big pick up with the shovel and broom, repressure wash, and then finish up with the shop vac, a final pressure wash, and a final bleach spray.

I’m going to start on that tomorrow between coats of paint. I bought a five-gallon pail of white exterior farm paint and plan to put on as many coats as I have paint for. I am also considering painting the interior of the shed, including the floor. I don’t plan to finish the interior of this building any time soon, so a coat of paint will go a long way to making it feel fresh and clean. I didn’t bother with the cabin because it was so much cleaner.

My feelings towards this building have changed dramatically now that I have gotten at its bones and found them to be solid. I was really worried that I brought home a rotten piece of garbage, but nope! The shed looked absolutely terrible, but all it needed was a facelift. I can’t wait to show it off with a coat of paint!

South side of the shed. Grain chute gone. Tearing it out with a crow bar was fun!

South side of the shed. Grain chute gone. Tearing it out with a crow bar was fun!

Still have a ways to go, but a huge improvement! North side of the shed.

Still have a ways to go, but a huge improvement! North side of the shed.

The interior before. You can see the grain chute, plywood covering the floor, and lots of mouse poop!

The interior before. You can see the grain chute, plywood covering the floor, and lots of mouse poop!

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A New Roof For the Shed

I was in town at 8:00 this morning to get the missing closures for the roof. I got home around 9:00 and Charles showed up shortly after that, then Laura arrived around 10:00. I was surprised to see her! We got a few sheets of roofing on together and then T showed up, too! I couldn’t believe that he came to do actual work. We managed to get half the roof on in the morning. Caroline showed up at one point with coffee and banana bread.

We took a break after that and I went in to call SaskPower. The power line to my neighbour’s house cuts across my property and is very close to the roof of the cabin. It is not installed according to code and I put in a request to have the line moved. We absolutely cannot put the new roof on the cabin until that happens. I really hope we can get this done by the time C&C return from their holiday. Before the new pole went in  yesterday, the line was high enough up that we could have avoided it, but now it’s even lower and Charles said there is no way he’s getting up there the way it is now. We shall see what SaskPower says…

By the time we broke for a late lunch, all the full sheets were on the roof. T declined to eat with us. Lunch was a repeat of yesterday, minus the ham. Charles is coming tomorrow to sheet the shed if the rain holds off, so I’m going to make ham and cheese pinwheels to go with the rest of the bean salad. Laura threw all the offerings into a tortilla and made herself a burrito. It was nice to see everyone enjoy the spread I put out.

The afternoon’s challenge was to cut up the last sheet to fit the final foot-wide or so section of roof. Laura is good at that sort of thing and she and Charles got it all sorted out. They did a really nice job cutting up the sheet.

Laura left after that and then it was time to put on the ridge cap! Charles screwed 1x4s to the west side of the roof to give himself foot holds. Once the 1x4s were removed, he filled the holes with the screws that match the roof, so you can barely see that he did that. The west side is also the least visible side, so it’s okay that the screw pattern is off and that some of the ribs got a little smooshed. There’s just no other safe way to put on the ridge cap with the equipment available to us.

Brian and Laura did the bulk of the work on the roof today and I commend them. They did a gorgeous job and I am very happy with the result! It even started pouring rain as Charles and I were finishing up, so the roof has already been tested. 🙂

The goal for tomorrow, weather permitting, is to get the new cladding and trim up, plus a door, so I can paint next week. We’ve thus far accomplished our goals, so I’m optimistic!

The shed looked really bad and I thought that I perhaps made a mistake bringing it in. But now that we’ve started to remove old material, I can see that there is no rot and that the building is square and true. So it might have been cosmetically challenged, but it is structurally sound and definitely worth putting money into. I am proud to have saved this building and to be giving it another 20 + years of life.

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Strapping the Shed and a New Power Pole

I can’t believe how fast this summer is winding down! I am so behind on my Haven projects, which are primarily to get the shed weather tight and to put new roofing on both buildings. I ordered the metal roofing the week before last and it came in this past Thursday. It comes in 3′-wide sheets and you order however many of them you need in whatever length. Charles and Caroline helped me do the math on all of that. You also need ridge cap pieces, which comes in 10′ sections, and ‘closures’, which we forgot and I will run into town for first thing in the morning. They fill in the gaps between the ridge cap and the sheeting as well as between the sheeting and the sub-roof.

Charles and I went to town on Saturday with his truck and flatbed trailer to pick everything up, metal sheeting for the two buildings, enough chip board to clad the shed (the rougher of the two buildings), and ‘strapping’ for both buildings, which are 1x4s that are screwed to the roof and then the metal is screwed to them. I helped him unload rocks before we went to town and I treated him to lunch!

This morning, he showed up bright and early as promised so we could get started on removing the old roofing from the shed (chip board over cedar shingles). My new neighbour, K, also came to help. K bought C&C’s last vacant lot and she is using it as an RV pad! She lives here three days and is in the city for four days.

Many hands make light work, so even with two coffee breaks in the morning, we had one side of the shed roof cleared and strapped by lunch. Caroline always feeds her crews well, so I made sure to have coffee and granola bars for the morning, which we enjoyed on our first break, then Caroline came by with more coffee and homemade muffins for our second break!

For lunch, we had a bell pepper and black bean salad, tomatoes, cucumbers, ham, cheese, cream cheese tortilla pinwheels, and more tortillas in case anyone didn’t like bean salad (I knew Charles would, but I didn’t know who else might show up to help). There was lots left over for lunch tomorrow, but no one went hungry. I also made sure to have a cooler full of cold water, ginger ale, and non-alcoholic beer.

We got the other side cleared and strapped by about 3:30. Another neighbour, T, who is our hermit and rarely seen, actually came and lent a hand and promised to return tomorrow and help lift the heavy sheets of metal up onto the roof! Wow! We all had a beverage of choice after all that work. K wasn’t shy and handed out granola bars.

While all this was going on, SaskPower showed up to replace my charred power pole! Talk about bad timing! Thankfully, by the time they arrived, we knew most of the dimensions we needed for the strapping, so I cut all the lumber before the power went out (using Charles’ chop/miter saw).

Charles and K screwed in all the strapping today. I did a lot of running around fetching things, preparing food, cutting lumber, and removing the old roofing.

The shed roof will be done tomorrow. C&C are heading out of town, so Charles said we’ll do the other roof when he gets back. He’s going to try to find time to at least cut the siding for me this week and tack it into place so that I can finish screwing it in on my own and paint it while they are gone. I’m in a hurry to get that done since I had to take my clothesline apart to make room to work today and I want it back up asap!

I was hoping to spend no more than $1,500 on this first phase of the exterior work on the graineries. I still have the closures and paint to buy and am at about $1,250, so I should come in right on budget! For the curious, the roofing is $0.98/square foot for coloured, so about $630 (including tax) for both buildings, plus $110 (including tax) for the ridge caps. I didn’t factor food for the crew into that part of the budget, but I’m at about $150 for that; much cheaper than a roofing crew! 🙂

I can’t wait to get the first roof on tomorrow. It is going to be so beautiful!

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Summer’s Belated Arrival

Wow was June a wet cold month!  There is no English expression that describes the month as well as the French phrase ‘c’était la flotte’! Parts of eastern SK are under water, communities have been evacuated, and roads are closed. It was just wet and soggy here and I still have a leaky roof, so I’m just glad that summer appears to have finally arrived with hot days and SUN!

Summer’s timing was perfect as it coincided with my first day of an eleven-day vacation! I made enough money in June that I can take eleven days off and work half days the rest of July and still be better off than fine, so I’m enjoying my well earned time off!

My friend L was scheduled to arrive this week, so the priority was to get enough gravel raked out for him to be able to back in his trailer. I’ve been working tirelessly at that, putting in about 24 hours total, including a solid 10 hours yesterday (Wednesday). I’m not done yet, but I accomplished my goal!

I was expecting L late tonight, Thursday, or Friday. Guess who knocked at my door around 9PM on Wednesday night? 🙂 He didn’t know how level my lot was going to be or if he could even back in, so he parked in the driveway of the swimming hole and then came over to see if I was awake, not realising that he had switched time zones and it was an hour earlier than he thought it was.

We caught up over a beer and then headed to bed. He was wiped from a 13-hour driving day, having had to take some unexpected detours because of flooding. By the time he got himself rerouted, he was so wound up he decided to just drive straight through, a decision I’ve made a number of times. I was pretty beat from raking all that gravel!

This morning, I headed over to his trailer where he had breakfast waiting. He then packed up and moved to Haven. There was no trouble backing up onto the gravel pile and the landing spot for the trailer was quite level, although the same can’t be said for where he’s got the truck.

Once he was set up, we headed to town to get our missing supplies for the wagon train. He’s bringing his trailer, so I’ll have not only a kitchen, but also a cook this summer. It’s going to feel like a real vacation! 🙂

He got propane, then we went to the thrift store where I found yet another cute summer dress. I might get to wear it now that the weather has turned. 🙂

While we were parked there, I went across the street to deposit a cheque I got from the Co-Op, $52 cash back on the purchases I made throughout the past year.

We then went for lunch and finished off by picking up groceries. Do we know how to have fun or what?! 😀

Back home, L got puttering while I headed to my neighbour’s place to clean. I came back and crashed with beer and had a couple of drams of whisky (no e means scotch, not bourbon!). I do love me a good whisky, as evidenced by the name of my domain, uskeba coming from the Gaelic phrase for ‘water of life’, uisge beatha, which is whisky. 🙂

Charles and Laura dropped in with Brutus and had a few beers, then I headed over to C&C’s place to help load the wagon onto the flatbed trailer.

Now, I’m off to make the coleslaw that I’m bringing for the Sunday night potluck, coleslaw tasting best after it’s had a few days to marinate. I make the oil and vinegar kind, not with mayo! The preshredded cabbage was on sale, so I decided to go with that. It’ll therefore be a quick salad to put together.

My plans for tomorrow are to start working on getting the truck ready for camping in. It’s really filthy right now, so I want to clean it up well and also wash and put up the curtains. I also need to get my tent open and aired out and pack my clothes.

I haven’t had much luck finding long-sleeved tee-shirts at the thrift stores, so I used an Amazon gift certificate to order four that offer UV protection, a feature that will be appreciated since we’re going into true prairie next week with no tree cover at all.

I need to sort out my jeans and decide which ones I’ll use for riding and I’m bringing my cowboy boots and my new outback-style leather hat. This last item was more than a splurge, but I’ve been wearing it when working in the yard and going for walks when it rains, so it’s become more than just a silly purchase for the wagon train and a new part of my wardrobe.

L only has a tiny fridge, so I’m still going to bring a cooler with me, if only for my lunch things, so I need to drop off some bottles of water into one of C&C’s freezers. Like last year, they should keep my cooler contents cool while providing me with cold water all week as the contents melt.

I’m really looking forward to the wagon train as I will get to ride a lot more this year, although the horse I’ll be riding can only be taken on the trail. So I won’t be able to go off and explore the hills on my own the way I did my first morning on last year’s wagon train. It’s still better than not getting on a horse!

So that’s the scoop from around here. Unbelievably, when I get back from the wagon train, it will be time to start making concrete plans for my October departure to Mexico. It’s going to be a short summer!

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Summer Supply Run

I have been long overdue for a supply run because I am finding it increasingly difficult to stock my pantry in Assiniboia. Moreover, I found something on Kijiji that I really wanted, so a trip to Regina ASAP was in order to pick it up. Therefore, I burned the midnight oil all week to get today off.

Lately, I’ve been getting to sleep around midnight and getting up at six. So you can imagine my shock this morning when I woke up and the clock said it was 9:30!!! I was expected in Regina between one and two and wanted to have lunch in Moose Jaw, so I was out of bed as though someone had lit firecrackers under the sheets!

To my dismay, it was pouring rain out and I had stuff to unload from the back of my truck, a chore I had put off all week since I was so busy typing and I’d have the whole of this morning off…

I still managed to get to Assiniboia by 10:15ish and stopped at the bakery for the first time to try their coffee. It turned out to be very expensive dishwater, so I’ll stick to the gas station for coffee emergencies from now on as theirs is tasty.

The drive to Moose Jaw was uneventful until a few klicks from the city where there was construction and we had to detour. This brought me to the wrong end of town to have sushi, but the right end to push on to Regina. I knew that I wasn’t going anywhere near the Regina sushi restaurant, that it’s very expensive, and that there’s no parking, so I decided to stick to my plan and have my sushi lunch in Moose Jaw even if it meant a couple extra crossings of town.

On the way to the restaurant, I stopped in at the Town & Country Mall, where I had my nose pierced in April. I had been told to come back around this date to have the piercing tightened, so I thought I could make an appointment for after lunch or even after Regina. But my piercer was free, so she took me right away. Was I glad to get that done! My nose healed super fast and the loose piercing has been driving me batty!

Lunch at DK Sushi was yummy, as always. The all you can eat is still good value for me, but just barely, as I get less and less each time I go. I added up what I got today and came in at about $20 if I bought à la carte, versus $17 with the all you can eat, plus you get really good chocolate ice cream with that option. 🙂 I asked for a half portion since I wasn’t able to finish a whole one last time (too rich and sweet for my new taste buds).

From lunch, I immediately headed out to Regina since my ETA was now about 1:45. Thankfully, the seller was very conveniently located near the highway and just a few blocks from Cabela’s, which was having a sale I didn’t want to miss.

The items I was picking up were a Japanese-style washer/spin dryer combo and a compact 120V dryer. I’ll do posts about those once I get them out of my truck. I couldn’t talk the seller down from $300 for the set, but I knew that was a crazy good deal, so I paid up. They are the perfect compromise between my current laundry setup (Wonder Wash and a spin dryer that really needs to be returned to its rightful owner) and full size units that would need water hookups and a 220V outlet.

These my appliances (seller photos):

Next stop was Walmart, which was conveniently located next to both a Bulk Barn and Cabela’s. I stocked up on dry goods and then went to the Bulk Barn stock up on nuts. I’m afraid to admit how much I spent on nuts because I went a little well, nuts. 😀

Cabela’s was having a sale on Keen footwear, so I picked up a good pair of sandals with covered toes for the summer (if we ever get one…). I bought a model that is good for light hiking as well as wet activities. It’s been a very, very long time since I shelled out the bucks for high quality sandals and I hope these last me! I also picked up an outback-style hat for the wagon train because I was told that I can’t show up this year without a proper horse wrangler hat and cowboy boots. I’m all set! 🙂 It was raining again by the time I got out of the store, so I wore my new hat, which offered good protection against the rain.

Next on my list was Canadian Tire or Home Depot. Neither was convenient in Regina, so I headed back to Moose Jaw to its Canadian Tire. There, I got a really good deal on an electric lawn mower.

I was going to buy a reel (manual) mower, but this electric mower was much cheaper. I didn’t want a gas mower because I didn’t want to have to deal with maintaining another engine.

To my surprise, a very nice stock clerk took the mower to the till for me, waited for me to pay, pushed it to my truck, and helped me figure out how to load it in when the appliances weren’t leaving much room. I was impressed since it’s normally impossible to get service at Canadian Tire!

I also picked up weed whacker, but failed at getting a ladder and tree limb lopper, so I’ll get those in Assiniboia next week.

My following stop was M&M Meatshop to stock up on chicken breasts. I wish I had had room in the truck to pick up a small deep freeze since the chicken breasts were on sale. I took a chance on four packages fitting in the freezer, what with everything else I had in there already. Spoiler: I ran out of room and decided to pull out the ground chicken to make chicken burgers tomorrow. 🙂

Then, it was time to get groceries. I was pretty beat when I got to the checkout, but I had bought enough to get 10 cents off a litre, so I decided to get fuel before heading home. To my delight, there’s a ‘we serve’ pump at the Safeway gas bar, so I didn’t have to do it myself and my fuel was ‘just’ $1.19.

BTW, fuel was $1.39 in Regina and $1.29 in Moose Jaw and Assiniboia/Willow Bunch today. I’m always surprised that I’m not paying a ‘rural location surcharge’ for my gas out here!

It was close to seven by the time I headed home and I was getting the hunger shakes, so I decided to stop for a meal instead of just snacking on the way home. There was a Boston Pizza right at my last turn before leaving the city and I love their pulled pork sandwich, so it was an easy decision. I had it with a salad rather than fries and I only ate half the bun, so the meal felt quite reasonable and didn’t put me to sleep on the drive home!

It was still raining when I came in, so I just unloaded the food. I now need to get to bed because I have a big typing weekend ahead of me. I wasn’t supposed to have much work so I could clean the yard, but it’s going to rain both days so I might as well type.