Tuesday, October 30th/2007

-Annie and I sawed up the pile of birch, etc.
-Stanley and I took measurements for replacing the water pipe system in the basement.

Monday, October 29th/2007

-The beef calves left today. It's always a sad time. Last night I gave them an extra bucket of apples and watched them butting heads and playing for the last time; I'm happy they're oblivious. I watched them from the back of the farm and thought about the first day they came: they'd never been outside before and they went wild in the pasture. Now it was their last night. I like to think that Annie and I gave them a pretty good life outside in the sun with a warm place to sleep. We always brought them wild apples and they had second cut hay along with their corn and feed. They were better off than in a barn or feed lot anyway. Whenever it is time to do the cows or chickens it always makes me think of the impact I have on other living things. Let's say I live to 80 years old. I eat one cow every four years, that's 20 cows that have to die for me. The calves leaving is always a catalyst that causes me to think that at one point I'll have my last night on the farm too.

Friday, October 26th-Sunday, October 28th/2007

-While I was in plumbing mode I installed shut off valves on the kitchen sink and put a new Moen tap since the old one was leaky and old.
-More final finishing touches on the bathroom cabinets such as trim and handles.
-Cleaned up the flotsam and jetsam in the basement that was leftover from the bathroom project.
-Vacuumed out all the ductwork in the house and changed the filters on the furnace.
-Cut some firewood with the table-saw.
-Peeled the remainder of the cedar pickets and stacked them. Then cleaned off the hay wagon on which they'd been stored.
-Repaired cable and spring on garage door in barn.
-Installed new reel for compressor in garage.

Weather
-It rained all day on Saturday, the pond is 1/4 full and the river is high. There was a big windstorm on Saturday night.
-On Sunday it was really cool. It actually snowed for a few minutes in the afternoon. The day was a weird kind of grey day with a foreboding sky. The evening was especially eerie as the sunset was visible below the low cloud cover.

Thursday, October 25th/2007

- Plumbed the sink and fired it up. Emma was the first one to turn on the taps.

Wednesday, October 23/2007

-Cut and installed trim around counter. Screwed down counter-top and siliconed the sink in place. Annie put clear silicone in between the boards on the bathroom ceiling. Tried to change the motor on the table saw, but ran into technical difficulties.

Tuesday, October 23rd/2007

-Finally got all the cabinetry finished. Worked on the trim. The bathroom reconfiguration really makes a good use of the small space.

Weather
Rain. 4 degrees Celsius.

Monday, October 22/2007

-Installed cupboard doors and drawers on bathroom cabinets with Annie. Took measurements for final plumbing under sink.

Friday, October 19th-Sunday, October 21st/2007

- Delivered tin on Friday night.
- Delivered metal on Saturday morning. Processed scrap the rest of day.
- Dug the taters on Sunday. Took down the fence and cleaned up garden.
- Work continues on bathroom, installing the counter-top and sink.
- Went to Annie's parent's cabane to eat supper. It was beautiful in the bush with the leaves and the nice weather. We brought a new cookstove to replace the old one. This one is bigger and of course was a gift from the scrap.

Weather
-There was a big downpour on Friday night. Our pond filled up, the low spots of the pasture flooded and the river was very high.
-On Sunday it was 23 degrees Celsius, very sunny and summer-like.

Thursday, October 18th/2007

-More renovation in the bathroom, putting in the counter-top.
-Loaded more scrap.
-Did the chores and sat on the swing with Emma as it was unseasonably warm.

Weather
17 degrees Celsius.

Wednesday, October 17th/2007

-Processed and prepared scrap for weekend delivery.
-Installed/leveled bathroom cabinets to receive sink.

Tuesday, October 15th/2007

-More plumbing for the bathroom with Stanley.
-Went to Ian Reese's for a good load of scrap. It was easy on as it was all on palettes and he has a forklift.
-It was a long day.

Weather
It went below zero for the first time this fall: -1. Heavy frost.

Monday, October 15th/2007

- Cut slab for the week.

Saturday & Sunday, October 14th/2007

-Allison Walker invited me to her highschool grad at Billings. She was in the first class that I'd taught at Harmony in 1998. I was at Harmony the year before, but I was doing resource and did not have a class. It was neat to see a lot of the kids I'd taught now that they were all grown up.
-Stanley and I worked on the bathroom. Plumbed the drain for the sink and cut all necessary holes in new cabinets. Annie has put all the cabinets together and got them ready.
-Brought in wood.
-Took my 4 wheeler to Lorne to get a new starting jet.
-General clean up of building materials and junk.
-Annie put our dried onions away.

Wildlife
Four wild turkeys in the field across the river. They ran into the bush. When we went down to take a closer look a flock of over 200 Canadian Geese wheeled over us.

Weather
More October-like. There was frost on the car windows on Saturday morning.

Saturday, October 6th-Monday, October 8th/2007

- Went to Montebello on Saturday to take a walk around Annie's mother's family farm before it sells to Parc Omega. It is beautiful country-a nice balance between mountains and farm land.
- Finished the ditch. Dump trailer fell apart. Leveled the piles of dirt.
- Placed boulders to serve as a retaining wall along the road that I'm making at the north-west corner.
- Scraping at Tooles, Jackson Road, and Naults. Got a cookstove that Annie's father wants to use in the Cabane.
- Put saw on tractor and started to cut wood.
- First fire on Monday night.

Wildlife
- Lots of geese.

Friday, October 5th/2007

- Ped day-took it off. Did my snow-tires for my car and sent it for alignment. Also did a bunch of other tires for ATV wood trailer and my truck while I was at the machine.

Thursday, October 4th/2007

- Went to St. Jean to renew my class 1 learners permit.
- Stayed with Emma while Annie worked.

Wednesday, October 4th/2007

- Ditching. Leveling.

Monday, October 1st-Tuesday, October 2nd/2007

-Continuing on the ditching project. The end is in site.

Friday, September 28th-30th/2007

- Got a load ready and delivered it on Saturday morning. A very nice paycheck.
- Re-attached the power line from barn to barn so that the back-hoe boom can pass safely underneath it.
- Continued work on the ditching. It's taking longer than I expected because of equipment problems and I'm also having to put the project on hold often due to scraping duties.
- Daryl Ness and Kim Tannahill's wedding in Elgin; a very nice day. Annie and I like Elgin, if we ever move it would be there.
- Cleaned out the wood storage area in the house.
- Went and picked up scrap from Line on the 209.
- Caught that motherfucking German Shepherd from Duncan road, took it home and informed the owner that it will not come home if I ever see it again.
- Our neighbours on Cowan that are three houses down on the south side told me that they'd seen a moose and bear cubs in their bush on the weekend.