Home on the Hill

It doesn't take long to heat the place up now. We have the downstairs RSF furnace and the new Osburn wood heater upstairs. The animals have a new favorite place to lounge about. And my daughter, Sara, when she visits. I still have a bit of work to do around the chimney. Installing a collar around the pass through chimney and putting some polish on the Osburn, and painting the OSB that I leveled the floor with. Oh and installing a metal railing around the kitchen side of the stove. A future project is putting down a barn wood floor. I have enough old fir in the buildings that wrap around the trees and a couple of spare planer blades. The wind was blowing hard from the East last night and I will have to unwrap the skidsteer and plow out the place. Then I plan on humping the deconstruction material over to the burn pile. A lot of the old pine wall covering will get turned into kindling. And then we'll try and stay awake until midnight to toast in the New Year.

I managed to fire up the skid steer yesterday. I hadn't had it running since we put the rad back in so it was with some trepidation that I turned the key. Up it fired and a little voice in my head ( who said voices in our heads were bad ) suggested making a pass to the highway so we could get out if we had to. Once down to Savory I noticed hydraulic fluid as I backed up. Lots of it - not a good sign. I managed to make it back up to the turn and that was it. Inspection revealed a hydraulic return hose that was spraying fluid from around a misplaced clamp. As I had a path to Savory we went into town but the Autosense store was closed for the holidays. On the way back home we stopped at Tom's and he just happened to have a couple of spare 20 liter pails. Always a great thing to have around. My Niece Cindy and her daughter, Jamie, and her boyfriend Brian had dropped by for a visit. Brian is a mechanic and was quickly pressed into service. Soon we had the beast up and run...

Lately going out to feed and water the chickens has turned out to be a bit of an adventure. I remember my dad telling me tales of Saskatchewan prairie life where ropes were strung between the house and the barn to prevent people inadvertently wandering off in a snow storm. Not so bad here - I have Xena who really seems to like the cold: Heres a pic of a few days ago when we managed to finally remove the living room fire place. My brother, Tiny, suggested using it as an outdoor fire place. I think we'll go with that idea somewhere out near the re-tired garden and the pond. Stay tuned 'till summer for the pond project. Today is going to be "plow a road to Savory day." A test of the refurbished skid steer. It's still snowing but I don't want the drifts to get much higher than four feet or I will have to use the Cat. But first a fortifying bowl of porridge.

One of our biggest assets collapsed over the night. I believe the fault, and I could easily slip into fault and blame right now, was probably gambling on the futures market . As in not piling our stack of winter wood, one of our biggest assets, with a view to future stability. Oh well, unlike the financial markets, this asset can still be liquidated, er- burned up. Actually a lot of it was wood that was left over from last year so burning it now is probably a great idea. One of those little voices in my head from last summer. " Say-- I should re-pile that two year old wood so we use it this year".. Amazing' what can happen when I don't take care of things when they ask to be taken care of. First things first. The Chimney was the big little voice I didn't take care of. But what the heck it did all work out in the end. It's -17C(1.4F) and according to the weather site, its light snow that's falling - not the force 9 Easterly white out gale that I see ...

We finally got the chimney installed - without climbing up on the roof. It was an inside job. We would have been finished the day before but I had underestimated by one the number of chimney sections. So a quick trip to Vanderhoof and yesterday we broke through( well actually, tin snipped through) at 9 in the morning. The chimney cap will have to wait until the snow gets off the roof. I went down to the basement to hook up the black pipe; the normal ( i.e. uninsulated) stove pipe that runs from the furnace a couple of feet to the chimney connections. Here's a hint: do that part before installing 500 lbs of chimney. So into Fraser lake to get a telescoping connection. They just sold the last one - so a trip to Burns lake 60 klicks to the West. Where fortunately they had one left. And some good advice about losing a damper that was in the old set up. Back home, fire up the air tight heater in the old shop ( Boose, the shop cat's, hide out ), some ineffectual work wit...

It's still in the -30's here. When we got up this morning in Fraser Lake it was -38 with a windchill warning of -57. So were not taking the fireplace out until we have a replacement back up. My brother Tiny came up and we got the skidsteer running. Which involved a new fan belt, new exhaust manifold bolts, a replacement circulating water heater and a re-cored radiator install. While it was only -20 when we were working on it, there was a slight wind and it was cold. I had an electric heater under the tarp that kept blowing hot air on us as we worked which helped a lot. The Skid steer is sitting under the tarp now with a space heater, battery charger and block heater on. I don't want to run it unless I have to. Weird things happen to metal parts when they get this cold. So that left us some time to get on with the chimney replacement project. We don't want to leave ourselves with out wood heat just in case we have a power outage. In any case it's needed ...

The chickens are laying frozen eggs. They huddle around the heat lamps to keep warm and the water has a warmer in it but the nests are about six feet from the lamps and it got cold enough to freeze the eggs. At least I hope that's what happened. Any way the addition of a 1500 watt heater took care of that problem. The girls are happy. The stove replacement project progresses. I brought the wood heater we are going to use down from Grandmas yesterday. It's heavier than it looks. Even with the firebricks removed. Here it is along side the existing fireplace it is going to replace. It will look pretty good with a new coat of stove polish. But I won't put that on until I have it in place. A burl is going to go where the steel jack posts are. Or a piece of poplar with the bark still on. Can't decide. Don't know how I am going to move the old fireplace with a fire still in it...

Sunrise at 8:00 am this morning. Job one this morning: fire up the fireplace. It looks like the whole of Western Canada is under an Arctic freeze. Hard to find anti-global warming advocates around here. Maybe that's why it's now been modified to Rapid Climate Change .. We went to Prince yesterday to pick up the Radiator. No luck - they were able to patch it together but would not give me a guarantee longer than walking out the door. The fan had been throwing stones at the core and it was badly pitted. It was just too far damaged. So they are going to replace the whole core. Not much point in getting it home and having it blow up again. It was a chilly trip to Prince. I guess a 100 kmh wind chill at -27 ( well lets see now that would be: well, -50c give or take) We went to Canada Tire and bought an electric butt warmer ( ahhh ) and a six foot piece of 2 inch foam. I cut the foam up to put along side of the door panels and under the seats. Much warmer trip back. And...

Went for a bit of a trundle into the East field to get some shots this morning. It was -27c when we got up. And to see if I need snow shoes to walk down the gas pipeline to put up some no trespassing signs. A couple of local snowmobiles have decided to use the front of our property as a speed way. Nothing I find more annoying than a screaming engine as it cuts twenty feet in front of the house at 60 miles and hour. Closing gates optional. Well I guess fair is fair, they open them - rightfully I guess it is only fair for me to close them. We had to fire up the old fireplace to take the chill off. So today is get firewood ready and get the stove down from Grandmas. And I have some butter tarts to bake.

And other parts too! When we got up this morning it was -20C( -4F) A lot colder with the windchill of 20 KPH (-30), Jo-Ann was wearing her blue mackinaw. In the house at the table! Better get that chimney in. But first things first, after a breakfast meeting in town I will drive Tom's skidsteer back and plow out the driveway which is drifting over pretty solid. I had some trouble getting up it last night in four low. But I didn't have to put the chains on. I managed to get to Prince and find a radiator shop that is repairing the rad from the skidsteer. Hopefully it will get delivered to Toms's on Monday. Maybe I can get our skidsteer operating by Tuesday. It's looking a little forlorn.. In the meantime I will concentrate on getting the old fireplace out, the floor repaired, the new stove in, and then the new chimney. I don't want to put the new stove in until I get the old one out just in case I have to replace it's chimney. I hope I don't have to do...

I was using the skid steer this morning to push a piece of the fireplace to the burn pile when the skidsteer stopped. So much coolant coming from the rad it flooded the distributor and alternator. So spent the rest of the day removing the radiator. Well two radiators - one for the hydraulic circuit, one for the engine coolant. Hopefully tomorrow I can find a place to rebuild it. It has a foot long crack along the top that joins to the core assembly. I guess the good news was that if I hadn't removed the rad I never would have noticed how badly gunked up the core was. Alligators.

Well moving anyway. My brother Tiny came up yesterday and helped me get the skidsteer running. Turned out to be dead simple. Pun intended. The main distributer lead from the coil had come off. With the new choke cable its starts like a kitten. We put the new chains on I had purchased in Prince the other day. That involved removing a couple of cross links as they were made from truck chains and were too long. Now they fit like a glove and won't be coming off until spring. About four months away. Then we installed the new snow plow. What a beauty. It does the driveway in two passes. It has double springs to hold it to the road and really does a great job. A certain sense of Ease and Comfort knowing we can have a nice plowed driveway an hour after the skid steer starts. I was missing one of the side plates for the skidsteer. I had made a fundamental mistake and left it flat on the ground and then it snowed. It was close to the old shop and when I drove the plowe buy it du...

One little old partition comes down and suddenly no room on the balcony. What's up with that. Oh well, after a cup of tea I am going to see if the "Betsy Ford" 4X4 will fire up and I can use it to shuttle the crap from the balcony and environs to the burn pile. Then I can see if I can get the old fireplace out to the balcony to that I can trade it with the one from Grandmas. Can't use the trailor because it's got a snow plow in it that is going back to the welders in Prince tomorrow. Spent about 3 hours yesterday night with Tom's skidsteer and snowplow clearing out the driveway to Savory road and up to Grandma's and around the chicken coop and feed shed and - well any place that had snow that shouldn't have. The roadway was so slick we ended up putting full chains on. All four tires. What a difference. His Cat skidsteer has a lot more power than mine but it doesn't do any good if the wheels don't have any traction. Hopefully I can come back...

Well whoever. The wall did have to come down. As you can see we managed to get rid of the last portion of the the living room/ kitchen wall/fireplace surround. Lessons learned: 1) There is never enough heavy duty garbage bags when you need them. 2) Milwaukee sawzall is a great boon to the home deconstructor 3) 240 acres and still not enough space to put construction crap Next steps, re wire, refloor, reconnect to new heater. Install new Selkirk Chimney.

Update on the kitchen/living room chimney deconstruct/install project. the short version: the Fireplace Follies. What fun we do have. This pic is looking at the kitchen from the living room. And the reverse from the kitchen to the living room. Lo and behold, two screw jacks. I know a guy ( Tiny ) who just happens to have a nice burl that would fit right between those two jacks. Hopefully I'll get a family discount. The double log beam above the jacks goes from one side of the house to the other. We went up to Grandmas yesterday before the snow storm to check out the replacement air tight wood stove, just making sure it wasn't a figment of my imagination. Here it is. Some stove polish and it will be a pretty warm addition, especially as the wall will be gone between the living room and kitchen. It had a couple of cracked fire bricks because the last guy who moved it didn't take them out before I strapped it to a furniture dolly and lugged it into Grandma's. O.K i...

As my mentor, Mike Holmes , often says when confronted with the aftermath of a shady contractor. I first cut a small entry hole in the kitchen/living room/fireplace wall. I was hoping that would be enough to be able to install the new Selkirk chimney. Alas, once that was open it became readily apparent that more deconstruction was going to be necessary. The through ceiling fittings were installed first and then the studding was installed over them with a bunch of drywall and loose aluminum panels - presumably to act as a fire break. So I couldn't get the old stuff out. The old chimney wasn't framed in either - it was basically just hanging off of some 1/2 " plywood. Aluminum panels which were stapled onto gypsum board had fallen off. Don't know how good aluminum sheeting is as a fire break anyway. The way it was studded inside there wasn't the required clearances to the chimney. Some restructuring required. So we decided to just get rid of the whole thing. ...

We went to Vanderhoof yesterday and managed to stuff all the chimney bits and bobs into the back of the Toyota and bring it home. Any more stuff and we would have had to use the roof racks. Today I will start the installation. Note the new shiny stainless steel length of chimney next to the old one with the creosote dripping down the side. Almost a shame to hide it in the wall. Like everything else that comes in the house it needs to be thoroughly inspected by the Cats... Yesterday our heavy duty mechanic dropped by and managed to get the Skidsteer back together. We got it running and it appears pretty sweet. No bucking like a mad cow infected bronco. The carb needs some work, but with any luck I will be able to get that taken care of in the warmth of the new shop. But that's another project. I need to get to town to buy a couple of dozen 3/8ths bolts to secure all the guards but that shouldn't take too long. The main problem right now is getting the correct hydraulic fit...

I better get on with the chimney replacement project or Santa might have a hard time getting down the chimney. The two chimneys are walled in between the kitchen and living room. I have been toying with the idea of removing the partition for a more open look. I would have to replace the fireplace insert and would have to see the main chimney going through the house. In the meantime I needed to get at the old chimney to replace it. No problem- I have power tools. As I pulled down the chimney pipes the picture didn't get any rosier. Here is the line up on the veranda out front. Don't think that black stuff oozing is supposed to be how they look. The white crap on the floor is where the baked insulation has leaked out. We'll bite the bullet next week and go to Vanderhoof to see if we can get all the parts we will need. In the meantime I am waiting for my heavy duty mechanic to show up so we can get the skidsteer running. I have a new snow blade for it. It should mak...

Every time I don't listen to that little, nagging, inner voice I come to regret it. Like checking out the chimneys during the summer when the roof is dry. Last week I wanted to fire up the main furnace but decided to inspect it and clean it if necessary. I removed the furnace end of the metal chimney and shone a light up the chimney to see whats what. Here's what I found: I'm not an expert but I don't think a steel chimney is supposed to bulge and have split seams and insulation cooking. So we have to replace it. 8 three foot lengths, athrough floor fitting, an attic insulation fitting. the best price we could find localy for Selkirk chimneys was $86 a 3' length. I hope the fireplace insert chimney is OK. But it's about the same age as the main chimney so who knows. I guess I'll find out when I cut a few holes in the walls. Needs or wants? Want a bandsaw - need a chimney. We'll start that project today. We are going to get at it through the...

It was time to drag the winter boots out. The ones to the left are a high tech version of the old rubber overshoe. This one goes up to the Knees so it has a built in gator. It is designed to go over a hiking boot but works well with shoes. If it gets really cold I can add a felt liner for sub zero comfort. The advantage to these for around town is I can wear my slippers inside and when I get to some ones house the outers come off easily and I can just wear my slippers inside the house. The everyday work boots are the ones we wear for doing yard chores or whenever we are going to be ( or could be) out in the weather for an extended period. If your moving at all these baby's will work to -40 or more. When it gets a little icy we will add strap on crampons for safety. Cold storage fridge update. We have all the controls now wired in and the ducts that take inside air and circulate it to the fridge if it falls below 0c (32F) and it's working great. Our skidsteer isn't up ...

We're in a full force blizzard today. I was going to go finish wiring up a friends place but don't even want to chance highway 16 in this stuff. So it's office work. I am rebuilding our main application and it is a total re write so a lot of work. Usually when I am in the office it's sunny and wonderful outside. Not so today. One of the things I really enjoy about our joint is the ability to have pets. They really brighten the place up - and they are darn good company. This is Boose, the outside cat getting some quality time in the morning. She helps with meditation. It's the purring. I think she likes my 'stash. Xena is demonstrating exemplary table manners. Note the plate carefully balanced on her front paws. We were out late last night for a round of night time blue ball. Her favorite sport. If I was only half the man my dog thinks I am.. Hope your having a great day.

Thank you.

Skid Stearless that is. My skidsteer is broken down and waiting for parts. Just a little nerve wracking as winter is approaching. Turns out one of parts was back ordered. The part was a pin in a gear assembly we're changing. It had to come from Paris, France. Well, la de da, won't I just ride a little higher knowing parts of my Case skid steer came from Paris. We are negotiating with a dealer in Prince for an eight foot snow plow. We are taking in the fork adapter so that they can retrofit it with a quick release plate that modern skidsteers use. I will probably also have to modify the hydraulic quick connects. A snow plow is about 10 times faster for clearing a road than just using a dirt bucket. I could get a snow bucket which is larger, but it still has the same weakness: You can only push the snow straight ahead - a snow plow lets the snow shed to the side. Haven't made a lot of progress on the shop. I put some blue tarps up to keep the snow out of the shop...

This picture shows the mountain across the valley from us. It's "the Mine", Endako Mines , to be exact and the fires are some slash piles that are being burnt. The clearing is to make way for an expansion of the tailing pile. It's petty huge, probably several kilometers long. Fortunately the way the mine is laid out it isn't visible from the valley on either side. The burning looks pretty spectacular at night. This time of year is the traditional time to burn all the slash piles -- the ground is wet and there is no danger of the fires getting out of control. It does make you wonder tho - all that wood fiber just being burnt to get rid of it. Just doesn't seem very appropriate given this energy conscious age we live in. I wonder if someone a few generations from now would react when we tell them: " wood - we had so much we burned anything that we couldn't make lumber out of"? We have the chickens all battened down for winter now. The ...

I haven't been keeping up with the blogging lately as I have been pretty busy around the joint doing the last minute things before the real snow comes. We've had a few warnings. Both of the main vehicles, the Toyota and AWD van now have new, studded winter tires complete with rims. After a quick trip to Prince George to the local Kenworth dealer I've ordered the parts to get the skidsteer back up and running. And humming and hawing about an eight foot plow that would fit the skidsteer. In between all this I have been working on a few other projects. My brother Tom came up a few days ago and we spent the whole day studding the shop/garage. Normally it wouldn't take so long but we had to notch just about every stud to fit a plate that was from the old pole barn construction. When we were done we had it done and even hung the side door. Today need to do some wiring so I can put a vapour barrier on the ceiling so I can put some OSB on the ceiling so I can put OSB on t...