Home on the Hill

There is an old house at the bottom of the property tucked away on a bench just off of Savory Road. It is a nice piece of property, the buildings are useless, not even much for salvage, but wonder of wonders we found some great small size gravel suitable for top dressing the road. I was examining an old outhouse weirdly built within twenty feet of the well. So I got to thinking some deep thoughts: Is it worth rebuilding this old wagon as a log hauler? All photos are from my Photographer friend Mike Rockey. He and wife Barb are visiting with us and were having a great time. We took a break from some projects and hiked up to a ridge just East of us that has a great view of the valley. For reasons that don't need a lot of explaining, it is now known as "Bear Crap Ridge"..or something similar: The underbrush is starting to turn colour. Autumn is upon us. This is the trip down across one of the Saskatoon berry fields. Remember the aforementioned ridge? This is one of th...

Butt, I've found a cure: You gotta love this product. Actually it's just Zinc Oxide, which is a miracle cure for any kind of skin irritation. Here's another product that we like to keep around. It too, is great for chapped hands. We get it at the local feed store. Another amazing product with a name easily misconstrued. It has been hovering around freezing at night so I am covering some of the garden to keep a little heat happening. I may have to install some heating in some of them. We're now getting the winter wood in and generally getting the joint ready for winter. I.E. putting away anything that can get covered with snow. Making sure the snow dumps are clear. I just got back from a week at the coast. I am getting totally "Endakoized" i.e. Like a country bumkin when I go to the big city. I just don't like being surrounded by all the buzz. My daughter Sara, took me out and fitted me with some road running shoes and some trail runners. What a...

Making progress with the steps. Steps are like that! You start them and you never know where the heck your going to end up. In this case I ended up with a lot stronger foundation—and that can't be a bad thing. Here's a handy trick when painting doors, or any large panel. Insert a couple of screws in the centre of each end and place them on sawhorses so that I can spin it and paint both sides without waiting for one side to dry. Note the cans of paint anchoring the saw horses down. I used a rustoleum door paint and it worked really well. Flat and tough, and it dried in a few hours for a recoat. I also painted the sash with porch and floor enamel. It took so long to dry I had to put the heat on in the shop! It is getting down to near freezing at night. Here's the finished product. I am looking for a matching fixture but will probably have to order one online. With the help of a friend I sanded down the rear bumper on the truck, chiseled off the old rusted gas can ho...

In the state of Xanadu. I finished painting and installing the ceiling panels. Installed a new porch light ( waiting for another one to arrive) Even hung the horse shoe, after painting it gold. Sharpens up the old Front porch: Ah, lovely. Some porch and floor enamal and then paint the grate at the top of the stairs. Oh Well the best laid plans.. of course when I removed the grate I found that there was dry rot on the landing, the part that holds the grate, and sometimes a couple of people laden with supplies: And where there is a little dry rot there is usually a lot. Here is what 20 penny nails look like when they have absorbed water for 20 years or more. And these nails were holding up the entire grate. The wood wasn't preserved in any way. The uprights had endgrain exposed to water. Where the two by material was joined to the side pieces a natural water trap formed. Bad design, faulty construction. Not good for wood. As Mike Holmes says: " I decided to take the wh...

We've been getting warnings of thunder showers and lightening but so far nothing. It has clouded over and yesterday we noticed a smoky haze covering the sky. It made for some spectacular sunsets. We can't seem to find any info on where the fire is burning but this morning the sky seems to have cleared up. On another note entirely, we needed some more storage space in the kitchen, so to tide us over until the cabinet maker gets his 'er wood together we resurected this piece which was languishing in the old blue shop: Naturally distressed. I just may Jazz it up a bit with some Milk Paint, but right now I am trying to get the outside projects going while outside is still viable. It's puffball season again. This one wasn't particularly big, and we picked it a little late so it was a bit spongy. I have been clearing some of the paths around the property here's the one that parallels our driveway: Of course after a walk it's mandatory to have a proper cool dow...