With the shop closed for Easter Monday, Margarit and I got up early and headed out to Nordegg for the day. The three little girls decided to stay home. We left the city at about 8:00AM and made the now routine three hour drive out to the cottage. It was a clear day, but fairly cold, particularly for this time of year. The thermometer in the truck indicated temperatures ranging from about -6C down to about -15C as we made the drive. When we arrived at the cottage shortly before lunch time there were six deer on our driveway. They slowly wandered off into the bush as we pulled up and opened the gate.
It was cold enough when we arrived that we fired up the construction heater belonging to Shunda Creek Contracting. We only had to run it for about half an hour to take the chill out of the building. Later in the afternoon the thermometer at the property indicated that the temperature managed to edge up to near the freezing point. Where the sun was directly shining, it actually was melting and dripping a little. There was quite a bit of snow, and a fresh layer of about an inch or so. Underneath that there was a crust of old ice from the previous melting of the accumulated snow. It was actually quite slick and treacherous in places. When we arrived I parked the truck on the sloped portion of the driveway in front of our garage. I left it in gear and put the park brake on. About 15 minutes after we arrived the truck suddenly started to slide down the slope. The wheels were not turning and it was just skidding on the ice like a giant curling stone. It came to a stop a shop distance away without incident but both Margarit and I were rather startled by this.
We spent five or six hours insulating the cottage and put up about 20 bundles of insulation. All of the upper floor walls and most of the upper floor flat ceiling are done. All of the lower floor walls in the bedrooms, the stairway, the bathroom and part of the kitchen are done. I would say that we got about 40% of the building insulated. But, all the more difficult areas remain to be done including the high walls in the kitchen and dinette/family room, as well as the high vaulted ceiling. These will be much slower to install as they involve a lot of up and down on ladders and scaffold. We also didn't get to the installation of any vapor barrier yet. But this keeps us on schedule as I am looking to have insulation and vapor barrier complete by the end of April so that our drywall crew can start in May.
By about 5:30 in the afternoon we wrapped things up for the day and headed home to our girls. As we were leaving the Nordegg area we saw a herd of about eight wild horses up near Harlech. Last winter I saw herds of wild horses almost every time I drove out. This winter they haven't been around as much. There have always been tracks and road apples in the ditches, but this is only the second time this season that I've actually seen the horses.
We were both rather uncomfortable and itchy from working with the fiberglass. There were fibers all over both of us and clinging to all of our clothes. Mostly we were covered up but you can't avoid the stuff getting on your hands and face, and down your sleeves, and around your neck. When we got home to the girls at around 8:30 we changed out of our dirty work clothes, tried not to scratch too much, and rinsed off in a cool shower. A hot shower is a big mistake after working with fiberglass as it opens your pores and all the glass fibers get in, becoming really irritated and itchy. We managed to avoid this for the most part, but the job is not done and we will have to continue soon.
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