Nordegg Weekend

Another weekend spent out at Nordegg...  This time around I headed out to Nordegg on Saturday morning with all of my girls.  We arrived before lunch and spent the day working in the cottage.  I quickly came to realize two things....

One... the vapor barrier installation was going to take longer than I expected.  And, Two... the girls were useless and actually made it take longer.  Mostly they just stood around and complained about how long it was taking and were of no help whatsoever.

It was breezy, but a nice day, with the temperature peaking at almost +10C.  But by the end of the day I realized that I needed to return to continue with the work.

We stopped in Rocky Mountain House for dinner at the end of the day.  We took the girls to our new favorite restaurant... Cucina... and got back to the city by about 11:00PM.

The next morning I got up at my usual time, and made preparations to hit the road for Nordegg.  Margarit insisted on coming along, so the two of us headed out.  Our three girls slept in, and would spend the day together back home, without us.

When we turned west from Rocky Mountain House onto Highway 11, the weather also took a turn.  The closer we got to Nordegg, the worse it became.  I had snowed overnight... a couple of inches... and continued to snow upon our arrival.  We got to the cottage at about lunch time and made the best of it.  There were a few white tailed deer wandering around the property when we arrived, and they continued to hang around as we got started inside the cottage.  At one point we were watching the deer through the window when a red fox wandered by not 20 feet from the window.  The deer watched it along with us, and it slowly wandered off into the woods behind the buildings.  Sure hope this guy becomes a regular visitor.  Needless to say the photographer did not have his camera nearby as this guy made his appearance.

It seems as though spring is struggling to arrive.  Many of the animals and birds have begun their spring routines, despite the poor weather.  We saw Canada geese, crows, starlings, Red Tailed Hawks, a Swaisons Hawk, a couple of bald eagles and a Great Grey Owl.  Lots of deer, a coyote, and the wild horses had a young foal with them today.  On Saturday when I drove out with the girls I caught a glimpse of what I think was a woodchuck.  The forecast is calling for yet more snow, both in Nordegg and the city, over the next few days.  Maybe things will FINALLY smarten up after that.

A dubious weather record was set in Edmonton this past week.  I think it was on Thursday, when Edmonton hit 167 days in a row with the temperature being below freezing for at least a part of every day.  This breaks a record going back at least 40 years to the mid 1970's.  Not sure what the record continued on to.  I think we hit a temperature below freezing on Friday to make it 168.  On Saturday it may have stayed above freezing.  There were actually moths in the headlights of the truck as we drove home from Nordegg on Saturday night.  That was certainly short lived as less than 12 hours later it was well below freezing and snowing... !!!  Those global warming theorists have it all wrong and can kiss my butt !!!

Over the two days we managed to get a good start on the installation of vapor barrier.  In the two storey part of the cottage, which makes up a little over half the structure, we got all the walls done, the spaces between the joist ends, and the horizontal ceiling.  We also got a small amount of wall done in the open two story part of the building.  All of the windows, with the exception of the two on the north upper wall, have been sealed with spray foam insulation.  Rigid foam insulation has been installed to all of the headers, and just needs to be nailed and caulked in to a couple.  The end is in sight, but it is going to take at least a couple more days to be ready for drywall.

Between my day job and work at Nordegg I have worked for 14 days straight now, with a five day work week starting tomorrow.  I will need to work at least one day and perhaps both next weekend to stay on schedule.  Sure will be nice to get this part of the project done so that I can keep things on schedule... and take a break... !!