More work at Nordegg

I headed back out to Nordegg on the weekend of June 8 and 9.  Once again this was a solo trip.  I wasn't able to get away until Saturday morning.  The day had a great start as I spilled a hot cup of black coffee all over myself when I stopped at the drive through on my way out of the city.  

It was rather cool and rainy on the Saturday afternoon after I arrived at the cottage.  It had rained a bit in the days before I went out, and with cold temperatures at night, it turned to snow at higher elevations.  Tne nearby peaks were all dusted with fresh snow when I arrived on Saturday morning.

I unpacked some materials that I had brought along and set about to working on a few things.  Mostly this was the installation of some stone veneer panels on my foundation, and the construction of a landing at the entrance.  By late afternoon some showers rolled in and as the temperature dropped this turned to snow pellets and slush.  I was forced to abandon my outside work and did some stuff inside for the rest of the day.  It did let up enough for my to grill a couple of burgers for supper that evening.  I spent some time inside practicing guitar and puttering on a few chores.  Weather conditions were nicer on Sunday and I was able to continue working outside.  I completed the installation of the stone veneer to the east side of the cottage, and got the main structure and footings of the entrance landing completed.  I visited for a while with my neighbor Jess, who is building a rather unique cottage down the drive, next door to our friends Shelly and Eric.  By early evening I had to hit the road for home.  It is somewhat depressing that my life is scheduled based on fitting all of the things that I want to do, around the schedule of my job that I have to do.  Really looking forward to the day that I can retire.

On Saturday afternoon while I was working I noticed a rather large rodent hanging around one of my woodpiles.  It was a chocolate brown color and initially I wasn't sure if it was the pine marten, or a woodchuck.  I got some photographs of it and took a closer look later.  I'm virtually certain it was a woodchuck as it is too stocky and thick, and not slender enough to be a pine marten.  

I also changed over the memory card in my game camera.  When I got home to the city I checked all the images that had been recorded over the past several weeks.  It seems the deer come around on almost a daily basis.  There is a group of females, plus a separate group of bucks that are now sporting little velvet covered nubs of new antlers.  And the elk, even though I never see them, do wander by from time to time and get captured by the camera.  I even got a shot of the woodchuck on one of the frames.