On Thursday November 25th I headed back out to the cottage. I got a bit of a late start as there were a bunch of things to look after in the morning. I picked up a load of 75 boards of the aspen paneling that I had previously purchased and stored. I wrapped these in a tarp for the trip out to the cottage. I also had to drive Margarit to pick up her vehicle, which was in for service. It was about 1:00 in the afternoon before I finally hit the road.
The late start was probably a good thing as we had freezing rain over night. Everything was coated with a layer of about an eighth of an inch of ice. It would have been easier to get around on skates, than shoes. I understand that there were nearly 60 collisions in the city that morning. I saw four of them just in our part of the city, as I ran my errands. I had my truck in four wheel drive, with the engine brake turned on, and was just carefully driving. I had no issues. I understand that there were nearly 30 calls for ambulance services by pedestrians that fell on the ice and got hurt.
By the time I left the city the temperature had got up to about +3 and the roads were just wet and sloppy and no longer icy. I saw lots of cars and trucks in the ditch as I headed out of the city. There was a big accident on Highway 2 north of Ponoka. The RCMP had the northbound lanes of the Highway closed and were detouring traffic on Highway 2A. One big semi-truck jack-knifed on the ice and two other big trucks piled into it. One of the drivers was killed. I drove by the scene on my way out to the cottage and one of the 50 trailers was spilt right in half with its cargo strewn all over the highway. By this time the southbound lanes of the highway were clear and dry and I had no issues getting out to the cottage.
I arrived just as the sun was dropping towards the western horizon. The days are very short at this time of year and the sun sets at around 4:45PM. But it was very warm, and the temperature peaked at about +10C. I managed to get all 75 pieces of paneling off loaded from my truck and stacked up in the guest cottage, finishing just after dark.
Friday wasn't quite as nice a day, and was mostly overcast. It still got up to about +8C, and the wind was not as strong. I got a fire going in the guest cottage to take the chill out, and set to work about 10:30AM once it had warmed up. The sun doesn't even break over Eagle Peak in the east until nearly 9:30AM, so it takes a while for things to warm up.
I brought along one of the five gallon pails of water based lacquer that I bought, and set to work finishing the paneling. I gave one coat to the back side to seal the wood, and three coats to the exposed surface. This stuff takes a long time to dry... a lot longer than the solvent based lacquer that I previously used. That stuff would dry in minutes. But its far to volatile and flammable to use at this time of year, with a fire going for heat. I only have room to lay out eight boards at a time. But I managed to get two sets of eight fully finished, before the day was done.
There is no entrance step into the cottage yet as the backfilling is not complete. I have been using a step ladder to get in and out of the building. At one point I slipped as I was stepping from the ladder into the door. My shin came down hard on the edge of the aluminum threshold, and my knee, elbows and hands crashed to the floor inside. As I lay there in pain I thought to myself... I'm out here alone, and if I've broken a leg or something, I'm really screwed. But nothing was broken. Just a bunch of bruises and a big cut on my shin. I walked it off and carried on.
I stoked up the wood stove when I left for the evening and let it burn itself out overnight. The next morning at 9:00 when I went over to start the fire and check on things, it had only dropped down to zero in the cottage, despite being -8C outside. Once the place warms up, I'll get back over there again and get back to work.
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