Worked Like a Dog

It snowed over night out at Nordegg on Saturday March 19th.  When I got up on Sunday morning there was about half an inch of fresh snow on the ground.  First day of Spring I believe... go figure...!  It was dead calm, but overcast and dull.  I decided it wasn't a good day for photography, so I went to work instead.

It was not very cold, so I didn't even have to light a fire in either cottage.  I put down some more subfloor in the east bedroom.  Just a four foot section against the north wall so that the register can be cut in.  I changed over an electrical box to a deeper one, to allow me to properly hook up that new receptacle in the small loft.  By late morning the sun came out and it warmed up nicely.  Rather than try to do any photography at this point, I just decided to keep working.

I cut an opening through the siding for an intake vent.  This will supply fresh air to the woodstove.  I realized that I need to look after getting eavestroughs put on the cottage as I got a shower from the melting snow as I worked on the vent.  Since it was warm, and I had a caulking gun out, I sealed up the penetrations from the ground cable conduit and the electrical supply.  It was too cold to seal these previously when I cut them in before.  I am just about the world's worst caulking applicator.  I always make a mess of it, and get as much on myself as I do where it belongs.  Today was no exception.  With the intake cut in I decided to finish it and ran the insulated duct over to the woodstove.  I had previously put an elbow down through the floor when I installed the stone and mortar beneath the stove.

After that I put up some more panelling on the ceiling of the west bedroom.  It takes a nine foot length of material to do the ceiling, and I don't want any joints up there.  I had a few boards set aside for this purpose and installed them.  This took me past the smoke detector so I installed that too.  Soon I will have to bring out more aspen panelling and trim and get back to work applying the lacquer finish.  It will be much easier now that it is so much warmer. 

When I was out last time I temporarily installed the yard light, with the electrical box just mounted on the surface of the siding.  It was time to do this properly so I put up the ladder and cut the box into the siding and re-mounted the light.  I will have to wander over after dark and make sure that the motion sensor is working correctly.  With that done I unpacked the shower that I brought out and carried all the parts over from the back of my truck, and stored them in the new cottage.  By this point I was running out of gas...  

I put out the last of my oats for the deer.  With the bears soon coming out of hibernation I will no longer keep feeding the deer.  With spring upon us they will have no problem fending for themselves.  In fact by late afternoon, almost all of the fresh snow had already melted.  

For some reason I felt the need to torture my body just a little more, so I went for a walk around the subdivision.  By the time I returned to the cottage I was done for the day...  I went inside and had a couple of beers.   Then I got some enchiladas going for supper, and started a fire to take the chill out of the cottage.