Happy Birthday Norma!

Norma's Birthday Today!

75 today she swims and works in the garden. Goodness knows how good a shape she would be in if she had have actually taken care of herself! :Happy Birthday Norma! Photo later. 

Skirting The Porch

I raided Brooks' burn pile when we were down there and scored about a hundred short (2 - 3 foot) ends of nice 1X4 fir. They weighted down the trunk a bit but I got them home and today I skirted the new porch with them. Hmm.. 20 feet times three per foot = 60 two foot pieces or 120 feet = 12 ten foot boards. Wow! Saved me a few dollars! Thanks Brooks, you are still my favorite son! Love that burn pile!

Not So Friendly Skies

When our friends Roly and Cristy flew from their home in Cuba to Victoria, BC they were anxious to try "First World" cuisine as soon as possible. To this end, they boarded their Air Canada flight on empty stomachs, knowing they could buy food on board. Well, they perused the menu, made their selections and ordered only to discover they could not be served!

Why? Because Air Canada accepts only credit cards for payment of food and drink, not lowly cash! And like most or all good Cubans, our friends do not have a credit card. Cuba being a "cash society" and all.

So here they were starving on a plane not scheduled to land for another nine hours! What to do? Well, they found a seatmate willing to pay for their food with his capitalist inspired credit card and they would reimburse him with their nice fresh Canadian cash! Problem solved and they had met the first helpful Canadian of their trip!

Roly and Cristy!

It was a short but quality visit but we did get to see our Cuban friends for a few hours! They have been on the Island for three weeks and have a couple more days in Victoria before catching the plane from Victoria to Calgary, to Toronto and then finally, Havana.

They are shell shocked by their first visit to a decadent first world country. Roly has been to Equator and Cristy, when she worked in the Cuban government went on a diplomatic visit to several Socialist / Communist European countries but this was their first time in the "West".

They had just spent a few days in Port Alberni and those people dropped them off here at about noon. Norma and Brooks prepared a series of snacks featuring our local shrimp and smoked Sockeye salmon which was well received!

We had to get them to the Brentwood Bay Ferry by 5:30 and LindaLee was working in the local pub so Brooks and I took them there to say goodbye. Roly and Cristy loved the friendly atmosphere and confessed it was their first visit to a Canadian pub! Their other friends did not take them to one.

Cristy was sporting a broken arm, the result of a fall at the beginning of their visit! A souvenir from Canada!

We dropped them off at the ferry, said our goodbye's and promised to see each other again. Here are some photos.

Important Discussions:

Cristy and Norma:

Cristy and Croft:

"We love this bar!"

Two Amigos:

Two Amigas:

Off To Meet Our Cuban Friends

We are off to Brooks and LindaLee's in Shawnigan Lake today to meet our Cuban friends Roly and Cristy who are visiting Vancouver Island. They have a full itinerary and will only be there for the one day (Sunday) but we are really happy to get the chance to  see them. I will have photos soon.

Here are Roly and Cristy in their home in Santa Marta, Cuba:



Brooks' Birthday Party at Roly and Cristy's house:

Rain!

We are finally getting a little rain up here! Not much but hopefully enough to make the forests a little safer and remove the campfire and burning ban.

But the part that I like best is a chance to test the new roof, gutters, skylights and rain chain! After an hour or so I am ready to declare everything working as expected!

EDIT: A leak has appeared behind one spot on the gutter where it makes a 90 degree turn. The problem may be in the roofing or in the gutter. I called the gutter guy and he will drop around later today to have a look.

EDIT 2: Well, the gutter guy came and found the problem. It is a shingle problem that he fixed by shoving a piece of flashing up under the shingle. It should hold it until we get the rest of the roof done.

The Leak:

Trimming

The woman we hired to haul away the construction refuse is actually a professional gardener. Norma showed her around and arranged for her to come back today to do some trimming. I like her! She is not afraid to cut deep and she knows what she is doing. One particularly thorny tree that was taking over one of the patios is now almost completely gone and we got our patio back. Some other large bushes are no longer hanging over into the condo's yard next door and she has at least one truckload of trimmings ready to go and is nowhere near done yet! Lets see what she does with the roses that are growing up onto the roof!

Rain Chain Drain

We drilled about a hundred holes in two large planter buckets, sank them into the lawn and filled them with rocks from the beach. Hopefully they will drain into the sandy soil around them and handle all but the heaviest rainfalls. I anchored the rain chains to the bottom of the buckets so they will not blow around in the wind. Further modification "might" be required.

Nothing to Do

Tinkering away. I used up some scraps of decking to replace the grungy old top of our old DIY cafe table in the garden. Then I went down and bought some more cedar boards and built a seating bench for the deck. It now has just about enough furniture.

Rain Chain Test!

Rain Chain! No, it's not raining, I'm cheating.

Gutters and Rain Chain!

At about ten this morning the gutter truck pulled up the driveway. They installed the new facia board, modified and replaced the existing gutter that Brooks Randle and C.J. Howie took down to build the porch. They then manufactured the new gutters for the porch, tied everything together and added the rain chain brackets.

Norma and I drove downtown and bought four four and a half foot sections of rain chain for the 8 - 9 foot height of the gutters, came home and attached them. We made up for the lack of rain with the garden hose and tested them. They work exactly as we hoped!

The gutter work and brackets cost $505 and the Rain Chain, $245 for $750 total.

Night Shots

Beautiful!

A Day of Rest?

A day of rest! I returned $250 worth of unused hardware and stuff to Home Depot and then I tried out my $29 Harbor Freight belt sander on the deck rails and got my money's worth out of it right there!

The gutter guy came, took some measurements and will order the rain chain brackets for the gutter. He will do the job in two weeks.

Norma called a woman who does dump runs so she is busy loading up the pile of old shingles and construction leftovers that I can't burn.

Now, what was I doing? Oh yes, resting! 

The Reveal!

Two full ten hour days for Brooks and CJ and we are almost done, We are short two posts and the facia boards. Unfortunately all building supply stores except Home Depot were closed for the Canada Day weekend and they did not have a few things.

CJ connects the lighting. Norma and Brooks' very late night Internet purchase a couple of weeks ago. The Budget Director had no say in that one. 

Two posts and facia missing. The stairs will eventually be covered with cedar as well.

Juneau the Husky likes it! A great place to eat dinner!

Busy Day!

Today Brooks and his roofer friend C.J. got the roof framed and boarded. C.J. stayed up there until after seven nailing down roofing paper as there is a 20% chance of rain tonight and we don't want a 3 AM wake up call with rain coming through the roof! Tomorrow will be another busy day.