Back in Shack

After quite a week of volleyball camp I am now attempting to adjust back to "normal" Shack life. Supper tonight was one of the first full family meals in awhile, and we ate it in our somewhat cramped kitchen because the atmosphere in there was nicer than the almost-equally-cramped dining room. Following the meal we began discussing how things are going to work after we have to tear off the porch that's full of a whole lot of our stuff. Essentially, things could get very very interesting, not only in relocating our extraneous items, but also in entering the house and such. So while there does not seem to be a whole lot to report right now (except for the fact that since we got a doorbell, every time it rings Raya says, "we have a doorbell?"), know that in the future things are definitely going to pick up.

By the way, I beat Dad at fussball again. He said I could report the score. Game: 10-7 Jonas. Wins so far: 10-3 Jonas.

We've Got Bats!

Shack life's been relatively slow these last few days. On Thursday morning I was put to work in the mud, lowering a huge mound of dirt in the back of our shed to make a nicer walking path. It wasn't very pleasant work, fortunately it only took me about an hour and a half.

Just before supper that evening, I was going to make some frozen vegetables when I realized that all we really had for frozen vegetables was about a third of a bag of green beans. To remedy this woeful situation, I got on my bike, rode to the local Safeway and came home with 3 kilograms of frozen vegetables (1 kg peas, 1 corn and 1 brussels sprouts). We had some deliciously microwaved peas with our supper.

Later that night, the family was sitting around in our TV-ish room, when suddenly my Mother thought she heard a noise coming from just outside the room (but outside of the house, not inside). Our conclusion was that there are probably bats inhabiting the bat house that is affixed to the Shack, which we've never done anything with, so I suppose bats have made use of it!

Friday and Saturday have been quiet days around the Shack. I haven't been lowering any more mounds lately. The Fussball scores will not be updated today, at Dad's request. I am going to be gone from tomorrow until Friday the 28th, so there will be no future updates until then.

I Now Have Something Against Valuable Bricks

Today took "doing Dad's dirty work for him because he's paying me" to a whole new level. I spent a chunk of the day shoveling dirt, excavating old bricks (which Dad of course insisted on saving because they're worth something), shoveling gravel onto dirt, and trying to get mud off my rubber boots. A neighbour who happened to see me dumping a load of bricks onto the pile of rocks in the front yard simply commented, "Prison work!". There was also off-and-on rain, so I wore raingear for a bit (see picture).

Besides work, Shack life these days seems to mostly revolve around intense matches of fussball between myself and Dad. Score so far (games won): Jonas-6 Dad-3. Today a two-game set was played after supper, each of us got one victory (though may it be pointed out that mine was by a larger margin). A couple friends have also dropped in these last couple days to marvel at our living conditions. Viva la Shack.

The Smoking Drill

I got back to shop-work for the first time in about twelve days today. Dad had me drilling holes in the studs for future electrical workings. Even with such a powerful drill, it was not easy. Especially when I had to do things like drill through three 2 x 4s in a very awkward position under a workbench. After I pulled the drill out of my holes, the end of the bit was often smoking. On one particularly difficult hole, the stud itself started smoking, and fortunately I got through in the nick of time, or the thing might've caught fire.

After a couple hours of that, Dad said we were going to go make a casket delivery, so we drove up to a funeral home on north Main street in the "Casketmobile". I decided not to go back to work upon our return home, since I am rather tired, hungry, and probably not to be trusted with a drill at the moment.

I am now contemplating trying to get the sawdust out of my hair, and realizing that I've been getting sawdust on the keyboard whilst typing this. Lovely.

Fussball in the Dank

With our guests departing, and Raya going away for another week of camp, you'd think life at the Shack would be dull and boring. Well, it almost was, until we decided to make good use of our fussball table.

Back story: quite awhile ago (while we were still living at our beloved non-Shack), Dad found an old fussball table with no legs sitting in someone's garbage when he and Raya were out for a walk at night. Being the person he is, he of course picked it up and carried it home. Only yesterday did we finally make it some legs, and it now resides in our basement, which we affectionately call "the Dank".

Now Dad and I both spend a lot more time in the Dank than we would probably like to, because we have a fussball table down there! In the interest of "friendly" competition I have created a tally of games won. So far I am ahead 3-2.

We put up a few posters in the room as well, and I have taken to transporting my guitar amp down there and plugging my mp3 player into it so we can have music as we play. It's quite fun.

Otherwise, Shack life continues on about as normally as possible. Incidentally, I believe this is my tenth blog post so far. Celebrations!

The Shack Is Just So Much More Bright and Cheery in the Rain.

Our brave guests from BC left just this morning, and it seems they may have left just in time. A dreary blanket of cloud has decided to cover Winnipeg, and send its droplets of rain down upon us. After a week of fairly good weather, this sudden change doesn't do much to buoy the spirits of a Shack-dweller. Fortunately the shop won't be getting interior wetness anymore, thanks to the awesome roof.

Otherwise we are still surviving. The visitors seem to have enjoyed themselves even in fairly cramped living conditions. My bedroom has been given back to me, which is nice, although I did not entirely mind sleeping in the room with the TV for a week (there was also the break when our cousins were here and we slept at a different residence.

Now it is back to "normal" Shack life for awhile. Raya is off to camp again this week, so the Shack will really feel empty with only 3 people living in it.

The Shack Heats Up

Allow me to first apologize for not posting for a few days-I have been staying with my cousins whilst other cousins were in town for a visit. Don't fret, they certainly did get to see the Shack, and even experience "the dank" (the basement). I just have not had time to update.

Hosting guests in the Shack has been a relatively smooth experience so far. The kitchen turns out to be the place to be for breakfast often, which is quite an affair...normally we end up with at least one person chilling on the floor.

The title of this entry is a reference to the fact that the weather has begun getting very warm for Winnipeg, and I am now certainly noticing a difference between our former house, which was very well insulated, and the Shack. Even just sitting at a desk I am rather warm, and the environment fairly stifling. It does not help that the computer is on the second floor.

That'll be all for now. Updates should hopefully be more frequent in the next couple days, especially if something very exciting happens!

I Just Realized That I Never Gave This One A Title

I slept in until after 8:30 for the first time in awhile today. I eventually rolled out of bed around 10:15. Today was the first day I didn't have to do any work since Saturday. Yesterday I didn't have to do much though, just cut a whole bunch of shingles for the ridge cap of the roof, and cut a bunch of almost 2 x 4s with the chop saw to fill in cracks in the plywood shell of the shop.

I can't say all's been too quiet around here today, what with Dad drilling stuff right beside me. He's building an extension to the fairly small computer table, that hangs out over the staircase. Other than that, we've been preparing for the arrival of the first overnight guests to the Shack. Some friends from BC are coming. We've tried to tell them they may be more comfortable staying somewhere else, but they are not afraid! I have agreed to give up my room for them, since I have the largest and most comfortable bed.

Thus endeth the recap of the last two days. Keep on Shackin' in the free world, I guess.

On The Roof

Images: laying out tar paper on the south "extension" of the roof.

(Taken yesterday)

I was rudely awakened by my alarm at 8:30 this morning. To show my defiance, I got out of bed at ten to nine. After eating a hasty breakfast I went outside and joined Dad on the roof.

Yesterday we had begun work on the south side of the roof, to the tune of Bruce Springsteen and then some Eric Clapton. The whole extension portion of the roof got done, and a bit of the full-

size section. This makes much more sense if you know what the shop looks like.

Today we continued on the south side, but more to the tunes of the High Fidelity sountrack, a little 92 CITI FM, Neil Young, The Guess Who, The Police and Boston. Now that you know exactly what I've been listening to, I'll tell you about the roof. Almost all the shingles are in place, just the peak of the roof still needs shinges. I did a lot of cutting today, cutting shingles and tar paper (which is particularly nasty to do if there's even a slight wind). I also helped lay out rolls of shingles, and occasionally staple down tar paper with a sweet tool Dad has, it's like a combination of a hammer and a staple gun. INSANE!

General Shack life is going all right, though Bruce (the dog) seems to be having a fair bit of difficulty adjusting to the new situation. Otherwise it's pretty quiet. No structural disasters or surprises from the fridge yet this work week.

That Which We Call A Nail By Any Other Name Would Be As Pointy

After all the "flashback" posts today I thought I'd post something current and relevant. What a switch.

I learned a life lesson this Sunday morning: if you don't know how long it's been in the fridge, look before you drink it. Unfortunately, I learned the hard way. An innocent-looking pitcher was sitting in our refrigerator, and nobody knew how long it had been

there. I poured a little of the contents into a glass, and it turned out to be orange juice. When it hit my mouth however, it was more like beer, carbonated and having a fermented feel to it. I thought it odd, and when I opened the pitcher, I discovered a plethora of mold, even large chunks of it floating in the juice itself. Needless to say I did not drink the rest of what was in my glass. It is still unclear exactly how long that pitcher had been in the fridge, th

ough I'd estimate around 5 weeks. Somebody probably made juice one time in the days before we moved in and forgot about it. Lucky me!

The other major event today was beginning putting the roof on the shop. Though I really enjoy being up on the roof, I didn't enjoy the process of roofing a whole heck of a lot, and

don't think I'll be making a career out of it. I did put in a good number of hours though, and we're finished almost half of the roof. Hopefully it won't rain for a couple days so we can finish

(wishful thinking...).

That's it for today. Tomorrow brings new things...more roofing. I'll look at what I'm drinking before I drink it though.

Images: Getting shingles up onto the roof/posing??

Flashback 2: Cinematic Excellence at the Shack

This is something else that happened in June, but since it has nothing to do with the shop, it seemed to make the most sense to put it in its own post.

On Friday, June 19th, Raya and I decided to host our cousins Silvie and Micah for a "Shackover". Basically the idea was to spend a night in the unfurnished, empty Shack. This sounded like fun to us. Anyway, one of the things we did (as we often had at other get-togethers) was make a short movie. It turned out to be quite funny, and also include many "features" that the Shack has to offer (such features should also be displayed in a later entry of this blog, I still plan to post a "virtual tour" at some point).

The title of the video is "The Handyman". Plot summary: two sisters have purchased a "character home". They call in a handyman to fix its many problems. Unfortunately, the handyman is subdued by a weird creepy guy, and that creeper wreaks havoc on the sisters.

Enjoy!

Flashback: Initial Yard Clean-Up and the Progress on the Shop So Far.

Since the process of cleaning up the yard and building the shop began before I decided this blog affair was a good idea, I'm going to reach into my archives (a notebook) and give a brief summary of what work has been done so far.

May 2009: The part of the yard cleanup I found most memorable (besides finding some random interesting objects) was moving large rocks from the backyard (where the previous owners had a pond) to the front, because we had no better place to put them. We used an old wooden wagon that Dad had found on the property. Surprisingly it held up under quite a lot of weight. It was a difficult and rather annoying task, but it had to be done because those rocks were in the way of where we want to put the new house.

June 2009:

8th-12th: The main focus for that week was compacting the gravel where the concrete pad was to go, and beginning to construct wooden forms for the pad. I was not too involved, though I did get to try my hand at the gravel compacters once or twice. Those are heavy machines (of course the 350 [or so] pounder that Dad originally rented apparently wasn't up to the task, so he ended up getting a 1000-pounder).

13th-14th: These two days were dedicated to laying rebar (for those who don't know what I'm talking about, rebar is short for reinforcing bar, and is basically long, thin bars of reinforced steel) on the garage pad. One of my main jobs were gluing holders for rebar onto bases that I had cut with the chop saw. I actually had to do it twice, with two different kinds of glue, because it didn't work the first time. Another fun thing I did was cut a bunch of rebar to size using the reciprocating saw. The vibrations actually caused me to lose feeling in about 1/4 of my left thumb for a few days.

15th: This is the day when I was finally presented with my own key for the Shack. Incidentally, the brand of lock is "Defiant", which is how I felt about moving in. The other Shack memory that day happened at 10:45 PM. Whilst the family was sitting in our living room [still living in the non-Shack at the time], Dad suddenly noticed it was looking like rain, so he stood up and said, "Jonas, come help me lay a 30 x 50 foot tarp over the garage pad!" To this day, I am still not sure where he managed to acquire such a large tarp. Anyway, we drove over to the Shack and pulled out this massive beast of a tarp. It took a long time just to unfold it, then it was rather tricky trying to spread this thing evenly over the garage pad, which at the time was some land forms, a bunch of rebar and an intricate system of red tubing which will eventually become in-floor heating. Eventually the task was complete, and we got home around 11:15. As it was a school night, I of course went straight to bed.

16th: On this day came the repetitive task of clipping the ties that held the aforementioned red tubing to the rebar. There were around 1400 of them, and they all had to be clipped as short as possible, and on that night because the concrete was to be poured at 7:30 the next morning*.

So we worked for about an hour and a half clipping these ties. The tool I was using wasn't exactly friendly. Each clip was a painful experience as it rubbed both my hands raw. The next day my left hand was pretty much covered in blisters. My right hand was okay, with the occasional layer of skin missing. It also seemed that my back would never be the same from bending down so much. A month and a half later, my back is all right, as are my hands. Funny thing. Oh by the way, we also had to put the tarp back over the garage pad when we were done. Bonus.

*The concrete was not actually poured until two days later. Silly contractors. The day the concrete was poured I went with Mom and Raya to join them in scratching our initials into the pad, but it had already hardened a fair bit. What terrible vandals we are.

Due to exams needing to be written, packing needing to get done, etcetera I did not work much more in the month of June.

July 2009:

5th-6th: Upon our return from a trip to Colorado, the concrete had firmly solidified its position in the world, and it was time to strip away the forms. That was mostly what dad had me doing those couple of days. It was rather fun, because basically what I had to do was hack at stuff with a sledgehammer and a crowbar, and then use a cordless drill to take screws out of stuff. It was also rather difficult though, because lots of the screws holding the forms in place didn't want to cooperate. Other than stripping forms, one other useful thing I did in those couple days was organize all the lumber in the yard. That in itself was quite a task. The single funniest memory I can recall happened during a coffee break on the morning of the 6th. Dad and I were sitting in the Shack living room when he noticed there was a cat sitting around in the front yard. I said, "Want me to scare it off?" and he said, "Sure." So I went out to the back, and grabbed a cordless drill, intending to surprise this complacent cat with a little noise. Somewhat unfortunately, just as I was approaching the front yard looking rather menacing with this cordless drill, and clearly eyeing the cat, a woman just happened to walk by the yard on the sidewalk, and was looking at me. I did my best to act natural, and look as though I did not intend on totally drilling that cat right there (which is probably how I looked, though it wasn't actually my intention). She gave me what may be the weirdest look I've ever gotten, and anyone who knows me knows that's saying something.

7th: The frame for the first wall of the shop went up that day, July the 7th. It was a very significant milestone. My main duty was cutting studs with the chop saw (actually, it might technically be a sliding compound mitre saw...but oh well). I felt like I was in a spectator sport, in the middle of a huge concrete pad (that had no walls yet), kneeling by this saw, measuring and cutting wood as efficiently as I could. Sometimes people actually do slow down as they drive by in the back alley, or even stop and just gawk for a couple seconds. It feels a little awkward sometimes.

8th: Did a lot more framing, with both Dad and Raya. This was, I believe, the first time she joined the crew. I mostly did cutting, as I had gotten very good at it the day before. Generally over those couple days I grew to enjoy framing, because it's the point in the process where you can really begin to see what the finished structure is going to look like.

The Winnipeg Folk Festival essentially dominated our lives from the 9th through the 12th. Work recommenced the next week.

13th: One word: trusses. All we did that day was put up roof trusses. It took 4 1/2 hours for myself, Dad and Raya to get 18 of them up, and there were still 2 more to go (which had to be saved for a later day). As more and more trusses got put up, it became trickier and trickier to get the next one in, due to the ever-decreasing space.

15th: The rain subsided long enough to get the last two trusses up. It was a rather difficult affair to negotiate them into a very tight space. In the end it got done though, with no injuries! My nickname even became "Safety Boy" for a brief period of time. This is because for awhile my job was to steady the truss from the ground using a 12-foot 2 x 4 with another piece of wood screwed onto the end to form a bit of a claw. Used properly, it made sure that the truss would not fall over while Dad and Raya lined it up and secured it.

That ended the work on my part (and Raya's) for July, because we were leaving for a previously mentioned service trip to Louisiana. After we got back, the moving process dominated (see the previous blog entry). Today is August 2nd, and it's going to be back to work on the shop now. The next step is putting shingles on the roof.

The Tale of the Move and the First Couple Days in the Shack

On Tuesday night of this week, Raya and I returned from a volunteer service trip to Louisiana to a house with very little furniture, and not much other stuff that wasn't essential or in boxes. One could tell the moving process was in full swing. Raya slept the night on the floor, and I got to sleep in my bed, though there was no bedding, so I had to use the sleeping bag I had been using for the trip. It was quite a way to spend the final night in the house I had come to love.

Wednesday morning came quickly, and before I knew it I was out of bed hauling boxes to our van and trailer that we'd be using for hauling stuff (who need U-Hauls when you've got the Casket Van?). After driving to the Shack and unloading whatever load it was, I'd sometimes get to ride in the trailer back to the house, much to my mother's chagrin. The biggest problem that day was the off-and-on rain showers. At one point, we were hauling a load of clothes and other such things that shouldn't get wet in the [open-air] trailer, when suddenly the heavens decided

to burst open and send us quite a downpour. Dad put on a burst of speed, and we quickly made the short trip to the Shack, then ran into the partially constructed garage, grabbed one of the many tarps which reside inside and spread it over the trailer. Of course, this one [very thin]

tarp was not enough, and besides, the water was beginning to pool, so dad went and grabbed another rather hardcore one. Using our innovative spirits, and somewhat encouraged by our desire to stay relatively dry ourselves, to prevent pooling we

stood underneath the tarp as it covered the trailer, holing it up like human pillars. (See image on left)

Aside from that, the only real problem the rain posed (and will continue to) is the fact that the window in my bedroom happens to let rain in when open, but is very difficult to close. Oh well!

The tarp adventure proved to be essentially the only major setback, and the day went by quite smoothly with help from friends and relatives. After most of the work was done, supper proved to be an adventure in itself. We ordered four pizzas from Domino's and had 10 people crowded into our very small living/dining room for the meal. It was decided that we probably wouldn't be hosting too many large gatherings of people over the course of our Shack life.

After supper, we proceeded to move the television over to the shack, so that we could watch movies for a couple days (TV service didn't come about until today). After hooking everything up, hanging a couple posters in my room and watching a classic episode of Hogan's Heroes I was about ready for bed. Using a permanent marker I tallied the first "Shack night" on the slanted ceiling above my bed. Being very tired, I then promptly fell asleep.

Waking up in my new bedroom on Thursday morning didn't faze me too much, but stepping out of bed sort of did. Being used to sleeping on a ping-pong table that was about 3 feet off the ground, I was surprised that my feet found the ground much sooner getting out of a "normal" bed. Funny thing. There were a few more things to move over the course of the day, but not too much. Most of the action at the "non-Shack" was centered around cleaning the place up. I participated in a bit of that (vacuuming!!), and also spent much of the day working on the decor in my room. I hammered a few nails into the slanted ceiling causing small showers of drywall dust and hung some 45 rpm records on them. It looks pretty cool. I also hung a few posters, and some 45 rpm records that I had previously framed (I have a lot of them...). A couple good friends of mine helped start the effort of drawing stuff all over my walls in multicoloured permanent markers (thanks again for the markers, Carla!). More and more decorating is happening every day. I must admit, it's pretty fun to live in a house you know is going to be torn down, so you can really do whatever you please to the walls in your room.

On Thursday evening we shared in a delightful family meal around our very small table. Eating soup and homemade biscuits was a relief after living off of pizza and toast for two days.

Friday saw a lot more cleaning of the non-shack, which proved to be incredibly tiring. I recall lying down on the laminate floor in the very-upstairs room with the vacuum cleaner in my hand at one point, very nearly falling asleep. There was one major item to be moved as well, the basketball hoop out back. Fortunately it was not actually rooted into the ground, just on a very large and heavy concrete base. After managing to shoehorn it into the trailer, Dad had to drive the van very carefully, or the hoop would hit the back of the van. This became especially tricky when it was necessary to make a left turn out of the back alley and onto the street. I actually got out of the van and manually guided the net out of the van's path, yelling instructions to Dad such as, "Go, go, STOP! Okay go...". At one point, as we were almost finished the turn, a transit bus suddenly turned onto the street and started bearing down on us, so in the middle of my directions I simply yelled "BUS!". Dad stopped the van and the bus went around us. I sort of waved at the driver, who was probably a little surprised to see this happening. We eventually got to the Shack though, and successfuly got the hoop out of the trailer and onto a new spot of land, right behind the shop.

Today has been a day of pure Shack life, since the non-Shack has now officially changed hands. I went and got Bruce [our dog] from the friend's house where he had been staying during the moving process (moving makes him very nervous). He seemed okay as I brought him to the new home for the first time since our stuff has been in it (he had been in the Shack before we moved in and didn't like it). Currently he is barking loudly at my Dad, who is using a staple gun to secure some cords.

So life is now supposed to settle down, I guess. Not much left to do but settle into a new life in the Shack. And finish building a shop. And then build a house. Okay, it might not be too relaxing after all.