The morning after we finished the rough grading of the back yard, we found this contented deer enjoying the newly leveled surface just outside the dining room window.

These are Saskatoon bushes in bloom – there are hundreds of berry bushes on the property.  There were no berries last year due to the lack of rain so we are hoping for more rain and berries this year.

We went to a CD-issuing party of the Trips, a local band that plays bluegrass, a week after we saw ZZ Top. Both were smaller venues and most enjoyable.  Jan someone from Saskatoon opened for the Trips and played, inter alia, a cover from two of my favorite musicians – Ry Cooder and J.J. Cale.  At both concerts, you could by a glass of beer or wine and take it to your seat – something we had not experienced in Ottawa, Seoul, Paris or Riyadh.  Who knew Kelowna was such a paragon of the liberal laid-back life.

Mizuho did a great job splitting this wood – she is getting to be a real pro at it.  This will be used in the downstairs wood stove as there is another even larger pile for the shop stove.  We will use the bark for mulch.

We finally decided on some details of the landscaping for the back yard.  The white pipe will carry the rainwater from the downspout, the conduit will be used to run low voltage wire out to the yard for lights, and both will be covered with rounded river rock to give the look of a dry river bed and to mark the change from lawn to natural ground cover.  Hope to order and place 10 tons of topsoil next week.

Several projects are underway.  Am sanding and staining the parts that will make up the fir door for the guest bedroom, and applying polyurethane to kitchen and bathroom drawers, which are sitting on the cedar posts and spruce beams that will be planed and sanded and finished and eventually erected. 

Decided to finally take some time and build a workbench.  It is made of maple veneered 3/4″ plywood with maple edging and will have a 3″ thick laminated maple top.  It should provide a really sturdy and much needed working surface and storage to help get me organized.  There will eventually be drawers in the middle two bays, and doors on the outside two.

Big news is Lee Valley just opened a store in Kelowna two days ago!  Really great to have them in town and to not have to go to Vancouver or order on line.  MEC opens this week. 

Good thing we are making some progress as the house-building front will slow down this summer.  I bought this Black Beauty this week and there is much to explore in the valley and beyond 🙂  First bike I have bought since 1994 (just before we went back to Japan) and 6th overall.  Was great to be back on board as I had not ridden since Paris days, about 7 years ago.

Joined the Kelowna Newcomers Club and one of the first events was a tour of a local family-owner sawmill, Gorman Brothers.  They make 1″ by ?? for siding, trim and the Chinese market. A fascinating tour.  This machine takes the logs from storage and places them in a machine that cuts them to length, debarks them, and then slices them into boards.  A person makes the decisions but computers suggest the best use of a log.  Almost all the equipment in the mill was made in Salmon Arms, about 2 hours north of here.

A band saw blade is in the background.

This machine cuts the squared log into planks. All the wood is used. They first cut large planks, then thinner boards, then shorter thinner boards, and they sell the bark for mulch and the shavings and sawdust for pulp production.

About 50 trucks a day get loaded with wood – they run two shifts 5 days a week. Was good to see what they do with all the trees around here.

This is the result of about 100 bucket loads of rock and fill and dirt.  About another 15 to go.  Am using the rocky topsoil that I have screened for the topmost layer, and then will finish with some imported screened topsoil.  This will eventually give us a nice level area, likely a small lawn, that will morph into the natural topography.

This is the soil I am using.  It is on the far side of the shop and was mounded up when the site was prepped.  There is way more than you can see in this photo.  I plan, in the future, to use the excavated area for another garage or equipment shed.  But there is a lot of dirt and rock to move first.  We have more than we need or can use.  Better than the other way round.  Bobcat working well, but had two flats in the last few weeks.

This is the view from the lower side of the rock wall where I have just (almost) finished the stairs, the wall and backfilling the leveling the lower area.  It will make two nice areas and a much easier transition between the two levels, as well as a few raised flower beds so the deer don’t have to bend their necks too far down.

The stairs were fun to make – sort of a design-as-you-build project – but rather time consuming.  They are constructed of 4x4s with 3/8″ 6″ lags and are filled with rock, crushed rock, sand and pebbles.  The trick was to build up the lower large supporting rocks while at the same time building the stairs and the upper rock wall.  Some of the wood extends into the hill and has rock sitting on it.  Next step is to finish the final backfilling and top dressing of the upper and lower areas.

Finally got around to cutting down three small trees to open up a view from the driveway to a rock face.  Will likely have to trim a few bushes as well.  I am rather fond of rock (good thing).

This wood is from some fallen or dead trees, ready to be split by the mighty Mizuho and used next winter in the basement.

Finally found a use for some Japanese screens (shiorido I think) that we have had for 20 years. Mizuho put on some wood preservative and some stain. They were not as opaque as I had expected, but will do the job of screening the propane tanks.