We have been enjoying some warm sunny weather here in late November and some cultural activities as well – Grey Cup Game party, ballet rehearsal, blues concert, crafts fair and dining out around town.  On the downside, my favorite lumber mill will be completely out of business in a few weeks.  Over the past 2 years, I have purchased from them several pickup truck loads of fir flooring and trim, fir for cabinets and doors, cedar and spruce timbers, and a bunch of other wood.  Went last week to buy some hard to find and well-priced clear vertical grain wood for future as-yet-unknown projects, and built a wood rack in anticipation.  Below are some clear fir 2×10, cedar 2×4 and 5×5, material for two mantle pieces, and some rough cut 1″ thick clear fir. 

This is the temporary wood rack made of spruce construction grade 1x4s left over from construction.

Group from Kelowna Newcomers Club that had a very informative tour of the Campion Boat plant, a family-owned firm that has been building fiberglass recreational boats for about 40 years and selling them all around the world.

New type of motor with prop on front.  Boat and motor are designed for wake surfing – boat goes about 20k/hr and surfer surfs wake behind boat without a tow rope. As he/she can step from transom to board, the inboard prop is much safer.

This is the time of the year when the weather changes from sun to cloud. This photo is of Kelowna but all one can see of it is the top of Dilworth Mountain and the mountains to the south of Kelowna.  It is rather nice looking down through the cloud and fog, which usually come from the humidity off the lake.  The price of warmer winters here is lots of cloud and fog.

These are some of the shelves and verticals for a book case that have been oiled and are drying in the garage.  Shelves were made of surplus fir flooring and maple plywood.

Have leveled and widened the far side of the shop and put down some crushed rock for quicker drainage. This is where the Bobcat will spend the winter, and where it and the ATV will live during the summer. Next year, I plan on putting up two cedar posts and a 16′ long beam to hold up a 12′ wide shed roof slanting away from the shop wall.

Some live edge birch boards that I am jointing on the saw to make a wider top for the bookcase I am building.

Woke up yesterday morning to snow!  Way earlier than usual.  Thankfully, it was all gone by the afternoon.  Historically, we get 3 days of snow totaling about 10cms in November, but it all melts away before the snow comes and stays in mid/late December.

After two years of having just exterior-grade plywood as siding for the power shed, we finally got around to putting on the siding and trim. Coop had a great idea to use smartboard siding, a treated OSB product that looks like wood siding.  I used cement fiber board offcuts for the back, and cedar for the front and trim. Still need to paint the door but that will be a project for next year.  Mizuho painted the siding and stained the trim.

Also got the barn door installed with the help of Coop. This should help keep dust down in the garage, and provide a warmer working environment in the shop.  Ended up getting a steel bar made up for the rail as it was longer than what I could get with the hardware.  $15 for the bar and some labour drilling and painting.

Next up is working on upstairs railing/bookcase, using the new shelves in the storage room to organize stuff, and getting the starter on the Bobcat rebuilt.  Weather is good these days for outside work – about 15 and mostly sunny.