Monthly Archives: August 2021

August 2021, Smooth Rolling

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August was a busy and interesting month. The heat abated, the smoke from the fires was intermittent and we had a few days of showers, verging on rain.

Today just outside of Penticton – a fire that had started the day before. For more, google Skaha lake fire.

Rearranged the garage storage and built some boards to hand tools and the like from some western maple filled with expoxy. The garden cornucopia continues and we had our first of several harvests of edamame. Started building a rock wall beside the finished stone steps (photos next month). Built 4 drawers for the WIC (still need sanding, oiling and installing) that will have fronts made of some combination of epoxy and split mottled wood (if it works – this will be a test). Enjoyed some jazz one evening at a winery and a Bach choral/strings/organ/bassoon concert in a church. Concerts should be back in full swing by late September around here.

Built a firewood rack just behind the screens to further screen the view.
The delightful Mrs Ogi and her vegetable/fruit stand – she has been farming here for the past 47 years and grows many Japanese veggies. Mizuho and her have become good friends.
Manila rope used in the power station of the mine at Kimberly in the East Kootenays. We spent 4 days there enjoying the area, spending time with a cousin and touring the Cominco/Teck mine that operated for 100 years. Nice town with no chain stores and only one traffic light.
Finally was able to use this elephant light I got somewhere in Asia a long time ago. It is an oil lamp in an iron cage on 3 gimbles that an elephant would roll ahead of him/herself to light the way home.
The model railroad museum in Osoyoos which is closing in a week after operating for 40 years. It is enormous (this is about 1/20) and incredibly detailed, created by a German couple with a good sense of humour.
A somewhat neglected settler’s cabin on a back road to Osoyoos.
Spotted Lake which usually has dozens of circles of mineralized water.

But the big news is the driveway!!! The base was formed over the existing road bed with 100 tons of recycled asphalt, placed and graded with a bobcat then watered and packed with a roller for hours. It was then watered again, rolled, and then sprayed 4 times with Reclamite which reacts with the bitumen in the asphalt and binds it. A light coat of sand (finely crushed rock) was then sprayed lightly over it all. It should continue to compact and bind over the next few months and turn into something resembling a paved road. It is wider than before and while smooth, it does undulate more than I had hoped but it is an order of magnitude better than what was there. The true test will be plowing it in the winter and then again during the spring runoff. About 1/7 the price of an asphalt driveway.

I hope all this has not bored you.