Have been increasingly occupied by leisure pursuits this year – snowshoeing, travel (BC – Vancouver, Van Island, Interior and Kootnays, Shuswap), and US twice, Mexico and Japan), concerts, new motorbike and several bike trips – but did find time to finish upstairs bookcase, interior stairs (except for railing), laundry room cabinets, bathroom door, bathroom cabinet doors and drawer fronts, shop cabinets, porch post, beams and soffit, lots-but-not-all landscaping (more sod, outdoor stairs, and rock retaining walls).  Progress ground to a halt in mid-November as I had surgery to remove a dupuytren from my hand, necessitating at least 6 weeks of recovery.  Did finish the cabinet door/drawer fronts in the guest/master bathrooms just before the surgery.  Post surgery, I have going through my gold mine of old records, and 35mm slides from the past 40 years.

We had many very enjoyable visits by friends, family and former colleagues from Vancouver, Ottawa, Sask, N.H., NYC, Wash D.C., and Japan.

Next projects, once hand is working again, will be upstairs cabinet and shelves, stair railing, entrance closet, kitchen drawer fronts, and some door trim.  Hand looks worse than it is and I have every confidence it will be fully functioning in the weeks ahead (albeit with a few very sexy scars).

And I shall close with a photo of our Fir Christmas tree from our property, and we wish you a most merry Christmas and all the best in the new year.

Beautiful display of the northern lights when driving home from dinner downtown at the end of September.

Rocks Walls – Decided to build some retaining walls to obtain some more usable flat space.  I used the Bobcat to level out an area, and found a guy up the valley who was selling some gabions (wire cages) for 1/3 the usual price so I bought 6.  He lent me a table and brake for shaping the cages and an air-driven crimping gun.  Worked like a charm.  Coop and I placed nice rocks on the front face and used shale type white rocks to fill the rest of the cage.

This area will be an equipment and lumber shed next spring.  I will be using the same cedar posts and spruce beams as used for the patio and entrance, and will likely buy roof trusses.

This is the 2nd of the series of benches.

Had time for a day trip with Coop to see a motorcycle museum near Kamloops.  The owner said God told him to build it.  An amazing collection of interesting bikes. These two are very similar to the first two bikes I owned – a 1970 Honda CB175 and a Kawasaki 400 (two stroke with 3 cylinders and very fast)

Light reflecting through the clouds and off the lake.

And we had a delightful trip to Japan, me for two weeks in October and Mizuho for six. “Enjoyed” two typhoons when I was there.  Great to be back in Tokyo, to eat delicious food, and to see old friends and colleagues. 

Visited the Ise Shrine where they have been rebuilding a host of shrine buildings every twenty years for the past 1,200 years on twinned sites separated by black river rocks.  We were chased out early by the approaching typhoon, so went all the way down to Kyushu on the Shinkansen (Bullet Train).

Also took a mag-lev train out to see a Shiba breeder in Nagoya, and visited the Toyota Auto Museum, which was spectacular and had an enormous variety of cars from the last 100 years.  Cars have gotten more efficient over the years, but at the cost of beauty, witness this Rolls and the Blue Beauty (Cord I believe).

After returning, I was busy with cutting brush and limbing trees, and finally building the cabinet doors and drawer fronts for the guest and master bathrooms.   Weather has been a bit unusual – some snow 4 weeks earlier than usual, a record low two weeks ago and a record high yesterday.  Leaves are mostly down but grass is green.

Also went to several concerts, including an open rehearsal by the Okanagan Symphony that featured an amazing 23 yr old Timothy Choi playing a Strad.  And have been going through my records, mostly dating back 3 or 4 decades; many had never made it to CD.  Some gems, and some others.  I built these drawer fronts below but did not like them so built another set.  Cedar doors in the back will go in master bathroom.  Photos will be coming next month, along with the back-ordered handles from Lee Valley.

Well its been another fun and somewhat productive month.  I have just got back to Canada from 2 weeks in Japan, but Mizuho will be staying there another few weeks.  As I am not able to post photos (Mizuho handles that),  this months installment is very short and sweet, with fuller text and photos coming next month.

So this months activities, which will be covered next month, included:  Building a rock wall with Coop’s help, using gabions, the bobcat and physical labour;  Building version 2 of an outdoor bench;  Taking a motorbike ride to Sorrento to see a really great motorbike museum; Seeing the northern lights; and Celebrating our 30 anniversary (the day before Mizuho went to Japan for the month).

So, double issue next month.

September has been a busy month, lots of leisure and travel and some work.  I finished the stairs from the patio/porch to the garage/shop early in the month (please see last month for what it looked like before) using cedar timbers and decking to mirror the front steps.  Also placed more rocks and build up a planter for herbs next year.   New hanging chair and hammock in background came from Coombs on Vancouver Island – very reasonable and very comfortable; work may decline somewhat in the warmer months as a consequence.

Almost finished the laundry room.  Cabinets below have maple doors and a wild countertop (Coop helped with install) and upper pantry shelves will be left open.  Still need one piece of baseboard trim, door trim, and a door.

Decided to add a bit of colour to the chairs that are a great spot to have a cigar and watch the sun set.  This will likely be the location of a hot tub in the future.  The white rock in front of the chairs is being leveled out with rock and sand and then some dirt on the sloped side.

The first in a series of benches that shall be distributed at various scenic locales around the property. Each of the first 5 benches will be different, and I shall then choose the best design for the rest. Wood is cut from trees on site, finished with a german oil and then polyethylene.  Legs are 1/2″ rebar, painted black.

Also purchased a sunshade screen for the porch – the early evening sun in July/August was rather glaring.  Shade can pull down 2 meters, and will be stored during winter.

M and I had a delightful 3 day trip to Nelson in the West Kootenays and Nelson. Visited Kaslo, which was an internment center for Japanese Canadians, where we toured a beautifully restored paddlewheel steamer than plied the Kootenay Lakes for over 1 million kms.  Photo is of engine room.  Also toured outdoor Japanese internment museum in New Denver, and Japanese garden.  David Suzuki, and one of my father’s mentors, Tommy Shoyama (a truly amazing man) were both interned in Kaslo for the duration of the war.

Coop and I had time for a quick overnight trip to Revelstoke.  Great weather and roads, capped off by a spirited run up a recently paved 23km switchback road to the top of Mt. Revelstoke. Came back via two ferries and stopped in to see the hot spring at Nakusp.

Kelowna Art Gallery had an exhibit of Canadian art, including about 20 Group of 7 paintings, all of which were lent by local residents.

Lastly, we had a most enjoyable 4 day houseboat cruise on the almost empty Shuswap Lakes with Cam and Elizabeth and new friends from Ottawa and the Sunshine Coast. Boat had 5 bedrooms, a propane fireplace, two full-size fridges, a hot tub on the top deck, and great views.  Each night we just beached the bow and tied the stern to 2  3′ long stakes hammered into the beach.

October again shall be a month of work and travel and visitors from away (friends from Saudi Arabia and Bamfield and a former colleague from Ottawa.  Stay tuned for developments on the upper level, gabions, and other elements tbd.

Weather continues hot and dry. We have had 2mm of rain in 10 weeks and 30+ temperature almost every day.  And we have been getting smoke from forest fires in the US and a few hundred kilometers north west of us.  Worst year of fires in BC ever.  Last week, we had a fire only 14km from us, which grew from nothing to 350 hectacres in about 6 hours.  It is still burning a week later but is largely contained. It will be very nice to have the fall rains again. This is a view of the fire from a road about 2 kms from us.

The dry hot conditions have also discouraged me from doing much work with the bobcat as it raises clouds of fine dust.  Have been working on some stairs between the patio and the garage.   Moved some rock and dirt and am now almost finished the timber/cedar plank stairs – photos next month, along with photos of shop cupboards and laundry room countertops.

We spent a delightful week on Vancouver Island visiting Mizuho’s friends in Port Alberni, taking the working boat out to Bamfield and visiting the delightful Joe and Heather there (he did the maintenance on the West Coast Trail and the Broken Group Islands and she is really active in community affairs), and then on to Campbell River for hiking and seafood. Highly recommend all three, especially Bamfield.  The first photo is the start of the WC Trail, and the second is a memorial to the Pacific Ocean terminus of the first undersea telecom cable and the Rix Center – a resource for the Marine Research Centre and a Music facility.  Stunning. Also saw a great many majestic trees, and visited a First Nations site that archeologists believe had been first occupied 5,000 years ago.  The son of the Chief gave us a tour and shared some interesting stories.

And we got and installed a swinging chair for Mizuho and a hammock for Dave so work may proceed even slower in the future.

And we had a delightful visit with Aunt Dorothy, the Queen of the Prairies.

Lastly, we celebrated Mizuho’s birthday with Susan and Steve, Pat and Coop and Aunt Dorothy, together with crab, squid and scallops, and a bottle of 2004 Dom.  More updates at the end of September.

July has been hot, above 30 every day but three so far, and no rain in the past 6 weeks.  But lots of sun.

Early in the month, B in Law Steve helped move a bunch of these rocks to form a flat surface behind the garage.  Next job will be to make some wood/stone stairs in the foreground to connect the garage and the patio.  Will then level this area out (once it cools down a bit and after we get some rain to keep the dust down), lay down some sand and then likely put down some flagstones.  This will become a dining and fire pit area. 

After two years, Mizuho finally gets a bathroom door.  Build this of cedar reclaimed from sister’s deck, and two purchased cedar rails.  Next step is to install the trim around the door, and then move on to finish the cabinetry in the bathroom.

In my never-ending-quest to get organized, I built some drawers and doors for the shop. Now I need to install 3 more drawers, two sets of upper cabinets, and then build and install the drawer fronts.  These are all made of maple to match the workbench.

Also put some doors on the laundry/pantry cabinets. Now need to decide/get and install a countertop.

Have been enjoying July, and a concert by Bob Dylan.  I saw him about 35 years ago and at 75 he is still magical. In the two hour concert that started on time, he played piano standing up, sang every song, including some Sinatra and jazz standards, and reinterpreted his old standards.  While it was not what many people expected, and several people left early, it was vintage Dylan, with a truly amazing band.  Have also been enjoying a 2 week visit by Mizuho’s mother – mostly hanging out and eating really good Japanese food.

This is how the rock has looked since we put in the patio last summer.  Our general idea is to have an outdoor transition zone from inside to patio to grass to wild nature.

We laid some sod around the rock so that it connects to the patio.

The side yard was a bit dusty and did not connect the front and side.

So we also sodded it.  We put in some irrigation, and then Mizuho carried 900 lbs of sod to where I placed it.  And we got 1,000 lbs of compost in the back of the truck to spread in the three gardens.  Still need to get and place about 8 tons of river rock around the house and garage/shop – likely next year – but it all feels a lot more finished.

Hosted a cocktail party for the Kelowna Roundtable then met the Mild Hogs the next day in New Denver in the Kootenays (the next valley over) and stayed at the beehive – a truly great place with great hosts.  Weather was fine and came back the next day after 800kms on the new bike.  Pure joy, except I ran out of gas 20kms from home.  I now know how far I can go on reserve.  Picked up some good friends a few hours later at the airport (former US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia and delightful spouse) and spent a most enjoyable four days sipping scotch, smoking cigars and catching up.

Moved some rocks and dirt to improve the landscaping as one approaches the house. M is sowing wildflowers here.

Moved some more rocks, rip/rap and dirt to build up another terrace, again as one approaches the house. Not yet sure how we will use this new flat space.

And in honour of the summer solstice, this is a photo just before sunset as the sun streams through the length of the house.  Next projects are placing rocks behind the shop/garage,  building a door for our bathroom, building drawers and doors for the workshop work bench, and splitting firewood, and working in a few golf games and lots of visitors over the next two months.

We had a lot of rain this spring, and with the snow pack in the mountains now melting, there is some flooding in/around Kelowna – the lake is the highest it has been in 20 years.  No worries up here on the mountain, and the 30 degree weather this week should help evaporate some of the lake water.

Last fall, I bought the rest of the tongue and groove fir that Oyama Sawmill had before they closed down.  Mizuho has been staining up a storm and Coop and I have been installing. Am rather chuffed with how the beam pops out.  This should make a very nice outdoor room.  Hope to have it completed in another week – still need to cut some and stain many.

Coop and I also installed some lights and an outlet.  They rock.

As things get done, we are enjoying a more conventional lifestyle with time for leisure and organizing.  As such, we partook in a community garage sale in Kelowna and found new homes for a great many treasures we had collected over the years.

And I bought my 7th bike. Been looking for this model for 8 months and found one in Calgary.  Coop and I drove out and bought it, and I drove it back over the mountains and through some rain, 3 degree weather and some closed roads.  I love the bike. Aprilia Caponord Travel Pac – power, handling, comfort, electronics and style.  Now I just need to sell my Kawasaki.

Have also been spending some quality time on the Bobcat.  This void was a large pile of large rocks that I moved to clear out some space for an vehicle shed.  The dirt and rock on the right will be removed soon.  I will need to get the Bobcat bucket fixed as it has several holes and a tear in the steel bucket from overwork and abrasion from the rocks I have been moving over the past year.

And these are some of the rocks that were moved. I will be using them for landscaping this year and next.  There were only about 8 rocks that were too large to pick up.  I should be able to push and roll them I hope.

So, its been another relaxing month.  We took a 12 day 4,200 km road trip through Washington and Oregon to Reno Nevada, and then back through California and the Oregon coast.  The roads to the redwoods were closed due to rock and mud slides, but the rest of the trip was great.  Below is a view of a rather large tree in southern Oregon, and a view of a surfer out our motel window in northern Oregon.  While we are more partial to the coast of Japan, if you are in the neighborhood, the Oregon coast is well worth it.

Did a little work before we went – these are the cabinets in the laundry room, which shall also become a pantry. Next step is to build the cabinet doors, likely maple, and then put on a countertop.

Also finally installed the rama screens in the void beside the stairs – the void was sized for the screens when we framed the house.  Have decided to redo the lower set of stairs to hid the steel supports. The upper set have the supports hidden and look much better. So I need to disassemble, plane one of the stringers which has cupped a bit, rout out the ends of the treads, and reinstall.

Finally got the stair treads done. Treads and stringers are made of 3×12 fir planed, sanded and oiled. A few checks and cracks were filled with epoxy, tinted black. Treads are supported by angle iron painted flat black. The 1st (lower) set had the iron exposed, while for the 2nd set, I routed the ends of the treads and hid the part that attached to the stringers. I like it much better so will now need to change the first (lower) set of treads, and then finish the facing on the landing. Coop helped with layout and assembly – the design was shaped by the need to assemble the stairs in place as the stringers and treads are very heavy. Will now turn to railing design and construction.

For the upper landing, I laminated 2 pieces of fir flooring, and then beveled the edges, and sanded and oiled them. This enabled me to install them as wider planks  without having to sand and oil them in place.  Worked well.

This is the lower landing done in maple, with some stained dark brown. I also like this landing, but it is certainly easier to use T&G flooring when it all runs in the same direction. Last step will be to install baseboards for both landings.

Hime heading off to the neighbor’s property to do her business mid-winter.  We had to say goodbye to her two days ago and shall miss her greatly.