Friday, August 29, 2014

That wasn't the plan, Stan

Dad came out last week, after a few days fishing salmon by Bamfield.  He had a second trip that fell through so he was at our place.  For days and days.  Which is a lot to take given he's a crazy man.  He does this weird thing where he works and works and works and doesn't take any breaks.  It's practically lethal for the rest of us, but he just powers through everything and gets shit done.

And so it was with this trip too.  He asked for a list of projects.  I came up with a list of projects.  And then I made the mistake of digging out a log that was infested with ants (which was super gross, by the way) and bam-o! we were digging out and levelling an area and laying down bricks to create a patio.  This went on for a couple days before we took a break and went to a few markets in the area, but at soon as we were back home, bam-o! we were back at it.  That wasn't my plan, but it is what it is.

We had a fair amount of bricks the former owners semi-buried in the garden, and then a whole schwack of them along the house extending the skinny pathway.  But the majority of them had mortar on them, so, in the hot hot sun, we rubbed the bricks on the pathway to remove the mortar and then hauled them over to Dad who was levelling the area and laying the bricks.  He had the toughest job, I think, because he was on his hands and knees.  I tried it and got through two rows before my knees gave up and went on strike.

The gazebo frame was already on the lawn, so Dad started building it, and then we all discussed how to get it to not blow away, and then Scott and Dad drilled into the huge concrete block (upon which sat a hot tub in a previous life) and bolted the gazebo to it.  We had to purchase a few more bricks from a guy who dismantled the Grand Hotel, so we have some bricks with "Nanaimo" on them, a few with "Clayburn" and the majority with "Dominion".

I have no idea how many bricks we laid, but that last 100 only did a row or so, and there's quite a few rows.  The dust!  The dirt!  The hot sun!  Ugh.  I will not be repeating that experience any time soon, that's for sure.  We did enjoy local corn, steaks, chicken wings, potatoes, salad, ice cream, Jamaican ginger ale, ginger snaps, date squares, coconut balls, ice cream, and black berries in between all the work, so it wasn't all bad.

Et voilà!  The process and the result, for your viewing pleasure!


 





 
 

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