Uranium City

I am in Uranium City. The soft, white light of dawn is revealing a landscape cloaked in white. The temperature is hovering around -15c. Uranium City is virtually a ghost town. Once a bustling mine town of 5,000, now home to 90 people. Empty streets are lined by lonely houses. Street lights, silent sentinels push back the empty night as I walk. My ears ring with a silence that lies thicker than winter's fresh fallen snow. Once young and vibrant, full of future and promise, much of Uranium City lies abandoned and still.

But, there is still life here. The old elementary school still rings with the laughter and life of children going to school. There are still two classes conducted here. Mining companies continue to scour the landscape in hope. In the meantime, street lights stand vigil, holding back the night.

Raising the roof . . .

A beautiful, clear day dawned on Friday and spite of frost sparkling everywhere, it turned out to be a warm day. The front wall was finished and the door wall framed after work and all was in readiness for a roof raising. The question was, how to do it! My brother Ted was over bright and early on Saturday morning and since no one else was available, we set about how to raise the roof ourselves. We decided to go Egyptian and use the ramp method. With two extension ladders propped against the front wall and a lot of pushing and pulling, the roof soon found it's place.

The walls are closing in!

The walls have slowly been closing in. Every day another one goes up, and soon it will be time to put the roof on. Last night, I finished the front wall and today after work, I framed in the door. Stay tuned to find out how we get the roof on tomorrow.

Rain, sleet, or snow will not deter us . . .

Big fluffy white show flakes were falling off and on yesterday morning, alternating between rain, sleet, and snow. It was raining the night before as I stretched out a tarp to provide a small, dry work area were I could continue cutting. My hammer splashed in the rain and the temperature hovered around zero as I finished the third wall in the dark. Last night was relatively clear and thankfully dry as I finished up the fourth wall. This morning, the temperature in Regina and Saskatoon is around -7c! In La Ronge, the temperature this morning is a balmy +1c. I'm looking foward to a roof raising this afternoon, so stay tuned for more news and pictures.

Snow Shed!

We finished another wall in the dark last night and this morning we awoke to snow gently falling outside our window. Snow! With more snow predicted for tomorrow, it looks like finishing this shed is becoming more of a challenge than I anticipated. In the meantime, Mitch thinks its a great place to play.

Making space . . .

We've been living in a two-bedroom duplex for more than a year now and it's been a little tight! Now don't get me wrong. We really like the place and after living in Japan for ten years, we do know how to live in small spaces - we just didn't have as much stuff there!

So! Since we can't add another room or slide a basement under the duplex, we decided to build a storage shed. Since I hate standard, boring, box-like shapes, I decided to try something different. After searching the Internet for interesting designs, I settled on one from Summerwood Products in Ontario. The plans were quite detailed and all the steps were clearly laid out. A monkey could build it with these plans! We were off to a good start by August 28th and the floor was soon done.

By September 1st the roof was well on it's way to completion, until errors in the plans started to drive this monkey bananas. Yes, I did measure twice and cut once! Unfortunately, some of the errors pertaining to roof component dimensions were not so easy to correct. By now you are probably asking yourself, "Why is he working on the roof? Where are the walls?" Just following the plans! It is supposed to be easier to complete the roof on the floor, move it off to the side, and then, with the help of all your friends, lift the finished roof into place. That's the idea, anyway.

Well, in spite of shorter and shorter days, rain, bugs, and procrastinaton, the roof finally got figured out, completed, and set aside. It was so good to get that out of the way and move on to something fast and easy like the walls. Hopefully, it will be finished by the end of this week. After a trip to Melfort last weekend, we have a trailer jamb-packed and stacked full of shed things. What doesn't fit will hit the yard sale!

I spent my holidays stripping!

Well it's August 17th, the days are getting shorter and the nights colder. I can tell by the chill in the air that Fall is on it's way whether I like it or not. Meanwhile, friends and family in Japan are sweltering in 40c+ temperatures . . . I'll take the cold over the heat!

It's about a month since the last update, so now it's time to bring you up to speed. After attending sailing school at Emma Lake, I returned work for a week. During that week, I travelled to Pinehouse Lake and deployed a batch of new computers.

It was a short week and soon we were off to Weyburn where we met Sarah's parents and visited her grandmother. While in Weyburn, I found hidden treasure! Nestled deep within a scrap yard, I found the perfect donor for my Jeep Grand Cherokee. Now this is my kind of holiday, wrench in hand and lying under a car, stripping as many parts as I can stuff into a minivan already bursting with holiday gear. It was a good day!

With my appetite for Jeep parts sated, the inlaws visited, and minivan over-loaded, we headed back to Melfort. On the way back, we stopped off at Pure Praire coffee garden and gift shop in Dysart. The stop was well worth it! The hidden garden is beautifully done, with a number of rustic buildings hidden among the trees and shrubs. Within each building you will find a table or two perfect for a secluded latte or cappuccino. After a much needed break, it was off to Mefort to see the Fair Parade and enjoy the Midway. The Fair was great fun for the kids and a lot of walking for us, but we survived. The worst was yet to come!

Sarah and I spent the next week stripping! Stripping paint, that is. The garage at our house in Melfort needed paint, but before it could be painted, all the old paint had to come off. I do not recommend stripping and painting as a holiday activity. Stripping parts off a car, thats fun. Stripping paint off a garage with a propane torch, is not fun. You couldn't pay me to do this! No, I did it for free! And it was HOT! After a week of stripping, scraping, sanding, filling, sanding, wiping, priming, sanding, and painting, we were done and it was time to go home.
























Back in La Ronge and back to work! While Sarah and the kids enjoyed a week of summer camp, I travelled 5 hours north to La Loche and depoyed more computers. After 3 ten to twelve hour days, it was back home to La Ronge and a long weekend ahead. What a month!