Cherry Orbit

The Beaver Dam

We were not the only builders in town.  While on vacation from the house project, we kayaked a small lake that was in the middle of nowhere.  The lake was created by a man-made dam at one end with a fairly large body of water behind it that was protected and perfect for kayaking.  As we headed upstream , at the far end of the lake we came upon several small beaver dams in disarray.  We immediately thought “these animals are going nowhere”  We paddled a little further

Beaver Dam

where we came upon the Hoover dam of beaver dams rising to a height of  5 feet and a width of several hundred feet.  No wonder beavers had abandoned their lowly hovels for this Four Seasons resort.  This dam was huge enough to create a 2 acre pond behind it.

It was truly an engineering feat.  How such a massive enterprise was created and co-ordinated with such complexity and asthetic, had us rethink the whole beaver world.  A beaver was not just a large rodent, but a large rodent with a large brain and a sense of community.  The beaver dam was as successful an enterprise as the man-made dam at the far end of the lake, requiring similar ingenuity and far less money and equipment.  It was apparent that this beaver dam had been around for many years and was maintained daily with fresh mud and new wood.

It left us wondering just how much more advanced we are than beavers and of course the question, “Where were they?”

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September 25th, 2010 Filed Under Uncategorized | 100 Comments »

What It Was – Redux

A working livingroom

We were crestfallen when we pulled up to our new house and found that nothing had happened that was supposed to happen.  These projects included installation of a sink, a toilet, a smooth finished road through the woods and the completion of the exterior house siding…and water.  So, being snarky Americans, we got right on our cell phones to read our Canadian subs the riot act.  Within 2 days the place was crawling with workers, tripping over each other completing the jobs that should have been done months ago.

Lo and behold, a week later, promises had been kept and it was time for us to start in on our end of the project.

Experiencing the “overwhelmed” that any new house builder has, we divied up tasks of insulation, painting steel, installing boardwalk, all in the context of vacation, putting time aside  for swimming off the rocks, picnicing, kyaking, biking and bugger bridge.

First task was insulating walls and ceiling which proved to be much easier to accomplish by hiring the contractor to do the overhead work.  We then found out, the insulation was the easy part…the taping of the vapor barrier to seal in the insulation was an additional weeks work.  Vacation leaned heavily toward work.

The weather turned simply beautiful so we could not ignore it.  It was time to frolic and remember what this place was all about.  We found time to play and visit friends, so pretty soon, we were behind in our work again. Fortunately the weather in everchanging  fashion reminded us of the tasks at hand.  Boardwalks were built, beams painted, mountains of trash were burned and wildflowers were planted.  Blisters accumulated and camp hair was prevalent.  The last few days were devoted to interior design work when our minds were feeble and our bodies, dog-tired. We left with many measurements, memories and a year to segue to the next phase.

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September 17th, 2010 Filed Under Uncategorized | 28 Comments »