The Squamidian Report – May 9 / 09
Issue #363
Including:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
Just to be different, this is not about motorcycles. It is about bicycles, mountain bicycles to be exact. And it’s about rug-rat sized kids, the kind that are all over the street I live on. Mountain bicycling is a big deal here in the mountains. And because of that, the very moment that the toddling rug-rats can graduate from their tiny tricycles, they are onto tiny mountain bikes all geared up with fancy riding cloths and helmets. Those tiny mountain bikes are not something to snicker at either. They have front shocks built into the forks and a rear mono-shock for the back wheel. They have several gazillion gears and high tech disk brakes. The rug-rats are ready to tackle the world of backcountry rocky steep trails.
But first they seem to want to practice in a safe, familiar environment, like the middle of our street. Out comes the 2x4s and bits of sheets of plywood to make ramps and jumps. Out come the boxes and pails for the ramps to go up and over. Suddenly our street is an obstacle course for the little gladiators to conquer. They pedal along as fast as their tiny legs can go, wobbling all over the street. As they gain skill and confidence, they go up their ramps, over their jumps and quite often land back on two wheels and under control, shaky, but under control.
So if you find yourself on our street and wonder why many homes have piles of boards and other miscellaneous items heaped on the fronts of their lawns, its just mountain bike country waiting to happen.
*
Hydro duct bank through Whistler update…
On some levels we are making good progress installing the hydro duct bank along the highway through Whistler. In the three weeks or so that we have been on the site, we have installed almost a kilometer of concrete encased conduit. All this while enduring a never-ending on-slot of agitated impatient vehicle drivers zooming by just inches from us. Kind of funny how that works, large trucks pulling wide trailers often manage to navigate the narrow lanes between the bright orange cones while some small pickups and fancy cars can’t seem to fit through without knocking half of them over. I’m pretty sure some of the drivers are just being jerks and others think they are ‘punishing’ us for their inconvenience.
On another level we have run in to some problems. The geo-tech person who tests the backfill over the trench has been giving us endless grief. Because this is under the roadway the trenching and backfilling must meet Highway’s specs. However, even with shallow 12-inch lifts we are unable to reach the required numbers. At first I was defending the geo-tech lady from our bosses who like to do things the ‘old boys’ way, which basically means that a case of bear or a bottle of whiskey can smooth over any discrepancy. But the problem has been that the material we are being supplied with to backfill is NOT meeting the engineered specs because it can’t and never will. We are using crushed basalt which is basically just a dirty form of drain rock. No amount of watering and compacting will bring this material up to the 100% compaction reading and moisture content required. It IS at 100% but can’t read 100%. You can stand there with a fire hose pointed at one spot and the water just disappears right through. You can make as many passes as you want with the tampers or rollers and still not get the required results. There are just too many voids between the pieces of stone and not enough fine particles. The material won’t lock together.
We’ve tried to explain to the geo-tech that her equipment must be calibrated to this material on a regular basis and that it is still the wrong material but she has been told by someone above her that the material was passed at some point in the past. So she has decided that it is us that are not watering and compaction properly and has even hinted that as soon as she turns her back we are just dumping the truckloads of basalt into the trench and spreading it out, not taking the time to do the compacted lifts. Once she reached that point I no longer respected her methods or opinions and in fact ended up in an argument with her, and I almost NEVER argue with anyone. So things have gotten rather stressful and frustrating.
The situation actually had us shut down for the last couple of days but as far as I know, our boss and the engineers and the geo-tech company have now worked out some sort of solution. Guess I’ll find out on Monday just what that solution is.
By the way, on just about every day either going to or coming back from Whistler, we see hungry black bears munching on grass at the side of the road. That’s kind of cool.
doug
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You may recall that Carol and Al sent in some pictures they took while on their trip but didn’t get them to me in time for last weeks addition. Well, I’ve posted them and they can be viewed at:
http://www.thedougsite.net/F&F/Pictures/Visit09/C&A1.htm
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Hello
everyone!
I hope
you’re all enjoying spring this year. We’re experiencing one of the earliest
Springs recorded over the past 20 years. I read that on line the other day.
Seems accurate to me and we are enjoying it to be sure! Today I discovered one
of the coolest handy man items I’ve seen in a long time. Since we moved here
(it’ll be 11 years this coming August) Carole has repainted the wood pillars on
the front porch every second summer. They are the kind that are 4”x 4” on the
top and bottom couple of feet and have fancy turning in between. To be honest,
they look a tad spindly for the job they are doing (Holding up the roof over
the porch). A few years ago we replaced the 2x4 wood railing that runs between
these posts with plastic that looks like 2x4’s but don’t need to be painted.
Carole asked me if we could replace the wooden pillars with plastic ones so she
could stop painting every two years. I checked into replacing them and found a
really cool invention. There is a company that produces PVC plastic covers for
refurbishing wooden porch pillars. They are sold at RONA Hardware and you can
get them for different size posts. I picked up two sets of these plastic
replacements and brought them home. I had just started to take the railing off
the porch and Adam came home from work. He offered to help me do the job and of
course I accepted his offer. These plastic post covers come in four sections
that snap together around the old posts and can be cut to length. It took us
about a half hour to measure and install the first cover and reinstall the
railing to the post. I was amazed at how great the results were and best of
all, Carole was very happy with the way it looks too! We were stopped in our
tracks by a huge thunder storm that broke over our heads just as we finished
the first post cover. I’ll finish the second one Saturday morning right after I
read today’s Squamidian! LOL!
There is
always something to do or redo when you own a house and it’s very interesting
when you’re able to find cool inventions that make these repairs and
renovations easier on the person doing them. I’ve always thought of plastic
items as cheap and not very nice looking when used in place of aluminum or real
wood items. However, these pillar covers are slightly fluted and have a very
solid look and feel once in place. They’ll last a very long time and are
guaranteed not to discolour or deteriorate. With both myself and Carole happy with
the results of this little project, I’m grateful to the inventor of the “Post
Covers” and am glad as well that Carole will never have to paint the porch
pillars and railings again!
That’s it
for this week folks!
Thanks
for tuning in and I look forward to talking to you all again next week in The
Ontarion Report.
Bye for now… Greg.
PS:
Something To Think About>
What does
this world still need that has yet to be invented? Simple or great!
****
Have a good one..
the doug
The Fine Print!
The articles in these issues are the sole property of the persons writing them and should be respected as such.