Exit, Pursued by a Bear

Balusters

... went in today. There's a lot of work to do still, but now we can see the new face of the house -

update - trip map

Massasauga, redux

Grandma T. once again looked after the Wuzzle overnight (which was heroic - he was teething when we left) and we headed back to the woods with the matrimonial canoe:

progress

Posts trimmed and cased, rail bought, trimmed with a router and installed, attachment points screwed into the pillars, frames for the balusters installed, balusters measured, cut and painted, fascia boards painted, cut and installed (except for an odd bit I didn't get to), baluster groups starting to be assembled.

Discovery: metal corner pieces for drywalling, laid out on sawhorses, are good for drying things freshly painted on all sides.

To come: sanding and painting nail holes, assembling and installing baluster groups, and a fresh coat of paint.

porch update

This small person is sitting on the progress of the last two weekends: 48 tongue-and-groove floorboards primed on both sides, painted on both sides (two coats for the top, and sand for traction added for the nine boards leading to the front door) installed, and the structure for the railing begun.

I like souvlaki, really, I do -

I could leave the endless traffic problems and the all-night drunken afterparty in the park, though - I indulged uncharitable thoughts last night involving bear spray. All our neighbours have left town, and now I know why.

Anyway: Taste of the Danforth: carnival of delight or neighbourhood affliction? Join the debate at torontoist.com here.

From the TOTD Web site: Our Founder, whose name is apparently too sacred to utter, channels Chester Nimitz:

Over 13 years ago, three pairs of eyes stared down the President of Krinos Foods and pitched a vision - the Taste of the Danforth. The concept, initially modeled on the enormously successful Taste of Chicago, would be a celebration of Hellenic cuisine and Hellenic culture. The president had no statistics, no analysis on which to base his decision, but after pacing the boardroom, turned and said "Krinos Foods will be the presenting sponsor for the next five years." He knew as a businessman that all ideas take time to develop and nurture.

And the Riverdale camping weekend was born.

good fences, etc.

C. and I and the Wuzzle went to Cobourg today, where she bought a quantity of cast-iron fence for the front of the house. It will be delivered at some future time to be determined. That's ours, in back (the black, not the green):

more fun with maps

Below: an early attempt at GoogleMapping last weekend's canoe trip in Massasauga, using software that's designed for mapping jogging routes.

The satellite resolution isn't great in this case, but it's inconsistent for canoe country - parts of Algonquin Park (Big Trout Lake, for example) are shown clearly enough to see individual waves and tree branches, at least as good as imagery of downtown Toronto.

A link to the live map is here - you'll have to click Hybrid, in the upper right-hand side of the map, and wiggle it around a bit to see the whole thing.

Must go to woods

Grandma T. took care of the Wuzzle overnight, (thanks, Grandma T.!) and we headed for the woods, where we had a total of five swims at an idyllic site in Massasauga, each more perfect than the last.

The turtle below came to see us twice. It swam very gracefully, which I hadn't expected given how cumbersome they are on land.