Montreal

When we returned to Montreal, we visited the site of the 1967 World Fair, Man and His World, and the site of some of the Olympic venues on two islands in the middle of the St. Laurence River. The Biosphere, which was the US pavillion during the World Fair, is now the site of an environmental museum. The dome used to be covered by acrylic, but in 1976 a welder was repairing the frame and accidently caught the surface on fire. It all burned in 20 minutes. Now there is an environmental museum inside. This view shows the Montreal city skyline through the frame of the dome.
The dome with the museum inside. There were various very interesting exhibits. We saw a film on six screens (you sat on stools that could be turned) about endangered species. There was a hands-on, interactive exhibit about the St. Laurence River and the Great Lakes. There were wonderful photos of boreal forests. The top of the museum has examples of many of Buckminster Fuller's inventions (he's really a Renaissance man), including cars, a needle rowing boat, domes of various varieties, etc. In the center was an explanation of wind power (very interesting now that there will be a wind farm just outside the Cottage). The museum uses bogs to clean its waste water and has wind generators inside.
From the Biosphere we went to the Montreal Botanical Garden, a huge place with wonderful green houses, a Japanese and Chinese garden, an aquatic/bog garden, an insecterium, model gardens, etc. There were two wedding parties with photographers going around having their photos taken (lots of dragging little kids and bridesmaids with sore feet). This orchid was in the greenhouse.
The Botanical Garden is near the Olympic Stadium. The removable dome designed for the stadium did not take account of the snow loads in Montreal and has been replaced numerous times. Montreal was paying for this stadium through a tax until 2005. This shows the tower with the lines connected to the present roof (which is also removable).

We also walked around the ethnic section of Montreal (St. Laurent street), visiting a 50 year old bagel bakery where the bagels are cooked in a wood-fired oven.

Ile d'Orleans

After visiting Montmorency Falls, we crossed the St. Laurence to Ile d'Orleans, a large agricultural island in the middle of the river. Our first stop was a small vineyard which made wines from black currants, including a world class Creme de Cassis. We tasted and purchased both and then continued on, looking for a picnic spot. There were farm stands all along the road with fall produce (including raspberries, strawberries and blueberries). We purchased fruit and small tomatoes and went on to another vineyard where we ate lunch.
Lunch time! This view is north over the St. Laurence. The north side of the river is actually narrower than the south side and it is as wide as the Columbia. We discovered in the Biosphere a few days later that the St. Laurence tides at Quebec City are 5.9 meters and that a way further down stream the depth increases from 11 meters to almost 300 meters.
At the east end of the island there is a lookout tower. You can't drive to the end of the island which is all in forest. Most of the island is still laid out in narrow strips and there are truck crops, wheat and dairy farms scattered over the island. The population consisted of farmers, ship builders, pilots and captains.
We continued on around the island to this lovely church along the river. The tide was out and Bob and I went down to see if we could walk along the river's edge. It was muddy and slippery, so we returned. The rocks here were wonderfully colored and stratified. Three different tectonic plates collide here including the northern-most portion of the Appalachians. This church had a parsonage across the street which now houses an artisinal bakery where we had a drink. The parsonage even had two bowling alleys in the basement and an attached barn/garage where the priests would accept the tithes from the parishoners in the form of wheat. We returned over the bridge to Quebec City.

Montmorency Falls

The second day we drove out of Quebec City to Montmorency Falls, taller than Niagara Falls (272'). We rode an aerial tram to the top and then walked across the falls on a suspension bridge and down the other side. Here you see the stairway down the schist. The river below the falls is very shallow and flows about 500' into the St. Laurence.

Below the falls is a big eddy with all sorts of wood floating and slowly swirling in circles.
In addition to the main falls, there are several smaller falls on the side. There was a hydroelectric facility (below the bridge on the left) which is no longer operational. There is also a villa, Manoir Montmorency, built in 1781 and used as a private residence, a hospital, a monastery and now a hotel.

Quebec City

This year is the 400th anniversary of the founding of Quebec City by Samuel de Champlain. Champlain landed at Cap Diamante (Diamond Cape), thinking that he had arrived at the source of riches in the new world. Mom arranged for a hotel in the old town right next to the Chateau Frontenaque. We drove out (about 3 1/2 hours) from Montreal, arriving about noon. That afternoon we walked all over the old town. Quebec is still the heart of New France; almost all the signs are only in French even though this is a big tourist destination this year. This view is of the pedestrian-only street in the port area (down below the stone cliffs which provided the military advantage). It is filled with shops and restaurants.

This is Notre-Dame-des-Victoires Church, the oldest church in North America (1608). It is located on Place Royale, the birthplace of French civilization in North America. Inside, there is a replica of Le Breze, the ship on which the Marquis de Tracy arrived with his troops in 1665.

We walked on the Governor's Walkway along the St. Laurence River from the Chateau Frontenac to the Citadel, a fort built by the British after they captured Quebec City.

View of the St. Laurence River from the Governor's Walkway. By the end of the day, we were exhausted. We had visited the Museum of Culture with its rooftop garden, walked around the upper and lower city, etc. We had dinner at Portofino the first night and Le Cochon Dingue the second night. The weather was unbelievable, clear and warm with a light breeze. Quebec City definitely feels like a different country.

Beautiful Tunkhannock

Sunset from the tree house. With the west field cleared, we can see the sunsets beautifully. The tree house has a wonderful view over the property.

Darwin has turned into a complete farm dog. He lies around in the sun or the shade, rides in the jump seat of the pickup, plays frisbee and stick and goes with us to visit the Sands (and their five dogs). Markus went riding with a woman who is a dog groomer and breeder who washed, dried, and combed Darwin, along with cutting his toenails and cleaning his ears and teeth. He was the most spiffed up he's been in a long time.

While we're traveling in Quebec and New York, Darwin and Snoopy are in Tunkhannock. Markus reported that Darwin now rides in the front seat of the pick up and that he's doing fine.

Windows

One of the jobs Markus wanted to complete before we left was the installation of three windows and a door into the living room. The living room is extremely out of square, which requires significant cutting and fitting to install the braces necessary for the insulation and the windows. In this photo you can see the lack of insulation (the lathe is all that separates the living room from the elements) and Bob and Markus working on sistering and adding beams. The wall is so out of square that the boards were about 6" wide at the floor and 4" wide at the eave.

We had previously installed the two west-facing windows. The living room has settled around the chimney significantly, so the window frames looked completely off horizontal. Markus used a water level to make sure the windows were at the same height. This is a very clever way to make sure things are on the same level over long distances. We used excess PEX pipe, filled it with water, got rid of the air bubbles and then would hold the ends at each window to make sure they were level. We used the same process to make sure the south window (in the first picture) was level with the west windows. This is the first real work on the Cottage this summer (or so it felt), though we did do the basement and the subfloor. It will also allow Markus to have a slightly insulated living room in which to live during the fall and winter. The area covered by Tyvek is filled with insulation. I put the insulation in and Tyvek on while Bob and Markus did the skilled carpentry.

On the morning we left Markus and Bob installed the south window, though Markus has since had to take it out as it sticks too far into the living room.

Carriage House Doors

Bob bought steel hinges and hardware when he was down in Guatemala and brought it home. We then transported it to Tunkhannock. Bob's big job was to build the Carriage House doors (12' high). First we had to build the subfloor on the back of the Cottage to have a place to work. Then Bob had to build a perpendicular surface on which to mount the doors onto the Carriage House (not an insignificant job given that it is in no way square). Then Bob laid out the larch boards (from the tree cut on the property), which were warped and attached all sorts of braces and drilled lots of lag bolts. By the time he was done, these were heavy, strong doors. We loaded them into the pickup and drove them to the Carriage House where we set them up and attached ropes to the top so they wouldn't topple over on us. (see purple rope and belt above) The next problem was how to drive the hinges diagonally through the poles for 12". Markus figured out how to make a guide by measuring the two sides of the triangle on the post and then creating an identical triangle which was used as a guide for the drill (which had a huge extension bit). Lastly, we had to lower the hinges onto the bolt. Here you can see the door in approximately the right position. That was a three-person job; one person held the door on a pry bar and moved it up and down gently, someone else steadied it vertically and the third person tried to drop the hinges on to the bolts.

Here is the finished first door on its hinges. You can see all the bracing. The door opens and closes smoothly and without a lot of physical effort.

One door hung, with the second awaiting hanging. After the doors were hung, Bob installed the latch, Markus installed a ring so the latch can be lifted from the inside, Bob installed an extra piece of wood on the inside center of the left door to close over the right door and installed a piece of wood on the top of the Carriage House door frame. The Carriage House is now the most completed building on the property, though we also spent time preparing for the pouring of a concrete slab for the Garn wood furnace.

That required the installation of forms outside the Carriage House so as to anchor the poles into something (at present there is nothing attaching the Carriage House to the ground). Gale and Sabrina Saxton did the initial installation and then I created forms that fit against the rock surfaces (a series of approximations which required the use of a saber saw) so that the concrete doesn't ooze out the bottom). I also painted the surface of the poles that will be in the concrete with roofing tar and created steel sleeves for the same poles with cut outs for all the attachments to the forms.

Field Clearing

The hardest, most disagreeable job this year was clearing the west field. As I reported earlier, Markus wanted to clear the west field so that it would be easier and cheaper to brush hog it in the future. Each morning (except week-ends) we would spend 1 1/2 hours in the field. Markus would cut down the trees and Bob and I would drag the tops and small limbs to burn piles. Markus would cut the wood into appropriate sizes which would be loaded into the pickup truck and then taken to the Carriage House where we would unload and stack it. This photo shows two rows of wood (the back one stacked almost to the ceiling). We finished both these rows (which also extend out to the right about another 6' and made two more rows to the ceiling for about half the distance. Markus calculated that we cut and stacked over five cords of wood. It was really hard work (campesino labor).

This photo shows some of the brush piles from the tree house. We also worked at clearing the ditches along side the driveway where Markus had pushed a lot of downed debris. That was even worse work as it was tangled and there was old barbed wire in its midst. We needed to clear the ditches to protect the road from erosion in the rain. All of us got poison ivy from handling the debris.

The last two days we worked on thinning the grove on the rock pile in the center of the field. As the field had been cleared, rocks were piled in the center. The forester had suggested which trees to remove. Bob, Markus and I worked two hard days clearing that area and finished the day of the big burn. Markus had invited the Sands to help supervise the burn and had told the fire department what we were intending. We started at about 6 p.m. lighting the piles in the second photo which were the driest. Bob and Markus would light them with gasoline or a mixture of gasoline and used motor oil. Then we would watch them and push the unburned limbs in and go on to the next piles. The piles with green wood or hawthorn were very difficult to light, but we succeeded and burned everything by about 10 p.m. The field now is beautiful. A couple days later Tiny Sands came over with the Select Sires John Deere tractor pulling a 12' brush hog and cut the rest of the west field and our field below the pond. Bob says there is a lot of good grass hay in the west field.

Radiant Heat Lines

One of the big jobs this year was laying PEX radiant heat lines on top of the styrofoam base in the basement. The masons had laid the styrofoam on top of gravel and had laid the iron grid on top of the styrofoam. My job was to lay out and attach the PEX. This involves first figuring out the layout. You want heat lines 6" apart near any wall and no less than 1' apart elsewhere. In addition, you want the line to coil in and then out in a big curlique so that the heat is disseminated equally since the water is hotter coming in than leaving. The lines can't cross each other and there were various obstacles (poles and plumbing). I took to first laying out the design on graph paper (after a lot of erasures) and then installing the PEX with zip ties. In some rooms I marked my route with spray paint. In this picture you can see me installing the PEX wearing a "clean" shirt with soap residue on it.

The PEX comes in 300' and 1000' coils (which are heavy). To keep the coils from getting twisted Markus created this spindle. It still required me to horse the coils around to unwind them. In this photo you can see various tricks to the installation such as S curves and the plumbing I had to work around.

The finished layout in one half of the basement. This is the shop with the root cellar in the back. The bathroom/laundry room is on the left (not in the photo) and the garage and equipment room (same depth as this photo) are on the right. It took me six days of pretty constant work to finish this.

The last thing was to attach both the source and return pipes to the wall and the valves (which I did with Markus). The masons then came back and raised the whole thing on 2" bricks in preparation for pouring the concrete. Markus has to pressure test the system for 24 hours and get it inspected before the cement can be poured. It turns out that I had not cut off the zip ties close enough to the metal grid so that they would be completely burried in the cement, so after the whole thing had been raised I had to go around on tip toe (the squares are 6" on a side) and cut off all the tails.

Laundry in Tunkhannock

Laundry in Tunkhannock is primitive and in reality, in name only. The washing machine has been installed on a corner of the porch (see first photo) for several years and there is only cold water. In addition the critters chewed through all the hoses and electrical wiring rendering the machine completely useless until Markus rewired it. Last year it worked with cold water and a full set of cycles. This year there is only a wash cycle (no rinse, no spin). Thus, you put the wash in with soap and then run the wash cycle again without soap. However, clothes (particularly dark blue shirts) come out with strange splotches of excess soap film. In addition, since our clothes are really dirty, the dirt gets redistributed onto other clothes. However, this is all there is.

There is a long clothes line (ala Quebec) on which to hang clothes and Arlene figured out how to put in the device that holds the bottom line up closer to the top line when you have a lot of heavy clothes to hang. When it rains (or is overcast and misty) the hammock serves as the clothese line. In this photo there are a lot of gloves hanging to dry as they had gotten sooty from the last field burn of the season.

Once the basement is finished there will be a laundry room with a real washer.