Working hard on a Sunday

^{Hard to thing this river Galt was a tiny creek last summer}

Sunday October 9^th
It has been rainy so much in the night of Friday/Saturday that it reminded me July 14, 1987 in Montreal which was soaked to the point of seeing tanker trucks floating on some highways.

Here the land has absorbed most of the water but the soil is soaking wet.

Today, it rained again and I did not feel like staying inside to read or listen to the radio all day long. Thus, since autumn is advancing rapidly towards coldness et seeing all my attempts at demolishing/deconstructing buildings going down the drain (no puns intended) I decided to make use of the wood that is already here, left over by the former landowner. On top of that I don't see myself living in 8' x 8' cube the whole winter.

^{First step: a floor base}

That owner built this big wooden platform made of "palettes" for shipping goods all over the world. Using a forklift it is easy to lift those from containers and placing them in wharehouses or elsewhere. These palettes are solid. I undid the platform he made for tents during the hunting season and during the day I made my floor and my walls for an annex to the little cube that is home.

^{Second steps: the walls}

I then added all those glass-window I brought along with me from Montreal. I used garden walls for the roof and a plastic as a temporary roofing. This will be my kitchen/dining room, small but cozy.

<sup>Third steps: windows and roof


Fourth step: relaxing in the result of a hard day's work</sup>
Up to now, my home costs me 3 dollars since I arrived and started building in mid-July.

It is not a grand view from a mountain top but it will be great to look through during the winter time the snow all over. I made a panorama of the view.

Obviously there is still lots to do to make the place well insolated for the -40� we get around here. It will be done in time.

I have the feeling of recycling material... A good bunch of those palettes are undoubtedly coming all the way from Asia. When I was living in Montreal I was noticing most of them ended up in huge garbage bins in the back of the Home Depot, next to my place.
I could not believe that all this wood was being wasted. I thought it could be well used for structural purposes. Since Asia is undergoing such an intensive deforestation cycle and knowing a good percentage of these clear-cuts are to make palettes for shipping merchandise all over the world, I decided to put wheel to shoulder or to not just complain about it but do something and prove the feasibility of their use as structure for housing.

^{Photo - Bazuki Muhammad/Reuters/File - Christian Science Monitor, June 30, 2005
The world's largest container ship,Orient Overseas Container Line Shenzen, is based in Hong Kong. It sails to Europe and back in 56 days!}