June 15th to 17th - 100 Mile House

June 15th – Tues – 100 Mile House
Marg & Pat left this morning for a 10 day trip to the Queen Charlotte Islands. Terry & I were kind of lazy in the morning and then started our next project after lunch. We are tearing out the existing deck on the back of the house and building a new one. It is ground level which makes it somewhat easier. We tried to dismantle it by taking out the screws but they are so old that they just strip out. So we got the chainsaw, cut between joists, pried the boards off with a crowbar and dumped them onto the burn pile. Luckily we started late as we were tired in a few hours and could quit for happy hour!
Dad is making another bedside table using the first one as a pattern. Marg & Pat made it to Burns Lake and stayed in a church parking lot for the night.

June 16th – Wed – 100 Mile House
Terry & I had some errands to run in town and then picked up the boards that we needed for the joists of the new deck. First we had to tear out the old joists. Terry discovered a large sledge hammer and was able to knock the boards apart. Then he cut them in half with a circular saw so we could load them on the tractor to dump for burning. In the afternoon, we did some planning and rebuilt the joists. We were certainly ready to put our tools away at 4.
Marg & Pat are in Terrace with lovely sunny weather. The weather was nice here today with just a brief afternoon rain shower – not even enough to quit work.

June 17th – Thurs – 100 Mile House
We were waiting for the horse dentist (Chris) at 11 this morning so we did not have time to get more boards for the deck before then. We decided to mow & weed eat the lawn while we were waiting. Chris was late so we really got things cleaned up. We were just finishing lunch when Quille came to pick up the boat – Terry had put the motor on earlier. Still no horse dentist so we put up new pulleys & rope to lift Marg’s pontoon boat up in the barn. It was still hard to lift so we added another pulley so the ATV can be used to hoist the boat.
About 2 I saw a phone message from Chris saying he had been delayed (you think!) and could be here by 4. Terry & I went to town to fill gas & diesel cans and then to the lumber yard for more boards. At 4:30, Chris called again and asked if we still wanted him to come today. Not wanting to spend another day waiting, I gave him driving instructions and we figured he was 20 minutes away. Chris did not listen too well to my directions and finally showed up about 5:15. By this time, we were done with all the “underpinnings” of the deck.
The dental procedure was quite a deal. Snow, the donkey, was first and she was OK with filing for the first couple of times. Then she figured out that she did not like Chris approaching her head and dragged me around. Luckily, Terry showed up to help. Chris had to clip off big pieces of Snow’s front teeth. Snow is shedding her winter hair and we were all covered with white hair. Buck, the pony, was next. I told Chris that he would be harder to work on than Snow and Chris said he doubted that as donkeys are smarter and figure out how to avoid the dentist. I was right however. Buck didn’t take too long to rear up to try to get away. Chris tried to assert his dominance with a knee to Buck’s chest but that had only minimal success. I was so glad that Terry was hanging on to Buck’s halter while I held the lead rope. Buck was finally done and only stepped on Terry’s foot once.
It was 6:45 by the time I started cooking dinner so it was very late by the time we ate.