Thanksgiving Weekend

This was Thangsgiving weekend up here in Canada. We celebrate early.. you know.. so we can still have a barbeque rather than shivering on the deck in late November.

There is always plenty to give thanks for and this year was no exception. Family, friends, a house and good food. What more can we ask for?

My brother-in-law is currently re-siding our house. Hardi-plank is pretty amazing stuff. Solid as a rock (weighs about as much too).. looks great… and since its’ made out of cement, it has an R value and is relatively fireproof. A good upgrade from cedar shakes.

We’ll be painting the house a deep burgundy… you can see a sample on the side, I couldn’t resist trying out the sprayer. We also discovered a rather large nest of carpenter ants. Nasty little beasts had eaten out all the outside planking (yes, planking! House was built in ’45.. and built well!) so my father-in-law cut out all the eaten bits and $10 worth of wood and trim later we had a solid wall and new window frame.

Lots of other stuff going on too.. there was a “Millwarts Express” ride this weekend… the local steam train took probably 100 screaming Harry Potter fans up to the old Mcleans Mill to do lots of Harry Potter inspired sculdugery. I was just a boring Muggle though and stayed home…

2 replies on “Thanksgiving Weekend”

  1. the thing to remember about carpenter ants is that they live off of rotting wood. They won’t destroy good wood. You want to be sure that you control moisture around windows, eaves etc so the ants don’t find more rotten wood and just move in some where else in the house. Also, get rid of any dead trees and don’t pile fire wood where it will start to rot especially if it’s near the house. Same advise for the threat of termites. We found carpenter ants years ago when we replaced rotting wood on the front of our garage up under the eaves. Nasty BIG creatures, aren’t they?

    Anyway, glad you had a nice holiday. The Harry Potter stuff looks like it was fun. I’m really looking forward to our Thanksgiving at the end of November. I’m retiring from my job at New Year so the holidays bring a double blessing to me…lots of eats, family fun and no more workee in a few weeks! Been working now almost 45 years with only 2 years in all that time I didn’t have a full time job. I’m ready to REE-lax.

  2. My wife and I had our house re-done in Hardi-plank as well. It is great sutff, and unlike other siding, you can freely re-paint it when you get tired of the current colour.

    You’re right about its weight, though. I got killed on the shipping bringing it all the way up to the NWT.

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