At present, our little building project is being held hostage by a delinquent plumber who, for almost three weeks, has been promising to finish some of his plumbing work so that bathroom floors can be laid. Many of the contractors up here in cottage country are extremely busy in the summer season, and I can understand that our plumber might have taken on more work than he can handle. What bothers me most, other than the fact that this man is costing us time and money, is that on at least five occasions, he has broken a promise to perform his duties.
This has turned out to be a very strange summer in many respects. Up here in Burk’s Falls it has been a wet one, which has caused some problems on our job site. There is a mountain of clay left over from the basement excavation last May, and it needed to be off-loaded last week in order to make way for the excavation of the septic system. The builder bought a small building lot nearby which required fill. His reasoning was that, given the skyrocketing cost of diesel fuel, it made sense to buy a piece of land close to the job site which needed to be filled anyhow. He can improve the land and then sell it as a suitable building lot. Win win, right? The problem was that, when he started filling the lot with the clay from our site, the clay was so wet from all the rain that the bulldozer had difficulty spreading it. I watched some of that work and it was a wonder the dozer didn’t sink. I never really thought about it before, but soft ground is definitely a consideration when operating heavy machinery. It’s always something.
Not-So-Big Bertha hit Bermuda, reminding us that it is once again hurricane season in the Atlantic. I wonder if there will be another whopper like the storm that walloped New Orleans. One of the points made in that Lomborg book “Cool it” was that exponential population growth is making weather-related destruction more prevalent. Municipalities and especially developers don’t always pay close enough attention to the potentials for flooding and hurricane damage when deciding where and how development can occur. In their infinite wisdom, the town fathers of Burk’s Falls O.K.’d a bridge replacement over the Magnetawan River, a river, which opens into our lake. The trouble is, they built the bridge a bit lower instead of higher than the old one. With the heavy Spring runoff from all the snow last winter, the high water made it impossible for many boaters to pass under the new bridge and to access our lake. Oops. I went to the Doe Lake Association meeting a week or so ago, and the residents are, quite understandably upset by the oversight. Unfortunately, I doubt that their unanimous vote to demand that the bridge be raised two feet is going to have much influence on the Town Board.
The phone just rang. The plumber has decided to grace us with his presence, and it seems there is a problem with the stainless steel tubs. Three weeks ago would have been a better time to find this out, but so it goes.
Written by Jamie Oppenheimer c 2008 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
This has turned out to be a very strange summer in many respects. Up here in Burk’s Falls it has been a wet one, which has caused some problems on our job site. There is a mountain of clay left over from the basement excavation last May, and it needed to be off-loaded last week in order to make way for the excavation of the septic system. The builder bought a small building lot nearby which required fill. His reasoning was that, given the skyrocketing cost of diesel fuel, it made sense to buy a piece of land close to the job site which needed to be filled anyhow. He can improve the land and then sell it as a suitable building lot. Win win, right? The problem was that, when he started filling the lot with the clay from our site, the clay was so wet from all the rain that the bulldozer had difficulty spreading it. I watched some of that work and it was a wonder the dozer didn’t sink. I never really thought about it before, but soft ground is definitely a consideration when operating heavy machinery. It’s always something.
Not-So-Big Bertha hit Bermuda, reminding us that it is once again hurricane season in the Atlantic. I wonder if there will be another whopper like the storm that walloped New Orleans. One of the points made in that Lomborg book “Cool it” was that exponential population growth is making weather-related destruction more prevalent. Municipalities and especially developers don’t always pay close enough attention to the potentials for flooding and hurricane damage when deciding where and how development can occur. In their infinite wisdom, the town fathers of Burk’s Falls O.K.’d a bridge replacement over the Magnetawan River, a river, which opens into our lake. The trouble is, they built the bridge a bit lower instead of higher than the old one. With the heavy Spring runoff from all the snow last winter, the high water made it impossible for many boaters to pass under the new bridge and to access our lake. Oops. I went to the Doe Lake Association meeting a week or so ago, and the residents are, quite understandably upset by the oversight. Unfortunately, I doubt that their unanimous vote to demand that the bridge be raised two feet is going to have much influence on the Town Board.
The phone just rang. The plumber has decided to grace us with his presence, and it seems there is a problem with the stainless steel tubs. Three weeks ago would have been a better time to find this out, but so it goes.
Written by Jamie Oppenheimer c 2008 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
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