Wet east Coast

My heart goes out to all the people down East they Have had way to much water and more is coming .
Great people it hurts big time to see how much damage is being done .
Christmas will not be very nice this year … Roy

Agree,

I hope Brian is OK…

OK now…yesterday afternoon was questionable for a while. Had to inspect a flat roof 4 stories up, no protection as it was higher than all surrounding buildings, wind gusts were probably 70-80+ km/hr. Two multi-flue (3 each) chimneys were at one edge of the roof…GULP! Heart rate and blood pressure were no doubt near off the scale for a period.

A good friend of mine from NB, who works in Halifax fairly regularly and stays with us when here, had a bit of a disaster. He stayed with us last night. They had a rear section (about 700 sq ft incuding weaving in two valleys of adjoining house section with recently replaced roof) of the 120+ year old farmhouse roof blow off.

It had been covered in steel over the old wood shingles before they bought. They had to strip down to boards which were showing a fair amount of rot…so strip and re-sheath, all in the high winds and it’s a 14/12 roof! Day before yesterday- they were working in snow but got it completed about an hour after dark.

Luckily, he had his 28 year old, very capable stepson to help. The stepson and his mate (her father is a contractor) had built their own post and beam framed, 1+1/2 storey, passive solar straw bale house on the adjoining property a couple years ago. Cut and milled/prepared their own lumber/framing.

I helped with the main frame raising (About 15 folks involved) at Thanksgiving 2 years ago. Found out that not many people like heights…so the stepson, his mate’s father, his brother, myself did all the high work. I later blew cellulose (9" thick-R34) in the upper framed gable ends.

BTW…On a thread within the past 2 days I made a claim about building supply centers not being the best place for information…my friend’s story confirms this …I couldn’t believe he was saying this so soon after that post: He went to the big orange box store to buy shingles and roofing nails. They told him that “Brick Red” 3 tab shingles were no longer available…which he soon got at another supplier and… the young floor rep tried to sell him staples when he asked for “roofing nails”…that’s what everyone is using now!! It took them a few minutes to find the 1+1/2 inch roofing nails!!

You are more used to snow down there aren’t you Brian? I was at the Highliner plant in Lunenburg 7 or 8 years ago and got snowed in, about 3 ft in a few hours and was snowmobiled out to Hubberds to a friend’s house for a couple of days until the roads were cleaned up. Still took 11 hours to get to Moncton after that and you would know how long it should take. Fun times in the Cobquid that trip.

That was February/04 and that particular storm was called “White Juan” after the hugely destructive Hurricane Juan of September/03.

We usually don’t get that much snow here but it can really vary from year to year. I’ve been here for 18 years. One winter in the mid 90’s, I remember just sweeping the little bit of snow off decks, stoop and steps. Liked that!!

Fun times in the Cobequid…A couple years ago, folks were trapped there for 24-36 hours due to a freak storm, Since it’s remote from any villages/towns, they weren’t able to get into church halls, etc and had to spend the time in their cars/trucks up on a mountain top.

I’ve sat at the toll booth for an hour or so to wait for the plows to go by and followed them down the hill. They aren’t steep hills but sure are long and 100,000 lbs isn’t fun to let get away from you.

Was wondering what you were doing in Lunenburg.

Delivered frozen food into Lakeside Industrial Park and returned with a load of fish from Highliner or pies from Kentville. Haven’t been down there since I hung up the keys 2-1/2 years ago.

A friend of mine drove for Loblaws out of that Lakeside distribution center until a few months ago. They have changed how they will being paying drivers with an option to stay with a steady job or go…he took a buyout of seniority (25+ years)…about a year’s wages…and is going looking for another job after he finishes building his new large garage.

Sounds like a bit of a dirty business to be in. I have seen some bad comments on a company from the US…JB HUNT, I believe, and another from Quebec, BESNER.

Hope you’re happy where you are now.

I never got involved with the bigger companies, I worked for CRS (Choice Reefer Systems) out of Belville Ont. They also own David Brown Trans. out of Kentville. Did it for about 12 years taking a break from construction, about 1.4 million miles. Yes, I am happy with things now, inspection business is established or seems to be, 230 this year and 2 more to go next week. My lawn furniture bus. works very well for about 3-4 months and I have snowplow contracts in Cornwall Ont. that gives me a very good steady pay for dec. to march whether it snows or not. They say, if you love what you do, you will never work another day. (Or something like that). All 3 incomes are things I love doing.
The truck isn’t mine personally, belongs to the company I sub for, this is my second year with it and love it plowing.
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