Geocaching – Chapter 2 (the adventure continues!)

As I had indicated previously I have now taken up Geocaching – the search, using a GPS, for little treasures hidden by others who then have posted the coordinates of their cache on the web.

After taking a break of about two months while I did other things I have finally taken up geocaching again searching for and locating 4 in and around Nipigon. The first is located at a favourite location of mine: Mouseau Mountain, or otherwise know as “Tower Hill” as it is host to several telecommunication towers and at one time had a fire tower as well (now dismantled). What is special about it is the great overview one gets from this vantage point:

I made this trip special by bringing along and introducing to the sport of geocaching Jordan, (on the left) my brother-in-law Hans (on the right), his daughter Mandy, and his good friend Bill. Here is a picture of everyone standing by the cache, a small plastic box hidden amongst the rocks.

To find out more about this site here is the link: http://www.geocaching.com/seek/cache_details.aspx?guid=b24b6126-76c8-45f9-8e96-dfe5c9af330a

The next cache I located was at “The Bald Spot”, a bare area on the top of a diabase ridge that provides an excellent overview of the town of Nipigon:

Later that same day I located the cache at the “Nipigon Lookout”, a pull off on the Trans-Canada Highway. From here you can gaze down upon Nipigon, the mouth of the Nipigon River where it flows into Nipigon Bay and on to the nearby community of Red Rock. Red Rock is where my dad worked at the paper mil (now closed) and is host to the public and high schools I attended prior to leaving the area to attend university so many years ago.

And the last one I have located just today is on “Pancake Island”, a small island within the embrace of the Nipigon River. This one is actually meant to be accessed by using a canoe or a kayak. As it happens the island is attached to the mainland by a breakwater made of diabase:

What made this one a little “interesting” is that a portion of the breakwater just barely pokes up above the water. Enough to walk over, or at least it was when I crossed to the island. On the return leg the water had risen about 10cm and as a result I had to do some wading through the water such that I ended up with a bit of water in my boots!

Home Renovations

The last couple of months have been a busy time for myself. My last day at work was August 12th. I am now on vacation until the end of April of next year and then on May 1st I will retire after 30 years with Inco. A few days after beginning my vacation I loaded up my red Ranger pickup and drove 1,560km to Nipigon, picking up our youngest son, Jordan, when I passed through Winnipeg.

Soon after arriving in Nipigon I began some renovations on our house in Nipigon. As there had been some water leaking through the basement wall I had decided to excavate the basement and replace the moisture barrier membrane. And while at it I had decided to add some exterior insulation and replace the weeping tile as well as put in new basement windows.

Jordan was my assistant. We did the front, far side and back first. Janice’s dad, Ralph, had redone the water proofing a number of years ago, using asphalt covered with plastic. But he had not made sure the top edge of the plastic was sealed and water had penetrated in behind and then leaked through the block wall into the basement.

We peeled off the plastic, cleaned the trench to the base of the footing and installed the new weeping tile. This was then covered with crushed rock to make sure there would be maximum drainage. Here is a picture after putting in enough crushed rock to cover the footing.

Once the weeping tile and crushed rock were in place we cleaned the wall and then applied a primer prior to applying a product called “Blue Skin”. This is a plasticized membrane about 2mm thick and which sticks to the foundation wall. Here is Jordan applying the primer (helps make the membrane stick better) followed by the application of the membrane and then 2” foam insulation.

 

Then additional crushed rock was placed into the trench and it then partially backfilled. Working off the backfill we then put up pressure treated plywood to cover the above grade portion of the insulation to prevent UV damage to the insulation. After sealing the top edge of the insulation we then covered the top of the insulation and plywood with metal flashing.

 

The last part of the job was to: a) complete the backfilling, b) finish applying flashing to cover any part above the insulation not covered by siding, c) install new stairs for the side porch and d) install the new windows (triple pane awning windows). As a result the basement already is much warmer and much more comfortable.

And here is what everything looks like at this point in time (I still need to add some trim around the new windows).