Entry 16 Missed Deadlines and Stormfronts

The Beginning of the End

It’s the first week of December and it has yet to snow in the Callaghan Valley. The first guests for Callaghan Country’s Journeyman Lodge arrive mid-December, and there is yet to be any recognizable ski product on the landscape. Although the lack of snow is stressful on the Callaghan Country front, as far as Double Decker Coffee Roasting goes it is a blessing. I have completely blown out my opening day goal of December 1st, with huge portions of the build still needing to take place. 

If I remember correctly, The windows that had blown out in transit had finally been replaced (at a ridiculous cost).  I was still working on roof eves and soffits, a job I had been putting off due to the constant rain. Eventually I realized the rain wasn't going to stop so I just committed to the misery and worked under the eve all day in the coastal rain.  In the interior of the bus, huge portions still needed to be demo-ed before I could even start  building frames  for countertops and finalizing equipment locations in order for plumbing and electrical work to continue.

The bus itself still needed to jacked up onto blocks to get the weight off the tires and better stabilize its footing. Although jacking the bus up was an intimidating task given that I don't have any proper equipment, I was able to slowly work my way up. With two simple bottle jacks from Canadian tire I was able to pick the bus up millimetre by millimetre till I eventually had it entirely off the ground. I then slid four huge wood beams underneath to rest the frame of the bus on. After that, I pushed gravel back up around the tires to give the illusion it was still drivable. 

Throughout the build I had done a decent job at cleaning the work site at the end of each day, maintaining tools and keeping things together. However, as we got deeper into fall and the build timeline began to run out things started to get messy. By the time December rolled around the surrounding worksite of the bus had plywood, tools, scaffolding absolutely everywhere on the ground. Anytime I had previously been using to keep a clean and organized job site was now being used to push through the build as quick as I could as I knew it was the final days before the snow came. 

​Starting in mid December, the heavy, unrelenting snow began…and it simply did not stop till the end of January. At the Journeyman Lodge (1400m), we went from having no snow on December 9th to over 3 meters by the end of the month. At the Alexander Falls Ski Touring Center (where the bus is parked) the snow came down like a cartoon, immediate draping everything. Tools, materials, and anything else that was left outside was now lost till spring. Trail preparation for Callaghan Country and the Journeyman Lodge had begun and Double Decker Coffee Roasting lost its priority work status.