Now if I was simply just grooming for Callaghan Country I don’t believe I would have run into the same level of time crisis as I did, but in addition to running the snowcat I was also fixing most things that went wrong with the cat. As with any piece of heavy equipment, when it is run, it will eventually break down. A snowcat is no different, and although it may look like a large tough machine, it is actually incredibly fragile. Now every season has its fair share of poorly timed and comically destructive break downs with facilities and equipment, but this particular season brought a couple spectacular break downs. Everything from basic hydraulic line blow outs, broken axels, tires tearing off rims, and even a harpooned oil pan. In addition to the seemingly continues bad luck with the snowcat, we had several issues on the Journeymen Lodge front as well. The most memorable was the Christmas Day septic back up, where my Father and I spent the day and evening digging up and clearing four feet of plugged septic line. Truth be told, I actually quite enjoy the break downs and unforeseen circumstance the Callaghan Valley continuously supplies in a never a dull moment kind of way. However, this season was a different story as the time these issues kept swallowing up was already spoken for! Every time something went sideways on the Callaghan Country front, I saw the Double Decker Dream getting pushed further and further away. I distinctly remember thinking, “I could have another 8 hours a day and there still wouldn’t be enough time for one man to finish this”! When I set out on this project, I really wanted to do as much of it on my own as possible in order to learn as much as possible. As I have referred to in previous posts, the whole purpose of this project was to learn and better develop my skills in all aspects of the business. However, as I pushed deeper into the winter it started to become clear that sure I could do it all myself, but certain aspects would probably not turn out as I dreamt they would and more importantly would just take ages to complete. In addition, one particular night’s volume of storm snow resulted in some serious damage to some structures on site and it became painfully obvious that I was in well over my head. For these reasons I reached out to some friends to take over the second stories T&G ceiling and clean up some of my less desirable wood work. Within the week of receiving my phone call for help, Bernard, Pat, and James came right up to force some progression on the bus and ultimately gave me the best Holiday present possible. Without these three gentlemen the bus would not have the have opened at all last winter and certainly would not have the clean lines it does now. The bus had finally made some major progression with the first real steps towards a cute cafe becoming apparent. With the spray foam finally being covered up, and a much needed injection of energy to the project the next steps were clear. In order to keep the ball rolling, Boona called his friend David the painter and we rolled right into painting both the upstairs and downstairs. I was a little afraid the colour scheme I had picked out months prior may be abit much, but the light pastel blue on grey anti-slip floor paint really brought the bus to life and perfectly complimented the clear coated pine. Once the painting wrapped up the weather finally started to ease, with the temperature taking a major dive and precipitation completely dropping off...perfect nordic grooming weather. Finally, I had the time to bite into the bus, and just like that the holiday period was over and Double Decker Coffee Roasting was on the move!
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AuthorPatrick Sills is the owner and creator of Double Decker Coffee Roasting. The purpose of the Build Blog is to share the story of the physical build, its components, Patrick's growing education in the coffee industry, and the overall creation of the business. Warning: if run on sentences, poor sentence structure, or simple spelling mistakes bother you to the core stop reading! The Build Blog has a very loose format, I am a builder not a writer, just thought some people might be interested in the story. Enjoy! Archives
July 2019
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