One week into season two of HGTV’s Timber Kings, master craftsman Peter Arnold said the response to the show is overwhelming.
“It’s amazing –– we were walking in downtown Vancouver and were recognized on the street by an older lady who just wanted to tell us how much she liked the show,” Arnold said of the fame that comes with being on HGTV’s hit show.
In Toronto, Arnold said he was even recognized while travelling through the airport, wearing a ball cap and sunglasses.
“I had no idea how big of an impact television has. I was blown away.”
It’s all good though, Arnold said, adding he’s is proud to be part of a show that portrays Williams Lake in such a positive light.
“I’m still happy. My life hasn’t changed, just everything around it has,” said Arnold, with his trademark wit.
After watching the first episode of Timber Kings season two where he was featured building a float for the Stampede parade, Arnold wants people to know the float found a permanent home outside the Tourism Discovery Centre in Williams Lake.
“I was disappointed that part hit the cutting room floor,” Arnold told the Tribune. “Obviously an hour is not enough time to get everything in.”
Part of his incentive in making the float was to provide something unique for Williams Lake.
“Harrison has the Sasquatch and I thought we could have something as good if not better,” he said.
Local carver Ken Sheen was hired by Arnold to carve a life-sized cowboy into one of the supporting logs on the float
“Ken’s great. He’s made all the other carvings around town so it made sense to get him to do this one.”
While he didn’t want to give away too much about the season, Arnold said one of the highlights was travelling to Newfoundland where Pioneer Log Homes built a vacation cabin two hours south of St. John’s.
“Right after the parade, Bryan Reid Sr. and I went home, packed our bags and flew to Newfoundland,” he said.
That venture was featured in the second episode last Sunday.
The couple in Newfoundland work off-shore on oil rigs.
“She is an off-shore oil engineer, there are only two in Canada,” Arnold said. “His oil rig is off the Ivory Coast in Africa. That’s where he works. But they are 100 per cent Newfies.”
During the stay in Newfoundland Arnold said he got “screeched in” and that was the best thing that ever happened to him.
“You have to kiss a cod and drink some screech so now if I do something silly or something doesn’t succeed, I can say, oh I’m a Newfie,” he chuckled. “They are such great people.”
It was Arnold’s first time that far east in Canada and he was able to take a vacation day because they were done a day early.
He and Reid went on an iceberg tour, walked around St. John’s, went up to a lighthouse and saw the furthest point of Eastern Canada.
“It was awesome. We learned sometimes you have to quit working and smell the roses.”
Arnold said in some ways he wishes people could watch behind the scenes when the show is being filmed.
“The worst part is there’s no person narrating the show, we have to do it ourselves,” he chuckled.
Often he and the other kings are sitting in front of a green screen talking into a camera.
“I wish people could see that because they don’t believe it, but we’ve got to talk and take the show from one scene to the next.”
There are two types of episodes, he added.
“The “A” stories are way easier because they follow us along as we create something. When we are filming the “C” stories, we have to work harder to create the show.”