Cabin Blog

I haven’t posted in a while, and this time I do have a bit of an excuse.  My laptop is giving me fits.  First, the mousepad (or whatever you call the built in touchpad on a laptop) decided to quit working.  This was quite a while ago, and since then I have been using a mouse plugged into the usb port.  Well, a little over a month ago, I was at my sister’s house and left my computer, mouse still attached, sitting on the floor.  One of the dogs, mine, hers, I don’t know, stepped on the cord and broke out the port, and the one next to it quit working too-sigh.  So now the only way to navigate is to use the tab key, which does not work for much.  The biggest problem with that is that my computer for work doesn’t have a memory card reader, so I can’t post pictures; I lost the cord to my camera many eons ago:)  I have been searching for some sort of adaptor, but am almost resigned to the fact I am going to have to pull the hard drive and cut my losses.  So for the next couple of posts I may not have pictures, but I will try and go back to insert them once I get the issue worked out.

I have actually spent quite a bit of time (relatively speaking)  down at the cabin since the last time I posted.  The first of those visits was on the 22 of December, which was 2011’s winter solstice. 

I don’t know what your religious/spiritual beliefs are…heck half the time I would be hard pressed to fully explain my own, but I do feel like there are certain things we as a species should celebrate, or at least recognize.  Things like: first snowfalls, full moons, and other representations of the amazing complexity of nature and our world.  So I always try to make it down to the woods on the equinoxes and solstices.  The winter soltice has traditionally been a celebration of light over dark, from that point forward the days get longer and we get closer and closer to the rebirth of spring.   Some articles I have read say that this is where we got the idea of a yule log, because fires were lit to celebrate light and one log from the fire was brought into the house to represent the light of the renewing year filling the house.  That may just be a new age interpretation of lost traditions, but it seems like a good way to celebrate to me…I have always liked fire.

So, school ended for the semester on the 21st.  I packed up that night and left the next day for the property, packing a bottle of mead and plenty of kindling.  I started fires in each of the existing firepits and the woodstove, then I made a small new firepit in Josh’s bird garden, I figured he would like that.  I kept the fires going well into the night (though it got pretty chilly-I won’t even explain the get-up I was running around the woods in, I don’t want to embarrass my mother) and then Ursula and I headed to bed.  Of course that was not before I placed a log from one of the bonfires in the woodstove.  We got up and left the next day so I could finish my Christmas shopping-nothing like waiting until the last minute.  I went back down right after Christmas, and even had a couple of visitors, but I will save that until the next post.  One which will, hopefully, include pictures.

I have about six posts to make, because I have been at the property lately, but in order to keep it in…well…order, I will start with this one.  I was almost crazy with the need to go down to the property by the time I actually made it back down.  I am not sure how to explain it, but I can tell if it has been too long.  I tell my students that I am losing my zen and that I need “tree time.”  I had not been able to get back down south until the weekend of the 8th of October, starting school gave me way too much to worry about.  But that weekend was wonderful!  The first night my job was clearly setting up firewood and finding jobs.  I did the first, chopping at least ten logs to fill the space next to the stove and on the porch.  However, as far as actually accomplishing other things, I was a bit slack.  I found a couple of books, one which I had read before “Bless Me Ultima” by Rudolfo Anaya, which is amazing, and I really feel that everyone should read. I read it again, all the way through this weekend. Then I pulled down “The Cider House Rules” which I have never read, but which has been on my list forever.  I was unable to put it down.  So much of it is hard to accept, and it actually hurts me a bit to read some parts of it, but it is so well written and so true to the time.  I have not finished it yet, I came back home to grading that I had to do, but I plan on finishing it the next time I am down there.  I didn’t take a whole lot of pictures this time, though Ursula and I went on several walks, but I did take one picture that made me laugh.  It is the inspiration for the title of this post. I was fixing dinner one night and decided that I didn’t need anything but grits, however I knew the cannister had been sitting in my food bin for a while (like something hiding at the back of the refrigerator) so I checked the expiration date and had to laugh a little:

Best by 12 21 12

If you can’t read it, it says best by 12 21 12.  I came home and told my brother (the one who wants to make my apocolypse party invites for me) that even the quakers knew about the apocolypse.

So I promised last post that I would be sure to post within a week, I believe that this is what my students would call an epic fail.  I am going to work on posting more regularly, but if I haven’t been down to the property I struggle to know what to write about. 

This last weekend (Labor Day) I spent at Pomme de Terre lake where my family goes every Labor Day weekend.  Other than the normal lake stuff-we go to Decker cove, strap life jackets on in a sort of seat/diaper position and float while we imbibe potant potables, I don’t know what to write about. Though my older nieces and I did ride the “big Mabel” which is essentially an inflatable couch with handgrips which is hauled at high speeds behind a boat-and is beyond fabulous.  While I rode with my nieces they both made fun of my screaming mixed with diabolical laughter. 

Labor day is always fun because the family all gets together.  Though in the past we all camped, there are several folks who feel that their age is beyond such craziness.   

I suppose this is the point at which I could talk about the property, because it is so much like camping.   My ideas for the property, or the fun that my brother and I have planning a 2012 apocalypse party (though neither of us believes it will actually happen).

My bro, who is a printer suggsests that I send out invitations next year that say something like, “you are invited to the apocolyspse party, no apocolyspse, no problem, stay for Christmas” and I love it.  I hope by the time it comes around that I have a bit more room for people to stay.  That is about it for now.  Good night !

Okay, before I start this post, I suppose I should put up the pictures of the almost finished insulation from the previous stay down at the cabin.  Here they are:

The best thing was that some of the pieces were already 24 inches wide, which is where the studs are set in the front room (instead of the standard 16 inches on center) so the larger size made it so much less work.  I don’t know why I didn’t get a picture of both sides of the room but…

The next time I was down, after the week of the day that hit 108, was Monday, August 8th.  I spent seven full days at the cabin and the weather was wonderful so I could get lots of stuff done, so I…read 5 books in seven days:).  Yeah, I know, lazy, but it was the last week of vacation (I’m justifying and am well aware of it).  I finished re-reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, read all three of the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo books, and read the latest of the Janet Evanovich “Stephanie Plum” novels.  The last is total fluff andthe whole series is pretty formulaic, but they are fun to read. 

Ursula and I also took a few walks, though I forgot to bring my camera along, and spent some time reflecting/communing(?) in Josh’s bird garden.  I filled the feeders three times during the week.  It has to be squirrels, or else I have some mutant form of nuthatch running loose on my property.  Josh and I did use to joke that there was a velociraptor deep in the woods (there was this crazy shrieking call we heard every now and then) but I think I have since then identified that call as belonging to a bald eagle…and I can’t see them perched on my little bird feeders. 

By the end of the week I was finally feeling a bit restless, so I managed to get my tookis into gear.  The first thing I did was break out the spray foam…the inept builder’s duct tape.  When I got to the cabin on Monday, I had noticed that the countertop and floor beneath the sink were wet.  I knew there had been a small leak in the roof at the very back edge, but since eventually I plan on putting in a new roof to tie into the last addition, and because there has been a paucity of rain round these parts this year, I hadn’t dealt with it.  However, part of the reason the weather finally became livable was that we finally did get rain, and lots of it, so…

I peeled back the insulation around the back window, hmmm, mold, yuk.  I ended up taking out 3 whole sections, not the new stuff, and eventually this wall will go away, but still.  Then I used an entire extra large size can of spray foam on any spot that seemed remotely likely to let in rain.  Not a permanent solution I know but for now it will do-hopefully.  I also cranked up the generator and set the fan on the whole mess to dry it out.

Next it was time to work on that never ending cork floor.  I felt like I was actually going to get it finished.  I had gotten more trim nails and even had the grout mix ready. 

I got especially excited when I finally joined up the two sections.

It wasn’t until after I had set over 700 trim nails that I realized that I was still WAY short of corks.  But because I am terribly impatient, I decided to go ahead and grout what I had done, leaving an edge that I could tie into later.  It was a good thing I did too, because even though according to the package I should have had more than enough grout, I ran out (I guess the manufacturer was not planning on a seam every 3/4 of an inch or so). 

I wiped it down with a wet sponge, 2X then polished with a dry cloth.

These last show where the wood meets the cork.  Eventually, once all the corks are down (I estimate another 600 or so-eek) I will lightly sand the floor and put down a couple of coats of poly over the whole thing.  As it was, I let it sit for the required 24 hours, (though on these longer trips I have been bringing the big cat down, and there was no keeping him off of it) then moved things back into the kitchen area. 

It was glorious to be able to spend that many days in a row down at the property, and I am a little bit sad that for the next several months that will be impossible, but hopefully I will feel a bit more motivated on the next few trips. 

By the way, I mentioned last time that one of my friends had started a blog and shamed me into posting more often.  It is not a homesteading or construction blog, more like the wanderings of a 20 something midwestern teacher, but she is a funny lady, so I thought I would share the address, it is www.lameladyadventures.blogspot.com she has just started out, so it is easy to catch up.

I think that is about it for now, but I will be posting again by next Tuesday.

I just got back from 7 days straight at the cabin.  The weather finally broke and it was pretty pleasant.  Plus the moon was waxing and during the last couple of nights it was great to be able to sit out on the porch in the moonlight.  But now I have to come back to real life and go to work.  Don’t get me wrong, I love teaching, but it just feels like the summer went so fast, and it was so hot during most of July I didn’t really get to enjoy being outside.

I will write the blog showing this past week tomorrow (I’m too tired to mess with the pictures and such right now) but as I went in to look at the blog tonight it occurred to me, Josh or I have only written 42 posts total (well 43 with this one).  We started this blog around 2 years ago, that means I really only average about 2 posts a month.  That seems pretty sparse.  I had been reading one of my friend’s blogs and she is posting almost everyday.  I know I will never be able to keep that up, especially since during the school year I only make it down on the weekends, and not all of those.  However, in the interest of keeping up some sort of regularity-I have decided to strive to post at least once a week.  It may not always be about what is going on at the cabin, but I figure I can include things that I am reading about or looking up in preparation for that wonderful day when I get to go into the woods and stay. 

Also, that covers it if, like a large portion of this last week, I am feeling lazy, I mean unable to complete a project for reasons out of my control-ahem.  Tomorrow’s will be about the cabin though, and will have pictures .