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| First snow October 21 2008 |
Then: November 2008
We had received our first dusting of snow on October 21 and it is definitely getting cold out there, but the wood stove is keeping us fairly warm inside even without insulation. RJ has been up almost every other week helping us, but because of the weather and other considerations, the first week in November would be his last. For me, one of the scariest moments up here was when he said goodbye for the winter. We are on our own. Not much time to think about it as we have a lot of work to do. First we framed the loft, which was the easy part. Then came putting in the insulation. Covered from head to toe and with our little masks on, I cut the pieces to size out on the porch and JB installs them. Once we get a section in between the poles, we staple thick plastic sheeting over it. Most of this is done with JB on the tall ladder, and his feet would be aching by the end of the day. By Thanksgiving we had most of it done, so we took time out to drive over to Seattle for dinner with JB's family.
It's not that we are so slow in doing this job, but everything else takes so much time. Bringing in the water by the bucket; washing all the laundry by hand; heating hot water on the stove; bringing in firewood and keeping the fire going 24/7. I set the alarm clock for about 1:00 am to be sure I get up to feed the fire. It is a lot easier for me to fall asleep after getting up during the night, so I do that and JB gets up first in the morning to feed the fire and get the coffee going. I sleep in a bit. And as the nights get longer, we sleep longer, getting into nature's natural rhythms. Often 10 hours a night. There are no street lights, sirens, trains or passing cars Up Here.
Because we have to use the generator to recharge the batteries, we try to use as little electricity as possible. We only turn the inverter on when we need it and that is usually when it gets dark outside and we need to turn on a light or two. We will watch a movie a couple times a week, but most evenings we read books or magazines.
We finally put the new tires and the tracks on MAX. I only hope it will get easier the more we do it. Larry and Elsie came up just as we were getting started and helped out with the heavy lifting. They each had a beer and Elsie set hers down on the ground to do something. As she was going back for it, Dinga was running off with it. She has developed a sneaky habit of grabbing anything you put down - gloves, tools, beer, etc. I have at least a couple pair of gloves somewhere out in the woods. With Elsie's beer, however, she simply drank it and returned the empty bottle! I think she wanted a refill. She was so mellow for the rest of the day, I am often tempted to give her more.
Dinga loves the cold weather and especially the snow. We finally let her off the leash and she does just fine (and after a few days, so did we). She will go off exploring, but is never gone for more than an hour and usually not that long. She is thriving.
Right now I feel like we fit at least five definitions of "You must be a redneck if. . ." Our storage shed is a canvas carport from Costco and not everything will fit into it. We have piles of scrap lumber and who knows what all lying around that there has simply been no time to clean up. We are using the outhouse to store the tools. I will be so glad when Spring arrives and we can get it all picked up.
Now: June 23, 2011
Yesterday we worked on the deck and finally got quite a lot done, after sitting on the deck with our coffee and watching the birds in their bath, of course. We filled in all the cracks and laid the tar paper. Then we put up and squared off the outside pieces of the decking, screwed them in and laid all the other pieces in place. We are alternating the wood as two 12 footers, then one 12 footer and two 6 footers. JB cut several 6 footers, and we will cut the rest today. Then hopefully we will get everything screwed down. It is supposed to be cooler today, which will be a great relief from yesterday's warm and humid. Well, humid for Up Here.
We have learned all the tricks to installing the tires and tracks on MAX and can do it fairly quickly now. We were actually thinking of hiring out but I don't think it would pay enough to be worth our while.
Dinga has outgrown her propensity to grab and run. I never did find my gloves, but she never got any more beer either. On Tuesday, the vet discovered that Dinga's problem was not hip displasia but rather an injured knee. At some point last Fall, she had ruptured a tendon. We have her on an anti-inflammatory but that will ultimately not prevent her from going lame and we simply do not have the $1500 for the operation to rebuild her knee. The only other, and less expensive, option is to amputate the leg, but we will deal with that when the time comes. She's still young, and when the adrenaline kicks in, she runs like she has four good legs.
We had received our first dusting of snow on October 21 and it is definitely getting cold out there, but the wood stove is keeping us fairly warm inside even without insulation. RJ has been up almost every other week helping us, but because of the weather and other considerations, the first week in November would be his last. For me, one of the scariest moments up here was when he said goodbye for the winter. We are on our own. Not much time to think about it as we have a lot of work to do. First we framed the loft, which was the easy part. Then came putting in the insulation. Covered from head to toe and with our little masks on, I cut the pieces to size out on the porch and JB installs them. Once we get a section in between the poles, we staple thick plastic sheeting over it. Most of this is done with JB on the tall ladder, and his feet would be aching by the end of the day. By Thanksgiving we had most of it done, so we took time out to drive over to Seattle for dinner with JB's family.
It's not that we are so slow in doing this job, but everything else takes so much time. Bringing in the water by the bucket; washing all the laundry by hand; heating hot water on the stove; bringing in firewood and keeping the fire going 24/7. I set the alarm clock for about 1:00 am to be sure I get up to feed the fire. It is a lot easier for me to fall asleep after getting up during the night, so I do that and JB gets up first in the morning to feed the fire and get the coffee going. I sleep in a bit. And as the nights get longer, we sleep longer, getting into nature's natural rhythms. Often 10 hours a night. There are no street lights, sirens, trains or passing cars Up Here.
Because we have to use the generator to recharge the batteries, we try to use as little electricity as possible. We only turn the inverter on when we need it and that is usually when it gets dark outside and we need to turn on a light or two. We will watch a movie a couple times a week, but most evenings we read books or magazines.
We finally put the new tires and the tracks on MAX. I only hope it will get easier the more we do it. Larry and Elsie came up just as we were getting started and helped out with the heavy lifting. They each had a beer and Elsie set hers down on the ground to do something. As she was going back for it, Dinga was running off with it. She has developed a sneaky habit of grabbing anything you put down - gloves, tools, beer, etc. I have at least a couple pair of gloves somewhere out in the woods. With Elsie's beer, however, she simply drank it and returned the empty bottle! I think she wanted a refill. She was so mellow for the rest of the day, I am often tempted to give her more.
Dinga loves the cold weather and especially the snow. We finally let her off the leash and she does just fine (and after a few days, so did we). She will go off exploring, but is never gone for more than an hour and usually not that long. She is thriving.
Right now I feel like we fit at least five definitions of "You must be a redneck if. . ." Our storage shed is a canvas carport from Costco and not everything will fit into it. We have piles of scrap lumber and who knows what all lying around that there has simply been no time to clean up. We are using the outhouse to store the tools. I will be so glad when Spring arrives and we can get it all picked up.
Now: June 23, 2011
Yesterday we worked on the deck and finally got quite a lot done, after sitting on the deck with our coffee and watching the birds in their bath, of course. We filled in all the cracks and laid the tar paper. Then we put up and squared off the outside pieces of the decking, screwed them in and laid all the other pieces in place. We are alternating the wood as two 12 footers, then one 12 footer and two 6 footers. JB cut several 6 footers, and we will cut the rest today. Then hopefully we will get everything screwed down. It is supposed to be cooler today, which will be a great relief from yesterday's warm and humid. Well, humid for Up Here.
We have learned all the tricks to installing the tires and tracks on MAX and can do it fairly quickly now. We were actually thinking of hiring out but I don't think it would pay enough to be worth our while.
Dinga has outgrown her propensity to grab and run. I never did find my gloves, but she never got any more beer either. On Tuesday, the vet discovered that Dinga's problem was not hip displasia but rather an injured knee. At some point last Fall, she had ruptured a tendon. We have her on an anti-inflammatory but that will ultimately not prevent her from going lame and we simply do not have the $1500 for the operation to rebuild her knee. The only other, and less expensive, option is to amputate the leg, but we will deal with that when the time comes. She's still young, and when the adrenaline kicks in, she runs like she has four good legs.
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