September 18, 2011



Gathering logs on road



2 trailer loads (doesn't look like alot,
but it really is)



 

 

Not sure what I was thinking when I made that list of what was left for us to do before winter. Must have been my subconscious wish list. Our actual list also includes:

     Finish paneling great room
     Paint porch pillars
     Put cement in cracks in earth around solar panels
     Put summer clothes away & get out winter ones
     Go to laundromat to wash winter coats & overalls that didn't get
          washed this summer

Wait a minute! What summer? Oh yeah, that three weeks in August and first couple weeks of September. Well, it's over with now. Thursday morning was 45 at 7:00 a.m. and Friday was 38. I do prefer the cooler weather, but a little longer with the warm would have been nice.

Friday morning I thoroughly cleaned the wood stove, then put new gaskets in around the catalytic converter. Have never done the gaskets before and it was a real pain. The high temp glue is really hard to work with. I got really pissy because I had planned to do this a couple months ago, but ended up leaving it until the last minute. Of course JB felt the brunt of my pissyness. He's fairly used to it after 42 years and is a good sport. Pretty much just ignores me. But the job did get done and then I vacuumed. I always put an old sheet over the kitchen counter when I clean the stove as a little soot always gets everywhere. It's a lot better now that I hold an umbrella over the stove as I am brushing off the soot, but some still floats out and about. If anyone else has a better solution to keeping the mess down, I'd love to hear about it.

RJ called about noon and I met him Down There at Lowe's at 1:00 to pick up his cabinets and a few other items. I got spray paint and spar varnish for the little trailer JB is finishing. When I got back to Rose Camp, I cut two wheel barrow loads of the larger logs for the splitter. Then I split and stacked them. Am keeping the dry wood separate from the green. We have a little over two cords so far, and about ½ cord is green.

Saturday morning I finished cutting the wood we had hauled up which was 3-1/2 loads for the wood shed and one load for the splitter. After lunch we took the trailer down to the end of our driveway for two big loads of downed timber. All this cutting, splitting and hauling doesn't take a lot of time, but it is labor intensive. We were all done about 2:30 and I think I used every muscle in my body. We both took nice, hot showers and felt so much better.
Already time for the flannel bed sheets again. Amazing how Autumn arrived on time, but summer never did. We had a 20% chance of rain predicted for Saturday and we received about 20 drops of rain. The same is being called for today, so we'll see what happens.

RJ is coming up for breakfast again today and we may have a cozy fire waiting for him.  Saturday morning I made our first fire of the season in the wood stove and then again in the evening.  Just  short ones to take the chill out.  I sure enjoy having a fire.  Our stove has a glass window so we can see the flames. 

Monday RJ is having a load of plywood and other building supplies delivered to our place (the truck can't get in his road as it is so overgrown) and we have two sheets of plywood on the truck that JB will use to build the floor and sides of the little trailer. He has it all taken apart and painted. Today he plans to grease the wheel bearings and get it all put back together again. Then we will probably leave on Friday for another trip to Seattle for the memorial service and to bring back more wood. Don't even want to think what our gas bill is going to be this month. On top of that, our propane is going to be delivered sometime during the last week of September. Our only "utility" bill that we pay once a year in October. It will probably be the same as last year even though we have used less propane. The price has gone up about $.50 a gallon. The good side is that they deliver to everyone in the canyon on one day so the delivery charge is minimal.

Even though Autumn has arrived, it still doesn't smell like it usually does. Feels like it. Just doesn't smell like it. Of course that may be because my nose if full of dust. Even when the dogs run, they kick a lot of it up. And they are running a lot the last week with this cool weather. They love it!