Drove into town today for supplies. Saw a few interesting things.
Now it’s time to return to the cabin with supplies, and get back to work!
Road trip.
Tag: project
Just an update post
Work, work, work. Rain, rain, rain. Mosquitoes, mosquitoes, mosquitoes.
That about covers it.
Note the lack of “photographs, photographs, photographs”. It hasn’t been suitable in any way for that.
I am making progress on the cabin, but every step just reveals more that needs doing. It’s like painting a huge bridge – that just keeps getting longer the further you go. A Mobius project?
Once again there is further evidence I’m too old to be doing this, as I seem to be breaking out in spontaneous bruising. Unexplained subdermal haemotomas. It seems effort alone is enough to burst the blood vessels. That’s not good. Especially not when moving large amounts of heavy furniture around.
By the way, the last trip out here I managed the road at the breakneck speed of 34 KPH (21.5 MPH). Yeah, it just keeps getting better. Not. The additional rain we’ve had since then probably hasn’t done it any good either.
It seems I have a deadline of this weekend to make the place habitable as the Mrs. wants to come out and stay – for the first time since 2018. I can’t say I don’t blame her. Unfortunately she’ll bring our zoo with her, and that means certain projects have to be done ahead of then as the animals will get in the way. It also means the wildlife will vanish for the most part.
Unfortunately mosquitoes are not one of the creatures that will leave when the pets arrive. Oh well. Back to work.
Ever on Sunday
I spent today (as many hours as I could stand) fixing up my utility trailer.
A couple of broken welds redone, a dash of paint to retard instant rusting, some new bolts and … it’s almost done! I still need to repack the wheel bearings, and frankly it needs new tires.
One thing I learn from this is that I don’t like wire-feed welders (I learned on stick welder more then 40 years ago). But it did the job.
Eventful two days
It would be nice if the events were all pleasant and consisted mainly of taking nice pictures of wildlife or something. But no. The events were about nipping back home to resupply and returning to work.
Starting with Wednesday and waiting for the rain to stop, or more accurately for the generator to finish recharging the batteries because there wasn’t any sun to do it. I loaded up what I needed to take back, and got soaked in the process. Once underway it stopped raining (of course) and a nice, sunny afternoon was spent running errands. That’s a lot of traveling for one day, and I felt it.
The second obstacle of the day was being met with this right at the chain gate:
Yes that’s a tree down across the road. This is why I always carry a chainsaw. Luckily it wasn’t a big one (although quite tall) and three slices took care of it.
How much did it rain? On my way out part of the road collapsed from under me and tried to tip the Xterra over into the ditch. Suddenly finding yourself tilted at near 45 degrees while moving at 50 KPH is an experience I don’t recommend. But the vehicle is good and a quick twitch of the wheel got me back on what passes for solid road. That road needs serious repair. Again.
The town trip errands were the usual long time to get only some of the list. They had blocked off all the entrances to one of the shopping plazas, apparently trapping people in the parking lot from what I could see, while they did some repaving. Oh yes; all the roads in town are badly broken up and needing repair too. It was a harsh winter for roads. Anyway, skipped two stores there completely.
Thursday was run around and get ready to come back out here and work. Yes, a sunny morning wasted in travel. Along the way I noticed several red “SOLD” tags put up, right out to and on Marsik Road, which is a little disconcerting. They seem to be marking the route out to the property next door which has just been sold. What’s the point? Didn’t the people go and look at it before they bought? These days you can never tell.
I did encounter two trucks along the way, past the last vestige of civilization. First one was a Ford, and then several kilometers on a Chevy. Both driving slowly and carefully as though lost or looking for something. Like red “SOLD” signs perhaps? Also they were “pretty” trucks, not at all suited to grinding down unmaintained gravel roads at any speed. I passed each in turn, and wondered what they would do when they got to where the trees are blown down on the road. Maybe they gave up and went home. If you don’t know how to handle it, you shouldn’t be out here; this is not a safe place to be and I don’t mean because of the wild animals.
It was still before noon and bright and sunny when I got back, put things away, and got to work again. I managed quite a bit in the afternoon; primed the kitchen window frame and built a frame for under the kitchen cabinet as well as a few other, little chores.
Last night it all went wahoonie-shaped as the mosquitoes got up after I’d gone to bed. They kept me awake ’til midnight with their antics and my swatting. Now this morning it is cool and rainy – and I’m still killing mosquitoes. Probably have to fire up the furnace (after needing the A/C yesterday) and the generator because there’s no sun.
What will I get done today? That’s a very good question.
It’s good to be back
Home for a few days as the weather is turning awful and the ache in my bones is something wicked. The digging is nearing completion, which just means I then shift to a different phase of the project. Hopefully an easier phase. Bound to be. Anyway here’s what the target area looks like now:
The dirt had been all the way up to that log on the right. Over 50 wheelbarrows full have been taken out (yes I kind of lost track). Why? To make room for the drain pipes. If you have really good eyes you can see the 4″ ABS in the dark on the right and a 1½” piece sticking down in the foreground. There are others that all need to be joined up now that they can’t take separate exits due to the skirting all around the cabin. This would have been a lot easier if the people who built the place 70 years ago had made some effort towards leveling the site first!
I haven’t had much opportunity to take many pictures while there. The weather has been pretty bad and so have the mosquitoes. On the way home I saw a young deer with its mama, a young brown bear without, and a fast moving coyote. None of which did I manage to capture an image of because they were all faster than me and my camera.
For stationary subjects you can’t beat trees. Even ones that should have been removed from the road by now:
Oh well, they don’t stop me. This picture is “moody” because I forgot how I had the camera set for the previous shot and messed up the exposure something wicked.
Anyway, a few days of R&R and getting things done at home before I go back to the labour camp. I really appreciate what those prisoners at Stalag 17 went through.
Another cabin visit
They have got to do something about that road. I think all my molecules have been jarred loose. On the way back out I was following an unloaded 10 wheel dump truck for the last few kilometers, and he was crawling along at about 10 KPH most of the time. This is what he had delivered (I don’t know why):
My work got interrupted by the failing of the air compressor. Let’s back up a minute and see how that goes. I need to dig out underneath more, okay? I get everything set up so I can roll the wheelbarrow in and load it directly to take dirt out and dump it. Right, just have to air up the tires and then start digging. Compressor would not start. Not off the inverter and not off the generator. Total jam-up. Funny because I’d used it two days earlier to air up the van tires. This is an easily transported tankless compressor, not some huge monster like the one I use for the nailers. I’ve had it about 35 years. Can’t imagine why it’s suddenly packed it in. I would have appreciated it if the fault had occurred before I hauled it out there and tried to use it. But that’s not what happened. Oh and they don’t make replacements for it.
Anyway the water in the lake has gone down a little:
Here’s a butterfly on the porch screen. It wouldn’t open its wings, but it looks pretty neat anyway:
I heard a lot of birds around but only managed to shoot (I know) a couple:
I can’t match that one up with anything in my bird book. I need a new bird book.
So now I need a new air compressor as well as all the other things I’ve got to get and do. Obviously not going to be getting out there full time soon!
