Benjamin Scribner's Blog, page 18

Finishing a few things around the cabin

Slowly getting things done around here. Finally got the right inverter to run the refrigerator, though I had to hook it directly to the battery bank and plug the power cord for the whole cabin into it. I only wanted one right next to the fridge, but I couldn’t make it work properly.

At least I won’t be running the generator every evening, but hopefully just once a week during the winter to charge all the batteries.

Now I’m thinking maybe a big enough inverter to run the whole place, but that’s for later.

The weeks news and townies

Well, it’s been another quiet week up here on the mountain, my little slice of heaven.

The temperature has gotten a little warmer up here and the sun has been out a few times this past week.

Small towns have an abundance of townies, which is what we used to call those kids that were born and raised in town, and had never been more than fifty miles from town.  Their highest goal in life, at least when I lived in New Hampshire, was to work at the nearby rubber plant or a coveted job at Thompson Center Arms, the manufacturer of black powder firearms.

This town being no different, with two mills in town, those with no higher goals find themselves working in one of those mills. Those like myself seek adventure and leave town for parts unknown hoping to find something to feed our dreams. Some return in time, their dreams dashed and spirit broken; they find employment in the mill, forever bitter. Others, like myself, find what we are seeking and never return; or, eventually, settle down in another small town and fade off into the background.

This came to my thoughts this morning at My Kitchen while listening to the old loggers talking. Most are townies, never venturing far from this little town, and have little knowledge of the bigger world and the real issues that face it.

Some of the men that come in are like me and have traveled the world, fought wars and had our adventures, and now wish nothing more than a quiet day. We rarely try and converse with the old loggers, except the morning greetings of faces we see almost every day. We know nothing of each others lives and probably wouldn’t care to.

Towns such as this are scattered throughout the country, and from what I have seen in my time spent in some of them, they are all pretty much the same.

I grew up in small towns, and have lived in large cities. I will happily take the small town life over the city life any day.

Well that’s all the news for the week. Bye for now.

Dealing with icy roads

The logging company that had been logging near the end of the road finished up last week. Now, unfortunately, the road is a sheet of ice.

Had lots of fun getting to the pickup yesterday, then when we got back from the city, neither machine wanted to go back up that ice. Finally got up to packed snow and then everything was fine.

It’s snowing again today and supposed to continue through tomorrow.  With any luck, there will be enough snow on top of the ice to get traction.

The weeks news and icy conditions

Well, it’s been another quiet week up here on the mountain, my little slice of heaven.

The weather has gone from very cold to almost spring-like. These last few days we have had freezing rain, then just rain.

Down in town, the roads are a mess and school has been canceled the last couple of days.

Teepee guy has gone back to California for a few weeks. For a while, it looked like Larry and Moe had a permanent house guest since he was spending more time down at their place than at his teepee.

Allen has been doing his best to keep the road open from his cabin to mine, and even going down to the snow drifts below and trying to knock them down a bit so he feels safer going down to his truck.

My UTV is in the shop, something happened to the forward gears last week and all it does is grind. Reverse works fine, so the mechanic is a little baffled. I should be checking on it this weekend. Hopefully, I’ll have it back soon. Snowmobiles are fun to ride, but hard to haul supplies up with.

Not much else going on around here. I haven’t been to town in a while, so I don’t know what the old loggers are up to.

I am ready for spring.  Winter is fine, but it sure slows things down around here.

Been trying to finish the bathroom, but I need to cut up more pallets for the wood and they are buried under a couple of feet of snow.

Everything I had put on the porch, planning to work on some inside projects, is buried under snow and ice. The wind has been coming from the east lately and has been pushing snow on the porch. I will be digging things out soon to start working with them.

Well, that’s all the news for the week. Bye for now.

The weeks news

Well, it’s been another quiet week up here on the mountain, my little slice of heaven.

More snow has fallen, making the snow drifts below me interesting to navigate. Teepee Guy and Allen have both been down there trying to keep the drifts level. I just laugh, because it’s such a waste of time. The wind picks up and all their work is gone. But, that’s their headache.  I have no fear of rolling over on those drifts. My experience riding snowmobiles gives me enough confidence to get through them.

I am temporarily without my UTV as it is still waiting on repairs. Hopefully, it will be fixed soon.  Hauling supplies up by snowmobile takes longer, since more trips are required due to the size of the sled I pull, and I can’t haul as much weight because of the steepness of the final leg of the road up to the cabin.

Larry and Moe lost one of their dogs to cancer. It has been a sad week, she was a sweet dog, always friendly. Her sister has been lost without her. Larry and Moe had gotten them as puppies, and they haven’t been without each other since birth.

I finally finished the 12-volt wiring system. Now I need two inverters, and I will be able to run my few 110-volt appliances without having to run the generator. Hopefully, I will only have to run it once a week, or less, during the winter to keep my batteries charged. During the summer, with more sunlight, my solar panels should keep things fully charged.

Winter is hard on equipment.  I’ve had to tinker around with both snowmobiles so far. They are both old machines, one from the 70’s and the other from the 80’s. But, they are easy to work on, and I am managing to find the few parts I need without too much hassle.

Well, that’s all the news for the week. Bye for now.

Bitter cold, and mechanical trouble.

Well it’s been another quiet week up here on the mountain, my little slice of heaven.

My side by side is down. I lost all forward gears this morning. Still have reverse. So tomorrow I will tow it to Larry’s, since it’s at the bottom of the hill, and tear into it to see what needs fixed.

Something fell apart in the pull cord of the Artic Cat, and when I put it back together, nothing worked. So this morning, with the help of Teepee guy( he was nice enough to give me a ride back up this morning ) we figured out what was put together wrong and fixed it. Works fine now.

It’s been below freezing most of this week, with temperatures dropping further during the night, so keeping the fire going has been an on going thing. Once or twice during the night when I get up I throw a log or two in the stove, then in the morning it doesn’t take long to warm this place up.

Teepee guy has been spending his days leveling off the snow drifts below me. He isn’t all that comfortable riding his snowmobile yet, and hasn’t quite got the leaning thing down. So he would rather level off the drifts than risk his machine rolling over.

Allen has been by a few times, he has been working on the snow drifts on his side of the mountain, and since he gets more wind than I do, it’s a daily chore knocking the drifts down.

Me, I don’t get too concerned about the drifts, not much bothers me since the war, and I refuse to let snow interfere with my travels.

Been keeping busy up here, morning chores take much of my time. Hauling in snow for the rain barrel, and bringing in the days firewood take me longer than a healthy person because of my disability. But I manage just fine.

Another snow storm is moving in this weekend, winter isn’t done with us yet. I only have about half the snow I would normally get in a winter. Though I am looking forward to spring again already.

No one has seen the injured moose in a week, I am assuming she is dead now, the wolves or cycotes probably got her. I hope she survived, but if so, her leg will be useless the rest of her life.

I haven’t been to town in a while, so the goings on there I don’t know about.

Mostly been dealing with the cold and equipment here, as with any winter, things break. But that’s life on the mountain.

Well that’s all the news for the week. Bye for now.

An addition to yesterday’s post.

Well let’s review the day, shall we?

Got my old Artic Cat running and took it down the hill. Then got it buried trying to get through to Allen’s cabin and walked home. Fired up the UTV to go pull it out and somehow the plastic piece that goes through the fuel tank got broken. Glued it back together and am waiting until tomorrow so it has plenty of time for the epoxy to set up. Then went up to Teepee guy’s place with my other snowmobile to get his help pulling the Cat out. Only to hit a snow drift so hard the machine stopped and I kept going. Yup, right over the handle bars and into the snow. Now I should mention here that in order to get that particular machine to start after it has sat for a bit, is to squirt a small amount of gas into the carborator. This usually makes it start on the first pull. So the machine stalled and the bottle I use to squirt gas in dumped over and lost what little gas it had, so that after I got the machine dug out and turned around, I couldn’t get it started.

It’s a good thing I don’t panic. Pulled the fuel line off the carborator and drained the gas into my bottle. The gas filled the line again before I had it secured back on the carborator and with one pull had it started again… couldn’t find Teepee guy and came home. Now my back is sore and I am tired… Oh it’s going to be another fun day tomorrow breaking through the snow drift below me… The Cat is still buried by the way… will get it out tomorrow sometime.

Let’s not forget the injured moose either. Or the fact I’m 55 and really don’t need to be flying over the hood of my snowmobile.

Yes,  it was an interesting day.

It’s the last week of the year, and the injured moose

Well it’s been another quiet week up here on the mountain, my little slice of heaven.

It’s the last week of the old year, and I believe all of us are hoping for a better new year. We have lost so many famous, and some not so famous, this past year, that I think everyone wants to just take a break. Let’s hope we don’t lose any next year.

I think the family near Allen’s cabin has finally left the mountain before the last storm we had yesterday. I saw evidence that they had managed to drive down (though judging by the tracks, it wasn’t easy) I have not seen any sign they have tried to get back up. The road hasn’t been plowed, nor could anybody now. There are six ft snow drifts in places at the clear cut.

Tomorrow will be a group effort to get a trail packed through those drifts.

Teepee guy has gone out and purchased a couple of snowmobiles. At least he understands it’s not easy living up here. So tomorrow I will get him, Allen and myself to bust through to the bottom.

Down at My Kitchen, the talk has been where the town is going to put all this snow from the last two storms. Seems people weren’t quite finished plowing when the next storm hit. At least we will have a couple of days before the next round hits. Then we start all over again packing trails. That is a never ending cycle up here, snow, pack trails, then repeat as nessary.

Allen was going to go into town today, but I imagine he is still digging out at his cabin. The snow drifts there can reach the peak of his roof quickly, and if he doesn’t stay on top of it, he will be buried until spring.

On my way down this morning to pack and check the condition of the road, I came upon a cow moose that had broken her left foreleg. I could tell she was in pain, but she refused to let me or my machine get close to her, and trotted as best she could down ahead of me.

She plowed through the first snow drift and that’s where I left her. I turned around and headed home. I don’t know how she broke her leg, but I can assume she might gave taken a tumble off the bank next to the road and fell on it.

I feel bad for any animal that is injured, and would have put her out of her misery had I has my rifle on hand instead of my pistol. She did manage to stay just out of range, and I didn’t want to add to her agony by wounding her. That’s life and death on the mountain, the circle of life.

Well that’s all the news for the week. Bye for now.

Christmas week

Well it’s been another interesting week up here on the mountain, my little slice of heaven.

New comers that don’t know what they’re doing have made quite a mess of things up here.

They moved in during the summer months and did nothing to prepare for the winter. Then, until recently, they were driving in and out until the snow got too deep. They then found someone to plow the road, which is bad enough because once the sun comes out, it turns what snow is left on the road, into a sheet of ice.

This makes travel by any means impossible, and will result in somebody going off the steep edge after loosing control.

There is also a new guy trying to make a go of it. I have dubbed him Teepee guy, as he is living in a teepee up here. Not the smartest thing in my opinion, but it’s not my headache. At least he gets it, mountain survival isn’t something to take lightly and he plans to have a tracked vehicle by next week so he can haul in supplies.

Allen and I have been packing trails this past week, since we have had quite a bit of fresh snow, with more in the forecast this weekend.

Down in town, every type of equipment has been clearing snow this week in preparation for the next storm.

It’s Christmas week, and the children are enjoying the all too short break from school and playing in the snow. Most are anticipating Santa’s arrival this Saturday night, and won’t be able to sleep until they can tear open their presents Christmas morning. Then it’s the big dinner with family or friends, or both. I myself will be once again at Larry and Moe’s for dinner on that day, and am looking forward to such a fine meal.

Well that’s all the news for the week. Bye for now.

The cold has everything at a standstill up here.

It’s so cold up here nothing wants to start. The UTV is cranking like it’s sunk in mud. I remembered the battery is three years old and probably not up to the task any longer. I have it on a slow charge now hoping to get it warmed up enough for one more start, then it’s off to NAPA for a new one. The snowmobile is like pulling a tank out of the mud by hand, not going to happen. It’s -1 in town, which means it’s colder up here.

Good day to stay inside by the fire.

The only thing I really need from town is gas for the genorator, but I can stretch that out until Monday if I have to.

That’s life on the mountain. Not worth worrying about, it is what it is.