This weeks news. Or Yankee ingenuity gone wrong.
It’s been an interesting week up here on the mountain, my little slice of heaven.
Work is progressing on my sons’ cabin, though slower than I would like. Any progress is good progress, however, and I can at least see an end now. We started putting on the roof this week, but without a safety harness, things weren’t going as planned. We were having to bring the plywood in and feed it through the rafters from the inside. That worked fine at the start, but the further we went up, the harder it became. I wasn’t sure just how we would finish the south facing roof, let alone the north facing one, it being higher off the ground and shorter than the south facing roof since this is a New England Saltbox. As luck would have it, I know a guy. I am vice president of the local rifle and archery range, and at a recent meeting I was explaining the problem. One of the guys there, a regular at the meetings, said he had two safety harnesses he would loan me. I made arrangements to pick them up the following day around noon. I wanted to finish up the plywood on the west wall and figured we could get that done by noon, then run into town and grab the harnesses.
While doing the east wall, we set the scaffolding up in my son’s pickup bed, placed a couple of planks on top, nailing them together, and put an extension ladder on top of the whole thing. This is called “Yankee ingenuity”, something Yankee farmers have done for many years. Have a problem with not much money for renting expensive forklifts? Then use a little ingenuity and get the job done. (My Yankee ancestors would be proud.) We thought the same approach would work for the west side, and set it up accordingly. My son cut the first piece of plywood and, since there was an eighteen-inch window opening right next to where I was on the ladder, brought it upstairs so he could help hold it in place. I climbed the ladder and leaned in to take the piece from him. That is when everything went wrong. The pickup wasn’t on very level ground, thus neither was the scaffolding. It was leaning away from the wall, and the ladder acted as a lever pushing against planks below, which caused the scaffolding to tip and start to fall away from me. I learned two things at that moment. First, I still have cat-like reflexes and can jump almost three feet to one side. Second, I can fit through an eighteen-inch window opening with a full tool belt on.
I did manage to pull, or bruise, almost every muscle in my body achieving this great feat, and decided it was time to quit for the day, even though we’d only just gotten started. I went home, drank tea the rest of the morning, and relaxed a very sore body. I do now have the harnesses, so when we start again, I will be safely tied into something.
There is a gal that owns the land next to mine, and last week, she asked me if we could make a few repairs to a shelter she threw together a couple of summers ago. The heavy snow last winter had split some of the wood. She is, due to health reasons, retiring from her job, and wants to move up here permanently next spring. In the meantime, she needed a few things fixed she hasn’t had time or skill to do. So, my son and I spent this morning tearing down most of what she had built and starting over. We still have a couple of hours of work to do, but will finish up next weekend, as I want to get back to work on the cabin here.
There’s a mill in town that gives away free sawdust once a week. You bring whatever you want to fill, and they will fill it. Since we have a compost toilet, whish uses sawdust to cover the waste, this seemed like a good idea. Prior to this, we had been going to a sawdust pile from another mill near where there is bridge work being done, and fill four five gallon buckets. These would last us about a month. We took both pickups down on Wednesday and loaded them up. I believe we now have enough sawdust to last us until next fall. If you’re not familiar with a compost toilet, our homemade one consists of a five-gallon bucket surrounded by a wooden frame with a seat that, then, uses sawdust to cover the waste and eliminates odors. We empty the bucket about once a week, more if necessary, in the outhouse. It’s cheaper than those sold commercially and works just as well.
The stove I removed from my old 5th-wheel trailer when I first moved up here died this week, at least the oven did. It refused to light on its own, and when it shut off after it reached temperature, refused to relight. Luckily, there was a working stove in the trailer my son and family are staying in right now. They can’t use it because the gas line that went to the refrigerator isn’t caped off (we have that fridge in our kitchen), and the pressure regulator has been removed and hooked up to their fridge, which is sitting on our porch. So, we removed the stove as well and now have a working stove again. My son comes over to do any major cooking anyway, so it works out.
My lovely wife has wanted a craft bench next to her sewing cabinet for quite some time now. While I was taking it easy, and my son and family were taking a day at the lake, I built her one. Now, she has more room for her sewing and craft work when she needs it. I just need to wire in a light for that corner of the room, since it’s dark there most of the time. A project for this winter when I can’t work outside.
Well, that’s all the news for the week. Bye for now.
