5 Days at the Cabin

 

Thursday.

On the Way to the Cabin.

On the way up I stopped at the Home Depot to pick up a few parts.
One of the things I want to do, is replace the toilet valve as it is not shutting off completely.

When you are on spring water you have to be careful of leaks as what might seem to be a small leak today, could be leaking more than the spring can produce in the summer or late fall.

Another thing I wanted to do was get rid of the “P” trap in the kitchen sink as I think it is causing the sink to drain to slow. As it turned out I got the wrong part.

Once I got out of “H. D.” I headed on up the road toward Boonville. There was very little traffic so I was able to cruse along and enjoy the scenery.

Arrive at the Cabin.

I got to the cabin around 10:30 and got moved in.

After hanging out for a while I decided to work on the water feature on the big stump.

I found a large diameter drill that was long enough to get through one of the thinner parts of the back of the notch on the log. I chucked the drill in my Makita cordless drill and proceeded to drill a 1-1/4’ hole through the stump. Awesome drill!

I stuffed the plastic line through the hole and then connected that to  piece of old copper pipe that was laying up the hill in the woods. It must have been the remains of some past water system.

Here is what the water feature looks like now; no visible plastic pipe.

The idea here is for the water to drip on the shovel blade causing a splash that spreads out and wets a large area. The water that collects on the shovel falls again onto a flat rock where it also splashes. What’s left drips into the old disk at the bottom where it forms a small pool and then runs over the edge of the dish to fall in into a small buddle of water making nice gurgling sounds. It then runs down the hill in a small stream that soaks into the ground just short of the trail that goes to the bench. All this water is from the overflow from the cabin spring up the hill. 

Iris’s.

The wild yellow Iris’s that were just starting to bloom last week have all opened up.

Friday.

 

I wasn’t sure I was going to even mention this part but I finally decided that it is part of my experience up here this week so here it goes.

A Shocking Discovery.

When I got up Friday morning and was relieving myself I looked down and saw a dark spot near the end of my manhood. I didn’t have my glasses so I returned to the cabin and took a better look with the glasses on. Just as I thought; during the night a tick had burrowed into the tender flesh of my other head.

At first it was hard not to panic seeing this creature half buried in the end of the most tender part of my body.

I tried to get ahold of the offending beast but it was too deep and too small to get between my big clumsy fingers. I didn’t have any tweezers but I remembered that I had a tick spoon in my personal kit.

Below is the tick spoon.

The idea behind the spoon is that you slide the V notch in the spoon between the tick and the skin and lever the tick out of the body.

It was a fairly unpleasant experience trying to get the tick out as it was in quite far but eventually with a pop it came free.
I think I got it all but only time will tell. If I didn’t get it all, it will fester and then I will probably have to have a doctor remove it.

I was a bit swollen and uncomfortable down there for the rest of the day so I didn’t do anything strenuous.

Modifying Sconces.

 

When I first built the cabin I made some wooden sconces to hold  the kerosene lamps I was using at the time
 

Since then I have switched over to propane lights.
I decided I wanted to modify the sconces so that they would also hold the propane lights with their propane cylinder.

I just drilled 4 holes around the wooden ring that holds the lamp. Then I made a basket of sorts from tie wire and ran the ends of the basket through the holes.

Here is how it turned out.

I have another lantern setup like this on the post opposite this one. I tried them last evening and it really lights up the place.
I usually only burn one lamp at a time.

A Short Walk.

I took a walk up the trail from the cabin to see what Bob had accomplished when he was here a couple of weeks ago.
I took a rake along so I could clean up the trail if needed.
Bob did a good job on the trail and there is only a short section that needs to be roughed in where the trail goes up hill through some thick brush and trees.
I turned around here and headed back to the cabin.

Saturday.

Rain, Rain and More Rain.

It rained off and on all night.
When I woke up it had stopped raining for the moment so I took that opportunity to head for the bathhouse and my morning ablutions.
By the time I got back to the cabin the rain had resumed.
Now, you may think I am complaining but no, I actually enjoy the rain when I am here.
Since the cabin is mostly windows it is nice to sit here in front of the wood stove with a cup of hot chocolate and a good book. Occasionally looking up when the sound of the rain on the roof drowns out the radio and watch the rain fall.

I am always impressed by how green everything looks after the rain stops. I am equally disappointed by how my digital camera does not quite capture the affect. I had to enhance this one to bring out the greens and it still doesn’t look right.

A ride to the barn.

Of course as you can guess, I can’t sit in the cabin all day. Eventually I decided to take a ride down to the barn so I grabbed a pair of Loppers and drove the jeep down the hill.

At the shotgun range I had to clear a bunch of limbs that were hanging low over the road. Eventually I got to the barn. I walked around the area for a while; I was kind of looking for some old stuff to use for yard art around the cabin but there wasn’t anything there that caught my eye. After a little while I headed back to the cabin.

Toilette valve.

After lunch it was raining pretty hard but I decided that I should take this opportunity to to replace the valve in the toilette.

After all, it is an indoor job.

I got the new valve out of the jeep, grabbed a crescent wrench and a pair of channel locks pliers and walked down to the bath house.

It took only a couple of minutes to remove the old valve.

A few minutes more and the new modern valve was installed.

It all appears to be functioning just great.

The rest of the day I just hung out in the cabin eating, drinking and enjoying the view.

Sunday.

Going Home Day.

I never like (G H day).
I slept in until around 9:00 which is very late for me.

It took me until around 4:00 to get packed up and ready to go home.

Okay, that was how I spent the last 5 days at the cabin.