09-20-10

Well, the cabin is pretty much done.



The only things left are the porch, the sink, a cabinet and some miscellaneous interior trim.
I bought a small air compressor at Harbor Freight and took it up to IC last Wednesday. With that and my Brad nailer, by Friday I had all the bats up, the rear windows trimmed on the outside and all the trim up on the screens. I was just putting the final touches on a system to keep stuff away from the screen by the kitchen counter,



when I saw a blue Chevy pickup driving into the flat.
I recognized the pickup as that belonging to my old friend "Swamp". It had been over a year and it was good to see him again.

Swamp got his stuff and moved in while I finished my project.
We spent the rest of the day visiting.

It was a damp, overcast morning Saturday. Swamp had brought his .45 caliber flint lock pistol up with him and wanted to do some shooting so we set a clay pigeon up against a stump and he blasted away at it for a while. Eventually he got things dialed in and began busting the birds.
the flint lock was having ignition problems because of the moisture in the air so after about an hour he gave it up.
Now, you may think that shooting for an hour would be a lot of shooting but actually we only fired about 10 rounds. The rest of the time was spent wiping moisture out of the pan, sharpening the flint, swabbing sludge from the bore, and reloading. It just proves that Muzzle loader shooting is a great way to pass the time.

The rest of the day, with Swamp's help, I got the last two big windows working.
With all the windows open the place looks like it wants to fly.
He also helped me cut a couple trees off the road up to the spring so now I am ready for Bob to come up to finish up the spring.

It rained Saturday night and continued through Sunday morning.
We left for home around 10:30.

I got home around noon and went to Harvey's football game around 2:30. They lost but it was a close game and Harvey was a key player again.

09-13-10

HI, I'm back.
I was up at Indian Creek from Thursday until Sunday(yesterday).
While I was there I got all the windows made and installed. I got two of windows set up to open. I will do the other two later.

I got the bats put on the right side of the cabin.
Dave lent me a small compressor so I could use my brad nailer to put up the bats and the trim but my generator wouldn't run the compressor so I had to nail them up the old way.
I came home so I could make some more bats and make the steel brackets to support the beams for the porch. Also I am going to try and fix my small compressor or buy a new one. It would sure speed things up as far as putting up bats and trim.

I got back to Santa Rosa in time to go to Harvey's Football game.
It was great!
They won this time and Harvey was a pivotal player. He made three of their four touchdowns and two extra point kicks. Plus he made several important tackles and stops.
Of course we are very proud grandparents.
Naturally, we forgot to bring our camera so we didn't get any video or photos of the game.


More later.

09-07-10

Okay, we are back from IC.
We got home around 6:00 last evening.
I arrived at IC around 2:30 last Monday.
Dave came up on Tuesday, worked on his platform until Thursday, and left Thursday morning. He and Joanne came back up on Sunday and Dave finished his platform but for one board which will have to be custom cut.
Patti came up Thursday afternoon and stayed until Monday. We both came home in her car. I left the van up there and will be going back in a couple days in the jeep.
The weather was very hot all week so we didn't get as much done as I would have liked but we did get all the windows screened and three of the main windows framed.



The windows will be hinged at the top and will be opened by a system of ropes and pulleys. I was not able to actually hang the windows because I bought the wrong hinges.
I had an old round table top in storage that I used to have in my front room as a coffee table. I took it up to the cabin and it fit perfect.



Today I am going to buy the proper hinges and a couple other parts and will be going back to IC by Thursday.
I don't know when I will be coming back to town and I don't know when I will publish the next blog so just keep checking back.