Tag Archives: dog

Cabin Life – #24

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I’m sitting on a picnic table on the shore of Lake Champlain. Valcour Island is in front of me, the sun is shining and the birds are chirping. Tonight is the calm before the storm so to speak, as the campground opens tomorrow.

Paved roads, electricity and hot showers are now plentiful, as is the wildlife. There are three osprey nests within a half mile of my new cabin, and of course, the raccoons are around a lot. Pico has been marking the yard, and that’s keeping them away for now, but the cats still aren’t going outside.

Opening the campground is nice, getting the place cleaned up. Last year at this time, the entire site was under at least three feet of water. I know, because we needed kayaks and boats to get in here and check on the place. We didn’t open until the middle of July last year due to the epic flooding of the spring. And only a little over a month later, we were shut down for a week because of Hurricane Irene. In between those two events, it was a drought.

I finally found my bird book, and am really looking forward to learning the different birds. Less than forty miles away, the cabin birds are on their own for the summer. But the differences are stark. The only birds I’ve seen that I had out at the cabin are robins. But I’ve also seen the osprey, sea gulls, a bald eagle and some sparrows.

It’s good to be back to work, and the fact that I still get to be outside surrounded by wildlife (yes, I do mean campers as well as wild animals) is just superb.

Cabin Life – #22

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Big fat flakes of snow are blowing around outside.  They seems to hover just before hitting the ground, then linger there for a few moments until they are just a plain old drop of water or two on a blade of brown grass.

Its nights like last night that make me wish I had a better camera.  The sliver of moon was visible in short glimpses through dark and gray, wispy clouds.  The kind of shot that your eye can see, but that my cheap digital camera would capture as a small blurry light in an otherwise black screen.  No hint of clouds, no depth to the picture, and most importantly, no sense of the natural beauty that my own eyes can see.

I don’t get upset when I can’t get these shots with my camera.  Most of the time it’s enough just to witness the scene, but I do desire to share some of these moments.  Like last week when two does leisurely walked through the yard.  The only non-blurry shot I got of them was one where the deer is walking directly away from me.  Not a great picture to share (close your eyes and visualize it…).

A lot of the scenes that excited me so much during the winter are now kind of common place.  Like the chickadees coming to the bird feeders.  It’s still great to watch the little birds up close so much, but I don’t tip-toe over to the big window with my camera every time they show up anymore.  When the turkeys woke me up last week, I looked, saw what was out there and then went back to bed.

But, after six months, this place has lost none of it’s charm, and I have lost none of my amazement at the opportunities to wonder in nature that living out here provides.

Cabin Life – #18

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The afternoon sunlight slants against the birdfeeders, giving them a golden glow.  It’s hard to believe that it’s almost seven at night, when it was not that long ago that the sun was going down at about four-thirty.

During the really dark parts of the winter, it was hard not to go to sleep at six PM.  With only candles and oil lamps, night was difficult to fight off, and more often than not, I fell asleep on the couch with a book on my chest and my headlamp still on.

Now that it’s light so late in the afternoon, I am actually having a hard time filling the days.  Not that I’m just sitting around doing nothing, but I feel like I should be working until six or seven.

It is nice to take a break and realize that it’s dinner time, though.  The wood I cut over the winter is drying nicely, the deer have been coming back to the yard, and luckily there hasn’t been any sign of bears.  The chickadees have been using the feeders less and less, but the squirrels are still hitting them pretty regularly.

My focus has definitely shifted from cold weather preparation and existence to outdoor projects.  The compost bin is complete, and so is a small cold-frame I put together from scrap around the property.  The leaky porch roof now has a rather large hole in it (my fault) and is in dire need of repair, so that’s the next big project.

I’ll probably have to move a generator from Amy’s house up to the cabin to charge batteries and run a saw for the roof project.  It’s weird to think that other than charging my phone in the car, this will be the first time that I’ll have electricity at the cabin.  October to April with no power at the house seems like a long time.  But it went by pretty quickly.  I did go through a lot of 9-volt batteries powering the clock radio.  I also burned about three shoe-boxes worth of candles, as well as a gallon or so of lamp oil.

I’ve burned about four cords of wood, but the stove won’t needed much longer.  The two and a half gallons of gas I bought for the chainsaw is just about gone, and I finally added a gallon of gas to the four wheeler.  I really wish that the four wheeler would start in the cold, but now that it is running, I’ve been having a lot of fun just driving it around.  Unfortunately, Pico can’t come along on these rides, because he’s continually trying to bite the tires, and that’s no good.

The bugs are out, but nothing is biting yet.  A friend of mine saw some mosquitoes, but he said “they were too stupid to bite me.”  Let’s hope they stay that dumb all summer.

Snow Last Night

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We got a dusting of snow last night.  First time in a couple of weeks that there has been snow on the ground…  Kind of nice to hear that little crunch under my boots again.

Laying in the sun yesterday

 

 

Ed. That's it, just Ed.

 

 

Herbie coming down off the roof

 

 

 

 

 

Cabin Life – #17

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The yellow-bellied sapsucker.  My all time favorite name for an animal.  I’ve seen two of them in the last week.  This March was definitely a weird one as far as weather goes.  Record breaking high temperatures led to several shirtless days outside and a sun burn on my back.

It was about this time last year that I left Jacksonville and headed back up here.  The year didn’t turn out any where near what I had planned, but that’s alright.  Now, I am completely absorbed with the amount of birds that have been popping up around here.  I saw two grouse walk through the yard a little while ago, and there were a bunch of robins that passed through a few days ago.  I’ve even seen a few geese flying by along with a bunch of others that I can’t identify.

This year’s lunge into spring was so sudden that it felt as if we had just skipped a few months and were in the middle of summer.  But that would have meant missing the spring, and even though it’s usually more of a mud season than anything else, I love the abundance of growth and warmth after winter.

I went canoeing last week, the first time I was ever able to do that on my birthday.   The sun was warm and the water was freezing, and my buddy and I managed to stay out on the water for a while.  We didn’t go anywhere, mainly because we had no where to go, but it was a great way to end the winter.  I always love snow until the first day of spring, and then I want it gone, and this year, that was pretty much what happened.

And now the birds and animals are coming out, there are small buds and flowers on the trees, and the little stream that runs through here is flowing.  The air smells different, and not just because it’s no longer stained with the exhaust of the woodstove.  It’s lighter later in the day, and the candles and lanterns have not been in use much.

Yup, spring is one of my favorite seasons, along with the rest of them.

Cabin Life – #15

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Pico and I went snow shoeing for probably the last time today.  I wanted to get out before all the snow is gone, and I think there’ll be enough left to ski on tomorrow.  But the snow is going fast, almost as fast as it came.

In the last two weeks, I’ve gotten about two feet of snow out at the cabin.

Black Capped Chickadee

The plow guy had to come three times in four days, after having been out here only three times in the last three months.  But now it’s about fifty degrees, and the forecast calls for warm for the rest of the week.  It’s starting to look like winter might really be over.

I missed this part of the Adirondack spring last year, as I was still living in Florida.  I missed opening the windows and letting that clean-smelling breeze roll through the house.  I missed seeing people’s super white arms emerging from t-shirts for the first time in months.  I just plain missed the change in the seasons.

Jacksonville, FL is far enough north that there is kind of a “winter,” where it does get cold for a couple of months.  The palm trees stay green and you might need a hat and gloves in the morning, but that’s about all you get out of the change of seasons.  There’s really only two seasons:  Hot, and not as hot.

The lady bugs have been proliferating around and on the big window.  I keep catching glimpses of them out of the corner of my eye, and thinking that someone is coming up the driveway, but that’s not really all that likely.  Now that it’s warm, the snow is melting, and there are brown patches of dead grass peeking out, I can’t help but feel some sort of satisfaction.  Back in October, I thought that living off the grid for the winter would be a huge challenge.

It has been.  But not one that has broken or defeated me.  If anything, I am stronger, both mentally and physically, than when I moved out here.  This winter was an experiment in self-reliance.  Not that I haven’t gotten help along the way, but being way out here is something that you have to experience to truly understand.

And really, isn’t life all about the experience?

Snow’s Gone…

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Just a few shots from the record warm of the last few days…

Whiteface in the Morning

Chillin' in the Shade

Ha ha! Wasn't that long ago...

Cabin Life – #14

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A rusty screen door in the wind.  That was the sound I heard earlier outside.  But the sound was coming from the woods, far from any door, or even any human-built structure.  I wondered what it was, but the big MagLite didn’t provide any insight, and the most likely culprit was some tree creaking in the breeze.

The snow has started again, and it looks like the next couple of days will be spent shoveling and digging out.  I really don’t mind.  It’s good

Snowy Birch

exercise, outside, with tangible benefits.  I’ve always loved running the snow-blower and driving a plow truck, and shoveling is something that I’ve gained a renewed appreciation for.  Two storms ago, I shoveled an area big enough to park a few cars in.  The plow guy was impressed, and that’s a pretty big compliment.

One thing that I’ve always loved about living in the Adirondacks is that people come together when they really need to.  When there’s no emergency or major event going on, I’m sure that neighbors have their regular squabbles, but when the fit hits the shan, people here look out for each other.

A few weeks ago, my plow guy got stuck in the driveway and it took us a while to dig out his truck.  The next plow was on him as thanks.  The time after that, we had a big storm, and he hadn’t heard from me, so he came up to plow the driveway and make sure I wasn’t stuck in here.  He said he was glad when he didn’t see my truck.

It was the same thing last spring.  There were massive floods all over the North Country and my first three days of work were spent filling sand bags.  We dropped them off all over town, to the city hall, motels along the lake, and at people’s houses.  Most of the day, it was just a bunch of us state workers who had gotten corralled into the job.  But soon after school got out each day, a stream of parents and kids would come into the town garage and ask what needed to be done.  They brought us food and coffee, as well as fresh hands and arms.  Filling, tying and loading a couple hundred thousand sand bags gets tiring.

But you know what, it’s not just in times of hardship that the people come together up here.  Winter Carnival is one of the greatest parties you could imagine.  An entire town celebrating the successful fight against cabin fever with a parade, concerts, and yes, even a Women’s Frying Pan Toss.  Carnival is great.

The feeling this type of camaraderie creates is one of belonging to a community.  Whatever their petty differences, people do what they can to help each other out, and in the process forget about the nonsense that most of us consume our lives with.  If I had a neighbor and heard a creaky door sound day after day, I’d probably get upset after a while, and would eventually sneak over there and hit the hinges with WD-40.  But since the sound was coming from a tree, I’ll just let it go.  Having such a simple existence in this cabin has made letting the stupid things go a lot easier.

Cabin Life – #12

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Logging by hand has to be one of the most pointless and inefficient activities I have engaged in so far.  I have been “cleaning the woods” as it were, dragging out large limbs and cutting dead trees to get wood for next year’s fire wood supply.

This year’s supply is large, but the quality of the wood is not that good.  When we moved here in the fall, my then-roommate and I didn’t have the money to buy fire wood, and since we had fifty acres at our disposal, we figured we could cut, haul, and split our own wood.  Luckily, we found a pile of logs that had been cut three years ago, but the bark was left on, so they had started to rot.  Also, it was mostly soft woods like white pine, spruce, and poplar (aspen).  But it was free and dry.

He's not smiling. He's laughing at me.

We were able to mix in a lot of hardwood from scrounging and an existing supply of wood left by the previous owners.  Trust me, ten year old hard wood burns really, really nice.

I’m not sure if I’ll be living out here next year, but since I have lots of free time, I decided to comb the woods, finding nice pieces of downed or standing dead hardwoods.  I got lucky with some of the wind storms we’ve had this winter and I’ve dragged cherry, maple, beech, and a little birch out of the woods.

On nice days, I usually take Pico and go for a walk around just to check things out.  It’s on these rambles that I find the wood.  If it needs to be cut up into smaller, more manageable pieces, then I take Pico back to the cabin and grab my chainsaw stuff.  Some of what I cut is pretty dangerous, with dead limbs, lots of weight pressure, and pressure from other trees that the dead stuff is leaning against.  Luckily, I have lots of experience running a chainsaw in difficult conditions so I feel comfortable doing this kind of cutting.  I also always wear cutting boots (steel toe, Kevlar all around), Kevlar chaps, and a cutting helmet with face guard and ear muffs.

Once the logs are cut up into four or five foot lengths (depending on diameter, the skinny ones I leave longer), then the real grunt work begins.  I grab Pico again and start walking out to where the wood is.  Today, it was about a quarter mile away, and Pico and I made at least ten round-trips.  That’s about five miles of walking, half of it carrying logs that weigh anywhere from five to fifty pounds.  Even Pico was panting on our last couple of trips.  And other than moral support, he was no help at all.

After I get the logs back to the cabin yard, I block it up into firewood-length pieces (16” or so) and split any of the bigger pieces.  There are still some monster logs out in the woods that I’ll drag out once I can get the four-wheeler going.  Or maybe I’ll buy a horse.

My shoulders are bruised, and there’s no way I could lift my arms over my head right now, but at least I’ve got a start on a better wood supply for next year.  Yeah, dragging all those logs out by hand is dumb.  So I’m dumb.  Dumb like a fox.