Cabin Life!(warning:may contain coarse language)

What a romantic and whimsical image a cabin in the mountains brings to mind!

Weeeeeelllllllll………it not all fairy dust and unicorn farts.

There always seems to be something that needs repaired OR REDONE because I had no idea what I was doing when I originally did the work. Let’s take the electrical wiring for example……..everyone knows including (both) my loyal followers……normal people write a check and hire a person who’s head will not spontaneously combust at the mere uttering of the phrase 3 way switch ! I ,being the frugal……….alright……cheap bastard that I am…did the wiring myself back in 2006. I think BIL Barton did some of the outlets for me…..these are easy to identify as they are the only functioning ones in the cabin. To be fair most of the ones I did, work ,its just they sometime spark or catch on fire when you plug in something or trip the GFI even though they are not on the same circuit as the GFI……not sure how that happens but my complete lack of knowledge regarding proper/safe wiring may be the answer to my confusion

I finally decided to try and REDO the wiring after the last of my outlets melted

As I’ve mentioned before my upbringing was of meager yet comfortable means……the influence of my mothers constant effort to stretch a dollar….helped form who I am today. This is not to say my mother is to blame for my frugality on steroids, her example was solid old school common sense………I probably took it to some extreme extent due to eating lead based paint off the window sills in my childhood home or drinking from a garden hose or drinking really really cheap beer in high school..………or maybe its YouTube’s fault…………cheap bastards like me gets a false sense of security after watching 50 or 60 videos …….yeah……I got this…….no….. no……ya…..don’t

We built the cabin with a knee wall foundation which creates the “crawl space”…….near as I can tell the phrase, crawl space is derived from the Latin …Mulgere hircum many believe this translates to “To milk a male goat” this is false….the translation is “ why in the fu*king sh*t did I cheap out and build a bull sh*t fu*king knee wall”

Crawl spaces/knee walls like the appendix, politicians and stupid people really don’t add much value….AND they are a pain in the ass.

Karen looked on with amusement as I suited up for my journey into the “UPSIDE DOWN”AKA the crawl space…….

safety glasses…check…hoodie cinched up so tight only one goggled eyeball is visible……check…..long pants tucked into work boots complete with gators….check…..2 pairs of work gloves that inhibited movement and manual dexterity to a point that your hands could not be more useless if you clutched a cue ball in each hand…..check………HEY!!! THERE Are SPIDERS AND SHIT DOWN THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND it didn’t help that our friend Rae mentioned that the rattle snakes like cool spaces like crawl spaces during the heat of the day

I approached the crawl space opening with a foreboding reminiscent of the walk I endured as a teen ,from the driveway to the house after pealing the fender off Dads 1965 mustang…….it was a piece of shit but he apparently was unaware of that fact

But I was determined to tidy up my original attempt at wiring

I struggled for days trying to salvage parts of my earlier work until surrendering and starting over.

Anyone who has worked around breaker boxes marvels at the lid that is engineered to hold itself open……at first glance this is a great idea

But after walking into this thing 6-8 time the first day….Karen is wondering what all the muffled cursing drifting up from the $%^**&#%#()_&^*)(_)( Crawl space is all about

By day three

The leftover staples attached to the floor joist snagged my hat at every turn and left painful ditches in my sparsely follicled dome .

Karen enjoyed the solitude as I trudged off to the crawl space each morning like a weary miner

Until the GRANDADDY of all collisions withe the breaker box door

After Karen patched me up and I apologized to the neighbors 1 1/2 miles away I decided it was time to involve a PRO!!! Our great friends next door,Rae and Larry recommended A fellow named

With Hauptmann Electrical!

Turned out that Bruno ,the owner was tied up with another matter and sent out a young apprentice……………..When I say young….I MEAN YOUNG!!!!….I explained to the youngster that Karen and I had travel extensively in Mexico and I was very familiar with wiring based on the knowledge I garnered there over a cerveza or 2……welll sometimes 12. He stared at the supply pole I hung

With a look of……..

I did my best to remain humble

With that problem solved,I can concentrate on tasks more in line with my skill level!!! Clearing some trees so the fence could be repaired!

After a quick tree felling lesson from our good friend Jeff …….I was confident I could drop these trees on a dime……….reflecting back on that moment of confidence……with the benefit of hindsight ………..I was overconfident………truth of the matter is…..I, not unlike the morons in DC had no CLUE what I was doing.

BIL Barton dropped a bunch of trees for us at the beginning of this fence repair project ,he’s kinda a cross between Jeremiah Johnson

McGyver

And the dude from Fresh Prince

Nah………he dont dance anywhere near that good.

Anyway, the fence repair was going good……..until

The neighbor showed up with beer!

After a few beers and these homemade cigars he brought we got back to the task at hand………chainsaw work!!! Manly man work!

Jeff and I consulted

Fortunately for us…..Karen was smart enough to to move herself and the dogs BEFORE Jeff and I fumbled our calculations on the felling of this aspen

Karen suggested I list all motorized tools and equipment I owned on OfferUp……..I suppose the hope is I’ll be a bit less destructive with handsaws.

Not owning a log splitter I borrowed the neighbors AND their splitter! Karen suggested that I be the stacker of the split wood as that appeared to be the safest job for someone of my limited grey matter development.

Having plenty of trees down and lots of help splitting and stacking made the job go quick

Unfortunately Etta and Otis,in pursuit of the ever elusive and EVIL chippys…….destroyed the wood stack almost as fast as the media can create discourse among the general populace with slanted ,one sided, fact devoid reporting.

But this is a part of the circle of life…..we stack it…….they destroy it….in a weird way I think I enjoy it almost as much as Etta and Otis….almost

A melancholy slowly takes a toe hold each fall as we complete the wood cutting or any number of the autumn tasks that signal the approach of winter and our migration south. We will miss all our dear friends and family, and also look forward to reuniting with our great friends at Moon Pond. There is comfort in knowing some friends and family may brave the stupidity know as air travel to even come visit us!

We wont miss

But we have many great memories to keep us warm on our journey