Thursday, September 2nd, 5:00pm
The past week has been... I don't know, whatever it's been. There's been sun, and rain.
This morning I finished reading Zorba - what a fine book, I love the language and images, and exploration of what it is to be alive & human, and to face life, and death.
Don & I inventoried the
large beams that dad had gotten from some 'junk' pile down that had been down beside an old logging/milling area in the harbour area. They're beautiful beams. So we measured and tagged them, from 5' through to 20' and wrote them down in such a way that dad will be able to strategize about how to best make use of them. That will also allow us to begin digging the beds for the concrete footings on which the house will stand. Dad has gone off to town to see about getting stove pipe for the wood-stove we brought up to the kitchen area yesterday, get a battery charger for our soon-to-be generator/charger/battery electric system, and a few other errands.
The wood-stove will allow us to dry out after the rains get us wet, and the electric-system-to-come will allow us electric lights, the ability to power a computer, recharge camera and cordless drill batteries, and so forth.
We spent a lot of the past week or so doing various things... cutting down a couple more small trees, clearing & leveling the building site, staking out different proposed building-footprints that dad would come up with, and then conversing with "C" & "L" about how that fits or doesn't fit with their land and vision, and revising and coming up with alternatives. At one point dad unveiled to me a great and creative design that he's had in his mind for a long time, and it really kicked in my enthusiasm. An interesting design, with two rectangles that cross eachother like a "+" sign, four high sloping beams running from the ground, free through the living area, a high open ceiling, and looking up from the living-room to the top of the ceiling, the house would be topped by a beautiful geodesic dome with windows allowing light in. The living-room area would be open and warm and in open view of the kitchen area, and with extensions of open-ness toward the other four extremities, the south-facing of which is an enclosed 'glass porch'. The one thing I'd like to see is him building for himself, and having the freedom to create the vision that he sees. The result would be fantastic I'm sure. This situation will not allow for that though, at least not in a complete way. Each basic element has to be run through "C" & "L" to be given the green light, and they don't have any reason - that is, experience through which - to have confidence or faith in his abilities. As well they have their own reasons to want things done in... certain styles, or within certain constraints. That's been disappointing to me.
The current 'plan' is a compromise of sorts. We've laid out stakes and run line from stake to stake to show the perimeter/walls of the structure, and we've placed pieces of cardboard, appropriately sized, to simulate where the fireplace, couch(es) and chairs, and kitchen counter would go, and that's been fun and has renewed my enthusiasm a lot. Even within the constraints, I see his vision spilling out and I sense elegance & style, a cozy & open feel. So... that's nice.
We also got the solar water heater set up and working - at least version 1 of it. Man, on a sunny day the water that comes out of it is too hot to put my hand in, so I need to cut it with cold before bathing. On the other hand, today is cloudy with rain from time to time, and the water is... luke warm at best. I think I'll wait for another sunny day to get clean.
Yesterday Don & Dad & I took some of the day off to drive out toward Mt. Baker. We wanted to go high up, past the ski area, to a place known either as Inspiration Point, or Artist's Point. It wasn't to be though, the road crews were up there doing repairs, and the wait before getting to drive through was 45 minutes to an hour so we turned back. We tried a couple of other roads though, and wound up going
high up, some 9 miles of an old forestry road to a lookout point which was pretty grand. (
1,
2,
3)
Don will leave tomorrow, and plans to be back in about two weeks. Dad thinks we'll start by building the center portion of the house, then string a tarp over top of that, and use that sheltered and flat area to continue building walls & roof trusses and simply set them aside, then once we're ready we'll rustle up some folks and arrange and fasten pieces together in a matter of a day or two. We'll see how things go...
* mouse-proofed my trailer stove
*
baby gardener snakes &
toads
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good meals in our kitchen
* not all bad... not all good...
