Deep Freeze

I set myself two objectives this fortnight and, despite taking a couple of days off during the first week, I managed to achieve both of them. After posting my last blog page, I set about staining all the panelling and stairs in the stairwell and on the landing. However, even this relatively simple task seemed to exhaust me. I guess the weeks without a break were finally catching up with me and so I decided to take a couple of days off and just did a few simple things around the cabin and got in a bit of retail therapy in the form of a new pair of boots for the winter.

I replenished the wood supply under the covered deck which, as it proved, was timely as the temperature suddenly plummeted, reaching -27c one night. The wood burning stove managed to keep the place warm enough but, it proved to be a hungry dragon in meeting the demand and I had to get up twice during the nights to keep it stoked up. Even so, the hot air furness still kicked in just before dawn but, at least it proved that the systems are all working as they should. To be honest, I quite enjoyed the colder temperature. I tested out some of my cold weather clothing and even took a trip out on the quad to see what the wind chill was like. Needless to say, there was no exposed skin for that little exercise. All the clothing worked well and so I have no fears about cold temperatures.

Snow has come again and with it I can track the wildlife that visits the property, especially at night. Elk,  mule deer, cats of various sizes and a few tracks I haven't been able to identify. The builders on one of the other lots saw a cougar last week sitting under a tree just watching them. Cougars are like that, they will lie in wait for hours, even days, watching and waiting for an easy kill. Small dogs are probably the most vulnerable but, people old and young have been the subjects of recent attacks - not here though just in case you are concerned for my safety. 

Retail therapy also including buying some Christmas lights for the cabin, which I hung on the front and …. 

…. side of the cabin and they cheered me up considerably. There's no one else to see them at the moment, just me and the animals, so I hope they like them too.

Not sure what happened to this photo but, I quite like the effect so I have included it for you to enjoy as well.

There isn't really much to show you of the stairwell and stairs staining as most of it is clear coated but, for what it is worth this is what it looks like now.

I'll add some furniture on the landings at a later stage but, I have to make it first.

This is leading down into the basement and I probably won't put any furniture on this landing.

And so, to what I have been doing this week. I made a start on the second bedroom.

I set myself the objective of getting all the wall panelling done and I achieved this with a day to spare and so I made a start on the two small cupboards, similar to the ones is my bedroom. I got both of them built and on Monday I will make a start on their doors.

The panelling went well and I was particularly pleased with the result in this corner with the beam coming through the wall.

Sorry about all the scaffolding and other junk but, I am still working in here.

And that just about covers it for this fortnight as far as the work is concerned. I expect this room will take about another three weeks to finish completely and then I will have to decide what to do next. At some stage I want to make a log bed for this room but, I think that will have to wait until I can get some appropriate wood from the forest in the spring/summer.

I have just about finished my first winter stew that has been on the go for three weeks. To be honest, I'm sick of it now. Three weeks of the same thing is enough. It has served its purpose and saved me a lot of time preparing meals but, I need a change. So, it is back to different meals every evening of a while, until I'm ready to face another stew of sorts. The fire takes time to keep going as well both during the day and through the night and every few days I have to spend a couple of hours getting wood in from the wood pile. I stack some of the large pieces under the covered deck for easy accessibility and this I use mostly for slow burning fires to keep going through the night. During the day I use the smaller stuff, which burns faster and produces more heat and I keep a ready supply of that on the quad trailer in the garage.

I won't be posting again before Christmas so I will take this opportunity to wish you all a very Merry Christmas.