Bits and Pieces
Work is in a fairly relaxed mode, and thus progress is modest. Rather than continue with short posts, I will likely make infrequent posts unless something significant arises. One thing not documented in this post is that Niko made had his first visit to Skookum and we made some progress with the solar systems, but there’s still much to do and it’s unclear if it will get done by the time the snow flies. The weather is supposed to stay nice for at least another week, so we’ll see…
I was worried about the elk rubbing on the solar panels for the spring box pump, so Wylie and I made a pole fence around the panels to discourage the elk. It is a pretty simple fence, but I think it is enough that the elk will not cause a problem. The left photo shows the “naked” solar panels. The middle photo shows Wylie screwing in a pole. The right photo shows Wylie in front of the fenced panels. As noted at the end of this post, there’s a nice bunch of elk hanging around.
We got a decent start on getting firewood together for the winter. I taught Wylie how to use and ax (which means he still doesn’t know how), but he did split a few logs. Later, we built our first fire in the wood stove and it heated up the cabin nicely, even though there is no insulation in places and open gaps in some corners.
Wylie did most of the sealing with polyurethane on the west wall (left photo). The seal really brings out the colors of the logs, as you can see in the right photo where the logs on the left are sealed, and the logs on the right are not. Surprisingly, some logs really darken up while others stay quite light, but all the colors are pleasant.
We got the first coat on the west wall and it looks great. There are three more walls to do, plus the supporting logs on the ceiling, so there’s quite a lot of work to do just to finish the first coat. I plan on following Tom’s advice, which will be to hit the first coat with light sanding and then put on a second coat to get a nice, smooth finish that will be easy to clean.
Tom said he might come over with his new log-splitter and he said I should saw up a bunch of rounds. It’s kind of a pain sawing rounds alone, but I put together a little stack. The pile of split wood in the shade behind these rounds is almost as big, so I suspect I’ll have enough wood for the winter.
Since the pump won’t be running in the winter, I spun the solar array around so it faces north and inclined it at a steep angle. That should (I think) increase the lifetime of the solar panels and the snow should shed from it well. This is so, so, so much easier than taking the solar array down! The spring is still running, but it’s just a trickle.
I thought I would seal some of the tongue and groove lumber in preparation for putting it on the ceiling. The polyurethane seal is so clear you can barely tell it’s on the nice, white pine (upper part of the board to the right).
On the drive home just a quarter mile or so from the cabin I heard an elk bugle very close, so close it startled me even though I was in the pickup. Then I saw a bunch of 3 or 4 cows run across the road in front of me about 50 yards away. I kept driving and looked to where the bunch had come from, and another bunch of 4 or 5 cows ran across the road in the same place, now about 30 yards away. I thought Wow! That was close. And then a final bunch of 4 or 5 cows with a big bull ran right in front of the pickup, maybe 20 yards or so away. A nice treat at the end of the day!
Final comment — here’s a big shout out to Lois, a special and wonderful person!!