Wind And Rime

Lord've mercy! Is there any particular reason why the cold air has to enter the premises like a run away freight train with ten thousand cars? I am talking gale force winds and temperatures plummeting into the teens. The wind chill will be a cool -1 degree.

A thousand feet higher up on Sandy Mush Bald, a white mountain that was created in the night, is alternately turned on and off by the passing clouds.



The view of Sandy Mush is to the SE. Here is the white mountain in the off position without the zoom.



The western view looks innocuous enough. Plenty rain was followed only by traces of snow. Any rime on these hills would be on the opposite NW facing side.



Stepping outside reveals the truth of the matter. It's brutal out there. It is almost time to flee.

Corner Trim And Colors

Four out of six corners were trimmed in between rain showers and before the next big freeze arrives tomorrow. A really big freeze, like in 15 degrees more or less. Eeek!! The two corners on the back of the cabin furthest off the ground remain to be trimmed, one of them being the short section of loft wall corner.

The special order 3/4 inch thick Hardie board trim for all the windows has arrived. Perhaps I will go get that and trim the windows I can safely reach. I will need the scaffolding again. Those back corner trim boards can wait until I have the scaffolding.

One board at a time, in slow motion is what it feels like.



Putting on 13 foot 9 and 3/4 inch corner trim boards and getting the seams straight and tight might be easier than choosing a lipstick color though. The two color swatches below have the three previously chosen colors. Artichoke (gray) is the siding, deck, post and railing, and corner trim board color. Crafted White (pale yellow) is the main trim and window trim color. Waterloo (blue) is the door and loft window trim color.

The two front runners in the lipstick competition, the color for the porch handrail and the porch roof's framing that will show beneath the metal roof follow. Keep in mind that colors on computers are not true to life and can vary from one computer to the next. They are close though and the grouping of them does give an accurate feel for how they will work together.

The first and I think my favorite is Wildfire. I went looking for an orange tone and found this one with much more of a red tint in Valspar's Earth Elements line in the orange grouping. It really pops with all the other colors.



The idea was to move the tile color that will be inside the cabin to the outside. This tile is very close to what I will be looking for. I want something a smigen lighter and with a touch less marbling. It is very close to the color of my dirt.



The second runner up is Orange Glaze. To me it looks very much like the color of a pumpkin pie. It might be more in line with the tile color, but it just doesn't have the same pop that the Wildfire does.



All this color cipherin gots me thinking the Wildfire might also need to be the color of the living room walls. I planned to have a bold wall color. The inside wall color can just move right on to the outside in the porch roof's framing. That's an idea.

Inertia

Look into my eyes. Do not blink. Do not move.



The spotlets are growing up. Their eyes are turning yellow. Crawford here, continues to be ahead of his sister Collar, in his comfort around me and his willingness to let me pet him. All three of the spots have made significant progress in checking out the inside of the house. They will be mostly outdoor cats though, unless they show a demanding preference otherwise.

Despite the unfavorable choice of locations to do their business, the resident gardeners will be pleased at least with their great hunting success of mice, voles and sorry chipmunks too. Mama Spot brings home squeeze toys for the kids mostly.

I know many people will take issue with cats that are allowed to hunt the small critters. My feeling is that this is nature's way. The snakes, hawks, falcons, owls, raccoons and coyotes who live here all survive by hunting. At one time there were bobcats and cougars in these mountains. Maybe there still are. A healthy diverse ecosystem that provides for a vibrant population of small critters is more important than the loss of individuals.

Still, after the holidays it will definitely be time to make an appointment for the kitties nip and tuck. To many predators isn't good either. Now I even worry more about the owls, hawks and coyotes. I might be a little less understanding if one of the cats turned into somebodies lunch.



It has been grey, rainy and wet since Monday. At least it has been "warm". It makes for generally extra slow movement when all the cabin construction that I can work on is exterior work. Today there was a brief pause in the rain. Five pieces of corner trim are now attached to the cabin and the holes are drilled for the extra fastening between the porch ledgers and the floor joists. Drats. The seven inch bolts were to short. I have to exchange them for eight inch bolts.

I can do that tomorrow when it rains again and look for the right color of lipstick for the porch. I decided to paint the porch roof's infrastructure, the exposed framing under the metal roof, the same color as the handrails. It will be easier to paint it before I put the roof on.

Uncle Ernie Gets Festive

With dangling balls....

12-17-08
At times I am easily persuadable. Besides it is misty and rainy and I can't prime before painting the porch roof's infrastructure or start the siding on a wet cabin.

Uncle Ernie gets a hair weave.



With some subtle berry antlers.

A Little Cabin Blooms

If you came here looking for pictures of pretty flowers for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, you will not be disappointed. You can get to Bloom Day World Headquarters from here. From there you can wander the globe looking at pictures of pretty flowers until you have had your fill.

I had one possibility for a December bloom here on the top of a bare, brown and chilly North Carolina mountain top. Maybe the new immigrant Hellebore from Fairegarden, Tennessee would have a bloom for me. No bloom, but there are some big fat healthy looking buds in the crown. Most likely they will be leaves, but you never known.

The two largest of the Hellebore from Fairegarden, Tennessee were planted in the ground. About a dozen seedlings were potted up and are safely tucked in a bed of mulch for the winter. They have doubled in size from baby seedlings and have surprised me by continuing to put out new growth through snow and rain and snow and sleet and snow and rime and wind and frigid sub-freezing temperatures. They just keep getting bigger.



Now if you came here for some good news, I can help with that too. It was a good inspection for the cozy cabin. Yippee!

The framing passed and the form was signed. He did ask me to add some bolts on the front porch and back stoop. I need to put bolts through the porch ledgers and the double floor joists on the ends of the cabin. He wanted bolts with threaded nuts instead of the big fat lag screws we used to attach the ledgers to the cabin. Fine, no problem, I can do that. He said he would check the next time he comes back, but I could go ahead with the siding. The framing passed inspection.



The electrical did very well too. It didn't pass on a just a few details. The washing machine outlet and the outlet by the bathroom sink need to be changed from 15 to 20 amp circuits. Ok. We will have to run all new wire rated for 20 amp all the way to the fuse box which stinks, but it is doable. The other little detail was smoke alarms. Oops, we forgot those.

My building contractor harrumphed on the electrical news and is going to double check the code book again and have a talk with the inspector man before he runs new wire. We'll see. I feel like it was at least a 95% on the test. It will be easy to correct those electrical details.

Another milestone in the birth of a cozy cabin has been passed. The house of Lowes is going to be dressed in a new article of clothes. Between the siding and the metal roofs for the porch, I have enough to keep me busy for some time.

Eyeshadow and Lipstick

In between the snow and the rain and the snow and the sleet and the rime and the wind and the frigid sub-freezing temperatures are ever so brief windows of opportunity where exterior portions of the cabin are dry enough and not frozen so that some little procedure that needs doing gets done.

This winter which has not even officially begun is being decidedly more weatherlicious then last year. It is good for ending droughts. Not so good for getting outdoor construction type things done. Last year at this time I had already finished an entire dry stacked stone wall and had begun the excavation for the second one. I don't think I am getting out as much as I was last year.

Last week though before I returned the rented scaffolding, I crawled back up on the roof and painted the trim around the loft windows. This week while waiting for three dollar parts and a framing and rough electric inspection that was missed I have been priming and painting the fascia trim boards before the porch's metal roofs go on.



The loft window's trim was painted the same blue that the doors will be instead of the Crafted White, a very pale yellow, the main trim color.



I wanted to accentuate the eye affect. A little blue eyeshadow should make those windows pop.

The first coat of the Crafted White is on the front porch trim boards. The cozy cabin will look more spiffy for the inspection that better happen tomorrow.

I was thinking of painting the baluster on the porch blue like the front door and the railings the Crafted White trim color. Now I am thinking I may need a touch of red in there? I need lips. That could give the cabin even more personality. My own subliminal neighborhood crime watch.

Did I mention I have been more cooped up this year than last?



Down in the stream to fetch unfrozen water, looking back at the cabin shows a whole new view. The roof floats through the forest like a great ship at sea. One day there may be a small 10x10 tea house on this slope heading down to the stream, a shady place to set and listen to a babbling brook. The common high pitched roof design of tea houses would fit in fine with this view.



The stream itself affords opportunities for some interesting garden design in the future. Nature is in the midst of its own redesign at the moment. The dominant tree species sweeping over and around this ridge and along the stream bed is the dying Hemlocks. Many have fallen. More are soon to follow.



Actually quite a number of other species of trees have recently fallen over in this natural wet seep in the mountains flank. The roots let go of the mountain and the trees laid down. I don't really know why. Was it from the drying out of the drought? Is this a natural progression of age? Is this just how it is in the head waters of a stream? There hasn't been any indication to me that it has been unusually windy. That fact that there are trees standing at all in this often howling wind is a testament to their strength.

But where there is soon to be more sunlight there is opportunity. Nature and I will have a chance at collaboration.

No Inspection For You - $50

It is a short walk down a scenic country road to the cozy cabin from the resident gardeners house. We will be neighbors when I move out, but not close neighbors. Even in the naked forest of winter it is difficult, if not largely impossible to see one house from the other.

A fresh coating of snow had covered the world while I slept. It was cold again. There was not much to do except wait inside where it was warm for the call from the inspector man so I could meet him down at the cozy cabin.



It must have snowed hard last night and snowed sideways. The north west facing side of the tree trunks were coated in snow thirty to forty feet up. The fresh white beauty belies the fury that must have accompanied this creation.



By 2:00 pm the call still hadn't come. I called them. Yes I was on the list.

At 3:00 pm I walked down to the cozy cabin again, afraid to step away from the phone to find a note card on the door this time. "Doors locked. $50 re-check fee."

I specifically told the man you need to call me before you come. The place is locked and I need to let you in. What is your number he asked.

I called them again. They don't have business phones with them, only radios. Blah yada blah yada blah. Blah. Yada.

I was right next door the whole time. #**^%##! He could've honked. He could've hollered.



I am scheduled again for Monday.

Then I stepped outside in the snow that has started again and slipped on the icy steps at the resident gardeners house from the melt and re-freeze of the day and landed on my upper okole. Good thing I was wearing several layers and a thick winter coat.

I am in a crabby mood now.

Gulahiyi

A Magnificent Act of Generosity

Go there - Ruminations from the Distant Hills