Cabin in the Woods - The Work Begins! Trip Two!
The planning for the second trip was a bit more..... focused. We needed to get some electricity and heat in the cabin, before the cold weather kicked in. It isn't surprising to have snow in August that far north in BC, so we concentrated on trying to get a wood stove, hearth and flue in place.
We were split between the Blaze King Sirocco 30.2 and the Chinook 30. I liked the Sirocco and D liked the Chinook. We settled on the Sirocco. Now the question was, where to buy it. There were several places in the Lower Mainland that sold them, and one place in Burns Lake, Starland. I called them first.
I had every intention of purchasing all our necessities in Burns Lake, after all, it was a small town, and these were going to be our neighbors and friends. I called them first to get a quote. When I got the quote by email, I quickly got a second saying they forgot to add the price of the shipping from the factory to them. Which was going to be 130 dollars. They sent me a second invoice. I noticed that the second invoice had the 130 dollars TWICE. I sent a question back: Is the price 260 dollars for shipping or is it accidentally on their again. His response was: One freight is for Okanagan to us and one is from us to Southbank, but I'm feeling good today, and this is a mid summer stove sale. Go with the first quote at 4043.27
So 130 dollars to drive it up 12 hours from the manufacture, and then 1/2 hour to our place for another 130 fee. I started looking around. We went to Chilliwack and checked out 2 places there. The pricing was better but they didn't ship to Francois Lake. We would have to pick it up and move it ourselves. That is D and I.
Another place, 1 minutes drive from where I work also sold them, so we went to see them on a Saturday. When we got to the store, there was a sign saying they were closed, due to employee issues but there was a phone number to call, and someone would be there in under an hour. I called, no answer, so I left a message. D and I went next door to check out floor coverings, carpets etc. While we were there, I got a return call. The guy said there must be a mistake, because his partner put the wrong sign on the door, and it was impossible for him to get there in an hour since he was in Prince George. I told him what I wanted, and he said he would call me with a price on the Monday.
Monday came and I didn't hear anything, so I drove over after work. Still closed. I called the guy and he said he was still in PG, but would call the next day. Still nothing. About this time, D got a call from the place in Chilliwack and they gave us a price, if we paid cash, of 3400.00. By this time it was getting close to the day we were leaving and we were worried about them ordering it, and having it arrive on time. When we went to pay for the stove, we were told they took the chance, and ordered it already. I would have to go pick it up, but they had a forklift that could put it in the trailer, since it wouldn't fit in the pickup, while the cap was on. We took the deal. All told, the gas to pick it up, 50 dollars. And not a day too soon. The trailer was partially loaded to begin with, since we park it on the road, we would have to hand bomb everything on the road. The weight of the stove balanced the trailer nicely. How to get it off and into the house by ourselves was a bit of a concern. At 400 lbs, it wasn't going to be easy.
The Sirocco 30.2 wood stove in the trailer, ready for a road trip.
This trip, the trailer wasn't going to be so heavy. We had the stove, some insulation, a treadmill we wanted out of the weight room to start clearing it up to work on, and some wood we would need to start projects in the cabin. We were going to concentrate on the bathroom, off the kitchen, and the framing of the pantry, first. We were still tossing around the idea of the loft being divided into two rooms, a master and a small bedroom. We chose to leave it for the time being. The basement was where we were storing everything so we didn't want to start obstructing our free space either. The bathroom and kitchen were the focus. That, and I would start chopping trees, cleaning the culvert beside the drive, and making the space for a storage container (20' long). D would continue chipping the brush that was lying around, and I was to clear some of the trees for a better view of the flat parking area.
The trailer was also a concern. We weren't too sure where the short was in the running lights, so we rewired all the wires to the back of the trailer. We didn't have the time to do the lights on the fenders, and front, but it was going to be a process of elimination. We put the panels back on and everything worked. We were good to go.
Then, we had an idea..... let's take the cats to get them acclimatized to the truck and the long haul. O'Reilly was a seasoned traveler. We got him in Saskatchewan, and drove him back to BC a year earlier. Mac was another story. We didn't know his background since he was a rescue from LAPS.
D set up a litter box for them in the back seat. We would put them into carriers until we were on the road, and then let them run free until they settled into a place to sleep. This was going to be a night trip so we figured they would settle down quickly and sleep. O'Reilly did that on the trip from Saskatchewan. We bought harnesses for them so we could keep them on leashes to let them walk. Let me say this, they tolerated the harnesses, but we knew they were pissed about it.
O'Reilly posing with his fashionable harness and leash ensemble.
By now we were getting a routine going. Load up, get ice, leave, and top up the gas tanks on the way, at the Chevon, in Mission. Since it had the most area to move the truck and trailer, I liked using them. We knew where all the open gas stations were along the route and planned accordingly.
We left Mission on time, but Mac wasn't taking the driving too well. I think he was having flash backs to the neutering trip he had made, because he crapped all over the litterbox, was frothing at the mouth and D took the brunt of it. I fueled while D cleaned everything up. Nothing could be worse than 12 hours in a truck that smells like cat poop.
The poor guy sat on D's lap frothing at the mouth for several hours. He did finally settle down, and slept the rest of the way. O'Reilly, on the other hand, decided it was time to climb on me, climb on D, climb on the headrests, climb on the dash, basically, be a cat. By the time we got to Cache Creek for our first fill up, they had settled down.
As we were passing Lytton, I noticed the headlights flicker. I looked back at the trailer and the marker lights were out again. Damn!! D put a new fuse in when we fueled in Cache Creek, but as soon as we got onto the road, the lights went out again. The trip back would have to be during the day, so we planned our projects accordingly.
We arrived in the morning and started to unload. D set up some of the kitchen stuff while I hauled what I could into the basement, loft or main living area. The time came for the 'moving of the stove'. We had a monster cart that I had found in the mountains, and this thing hauled all our heavy stuff. The oven was next. We did have concerns moving it across the ground and getting it up on the steps to the kitchen, so we took the deck route. One big step then bring it to the front door and into the main living area.
We strapped it onto the cart and managed to get it onto the deck with relative ease. I held onto the handles and managed to balance it. Much to our surprise, with me as a counterweight, D hauled it to the front by pushing it with one hand. We laughed about it being the most worrisome, but easiest heavy object so far.
Strapping the stove to the cart.
Keeping the cats in the cabin, while we worked proved to be a challenge. At one point, O'Reilly, casually sitting with me on the deck made a break for it. He literally jumped for freedom from the second floor onto the greenery 12 ft below, becoming the first cat to bungee jump by choice. After that, we decided to let them have full reign over the area. They tended to stick around but O'Reilly must have 'explorer' in his blood. At one point I left him under the trailer while I set up the chainsaw. I then walked to the flat parking area and was about to start cutting some trees when he strolled out of the bush in front of me. Mac, stayed close to us the whole trip. We always knew where he was because of his mournful meowing to let us know he was around.
O'Reilly whining about captivity
O'Reilly promising to stay close, do the dishes, clean his litterbox etc just to get out.
O' Reilly planning his escape.
O'Reilly reenacting his Great Escape. Soon to be a major motion picture
Not everything went smoothly when we were there. One of the trees near the driveway had been blown down by the wind. It was about 70 ft tall and leaning directly in line with the drive. A possible problem if it decided to fall when some one was coming up.
Fortunately, or maybe UNfortunately, it was hung up in a stand of 3 other trees. A friend, Trennis, referred to it as a 'Danger Tree', and dangerous it was. I decided to take it down with the chainsaw. When D and I went to inspect it, I noticed that there was on the west side of a 50 ft tree, and was resting on two smaller 40 ft trees. I chopped the one 40 down hoping that would get it to break the branches and slowly fall. A controlled tree fall. I would cut from the east side of the 50 fter so if it did fall, it would slide down the west side of the 50. As I cut the last 40, having the larger resting solely on its upper branches, the 40 rotated and started to fall my way, as the other larger tree came down on top of it. I managed to get out of the way for the most part, but did take a hit on the left arm, and right ankle. I survived. I learned from that lesson.
One of the other projects we had to do was to clean out the brush in the culvert on either side of the driveway. We wanted to ensure there was enough clear area to whisk away water that may otherwise wash out the driveway. I used the machete to hack the trees, and then stacked them on the side of the driveway for Denise to chip away.
The start of the washroom framing
Another project was the framing in of the washroom, off the kitchen. At that point in time, we didn't know what type of toilet we were going to use. Composting? Incinerator? In house septic? Septic beds? we didn't know. But we had been using a portable RV toilet in the basement up to that point. It was cold down there, it was dark, and I had to go several times a night. So we thought we would take a step closer. The washroom would be small, approximately 4' x 8'. Beside it, would be the pantry where D could store all her food and canned goods.
I was in my element .... Wood Working! We made quick work of the framing and managed to get the door fitted, but not installed. One of the trips we made into Burns Lake, got us thinking about the Sun Mar toilet they had on sale for 995.00, vs the standard price of 1600. We grabbed it. I'm not sure D wanted to go this route so soon, but I wanted results. We could always move it to the garage, when be build one, AFTER we had water, and a new toilet system in the house. Until then, we planned for the Sun Mar.
Framing the washroom in the kitchen area. The door is not attached.
The final location of the wood stove, looking from the loft.
One of the quick 'morning' projects was to install the insulation in the loft where we slept. We had brought 3 bundles and got it in quickly. The insulation for the main room would have to wait. Being 21.6 ft to the peak, we would need something better than the ladder we had brought with us. Scaffolding was going to be the answer for many of the future jobs like drywall, window washing etc.
The start of the insulation in the loft
When we got a break, I did manage to cut down some more trees in the area we would call the Grove. The stand of trees between the house and the driveway. I didn't cut as many as I wanted, but it was a start. I wanted to be able to see the flat area where the garage would be about 150 ft from the house.
Some of the beautiful birch trees that we planned to keep.
When we woke up every morning we hit the ground running. I would be working on insulation, or some other 'quiet' work, while D would do the same, or make breakfast. We would work on our self assigned projects, or move stuff from the trailer into the basement. We were non-stop. There was the rare day we would decide to take a short nap, but we would be back at it to get the project done.
At the end of the day, we would take a bottle of wine, or two, or three, and sit out on the front deck. The weather, seemed to cooperate with us and we would have clear cool nights to star gaze. The first night we had the opportunity, we were amazed at how many stars you could see without all the street light of the city. In fact, it was proving difficult to actually make out the constellations since there were so many stars.
I hadn't taken star photos in a couple years, and none were memorable since most were near the city. The first night I took the camera and put it on the tripod, I was shocked at the number of stars the camera would see that we couldn't. As luck would have it, there was a meteor shower going on and I managed to take some photos of meteors. One photo showed TWO. Not bad for an exposure of 10 seconds to 15 seconds.
Our night sky gazing started on the front deck.
The Milky Way with TWO meteors. (one at 11:00, one at 7:00)
I was so excited I took my camera and tripod out to the back of the house to see if I could get a nicer shot of the Milky Way. Denise opted for bedtime. Now up to that point, D would put a wire grate across the entrance to the deck to keep bears out. In reality, it was to hear them coming so she could run inside and leave me to be bait. It has happened before, so I have no delusions about true love. She intends to leave me to the bears. I moved the grate, and headed to the flat, where I could get more sky in the picture.
When doing night photography, you need to keep all lights off, or run the risk of ruining your photo. Here I was, in bear country, 150 ft away from the house, in the dark, waiting for the exposure, when suddenly, I hear SNAP!!!!!!! A branch, or maybe a tree breaking about 30 ft from me. I'm not naive and brought my bear spray, but would it stop a charging bear? cougar? wolverine? weinerdawg? Would D hear my screams and get the shotgun? Would she care? Would she shoot me by mistake? After all it was a shotgun!
Years ago I had a student driver at Greyhound ask me, 'How do you know when you are driving your bus on ice?' My response was simple. ' Your brain is the last to know, but your ass will grab the seat' The same thing happened when I heard the snap. I had visions of a bear running directly at me, and making a meal of me in short order, so I headed back to the house, looking over my shoulder constantly.
I stopped and took a couple photos and then headed back inside. But not before I put that bear grate back in place. I didn't want to be two steps to sanctuary and get eaten. I survived. For the record, I was always concerned about the bear spray being effective. You don't know the can will work until it is too late.
The Milky Way from the back of the house in Bear Country.
A tree I let stand since there was a little bird making the top hole his home.
On the trip back, we enjoyed the fact that there were lots of gas stations open. We still used the ones we had used on the last trips, but it was nice to have options. The holiday weekend was over and there was little traffic on the roads which made it nice. Up to that point all our trips to Francois Lake were on holiday weekends. Leaving at 8:00pm on Friday and coming back a day or two after the Monday made the trip pleasant from a traffic standpoint.
We continued to make our notes, so we wouldn't forget to bring something, buy something or build something on the next trip. One thing was for sure. The cats would stay at home. We had too much to do to worry about them getting eaten by the neighbor's dog, or a coyote or bear. Next trip they go on will be the move.
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