“The older I grow, the less important the comma becomes. Let the reader catch his own breath.” – Elizabeth Clarkson Zwart
Monday, September 22, 2014
Cabin Trip 2014 - One Week In
Let's get food out of the way first. Steak and baked potatoes for dinner on Saturday, Lynne's chili with homemade cornbread on Sunday. Yum to both! I also baked a loaf of bread on Sunday because I need bread and bread crumbs for the Italian meatloaf later in the week. We'll eat it up for breakfasts, I'm sure. Lynne made a peach cobbler recipe that called for self-rising flour. We learned that Bisquick is probably not the same thing -- at least at this altitude. Leftover sliced steak on salad with home made blue cheese dressing for lunch on Monday.
Here is the bread:
I'm writing this early afternoon on Monday. We arrived exactly one week ago.
Yesterday (Sunday) was a cool and rainy afternoon. Not typical of Colorado, we had a full day of clouds and light rain. According to my little weather station, we got about 1/2" of rain. It was wonderful. Everything smells so good and the moisture is very welcome. It will help the trees get stronger and better fight off disease and critters. In fact, in the morning we walked down to the beaver pond to give Bella a chance to swim, and I have never seen the pond so full this time of year.
The lumber jacks were supposed to come today and do the "clean up" of the meadow. However, they were short a person and for safety reasons, did not come. Probably best anyway because of the heavy downpour we had mid-day. It really came down for a few minutes -- cold, wind and wet. We even fired up the stove for a while to stave off the cold and humidity. But, it was a more typical Colorado rainstorm and passed quickly and the sun is now out. The loggers will try again tomorrow.
I got a couple of chores done today. I changed the oil in the generator. For the record, it has 77.6 hours on the meter, now. I also took down some "shelves" that I had put up on the porch years ago. They were staggered in a way that made them a great cat tree -- and they were for the cats. But eBay doesn't care, so I took them down.
I'll leave you with a photo of aspens that Lynne took:
Posted under: Cabin News • Dog Stuff • Cat Stuff • Food and Cooking • by Rick on 09/22/2014 at 01:47 PM
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Sunday, September 21, 2014
Cabin Trip 2014 - Day Seven? - Cabin Transformation
It is Sunday. We arrived a week ago tomorrow. So, I guess that makes this day seven! Time is flying.
Let me catch you up on a few things, then we'll switch to the main topic for this post.
Friday night, after dinner, we built a fire in our outdoor fire pit. It used to be at the back of the cabin and in a place that was not very "comfortable" to just sit and warm ourselves by the fire. So, I moved it to the front of the cabin, on a nice flat space near the picnic table, and I think that will work much better. We enjoyed a shot of whiskey (Buffalo Trace is our current favorite), and watched the sun set and the stars come out. It was very nice. The dogs just laid there quietly by the fire.
Saturday was busy.
First, I figured out that the furnace probably is working fine with the new pressure switch. It just takes about 45 seconds before the "whoosh", which seems like a very long time when you are standing there waiting. It worked yesterday morning and again this morning. I'll test it another few times before calling Grant and declaring victory.
We decided to buy a couple of pieces of furniture that we saw at Bart's on Friday. So, after checking the game camera (we got a photo of a moose!), we took off for Laramie. We arrived a bit early, so went into town to get gas (I took a couple of empty 5-gallon gas cans in), and to wander the Hastings store. I'm sure Lynne will blog about Hastings in Laramie, but I can tell you it is a fun and fascinating store. We bought a couple of books and a USB charging center for all our mobile appliances.
At Bart's we picked out two book cabinets (although one was no-doubt originally a CD cabinet). We rejected our other furniture choices (clothes dressers, mostly). Upon getting the book cases home, we decided to go ahead and finish our re-arranging of the cabin so we could place them where we wanted them. That meant moving the sofa, coffee table, chairs, rugs, and other stuff we had in our "living room".
The cabin, which is essentially one big room, is now divided into smaller distinct rooms, mostly by the placement of furniture. And, we really like it.
Here is a photo of the antique hoosier that we moved into the open space of the kitchen. It may seem weird to have a piece of furniture stuck in the middle of a room like this, but it works great. It provides us with additional storage and a work surface that we never used before. The piece of amazing and beautiful furniture was being wasted in its previous location. (You can see Hailey laying on the floor partially hidden.)
Here is one of the new pieces of furniture, placed against the back of the hoosier. This is a shallow set of glass-fronted shelves which we will use for CDs, DVDs, shallow books and also spices and other pantry items. (You can see part of Bella laying on the floor to the right.)
This small dresser/desk used to sit by my side of the bed. I used it for computer work, the printer is on top, and the drawers held some of my clothes. It is now moved out where the hoosier used to be and has become the place where all the "office" work is done. Lynne is busy working on a blog post. (And, there is Hailey again.)
This is the re-arranged living room. The furniture in the room has been rotated 90°. The sofa used to face the fireplace. This arrangement better separates the living space from the bedroom, and also allows us to make better use of the chairs in the room. The TV is in the cabinet to the left of the fireplace.
And, now a couple of bedroom shots. The first is looking from the living area into the bedroom. The second is looking from the bedroom into the living area. Notice that we've turned the dressers so that instead of being against a wall, they form a wall? This provides a more efficient use of space and creates more separation between rooms. We now have plenty of room for some additional furniture such as dressers or book shelves. Also, the bed used to be against the log wall and facing the living area. It is now rotated to our one interior wall and faces the east windows.
Finally, here is a shot of our new book case which sits against the back of Lynne's dresser. Looks nice, huh? Quarter-sawn oak in pretty good shape. And, we got a good price on it.
Posted under: Cabin News • by Rick on 09/21/2014 at 07:45 AM
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Friday, September 19, 2014
Cabin Trip 2014 - Days Four & Five
The chimneys got swept on Thursday, and we didn't do much else that day.
We went over to the Mickelson's to give them a cookbook in thanks for all the help they've given us (and will give us).
We also took the game camera to the bottom, but toward the pond. However, when checking it this morning (I'm writing this on Friday), there were no photos.
The heater did not work right this morning. Bummer. It is really tough solving intermittent problems. I replaced the pressure switch with one that Grant left for just that purpose.
The redecorating continued. Lynne cleaned out various cabinets and we got all our jig saw puzzles in one place. We sorted them and decided to keep about 1/2, but will donate the other half. (We learned that there are two vendors at Bart's -- a local flea market -- who take donations and use the proceeds for good causes.) The hoosier is now able to serve as a small pantry for us!
We had chicken pot pie for dinner and while eating we saw two moose walk though our meadow. One was a large female and the other was probably a 2-year-old. Both were very black.
Today, Friday, again the heater did not work. I called Grant and he had some ideas for me to try. We need a reliable heating source for the cabin. Not just because it might get cold while we are here, but because we like to leave it set at 45° over the winter to keep the cabin from freezing.
We drove into town for shopping. We are now stocked for a week or more. Most shopping was done at WalMart because we needed some miscellaneous items, too. One thing we've discovered is there is nowhere to put our recycle items any more. There used to be drop-off stations all over town for cardboard, cans, bottles and plastic. But, they are gone! I guess Laramie now has curb pickup for recycling, so the need for collection stations had gone away. Doing some Internet searching, I may have found a drop off at the University, so we'll check that out soon. I'd hate to just throw away items that could be recycled.
We had a nice visit with Terry Miner at his auto repair shop. He lets us dump our trash in his dumpster -- which is really appreciated!
After all the redecorating and re-imagining of the cabin layout, we've identified the need for another dresser for clothes, a night table or bedside stand for Rick, and a bookshelf or two. So, we dropped by Bart's Flea Market on our way home. We found a few items that might really work well. I took some measurements and photos and we've decided to go back and get a couple of items, maybe even tomorrow (and take the puzzles to donate).
Tonight is left-over chicken pot pie and brownies for dessert.
Oh yeah! I almost forgot. On our drive into town we saw a coyote, antelope, a herd of over 30 elk, and a red-tailed hawk.
One other quick story. As we left Bart's I got a phone call on the cabin cell. So, I pulled over to the side of the road. After a minute another call pulled up and stopped behind me. It was odd, but I was talking on the phone so did not pay much attention. Pretty soon, someone is tapping on my window. I rolled it down and a young woman asked if we needed help with directions or anything. Lynne told her "no" we were fine, we just pulled over to talk on the phone. So, she said goodbye and went back to her car, turned around and drove off.
I guess she saw our New Jersey license plates and just assumed we were lost. Made a bad right turn somewhere 
Posted under: Cabin News • by Rick on 09/19/2014 at 04:39 PM
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Wednesday, September 17, 2014
Cabin Trip 2014 - Day Three - The Rest
We did more than just sit around watching a guy upgrade our satellite Internet on Wednesday. We also got a chance to try out the game camera Lynne bought me for Christmas. Unfortunately, I have nothing to show you. I had set it up wrong. But, it is out there again and we'll see if we got anything overnight. Stay tuned for that.
Our propane forced-air heater is broken. The way it works, like all gas forced-air furnaces, I guess, is a small blower comes on to blow some air through the system purging any small amounts of accumulated gases. Then, the burner comes on (whoosh), and finally the main fan. Then, it gets toasty warm in the cabin. We noticed last year that the pre-blower would come on and just run, and run, and run. No "whoosh" and no heat. We did not have time to get it looked at, so simply turned it off over the winter. Usually, we leave it on 45° all winter which keeps the cabin above freezing as long as we have electricity.
Grant from Laramie Heating come out yesterday (Wednesday) and took a look at it. He found some problems with the water condensation draining do-dah that didn't allow enough vacuum to trigger the thingy enabling the safety systems to "okay" the "whoosh". After cleaning everything up, all was working well. He left a spare pressure switch with me, along with instructions on how to install it -- just in case.
Well, guess what? I'll be installing that new pressure switch today. This morning, we got up to a 64° cabin -- which is not terrible. I turned on the heat to just take the cool edge off and the pre-blower ran and ran and ran. No "whoosh". Bummer.
The other thing we did on Wednesday was re-imagine the furniture layout in the cabin. The cabin is 30' x 30', so 900 square feet. There are many houses that use that amount of space for two bedrooms, a bathroom, living space and a kitchen. Yet, because ours is just one big open space, there are no walls to define "rooms" and create logical furniture arrangements. So, we got to thinking that we could rearrange things to create more storage and cozy living spaces.
I, the engineer, created a computer model of the cabin floorplan along with little furniture models and now have the ability to re-arrange furniture in virtual reality.
Lynne, the pragmatic artist, asked me to help her move the real furniture around to try out different things.
Our bed is now in a new position (which we like). Likewise my dresser. These moves actually "wall off" the bedroom some turning it into a little room. We also moved the antique Hoosier from against a wall out into the open in the kitchen. It seems odd to have a piece of furniture just standing there in open space in the middle of the room. But, it works. It provides additional counter space and storate for the kitchen area.
We have ideas for the living area, TV, etc. too.
I'll try to remember to post a photo or two.
We make a hamburger recipe we saw on TV: Oklahoma City Onion Burgers, with twice cooked Belgian fries for dinner. Yum. The house smelled (and still smells) a bit like fried onions.
Well, that is it for Wednesday. It is now about 7:15 am on Thursday and the chimney sweep comes this morning. Coffee is made, and soon we'll heat up some muffins for breakfast. I'll fire up the generator for shower time. We'll get dressed, do a bit of cleaning, and the wait for the chimney sweep.
Posted under: Cabin News • by Rick on 09/17/2014 at 03:49 PM
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Cabin Trip 2014 - Day Three - Internet
It is Wednesday. Sort of day 3. Day 2-1/2 really.
Anyway, I did not finish describing what happened yesterday.
To the most observant of you, you will have noticed that we are blogging. That means we have Internet access. Those of you who have kept up with our annual trips in the past know that it often takes a day or two to get Internet access. Last year on one of my long phone calls to technical support, the agent suggested that I upgrade to their "Gen 4" system...that the upgrade was free.
So, I did. I arranged to get an upgrade of our hardware. And, made the appointment for Tuesday morning after our arrival. And, sure enough, just before noon yesterday a guy and his helper (wife) showed up to do the upgrade installation. It went relatively well. It was a bit tough to position the satellite dish so that it can just see past the stone chimney and get line-of-sight to the satellite. It took a couple of hours, but now we have a fresh, new satellite Internet connection.
The upload speed is somewhat faster. The download speed is much faster. And, our bandwidth allowance increased by a factor of 20! We used to get 250MB per day of download bandwidth. If we exceeded that then we could not do anything for 24 hours. Well, we could buy a "token" that removed the restriction immediately, but those were $5 each (or something like that.) Now, we get 2GB of download bandwidth and at certain hours (2:00 am to 8:00 am) we get an additional 2GB that does not count toward our "normal" allotment. This is a good time to run program updates, download movies or music, etc. The new service is really tuned to today's Internet-based entertainment industry.
It works great.
It is why I am able to tell you about it.
Posted under: Cabin News • Stuff You Gotta Know! • by Rick on 09/17/2014 at 03:39 PM
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