... we’ll be here:

and possibly doing this:

The Cabin. The last time we were here was June 2008. That’s a long time considering we were up there every available weekend when we lived there (weather conditions permitting). It’s partly why we chose the house here in New Jersey that we did because it’s a combination of the best of both worlds. Sure we have woods and bear, turkeys, deer and lots of other wildlife visiting our yard but it doesn’t compare to the cabin.

At the cabin we are “off the grid.” For those that don’t know what that term means, it means we have no services such as electric, natural gas or phone. No one plows the roads past a certain point in the winter and all the roads drift over. Our electricity comes from solar panels whose energy is stored in batteries. So, in a sense we have a battery powered house! Normally we would have the energy provided by our wind generator too (which where we are located is a huge amount of wind) but we have dismantled the wind generator as we come so infrequently. So we really have to watch our electric usage. Or should I say Rick watches it and I just keep on using it! I drive the man crazy. But I digress ...

We have a septic system and a well. (The well pump is powered by the electricity that we generate.) We have a furnace, range, and very small refrigerator that run off of propane (and a 1,000 gallon propane tank). We prefer to heat with other means than the furnace when we can. We have a wood burning fireplace and—my pride and joy of which I am the Queen of—our wood burning range.

Once fired up this beauty can heat the whole cabin and keep it toasty warm. In fact there are times we had it so warm we had to open windows! We don’t use the top for cooking but we do use the oven in the winter months. It’s not old, just a modern day replica that we bought new when we had the cabin built. Rick plans to take a few hardwood logs with us and see how long they will burn in it. (All our wood there is soft: pine and aspen.)

Our refrigerator is very small so we have to plan meals accordingly. In the winter we have use of Mother Nature’s fridge for cooling the wine and such in the form of the snow that slides off the roof and onto our front porch.

It used to be that we did not even have a radio up there; only a phone. No TV either. We were cut off from the rest of the world. We were enjoying a week-long cabin visit during 9/11 and we had no idea what was happening until I called my friend Piper just to chat. When she told us what was going on Rick rushed out to the truck to listen to the radio reports. In a way, we feel like we missed the whole thing. We felt like we should cut our visit short and go home, but what good would that have done? We did end up going home a few days earlier than we normally would have.

Now we have all the modern comforts thanks to these two discs:

We have satellite television and (we hope!) internet. Not like last year when our internet was such a problem. I think we resolved that problem—finally. We also have our Sirius satellite radio that we’ll take with us. The only thing we don’t have reliably is a phone. My old analog phone through AT&T worked liked a charm up there with a booster on the cabin roof. Now that analog technology is not supported anymore that phone does not work. Neither does Rick’s fancy iPhone. The phone I have now sort of works. It hardly ever rings through to the cabin but we can hear it taking a message. Or you might get a signal if you take it and stand outside in a certain spot. Maybe. It’s annoying! It’s really just for emergencies anyway since neither Rick or I are big phone people. Not like some people who are constantly texting away.

Soon we will start our trek westward with three dogs, two cats and all the necessary paraphernalia. Two of the cats (Vincent and Pookie) will stay here and be tended by their new pet sitter. Do you think we’re crazy? Really, they are all good travelers (except for Bella they’ve all done it before) and it’s easier than you might think. We don’t stay in fancy hotels along the way, mostly Motel 6’s and Red Roof Inns because they are pet friendly. There is a really nice Ramada Inn that takes pets just over the Indiana border that we are aiming for for the first night that is just a perfect place to stay. Although the cats preferred a motel we stayed in last year where we had a below ground level room. They could sit in the window that was ground level and watch the world go by.

I’m not really looking forward to spending three days on the road but we have books on the iPod and plenty of music and podcasts to listen to. The miles will go by quickly, and every mile puts us closer to our goal.

The Cabin.

Can’t wait.