“The most terrifying fact about the universe is not that it is hostile, but that it is indifferent.” – Stanley Kubrick
Saturday, September 27, 2014
Whatever Happened To…? Strike Anywhere Matches
We like to use strike anywhere matches at the cabin. That way, you don't have to keep track of the box and you can light fires one-handed. You can strike on a rock (like on the fireplace), or the limestone hearth. You can strike on rough metal (like the antique matchstick holder we have). If you are a true cowboy you can strike on your jeans, or if you are a show-off, on you fly zipper.
We just can't find matches any more that don't require the companion box.
Over time, the box gets used up. The rough strike zone gets worn down and it takes 5 or 6 tries to get a match to light.
There are lots of reasons why strike anywhere matches are preferred.
Maybe they don't make them any more? I could understand that they might be dangerous to transport. After all, if they "strike anywhere", I guess they could strike against themselves. I can picture the semi-truck going down a bumpy highway with a load of strike anywhere matches and going up in smoke.
I guess we are just going to have to get used to two-handed match striking.
Posted under: Cabin News • Stuff You Gotta Know! • by Rick on 09/27/2014 at 11:00 AM
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Thursday, September 25, 2014
Cabin Trip 2014 - Is it Thursday Already?
Yup. Thursday. I haven't blogged since Monday. Time is starting to fly!
Let's start with food. Monday dinner was at a neighbor's. A "cowboy cookout" made over a campfire in cast iron pots. Very fun. Good food, good company and good cowboy stories. A couple of the people there have worked as wranglers and guides for a dude ranch in the area, and we were lucky to meet Dave Lockman and his wife. Dave is noted for work in revitalizing the Trumpeter Swan in North America.
Here is Lynne at the Cowboy Cookout (petting Fluffy Fuzzy the barn cat):
Tuesday, I made the Italian Meatloaf with Wild Mushroom Ragu recipe and some polenta on the side. Last night was creamy Three Cheese Mac & Cheese.
Early Tuesday morning as the sun came up, we experienced a beautiful, full, double rainbow.
I couldn't get the whole rainbow with my lens, so here are two shots. Lynne put on her fisheye lens and got the whole thing. See her "Stormy Weather" blog to see it.
Tuesday also saw a huge transformation in the look of our "meadow". This is an area where we had a couple of hundred trees, killed by beatles, cut and removed. We did that to mitigate the wild fire danger around the cabin and to improve the survivability of the cabin in case of a fire. The cut area is to the west and southwest of the cabin, the direction of the prevailing winds. However, the logger who did the work did it in several feet of snow. So, the stumps were not cut near the ground, not all slash was cleaned up and the slash that he did try to burn did not complete the burning since he did not actively manage it. It was an ugly mess. A new company came in with four crew on Tuesday and did a great job cleaning up. They cut all the stumps near the ground, limbed and sectioned any blown-down trees (providing us with a good amount of firewood), and they collected all the slash into a few slash piles ready to burn when the snow flies this winter.
Slash pile, ready to burn this winter:
And, nice wood for later use:
The weather was damp, cool and breezy, which was probably nice for those working outside (rather than the hot, dry weather we've had before and since). I set up a couple of cameras hoping to get a great time-lapse movie of the whole thing. But, I set them up very early in the morning, in the dark, and neglected to push a button twice to start the recording (I pushed it only once). So, I did not get a movie of what would have been a dawn to dusk recording of the cleanup. Bummer.
Wednesday, we did a quick run into town in the morning. We needed a couple of essentials including dog food. Not good planning on our part, I guess. We took advantage of the trip to take in our trash (thanks, Terry!), and pick up other items to get us through another week. In the afternoon, we started the process of repairing our fencing and creating some kind of "gate" at the cabin driveway. It got too hot and I got too tired to finish it, but when working with 6" spikes, a sledgehammer and a chain saw, it is best to stop when tired.
We had a great dinner of Mac & Cheese and watched the season's first episode of Survivor.
This morning, Lynne got up and turned on the heater. It did not kick on as it should. After more than two minutes, still no "whoosh". Damn.
Posted under: Cabin News • by Rick on 09/25/2014 at 07:22 AM
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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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