So, I'm sitting in the laundromat. My clothes have been done for a while, but I am staying here to use the internet. I was lucky and didn't have to use the laundromat all summer, until this month. Now I have lost my washer and dryer, free internet use, and running water. What is next? Actually, next is my 45th birthday so my Blue Shield health insurance is going up to $190 per month, with a $4000 deductible. So I have almost reached the stage where my health insurance costs more than my housing (which currently costs me $200 per month)!
What I have gained is a guaranteed 13-month job with benefits, so I feel pretty lucky. I've now been working at the Forest Service four weeks, and it is going alright. I have many new things to learn, such as identifying paper birch, yellow birch, black ash, red maple, quaking aspen, bigtooth aspen, black spruce, white spruce, tamarack (larch), white pine, red pine, and jack pine. The pines are easy and so is the balsam fir and white cedar, since there is only one type of each. I must learn what ground conditions make logging in winter necessary. I must remember there are no hand fallers with chainsaws here; only machine logging. I have to find my way in the woods without slopes. I have to accept the use of GPS as a daily routine. I have to (get to?)make amoeba-shaped cutting units. I have many computer passwords and online training sessions.
The weather here has been spectacular all month! The maples are turning red, birches and ash turning yellow, the air is clear and the sky is blue, just like at home in September. The cats have been exploring the yard. The lakes are still warm enough to swim in, but actually it's been over a week since I checked. I am really hoping to get to Quetico Provincial Park in October. It will depend on having someone to go with, mainly. My plan would be to paddle there from the Boundary Waters so I'd be leaving from here. It can be cold, but many people still do trips at that time of year.
I've been looking today at plane tickets to come home for Christmas. Looks like it should work out fine, as long as the weather allows. I should be able to spend about a week with family and squeeze in a short trip to Mt. Shasta/Weed (at New Year's?) to visit and to pick up some items from storage.
Chunky and Rufus are doing well; Chunky seems to have low-grade pain all the time, but still moves around pretty well and does all the usual eating, drinking, etc. I have noticed she only ever lays on one side. I have some pain medication I may give her any day now.
I'm beginning to construct a shower stall, with a hanging 2.5-gallon water container. Wish me luck. Sarah is working on making a sauna! There is an old wood stove and lots of tiles that were left here which she will use, along with wood from various sources.
I'll hope for something more exciting to report next time!
Friday, September 25, 2009
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Inside the House
Not too much exciting to write about right now....but here are some photos of the inside of our cabin. About the lack of running water: there are lots of cabins built here without plumbing. One reason for that is the problem with pipes freezing if you are away. So a lot of these cabins without plumbing are used in the warm weather months only. But there are a reasonable percentage of them that are used year-round. Saunas are very common around here (and so are people of Finnish descent), some of which have showers in them, but all can be used for bathing purposes. So, lots of the cabins without running water have saunas. But not ours. We plan to put in a very primitive shower, but so far the weather has been so warm we've been bathing outside (and I have been showering at work, and at friends' houses).
The kitchen is pictured below. It is quite spacious and even has a sink with a faucet. You can see all our 6-gallon water containers under the sink. We have a foot pump with a hose which goes into the water container. You pump and water comes out the faucet, then drains right under the house! That setup makes things quite easy in the kitchen. I wish they had installed a shower stall with a drain, but there isn't one. Anyway, I just wash my dishes in a dish pan, mixing a bit of boiling water in with the cold water.
Here's the living room, which is one big room with the kitchen. It looks out into a very nice yard; we have two acres included with the cabin, and there's a hill behind the house so you can walk up and overlook Shagawa Lake, and see the town of Ely across the lake. There's a bunch of "ledge rock" up there. I guess that means bedrock? The TV you see is not connected to anything - it's for watching movies! So my new roommate is same as me with television.
Upstairs are the two bedrooms. That's all - a big room downstairs, and two bedrooms upstairs. Why bother with closets, hallways, and bathrooms? We also have an entry room, like a mud room. The cabin has a cement floor with "off peak" radiant heat (ground floor only; the bedrooms have a standing heater). The mud room does not have heat, but will make a good transition room in the winter, to keep the cold out of the rest of the house. Right now it is the warmest room. It has a bench and lots of space.
The bedrooms look out onto the yard also, so the cabin has four large windows facing south. Most of the trees around the yard are deciduous so we'll have even more light in the winter. I like all the wood siding inside, and the wood floor upstairs.
The cats mostly hang out here in my bedroom. They do go outside, but only when I'm home and it is daylight, so that's not too often. They are still getting used to the place, and they have been moved so many times this year, I don't blame them for being wary.
The kitchen is pictured below. It is quite spacious and even has a sink with a faucet. You can see all our 6-gallon water containers under the sink. We have a foot pump with a hose which goes into the water container. You pump and water comes out the faucet, then drains right under the house! That setup makes things quite easy in the kitchen. I wish they had installed a shower stall with a drain, but there isn't one. Anyway, I just wash my dishes in a dish pan, mixing a bit of boiling water in with the cold water.
Here's the living room, which is one big room with the kitchen. It looks out into a very nice yard; we have two acres included with the cabin, and there's a hill behind the house so you can walk up and overlook Shagawa Lake, and see the town of Ely across the lake. There's a bunch of "ledge rock" up there. I guess that means bedrock? The TV you see is not connected to anything - it's for watching movies! So my new roommate is same as me with television.
Upstairs are the two bedrooms. That's all - a big room downstairs, and two bedrooms upstairs. Why bother with closets, hallways, and bathrooms? We also have an entry room, like a mud room. The cabin has a cement floor with "off peak" radiant heat (ground floor only; the bedrooms have a standing heater). The mud room does not have heat, but will make a good transition room in the winter, to keep the cold out of the rest of the house. Right now it is the warmest room. It has a bench and lots of space.
The bedrooms look out onto the yard also, so the cabin has four large windows facing south. Most of the trees around the yard are deciduous so we'll have even more light in the winter. I like all the wood siding inside, and the wood floor upstairs.
The cats mostly hang out here in my bedroom. They do go outside, but only when I'm home and it is daylight, so that's not too often. They are still getting used to the place, and they have been moved so many times this year, I don't blame them for being wary.That's about all the news for now. I work at the Forest Service Monday through Thursday from 6 AM to 4:30 PM. I wake up at 4 AM, leave the house around 4:30, get to my carpooler's house about 4:45, and we get to work about 5:35. Then I have time to take a shower, or just get the day organized before starting work at 6:00. I get home about 5:30 and try to get to bed at 9PM. So eventually I will have three day weekends when I stop working at the summer jobs. Right now I have Fridays off, and work Saturday and Sunday in Ely. By October that should be finished.
I'll tell you more about my job later.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
New House
This photo is from Labor Day. I rode my bike to my friend Laura's house and we rode together for a while and then went for a short paddle and swim. She lives right on the edge of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.
That weekend I moved into a new place. Now that I have a new 13-month term position at the Forest Service, I moved into a more permanent home situation. I have a roommate, Sarah, who is shown below chopping wood.
You see here the outside of our new house, with the outhouse in the background. Yes, we have moved into a cabin that has no running water!! It's more common here than where I grew up. I'll explain more about that later. So here are some photos of the outside, and next time I'll post some of the inside.
That weekend I moved into a new place. Now that I have a new 13-month term position at the Forest Service, I moved into a more permanent home situation. I have a roommate, Sarah, who is shown below chopping wood.
You see here the outside of our new house, with the outhouse in the background. Yes, we have moved into a cabin that has no running water!! It's more common here than where I grew up. I'll explain more about that later. So here are some photos of the outside, and next time I'll post some of the inside.
I'm in my second week at the Forest Service job and it's going pretty well. I am working on the timber crew at the La Croix district of the Superior National Forest. We are doing sale preparation, which means determining and marking harvest unit boundaries, cruising, and marking trees. More on that later too; I just wanted to post something today.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
