After Friday

We came back from the creek and the outside was spotless - ready for guests on Saturday.  The bats are on the front below, sheeting above, paper on the west bedroom and all the bats off under the porch.  Good progress

After Thursday

Work started on the front. They are apparently doing one side at a time and say the front will be finished by Friday evening in time for a big weekend with lots of company.  The original plan had to been to work Saturday but they won't.

After the first day they have all the bats and trim off the front and siding on below. They also sprayed a bunch of wasp nests that were under the eaves up above. Hard to see from the ground but there was one bigger than a softball and several smaller ones. Fortunately, most were empty.

Unloading

It is heavy material and can break so unlike wood, they could not slide it off the truck, but had to hand carry it.

Interestingly, two of the workers helped build the cabin originally.  Their father, Rick Rice, was the subcontractor for Ron Mattison who supplied all the carpenters.

Work has started on new siding

On Wednesday, Aug 13, the contractors and new siding arrived.  A crew of 3 is pounding away on the front of the cabin.  They are taking off the old "bats" and putting water proof paper and new concrete-based, woodpecker proof, sheets that look like plywood over the old plywood and then putting concrete stuff bats on top. So it should look the same without the holes and warping bats on the south side.

But first we had to empty the front porch, which Lou and Ann did to get our exercise Wednesday morning.

The wood is waiting to the side to be put back after all the work is completed.

New DSL model and router and battery backup

It may not be faster, but maybe more reliable. We have a new DSL modem with a built in router from Ponderosa telephone. We have the fastest DSL service available.  But should they ever bring the fiber optic cables here, we are set with a fast router.

We also now have a surge protector with battery backup. With luck, this setup will keep our wifi from going off 36 hours after we lock the gate and drive away, leaving it with no one to reset it. The password is the same as before.

Visitors

We came in Wednesday, 7/23 and found pictures of visitors on the webcam.  Four legged and two legged. The four legged solved the mystery of what made noise on the porch at night when there was no Willy to make the noise.  A squirrel. The two legged were more mysterious. Four women and since the camera was pointed low to see the four legged critters, we mostly got feet and leg shots.  But after posting a couple of photos on Facebook, Janice Bay came to the rescue and told us it was Carole Shawver and friends. We had invited Carole (through Cissy VanVleet) to come in and get manzanita. So she did. Mystery solved.  And now the camera points to the entrance so we can see whoever drives in. And hopefully Lance Fink cutting down the dead trees.

Living With Nature

    

Our little log cabin has withstood the elements for almost 30 years now but it's under attack by carpenter ants. Round one, will the Grants Ants do the trick?  Did we successfully block off one of the mouse entry holes? What type of flooring should we use to replace the old vinyl that we removed? Stay tuned...

Peter and Cissy Van Vleet, wish we had a fire circle picture to commemorate our most enjoyable evening.