Dec 22nd - Back in Missouri

Drove back to Missouri yesterday. The trip seems to get longer every time. It took me almost 12 hours this time. In Kentucky an SUV on its top, in the median, was the first slow down. It was just about cleaned up when I went past it. That delay was only about 10 minutes. Then came St. Louis. 3 traffic jams before I got through it. The first and last were each 10-15 minute delays. The middle one was almost an hour, 50 minutes to go 2 miles. At least the weather was good.

I saw 4 deer at my feeder Monday morning. The feeder is about 100 years from the cabin. I took this photo through my living room window. I need a better camera than the one on my phone. If you look carefully you might be able to pick out the 2 deer in the photo. All 4 were together, but the other 2 were still in the woods.

We almost got the building finished. Late Tuesday afternoon we realized the for some reason the ridge cap pieces were left off the material list and we didn't have them. The barn/sliding door is built and setting inside the building. We did not have time to install the track and hang it. It was so late when we finished that I needed to use a flashlight to clean up the work area.

A window in the end wall, and maybe white trim instead of the "barn red" trim would have looked nice. I can only see the "aesthetic" things after completion. I still need to get the the last pieces of electrical conduit run up out of the trench and through the wall of the cabin. Then I can install the electrical panel in the shed and pull the wire so that I have electricity in it. I have the wire sized for 50 amps of 220v so I will have plenty of power for anything I, or anybody else, would ever want to do in it.

I stopped and ordered the missing ridge trim on my way out of Crossville. Tom is going to pick it up for me and Marvin said he will put in on when he gets a chance. Once it is on, the building will be weather tight, except for the door opening. The 4' overhang will protect it from rain and snow until I get it hung during the next trip.

The wood storage area next to the Hardy boiler was full when I left a couple of weeks ago. (We have a larger wood storage building out back. Probably not enough wood in it to get through the winter, but close. I've got several dead trees I need to cut this winter here in Missouri.) Kathy has burned some wood while I was gone. Temperatures were zero one night and below zero another night while I was gone.

 

I cut some wood while in Tennessee, when the weather was to bad to work on the shed, and brought it back with me.  Everything I cut was dead or near dead. There is probably 20 times as much as I have here within 200 yards of the cabin; of just stuff that is down, dead, or that needs to be cut because it is damaged/near dead. Marvin came down with his tractor and helped me get this out of the woods and up to the cabin. He has a platform puts on the 3 point hitch on the back of his tractor. It is really handy for going out into the woods and bringing back what you have cut down. It is much easier to maneuver that a tractor and trailer.

God is good. May He bless you and yours.