Well, just like the last time, I noticed that there were a bunch more pretty flowers…and some other scenes that just really struck me about how pretty WV (and more specifically my little part of WV) really is. I hope you enjoy them even half as much as I did!
(click on each pic to enlarge…I think they are even prettier that way!)
Here are some more nature pics I took recently. I was driving up to the property by myself the other morning and for some reason, I took a few minutes to slow down and notice what a pretty trip it is once I get off of the main road. I stopped every hundred feet or so (it seemed) and took pics of some of the beautiful sights and scenes around me. I hope you enjoy even half as much as I did!
(click on each pic to enlarge…I think they are even prettier that way!)
These are all growing in the ditch lines on the old dirt road on the way up to the property. There are so many more things growing up there…I wish I could spend more time exploring…I can only imagine what grows wild. I just never noticed how much blooms this late in the summer…I always think of spring as the time of flowers…boy was I wrong!
I know this stuff is a nuisance to most people. In fact, when I was in college, I worked as a lifeguard at the Cook Forest State Park swimming pool (which I believe is gone now, sadly…my Mom worked there eons before I did). There was a ton of fun to be had as a lifeguard and the forest itself was beautiful. If you ever need a place to visit in PA, consider Cook Forest.
Anyhow, the superintendent at the park hated bull thistle. The pool opened on Memorial Day each year and in PA (at least then), it could still be quite cool. They also filled the pool from a deep well which ran about 50 degrees…it took awhile to be swimmable even if the air was warmer. So, when we had really cool days, the chief would come by and send some of us out to rid the park of all bull thistle. I hated that job and at that time, I vowed to never view thistle as an enemy again (at least not until I have power equipment to deal with it). You see, we cut it by hand then and it was not an amusing pastime.
All of these pictures were taken at our place and the thistle are pretty rampant. All sorts of insects love them though and I have no strong urge to deal with the thistle so, for now, they will remain an insect paradise and a great source of late summer color!
As with most of the country, it has been hot as blazes here in West-by-God-Virginia. Since the heat may continue on until Christmas, we decided to continue to plow onward with the work on the cabin, although at a slowed pace.
On Independence day as well as this past Sunday, we worked on hanging siding on the third side of the “deluxe shed”. In a new record, we made it out to the place at 8:30 am. You see, we usually mess around and do other things…like eat at Panera…we do that way too often.
We usually have to stop by one of the home improvement places and get supplies…of course, it’s the weekend so we usually sleep in too. Anyhow, with the temps, we decided to break tradition on all accounts and start early before it got hot. We did start early, but we did not beat the heat.
So, we took tons of water and wore sunscreen and hats and all of that stuff. Across the span of the two days, we were able to hang the siding on the third side of the “luxury deer stand”. It is coming along nicely.
There are other builders in our neighborhood also. We tried to get to know the neighbors but they are not terribly friendly.
The bottom of the cabin is exposed still and some bald-faced hornets have decided to take up residence and build a bigger-than-i’d-like paper nest. I found out that this style of hornet is really a yellow jacket variant which is in the wasper genus. For anyone not familiar, wasper is Southern for wasp. Many folks actually say it sort of like “washper”. Anyhow, the Wasper family have moved in and are not at all friendly. We’ll have to deal with that later. I will collect their home and display it as a trophy in the deluxe shed come fall…
Last Friday, we headed to PA to help celebrate my aunt and uncle’s 50th wedding anniversary. We have always been very close to them so it was a really great time…once we got there.
We left about 3 hours later than I had planned. It’s a 6-7 hour drive so that makes a big difference. Anyhow, about an hour into the trip, my mom called and asked if we were alright. I thought she was nuts but she told me that they were watching the Weather Channel (as all good worried parents tend to do) and that there was a terrible storm in WV. I told her we would be fine and all that. Not ten minutes later the sky became black like I haven’t seen in a long time and it became scary windy. We slowed down to a crawl and kept going. There was no use stopping…WV is pretty un-populated and any place that did have shelter was already without electricity…almost instantly.
So we drove through it from Flatwoods, WV to Waynesburg, PA…around 110 miles. It was only really bad for about 50 miles but it was really really bad in that stretch. North of Pittsburgh, it cleared out and we could see stars.
Anyhow, fast forward to our return trip on Sunday. We had been warned to get gas before we got to Charleston so we figured we would get it in PA and then try again about 70 miles outside out Charleston. It turns out that the electric was out from about 100 miles outside of Charleston so there was little gas to be had. We saw some folks who were obviously travelling, just sitting at gas stations presumably waiting for electric to come on so they could fill up and continue their trip.
Luckily, we had plenty of gas because when we got to Charleston, there were lines at the few stations that had both electricity and gas. People were fighting apparently which is not surprising considering some folks were waiting 2 hours for gas in 95-100 degree humid temps. When we arrived home, we found no electricity and some large branches down. Our neighbor had a larger tree come down which brought down a pole and lines. They had the lines propped up with a 2×4 to allow them to get in and out of the house. Lots of people were without water as well as power which made this deal pretty serious for a lot of people.
All-in-all, we are pretty lucky. We still do not have power and may not until Sunday or Monday. Still, we have no damage and are able to stay at Emily’s parents’ house who do have power. I definitely feel bad for folks across the state, though, who have no such escape. Fifty-three of the fifty-five counties in the state have damage and are under a state of emergency (I think that’s what they call it…whatever the technical term is). West Virginians are great folks though and will weather this literal storm just fine…a little more aware of how much we depend on the electric and water.
EDIT: I wrote this a day or so ago before we got power back. Thursday at 4 pm our power was returned so are mostly back to normal aside from cleaning up debris
EDIT: Here is a cool flickr feed of some pics taken by the power company
I just thought I would take a chance to tell Landau Eugene Murphy Jr that he is welcome. You see, he had the privilege of singing with my daughter on Friday night. I suspect it is a night he will never forget.
For those of you who don’t know Landau, he is a West Virginian who recently won the tv show, “America’s Got Talent” (Seriously, click the link and watch the video!) Abigail sings with the Appalachian Children’s Chorus and they had their annual benefit concert on Friday night. This event was a pretty important one because all of the money from the event benefits both the ACC and the Children’s Home Society of West Virginia, an organization that takes care of and helps place children no longer living with their biological parents.
The Clay Center in Charleston was pretty much packed on Friday night and we were not disappointed. Landau got to sing a few songs with the ACC which was so cool. Oh yeah, he sang a lot on his own too. He’s really a great performer. He sort of became famous for his dreadlocks and his perfect crooner voice. As Howie Mandel noted, what better way to bring back Frank Sinatra than with Landau’s look. I couldn’t agree more. I think he is equally or maybe more talented singing Motown though. He has a great deep voice that is a delight to hear.
More importantly though, he is a really sweet spirit. Before winning the show, he worked as a car washer in a coal town in WV. In his spare time, even then, he worked with the Children’s Home Society to share music with the kids in their care. This concert was a perfect opportunity for him to broaden that work and bring more attention to those children.
He is funny and uses physical humor like a pro. Maybe someday he will have the opportunity to sing with Abigail again. I am pretty sure she would be delighted!
It’s been hectic. I mean it is always hectic at Christmas time but it seems like my work and the kids’ activities are much more wild than normal. We have been fortunate with our weather though and that means we have been working on the cabin the last two weekends. So, in the last episode, we left our heroes working on the cabin, hoping to get the gable ends framed in and covered with sheathing.
The dastardly weatherman called for snow and rain to thwart the attempts of our heroes to get the place weathered in before the snow ruined all of the hard work and industrial glue used to hold together the over-priced plywood and OSB used throughout. Ok, I can’t stand the wait…no cliff-hanger here. We got the sheathing up and put house wrap up on about half of the place the last two weekends!
House wrap, it turns out, is some weird stuff. It blocks water from the outside. Water vapor can freely escape the other direction though so moisture from inside the house can get out. The problem is that if larger water particles get behind the wrap, they are held in place…only water vapor can escape. Sometimes that makes things rot as water usually does. I read a bunch of stuff on the internets about whether house wrap was a good idea or whether old fashioned tar paper was better. It seemed like I found a pretty mixed story about it. Most people said tar paper was really good and that it lasted forever and has been used successfully for a long time. House wrap is only popular because it goes up fast which is important to home builder. That fact is also popular with my wife so we (she) finally decided to use house wrap.
We have about 4 months to get the house wrap covered with siding before UV rays from the sun start to ruin it. If anyone remembers my other remodeling experiences, you will recall that a 4 month deadline is pretty tight for me! The kids have really enjoyed hanging out with their great-grandparents as we do this final push to get things done though. Another few months would suit them just fine I think. Great-grandparents, it turns out, really like to spoil great-grandkids. Apparently it is in the Constitution or something. Anyhow, as this year (and probably the nice weather) wraps up, I really owe a lot to all of the family and friends who have helped in various ways to get this place under cover! I am so tired of wrapping so your Christmas presents are in the mail!
The deluxe shed is under roof! The boys from up on the ridge recommended a guy who does construction work for a living to put the roof on the place for us. I had no interest in trying to tackle that project and I am certain it was the best money I have spent so far. But let me back up and tell you the story of getting to that point.
I called a local metal manufacturer to get help on what all I needed. I talked to one guy the first time I called and he was super helpful and told me all of the measurements I needed to get. I called back a short time later and a different guy flat out refused to help me with anything stating that he preferred to work with contractors rather than homeowners. I was mad as a hornet and decided that I would not use the local company under any circumstances. I so much wish I could name this company but I guess it’s better if I don’t. I looked around some more though and found that they were really about the only game in town. I called back another time prepared to climb up someone’s hind-end but I got another guy and he was super nice and helped me get the order in.
Initially, he told me it would be three days for delivery (which would have been perfect as I was planning to be at the property then). Just a few minutes later, he called back and asked if he could deliver first thing the next day. Of course, it was supposed to rain like mad the day I ordered as well as the next day, delivery day. He assured me that it wouldn’t be a problem and that they had 4-wheel drive trucks and could get across my hay field (which does not yet have a driveway) to drop the metal right beside the building. Of course, I got a call on delivery morning to tell me that they could not navigate the mud (which I had already guessed) and asked what I wanted to do. I had no other option but to have them drop it by the road.
Now I have no worry whatsoever that the folks who live up there would leave it alone and would, in fact, try to keep an eye out on the pile for a week, but $800 worth of metal roof might be too tempting for some passerby. I drove up that night in the rain and dark and proceeded to drag the metal pieces across the field to the work site. Holy cow is that metal heavy! It was pitch black and raining and muddy so I had quite a time of it.
Enough of the whining…the roof guy and his crew came out on Sunday and spent all day putting the sheathing and metal on the place and it looks good in the pictures I have seen. I haven’t even been up there yet to see it in person but Emily’s grandparents and Susanna, our neighbor both sent me pics.
I know, white is not a typical color for a roof but we are all about the energy conservation at this place and the white roof has the maximum capability to reflect sunlight and heat back away from the place in the summer time when the energy costs would be highest. It had to be metal because we plan to harvest rain water to fill our cistern. We are not yet committed to a color of siding yet so we will need to find something that will go with the white roof I guess! Caprilis asked in a comment a few posts ago whether we had considered adding skylights. We did consider it but decided against any extra holes in the metal which would be prone to leaking. It would be awesome though. I guess we could always cut them in later if we decide we want them. We’ll see…
We still have a little more work to do to have the place dried in for winter. It is supposed to be nice (but cold) this weekend so we are hoping to get everything else in place so that winter can come. I was in Beckley, WV on Wednesday for business and they are enough higher up in the mountains that the snow dumped pretty good. They got a few inches in a hurry so winter is definitely upon us. Just having the roof in place gives me a little peace during the evil they call winter. I am off to hibernate…
So, we are building our cabin, right? The land is completely raw so there are absolutely no amenities, if you catch my drift. So, we work hard about every weekend from morning until dark. We drink fluids and nature does with fluids what nature is supposed to do with fluids. Yeah, we have to pee sometimes when we go out to the property.
Last week and this week are deer hunting season in WV. I promise this is related. So, let’s pretend that one of the females who may or may not be my wife, drank some fluids during deer season on a piece of raw land out in the woods in WV. As nature takes its course, such a person may feel a little fearful of being mistaken for a deer….a white tailed deer in that exposed condition, while dealing with…uh…natural things. The obvious solution to such a dilemma is to announce one’s presence in the woods like so: “I am not a deer. I am not a deer. I am not a deer”. So far, there has been no mistake and we have had done very well with this method.
Now let’s say that a guy who may or may not be me also had fluids while working on a piece of raw land out in the country in WV. Now for a guy, the world is pretty much a fair target. Oh yes, it is all about the challenge of a good target. Anyhow, with the world as a man’s urinal, the concern over being confused as a deer is less pressing. Instead, a man is able to take in the sights in Nature’s lavatory.
It seems very late for mushrooms, but the whole point of this story is to lead up to how a guy who may or may not be me, found a really cool log that had the most exquisite collection of mushrooms growing on it. I like to touch mushrooms. Is that weird? These mushrooms were silky and really fleshy and difficult to stop touching. That’s weird I know, but I think it is fascinating that there are things in the woods that keep the place cleaned up but still look so delicate and soft. I mean, they were chewing up a log for goodness sakes! I have been making far too much contact with wood as I build this cabin and my head is suffering greatly from how hard wood is. These beautiful mushrooms eat the same wood for breakfast!
Even in the most basic of times in the woods, I am continually amazed at the power and beauty that is around me all of the time. I like to pay attention to these things, even on the way to the outhouse.
I grew up in the country and it was just a natural thing then I guess. People always waved to each other and talked as you passed and left extra zucchini on your porch and helped out when you needed it. It’s been 20+ years since I lived in the country though and my city life has sort of become ingrained. We moved to Nashville and it was a huge culture shock to me…from a town of 600 or so people to a town of a million and a half. I remember as we drove in to Nashville on one of our first visits, there was a guy in a car ramming another guy in a car going full speed down the interstate among how-ever-many lanes of traffic there were then. It wasn’t a wreck…yet. They were road-raging and ramming each other. I knew this wasn’t quite like where I grew up.
The ridge board that supports the rafters at the top end
So, I became a city boy and all that friendly stuff had to be put on the back burner. It’s not that people in a city aren’t friendly once you get to know them… it’s just that you have to find a way to get to know them first and sometimes even neighbors aren’t interested in getting to know one another.
So, fast forward a bit. The folks from whom we bought the property still live on the land they retained the next hillside over. Larry, Granny Sue’s husband, delivered some scaffolding he had over at his place a few weeks back. He showed us how to set it up and use it and has let us keep it up there as long as we need it. And then last weekend as we were working on setting up our rafters. One of the boys (they are grown men but we call the brothers that live near us, “the boys” and I think they would be ok with that) came by on his 4-wheeler to ask if he could hunt on our property. I told him that any of the boys and their family could hunt but I didn’t want anyone else who didn’t live up there hunting. I would have never known whether they hunted or not during the week but I am really glad he asked.
Anyhow, we agreed that he could hunt so I figured he would go on to do other things with his day. Instead, to our surprise, he asked if we needed help. I was thrilled because Emily and I were trying to maneuver 16 foot long 2×8 boards around by ourselves on the second story of the deluxe shed. It was going to end up with a bout of intense negotiation. So, our friend climbed up and we started to work. We worked an hour or so before we had to head home.
That’s about half of the rafters done!
Now that’s one thing, helping a guy for an hour, but the next day we got up there and my friend came over and brought his brother with him! We worked together all day long and got half of the faters in place and secured! They were a huge help and I was delighted to get to know them a little better. We had met on other occasions, but we hadn’t really talked or goofed around before. Aside from their tremendous help, I absolutely loved the sense of community and belonging that we have felt up on the ridge. The neighbors across the way (she’s a sister to the brothers) came to visit the first day we showed up. Our kids have played with their kids every time we are up there. They invited us to a potluck dinner one night where we talked about all sorts of things and may have solved the world’s problems. The brothers who helped with the rafters along with Larry and Granny Sue have been so kind and helpful as we work on the new place. With the utmost respect I say that I am so glad to have country neighbors!
See all of the progress on the cabin