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Monthly Archives: February 2008

Electricity!, mystery magnolia, and more cleanup

Pulling the wire to the power post Energy United came out today and lit up my power post. I now have electricity! Which means that I can get a pump in the well and have water soon. The finished power post The newly installed electric meter reads 0000 kilowatt hours. There are two 220-volt outlets, […]

… and still more cleanup

Chipping away at the brush pile To the loggers there were three grades of wood: good logs for the sawmill, sorry logs for pulpwood (but hauled away, at least), and the sorriest logs of all which were left behind for me to saw into firewood. Two guys and a chipping machine (with a little help […]

Cleanup, cleanup, and more cleanup…

Evan, my great-nephew, helps me gather brush. Cleaning up after the loggers is the next priority. I hope the tree guy will be able to bring the brush-chipping machine this week, but I’ve got to work around his other jobs, and the weather. Rain is forecast for Tuesday. I also need to find out if […]

Flaxseed: A healthy, low-carb quick bread

This morning’s flaxseed pone. I frequently say that, after a certain age, we all should eat like diabetics even if we’re not. Bread is the hardest thing to cut down on. On the glycemic index, whole grain bread is no better than white bread. Cornbread also is no better than white bread. But hot bread […]

Cleaning up the mess

The Jeep has become a beast of burden. The loggers are gone. They left behind a big pile of brush, plus tree-limb litter all over my top acre. There also are a bunch of “spikes,” small trees they ran over that are too injured to live and that look really bad. Fortunately the loggers didn’t […]

Bye-bye, pine trees…

The skidder pulls logs to the loader. (Until today I didn’t know what a skidder is.) Off to the sawmill. The view opens up: Behind the pines, beautiful hardwood trees that I won’t touch. The hardwoods will look really nice when the leaves grow out in a couple of months. Californians: the oak, hickory, beech, […]

Ready to sell some pine trees…

I met with a timber guy today. He’s going to buy pretty much all my pine trees and get them out of my way. I’ll even make a little money off the deal — a few hundred dollars. I explained that I’m not trying to make money off the trees, that I only want to […]

Temporary power, and a septic tank quote…

The woods looked mighty fine in the snow this morning. I met with an electrician from Madison and signed a contract for bringing in the temporary power. That was a tad over budget (by $100 — total cost, $750), but no big deal. I should have temporary power ready to use within the next two […]

It's snowing…

I hadn’t heard rain on the roof for a while, so I assumed that that was the end of the rain we had today. But I stepped outside and it was snowing! The photo is right outside my trailer door. I guess I’m not in San Francisco anymore.

Living in a small space

I’m learning that there’s a certain Zen to living in a small space. I’d better get used to it — I’ll probably need to live in the travel trailer for about a year until the house is done. Clutter-control needs to be a constant discipline. If you don’t need it, don’t bring it into the […]