Well, it’s time to wrap up for the season, The picture above was taken just about this same time, two years ago. But today it’s overcast with a light to moderate cold drizzle. Truth be told, Gail and I will continue to come up here on weekends as long as we can, but I suspect will have to do a full shutdown by the end of October.
So, here’s how this, my first pre-shutdown day went:
Monday, 3 October
It’s 6:15 AM here at Trouthaven. It’s pitch black, 38°, and the rain is light but continuous. The dripping from the roof’s eves makes the most noise. I’ve got the living room stove fired up. And because our propane tank was filled last week, I have it cranking with no guilt. Last evening around 8 PM the temperature dropped below the 40° threshold, so I cranked up the wood stove upstairs. I went to bed around 9 PM to the glow and crackle of the fire. This crackle business sounds cozy, and it surely is – for the first 5 minutes, but after that irtbecame more and more annoying. But how annoying could it have been – I fell asleep after only 2 pages of my latest book (only to be awakened an hour later by Nate’s text message (Viber, actually) that you (My wife Gail, Nate, Hygel, and the three kids) all were going to see the Great Wall today and the Tianamen Square tomorrow).
Ahhh, coffee’s ready – Be right back
Yesterday afternoon Don, Bonny, and I celebrated our last “Wine Thirty” and I learned two items of note: First, a young bull moose has taken up residence here in Trouthaven. I haven’t seen him yet, but he is definitely here – and near the cabin. He’s been most frequently seen in the forest line hanging in the tree line at our end of the meadow.
Second, the cabin with the Japanese in the basement (insider joke), has been sold to an older gentlemen from one of the Carolina states (Don wasn’t sure which state, nor what happened to the Japanese). Anyway, a young family – husband, wife, 2 kids and 2 dogs – were up and inspecting the place yesterday. Speculation is that one of the adults is the child of the new owner. It turns out that he has been coming out to Rock Creek for years to fish and he finally decided to buy a place and spend his summers here (perhaps he retired this year).
Well, it’s light enough to see all the way to Lynn’s place at the North end of the valley. Gray sky, still drizzling. Time to get dressed and go see if Don and Bonny need help packing up. Be back to this post later.
1:00 PM
Don and Bonnie left a little after 11:00 AM. Since then I’ve been running through the cabin shutdown procedures. I ran the compressor and wrote a detailed startup/shutdown procedure for the compressor. Then I did a walk through of how to blow the water lines in the cabin and wrote them up. I’ll do the same for the Solar once I go through it with Rip.
Still raining, but it’s still a drizzle tho’ heavy right now. Temperature is hanging in at 42° and the cabin stove has been running almost non-stop. It is amazingly cozy in here right now. This evening I’ll run the upstairs wood-stove again.
Talked with Joe Peltier today (he’s up here finishing some cleanup of Doc Simpson’s place, whose roof he replaced a bit ago). Joe says that the way our plumbing is set up we can easily stay up here through the rest of October, provided we keep the heat on in our absence. I was glad to get a confirmation because I would like leave our cabin open as long as possible.
So, tomorrow Rip Hamilton from Solar Plexus, our solar installer, will come up to walk me through the proper procedure for shutting down the solar power. In fact, he will do the actual shutdown and I’ll take careful notes of everything he does. Last year I did the shutdown myself. I thought I had followed his instructions to the letter, but the batteries froze and we lost all 8 – a very expensive lesson. This year we’ll have Rip do it. That way if the system breaks we’ll know it wasn’t due to my carelessness. I’m also going to wrap the battery enclosure with insulated blankets.
Lunch: The only pleasure I have when Gail’s gone (and it’s a guilty one, to be sure) is that I can eat all the sardines I want. I had my last can today. By the time she returns from China and I run through my supply of toothpaste, no trace of this delicious and nutritious food will be left. Unless she reads the blog post, I’m home free.
Well, it’s almost 1:30 PM, so I’m going to get started on moving the outdoor furniture into the dining room and emptying the poopers. After that, I’m gonna clean the kitchen and start dinner (Red Rice and Beans, mixed in with Hamburger and Jalapenos). Yummm.
Will post tonight after my chores are complete.
4:00 PM
Chores are done. The rice and beans portion of dinner are done. At 6:00 PM or so, I’m going to fry the hamburger, onions, and peppers – then add the rice and beans and voila.
7:00 PM
Dinner’s over, dishes are done and it’s getting dark. I think I’ll stoke up the bedroom wood stove and work on my latest God project – a detailed analysis of the “Binding of Isaac” in the context of the Sodom and Gomorrah narrative. How in the world are these two narratives related, you ask?
Consider these two observations:
- In the Sodom-Gomorrah narrative, Abram tries to get God to spare the two cities if just a few righteous individuals can be found. Justice (but also mercy and compassion) are at the core of Abram’s strident objection to God’s plan to incinerate all the inhabitants of this city. Abram cares deeply for the innocent in this narrative
- In the Binding narrative, Abram drops everything in order to carry out God’s wish that his son, Isaac, be sacrificed by his own hand. No objection. No negotiation. Just unconditional, unquestioning obedience. Where is that regard he showed so aggressively in #1 now that his son is to be murdered by his own hand?
How do we explain this? At this point, I cannot reconcile the two narratives. If you can, drop me a note.
—
