The Winter Wind 2004

Travel (not)
 This has been another quiet year for me without any significant trips -- due in part to the additional care and watching that my mother needs and because of all the other things going on here.  But that has only slowed Paula down a little bit -- she made it to Germany and Italy and many visits to her folks in Pennsylvania (her dad is now 102). We did enjoy our visitors and the stories they told were almost as good as traveling..   

But Paula and I did make an annual pilgrimage to The Balsams resort in Dixville Notch, NH for a little xc and mild tele skiing for a couple of days.  This time I had the best steak I have ever had in my life.  Though that may be because Alzheimer's is setting in ...if that is the case then everything will be new and novel which could be just fine.
  We did a few hikes and a little paddling -- but not as much as usual.

View of Tumbledown Mountain from Little Jackson

Island Cottage
As usual I spent what time I could on the Island  (web page password = "woodiok7") mostly working on THE COTTAGE.  I evidently needed a challenging project and am too cheap and/or  fussy to have someone else do it.  The cottage site is 350' from the shore and 80' up, only a foot path, no dock ... everything comes from my house piece by piece ... so perhaps 60% of the effort is just getting building material to the site.  I bought a "lumber boat" to get stuff to the island:

Lumber boat with diminutive captain  
(P.S. note the name of the boat ... it is customary in Maine to name boats after women ... the wise only use the names of mothers and daughters since wives and girlfiends come and go ;-) but not everyone is wise so repainting or x-ing out is often necessary).

Read,  Jason  &  lots of wood
-- loading up at my house for the trip to the island
The lumber boat will take 1.5 tons of lumber down river at 40 MPH (and perhaps 40 gallons per hour).
Thankfully I got some help from friends with the tons!!  Also thankfully I hired Jason, the son of a friend of mine, to help with the construction.  We were a good team and got as much done as we could within the constraints of weather -- and the month interruption caused by installation of a sewer system at my house.  The building effort was difficult because the site is on top of a rib of rock that falls off steeply -- so big tall posts were needed and we were swinging from staging 12' up to get them and the joists in place.  In addition to all the lumber, we carried 60 bags of concrete (80 lbs each -- total = 4800 lb) to the site to make the footings

Jake wondering if it will collapse
But then I think the effort is worthwhile since the site has a 270 degree view with great sunrises / sunsets and everything in between. 
Click here to see the view from the deck only if you have a FAST internet connection pic= 665 KB. 
 So for this season we finished the base and the front deck.  Next summer the cottage will hopefully be built -- so if you have some free time and want to help ... 

Pictures of the shed that was built before the cottage was started are here.  If you ever want to visit the Island, see visitor information here.  For cottage pictures in a different format click here.
(click on any picture to enlarge it -- then use the back button to return)


new snow
Merry Christmas 


ice out
Happy New Year

Magn is 96 Years Old !


Magn is doing well -- all things considered.  She still adamantly refuses to move her bedroom to the first floor.  She has to use a walker now all the time.  Her short term memory is going so I often need to remind her what day of the week it is and whether it is day or night.  This latter problem is understandable since she gets up at about 5:30 AM and goes to bed about 5:30 PM -- and in the Summer it is light out at both times and in the Winter it is dark out at both times so its sometimes difficult to tell. And the first problem is understandable since most of Magn's days are similar now that she is not part of the work-a-day world.
     Thankfully, we have some folks come in to give Magn a bath and help out in other ways.  She is better off here as long as we can manage.  Mothers have to put up with a lot of stuff with kids so it is payback time.
  
Sam II
 Sam II, a Lhasa Apso / poodle mix (some call a "Lhasadoodle"),  arrived a year ago and is doing very well.  He is mostly cooperative with whatever torments we devise for him (such as riding on a walker).  His name is now "Sam II" because it was easier to change the dog's name than Magn's memory. He is an important companion for Magn. Sam can usually be found diligently watching down the road for intruders from his bed next to the picture window.

Steve Walks the Plank
The good days were just lovely! 
And I do get some satisfaction from building my own place ... then I have to live with only MY mistakes.

 

Paula
She keeps surprising me. For example, I found out that she prefers HAIRY males ... unfortunately I had to find out the hard way by finding them in bed together:

Doesn't Sam look a little "sheepish"?
Paula says hairy males are warmer! So I bought her a thick down comforter as  compensation.
     Paula has tried to make the construction project at the house more fun by taking out some of the equipment for a spin.  So far she has not driven it in traffic, despite her desire to do so.


Incidentally, to be fair, I have offered Paula the other side of the lumber boat to put what she wants on it for a name ... but she has to buy all the letters.  She says there is not enough room on the boat to put on all the names ...  Sigh....

More Cottage Pics:


The start of the base

Progress and Jason

Done for this season

Construction Footnote: the spruce 2x6 tongue and groove lumber that is used for the floor and sheathing came from Russia.  It was cut near Leningrad, milled in Lithuania, shipped to Northern Maine, delivered to me on the coast ... both cheaper and better quality than I could buy at the local lumber yard.  The New World economy has some interesting quirks ... (Yes, I know I am now responsible for the cutting of all the old growth forests in Russia ... but it was a deal ...)

The Winter Wind 2004

Page 2

The Price of Poop II
                or  
As the World Turns --Gov't Edition

Our New Sewer System ??
 The state of Maine required me to replace my sewer systems (a long story but note that they were working just fine) for the Point House and the house next door -- where Magn lives.  As is usual ... the estimate reported in last year's letter was low.  With cost overages for blasting the bill came to ~ $150,000 ... which astounds me ... but then most  governmental things astound me.  Thankfully, the government picked up 90% of the bill (also astounding).  Life was a mess here:  a bulldozer and excavators were running around the yard for almost 4 weeks.  

Blasters were blasting rock for 4 days.  Contrary to my expectations, neither house was blasted into the ocean ... though a few rocks unexpectedly became rock-ets.  
     Concrete wall builders were here for 2 weeks achieving new heights of ineptness with a special award for ignoring the engineered plans and shoddy work.  This subcontractor was selected because he does a lot of commercial work, including all the WalMarts and Loews in Maine.  Moral:  minimize your time in such buildings to reduce your risk of being crushed in their imminent collapse.

     The general contractor was thoughtfully considerate though ... since toilets would not be working for weeks he arranged for a handicap 5' x 5' porta-potty to be put on the front porch for Magn -- I cancelled it figuring that by the time Magn managed to wheel her walker out the front door and get into the potty that whatever was coming would have come long before.  So Magn had little porta-pottys scattered around inside which worked fine.
     The job started in July and ended in October with the replacing of the paved driveway ... so havoc and mud reigned for a long time. Thankfully it is done and we can flush again. Most of the grass grew in and Paula planted 100's of bulbs that will be a pleasure in the Spring.  Unfortunately Paula doesn't know that I want to put some granite blocks where she planted a lot of bulbs -- we will see what happens.

 

Pictures:


Low fog at the islands off The Point


Sunrise from The Point


OOPS!
For those of you that focus perhaps too intently on the job at hand ... take a close look at the wood beam that goes through the 2 pieces of staging a little to the right of center in the picture.  And LEARN from my mistake ... I had to cut the steel staging to get it off from around the beam ... I wasn't going to cut the beam.  All I can say in my defense was that getting the last beam in was a very difficult move that required all our concentration ...  unfortunately my field of view was too small -- I was looking only at the ends, not the middle.  It is (almost) unbelievable how blind one can be at times.  Sigh.. 

That's all Folks, take care ...

Previous editions:  Winter Wind 2000      Winter Wind 2001    Winter Wind 2002   Winter Wind 2003

Thanks for your visit if you made it this year, 
 If you didn't make it this year, come visit next year :
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Steve Winter                                          207-443-9634
845 Foster Point Road
West Bath, Maine 04530

email:  swinter@blazenetme.net       or     steve@greatmaine.com