Platform Bed

This is the fifth bed like this that I have built. One was enough for awhile but then there were cabins, children and guest rooms. Most of the material for this one came out of the scrap pile at the lake. It is amazing how those sharp blades on the planer transform the wood. Some of our local spruce is really beautiful when it is dressed up.

I didn't fuss with the construction details. Butt joints and wood screws do the job, enabling a quick disassembly if needed. There is room underneath for storage.

Twins

My niece, Jessie, had her babies on August 9th. They are boys, are not identical and have been named Carter and Cayden. After more than a week in the NICU, everybody is home now and doing fine.

"She has her hands full." says my mom, the great-grandmother. Yep. Congratulations, Brian and Jessie and big sister, Aubree. I can't wait to meet them.

Talk to the Blog

I have had time to write posts on the blog but I haven't. There has been time for other things like knitting and sewing but nothing is getting produced. It seems to be a dormant phase. But it is rich nonetheless.

Dave and I have gone to the cabin every weekend. We are so happy with our marriage. It is the most important thing. His side of the family has been visiting this summer and my side of the family is doing a five sibling round robin phone discussion almost every day. My niece's twins were born, early but big enough and healthy. Ray is king of the neighborhood - gone all day but checking in as requested. Katherine cleaned out her room in an hour and a half and left for Hawaii to start college. My friend's daughter, 18, was killed in a car crash and contacting him led to more phone calls and emails and pictures of old friends and their growing children. I read "Three Cups of Tea" and "Be Cool" this week, serious world issues and Elmore Leonard. We watch Jon Stewart and laugh. The sun has been shining for a week. It's warm.

That's my life.

Bacon, Bagels and Beer

What do you bring to a friend's cabin for the weekend? Well, really, we were just going for an overnight stay, so we brought some fresh king salmon steaks and some bacon, bagels and beer.

It is interesting to see different places and projects and what other people concentrate on. Dave is a systems guy, so six years into our place we have hot running water, abundant solar electricity and a flush toilet. But we don't have any fruit trees or fresh arugula.

Our friends' place is such a contrast to ours and it was delightful. It was our first time visiting them and it was fun to see all of their projects. Their land is flat and spread out, with a tight little log cabin and a lot of space around it. There is a lively creek off to one side and a large adjoining lot with a fine start on a new cabin. They have spent many hours in the garden and landscaping the grounds over the years and it really shows. They are on the beach, which is salt water with big tides, so the very air and all of the natural sights and sounds feel quite different than our lakeside spot.

Rick's place, on Shelter Island, the site of Spanish camp, is another variation. His site is upland from the shore, in a large muskeg meadow and he has focused on his organic garden and fashioning a summer only, outdoor living kind of retreat. He has many roofs but few walls. He has a wood fired hot tub and a propane stove and oven but only a small solar panel to charge his cell phone. There is no generator, but there is a monster rope swing. Rick, and his friends, have carried everything up to his land over a half mile trail that is still rough enough that one cannot use a wheelbarrow. Priorities get defined by such limitations.

Spanish Immersion Camp

Ray and I spent a week speaking Spanish with some other folks from Juneau. The camp was nearby on Shelter Island at the cabin owned by Ray's Spanish teacher. It was very wet. The land is mostly muskeg (aka swamp) and it rained hard most of the time we were there. Our tent was warm and dry, though, and the camaraderie of our fellow campers more than made up for the dank and dreary conditions.


There was music. A saxophone sounds great coming through the trees. I'd never heard a bassoon in the woods before, and though guitar music in the forest was not a first for me, it always sounds perfectly right. "Guantanamera" and "Friend of the Devil" were played at midnight. Ben Harper songs were sung at sunset on the beach in a strong, clear voice. I should have asked Ricardo for my favorite Leon Russell song, "Back to the Island". I'm sure he knows it.

Estonian Garden Wrap

Pattern: Estonian Garden Wrap
Design: Evelyn Clark
Yarn: Fino - Alpaca with a Twist
70% Alpaca - 30% Silk
One skein
Needles: US 5

This went in the mail today. I knit it for a September bride, the daughter of our friends. Her mom chose the pattern and the yarn; I knit it up without changing a thing.

Furniture, Lighting and Tile

We spent another week at the cabin. The work is satisfying at this stage; the projects get started and completed in a few hours or a day and the progress is always visible.

There are new lights:






We made nightstands out of scrap lumber:


We also laid some tile under the woodstove. We have some more to do on the wall behind the stove - photo to follow.

I think the most fun is transforming rough lumber. I remember, once when I was twenty something, receiving a letter from my auntie who was in her eighties. She wrote "I am having fun with my new barometer." I was floored by how narrow life gets for old people and I laughed and laughed. Now, in my fifties, I am tempted to write "I am having fun with my new doweling jig." Life is narrowing right down. But - fun is fun.