Some reasons for getting started early have nothing to do with beating the oppressive heat. Often they’re not physical “work,” either. Still, they contribute to completing the cabin and must be done.
I’m staying focused on finishing the woodstove installation. We missed an opportunity to wrap it up last fall, owing to our financial situation, and I don’t want that to happen again.
My rationale for putting this ahead of most other projects is that it makes everything else possible. All of the interior build-out will be easier as summer turns to fall if I’m working in a heated space. And having a fire in the box accelerates our timetable for moving into the cabin.
The reverse isn’t true for, say, plumbing and electric. It’s simply a matter of ordering priorities.
That thought process should help explain what I did starting first thing this morning. I chased rusty barn tin.
Deb and I both have been doing that for awhile now. We know we want to install used galvanized-steel panels, of the corrugated variety, as heat shields behind and above the woodstove. We’ll probably also build a shower surround from the same material. And Deb has proposed it for skirting the cabin.
But first we have to find some we like.
The most promising lead so far popped last night on Facebook Marketplace. A guy re-doing his barn, right here in Yellville, is offering the take-off roof panels for sale. It’s a work-in-progress, so he doesn’t yet have a quantity or even a price.
Such is the salvage market. It just what we’re looking for, though.
We hope to finish the woodstove (minus the heat shield) this weekend. Deb has three days off, and I’ll need her help. Progress will be interrupted by Laundry Day, naturally, but also complicated by the arrival of unexpected out-of-town guests. (They invited themselves.)
I’ll be working, regardless. One way or another, by sunset on Monday the woodstove will be done.
Volunteer of the Day: Ivy-Leaved Morning Glory (Ipomoea hederacea). Along with the purple passionflower featured yesterday, as well as wild potato (Ipomoea pandurata) and, of course, greenbrier (Smilax glauca), it’s taken over the bank between the driveway and the lower level. Those vines have found natural trellises in the pokeweed and sumac that dominated that space most of the season.
Take care of yourselves, Patriots. Stay calm. Stay sharp. Stay free.
#WiseUp #LibertyOrDeath #Ungovernable
#LetsGoBrandon #FJB