I was wide awake at 4:15am yesterday. No good reason for that, but it’s not unusual for me to answer the dogs’ first call and then just plow into my day from there.
Once I had Scout and Smudge taken care of and the coffee started, I stepped back outside into the pre-dawn darkness. It was another cool morning, mid-40s. No wind. The sky was clear, the stars bright.
I’d heard coyotes when I was out with Scout earlier, but they’d gone quiet. I strained to hear other sounds. There were none.
The Mountain was utterly silent.
The only way to experience that kind of wonder is to be up and out at an unholy hour. I’m glad I’m wired that way.
Back inside, I sat down with my coffee and surfed my news feed. I dipped into The Mountain’s dedicated Facebook page and, curious, I took a peek at its stats.
I almost never do that. What I found surprised me.
It’s grown significantly over the last two months, and at a rate equal to or eclipsing that of Ubi Libertas Blog. I’m talkin’ thousands of views now, every week. I didn’t expect that.
Particularly interesting, at least to me, was a graph showing where readers come from.
The page is public. Anyone logged into Facebook can see it, though I shut down comments several weeks ago to silence the trolls.
A clear majority of visitors to the page these days don’t follow it — but they do visit, view, and click. That parallels what I see on the blog.
The recent growth of The Mountain’s page is gratifying to me, however unintentional it is. I thought it was worth noting here.
The Berkey water filter system that’s been part of my life for over four years still sits on the galley counter in the camper. Honestly, I’m not sure how I feel about it, or if it’ll have a place in the cabin.
I mean, it was one thing to ensure the quality of drinking water when hopping from campground to campground in the motorhome. Now that I’m on a deep well, contaminants aren’t an issue — straight from the tap, the water is clean and sweet.
With an itch to be productive this morning, I gave the Berkey a thorough cleaning. The filter cartridges will be good for a few more months, maybe longer.
Eventually, I’ll install filters on the cabin’s water supply, to deal with sediment and iron that could shorten the life of the water heater (etc.). It’ll be a while before I get to that.
I said yesterday that I was having trouble mounting the kitchen faucet “temporarily.” To explain — installing the sink permanently will require a countertop, and since that’s still a ways off, I’d have to attach the faucet to it while it’s (essentially) freestanding.
For the life of me, I couldn’t figure it out.
I figured it out.
Using a piece of half-inch plywood left over from Sunday, I fabricated a sort of backing plate that goes underneath the rim at the rear of the sink. Problem solved.
I measured carefully, accounting for future cabinet fronts, positioned the sink where I want it and cut holes for drain and supply lines. I don’t think it’ll move much in use, but I cut lengths of furring strip and set cleats on the sides and in the back, just to be sure.
Until now, the only lighting in the cabin has been a string of Harbor Freight LEDs in the bath/laundry, plus a shop light that I’ve moved around as necessary. It’s worked, but I wanted just a little more.
The answer, obviously, would be more cheap LED patio lights.
I draped them over the cross-ties in the bedroom, kitchen, and living room. Each string is controlled by an in-line switch at the outlet.
When I do more permanent fixtures, at least two of those strings will be used on the front porch I have planned.
I was on a roll. I looked around for another target and found it in the shower — the back wall would need to be insulated before I can build the surround. I had plenty of leftover Rockwool (from the woodstove project) and a little faced fiberglass, more than enough to do the job.
Since it’s an outside wall, I made sure that the hot and cold supply lines got the insulation they’ll need come next winter.
I stayed busy all day, doing small stuff like moving most of my clothes to the cabin. For now they’ll live in fabric bins on the shelf units in my bedroom.
My plumber-neighbor rolled up on his quad mid-afternoon. We plotted putting the finishing touches on the plumbing this weekend.
Once that’s done, it’ll be time to finish the shower surround and move in.
My Tuesday was a far cry from my Monday. I broke out of my wordless funk and powered through, lifted by good things that can’t be denied and shouldn’t be ignored.
The day ended with soft, cleansing rain. Life is good.
Take care of yourselves, Patriots. Stay calm. Stay sharp. Stay free.
#WiseUp #LibertyOrDeath #Ungovernable