Been awhile again.

It has been a really  pretty fall and early winter at the cabin this year.

Spent a lot of time out there recently.

Yesterday I framed the outdoor shower and hope to get it done soon.

Early fall finished the new outhouse (composting).

 

New projects Update. Its been a while!

While I haven't posted in a while, I have been busy out at the cabin.

Built a graveled parking spot for an RV or car.

Had the whole road re-graveled and I spread gravel in the sheds.

 And I put some down where we walk a lot.

A fun project was a raised cooking area, with areas for Dutch oven cooking, grilling and a jet stove.

And started rebuilding the out house. Hope to have an electric composting toilet in there soon.

                                       This video is of the Jet Stove.

  And I also, after 30 plus years, finally got water out at the cabin!

New little gem.

 

Found this little gem yesterday on one of my fall, no leaf drives. Had probably driven by it a few times and missed it with leaves on the trees.

Original was built in 1850, and the guy I talk to said it was a corn crib. I can believe a barn or shed, but the workmanship seemed to nice for a corn crib.

It has been very nicely rebuilt, with a full second story added. 

It is now be used as a meeting place for a local black powder rifle club. A perfect idea for such a group.

Two of the members were there when I found it, and were able to give me a little history of the rebuild.

They had a nice little stove going inside which kept it plenty comfortable.

It sits on property that at one time hosted the Deutsch Country Days festival. 

Unfortunately, the festival no longer takes place after almost 50 years.

Hope this group gets to use this site for many more years.

Blast from the past! Around 1995

Probably in all for the two cabins I had to hew about 12 logs.

I know I did 10 for the big cabin, shown in the background of the picture of me sitting.

For the blacksmith cabin, I did maybe four more. So I guess that makes 14 or so.

I did use a chainsaw to cut the vertical cuts, but an axe for the actual hewing.

Let the chips fall where they may.

The one I am sitting on is a sill log for the smaller blacksmith cabin.

By the time I had been doing this a while, after cutting down the tree and cutting it to length and de-limbing, I could hew two sides in about an hour.

I always had a couple of axes on hand and files nearby to keep them sharp

 

From one of my favorite blogs - A Rovers Cabin.

 

Read the whole story here;

Rovers Log Cabin story

Scouts don't often get to do that kind of stuff anymore.

It would be neat if the logbook became a book.

B2R by the fire. River Rocks

 

Haven't done one of these in a while either. 

Books to read by the Fire.

River Rocks.

I was not expecting to enjoy this book as much as I did.

I started reading it as a plan to check out the book to see if it would interest my teenage daughter. Well, it should, but I really enjoyed it also. And have already purchased the next book.

River Rocks - part Huch and Tom meet National Treasure, but not as far out there as Indian Jones.

Set in West Virginia, an area I have kayaked, the local setting was done really well.

The characters well developed and mostly likable. 

Even had a log cabin in it.

A few from this week.

Cool enough to have a fire all day, but not too cold to work outside.

A pano of the place.

Dug and new hole and moved the outhouse this week.

Did a little repair while I was at it.