So we closed on the Snake Pit Rod and Gun Club property and began a new chapter in our storied lives, on 4 acres between
Keeneyville and Shortsville. On a "good day" I can
sometimes get a signal on my Trac phone at the corner of the front
porch. The nearest Verizon signal is about 6 miles away. No land line phone, no internet, just the beauty of God's created order...
The cabin is, well, some of you have seen pictures, rustic as most hunting clubs are in north-central PA.
The inside has one layer of rigid foam board insulation and is otherwise ready for wall coverings, although we will add another layer of insulation prior to covering them.
It boasts a bunk room (with four built in 2x6 beds three of which are bunks) and a second smaller bedroom, a large bathroom with a second toilet in the utility room, and a very large (900 sq foot) open concept kitchen-living-dining space. There is a wood stove to heat the entire house and a spring fed, hand dug well for water.
It took a couple of days of strenuous work tearing
out the built-in bedframes piling up the mattresses and otherwise
clearing out the bunk room which will become the Master Bedroom. Some of the lumber was
salvageable... but those screws...well over 100 per bunk...I counted...
The plans are to use pine tongue and groove pretty much throughout the house, with a some accent walls strategically placed to break up the monotony. So a trip to town was made,
an order placed, and the first lumber delivery would happen
before the work could actually begin.
In the meantime we had to empty the fully furnished cabin. Our son, Caleb, took the sectional couch and the once decent Lazy Boy. So we still had the vibrating Lazy Boy, another couch, a couple of chairs, 7 bed mattresses, and a kitchen table and chairs that had seen too many better days, in addition to all sorts of smaller well worn items. We filled a 15' Uhaul truck and hauled off 1539 lbs worth of dump worthy items.
This first week we also replaced the hot water heater, made numerous calls trying to get a phone line and or internet (unsuccesfully), and took delivery of 128 cubic feet of wood (3 full cords) for the winter heating season, hoping it would be enough. My lovely and incredibly fit wife was eager to help pile the wood. As we did this I remembered well, my dad saying to me that wood normally warmed you at least two times, once when you stacked it and the other when you burnt it. (Fortunately we didn't have to cut and split it this year!)
We ended the week by taking delivery of the first order of lumber and getting to work on revealing the promising future.
We received the second order of lumber the second week and have finished up most of the rough construction in the Master bedroom. Just a bit more finish/trim work to do, a ceiling to be pained, cedar to be installed in the closet and some doors to be hung, but progress is notable.
As if all of this
wasn’t encouraging enough, the garden tractor arrived...John Deere
X580. I immediately set off to conquer the acre and a half or so of
lawn. We still have another ¾ of an acre that will need to be brush
hogged but I was one happy camper. AND we were finally able to schedule an internet connection (HughesNet) and telephone installation.
As we begin our third full week we are thankful. This morning four gobbler's were on full display, strutting, trying to win the affections of any of a dozen or more hens while deer grazed in the background on the hillside across from the front porch while fresh bear skat occupied a placed just inside the edge of the wooded acreage behind the horse barn.
We’ll be on the road back to NC later this next week. I’ll be preaching at the Jonesboro Heights Baptist Church on the
17th, and we’ll have the opportunity to visit with much
missed friends and check in on Carol’sfolks. We'll also load the final U-Haul with all of my
shop materials. (My shop arrives on the 26th of Oct.
And God's grace continues to rain down upon us. His faithfulness has been abundantly evident!
Th-th-th-that’s
all for now folks.
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