Last night was a late one — I stayed up putting together the bed frame and mattress for the second bed. Now, with both beds joined, we’ve got a full king-size setup in the cabin. What once felt like a little more spacious now feels a lot more cozy. I must have hit my limit, though, because instead of waking at my usual 5:30 or 6:00, I slept straight through until 8:30 this morning.
The big task today was meeting with the town officials to get a new dump permit — much needed with all the trash building up from the boxes and supplies I hauled up in the U-Haul. The meeting went well. True to Yankee form, the two women I spoke with were a bit reserved — information was shared only as necessary, with no fluff. Not cold, just direct. We had a good, practical conversation, and they’re looking into a few things for me, which I appreciated.
Since I was already out and away from camp, I headed down to Princeton — officially to get oil for the generator, but let’s be honest: it was mostly an excuse to visit my favorite breakfast spot (still can’t remember the name — Old School Family Restaurant or something like that). As always, it didn’t disappoint. Delicious, affordable breakfast. Hopefully I’ll find my way back there again soon.
On the subject of life’s little pleasures, I experienced an unusual one while at the restaurant. I was able to use the restroom without having to worry about the floor caving in and falling into a pit of undesirable stuff. At camp, I don’t have that pleasure.
In the afternoon, I arranged to meet up with the DIRT guys, Gary and Steven, to give them their final payment and chat about possible help for upcoming projects — especially the roof replacement I’m hoping to do on the cabin. When I met up with them, they were in the middle of repairing equipment. We had a long conversation. They mentioned they had moved 2,800 yards of dirt and gravel for the road using only a front-end loader at 2 cu yards per scoop and a small backhoe — pretty impressive.
They gave me the name and number of someone they think could help with the roof. I’ll give him a call tomorrow and see if we can line something up.
Some numbers for the road. Democrat Ridge is a dirt road used to get to a few camps on Patten Pond. It’s 9/10’s of a mile from the start of the road to the start of my property. It’s another 3/10’s of a mile further on Democrat Ridge to get to the road we just put in. That new “driveway” is 9/10’s of a mile to get to the marshy land that I need to cross to get to the camp. I won’t be doing that in the truck or any motorized vehicle at this point. So we are getting closer but I still can’t get to the cabin easily solely from my property.
Later, I moved more supplies from the stash spot on my property over to my neighbor’s, so I could ferry them across to the cabin using the rowboat. For whatever reason, that always wipes me out — maybe it’s the coordination, the lifting, the balancing on and off the dock — but I have to say, the new electric outboard motor is a game-changer. It’s made the trips much easier and more efficient. I’m really enjoying just being able to putter across the water instead of rowing every time.
I was sitting and resting in the screened porch on the cabin after one of the trips carrying supplies, I had the screen door propped open to make it easier to bring things into the cabin. While I was sitting there a hummingbird flew into the screened porch, hovered a couple feet in front of me as if to say ‘hi’ and then flew back out.
I did get the solar panels hooked up to the new battery bank and they seem to be working well. On the other hand the battery bank I got last year does not seem to be charging. I called Anker, the company that makes the batteries and they were not optimistic They indicated that the cold Maine winter likely damaged the battery and that it is likely ruined. Not good news.
But in good news, I was able to get the water pipe extended into the pond for the hand pump at the kitchen sink…. and it works! So now I have “running water” to rinse things without having to walk to the pond.
I closed out the evening watching the Phillies — unfortunately, they lost, which was a bit of a downer. Ended up staying up a little later than usual, close to 11:00. We’ll see what tomorrow brings.