Musings on ten years of blogging

I've been blogging for over 10 years now; I started in October, 2005. In those days, blogs were still considered controversial for academics and I wasn't sure how well my blogging would be received by Eisenbrauns' customers. Because of that, I just put it up under my initials, jps. It's been that way for 10 years now and blogs are now passé, but I've still been musing along, putting up excerpts from stuff I'm reading, commenting on the book industry, reflecting on gardening, bicycling, sharing the joys and frustrations of being a cabin caretaker on the North Shore.

All that to say, I looked over the sidebar of my blog today for the first time in ages. I'm amazed at how many of the blogs on my blogroll have fallen silent. I'm sure there are many new ones, and I've added some of them to my newsreader periodically. But I've been less than diligent about keeping the blogroll current. I think part of it is that I keep hoping some of the old standbys will start blogging again. Maybe they will, but probably not. I suppose I should update the blogroll this winter, once AAR/SBL is over.

While I was looking at the sidebar, I noticed the pattern of my posting. I'll bet you can't guess which month(s) were the busiest for me, between the cabins, Eisenbrauns, and editing. Here's the graphic for those of you who read this in an RSS newsreader

End of another season

Well, we closed the cabins for the season (our third with Max & Sherri, fourth overall) on Monday. The last guests left Monday morning and we began the chores of shutting down for the year.

The most important (and usually urgent) task is draining the water lines. This year it has been warmer, so it wasn't as urgent as some years, but you never know what the weather may hold. Blowing the lines out is a bit of a complicated process. First you have to install bypasses at all the water heaters, then drain them. Water heaters don't drain very fast—about 1/2 hour per tank—so you need multiple hoses.

While the tanks are draining, you can begin blowing the lines out. Dave had created a nice system whereby he plugged an air compressor into the line (after shutting off the water main! You don't want to inject air into the city water line!), opened and shut a few valves, and voila! You can open the faucets and blow the water out. Of course, you need to remove the aerators or they plug up with all the junk the air breaks loose in the lines from 60 years of use.

Did I mention it's very messy? The compressed air shoot water out at you and around you. I've taken to wearing a rain jacket and carrying a few hand towels to block the water. It seems the sinks are shaped to direct the water right up at your face!

Dave learned from experience that just blowing the lines wasn't enough. There was always a low-lying spot in the mains where the water would pool. Add -20ºF temperatures in the winter, and you have broken mains. Not a good way to start the spring! So, he added a 30 gallon holding tank for RV antifreeze. Turn a few more valves, and go back through the cabins, turning on each faucet again until pink stuff shows up.

Here's where I learned a few tricks, too. If you aren't careful, the pink stuff will puddle in the bottom of the tubs or sinks. Add 5 months of sitting there, and in the spring you have a pink stain. Believe me, with 50+ years of use, the tubs don't have much protection over the enamel anymore. They soak up that pink like a sponge. Guess whose job it is to get it out in the spring? Yep, mine.

Here's where the towels come in handy. Let enough pink come through so you know the pipes won't freeze, but not too much or you'll have a pink sink/tub. Take a towel to that little puddle ASAP before it can soak in. Works like a charm. You still have to use cleanser in the spring, but not a bucket of it!

Oh, did I mention that each toilet needs to be drained, too? The bowl has to be empty or you'll be replacing toilets. Not on my list of favorite (or cheap!) things to do. So, you need to bail out the majority of it with a cup, then siphon out the last bit. Dave used a drill-powered pump—you know, one of those little portable things. But I found that to be too unwieldy, so I just us a turkey baster and suction it out. Don't worry, it doesn't get used for anything else : )

Then it's the laundry. All the blankets, shower curtains, bath mats, and mattress covers need to be washed and stored. In the case of the mattress covers, they go back on the beds right away and we put the bedspreads over the top. The bedspreads get washed in the spring so that all the dust from the winter doesn't matter.

And then all the lawn chairs and lawn furniture needs to be stored. And the grill needs to be put away. And the gas turned off. And the electricity gets turned off in each cabin. And the signs get put away. And all the soap bottles need to be brought in or they will freeze and separate. That's a funny looking sight, but it sure makes the soap (actually detergent) unusable. Learned from experience: The windows need to be screwed shut or the winter storms will blow them open. This happens gradually, as the rattle of the wind slowly loosens the latches. Eventually, the window blows open and you get a pile of snow everywhere. Or, as happened the first year, the window blows open and knocks a lamp on the floor, which then shatters and scatters everywhere, mixed with snow, of course! Not a pretty sight. So, we learned to screw the windows shut.

Well, today is Wednesday, and all I have left is washing the mattress covers. Not bad for 2 days work. But it's raining today, and I don't want to track dirt, leaves, and grass into the cabins, so they probably won't get done until tomorrow...there's always tomorrow : )

Quick summary/update

It's fall. Definitely fall. We still haven't had a frost, which is extremely unusual. The leaves are at/near peak, but today we had winds that blew a good number of them onto the ground. That's disappointing, because we were/are planning on going for a hike this afternoon to see the leaves. Oh well, it will still be in the woods!

This morning, at the beginning of my ride, I was going up the hill and against the wind. The wind was so strong that it blew me against the curb and almost knocked me over. At the same time, it began misting and was blowing it at me. I considered abandoning the ride, but when I looked up, I saw a complete rainbow! It was beautiful! It restored my perspective, and I fought the wind for 10 miles; it was from the north, so it was against me no matter where I rode. But, hey, it was along the lake; what more could you want?

On the way back, I saw a freighter on the horizon, a sure sign that the wind is strong and the waves are big. They normally stay out in the middle of the lake, where the route is more direct, but when the winds get strong, they move closer to shore for protection. Another sign that fall is here.

The cabins are beginning to slow down; today is the first day we don't have anyone in a place since June, but we still have 3 to clean and tomorrow we have 4 coming in. We're full on the weekend, of course. On the whole, it has been a very busy summer, but we've enjoyed it.

We close on October 26, so I'll be draining the lines and we'll be doing final cleaning for a couple of days then. All the blankets get washed and stored away; the places get a thorough cleaning; all the freezable items, like liquid soaps, detergents, etc., get brought in. And then the cabins get locked up and the windows get screwed shut—we had a window blow open one winter and...well, let's just say it wasn't pretty inside. : (

The garden has been slowing down, although with the unusually warm weather, the beans are blooming, the potatoes are still growing, and I even have a winter squash that thinks it can get a few more squash to mature before frost! We'll see about that.

Maybe I'll even have time to begin some serious reading again real soon, in which case you'll see a bit more activity here, so stay tuned.

North Shore musings

This weekend is Fisherman's Picnic, the busiest weekend of the summer. And for us, it began earlier this week, which explains the sporadic nature of the posting lately. Anybody who thinks that cabin caretaking is a relaxing job hasn't done it! But, no complaints; we love it!

We have 7 cabins and 2 motel units that we care for. Each one takes about an hour to an hour and a half to clean. Plus the time to do the laundry, which varies. Last Sunday, we had 6 to clean, which is fairly normal for a Sunday. But Monday, we did 7, which on top of the 6 the day before was pretty tiring. Add to that the temperature. Normally, living 2 blocks from Lake Superior, we don't get much above 75ºF, in fact we usually don't even get that high (that's why I grow tomatoes in a hoop house). Well, Monday was 85ºF—in the shade! And being this close to a large body of water, the humidity tends to be high. The air was so thick you felt like you were eating it. Needless to say, it was draining.

But, this is the North Shore, so the next day, the wind switched and came off the lake and it was cloudy. We didn't get above 65ºF the whole day. And it was windy, so it felt colder. I actually closed up the hoop house to keep the tomatoes and peppers warm!

But enough of that! We love it here. And the variableness of the weather is part of it. As is the scenery. This is the height of the summer, and the scenery is beautiful. The crispness of the air makes everything jump out. The clouds, the lake, the trees, the ridge, all of them forming a continually changing backdrop to life.

Our garden is doing great. We've been eating broccoli for over a month now, the green beans just came in on Tuesday, right after that hot Monday; they must have grown 3 days worth overnight! The first two plantings of peas are done and the third one is starting; the snow peas are just starting, too. And the scarlet runner beans are in full bloom, much to the hummingbird's delight.

A friend gave me some walking onions, also known as top-setting or Egyptian onions. I planted them late last fall and here's what they look like:

Pretty funky looking, aren't they? They're pretty hot, so you don't want to eat them raw, but the greens are great raw. Oh, and we've been eating leeks, too. And the summer squash is about ready, and the raspberries are just starting, right on schedule.

The only downside is we could seriously use some rain. I have 400 gallons of water in rain barrels, but it's down to about 75–100 gallons. Enough for about a week, at the most.

About that garden thing

Last week was a busy one for gardening. I finally finished the third bed that I've been meaning to make for two years now. And I put up the hoop house. I don't have a place on the property that gets sun in December–January; the sun is too low on the horizon, even an eight foot fence projects a twenty foot shadow for about eight weeks. Kinda hard to get anything to survive, let alone grow, when you don't get any sun! So, this is a bit of a compromise. Debbie didn't like it in the backyard—and I don't blame her; it's 12' x 16' and 7' tall. That pretty much takes up our backyard and blocks any view of the rabbits. So, I put it on the north side of Cedar (the log cabin). It gets excellent sun from about April to the end of September. So, that's where I'll put the warm weather crops like tomatoes, squash, and peppers.

I put up the PVC frame, screwing it to the beds as added stability. We get some pretty strong winds coming down off the ridge; I found that out when I put the one in the backyard 2 years ago. The wind demolished it because I thought the fence would protect it. It didn't! Next I put the plastic over the top and on the west end. The last step was building the doors on the east end. I have three beds inside the house, so I need two doors. They are only 24" doors, so a bit narrow, but I can get tomato cages in and that's what counts.

After building it, I let it sit empty for a few days. Then, on Saturday, I planted 24 tomato plants—3 Roma, 3 Oregon Spring, 3 Cosmonaut Volkov, 6 Glacier, and 9 Beefsteak. The middle three are cold weather tomatoes, in fact Volkov supposedly will set fruit as cold as 39ºF.

I also planted 18 peppers of the bell variety—4 California Wonder, 6 New Ace, and 8 King of the North. The latter two are new to me, but are supposed to do well in northern climates. We'll see! I also planted 4 chile peppers, removed a bit from the others, I don't want all my peppers to be hot : )

Oh, and I planted 5 hills of Delicata in the north bed. I still need to plant cukes and summer squash, but they won't be in the hoop house. I'll cover them with row cover until they flower; that should keep them warm enough to do well.

I also planted 3 cherry tomatoes. Two in a wooden planter on the deck and one in a self-watering container made out of 2 five-gallon buckets (food grade, of course!). Finally, I planted Fortext, Provider, and Scarlet Runner green beans. Oh, and Oregon Giant Snow Peas. Not too shabby a week, no?

All that was done by Saturday afternoon. Just in time for it to freeze Saturday and Sunday nights! But I was ready! I had row cover over the tomatoes and peppers in the hoop house, so they were protected down to about 25ºF and I covered the cherries with old sheets—that's one advantage of the cabins, we always have plenty of old sheets! It only got down to about 30ºF, so everything was fine both nights...

Now, off to clean a couple of cabins, sort the recycle, and put up the Eisenbrauns monthly sale...

Oh, did I mention that we hiked in Judge C.R. Magney, Temperance, Cascade, and Oberg Mountain last week?

Open for business

It's the beginning of another season here on the North Shore—not that it gets very busy before about mid-June, but it's a good way to ease into the madness of July—September. Of course, we've been busy for almost a month now, getting the cabins ready.

This year there was a whole lot less to do than the previous two years. The first year saw us painting the inside of all the cabins, replacing the walls in two bathrooms and one kitchen, laying new tile/vinyl flooring in two cabins, and doing other general fix-ups. That year, we started work in March and although we opened the second weekend in May, we weren't really ready for another two weeks.

Last year, we replaced (and I mean subfloor and all) the floors in two bathrooms and one motel room. The moisture from the crawlspace had rotted out the motel floor over the years. To prevent that from happening again I put a layer of 8 mil plastic down. It definitely helps. This year, when I went into the crawlspace to check the status of the subfloor, it was much drier. The two bathrooms had rotted out from tub overflows over the course of 60 years.

This year was a cake walk in comparison. I expected to replace two bathroom floors which I had noticed were getting soft last fall. So, a little over three weeks ago, I got out the tools of destruction and went to work.

The first floor was those small ceramic tiles laid over 1/4 inch plywood. It came up easily, if not neatly. (I always wear a mask when doing this stuff!) It revealed a hardwood floor that was about 1/3 rotted. Because this cabin has a poured cement floor in the crawlspace, I didn't expect to have to replace the subfloor, but the rotted hardwood would have to come out. It was a messy and slow process—dust and grime everywhere. But it did come out and revealed a subfloor that was sound except right around the toilet flange. I laid down 3/4 inch plywood, and then a sheet of 1/4 inch over that to lay the tile on. The 1/4 inch sheet took a bit of doing, as the bathroom is small and didn't allow much manipulation of the sheet, but it went in with only a bit of paint touchup required on the walls. Once the tiles were laid, it looked great.

The other bathroom was the one I was worried about. It was the other half of the motel unit and I was afraid the whole subfloor was rotted out. I pulled up the 1/4 inch plywood that the tiles were on with a good bit of fear and trepidation. It revealed a subfloor that had been replaced in the not too distant past. The problem had been that no floor leveler had been applied and the 1/4 inch plywood on top of it hadn't been screwed/nailed to the subfloor adequately. There were places where the floor dipped over 1/2 inch, which is why it felt soggy. No need to replace it, just put lots of floor leveler on it, let it dry, and then put down new 1/4 inch and tiles. Needless to say, I was relieved. As long as I was replacing the tile in the bathroom, I also replaced it in the adjoining alcove and closet. It looks much cleaner and cheerier now.

My final project was to replace a deep cast iron kitchen sink with a new stainless steel sink. I was a bit nervous about this, as I wasn't sure how the sink was being held to the counter. One never knows what might be holding a sink in! I estimated it would take a few hours, but in the end, whoever had put the sink in had counted mostly on the weight of the sink to hold it in place. There was only a (thick) layer of caulk on the counter with the sink laid on top. No bolts, construction cement, or other creative things. I was able to cut through the caulk relatively easily, but the weight of the sink did pose a problem getting it out. It must have weighed 50 pounds. I ended up lying on the floor and pushing with my feet to break it free.

I figured getting the new sink in would be a cinch. Wrong! I hadn't reckoned with the bracing that they had put under the countertop to hold up the sink. Of course, the new sink was bigger than the old one, so I had to make the hole larger—by cutting part of the bracing. Not a fun job. And did I mention the sawdust? And the back of the sink had to be closer to the wall than my saw could get. I ended up cutting the back by angle cuts 1/4 inch apart and a bit of creative sawing that they don't recommend, but at least I didn't break the blade : )

So, we're open for business. Feel free to come and stay at the prettiest little town on the North Shore of Lake Superior! You can see the cabins (and make reservations) here.

What happened to that promised early NT papyrus?

For the last few years, we've been hearing about a forthcoming publication (from Brill about a first century fragment from Mark.

The problem is that no one has seen it. Everything seems to revolve around a video of Josh McDowell explaining how he extracted the papyrus fragments from a mummy mask.

Well, on April 30, PARSE, a web site that is part of the Christianity Today family, published an interview with McDowell. In it he mentions early manuscripts, finding two fragments from Matthew in a codex. He refers to them as being from around AD 300. Apparently they were in the binding of the codex (that's inferred by me based on the wording; he doesn't say where in the codex).

But, this is interesting, he makes no mention of anything older. What happened to the supposed first century Mark fragment? He's talking about the early manuscripts and the importance of early manuscripts for the fidelity of the New Testament. But why no mention of the Mark fragment? The context would have been perfect for it. In the following paragraph he says:

In fact, a top Greek scholar of biblical artifacts recently said that in all these manuscripts that are being discovered today, you could now intellectually say that we possess the exact wording of Jesus in the New Testament, though we don’t know exactly what that is yet. With current technology, maybe in five to six years, we could possibly reconstruct a New Testament of the original wording stated by Jesus. I never dreamed this could happen in my lifetime.

Leaving aside the hyperbole of that statement for now, this would have been the perfect spot to mention early Mark! Why didn't he? Has it disappeared? Did it turn out to be something else? Enquiring minds want to know...

Just an
</idle musing> on a Saturday morning as I procrastinate finishing repairs on the cabins...

Update:
Tommy Wasserman tells me that the Brill book is about the Green Collection and doesn't include the Mark fragment. He also informed me that the fragments that McDowell is talking about are Coptic, not Greek! (see here)

And, this is encouraging, Tommy really does believe that the fragment exists, but he doesn't believe it is first century. I hope it gets published!

Planting time

We've been having some amazing weather here the last few days. The temperatures have been in the lower 60sF, which is about 20ºF warmer than average. In fact, the whole of spring from the beginning of March has been warmer than the last few years.

Of course, that gives me the gardening itch : ) I was tempted to plant in the cold frames at the beginning of March, but knew better than that. But, this weekend I couldn't resist (and it's about time anyway). I planted peas, radishes, and spinach seeds in the cold frames. And I transplanted 36 small heads of Romaine lettuce from the basement into two frames.

I had planted them back in February in a 4 foot section of rain gutter filled with potting soil. I also planted radishes and spinach about the same time. The spinach get real leggy and tough—it just won't grow well for me under lights. That's my second year attempting it and I'm giving up. But the radishes and lettuce did OK. We've been eating fresh radishes from the basement for about 2–3 weeks now. They aren't as bit as from outside, but at least they exist : )

Anyway, back to the lettuce...I tried it last year with poor success. It didn't germinate well and got too leggy. This year, I had newer seed and I made sure to keep the lights very close. The results were much better. The heads are shorter and tighter. And now that they are outside, they should do well. In a few weeks we'll be eating fresh Romaine from the garden. Even if it gets cold and snows, it should do OK; I always use a Winter Density version to resist the cold. In Indiana, I had it growing most all winter in the hoop house, so a few cold blasts won't harm it.

We had a few Romaine plants left after transplanting, so we ate them. Not much of a meal, but were they ever tender—and tasty! So much better than the store-bought stuff, even the organic, locally-raised stuff...

In other gardening news, I've got pepper, tomato, broccoli, cabbage, leek, and onion seedlings growing under lights in the basement. They are doing well and should be ready to go out under row cover by the middle of May.

I'm also experimenting with a few broccoli plants in self-watering containers down there. I was hoping to get fresh broccoli over the winter, but I delayed in planting them too long. But they do appear to be doing ok. We'll see what they produce...

We also started cleaning up the cabins, getting ready for the new season. We don't open until May 8, but it doesn't hurt to be ready early. I'm starting to replace the bathroom floor in Birch. I'm hoping it isn't too bad, but I won't know until I get the tile up. Last year, what we thought would be an easy repair ended up being a large section of rotted subfloor once we got the tile up...at least this year it's above freezing : )

Another season

Well, we're closed for the season. The last load of regular laundry is washed, dried, folded, and carefully stored until next spring. The electricity and gas are shut off to all the cabins. The water mains are flushed of water and bubbling with bright pink RV anti-freeze.

Speaking of RV anti-freeze, I learned that it stains sinks and tubs : ( And it doesn't come out very easily, even with cleanser. Call out the Zud! And exercise those arms!

Of course it doesn't help any that the tubs are over 50 years old, as are some of the sinks. All the enamel is pretty well worn off the porcelain—all that is left is the dull whiteness where once there was a nice shimmer. And that stuff is a sponge for stains!

This is the third season that I've been a part of shutting down. The first year, I didn't realize that the stuff stains. We have one cabin (Spruce) that has a slight depression in the tub just before the drain that collects water (it was made that way!). When cleaning it, you have to push the 1/4 inch or so of water forward into the drain. I didn't push the anti-freeze forward that year...the next spring, I spent a lot of time trying to get rid of that stain.

I finally thought I had it—but I'm partially red-green colorblind. Others still saw it. I finally had to ask Max to show me the outlines of it so that I could discern the different shades of white that were really pink! And this was our first year working with them. I can just imagine what they were thinking when they saw what I thought was a "clean" tub!

On a different note, we had a great season—made lots of new friends and renewed acquaintances with old ones. I can understand what Dave & Geneva meant when they talked about the bonds you make with guests.

Sure, you get some real downers—where do people get the idea that it is ok to leave a sink full of dirty dishes? Or, worse yet, to put dirty dishes in the cupboard! Or, why is it ok to leave bacon grease in the frying pan, or on the stove. Or use towels as toilet paper (we "retire" those towels!). Or to recarpet the cabin with Goldfish cracker crumbs. Or...you get the idea. Those people go on our "black list" and aren't allowed back.

Yes, every resort, motel, and cabin rental has a "black list." Some are more strict than others. But, think of What's Up Doc? The hotel manager enters what's left of the room and says, "I have a message from the staff, 'Good-bye.'" I can identify sometimes! : )

But those are the minority. Most guests are very good. In some cases, they are so clean that you almost feel like you don't have a job!

So now we head off to see Debbie's parents for a couple of weeks. When we get back, I'll launder all the blankets and mattress covers. We'll replace the ones that are worn and store the blankets for the winter. Come spring, I'll wash all the bedspreads and we'll remake the beds.

I have two bathroom floors that will need replacing—Birch and Sugar Maple. Sugar Maple's floor is being held up by a jack underneath on the joist, but the floor itself between the joists is starting to get soggy...but that can wait until spring.

Meanwhile, we'll enjoy another winter on the North Shore!

Will it never end?

We're getting near the end of the season here, but that's not what the title of this post is about. It's about apples. Lots of apples. Bushels of apples. I told you that I picked four bushels of apples the other day. And I managed to process 18 pints that night. (We prefer pints because there are only two of us now.)

Well, I've been processing apples every night since then, with the exception of the night the propane died. I usually do 18 or 27 pints per night. I slice them in half and then in quarters, throw them in a kettle, boil them down, and then run them through the Victorio (ours is a model 200). (Marvelous invention, that. I bought it at a yard sale 30+ years ago for about $5.00. It's paid for itself a few times since then.)

Each kettle holds about 9 pints, as does each canner load. That explains why I do 18 or 27 pints a night. Logical, isn't it? : ) I've been both freezing and canning them. I finished off the four bushels from the first tree and picked the apples from the second tree the other day. I figured it had about a bushel left on it—other people had already picked a bit over a bushel from it.

I was wrong! It had almost two bushels left. I like canning and all that, but another two bushels?! I still have to get to the sauerkraut, too...

The apples on the first tree were small and not very suitable for fresh eating, so I sauced them all. The second tree, although smaller, gets a bit better sunlight and the apples are bigger. We sorted through the two bushels and saved about a half bushel for fresh eating. And I've been saucing the rest. As of right now, we have over 200 pints...and I still have apples...but I should finish them tonight.

Hard to believe, but I actually ran out of pints last night. I ended up filling six quarts to finish the batch. And I barely had enough lids...and what I thought was a bushel basket was really 1.5 bushels, so I underestimated how much time it would take, which means I was up later than I planned, which means that I'm low on energy, which means I'm writing this post to deceive myself into thinking I'm doing something productive when I should be out cleaning that motel room, getting the cabins ready for the last weekend of guests for the year, and then cleaning out the extension to the shop so I can tear it down (it really is an eyesore!).

OK. I'm done. Now I really do have to go out and do some real work!

Heat? What heat?

Anyone who thought we came up here to relax, retire, and generally be lazy needs to spend a day or two taking care of 7 cabins and 2 motel rooms...

We only have one more weekend before the cabins close. And we had managed to get through the summer without any major problems. Sure, minor stuff like water closets almost falling off, and toilets backing up, and...you know, minor stuff. Until Saturday night...

It started out innocent enough. I got a call from the guests in Aspen saying that the heater wasn't working right (it was about 11:30). That furnace is a bit flaky, so I thought nothing of it. I couldn't get the pilot to stay lit, so I gave them a pair of space heaters. It's a small cabin and that was more than adequate.

When I got back, Debbie said she thought maybe our furnace pilot had gone out. It had been very windy and that sometimes happens. About that same time, I realized that the oven wasn't preheating...and the burner on the stove was only about 1/3 lit...Uh-oh!

We run on propane, which means that the tank gets filled periodically. We have a remote sensor that is tied to the supplier's office. When the tank gets below a certain percentage they come and fill it. They call it "keep fill" or some such jargon. Works well–especially in the winter, when you don't want to tramp through drifts all the time to check the tank.

But now there wasn't any propane getting to the house–and at least one of the cabins. And the temperature is 32ºF and dropping. And we are full. And one of the cabins has a 5-month old baby in it. Don't panic. Check the tank to see if there is propane. Flashlight in hand, I trudged out to the tank. The gauge says 50%. Check the valves. They're open...Now you can panic! Not really.

I went back to the house and grabbed the business card for the supplier. There was a cell phone number for after-hours. It's now 11:56. Mark answered the phone on the second ring. I explained my situation. He asked if the valves on the individual cabins were open. Yep. I told him about the dying and disappearing flame on the stove and the pilots.

He told me he would get somebody out here...

Meanwhile, I was thinking what it could be. Perhaps some debris from the supply line had blocked the hose somewhere. That happens with older copper piping and propane. And some of our lines are old. Mentally, I mapped out the supply chain. Aspen is fed from Birch, which means that Birch also was without heat. But so were we.

It's now about 12:15, so I didn't want to wake people up to see the extent...but Cedar's water heater (the only one with a propane water heater) was in the shop. I could check that and see if they were without heat...yep. It's out, too.

That means I have 7 units without heat, plus us. Two of the units are on a separate tank, so they are unaffected.

12:30, still no answer from the propane company. I call again. Voice mail. I leave a message sounding a bit stressed, as you can imagine.

1:00, still no answer from the propane company. What to do...the temperature is still dropping. And there's a 5-month old baby out there with no heat.

It's almost 1:30. I'm going to have to wake up Max and get his input. The phone rings. It's the propane company. They had decided that the gauge must be defective and they had someone coming out to look at it. But he lived in Lutsen–a half-hour away.

2:00. He arrives. We go out to the tank. He hits it with a rubber mallet. Sounds empty. But the gauge still says 50%. He taps the gauge lightly with the mallet. Nothing moves. Still says 50%. He checks the valves. Everything is open. He loosens the bleed screw a bit. There should be the hiss of escaping propane and that nasty smell. Nothing! Just then I notice something I hadn't seen before. Off to the side, not obvious in the thick darkness, is an old-fashioned pressure gauge. It reads 0 pounds of pressure. The tank is empty! At 2:00 in the morning.

Steve (the propane man) says he will go get the tank and we'll fill the tank. Then we'll have to knock on every door and re-light the pilots. He suggests that while he gets the truck I make a list of what needs to be re-lit. We don't want to leave stove pilots unlit...

By now it is 2:30. He arrives with the truck at 3:00. But, how do we get at the tank without him having to back up and have those noisy beepers wake everybody up? Where he would normally park is taken by guests' vehicles. We figure out a spot. Very close to a cabin bedroom : ( But it will only require a very little bit of backing up after the tank is filled. Best option in a bad set of available options...

Steve starts filling the tank. Or tries to. The gauge (the actual pressure one) doesn't seem to be moving. And the fittings are icing up. Not normal. He trudges over to the truck, checks the meter. One gallon. Thats' all the tank would take. One gallon. And it's 3:15 in the morning. And the temperature is still dropping. And there's a 5-month old baby out there...

Off comes the propane supply hose. He looks at the fill valve. It looks fine. Nothing blocking it. He goes back to the truck again and comes back with a long chisel-looking thing. He places it on top of the fill valve, pushes it down, and it releases. He reconnects the supply hose, presses the remote to start the truck's supply. The pressure gauge on the tank starts to move. The icing around the supply valves begins to dissipate. Whew!

But now we have another problem. The supply truck is almost empty. After all, it's Saturday night and they had been using it all day to fill up tanks...But he managed to get 325 gallons in. That will last us quite a while, so we will get through the weekend easily.

Steve disconnects the supply hose, we struggle back through to the truck. In order to rewind the supply hose, he needs to haul the hose down the lane a bit. Without getting it caught on all the various junk that is on the path to the tank. And as quietly as possible. Then he needs to back up without hitting the cabin porch behind him or taking out the kiln on the other side. All without being in reverse with those horrendously loud beeps going on any longer than necessary...

Success! I only counted 40 beeps. But at 3:45 in the morning, that seemed like a million. And loud!.

Now the fun part. I have to wake up every guest (at almost 4:00 AM!) and tell them they don't have any heat and that I need to relight their furnace...The first one I did was the one with the baby. Praise God! They had brought along a space heater and were using it. I relit their furnace and stove pilots without the baby waking up. What an answer to prayer!

Next cabin. They had noticed that the furnace was out at about 11:30, but thought it was too late to call me! He had tried relighting the pilot himself, without success. So when I said I needed to relight it, he laughed. Until I did. : )

And so it went. One cabin requires you to climb underneath–but it also has a gas stove with pilots. So I still needed to wake them up. Another one was stubborn and wouldn't light right away. I finally got it lit (or so I thought). Last cabin. It was being stubborn, too. It's at the end of the line, so there was a lot of air in the line. When it finally lit, I absent-mindedly said, "The most beautiful sight in the world!" The guest laughed. Laughed. At 4:15 in the morning!

Did I mention that this whole time Debbie has been praying? I attribute the good response of the guests to her intercession. And people were thinking we came up here to relax and get away from the pressures of life!

Footnote: The cabin that I thought I got lit? Well, it didn't light! They called me at 8:30 to let me know. Poor guests! At least this is the cabin with a wood stove. They had lit the stove and it was starting to warm the place. I tried again from the top side to light the furnace. No dice. I clambered under the cabin. This cabin is not a pleasant one underneath...and the furnace is a tough one to access the pilot light. It took me about 10 minutes to get it lit. The pilot would spit and sputter. Finally it lit. I turned the valve to allow the furnace to come on. Success!

I climbed out and apologized to them for the trouble. There response was priceless, "That's ok, you probably had a worse night that we did." Understatement of the year!

The amazing thing? The people who were closest to the loud beeps were the ones I had given the space heaters to. When they checked out, he told me that they slept wonderfully well. The space heaters had kept them "snug as a bug in a rug" and they hadn't heard a thing! How's that for answered prayers?

Enjoying the fall

Slow week at the cabins. We're winding down, just two weeks left. We only had one to clean yesterday and nobody coming in. So we went hiking! Today's a bit busier, with two coming in. This weekend will be hopping, as usual. So we're relaxing and enjoying it—well, maybe relaxing isn't the right word for it : )

We're in the midst of Indian Summer, and it has been beautiful. We've been hiking along the Superior Hiking Trail, especially along the Brule and Temperance Rivers. It's just beautiful with the leaves on the ground and some still on the trees.

With so many leaves off the trees and the undergrowth dead because of the frost, you can see a lot more. And the sound of the river! It's so much louder. We have to shout sometimes to hear each other.

It's also time to preserve the harvest. Yesterday I picked the apples off of one of the two Haralson trees. I got four bushels. Now all I have to do is sauce them! I started last night, but only got 18 pints done. It didn't even dent the pile of apples! I better get more done tonight...and the next night...and the next night...

I'm also making kraut. I harvested the late cabbages the other day. I grow Danish Ballhead as my late cabbage. It makes a great kraut. And the heads are huge! And dense. And tender. And juicy...Last year I had a head that must have weighed around 10-12 pounds. The heads this year a bit smaller, but still substantial. Last night I made four quarts—from one head! I make three quarts from 2 heads from "normal" sized heads, just to put it in perspective.

Good thing the cabins are slow, because I've still got about ten more heads to go...and the apples to sauce! And then another (smaller) apple tree to pick...and sauce. But we'll be thankful this winter!

OK, back to editing and then replacing that faucet in Pine, and clearing out the shop so I can tear down the extension. And then we'll take a nice walk in the afternoon before I start making kraut and applesauce again. Oh, I better remember to pull back the row cover on the overbearing strawberries, we probably have a few ripe ones to eat for a snack!

Assessing the damage

Well, if you were holding your breath for an update on the frost in the garden, you'd be dead : )

<insert excuse here>
What can I say? We had cabins to clean. And I had to track down the source of a propane smell in one of the cabins (I think I found it...). And I had to replace the bolts holding a water closet onto the toilet. That makes three this year, if you're counting. You know how I love plumbing—not! And then other things happen, like doing the cabin laundry, taking a walk (the sunset was beautiful last night), making cheeseless pizza (I use the Adele Davis Whole Wheat Crust recipe, have for over 35 years) with home grown veggies on top of home canned tomato sauce (only two jars left)...
</end excuses>

Well the damage was minimal. I had managed to get the plants covered in time. Just a few tomato leaves were touched—basically the ones that weren't fully covered and the ones that were touching the covering cloth. And some of the squash bit the dust.

I was surprised that the runner beans came through unscathed. I couldn't cover them because they are too high and along the fence. But, whether it is because they are frost hardy or because of their location, it looks like I'll get a few more pickings off them.

On other garden related notes, I started building the beds on the side garden. I had just put logs along the beds there. Can you say slug haven? I turned the logs over and commenced stamping them out (literally). I'm not sure yet if I'll build two beds or three there. Currently it is two full length beds and a six foot one.

On each side of the six foot bed I tried straw bale gardening this year. I read a lot about it in the last year and thought it might be a way to avoid the bad soil here. Talk about work! And the results (for me, at least) were disappointing. I won't do that again. But maybe I'll put in a full 16 foot bed there instead.

On a side note, a while back, when I was doing the landscaping in the backyard, I ran across lots of slugs. I saw two in the midst of guaranteeing the future of their species and taught them how to practice coitus interruptus. Squish! Very interruptus! Birth control for slugs...I sound almost sadistic, don't I?

Orville

We have a guest that checked in around the end of July. He hasn't paid and probably won't. His name is Orville and he is currently living in the woodpile. You see, Orville is a woodchuck : )

He's a cute little thing, quite shy and retiring. But he is one mighty powerful digger! He's made a few exits for himself under both Aspen and Spruce. In fact, if he keeps that up, we'll be forced to trap him and relocate him.

He also has a voracious appetite! Good thing he prefers clover to garden veggies...I did catch him eating a kohlrabi leaf one day. I stepped out onto the deck to scare him. He just looked up at me and continued munching. I started down the steps and he decided to back away—but he didn't drop the leaf that was in his mouth!

Since then, I've seen him periodically munching on a leaf here and there, but not too much. He really does prefer the clover that is all over in the yard. One day I saw him sitting in between the garden beds, ignoring all the lettuce and munching on the clover instead. No problem, eat as much as you want : )

About 2-3 weeks ago, we had some painters staying in Spruce for the annual Plein Air event. It was great fun watching them paint the scenes around the town and cabins. One of them, Tom, tried to capture Orville on canvas. He told me at one point, "I'm not sure what it is, but it isn't Orville!" about what he had done. He said he would continue to work on it at home and send us a picture of it when it was done.

The picture arrived yesterday. Here it is. I think it captures Orville nicely.

Just so you know, Orville has settled down and isn't making any new excavations...maybe you can see him if you come and visit us : )

Of kudurrus and massebot

Sometimes the weirdest thoughts come my way...

We use some very large rocks in places to mark where people can and can't park. We're talking 20–30 pound rocks. We don't want them to be moving around : )

Well, twice this summer, guests have moved them. Once, it was raining and they wanted to park closer to their front door. So they moved a rock about 3 feet to get through. And another time someone wanted to park another car behind them, so they moved 3 rocks about 15 feet to make the parking space bigger.

OK, what's so strange about that? Well nothing, except the first thing I thought of was kudurru stones...OK, not a perfect match in that I haven't inscribed the rocks—yet : )

Maybe a better match would be from Proverbs 22:28 or 23:10, after all, the rocks are bit bigger than the kudurru stones were...

There are a few rock gardens behind the bed & breakfast. Being rock gardens, the borders are of rock (duh!) and I have to mow around them. Well, this summer Max and Sherri have been rearranging the border rocks and standing some on end. The first time I came across that, I couldn't help but think of the massebot in the Hebrew Bible (there's a good book about the ones in Jordan here: Megalithic Jordan). Sure, they're shorter, but...well the mind does strange things when you've studied ancient stuff too long!

Just an
</idle musing>

Plumbing again

Plumbing isn't one of my favorite things. In fact, it ranks right up there with having a tooth filled. But it's a reality when you're taking care of cabins. About a month ago now (that's how busy we've been—I'm just now getting around to writing about something a month ago!) I had a week of plumbing goodies.

It started on a Monday. The departing guest told me that the water closet seemed loose. I checked it out and it was. I figured it was just a matter of tightening the hold-down bolts. Right. I looked under the toilet and saw one of the bolts lying on the floor! It had actually rusted out. The only thing keeping the tank from dumping its water all over the floor was that Dave had put caulk over the inside head of the bolt. Otherwise...well it wouldn't have been pretty. I emptied the tank and took a wrench to the other side. The bolt fell off! Good thing they warned me it was loose or the next guest would have had a water closet all over their back.

I was able to replace the bolts and tighten the tank up with no problems. One down. Two days later another guest asked if I could come and unplug their toilet, a fairly common request. A plunger didn't do the trick, so I pulled out the snake. It didn't work either. In fact, it kinked the thing. Hmmm. I thought maybe a longer snake would work better, so I pulled out the faucet snake. It didn't work either. Time to call the plumber.

The first plumber I called said it sounded like the sewer line was plugged. He didn't have the tools for that and suggested I contact someone else. The second one suggested a "hydraulic hammer"—basically a pressure washer for sewer lines. The catch is you have to get it past the vent pipe or you have a royal mess!

No problem, right? I've been under that cabin so many times this year that I could do it blindfolded. Except I couldn't get the clean out trap off. I didn't have a big enough wrench and couldn't get enough torque on it.

Call the plumber! He can't come out until the next day! Yikes! I've got guests in the cabin and no toilet!

They were very gracious. I gave them a key to the Fiddler's Place to use that toilet... (Yes, we credited them for the night.)

Next day, the plumber arrives around noon. He tried his snake. No success. So, he pulls out this monster of a snake. If this doesn't work, nothing will. It didn't!

Well now what? He decides to take the toilet out and access the sewer line that way. But he suggested we take a look at the toilet after we took it out. So we haul it out onto the yard and flip it over. The thing was packed tight. No wonder my snake doubled back on itself!

While we had it upside down, he noticed a crack in the thing. Time for a new one! Whew! I wasn't relishing the thought of cleaning that thing out. The closest we could figure is that a child had flushed a small toy down and that had caused a blockage that was catching all the toilet paper and stuff until it caused the blockage.

New toilet. Happy guests! Two down.

Two days later (Saturday) was supposed to be a nice quiet day. We were full, so no cabins to clean. The yard had just been mowed, so no yard work. Great! I can get some editing done...NOT! There was a family reunion going on and they were using the Fiddler's Place. Guess what? The toilet plugged. Here we go again...

I got the plunger out. No success. I got the snake out. No success. Time for the hydraulic hammer... While I was doing all this, one of the people at the reunion asked what I was doing. He wasn't staying with us, so I hadn't met him. I told him that I was going to take the hydraulic hammer to it. He said, "Oh, a blow bag!" Huh? Turns out he's a master plumber! And he wanted to help!

Praise God! I came back to the house to get the "blow bag" and told Debbie about the "coincidence." Scott (that's his name) was a great asset. He told me some stories that would curdle your ears about plumbing under cabins. Seems ours isn't as bad as some...

Anyway, we ran the hydraulic hammer for a while. Then we (actually he!) put the toilet back on. It didn't help! The thing was still slow...He asked about a vent. Vent? What vent?!

We looked all over for a vent. Nope. Dave hadn't put a vent on the plumbing there.

I asked Scott what he would suggest. So, we scouted around, climbed under a nearby cabin only to find a drain had come apart there under the shower. Mental note: fix on Monday—I did.

He suggested all kinds of expensive options. Finally, he suggested putting an inline vent under the sink. He thought it might be enough. Great! Simple, easy, maybe not elegant, but it might work. And it was a whole lot easier than digging up the ground (to say nothing of cheaper!).

Tuesday I bought the vent and put it in. Relatively simple. Just a few cuts, some glue on a Y pipe and we're done. Except it wasn't enough air! It would work fine for 3 flushes then back up. Great!

Scott had suggested that if that didn't work, we could run a vent out the side. Problem: This is a log structure with 8-10 inch logs! I didn't have a bit that long or a Sawzall to make it big enough once I had the hole drilled.

Max to the rescue. He ordered me a Sawzall! It arrived three days later—a factory refurb : ) But no blades! Trip to the hardware store and look out world! I have a Sawzall!

I also picked up a 16 inch spade bit and the necessary pipes.

Out comes the trusty hacksaw and off with the vent I had just installed. Sewer gas stinks! But now I could see the log wall to drill through. I hope I guess correctly on the angle of the hole or I'm going to be in trouble trying to thread that pipe through. I prayed (later I found out that Debbie had been praying too). I started drilling. Went right through. This log was only 8 inches and relatively soft.

Out comes the trusty Sawzall. Open up that hole and test the pipe. It lined up with the inside one on the first try! Praise God!

A little glue, a little caulk. Everything is sealed. Now the acid test. Will it flush? I gave it five quick flushes in a row. Sure enough! It worked! Bring on the crowd!

And we did. That weekend (Labor day), Max and Sherri had a shindig to celebrate the beginning of their 15th year here.

And the toilet didn't back up!

About that water closet

These cabins have been around for a while—more than 50 years. Consequently, they require a good bit of maintenance—as I'm sure you can imagine and have seen in my posts : )

One of the areas that seems to require the most attention in plumbing and plumbing related problems. Between faucet, toilet, and bathtub/shower leakage, the floors take a beating. That's why we replace two bathroom floors this year. Usually, it's been a matter of slow leakage over the years; you just don't notice it until suddenly, the floor is soft or—worse yet—starts sinking. That happened last fall in one of the motel rooms. One day I went in to clean the bathroom, and there was a 1 inch drop in the bathroom floor by the toilet. I climbed underneath only to discover that the original plumber had cut the floor joist to install the toilet!

I've discovered since then that this was a fairly common event around here. "Good enough for a seasonal place" seems to have been the motto. Anyway, when that happens, you are supposed to install a header/daughter board to tie the whole thing together. They didn't. And it held for 58 years. Until one day, it settled. I got out my hydraulic jack and pumped up the floor to level again.

Obviously, that was just a temporary fix...although I'm sure that if you look under some places around here...anyway, I digress. I ordered a post and installed it. It wasn't practical to install a header and it would just rot out eventually anyway. Maybe the post will rust, but it will probably outlast the rest of the building!

But, that's not the subject of today's musing. This one is a fast leak and a pool of water. We had rented out this particular cabin for most of the summer, so we hadn't been in it much. This spring, after we turned on the water, I went back through the next day to take off the water heater bypasses and bleed the air before turning on the hot water. I didn't expect any new problems; we had already discovered enough—or so I thought. Until I walked into the bathroom! Swimming pool! Or it would have been if there weren't a way for the water to drain under the cabin. And coming from the water closet. I turned off the water at the shutoff, only to discover that the shutoff leaked. Great...run back to the house and shut off the water to the cabins (beats the claustrophobic route). It was obvious that the water hadn't leaked from the valve, though. I checked the water closet, to see if it was tight. It wasn't. In fact, the thing was so loose I think it must have been leaking a good part of last summer...

No biggie. Just buy replacement washers and reset it. So I did. I also replaced the shutoff valve at the same time. I turned the water back on and figured I check it again later. I came back in an hour to two and had a new swimming pool...OK, now what? I checked the seal where the ballcock joins—see the graphic (which I stole from here). No leak there. No leaks on the screws that hold the tank to the toilet.

Must be the flush valve gasket. No problem; I'll just get a new one. I bought what looked like a replacement, but when I got home, I realized it was the wrong gasket. It was close enough that it looked like it would fit, and almost did, just a l-i-t-t-l-e bit too big. I'm nothing if not stubborn, but even I couldn't make it work. Bummer. Back to the hardware store. Turns out I have to buy the whole flush valve assembly just to get the gasket!

I replaced the whole thing, tightened it down to what I thought was tight. By now, I've wised up a bit, so I just put about 2 cups of water in the tank and wait. No need to wait! The water came pouring out as if there weren't a gasket there at all!

I took it apart and cleaned the tank area where it connected. It was pretty messy, but should have sealed. I tried again. Slower, but same result. OK, I need some serious wrenching action on that connecting nut! Only I don't have a 3 inch wrench. And neither did Max. I walked down to the hardware store again to find a large ChannelLocks™ that I had seen the plumber use when he replaced a valve earlier this week (that's another story...). They didn't have any!

Too late to go to the other hardware store outside of town, so I waited a day...

Next day, I got the 18" ChannelLocks™, cranked on that monster and cranked on it some more, just enough not to break anything! And turned the water back on just enough to get a few cups in there. Turned the water off and left for a few hours. When I came back, there wasn't a pool. The floor was damp, but that was only from being a swimming pool for a few days...success!

Now, about that valve the plumber replaced...maybe tomorrow.

A tale of two faucets

Yesterday, I told what happens when a pipe breaks. But a far more common problem is that sediment breaks loose in the pipes. Think about it, these cabins are older than I am—and that's pretty old, right!—and the water has been turned on and off every year. The violence of air being blown through them can't be doing any good. So, stuff breaks loose and it needs somewhere to go. We always remove the aerators from the faucets before we flush the lines and a lot of junk comes gushing out.

But, occasionally, the debris is too big to fit through the supply lines...

When that happens, the fun—and mess—begins. This year, I had two faucets that gave me only a trickle. One was the hot water in a shower; I thought about letting it go and making everybody take a cold shower! NOT! The other was the cold water at a kitchen sink. Hey, let them use the hot water for everything! OK, not practical either.

So, you start by turning off the water or you get a huge mess—don't ask! Then, you take apart the faucet and look for debris in the valve. If there isn't any, you put a towel and bucket over the valve hole—it's just a wide open line for the water to rush (we hope!) through. Then you turn the water back on. The theory is that that without the valve, the water pressure will push all the debris out of the line. If that works, you have a clean line—and a big mess of junk to clean up. Hence, the towel and bucket to control the flood.

If that doesn't work, you start taking apart pipes until you find the problem...you always hope that the flexible supply line is the problem because a) it's the closest and b) it's easy to replace if you can't clear it.

First I attempted to clear the kitchen faucet. Unfortunately, there wasn't a water shutoff valve under the kitchen sink. In fact, I had two options: I could climb underneath the cabin next door—Spruce, the claustrophobic one!, or I could turn off the main water to the cabins at the house. I chose the house—wouldn't you? But that meant I couldn't monitor the water flow; I had to guess how long to keep it on.

Being the type who doesn't enjoy cleaning up large masses of water, I chose to start with a 5 second burst. Nothing! The towel was barely wet. Back to the house. A 10 second burst. Not much better. OK, let's get daring...45 seconds. Still not much of a flow of water. The dish tub under the sink had about an inch and the sink about 1/2 inch. Sigh...

Let's take apart the supply line...There it was, a large piece of rusty metal, can I get it out? Grab the needle-nosed pliers, shake that line to get the piece as close to the large hole as possible. Grunt, squirm, wiggle my nose, generally make it think I know what I'm doing...there. Got it! Now, put everything back together again, making sure the connections are tight. Turn the faucet off! Now turn the water back on...test the faucet. Good water flow. Any leaks? Nope. Good. Now clean up the mess and on to the next one...

The hot water was in a shower—that means the water will probably hit the far wall, but at least it won't spew on the walls of the bathroom like a tub would. Remember, its coming from the faucet, not the spout. I turned the water off—why don't any of these problem faucets have accessible shut off valves? I had two choices: Climb through a narrow crawlspace access into an alcove like crawlspace that allowed me to access the shutoff valve through some mud, or turn it off at the house. Yep, the house won again.

I took the faucet apart—the knob was corroded and stuck to the valve. A good bit of hammering and pulling with a large 18" ChannelLocks™ helped to eventually get it off. The valve itself was all brass, at least these older fittings aren't junk that corrodes and breaks the first time you apply a little pressure. But they sure are tight! It finally came out—and so did some very dirty water. That faucet was jammed with junk! I made the mistake of turning it so that the stuff would fall down before I put a towel under it...yuk! It took about 5 minutes of cleaning and blowing and cleaning before it was finally clean. Now, just put it back together and tighten everything up...not too tight or I'll break something and have a bigger mess. Clean up the shower floor—and my boots!—before I track it all over the cabin. Turn the water back on. Success!

Wasn't that fun!? It wasn't even too bad. I just had to replace two other supply lines because the compression washers were disintegrated, and one shutoff valve. Oh, and that toilet water closet...that's a story by itself for another time...

Let that water flow!

We turn the water off to the cabins every fall and fill the lines with RV antifreeze. If we didn't the pipes would freeze and burst. Not a pleasant thought! That means that every spring we have to turn the water back on and bleed all the antifreeze out. That's where life can get interesting...

Last spring was relatively uneventful, for which I am very thankful; we had enough new things without any added drama. This spring wasn't as uneventful...

To begin with, one of the cabins had the lines freeze before we could bleed the lines. This cabin has an exposed northwest corner and we had a week of very cold weather just before closing. From what I could see last fall, it looked like none of the pipes had burst, but I turned off the water valve to that cabin just in case—if there was a break, once things thawed, all the antifreeze in the system would have flowed out into that cabin. Pink stuff. All over. Not a pleasant thought!

Well, we turned the water on and began to bleed each cabin. I warned Max that this cabin might be a problem. So, I climbed under the cabin and slowly turned the valve. And breathed a sigh of relief; no water spraying around where I thought there would be a break. The relief turned to panic, though. Suddenly I saw water dripping down from all over the place!

I turned the water off quickly and we looked inside the cabin. Pink stuff. All over. Not a pleasant sight! And the smell of that stuff is like a cheap kid's perfume. Ugh! It didn't take long to discover the problem. Under the sink, right above the cold water shutoff valve. Broken pipe. Pink stuff. All over. Get out the rags. Clean up the mess.

The good news was that it was a clean break on a plastic pipe. A new ferrule (compression fitting) and within five minutes we were good to go. But that cabin still smells like cheap perfume...

I've got more stories of other interesting things, but they will keep. Stay tuned! And keep praising God—Πᾶσαν χαρὰν ἡγήσασθε, ἀδελφοί μου, ὅταν πειρασμοῖς περιπέσητε ποικίλοις, γινώσκοντες ὅτι τὸ δοκίμιον ὑμῶν τῆς πίστεως κατεργάζεται ὑπομονήν. (Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.) James 1:2–3

After all, if living in paradise were easy, everybody would be doing it and it would cease to be paradise (or something like that...)

A new season

We are officially open for business again—actually we were as of Friday. It was fishing opener, but most of the lakes here are still iced over, so it was a real dud. We had no guests—not that we expected any with the temperatures being what they have been both here and in the Twin Cities. Nobody wants to escape the "heat" of 45–50°F to come up here and cool down.

Anyway, this years cabin prep was easier and harder than last year's. Last year we started in March and worked on seven cabins (out of nine), painting and repairing. This year, we started in April and only worked on three cabins. But the work we did on those three was more significant, by far.

We replaced two bathroom floors and one living room floor. The one in Pine was being held up by a jack that I put under there 3 weeks before the end of the season last year! The toilet was about to go through the floor...So this spring, as soon as the snow was low enough to enable us to get under the cabin, we tore it all out. I had a local guy helping me and he took a few pictures, but they got lost or I'd post them. Suffice it to say that it wasn't pretty! The floor joist had been cut to make room for the toilet and the header that was supposed to reinforce it had rotted out. All that was holding the toilet before I had put the jack under it was a pipe hanger wire that was about to let loose.

Can you imagine the scenario: Where's mom? Oh no! She went to the bathroom and now she's nowhere to be seen! Gives new meaning to the earth opening up and swallowing somebody, doesn't it? Sinkholes in Minnesota!

Well, that won't happen now : ) The floor is all repaired with new vinyl and fresh paint and caulk. Better than new, probably!

Notice that we don't show the floor in this picture!

The living room floor was in Silver Maple (actually a motel room). There isn't sufficient air flow under the motel, so the northeast corner was too moist and the floor was starting to rot out. We tore out a four foot by four foot section and replaced the joists and plywood. Pretty easy, actually. We were planning on putting new carpet and tile in there anyway, so it just added a bit more to it.

The one that surprised me was Spruce. From the top, it looked like a minor bubble in the floor where some tile was coming loose. Right! We tore off the tile in that section only to discover that we needed to redo the whole floor. The room is an L-shape, so that complicated things significantly. Add to that that the crawlspace will make even a person without claustrophobia claustrophobic! and you have a real good time...that one took the better part of two weeks to finish, but it's done now and looks great.

Next time I'll tell you about the interesting experiences of turning on the water this year...