“One’s first step in wisdom is to question everything - and one’s last is to come to terms with everything.” – Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
Thursday, December 22, 2005
Christmas at the Cabin, Day 1, Part 2
Dave Mikelson came over in the early afternoon to check on us and see what time eggnog is to be served tomorrow (6:00 p.m.). Shortly after that we took off to cut a tree. This is always an experience. We want a great looking tree. But, if it looks too great then we are guilty about cutting it! We found the perfect choice. A very nice tree, but a bad top. I’ll post a photo tomorrow. (Trees are always much bigger once you get them home.)
Anyway, I hauled it home by tying rope to it and then looping the rope around my chest and walking. Here is a photo:
We have it nicely decorated with a modest amount of lights (have to watch out for electricity consumption, you know), some really cool ornaments and some garland that Lynne knitted.
Chile for dinner. Very good with some cornmeal muffins and red wine.
All afternoon we’ve been listening to Christmas music on our Sirius satellite radio (channel 2). If you don’t have one of these for your car and house yet, you really need one! (Hey, that is a great Christmas idea!)
Posted under: Cabin News • by Rick on 12/22/2005 at 07:18 PM
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Christmas at the Cabin, Day 1
It is about 1:15 p.m. and we are settled in at the cabin. Sam knocked the phone off the night stand (his version of a wake-up call) this morning about 6:30. So, we got up and started the day. We loaded the coolers, the pod on the truck, 3 cats and seven dogs in the Suburban. By 9:15 we were packed and pulling out of the driveway.
We stopped at MacDonalds for a breakfast sandwich, as is our custom when leaving early for the cabin. I had a sausage biscuit with egg and cheese, Lynne had an egg mcmuffin. We had to stop for gas, too. So, Lynne went in King Soopers for Starbucks Latte’s while I gassed up. We get a 10 cent discount there. We were on our way out of town by 9:45.
The drive was a bit stressful. First, there was a lot of wind and crosswinds in Wyoming are not fun! And, Sailor gets really scared in the truck for some reason. We put up a barrier so he can’t jump over the seat and get on the floor next to Lynne, but he busted through that. He sits and shakes and his eyes are huge and scared. We don’t know what happened to make him so scared of riding in the back of the truck.
We came in by Sportsman Lake Road. It is in pretty good shape. There is some mud in places where the snow is melting.
We arrive in Sand Creek Park about 11:15 and stopped in at the Martin’s to check in. Larry had openned our road for us this morning. We traded some small Christmas gifts and then come on in to the cabin. Larry had done a great job and it was an easy trip in.
I was amazed to see that the batteries were fully charged. Last weekend, less than a week ago, they were down by about 500 amp-hours—almost empty! And, it has not been very sunny. But, the wind is blowing and, I guess, has been for a couple of days. So, I was afraid we’d arrive to find an electricity deficit and we are actually in good shape—even after running the heater for a long while to warm up the cabin.
Lynne started a fire in the wood stove. Then we unloaded the truck and unpacked everything. We then took the dogs for a short walk to the “bottom” down by Bart’s Creek. The snow is pretty deep so we made Millenia stay behind. After our walk we put out bird food and the chickadees and nuthatches are already busy!
The wind is really blowing! Probably 40 to 50 mph out in the open. But, it is warm, about 39°, and partly cloudy.
We’ve settled on chile for dinner.
Posted under: Cabin News • by Rick on 12/22/2005 at 01:16 PM
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Wednesday, December 21, 2005
Christmas at the Cabin, Day -1
We plan to spend about 10 days at the cabin this Christmas season. We will leave tomorrow, Thursday, and come back on New Year’s Day. I thought I’d leave a short post here each day or two to update you on our time at the cabin.
Over the past couple of days, we’ve been preparing for the stay. We made a “provisioning” trip up there last weekend, delivering wrapped presents, nonperishable foods, clothing, etc. Since there are quite a few snow drifts and the driveway is under about 2 feet of snow, we had to get the plastic toboggans out of the shed and haul the stuff in that way. Also, it had been cloudy and still and very, very cold. So, the heater in the cabin, set to 55°, had been running a lot and the batteries were almost depleted. That is worrisome since we will be moving in on empty batteries instead of full! Let’s hope for some warmer temperatures, a sunny day, and a good breeze today!
We worked on a meal plan, figuring out what we would eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner for the entire stay. Then, we make a long list of needed ingredients and finally consolidated that to get a shopping list. Today, we will go shopping and buy all the perishable foods which we will haul up to the cabin in a large cooler in the back of the truck (with the 3 cats and 7 dogs). I’ll put the Yakima pod on top of the Suburban and we’ll load it up with other items like clothing, last minute gifts, etc.
We hired Larry Martin to use his John Deere tractor to open up the roads and our driveway. He’ll probably do that today, so we should have smooth sailing all the way to the cabin door tomorrow.
Posted under: Cabin News • by Rick on 12/21/2005 at 08:03 AM
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Sunday, December 18, 2005
Sam is Answering the Phone
If you call us and the phone is busy for a long time, Sam—our Maine Coon Cat—may be on the phone. If you call and whoever answers just makes squeeking noises and pushes the buttons on the phone making an impromptu song from the touch tones, Sam answered.
Yes, Sam has learned to answer the phone. Or, sometimes he just knocks it off on the floor and then lays next to it. We don’t know why he has started doing this, but is is the newest of his long string of funny habits. I think he just likes to lay there and listen to the operator saying (over and again), “If you wish to make a call please hang up and try again.”
Posted under: Cat Stuff • by Rick on 12/18/2005 at 07:56 AM
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Monday, December 05, 2005
Soap Making
Recently, Lynne and I have tried making soap at home. Making our own soap is fun because we can pick the oils to use (olive, palm coconut, etc), the fragrance, the color, and any additives like herbs or flowers. The process is not difficult, although you must use some caustic ingredients, so much care must be taken by wearing gloves, glasses, aprons, etc.
We plan to give homemade soaps as a Christmas gift to friends and family. So, this weekend we wanted to make a soap from scratch. (We’d used a kit with all ingredients for our first attempt several weeks ago.) We had some sage flowers from the cabin, and we bought a nice fragrance (essential oil) that complimented the smell of the sage. We decided to use olive and coconut oil along with a little bit of castor oil as the oils in the soap.
The process is pretty simple, heat the oils to about 100 degrees. Make a lye solution (lye and water) and let it cool to about 100 degrees. Then combine the two and stir until the mixture starts to thicken. Add the color, fragrance and herbs at this point. Pour into a mold. Cover with towels to insulate and let it set undisturbed for two days. Then, remove from the mold, cut into bars, and allow to age for several weeks. The whole process is called “saponification”—the making of soap from lye and oil. It is a bit hard to believe that that bubbly stuff we use to clean ourselves is a complex combination of oils and lye.
We did encounter a major problem in doing the soap from scratch instead of a kit—finding lye. Lye, or sodium hydroxide, is a very caustic compound that is used in drain cleaner. It has been commonly available in hardware stores, WalMart, grocery stores, pharmacies, etc. under a brand name “Red Devil”. To my knowledge, Red Devil is the only 100% lye product that has been commonly available. The problem is, lye is also a key ingredient in the making of methamphetamines—it, along with Sudafed, is used in meth labs. So, many places have decided not to sell it anymore. I found 2 bottles at a local ACE hardware store, but they won’t be carrying it anymore. And, it was not available anywhere else either!
I began to feel like a criminal as I would ask at various stores if they had Red Devil lye. You could just see the salesperson assessing me for the likelihood that I was running a meth lab. I asked openly in so many places, that I expect the cops to arrive any minute…
We don’t know if we will be able to continue with our new hobby of soap making since the lye is such a critical ingredient. Maybe we can find a source for it where we can “register” and they keep track of our purchases, or maybe there is an online source. Don’t know.
Posted under: Stuff You Gotta Know! • by Rick on 12/05/2005 at 04:44 PM
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