This blog entry is the combination of a couple of visits; I promise I'll update more regularly! 😊 Thanks for following! Don't forget to check out the new Black Birch Acres Facebook page! There is some parallel information between the two, but there is also a bit extra posted there.
As I've mentioned before, it's a long ride to camp (4.5-6 hours) so I start saying key phrases to Willow (e.g. go pee pees, want to go for a RIDE in the TRUCK to CAMP in MAINE, and we'll leave when Daddy gets home) (repetition=training) a few hours before we leave to give her a heads up and I will encourage her to use the litter box. Being a dog, Tyson needs very little notice or encouragement to get excited for a ride in the truck. 😆 I can't remember if I've already gone over this, but for Willow I have a 13x10 Tupperware container with a lid that she uses as a travel litter box (thankfully she's a small cat, otherwise it might not work so well), or she just gets out of the truck on her leashed harness with me when we get gas and does her duty in the leaves/mulch. Then, when it's almost time to go, I'll show Willow her harness. She perks up and starts hanging around out in the open while we get ready. Cracks me up! I never force her to come with us because I want to make sure this is her adventure too, and not just for our enjoyment. She never fails to come out from whenever she is and sits patiently while I put her harness on her and then waits by the door. Or in this case, sits and waits in her bed that we're bringing 😹 I can't get over her sweet little face.
As I've mentioned before, it's a long ride to camp (4.5-6 hours) so I start saying key phrases to Willow (e.g. go pee pees, want to go for a RIDE in the TRUCK to CAMP in MAINE, and we'll leave when Daddy gets home) (repetition=training) a few hours before we leave to give her a heads up and I will encourage her to use the litter box. Being a dog, Tyson needs very little notice or encouragement to get excited for a ride in the truck. 😆 I can't remember if I've already gone over this, but for Willow I have a 13x10 Tupperware container with a lid that she uses as a travel litter box (thankfully she's a small cat, otherwise it might not work so well), or she just gets out of the truck on her leashed harness with me when we get gas and does her duty in the leaves/mulch. Then, when it's almost time to go, I'll show Willow her harness. She perks up and starts hanging around out in the open while we get ready. Cracks me up! I never force her to come with us because I want to make sure this is her adventure too, and not just for our enjoyment. She never fails to come out from whenever she is and sits patiently while I put her harness on her and then waits by the door. Or in this case, sits and waits in her bed that we're bringing 😹 I can't get over her sweet little face.
Our little Sonny Boy (he recently turned 1 year), on the other hand, is catching on to the code words too and, not liking it when we leave for a couple days, took his frustrations out on a piece of paper I had left on the bed. I think I even see a little blep of his little pink tongue, possibly mocking me! Fresh! Oh Sonny Boy. Someday you'll be brave enough for an adventure. 😻 You're still a good bit skittish, though ❤️
Sometimes it's hard to stay awake driving that late, but R & I switch off and nap if necessary. We got to camp around 1:00 a.m. I've been driving the second shifts (after the halfway point of Kennebunk) since R wakes up at 3:30am for work in the construction field that day. Since we hadn't yet finished buttoning up the cabin so Willow remains contained during the night while we're asleep, we've still been sleeping in the dated, small camper the former owner left behind - a 1987 Sunline Satellite. Who knows how long it's been sitting there. It keeps us dry and it's decent enough inside, but it's far from ideal. Pretty soon we'll be in the cabin. We're almost done with the soffits.
Of course, a camper left unattended for a couple weeks at a time in the middle of the forest is likely to have some small wilderness occupants. 🐁🐁 We hadn't been bothered by anything while in the camper so far. When we first bought the place last December, we cleaned out the mouse nests we could find and sanitized the surfaces before we starting sleeping in there. As an added bonus, we have Willow eagerly on camper security detail. Truth be told, I think this is her favorite part of the whole weekend.
Channeling her ancestral barn cat lineage from northern Vermont, she caught two of the resident mice soon after we arrived. I was bringing supplies in from the truck and, in the light of my headlamp, thought I saw something in her mouth as she ran to the other end of the camper. She brought the damn thing right on to our freaking bed! So I had to scoop it up in an empty small trash bin that was nearby. Unabashedly I admit that I screamed "like a girl" when I tried to be brave and pick the little mouse up by its tail in a quick attempt to save it from any harm done by Willow's razor claws as it then curled up and started for my hand... and Husband says - let her have it! But I don't want blood and gore all over our bed, thank you. I'm ready for bed at this point and that's not something I wanted to deal with. The small mouse couldn't climb out of the bin, so I took the little guy, apparently unharmed, outside and put him at the edge of the woods. Probably he'll be back... 🙄
Channeling her ancestral barn cat lineage from northern Vermont, she caught two of the resident mice soon after we arrived. I was bringing supplies in from the truck and, in the light of my headlamp, thought I saw something in her mouth as she ran to the other end of the camper. She brought the damn thing right on to our freaking bed! So I had to scoop it up in an empty small trash bin that was nearby. Unabashedly I admit that I screamed "like a girl" when I tried to be brave and pick the little mouse up by its tail in a quick attempt to save it from any harm done by Willow's razor claws as it then curled up and started for my hand... and Husband says - let her have it! But I don't want blood and gore all over our bed, thank you. I'm ready for bed at this point and that's not something I wanted to deal with. The small mouse couldn't climb out of the bin, so I took the little guy, apparently unharmed, outside and put him at the edge of the woods. Probably he'll be back... 🙄
The second one was a couple hours later around 3:00 AM after I finally fell asleep (or was it the same one having returned...? 🤔) I felt a *POUNCE* on my feet and I leapt up, startled! Another damn mouse! I cry out Willow's name as I see her in my headlamp light with the mouse in her mouth and she growled at me! "Not taking another one from me Mum!!!" I try to wake Husband but he's dead to the world. I don't want to rouse the dog and get him excited in the tiny camper, and the door is located PAST the dog. I sit for a moment, unsure how to handle the situation...! Willow has the mouse trapped in a tiny cubby-hole (campers have tiny cubbys, inner compartments and all manner of small spaces inside the walls), and every time the mouse tries to crawl out she snatches it back up and into the cubby. I heard it scurrying around in there, it squeaked once, she'd bap at it with her paw like she's trying to stun it...silence...a quick scurry, and Willow SMASHES her body into the side of the cubby! *SLAM* I jumped! 😅 There was a small space at the top of the interior wall that the mouse could fit through that Willow could not! 😹Willow was so mad.
🐁 - 1
🐈 - 0
I promptly passed back out until the next morning around 7am. Husband had no clue what had gone on. To my chagrin, I heard rain pattering on the roof of the camper. We'd been lucky so far with the weather. It had been mostly good for all of our visits.
So, when life gives you rain but you still have to get stuff done in the limited time available and you don't have a rain coat, make a poncho out of trash bags! As you can see, we are just starting our day in the picture below. My hair was even still a bit dry in this picture. At first it was fine - dance in the rain, right? Embrace what Mother Nature is offering us.
So.Much.Rain. 💦 You can only stay soaked and positive for so long. 😆 After a while, everything is soaked to the core, cutting lumber is more difficult, can't get the tools too wet, clothes are suctioned to your body, eyes burning from sweaty rain running down from off of your forehead, blurry/foggy glasses, on ladders against the outside cabin wall holding wicked heavy planks above our heads with rain pouring down our backs from off of the roof as we try to install a soffit, nail gun misfires.. holding.. holding... too heavy, look out, let it drop...Just the other day I said to R that this is a never-ending life we are headed towards. There will forever be work to do, forever be wood to cut, forever be a project, eventually animals, crops, maybe a business... But working your ass off to survive is so rewarding for us. It feels right. We don't want to work for someone else to ear money to pay bills to buy more STUFF. We feel...our SOULS feel like the weight of the world has been lifted off our shoulders when we're there, working towards that never-ending future. HOPE springs forth and gives us the motivation to make it through the mundane work day, knowing what we have to look forward to. THAT'S what everyone needs to find in life. Something that inspires you, that you look forward to. Whatever it may be - pets, children, gardening, ANYTHING! Sometimes if you open yourself to the endless possibilities, that thing might be out of the box of normality, and that's ok. Just like some believe the heart doesn't choose who it loves, I don't think you can choose where your passion lies. FIND YOUR PASSION!
ahem. 😄 Speaking of passions, we like to find ways to reuse items. The former owner left behind some trash, but he also left behind some things that we can reuse - like the pile of dirty tongue-and-groove flooring. Clean it up a bit, let it bake in the sun for a while to dry out - good as new! 😁 So now we'll use it to close the open gable. When the cabin collapsed long ago, apparently the gable hadn't been re-assembled yet. It also needed to be reinforced because it was not structurally sound... My father was kind enough to let us borrow his battery operated circular saw since we don't have any electricity. We have a generator that we could bring with us, but it won't power an electric circular saw because the initial electrical draw of the saw is too great. Our Toyota Tacoma has an electrical outlet in the bed that we can hook up a sawzall to, but sometimes it's awkward for me.
The following weekend...
....that we make the trek to camp (we've visited every other weekend pretty regularly) was very productive. So productive, in fact, that I failed to take any pictures! When we arrived (another 1:00 a.m. arrival), I heard R's concerned voice about the sound of a rodent chewing on something inside the wall of the camper. It didn't even startle when he knocked hard on the wall... We had to get out of there and into the cabin ASAP. Ugh. No thank you. I don't want to sleep in that camper anymore.Soooo finish buttoning up the cabin we did! We were able to sleep in the cabin for the first time! HOORAY! A wonderful milestone! We built a loft for our bed, and I built some "rustic" stairs 😂 to climb up to the loft. I'll take pictures of the cabin interior next time. We're so excited for the next weekend because it's Labor Day and we're taking that Friday off so we can have an extra day at camp.
While I didn't take many pictures during our last visit, our trial camera was rolling while we were gone. We move it every time to see what we get in different areas and this is the first time we had it on the trail at the end of the driveway. The trail bisects our land, and the driveway you see in the video is ours. Our land extends to the left in the video frame. I had switched the trail camera from picture mode to video mode after seeing some videos on a couple of Trail Camera Facebook pages. Boy I'm glad I did! We caught a glimpse of a raccoon that we've seen around before, but also saw video of a neighbor we did not expect to see. We had to pick ourselves up off of the flor after seeing this!
Oh. You know. Just a HUGE FREAKING BOBCAT taking a stroll down our road like it owns the place! Tyson will be kept especially close in the morning and evening now. Freaking "Feline Ninja Jiu Jitsu Master" more than likely watching us from the darkness of the thick woods this whole time without us ever seeing him...!
Pick your jaw up off the floor. I know. Crazy. We can't get over it, and it increases our night time paranoia just a tad. However, just like this bobcat is moving forward, probably to his next meal or doing a territory perimeter check, my piece of chocolate kindly reminded me that...
