Even a perfect plan is subject to Armageddon

We had it all worked out perfectly. Dave was going to grab Frankenstein and head up to S-wood early, unload some things, fire up the stove and warm up the house so that we could have a longer weekend. Rather than going up on Saturday morning when the sun was out and having the entire day to warm up the house. It takes a good 5 hours to warm up the house via wood stove to a comfortable level and you really do not want to do that overnight. I got my phone call at 4pm stating that he was getting off the highway and will be there shortly (we do not have cell connection nearer to the cabin).
All was planned and going as scheduled...
until...

My phone rings again at 4:40pm
"We have a problem"
My first instinct is that something happened to the house, or the dog, or dave. I soon find out, I am somewhat correct about the house.
Apparently the house is infested, i mean infested with Mosquitoes. Now keep in mind, we were up there for the day 2 weeks ago but we have since had some unseasonably warm weather. Hundreds of thousands of mosquitoes INSIDE our house that has no electricity or running water for that matter.

We are baffled but mostly we are concerned about how to handle this situation.
Nature may take its course and the skeeters may die off, but what does that mean for the spring? We could use a toxic bug bomb but what repercussions are there for our "green" house as well as the family and the dogs?

So Shmoopywood is now quarantined until we can figure out... what to do with the end of the world infestation.

Real People, Real Problems, Really Great place!

Off to cabin we go tomorrow (collective "yay"). The days are growing shorter and the nights are growing colder and our days are numbered. So now begins our crunchtime if we want to spend any time at all up there this winter. The wood stove is sufficient to keep us warm at night in the cold but it takes a good 6-8 hours to bring the cabin to a temperature that is comfortable. Then we have to deal with the driveway that is at a very steep incline. This driveway with 2 + inches of snow is impossible to pass and unfortunately with the street plow there is no where off the road to park and there is nowhere off our drive to stop and hike because the snow banks reach in excess of 5 feet!

But enough of my complaining, we hope to get some of the railing done this weekend and maybe even start the plumbing! (an additional collective yay).

One thing I did want to touch on was how happy we are up there. In our world the hard labor is worth the down time and the incredible neighbors we have met while up there. These people are the kindest and funniest people I have ever met. They are the type of people who will go out of their way to invite you to a party even though they know the host doesnt know you. Then they will sit by your side the entire evening and introduce you to your neighbors. They will check on your house in the long winter because they know you can't. They will go out of their way to do nice things for you and just get to know you. They are real people, they are who they are, there is no hidden agenda, no complaining and no grumpy. I have lived in our other neighborhood for 3 years and have yet to meet more than one of my closest neighbors yet up there in shmoopywood world, mi casa es su casa. Amazing.


Our dogs run free, we have turkeys, moose, deer, hawks, hummingbirds and all other kids of animals frolicking through our land (dont forget coyotes). My heart is there and i really hope that one day I will be able to be there full time. Django likes it there too ;)

How much wood would a wood chuck chuck...

Earlier this week I mentioned the wood... Ahhh the wood... my nemesis . You see the wood is basically what is left over from when we cleared space for shmoopywood. The area where we built was already partially cleared, in fact, the wood that was taken when they created the driveway (pre-us) was milled and used to build the neighbor's floor. We kept as much hard wood as we could standing, which in the end is probably going to be a problem for us because with the house winding up being bigger (due to builder error) the trees are quite close to the house. Ah but I digress... we had them drop the trees with every intention of cutting and splitting what was dropped to keep us warm in the winter. The whole truth is we got out there right away and limbed the trees and took the brush away and we even cut the trees into manageable sized logs but that is where it ended. Good intentions my friends.... good intentions.

It is amazing how much work that is involved with building your own home, especially when its just us two, so the winter snuck up on us and then came the spring and when the 5 feet of snow that dropped in our lot melted, there were the logs... still.

I mentioned that I got a very romantic gift of a wood splitter, that too was covered with snow. Now that they are both unveiled and Dave is busy with building the railing, I finally got around to some splitting. Not having the forethought to take the picture BEFORE i split the wood, you cannot really tell that i made it about 75% of the way through before I took this picture. Here is my very sexy and very reddish splitter. Thats right girls, captain romance is all mine as well ;)



This gives you a better idea of how much wood I have split... Ahh the wood...




edited to add: I was just reminded by captain romance himself that the log splitter was MUCH more romantic than the ax and maul I got the year before. The boy has a point.

this and that

First I wanted to thank everyone on the compliments regarding the new format for the blog, I was playing around with it on Monday instead of working and this is what I got out of the deal ;) I did however, manage to delete my entire blogroll and wanted to state that if you were linked, or link to us, I want to reciprocate. Please let me know if you have been left out, its not personal. Lets face it, my memory is not what it used to be so I may have forgotten one or two. Thanks for the heads up!

So this weekend we are leaving on Friday night. We have the kids and the dogs but have great intentions of working on the rest of the railing for the loft. So many things to do and so little time is starting to wear a bit I think on my brain function.

On top of having to complete the gorgeous railing, we have some basic living items to take care of. Last year, Dave and I used the trees that were cut for the placement of the house and pretty much cut them all into more manageable pieces. The intention there was to split it all and stack it for use in the wood stove. *it was mainly pine* For my birthday my loving husband got me a log splitter (captain romance!) and off I went splitting wood. Well unfortunately the seasons changed and the snow arrived unfortunately burying a pile of wood at the base of the driveway that was already split, and the log splitter that is up behind the house. So this weekend, my kids and I are going to haul the wood from the driveway, stack it and finish splitting the rest of the already seasoned wood from last year. I dont have any fascinating pictures of them, they are after all, just piles of wood to most people, but to me... they mean using the cabin all winter long... once again... PRICELESS!

Dave has a post he is working on as well to show the modifications of our little solar battery charging set up. Its neat! Otherwise, I fear this is a boring update. So I will tell you a little story...

Back story: Our first summer at Shmoopywood was spent in a 10 x 20 hunting cabin while we planned our future home. Once the snow fell, we discovered that not only did we have 2 adults, 2 children, and a great dane (only one at the time), but we had been housing mice. I am an animal lover so at first it was humane removal. I researched have a heart traps and these cute little sachet's that contained herbs that were pleasant enough smelling to me, but apparently repulsive to mice. As time went on it became evident that these little guys were not going to be stopped with conventional weapons. They became bolder, running across our pillows at night while we slept, chewing into our mouse-proof storage containers and even eating my toothbrush holder, the bristles and pooping on the rest. suddenly it was an all out war. I would leave the cabin on sundays and set 10 traps and come back on friday to find all tripped and no mice but mouse crap right there next to the trap. The little *(&#@( would eat the cheese and crap and run away.

I will leave you now, with a picture of our most recent discovery. I apologize for the poor quality of the picture but I am proud of it anyway because it was taken from VERY far away. This "little" guy is I believe a "Coopers Hawk" and I also think his recent arrival has helped abate our mouse problem. I am happy to say that Shmoopywood is mouse free in 2008 ;)
I love nature.