25 November 2013

Made the long trek back to Virginia for the winter, made even longer by having to return north 45 miles to Pete’s RV (dropping off the dead Storm King battery and the three overlarge replacements that have been sent to me over the past four months), then stopping at Alverta’s to install a cane carrying tube on her walker. Traffic light to moderate from there to Springfield, so made the whole trip in 12½ hours.

24 November 2013

Five inches of fresh snow overnight.  Plow truck went up and down the road early, sanding as it went, but still leaving very dicey driving conditions to be negotiated with a light pickup and heavy tractor on a big trailer.  Surprisingly, made it the five miles down the hills (in 4WD low range and 2^nd gear for the worst parts) to the paved road with no problems.  As always, drove to Fern Lake via Burlington (going around, vice over, the Green Mountains with the Kubota in tow).  Stopped en route at Pete’s RV to pick up another replacement battery for the Storm King portable generator… this one (#3) guaranteed to fit.  When I arrived at Fern Lake the tractor, trailer, and truck were all nice and white… completely coated with road salt.  Absolutely couldn’t put the Kubota and trailer to bed for the winter in that condition, so, in spite of the temperature only being in the mid-20’s, washed them off with a hose.  Got at least some of the salt off before the ice coating got too thick.  Feeling in my fingers should come back any day now.  Perry came over shortly after the ice sculptures were complete.  We used the backhoe chained to Perry’s Chinese finger (look it up on Wikipedia if you don’t know what that is) in an attempt to pull back out of the ground the ½″ PVC pipe that Alex and I had buried in July (but that now won’t be needed to convey water down to the disapproved waterfront sauna building).  Retrieved some of the pipe, finding that the strain had broken one of the couplings at the 30 feet point.  Perry then helped me tarp Dolores… no mean feat in the strong, gusty winds that were present.  Tucked the Kubota into the shed garage (which was nice and warm, being mostly underground) for her long winter’s nap, having put nearly 100 hours on her Hobbs meter this year.  Found that, once again, the Storm King replacement battery was too big. So much for “guarantees”.  A fabulous repast and very comfortable overnight stay at Hotel Pirkkanen. 

2 - 23 November 2013

Continued logging in Calais.  Sent another 3 truckloads of saw logs and 56 tons of pulp logs off to the mills.

1 November 2013

Drove down to Leicester to meet with Zoning Administrator Kate Briggs and submit the Building Permit application for our Fern Lake house.  In the course of our discussions, Kate had me add a Sauna Building and attached deck to the Building Permit, then approved the whole shooting works on the spot.  Prominently attached permit number 47-13-ZA to a tree at the head of our driveway.  A delightful lunch with Marty & Merry before heading back to Calais.