Electric

We've been waiting to get electric service to the cabin since we got it. It's been taking a really long time, but we haven't been worried, because it's fun to camp, and that's what we've been doing - camping there.

But we were really excited to get the call this week - the electric is in!   And even though we didn't MIND living there without electricity, we have a lot of reasons that we really like electricity.

Like music, for example.  We can't listen to the stereo without electricity.  I brought a portable player, and we went through about 10 D sized batteries in one weekend, and that's just too much.

(We like the sounds of nature, too, but music is lovely.)

And also - power tools.  Hard to do any work with power tools if you don't have power.

Since we had power tools now, the Husband got a lot of work done.

We have a long list of work to do there, and an idea of how important it is on the priority list.  My priority list might surprised you.  Safety is obviously the number 1 priority.  Anything to make the house safer as we use it has to be most important.  Number 2 in importance is any relatively "easy" and inexpensive job to make the place neater.  Which is why Husband has already started doing trim work --

like putting in
this door threshold,
going into the kitchen,
and

like covering these beams --

even though
we have
lots of
other things
to do.

Thor and I were eating our dinner - left overs we brought with us, prepared in the microwave, now that we have electric -- and we saw a car pull in.  I was sooo happy that Nicky came up to stay overnight with us!  It makes me so happy when my kids decide to spend time with us, even if they don't have to and we don't expect them.  Nothing in life is better than that. (And that goes for ALL of my kids, both my sons, and their friends, and my nephews and niece, and even all the kids I feel like are in my family even if they aren't!)

My handsome nephew William - we went for a short hike.

On Saturday afternoon, Thor and I made some time to hike around the property.  I love my property.  It still feels so weird that I can say it's "mine."  Like this rock pile.

There are so many mysterious areas, but slowly but surely the mysteries are becoming clearer.

  

Since Nick was there, Thor started working on the railings.  Like I said, safety is most important.  This is a safety issue - to a degree.  Because obviously it's safer to have railings, but since my kids aren't little anymore, I don't really worry about them falling.  On the other hand, I am afraid of heights, so I just feel safer being upstairs if I have a railing.  The railings are taking some time, but they'll be done sooner or later.  Hopefully before Thanksgiving.

And then, we headed home, earlier on Sunday than usual.  The big talk is of the impending storm, and we didn't want to get caught in the mountains and not be able to get home.   And the signs were a bit scary.

At home in Iselin, we don't think we need to worry much about flooding - at least not yet.  We aren't close enough to the ocean for the storm surge, I don't think.

Our biggest concern used to be the large trees next to our house, but they were trimmed down to nothing and so they aren't a concern anymore.

And back to the electric; it seems to be a likely concern that we will lose power, and if it goes out, it will be out for days.

But we are already used to dealing with no electric.  So I am not really sure why I should be too worried about that.  Sure, there will be no computer, TV, or house phone, ok that's fine.  My heat will go out - but I have a gas stove, so I can keep the house from getting too cold, and it isn't really that cold out right now anyway.  Plus, I can cook on a gas stove.  I would lose the food in my fridge and freezer - but I did freeze a lot of huge blocks of ice, so I'm hoping they will keep things cold long enough to get the power back.  And I don't have that much frozen or refrigerated food anyway.

And we might not lose the power, anyway.  But that would be a fitting end to this story, wouldn't it?

A Ghost Story

So Beth told me a ghost story. It was a dream she had.
She dreamt that there are ghosts at the cabin.
There is a friendly old woman who haunts the cabin itself. She is dressed in old fashioned clothes. She likes to have tea with me, and she wants to share the folklore that she knows.
She also wants to warn me about the other ghosts.
The other ghosts are outside. They are also dressed in very old fashioned clothes. But they aren't happy and friendly.
They are walking by the cabin, coming down the path from the mountain, past the pond, and past the house.
They are not necessarily evil, but they are more ... tortured?
They are the victims of some violence.
Beth said that in her dream, she could see them walking. But she didn't want to look at them, because they are scary looking.
Not the happy little floaty kind of ghost - more like the rotted flesh, caved in skull kind of ghost.
And according to my friendly woman ghost, I had better leave them alone.

Warmth - various quick commentsand lots of photos

The days are starting to get shorter and the nights are getting longer, and we got our first wood stove!  Yay!

I had a bunch of mugs with advertising slogans that I painted with outdoorsy designs so they would all match.  I like them.

 Here is the kitchen - where I spend most of my time lately - from all angles:

 Fall has always been my favorite season.

And, we got the Hex Sign up!

My Summer of Musicis almost over...

 Last year, I called my summer "The Summer of Art and Flowers," and I spent all of my time painting and gardening, and it worked out really well.

This summer, I called my summre "The Summer of Writing a Book."  I didn't write anything.

It turned out that it was actually "The Summer of Music Festivals."  And that is the reason I haven't posted much in the last few weeks.  I've been going to concerts.

Last week was the free concert in Central Park in NYC.  It was to spread awareness about extreme poverty in the world, and my son got us the (free) tickets for our birthdays.  We went into the city and saw Band of Horses, Black Keys, Foo Fighters, and Neil Young.  Then, after the concert, we went to a really cool little bar and heard an acoustic set of cover tunes by a really good duo called C.O.A.L.G. - I was happy.

The weekend before that, we were in Atlanta for the Music Midtown festival.  I'm working on a video on that one - not that anyone will want to see my video.  We saw lots of great acts, but my top ones were Joan Jett, Adam Ant, Avett Brothers, Florence and the Machine, Foo Fighters, and Pearl Jam.  Not necessarily in that order.  It was WONDERFUL!  I was happy.

And earlier in the summer, we went to FireFly Festival in Delaware - BEST FESTIVAL EVER!And yes, I was happy.  :)

One and a half minutes

I am going to give my self
one and a half minutes
to blog right now
before I have to get ready to go to work.


And now that I've decided that,
I can't decide what to say.

I guess it's the pressure
of a limited time.

Well.
I've been traveling a lot lately.
We went to Atlanta two weeks ago
and NYC Central Park last weekend
and this weekend, we
will be headed back to the Cabin.
I'm pretty excited about that.

I'm looking for a woodstove
and shopping at a thrift shop
and my son may be buying me a
very old
used truck.

And I'm hoping we got Electricity.

Time's up,
more later.