November on the Mountain

Trading Tarp for Tin

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In October of last year, we began to build a front room on the shipping container house. We insulated it and gave it a temporary tarp as a roof. For the whole year, the tarp did surprisingly well but it looked terrible. We like to do most of our building in the fall, so it was finally time to replace it with a proper tin roof.

Forever Weather Dependent

We got the materials and set a date. Friends were going to come over to help, but Mother Nature had other ideas. The morning of our long-awaited roofing date we woke up to rain. Normal rain wouldn’t be ideal, but freezing rain caused a change in plans. I enjoyed the glass-covered world for a couple of days before we were finally able to install the tin.

Many Hands Make Light Work

Every screw and every nail until that day had been placed by myself or Curt. It was weird at first, seeing things come together without my hands involved. However, it didn’t take long to see the great job that was being done, and it was heartwarming to have friends embracing my wild world, helping bring things together. It was done in a single day and that night I realized how noisy the tarp had been flapping in the slightest breeze.

Happy Kitties

It’s awesome to think that this time last year we were building the front room with kitten Luci watching, and now I’m cozy inside with three black kitties! Curt and I are forever playing ‘Which cat is that?’. They’re all very different in both personality and body - but at a glance, it’s nearly impossible to know for certain who’s who.

Sugar - Aptly named after her sweet nature. If you sit down, be prepared for sugar to jump onto your lap, trapping you for hours. She has the softest coat and reddish-yellow eyes.

Gandalf Greypaws - The gentle giant, with fur as soft as his sister’s. He’s not the best hunter but loves his food. He has a bigger white patch on his chest than Sugar and Luci. His purr rumbles the house.

Luci - Short for Lucifer, as a kitten she was evil incarnate. Mean and petite with rougher fur than the other two, now she’s my morning snugglebug, giving little bites. She’s the best hunter by far and shares her bounty with the other kitties.

Ocean View

This time of year the view takes a dramatic turn. Overnight the clouds settle down into the valleys, and most mornings I wake up to an ocean view. It feels like I’m at sea level, with other mountains popping through the clouds like islands. Some days the clouds lift and the day becomes clear and blue. On other days the clouds settle just above me and a strange thing happens.

Suddenly I can hear the highway. It’s a long way away, typically I don’t hear it at all. Yet usually, if the clouds are just above me it sounds like it’s next door. I know it’s the highway because I can hear gears changing and the cars are going much too fast to be on any backroads. My theory is that the sound bounces off of the underside of the clouds. If you’ve ever experienced this, or know a name for it let me know!

Finally, Firewood

We finally put aside other priorities and collected a whole cord of wood. Usually, we take standing dead trees, but Curt found a beautiful fallen dead spruce. It’s hard to tell which type but I’d guess it was an old Englemann. I limbed with the small saw while he cut the thick trunk into rounds. We got it home in three trips and excitedly put some pieces into the woodstove to see how it was going to burn. It burns beautifully and should last at least half of the winter. I’m impressed that we did it in one day!