Trains And Things

There is a definite learning curve involved where this adventure is concerned.

It's not a difficult learning curve. It hasn't been, for us so far, a difficult one. We were well prepped to begin with. We are also good at researching, brainstorming, and arriving at reasonable solutions to problems. We aren't, after all, the first modern-day couple to do what we are doing. There is a long growing list of examples of adventurers. Quite a few have successfully launched out on far more extreme adventures in far more extreme natural environments.

There are several common denominators to be discovered in the lives of people that get beyond the dreaming and theorizing and do the leg work involved in launching out on adventures such as this. Dreaming and theorizing are fine at first. Beginnings are born in dreams and theories. It takes determination and action to bring dreams and theories to life in the realm of reality.

I think the one common denominator that serves as the solid foundation for all the other denominators to stand upon is purely the determination to chart a course for a life that eliminates as much external control as possible.

The denominator sounds easy in theory. The doing of it is not so easy. Modern-day humans are conditioned to be dependent upon the system and all the system-providers that make the system work. Human dependency is what keeps the system alive and prospering. Simplicity, self-reliance, and personal independence are not cogs on the system-gears. The system is opposed to this lifestyle. You'll find more people discouraging it than encouraging it.

We had our One Month Full-Time Small Cabin Dweller Anniversary a few days ago.

It's all good.

There is a peaceful serenity that pervades these woods. We awake to it each morning and it wraps us in its embrace when we turn out the lights at night. The occasional yodeling of the neighbor's hounds, something that was a little annoying at first, has become more of something like a tune in the woods. We find the sound of the rail, a quarter mile away, to be pleasant and often stop to listen to the iron on iron sound.

Trains?

They each have their own tune that they play on the rails.

Now that the temperatures are on the cooler side of the scale, Shirli and I are putting her new knees through some paces … literal paces … by getting out and taking walks. We've really missed our walks the past few years. Her new titanium knees took her 7/10th of a mile this morning.

I'm 62 years old. After all my years of walking the woods I had to move to these woods to see my first one.

An American Woodcock flew in and landed about 50 feet from the cabin. Right on the cusp of dark. Its approach took it right by us. My daughter saw it fly in and land. She walked over to investigate. The Woodcock wasn't alarmed in the least. I got a light from the cabin. Several of us walked close to join the investigation. The bird, even when I lit it up with a light, never once acted alarmed.

Building the steps was a fun little project. Ascending and descending the narrow ladder-like make-do steps needed placing in the historical department before one of us slipped and took a fall. We went back and forth on the idea of building a small deck out front but let the idea go and just went with the steps. I'll do some kind of pad for a landing at the bottom as well as bottom rails and spindles.

The finishing work on the steps will have to rest for a while now that we can safely get on and off the porch.

Next?

I'm thinking screening on the porch and building the screen door will be the next project to work on.