Mountain Lane Homesteaders

Warm fire and a cup of tea

It's a beautiful sunny day here today but it's been cold in the mornings.  

Yesterday Sam made a fire in the woodstove but then put it out because he was worried the forrest service would see the smoke and think it was a wild fire.  We're on something here called "Hoot Owl" which is part of a stage 2 fire prevention.  All activities requiring big machinery, chainsaws, etc. have to be done between the hours of 1:00am to 1:00pm.  No outdoor burning is allowed without prior approval.  Large fines are given if anyone breaks hoot owl restrictions.  So having not faced the woodstove smoke issue (IN AUGUST!) before, we didn't want to take the risk until finding out. 

By calling yesterday we found out that it was okay to use the stove so this morning we started out the day with a nice warm fire and a cup of tea.  I'm not adding any wood to it since it's warming up now but it looks like we'd better put a rush on getting some more firewood ready. 

We went up the mountain last night to look for some dead standing trees but will have to go back on the weekend before 1pm when we can use the chainsaw to get them.  Even at that we are suppose to stay at the site for 2 hours after to patrol in case we created any smouldering embers in these dry conditions.  I know the fire restrictions are needed here but boy does it ever make things difficult sometimes!  We need to be digging septic lines too during the time allowed.  I'm not sure how much longer the restrictions will last but hopefully not too much longer.

Here is a picture I took this past weekend of Sam using a backhoe to dig out part of the septic trench:

Right around the middle of the picture and a little to the right is where our foundation is dug.  The upright sticks you see every 10 feet or so are marked with measurements we took with a transit so that the pipe gets buried to drop 1/4" per foot until it reaches a distribution box.  Notice the light grey stuff that we're digging up.  That's the "soil" here.  Lots of clay and broken shale.  Boy do I wish it looked just a little more like our Iowa dirt!  Sam actually hit a place where he encountered some bedrock and it still needs to be a bit deeper there so next chance he gets to dig he has to try and smash it a bit with the bucket and then come at it from a different direction to see if he can break it up. 

Well, I sure didn't mean for this to get so long.  I just wanted to tell you that I enjoyed my warm fire and cup of tea this morning.  Amazing how the thoughts just started to ramble through my head!

What a job!

1:25 PM, Tuesday, August 15, 2006 .. Posted by Pattisea

I can't imagine the hard work and in such a strict time frame.

I love the cozy image of a fire and a cup of tea. I'll have to pretend. We do have a fire place, but it smokes and we rarely use it so have no wood! LOL

Patti

Untitled Comment

1:55 PM, Tuesday, August 15, 2006 .. Posted by Farmwife410

I just love having the woodstove going in the morning and a hot cup of tea. My favorite quiet time of the day!
Rie

Sounds Heavenly

8:42 PM, Tuesday, August 15, 2006 .. Posted by teapots66

Just the thought of a cozy fire and a cup of tea makes me feel cozy inside. It's getting cooler lately here at night, too, but that could change, we're still in the midst of summer and it could turn to 90s and above (daytime) with temps in the 70s at night at any time! Once we hit Sept. it is less likely that will happen... last week we enjoyed temps at night in the 50s, so grand for sleeping. I never heard of the OWL thingie before - that's interesting. Thanks for sharing. -Chris