Our Dinner Guest: Moo

My name is Moo; I'm a serious spitfire of energy.

Meet Moo. He's adorable. He's also only 2 years old and has more energy than the Energizer Bunny.

Moo and his parents braved our dirt road today to come see where Nick's crazy parents live. Thanks to recent visitors Ralph and Foti, we now can give folks a Google Maps address (not ours, but close) that makes the drive in much more simple, if not easier. Of course, it helped that Moo's dad drives a big-ass truck.

I met Moo's parents at the nursery, when I helped them design their incredibly gorgeous back yard. People, you have no idea how beautiful a more than 180-degree, 2,300?-foot cliffside view all the way to the Smoky Mountains is. After some chatting, I learned that Moo's parents once sailed the South Pacific (much farther than we did). Needless to say, we had something in common.

Nick has come a long way in getting along with others, and did quite well with Moo. He didn't really play with the pup, because Nick's "special" that way, but he did wag his tail a fair amount. And he only growled now and then. This is progress, people!! Nick even begged for loving from Moo's parents. (Yeah, that's right, I'm not naming them. I'm willing to give people a lot of anonymity up here. What happens on Flat Top, stays on Flat Top.)

After our guests left, we rounded out the evening with a bonfire, listening to an NPR music special on the music of L.A.'s Laurel Canyon. And now, "Silverado" is on the broadcast movie channel.

How good is this day? Seriously. Life is incredible.

Progress In the Veggie Garden

Ask Mason to pose for a photo with his latest achievement, and you get this:

Kilroy was here.

Isn't this better?

Hey, handsome!

But alas, isn't the new gate to my veggie garden cute? The fence isn't finished yet, and won't be till winter time, but hey, I have a really cute gate!  Especially since, before the gate arrived, we were having to duck under bird netting every day to water our plants. We also had to water using rainwater and watering cans until ... MASON RAN A WATER LINE OUT TO THE GARDEN!! Who's my hero?

That's my eggplant you see on the lower left of the upper photo; none of the flowers has set yet. Damn. But as I said before, I got started late. I've just started harvesting tomatoes, and the watermelon plant is now about 12 feet wide and several tiny little melons are charming us daily.

Wait! One more garden gate photo, and my happy place:

This is a trilobia rudbeckia ... Craig, what was the name of it again?

We'll be adding a pergola top to the whole garden fence, come winter. Patience, my friends.

We've invited new friends to come to the cabin on Wednesday for dinner. Pray for us, and for them ...

One Thing Leads To Another

You're looking at the new sliding glass door, downstairs, hooked up the the pulley system Mason built that nearly killed us both as we hauled it upstairs.

The new wall on the north end of the cabin only highlighted how terrible the south wall was, so summons the crowbar!! And while we're at it, out with the old crappy door and in with a cheap-but-good-enough-for-cabin-life sliding glass door that pours natural light into the loft. Can't wait for the reading season, winter, when I snuggle up with a book on the chair or bed up there!

But first, how do two reasonably strong people get a 180-pound, 6-foot-wide door up to a loft in a cabin? Mason to the rescue! He rigged up a pulley system, but Nan's upper body strength didn't live up to expectations. For 45 minutes, Mason lifted the door from the living room -- Russian-weightlifter style -- while I cinched up the pulley rope. I still can't believe we did it, though we felt the success in our muscles for the next few days.

For a couple of days, we had a pretty big hole in our wall, but give us a few more days, and we'll have the "after" photos for you.

Yes, that's a big hole in the side of our house (bedroom).

So, while Mason's been busy tearing down that wall, Mr. Gorbachev, I've been pampering my plants. The veggie garden now sports nine tomato plants, a 10-foot-wide watermelon plant, an eggplant, lots of herbs, some peppers and maybe 15 stalks of corn. Today, Mason dug a water line out the the garden area; he's clearly motivated by the first batch of pickled jalapenos he's enjoyed.

This week we plan to build a gate to the garden, which won't be finished until spring. For now we're using bird netting to keep out the deer and the bunnies. So far, so good.

My cherry tomatoes.

The underside of my Sum and Substance hosta.

What a Difference!

The new wall!

The painted ceiling.

Check another big project off the To-Do List, which is an awfully long list, I might add. This one entailed finishing painting the ceiling (which we started about ... oh, six months ago), and then rebuilding the upper north wall of the cabin. Ever since we moved in more than three years ago, the wall was a major eyesore, with exposed insulation, crappy wallboard and a fine nest of cobwebs.

Today, check out those trimmed windows!! Check out last week's photo and check out the difference in how much more light bounces into the room. Massive improvement, thanks mostly to Mason.

Next up: The upstairs wall on the south side. That will mean a new sliding glass door out to the deck and new siding on the inside. Yup, the fun never ends.

In the meantime, we've also been awfully busy out in the yard, growing vegetables and installing an outdoor shower. More on that tomorrow ...

Ceiling Painting: Round Two

Nothing but fun today on Flat Top. That's Mason on scaffolding,
with a headlamp and a ShopVac, taking on some nasty cobwebs.

Remember that crappy particleboard ceiling we started to paint over the winter? Well, we've finally got around to finishing the job.

In our defense, we had to wait until it was warm enough to no longer need the wood stove, which is now enclosed in paper to protect it from flying paint. Painting a ceiling is very messy, if you weren't aware. Of course, now that we've waited for the heat of summer, it's become The Job From Hell, because it's hot as hell at the ceiling of an un-airconditioned cabin with a metal roof.

To do the job, Mason had to build some scaffolding so we could reach all of the ceiling that's about 20 feet over the living room. That's him, above, vacuuming the cobwebs before we paint. After a day's work, we're maybe a quarter of the way done.

Of course, one job always leads to another here on Flat Top. While the scaffolding is up, we'd be foolish not to take the opportunity to refinish the upper wall on that side of the living room. That wall was never properly finished by the original owner. The windows were never trimmed, and the particleboard on the ceiling looks like Grade A carpentry compared to the quarter-inch paneling that was on that portion of the wall.

And that thing about one job leading to another? Once the paneling was down, it was clear some critters had been nesting in the insulation up there. Maybe we should just be surprised there WAS insulation up there. Alas, we'll be replacing that, too.

Despite the undertaking, Mason -- covered in sweat, insulation dust and paint -- was unusually chipper. "Look at us!" he chimed in mid-afternoon. "We're a team again!"

He's not the only one enjoying my new work shift, which is down to three days a week for the summer. Tomorrow, before I start painting again, I'm putting nine tomato plants in the new veggie garden, which is far from finished, but I just couldn't resist.

Mom's Perspective

Here are some photos my mom took while she was here:

Good morning.

An afternoon dip.

Mom liked my bowl collection. Thank you ladies!

Putting in post for the new veggie garden.

Waving to a neighbor driving by while on one of our twice daily walks.

The conversation pit, aka Tiki Bar.

Begonias in my hanging baskets.

Mom! And JIm! And Ralph!

Can you see the resemblance, beyond the white hair, that is? This is my mom's first selfie!
Clearly I need some of her bright lipstick, but Mason won't come near me if I put it on.

Flat Top was in full visitors' mode during the past few weeks. After Mason's ex and her friends, it was my Mom, who braved the hardships of life in the forest to check out the improvements we’ve made since she last visited in 2011. After a few days, marveling at all of the greenery, she remarked, “It’s like you guys live in a National Park.”

We kept her busy for several days, tasking her with helping plan the upcoming guest cabin. She’s got a real knack for design, so I’d be foolish not to tap into her skills. The only problem is she kept designing the cabin bigger and bigger. When keeping my budget in mind, I kept telling her, “smaller, smaller.”  

We finally got a couple of good designs, and roped off the area where the cabin will go. Eventually. But first, we’re installing wood floors in the main cabin, finishing painting the ceiling and putting in a new door and window upstairs. No shortage of projects on Flat Top.

That's Ralph, left, and Jim, otherwise known as Foti.
We're always so flattered by how many Minneapolis friends
 have ventured to our little cabin in the woods!

While Mom was here, Minneapolis friends Jim and Ralph braved our dirt road in their low-slung Volvo wagon while on a cross-country road trip. A frequent Northern Minnesota camper, Ralph is completely versed in living off the grid, which was cool, and Jim didn’t seem too freaked out. They even took time to take video of their urban-mobile cresting the rocky terrain. City folk!

I’ve cut down my hours at the garden nursery for the rest of the summer, hoping to maximize my fun -- if you call painting fun. And sadly, I do, which is why life on Flat Top is so great!

But for now, I must go outside and pull weeds. It just finished raining nearly 2 inches in less than 2 hours. No better time to pluck.

What’s Mason up to? Putting the finishing touches on his deluxe bat house. It’s more like a bat condo. More on that next time!