Taxpayer Dollars Well Spent?

The most hilariously aggravatingly stupid act was committed yesterday by the local highway department. The little blacktop road which we currently live on gets - in the height of summertime residents and tourists traveling the side roads - maybe . . . MAYBE . . . 20 cars a day down it. In the winter, perhaps two local vehicles make tracks. When the bridge washed out several years ago, they waited 7 years to replace it! Folks who lived 20 feet across the river had to drive all the way around to get to their house. So, guess what they did yesterday? That's right - painted driving lanes on it. So necessary. Oh, yeah. Yet another one of those scratch-your-head "give me a break" moments!

Tom took a little time for himself late yesterday and headed up to the property for the night. It's always a chance for him to decompress when he stays overnight. He can start a little fire if it's cool, pop some popcorn and crack open a cold beer, hunker down into his new double sleeping bag, light the oil lamp, and settle down with a good book while listening to the night noises. What could be better?!

I've been glued to my desk the first half of this week. I got the final order off for the 46 windows and 2 patio doors for the house and garage. Yesterday the final decisions were made on the three exterior doors and that order sent off (two for the house and one for the garage), and now all that's left in that department are the 19 interior doors between the two buildings. We're also in the process of getting the quote for the (very cool) Charcoal Black shake-type shingles for the roof of the garage. And, I spoke to the company making the SIPs for the house, and those should be to us the first week in November. That would mean that the timberframe would need to be tarped for only about 4 weeks - a do-able amount of time.

Construction-wise, things are still in halt-mode. Messages to the garage carpenter and well driller have not been returned even though the roof trusses are supposed to be ready today (I'm not holding my breath!) and the well was to be drilled this week.

The second half of the house timbers are now in the county and will be unloaded tomorrow. Weather-dependent, we're going to cut the tiles into the slab floor and then stain it this weekend. But, rain is forecast, so that may set us back. The timberframe raising was set for Monday and Tuesday, but I anticipate being about a week behind on that based on where we are now.

After Tom was down visiting his dad those couple of weeks ago, he made the local paper down there. He and Ernie had gone to Ernie's weekly Kiwanis meeting where they have someone different speak each week. It was the local EMT's turn when Tom was there, but, about 2 minutes into his speech, his beeper went off and he was called away. So, suddenly left with no lecturer, an older woman (well, the average age was 75) stood up and said, "Maybe Ernie's son could talk about living up north!" Here is what followed.

AWAY FROM THE CROWDS

"1972 [Hometown Name] High School grad Tom [surname] was in town last week visiting his dad, Ernie. He shared a bit about the new house he and his wife recently built [well, not quite] on 40 acres in the Superior National Forest near the Pigeon River. To say their house is remote is an understatement. The [our surname] house has a 4 1/2 mile driveway, and is 13 miles from the nearest tarred road and 36 miles from the nearest town. The area, he said, has more moose than deer and more bears than people. "It's a lifestyle choice. I lived in the Cities for 25 years and I'd never go back."

Pretty neat, huh? :)