Sneaky little rotten b…

August 7, 2013August 7, 201342 Comments

Sometimes when you get going on a project all you can think about is

Gett’er done!

And unfortunately for Bob, gett’er done, got the project accomplished, but at a terrific sacrifice to his personal comfort.

I was minding the massive bonfire in the clearing (the remains of the rotten bathroom floor) when I heard him call to me…

Me, yelling: WHAT?

Him up on the deck: Can you just come see I don’t want to yell…

He looked pretty whooped, so I came on back to the house. By the time I arrived he was in the back bathroom under the light and asking: What is this? It’s burning like [heck]!

There on his shoulders and back I saw this.

I stopped counting when I got to 60 on his left shoulder. The larger wheals are multiple bites from these monsters, and I estimated about 200 bites.

Please click this photo to be taken to Huron-Clinton Metroparks to read more about this beast called the Gallinipper or more technically: Psorophora ciliata!

This image is not photo shopped. The monster really is that big. It is also much louder and deeper sounding than those little wimps that whine in the dark in your bedroom.

Now we had worked in this same area the previous Sunday and had no trouble from these fellas. Not so this Sunday. The troops were out in full force dive-bombing me and the dogs and leaving Bob alone. Or so we thought…

Apparently, they were attracted to Bobs dark-colored shirt and upon landing were not noticed, that is until the burn started up. Since Sunday the burn went away only to be replaced by intense itching. Thankfully, as of this morning, he has begun feeling better.

IN THE NEWS – FLORIDA

The news media claim is, that they are only a problem in the wetter portions of Florida. Not so! I have been reading reports about them all the way from Michigan to here. It has been raining A LOT all summer in our neck of the woods.

So, perhaps we need to post a warning sign at the beginning of our trail?

This should do!

Please click photo to be taken to the source: Dr. Hildegarde Staninger’s, One Cell One Light Radio

~*~*~*~

Apparently, they are everywhere!

Mega mosquito with painful bite in Windsor/Essex (blogs.windsorstar.com)

NOTES: There is some good news about these monsters in that they don’t carry disease and they eat the larvae of other mosquitoes! It is small consolation when they are swarming you in the woods!

The Dogtrot

August 6, 2013August 6, 201347 Comments

I have mentioned a few times here that our home began as a cabin in 1840 and was modernized in the 1920’s. Apparently, modernization of your cabin was quite common, and often took place over time.

I’m certain that many scenarios went like this.

The main cabin was constructed and this construction was known as a pen. The upstairs was accessed by a ladder or notched log, and this loft was the sleeping quarters. The fireplace cooked your meals, kept you warm and dry in winter and turned the inside of the cabin into a furnace in the summer months!

Later you built an outside kitchen to keep the house cooler. You also added a second pen with what we would call a breezeway in between them. This new structure would become what is known as a dogtrot cabin.

Further modifications that would happen as time went by would be to add the kitchen as a separate room on the back, and even later in time, the luxury of an inside bathroom! 😉

We had the opportunity to do a bit of exploring this past Sunday on the mountain and ran into an excellent example of an old dogtrot cabin. This is very similar to the construction of our home on the Mountain Farmlet.

: The original cabin (pen) is on the left.

: The addition of the second pen created a sleeping quarters and a ‘dogtrot’ between them. Here is where you would sit to keep cool on those dog days of summer.

: Kitchen is added on the left. Note the stacked stones underneath to raise the cabin off the ground.

: Venturing to the back I found this little building. I am uncertain of its original purpose, but perhaps this was the outside kitchen?

: It now holds a lot of junk…

: As a new quilter, I was saddened to see a hand stitched quilt rotting away in the window.

On the outside of our old cabin the owners really updated the look by adding a clapboard covering (the front) and a *board and batten veneer over sides and back of the log structure. Later they enclosed the dogtrot and added windows to the cabin to make it match the new addition.

Can you see our home’s history when you look at it now?

The dogtrot is behind the cow. The previous owners closed in the center door. It is our intention, as time goes by, to open the doorway back up and make it the main entrance.

The old place is like the “Haunted Shack” at Knott’s Berry Farm in California. Which means that nothing is entirely level, nor is it square.

OK, it’s not that bad. 😉

However, the foundation men have been here this past week and the floor is sound and newly supported with proper house supports. Gone are the rocks, tree stumps, and logs, that were rotting away and bug ridden.

~*~*~*~

NOTE: I want to give a special shout out to the fellows at Quality Foundation and Repair out of Muscle Shoals, Al. They started this job and worked in very cramped quarters to see that it was done, and even went into extra innings to remove the 7 layers of rotten bathroom flooring, two of which were sandwiched old carpeting! You just wouldn’t believe it if you saw it, and unfortunately I forgot my camera that day.

~*~*~*~

Construction terms and a bit of history can be found below:

A complete explanation of the types and construction of the log home can be found here in a PDF entitled: The Pioneer Log House of Kentucky by William J. Macintire. I feel that this is a comprehensive and awesome read!

*Board-and-batten: an exterior treatment of vertical boards with battens (smaller boards) covering the seams.

*Clapboard: an exterior treatment of horizontal boards that overlap as you build them up. Look HERE

Friday Fictioneers: for immediate release

July 31, 201344 Comments

Once again I have been bitten by the 100 word flash fiction bug and Rochelle’s picture prompt for the Friday Fictioneers entry on August 3rd. It gets a little bit easier each time I try! Thanks, Rochelle!

A special “Thank you” to Jennifer Pendergast for the use of her photograph!

**~*~**

The bees, having become tired of the chemical assault that was destroying their colonies, began in secret to produce a Super Queen.

*MEMO

As you are aware, work on the Eximius Reginam (ER-1) prototype has been a success. The ER-1 has been found impervious to any chemical assault known to man. Working in secret she has produced an army of warrior class bees capable of being sprayed and still functioning. The warriors are trained eaters of the agricultural machinery that have been poisoning earth and killing our working class bees worldwide…

~*~*~*~

The bees are finding it hard to sleep tonight.

**~*~**

Words: 100

*Excerpted from an Apis Memo dated 7/31/2013

**~*~**

NOTE: As a child I was an avid fan of the 1950s genre known as:

the B-Movies

😉

Found along the trail

July 29, 2013July 29, 201332 Comments

This weekend we worked on our trail through the woods by clearing it of debris from recent storms. Over the next few winters some carefully planned thinning of our little woods will be a productive endeavor! Trees growing too closely together get thin and spindly, and they simply cannot hold themselves up in a wind.

: An over crowded and weak sapling!

: Along the trail there is nothing to hold them up and over they go!

: False Coral Fungus ~ Tremellodendron pallidum: I read the true coral fungus is edible, but that in some it can cause nausea and gastrointestinal distress. That chance makes it truly not worth it. This one however, is edible but it is dry and chewy. That characteristic places this one on the not worth it list as well! 😛

: Here we have a nice specimen of Poison Ivy. There is much more along the way and it must be irradicated.

: YIKES! That was a close call with the wagon handle!

: Our everpresent support team. NOTE: Gas can caps are very secure, and Tucker doesn’t smoke so there was no danger! (We don’t either.) ‘-)

: I am sorry I couldn’t get a better picture of this spiny spider. These spiders build very strong webs across the trail. They are hard to see… but you sure as heck can feel them!!!