Don’t Need Nothing But A Sunny Day

If April showers bring May Flowers, May flowers are probably pretty pissed. They have been stymied by May’s cold wet weather. The people that keep track are reporting that Seattle has recorded its wettest May since 1948. The numbers aren’t official, but at last count, Seattle was within a few drops of hitting 4” of rain in May. Usually the Cascade mountains protect Cle Elum from a good bit of the famous Seattle sogginess. I haven’t found our official rain gauge around here but judging from the number of days I had to hike into the property, we were not spared.

The weather has limited the amount of work I could do. Mostly just puttering around in the mud waiting to go to bed. I did have two drywall jobs that I just finished. As I mentioned in last month’s post, I am far from a master with the plaster. I am also very slow and make a lot of dust due to the amount of sanding I have to do to get a smooth-ish finish. But I think the final product will look fine with a couple of coats of high hiding primer. The corrosive nature of the wet drywall mud and sanding several hours a day have left my fingers pretty raw so I am looking forward to taking a break from that.

The drywall Project

After I got to it

Partially Cleared

Even with the wet weather, fire season is still on everyone’s mind. I called up a forestry expert from FEMA and had her come up and give me what they call a prescription for reducing my wildfire risk. They have a program that pays half of the cost to remove combustibles around a landowner’s property. Usually, it goes to a contractor that brings in the heavy equipment to mow and mulch ground cover and shorter trees. Since I am cheap, I am doing the work myself and as far as I understand, they (or should I say, You, oh generous taxpayer) are going to pay me half the going rate. Just me and my Husqvarna attacking 2 acres worth of thick and tangled willows and miscellaneous bushes. For reference, as best as I can explain is 2 acres is about the size of two soccer fields.

The piles of brush have piled up and are slowing my progress. I took advantage of a snowy May morning and lit one on fire. It was a perfect burn. Stayed nice and small and just smolder for a couple of hours. It was just about lunch time when it was just a smouldering pile of ash. I still had an afternoon’s worth of burn time left and the winds were calm. I went to the next pile and got it lit. Once you start a fire, the day is shot because you have to stand around and watch it burn. Standing around is good because the alternative is a mad scramble to pat down the embers as they try move outside the burn circle. Did I mention that the snow had stopped and the sun was melting the snow and drying out the ground cover. The fire circle started to expand in random directions as the wind kicked up and the now dry pine needles lit up like they were soaked in gasoline. I was make sure it doesn’t flare up cause when it does. all hell breaks loose trying to tamp down the flareups. As hard as I tried running around the outside of the fire and stomping out the fire, it was getting away from me. The circle was getting bigger and I couldn’t keep up. I finally gave up and called the forestry service to come up and help. 2 hours later, the fire was under control and then 2 firefighters showed up. They seemed a bit puzzled at why they were there but did their best to look concerned and provided some well earned brow beating and left. I almost swore off burning but the wet weather has me feeling cocky about the risk. I just need to find some asbestos boots.

The Fire

Firefighters Looking Busy

The Aftermath

The end of May continued to be a back and forth between a couple days of dry and a couple of days of wet. I timed the dry days so that I could pull the tractor out of mothballs and get some work done digging out the final footprint for the cabin foundation. Of course, either end of the foundation has a large shale deposit that I have been battling. Nothing a stick of dynamite couldn’t break through. Since I know better than to be chucking dynamite around, it is just me, the tractor and a sledge hammer. I am close but will be sure when I get a concrete form placed and leveled.

I did finally get a water tank to finally put the well to use. No more more filling up milk jugs in town like a homeless guy. I wonder what will be a cheaper solution. Running the gas powered generator to power the pump. or driving into town for a water fill up. Hopefully prices don’t get much worse.

Well. the cabin isn’t building itself. Its a sunny day finally so time to get back to it before the forecasted rains start falling again.