Messy Hard Work
9am, 33-degrees (0 C)
We received around 9” of snow over the course of the first week of December here at EM, followed by a straight week of rain, which amounted to a total of 2.23” according to our rain gauge. I was physically and energetically preparing to have snow on the ground until spring, but now the earthen ground is once again exposed, as though it were an entirely different season. The snow hung on for a while despite the rain and above freezing temps, such is the way of narrow canyons akin to the one we live in, but now it’s mostly all gone.
Living as we do, we position ourselves more in accord with the weather much more than we ever needed to do when living in town surrounded by the comforts and conveniences of such things as on-the-grid electricity, running water, and a dial to adjust for heat. I like this lifestyle better. There’s something salt-to-the-earth about it that speaks to me. There’s something wholly satisfying about needing to rally when going outside to take a shower in the uninsulated & unheated showerhouse using water we’ve collected or melted from snow and then following through with the rallying energy that was summoned by taking said shower. Each shower we take in the winter months here is an event, requires the spirit of adventure, and feels like a celebratory occasion at the end of it. I have never felt any of those things when showering in town. Showering as we do now means I no longer take this luxury for granted; means I actually do see it as a luxury and not just some mundane thing I can do at any time. (And just to be clear: we heat the water for the purposes of showering using a propane fueled instant hot water unit by the way, we’re not that hard core.)
But enough about showering.
insulation carnage
Mike has been diligently and painstakingly working on insulating the sauna house. For quite a number of days now. It’s been grueling work. Not because we lose light so early and he’s out there working by headlamp starting around 4 or 5 pm, and he’s usually working until 7 or 8 pm, and sometimes closer to 9 or 10 (it’s not uncommon for me to be asleep by the time he calls it a day). Not because our average temperatures have been steadily hovering around freezing. Not even because he’s had to contend with all the rain, though that has put an extra frustrating kink in his days trying to keep the materials dry since they’re being stored outside while he’s also actively needing to use them. The grueling aspect of the task at hand for him currently has to do with something only people who have direct experience in working with used and found materials knows: It adds a lot more labor and time to the job when you are using what’s at hand versus buying new. When you work with what’s been wonderfully given to you by others and what you’ve managed to find at Home Resource (our building re-use center in Missoula). When you’re attempting to reduce the cost by not buying new materials as much as possible, and you’re trying to minimize waste and maximize the materials you have on hand (most of which was awesomely given to us by Mike’s brother Charles & sister-in-law Laura and our good friend Chance from building jobs they’ve worked on - thank you so much you guys!), it takes way more work to make everything fit in place.
The sauna house is a combination of new and used materials, both in lumber and insulation. The insulation has been taking so much time because for the bulk of the project he’s been using these old rigid foam blocks that we’ve been holding onto for years, coupled with a collection of foam pieces his brother gave us that he’d been storing for a long time. All of the blocks came off of jobs they worked on that would’ve otherwise been tossed out had they not seen the value in squirreling them away for an unknown future project. Each piece of foam is a different size, in thickness and in length. So in short, it’s been a complex puzzle to figure out. But more that that, it’s been a freakin mess to work with. He’s had to saw and cut each block to the right size, which leaves a wake of fine and large particles of foam behind. I just went into the sauna house today (Sat Dec 13) to snap the pics to add to this post and seriously guys, it’s not most people who would be willing to work with the conditions Mike has been working in over the last two-weeks. Holy cow. It is a disaster scene in there, and yet somehow, amazingly, he’s making it work and figuring it out.
And also. Because it’s Mike, it will be super well done and highly functional and worth every bit of the time & energy he’s putting into it. I trust that all day long. Mike is incapable of working half-assed. The work he does is stellar. Still. I’m hoping for his sake, because he is getting way ready to be done with the task of dealing with these messy foam blocks, that it will be over soon. The insulating part, that is. There is still a lot more work to be done for the sauna to be operational. But we’ll get there. And given all of the work and time and heart that went into it, I reckon the first time we fire the sauna up will be an especially pleasing day.
