Progress on the Guest Hut
Wonderfully, our 25YO son Jaden is staying with us here at EM for a little while. This past week, he’s been giving Mike a hand on the new guest hut build and progress is happening swiftly. Since I mostly plan to share pics in this blog post to help show the journey of the build over the past week, I will pepper in some weather, sun, water, and animal updates too - ya know, cuz why not?!
The springtime weather has been lovely here in the woods. The sun has been shining and the light is getting longer. The temperature has been warming during the day into the 60’s, while the nights still hover around freezing. April 29 marked the first day of the year that we didn’t need to light a fire in the wood stove. And April 25 marked the first day of the year that our two 12-volt house batteries filled up during the day through our two 200-watt PV panels, to the point where they could no longer receive any more charge, even though the sun was still bright & shining.
On May 1, I took note that the sun popped up over the closest mountain to the East at 7:54am. Curious as to the degree in which the mountains that create the canyon EM is nestled in affects the sun up and sun down times, I looked up the sunrise time in the closest town of Superior, which clocked in that day at 6:23am. So the sun officially rises 90-minutes later here at EM than for someone who lives in the valley just a few minutes away. Given the height and multitude of trees, and the position of the sun in the sky, our PV panels didn’t start actively drawing light and charging our batteries until 9:16am. And it’s somewhere in between 5:30 and 6:00pm, due to the trees in the West, that our PV panels get the last vestiges of active light before the sun is blocked by the firs and pines. In the valley, however, the sun is still up and shining until around 8:00 or 8:30pm. So between the trees and the close mountains, our access to full sun is more limited. Such is the life of dwelling in a canyon.
The cassin finches have returned to the bird feeder, giving the juncos serious competition. Turns out, they aren’t keen on sharing. Also, much to our great delight, there are wolves active in our EM canyon. I have been hearing them in the early morning when I wake & rise around 4am. Hearing their choir of voices calling out is a nourishment of the soul. And we have been gifted with an amazingly large number of butterflies lately that seem to enjoy hanging out around our cabin. But so as not to focus only on the critters we enjoy, I will report that the bugs are also starting to emerge with the return of the sun. Every spring, one of Mike’s least favorite tasks involves spraying for ants around our cabin, which he did just yesterday. A surge of carpenter ants appear around this time of year crawling around our porch. Given that our cabin is made almost entirely of wood, we’ve picked up the annual undertaking of spraying poison around the perimeter of it to keep them at bay, which has been working very well. We also just put out our yellowjacket and fly traps. It’s a continued hardship on our hearts to kill off certain bugs in close proximity to our cabin - and, it’s a choice we have opted to make.
We have been getting what seems to be a good supply of rain this spring. Our three 55-gallon rain catchment barrels have been routinely filled to the brim despite our daily use of it for the purposes of washing hands & dishes, our once-a-week showers, and our once-a-month cleaning out of the loo buckets for our compost toilet system.
My enjoyment & growing affection continues for: this very different way of life from in-town living; the intimate connection with our electricity and water and heating needs; the hands-on effort it requires to live how we’re living, but in ways that are much more satisfying and fulfilling than the hard, exhaustive labor that feels more necessary in town; the quiet way the woods are settling more deeply into my bones.
Also: the larch trees are sprouting new needles!