7/21/06

The electricity went out Mon. night to Weds night. He had to keep calling DTE to get them to believe that it was still out (we were probably the last people we [sic] served in A2).

Just prior to the storm that took out the electricity, we spent 2 hours cleaning trees from the trails. Of course, we woke up the next morning to find a tree in the clearing in front of the house. Numerous other trees fell across the trail and will need to be cleared again.

Mowed the lawn Weds evening, and swept out the barn. They finally took the rest of the moldy straw bales from the campfire. Yes!

Between yesterday at 5 pm and today at 1, someone spray-painted blue lines on the trails - mostly on the main road. I'm guessing that these refer to H20 lines somehow, but I don't know.

7/17/06

It's a lovely morning on the lake. Came out here about 6:15 am or so. A couple of large flocks of birds have flown over the lake this morning - don't know what kind but I should. Must work on my bird ID skills. I've heard at least 6 different types of bird songs just sitting here. A mink (or a muskrat) took off from my side of the lake to the opposite side - I'd never seen it before. The dragonflies are beautiful - I catch their reflection on the lake before I see them in the air.

• Spent 2 hours clearing trails today - many trees down in recent storms.
• Been mowing the lawn about once a week.
• The dumpster finally came yesterday and we sent them off with the old carpet, sofa, etc.

It's been quite humid lately - the upstairs smells musty due to the increased heat (about 91° the past 3 days). It should rain tonight + bring it down to 85 tomorrow.

We heard some impressive "thumping" from a woodpecker tonight. We think it's likely a hairy, downy, or pileated woodpecker based on the thumping (and a brief bit of pecking).

7/14/06 Fri.

We walked out of the cabin to find two people swimming in the middle of the lake w/their dogs! We headed over to the clearing on the far side (the "dog swim" area) and informed them that there was no swimming. It was a woman thirty-something in a bikini w/her older mother - apparently a UM alum - and they [sic] younger woman didn't care about tumors + and dioxane. She asked if we were the new caretakers + declared we were "better than that ogre, M." Whatever. Annoying people.

7/12/06, 11:30AM

Woman walking her cream colored husky-type dog - not on a leash. She was at least 30 m. ahead of owner. She had long salt/pepper hair wearing mosquito net, green raincoat. Rather surly. I asked her the dogs name 2x - she mumbled it and I didn't get the name. Told her that dog had to be on a leash - she finally did so.

7/10/06

Around 9PM we walked across the lake to inform 3 people w/their dogs that the forest closes at 6PM. "You're going to enforce that?" they asked. Yes… It's not new. I basically blamed it on the Building Manager, but I'm sure D. won't mind.

H. + I posted lost of signs recently; only on standing dead trees and metal signs.

Things we've added to house:

• Curved rod to curtain off shower area
• Wine glass racks above sink
• Towel racks (re-use center)
• Screened in the porch
• New toilet seat in the outhouse (wooden one replacing ancient plastic one) - actually not new but from re-use ctr.

Fatty (the groundhog), the squirrels, and the birds are all going nuts over the mulberry tree. But we have managed to pick 2 pres worth of black raspberries (10 cups) from the bushes around the yard - and we should have plenty more coming still.

6/12/06

We've been here 1 1/2 wks and have had a chance to get to know the woods a bit. Picked up a turtle hunkered in its shell after the carpet installation guy passed over it on the road in his truck. I put him on the far side of the road near the swamp. His shell was plain green, but he had nice yellow + red markings on his face.

The carpet has made all the difference in the homey feel of the cabin. If we can keep the SE corner of the cabin from leaking and making the pad moldy, then we'll be happy. Dehumidifier hasn't been running constantly since humidity is down. Yesterday morning the old heater actually kicked on automatically!

The undercabinet wine racks are installed (courtesy of free scrap from Fingerle), plus we put a towel rack on the side of the shower, washed out the cabinets by the door and SCREENED in the PORCH! Now we will finally be able to enjoy the porch, bugfree (well once we clean + organize it). We also got a "new" toilet seat from the Reuse Center - wood + much nicer (towel racks from there, too).

Also saw a deer the other day. We went for a row around the lake last night. Didn't see any fish, but the lily pads on the edges are about to bloom! The tuliptrees on the north side of the lake are all in beautiful bloom and fragrant.

TD (lives in co-housing and former SNRE employee) said he's seen coyote and fox here and pileated woodpecker.

We've seen numerous blue heron - esp. at dusk - and the fireflies fill the yard.. A family of groundhogs lives in the woodpile near the barn. A robin made her nest in the porch, but her offspring learned to fly (we watched them) in the days just prior to the screening, luckily.

Lots of garlic mustard west of the front door, but lots of mayapple also. We mowed it all down, though the mayapple is coming back, happily. Lots of stinging nettles there and in front of the cabin.

I dug out the former little triangle of rocks just in front of the porch. Planted wildflower seeds - we'll see if they grow. I also hope to get some natives from A2 Native Plant Nursery.

June 4, 2006 - HT & LK

We moved in on June 1, although our work here started on May 31, when HT ripped out all of the carpet upstairs and down. THe upstairs carpet smelled of cat urine and mold - the downstairs carpet pad was soaked through and the floor was also soaking wet. The SE corner of the cabin wall was black with mold. There is a saint smoke (fire) smell when one enters the cabin.

The upstairs carpet was replacwed successfully. Downstairs was not, and will likely be done this week. After running the dehumidifier all night, the floor was dry. The plan is to leave the carpet loose in the wettest corner so we can monitor the floor situation. Ideally, a wood floor (plywood) should be raised up off the concerte and that should be carpeted.

RC did a nice job with the shower. It's still in good working order, albeit stained some do the the hard water.

We washed all of the walls, cabinets, etc. both upstairs and down. I washed much of the downstairs ceiling, esp. near the kitchen - it all had a healthy layer of brown dirt, most likely soot from the fires.

The light domes are new, installed by MR (previous caretaker). He also installed screens on most of the windows. The porch is lacking screens and we plan to replace them. A small family of birds is nesting on the east end of the porch - the first one left the nest today. When they are gon, we will screen it in.

Spent 2.5 hours on the lawn yesterday and today - it was 1.5 feet tall in spots! Also cleared brush around the sign in front of the lake. Will plant some flowers around the cabin.