Many ladies finding themselves with occupied uteruses undergo a lengthy period known as “nesting.” As far as I can tell, for most, this involves scrubbing walls with toothbrushes, ceaseless knitting, and looking dreamily at onesies on the internet.
For me, it means hanging insulation and hoisting sheets of OSB into the air. Introducing the Shack (In-Progress), because according to the wisdom of evolved creatures, once you have a place to shit, the next logical step is to have a different place to sleep.
(Please rest assured that this will never turn into a baby-mommy-blog of any sorts, and should I lose my edge by virtue of my newfound rotundity, I’ll go rub myself and our incubatory spawn up against a birch tree until we’re all sharp again.)
(Also rest assured that while the shack is being build, we are not, in fact, sleeping in our shitter, but in the old camper from farback.)
But the shack! Let me tell you about it. The shack is fully enclosed, as you can see here, a task which required a footrace against the onset of winter to complete, and which we won, but only because we’re cheaters.
Our lovely little woodland dwelling is fully framed with a loft on the inside (soon to be expanded to an entire second floor and a finished third-floor attic space), mostly insulated, and as of this week, will be wired for as much raw power as our poor abused battery bay bank will allow. Next is woodstove installation, interior walls and shelves, kitchenette installation, exterior roofing and siding, and maybe a nice welcome mat and a step up. We hope to be living here within the next month or so, which, of course, is contingent on the endless maneuvering of materials and supplies up and around the hill in the middle of winter. I’ll leave your imaginations to determine how we do this.
The plan, inasmuch as we ever plan anything (q.v. spawn-sowing, above), is to consider this Shack 1.0, allow ourselves the occasional colossal fuckup, and, if we can move in without severe loss of limb or life, build a slightly larger, slightly sturdier shack one of these days, and convert this one into use for guests, or food storage, or possibly an incarceration center for children who disappoint us with demands for indoor plumbing and video games.
Meanwhile, here are a few in-progress stills from the past month and a half.
About to erect the second wall:
Roofing trusses being installed:
The enclosure:
Luxury!
Congratulations on your two major projects! You’ve raised the bar on nesting…
I stumbled across your blog somehow and wow, I’m impressed! Congratulations on the baby and home. I am completely in awe!
I too somehow stumbled across your blog…. A very nice place!
There is just one problem….
Are y’all somewhere up north?
Please! Say it isn’t so!!!
Cooter Hollow?
Way up north in Yankee Land?
Perish the thought!!!!
This is the real Cooter Hollow: http://ulocal.wxii12.com/_Let-it-Snow-in-Cooter-Hollow-Christmas-Day/photo/12477364/51585.html
That’s the real Cooter Hollow, taken from the gate…. follow the tire tracks 1.25 miles cross the creek and go right up the hill, and you’ll get to where yer going……
There are Cooter’s up there in Yankee Land?
Well, there are two kinds of “Cooters” that I am awre of…. so I guess that yes, there is at least one kind of cooter up there.
Oh yeah…. My darking wife has some of those melons too…. little melons, seems as if the smaller the melon the sweeter the treat…. works for me anyway…..
And, I really like it up there in Yankee Land…. “southern central NY state is absolutely gorgeous. We have even talked of maybe swapping our place here in Dixieland for a place somewhere up there, or a place that’s still way up north but not in Yankee Land, from Madisonm Wisconsin west over towards where Iowa and Minnesota and Wisconsin all meet.
Nice places both…. just three problems
1) there is apparently no such thing as a breakfast of rice and gravy, nor biscuits and gravy either, and real gravy—that would be real pork sausage gravy too—to be found
2) There is no such thing as real sweet tea to be had for hundreds of miles in any direction
3) Y’all sure do talk funny up there….
Anyway… a very nice site…. And I wish y’all all the best for this coming spring, of which here early spring has been since October, as we have yet to have any sort of winter here yet this year.
And re: >>> “(Please rest assured that this will never turn into a baby-mommy-blog of any sorts, and should I lose my edge by virtue of my newfound rotundity, I’ll go rub myself and our incubatory spawn up against a birch tree until we’re all sharp again.)” <<<
Like I told both my kids about where babies really come from…. "Two people start fucking, and one of the is gonna end up pregnant" Domestication is just a secondary side effect…. I told my son best not to ever get his woman thing pregnant, as breast milk is some pretty gross stuff, though I apparently didn't mind it a bit as a baby myself long ago…. That and a year and of being breast free, just wasn't the thing for me….
Wow – Y’all have been very busy in Cooter Hollow! I am so very impressed with your new building, and your outhouse! And Gayle’s comment made me smile – you have indeed raised the bar on nesting!
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