They didn't just play - they partyed!

When cats are away...mice party hearty!

We were home from Mexico just barely a week before we headed toward Turtle Falls for the first time since Thanksgiving. We had several reasons for the trip - my nephew's 9th birthday party, pick up our new used truck (that's right, we're now truck-driving trailer park girls), meet with a passive solar design architect and to remove Priscilla's hydro-hogging fridge and measure for a new more efficient fridge.

Over the winter, along with the dreams of getting back to Turtle Falls, we were hoping that the time spent in the fall to seal up the cracks and crevices in Priscilla would be enough of a deterrent for our furry little forest friends. Yes, we were very sadly mistaken...

Woohooooo...mouse party at Priscillaaaaa!

Such industrious little creatures. They had moved a good portion of the insulation from around the hot water tank to the top of the stove's cooktop. I'm guessing the R-Value of the fiberglass insulation wasn't enough for them as they shredded the tea towels that we left in the trailer and added that to the mix. Or maybe the tea towels were being used to cut down on the itch-factor of the fiberglass. We may never know their reason but you can bet we have learned our lesson to remove all linens before closing up for the winter. Good grief! Never a dull moment...

The Oust-a-Mouse House

The Spring Cottage Life Show was just this past weekend so we went to purchase a composting toilet. The fun thing about these shows is finding unexpected new and exciting things we never knew existed. This show was no different. We had only passed a handful of booths before we found the busiest booth in the whole show. The crowd was 3-4 people deep in front of the Oust-a-Mouse booth. Our recent experience at Priscilla helped us feel no shame in elbowing our way to the front of the crowd. We have no idea if this will work to keep these vermin revellers from rearranging the rest of Priscilla's insulation, but the speed at which these little houses were flying out of the booth, 2 and 3 at a time, makes me feel good about not being the only gullible show-goer. We'll report on it's efficiency after it's been installed for a while.

I'm sure you've had enough of our mouse mess, so I shall move on. The reason for our visit to the cottage show was for the compoosting (haha...totally innocent typo with a pun. I'm leaving it like that!) toilet. This booth was almost as popular as the Oust-a-Mouse booth and the reason why we have to wait 'til the beginning of May for delivery of this item. Who knew composting toilets to be in such demand? Anyway, I can still build the outhouse structure while waiting for delivery.

Can you hold that just a little longer Ras while I get a picture?

We're very happy to be rid of Priscilla's original fridge. The removal of this went rather smoothly until we tried to get the beast out of the trailer. Why is it builders of these trailers never consider the eventual future removal of defunct appliances before they size the entry doors for them? Anyway, I pretty much destroyed the fridge removing the trim bits that were the only obstacle stopping us, by about half an inch. Then off to the local RV place to see if they would take it off our hands, for parts at least. They took it...and immediately tossed it in their dumpster. Good riddance hydro-hogging, no-good-for-parts, measly-cubic-footed fridge! Hello hydro-sipping, spacious new EnergyStar-rated fridge...on sale last week at Home Depot...yippee!

Finally, the meeting with the architect went well. We both feel confident that he knows what needs to be done to build a great passive solar house. This is comforting. What's not quite as comforting is the idea of making this man a family member for the duration of the project. I can't speak for Ras, but I never knew the extent of the services an architect offers as a complete design package. We may actually spend more time interacting with this man than we will with our own family and friends during this whole process. Good thing we have a bigger fridge now...he may need to move in!

More later,
Mimi

Closing the gate on the 2011 season at Turtle Falls

What country property worth its salt is without a gate at the entrance? A gate, for our situation, is most helpful at keeping out the curious waterfront property seekers. The "SOLD" sign certainly doesn't deter these people. It amazes me to no end how people will drive up just at the moment you've stripped off all your clothes to enjoy an outdoor shower with Mother Nature. The other 23 hours and 55 minutes of the day when fully clothed...no curious property seekers. Stinkin' damn Murphy!

The lack of tool selection at Turtle Falls makes for some very odd choices when it's time to tackle certain tasks. Take digging post holes for the gate, for instance. I decided to attempt to dig the two holes for the gate posts. If I hit rock, which is very likely on this land, then we would make a call to the LoEG and have the holes dug by machine. I had to try, at least.

Digging post holes with a pry bar and extracting the dirt with a pickle jar...definitely not the speediest way to dig a hole.

The shovel worked well for the first foot of the needed 3ft depth, but then it loses its usefulness because of the narrowness of the hole. Then I changed to a borrowed post hole digger and that didn't work because the dirt would completely fall out of the thing before I could lift it out of the hole. Hmm...now what? I have an old, borrowed, and extremely heavy pry bar that did the trick of breaking up the dense clay very nicely. But then the only thing I could find to get the dirt out of the hole was a pickle jar....didn't need to borrow the pickle jar. You read that right, I dug two 3ft deep holes with a pry bar and a pickle jar. Worked like a charm!

 Ras mixes concrete for the post holes near the water supply. The gate installed and the 3 tools that got the job done.

Setting the posts in concrete and installing the gate itself were easy by comparison. Here's hoping our efforts will make for outdoors showers with a whole lot more privacy from now on, although we will have to wait til next season to find out. This is, sadly, our last project for the season. Priscilla has been given the winterizing treatment and the new gate will stand guard now until the ice is off the lake in the spring. The winter months will be spent learning about passive solar design, solar panels and energy efficient appliances. I can only hope time flies as fast over the winter as it did this summer.

By the way, the Turtle Falls moniker found favour with 77% of voters in last months naming poll. Thanks to all the readers for helping us choose the name. Click here to read about how the name Turtle Falls came about.

Cheers,
Mimi