Someone turned on Autumn…

It’s the first Friday of September, and it feels a bit like late October. Temperatures have dropped significantly, as if switch operated. The forecast shows over a week of cloudy, rainy and cool conditions. The highest forecast temperature for the next week is 14c, and lows as low as 4c.

The rain has returned and slows us down somewhat, but it’s still been a productive week. Everything from the previous camper location has now been moved to this final spot. Unable to get the truck close to the camper due to muddy and soft ground conditions, everything has to be carried from the road by hand or wheel barrow, some 1000ft or so. It can be grueling, but we’ve definitely got our daily steps in!

After cleaning a spot near the camper and removing three smaller trees from it, we’ve spent much of the week putting together a rough structure from pallets which will become a wood store.

It’s been a slow process, measuring, digging, levelling the small piers to place the pallets on. Then finally laying them down and screwing them all together. We started putting up the corner pallets, as we intend to leave some gaps in the walls, but ended up having to stop because our drill battery ran out of power, and waves of rain kept getting heavier.

Of course, with very little in the way of sun, we have very little charge on our power stations or the camper batteries, so we’ll have to skip using the drill and screws until we have enough power to charge the drill battery again, and use nails and a hammer where we can. It’s quite frustrating, as we prefer using screws which seem to hold so much better for what we’re working with.

We need to try and diagnose our generator which seized up on us last year. If we can get that working again, we could charge up everything in a few short hours. If the weather permits, that may be a task today between rain showers. We don’t currently have a covered area outside to do such work under, protected at least from rain.

Another thing that needs addressing is the furnace in the camper. A few weeks back it suddenly stopped working. One minute it was fine, the next.. nothing. It could be a wiring issue or something more in depth. We’re hoping for a simple fix, because while we don’t particularly have the cash to be burning propane in vast quantities, it would be nice to have some heat to take the edge off on these cold days and nights.

All in good time. At least the week has felt productive, and we are motivated to keep working on all we can. The every present pressure of the clock ticking towards winter is a strong motivator.