A Greener Day

A simple man, simple life and simple dreams.

I look out from my simple home, an old, borrowed travel trailer, across my land. I catch the late afternoon sunlight caught among the bare branches of ivy-trunked cottonwoods; they sway ever so gentle in the cool breeze. I hold to my simple pleasures such as this.

The weather has only mustered a high of 46 F degrees day after day. No less, no more. It seems constant - 46 degrees. The rain is frequent and the mud ever-present. 

I have accepted a simple life; no television, no visitors, keeping company with the small army of men who are contracted to appear for a short time, bringing their skills to add to the construction of my new home. 

By board, nail, screw, pipe, fitting, joist, truss and steel, the changes can be seen on the construction site. I too watch and see the changes on the land. 

I look down my gravel driveway as it turns at a right angle toward my gate that leads to the county road. Beyond the this graveled path are the trees and understory brush, and beyond this impenetrable tangle of wood and briar is the rush of Pilchuck Creek's icy waters. I see changes all around me. 

There is now a green haze among the branches. Spring comes and I am able to welcome it unlike any other year in my life. For I am living a simple, purposeful and rather undistracted life. This season I do not live in a spacious, temperature-controlled home with a barrage of routine chores to screen off the seasonal changes. Much has been stripped away and much has been added in my current simplicity.

I look at the changes from a simple perspective and I see a greener day.

I am simply grateful.

 

 Often I do wish I could share these simple pleasures with others. My hope is in a greener day.

Now, Who is that Character?

 

Cover of The Giver, Lois Lowery's 1993 Newberry Award winning story

'Who is that character?' That was the question I asked the other day after posting a selfie in a hand-knit Norwegian wool sweater standing in the mist-shrouded forest primeval on the Pilchuck. 

I supplied the answer that I liked to think that my unshorn hair and long, gray beard made me a likeness of the Norse god Oden. Perhaps I only managed to pull the Norwegian wool over my own eyes. To most, I probably look like one of the homeless drifters in the Pacific Northwest.

But then an epiphany! 

Yes, my new identity was sitting right under my nose. Shear happenstance, I had pulled a number of as-of-yet unread books from the shelves in my Texas home and packed them with me in anticipation of many, lonely months living in Washington as I oversaw the building of my new home on our woodland land. My eclectic reading material included a few books from my son's room; assigned reading from his middle school and high school English classes. Included in my haul of reading material was a book unknown to me, The Giver, a dystopian story by Lois Lowery. It had won a Newberry Award and I considered it worth packing  and stacking onto my small reading shelf in my travel trailer.

It only dawned upon me the other day after looking at the cover art that maybe the 'Giver' illustrating the cover bore a close resemblance to me in my current 'woodland wildman', Norse god persona. Not having a practical mirror in my travel trailer home, I took a selfie while holding the book cover next to my visage. It is almost magic, a trick worthy of Oden himself using mighty and magical gifts crafted by mythical Norse dwarves working in the under-realm. In this case, the magical gift I employed was crafted by Samsung.

Who is that character? Or what character have I become as I have lived in isolation for seven months? I think the resemblance is stunning - based on this coincidentally chosen paperback's cover art, I am The Giver; a single, individual living in isolation from society, assigned to hold society's truth and the memories of pain and pleasure in a world where fear, pain, color, delight and love - and choices, have been eliminated from everyone. 

 

 

I once was told that I bore an eery likeness to James Garfield. I now grace the cover of a book as a fictional, wise holder of memories. Now I need somebody to come visit me in my non-fictional isolation so that I may give them the benefit of my memories and stories. For such is the reason for this blog. 

 

Who is that character?

 

Who is this character?

Some say it is the Norse God, Oden. Is Oden missing an eye, the eye that he forfeited to the god Mimir in exchange for gaining divine wisdom?

Some say there is a resemblance to Charles Darwin. 

Others suggest he might me a ringer for Leonardo Da Vinci.

It is a know fact that this character is living in the woods of the Pacific Northwest in an old trailer parked for months under a grove of cedars. Probably just another one of those homeless guys.

  Look, he has two eyes after all. He looks like Oden, but perhaps not as clever, tricky and powerful. 

Se moi.

I have not had a haircut in 7 months. Curiously, my beard has grown longer than my hair. 

I admit, I think that the "wildman" look becomes me as I stand guard over the house being build out here in the forest. I live isolated and wild, I am unshorn and unfettered from what was a normal, clean-cut life. I have transformed into a character of my choosing, the wildman of the forest.

 I like to think of my long, gray beard as fitting for a Norse god. 

The Norsemen of mythology held deceit and trickery in high esteem. I like to think my hair and beard are a good fit for a Norse god - I think I have deceived and tricked only myself.

Most people think I am just another homeless guy living in the woods of the Pacific Northwest. Am so I am.

Little House in the Big Woods - Well, Well, Well

Well, Well; now that's a deep subject.

The house is going up. 

The well went down. 

Down to bedrock, about 18 feet to Bolson Creek sandstone formation about three years ago. 

Swath of fresh earth leads to water well, after clearing stickers

With the well down and the house up; it is time to connect them. They are 660' apart - that is exactly 1/8th of a mile. 

One of the difficulties in the intervening years since the original well (dug circa 1920) was brought up to code in 2017, is that a nasty tangle of blackberry stickers has grown in the 240' between the driveway and the well. 

The difficulties of getting to the well through the stickers and then laying a 1-1/2" poly-pipe underground from the well to the house for 1/8th of a mile is not so difficult if you have a trackhoe.

Phil (General Contractor) talks with Nick, excellent trackhoe operator

Nick does a great job of driving his trackhoe and solving some of our difficulties. We hire Nick to attach his brushhog implement to clear a swath through the stickers and then dig a three foot deep trench from the house to well. It is a beautiful day to watch the berry canes be cleared and fresh earth brought up in his scoop and piled next to a clean, straight trench, ready to receive water and electric lines. The underground service for both power and water will be fed through holes drilled in the basement foundation below ground level.

Water and Electric cables unspooled along bottom of trench

 

I dig progress!

 

Fresh trench for underground water and power lines goes 660' from house to water well

Trackhoe begins digging, Viewed from round dining room window

 

Ready for first scoop of dirt

Little House in the Big Woods - Blessings Above

 

Finishing touches on the metal roof

There are blessing from above. One such blessing came on March 2nd.

The psychologist, Abraham Maslow, famously ranks humanity's 'hierarchy of needs' - close to the basic roots of one's needs is shelter, a roof over one's head. 

Check. I've met that basic need now.

I got a forest green metal, long-lasting, low maintenance roof that blends with the surrounding canopy of evergreen tops. It is shelter and it meets my need for aesthetics and Maslow's 'self-actualization.'

 Mick Jagger sings Gimme shelter.

 I was expecting a finished roof at the end of 2021. In the cold, Pacific Northwest rain, I sing Gimme shelter.

 

Gimme Shelter, Mick Jagger and the Rolling Stones: https://youtu.be/RbmS3tQJ7Os

I wait as slow delivery of materials, labor schedules stretched thin and repeated bouts of snow and frequent rains delay my basic needs. Gimme shelter.

Forest green roof rises among the surrounding evergreens

 

A two month delay passes, shredding my initial expectation for a completed roof. But at the beginning of March, I walk into a house with a completed roof.  

I got me shelter.

It's a blessing above.