Okay, so this sabbatical has taken on a few forms ever since I got started on this. Initially, the plan was to get a travel trailer, and travel the country a bit and see people. While I still hope to do some traveling, the travel trailer is on hold until I get a tax issue straightened, and that may take more than 15 months until I see all that money back. But even before that, the travel trailer was put on hold until I could get some land and that took much longer than expected. I needed the land to have a place to put the travel trailer away when I return to work. While I am happy with the land that I purchased, the travel trailer was delayed until I could rebuild the roads up there and level out some land to place it.
So then the next plan was to put up a temporary small tent (Camp ALPHA) and get a wood stove going while I do the road improvements. That tent has been pretty fantastic, but I needed more room, which the much larger outfitter tent was put in. However, for reasons I still don’t understand, the tent literally blew away. I have finally got that tent extricated from the forest (there will be a post on that in the future). But between the battering the small and big tents have got, its time for another plan.
The winds on the mountain are pretty interesting. On good weather days, the weather repeats itself pretty consistently. iIts nearly calm until about 10:15 in the morning and then it blows pretty hard until about noon. It calms down then, and then picks up again between 2 and 6 pm. Then it calms down a bit, and then around 9 pm its nearly calm. But this is during predictable calm weather, but when a storm comes through, I don’t know, but I can see lots of knocked over trees in the forrest, my tent blew away, and the tiny tent has been pretty heavily battered. I can’t stay up on the mountain during storms right now due poor roads, but also because there are quite a few lightning strikes up there.
So, here is the new plan until we figure something else out. Cabin living, sort of. I took one of the lofts in the shed and turned it into a makeshift living arrangement.
So this does one thing immediately, protection against the weather. Its been dry in the shed and its actually retaining its temperatures pretty well. I also have a propane gas heater in there as well for when the temps drop. All of the sudden, I guess I am now cabin living.
Also, that previous wood stove just wasn’t going to work out. The metal was too flimsy, the firebox too small, and the stove wasn’t flat on top so you couldn’t cook on it. So thats now been upgraded as well.
Its really nice to be able to just put a can of soup, and a pot of water on the stove and just walk away while it does its thing. Plus, working with the dampener on the pipe and the air holes on the bottom allows to pretty good control over the fire. I made this pork tenderloin, and cooked the corn over the stove as well.
My days out there are becoming less stressed and getting time to focus on just relaxation a bit. At 5 pm, I am trying to cut out of working and just relaxing. I took Tyr on a walk Monday night, to the top of the mountain (higher than my own property, and…. its pretty much like mine, and also quite nice.
Finally, made a campfire and just called it a night. But, this ring of stones for the campfire has now been torn down. I want to put the camp fire some place else, but I just haven’t figured out where yet. When I do, I will be adding mortar to it and making it permanent.
So how am I relaxing? Some hiking, some exploration on the land, but after a long hard day of work I have found myself watching computer security videos, how to, and other educational videos downloaded from YouTube Red and and other entertainment via Netflix. During the day, I have been working while listening to podcasts, audiobooks, and some music. The block rocker and no neighbors makes this a good combo.
Tyr has been adjusting to living outdoors more often as well, most of the time I see him camped out by the shed or car.
Anyway, I have many more posts to come, and hopefully they will all be coming over the next week or so. Thanks for reading!
Vantages From Vandalia 
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