Summer Shelter

Until now I've never had trouble sleeping past 5 AM. Maybe I've never been this excited to get up in the morning? Today the guy from Washington Public Utility District is coming up to the site. Could that make me too excited to sleep? Getting electricity? I remember sleeping through Santa visits.

Initially we wanted to be totally off the grid but since electricity is generated locally and is 3.2 cents/kwh here in northern Pend Oreille county, attaching ourselves to the grid was our most sustainable solution.

Yesterday we got a lumber delivery and built a tent platform with hand tools since we don't have our electricity yet. Always getting the good jobs, I rolled the decking with water-based wood preservative that didn't seem like it did anything and backfilled the pier holes with a shovel and hoe until I ran out of dirt. Vince wasn't listening completely a month ago when I told him the tent platform plans were sort of involved (matter of fact he doesn't think I mentioned it at all) so I stayed out of his way until the hand sawing and nailing started to morph the platform into a satisfying work of art.

8 PM. The thick purpley-gray clouds that snuck up and over the 7,000 foot mountains surrounding our field delivered a silent fifteen minute shower followed by a radiant triple rainbow, delicate sickle of a new moon and a summer shelter that made me wonder why we were even building a house.

The cell phone rang "Is the Cape Cod house available August 15-22?" The contrast of the hand tools with booking a $3000/week rental was, well, quirky.

Time for some of that beer Vince brought from Vermont.