The Illusion of Timberline

The trim is going in!

After a few long hours of feeling very much like Mr. Miyagi's pupil (brush on, wipe off...up, down...up, down...) we stained and polyurethaned 25 boards of varying length that will slowly become the trim around the interior windows, doors and walls of the cabin.

This was indeed an adventure, and in true McGehee style we could not possibly find a simple way to complete this project.

We began with great indecision about which color stain to use. After trying what seemed like 100 samples (in reality it was only about 7 or 8) we chose Ipswitch Pine: a light, natural golden color. After painting our fresh white pine boards, we realized that this color looked more pink than "Ipswitch". So, we gave a theory a try.

Using one of our many sample colors, we applied another layer of darker brown stain, called Early American, on top of the Ipswitch Pine. The result was just about the color that Mom has been dreaming of. So, we re-stained all 25 of those boards. Then we coated them with polyurethane. The poly gave the trim a beautiful depth and enhanced the color remarkably. We had a winner!

So far, our carpenter has completed all of the trim work in the loft and it is gorgeous! Take a look...

The Little House Goes Down the Big Hill!

Yesterday we moved the little cabin from the top of the mountain down to our property at the bottom of the mountain. It was quite a journey that required every single piece of heavy machinery that we had access to!



It's headed down the big hill!



Collier decided to pick some apples from our tree while he waited for Papa to maneuver the trailer through the gate to our drop-spot.



Getting the trailer into position. The plan is to slide the whole structure off of the trailer so that it blocks the 8 foot pathway next to the well. This should protect the well by keeping other vehicles from driving too closely to it in the future.



Half way off the trailer.



And it's off!



Papa and Collier made quick work of the leveling process with a vehicle jack and some big rocks we scrounged up from around the property.

We achieved a few other goals during the day:

I went to town and took a Literature exam at the local Community College. I love exams that include short essay prompts. They inspire quick thinking and force creativity in a limited period of time. This time my two essays included a comparison of the protagonist in "'Repent Harlequin!' Said the Ticktockman" with the infamous Mork from the 80's television show Mork and Mindy, as well as a brief opinion piece concerning how the plot of Ursula K. Le Guin's "The Ones Who Walked Away from Omelas" might have dramatically changed had the Harlequin taken the place of the protagonist in this story.



Secondly, our carpenter completed a new set of barn doors! They are beautiful, and we can't wait to paint them with the rest of the house exterior.

Finally, we began staining the boards that will trim the interior windows and doors! Photos coming soon!

Little House in the Woods

Many years ago, when I was just a little girl, my grandparents built a little log cabin behind their house for the grandchildren to play in. We pieced it together with our own hands. We even used authentic mud and straw chinking between the logs. This is a little piece of McHistory.

Well, this little cabin is on it's way out, or at least that's what we thought. Papa's evaluation of the cabin noted areas of rot. He didn't think that the cabin would be salvageable. This was so disheartening, because the cabin was scheduled to be torn down to make way for Papa's new workshop.

A funny thing happened when Papa attempted to disassemble it. He attached a rope above the window, hooked the other end to his tractor, and took off! Instead of falling apart as he expected, the structure slid off of it's cinder block foundation. Papa preceded to pull the cabin across the ridge top.

Since the cabin is not actually rotten, we have a plan to move it down the mountain to our property.

So far, we have loaded the cabin on a trailer.



To accomplish this, we used two tractors and a bulldozer to pull the cabin up on the trailer and slide it into a secure position.



Almost up!



There she goes!



Papa used the bulldozer to slide the cabin forward on the trailer until it was secure enough to move down the mountain.



We did need a little bit of brawn to straighten it up on the trailer.



These two little characters watched us from a safe distance.



The cabin will stay on the trailer in the driveway until we clear a pad for it on our property.

Fred the Buffalo Head

Our new house wouldn't be a home without Fred the Buffalo Head! Dad had to fit some humor into move-in day.

On the Road Again

This is the view that greeted us as we drove into Fallon, CO, the location of our new rental home.

We set forth on the first leg of our 5 legged journey to CO (just a reminder of the legs: FL to CO, CO to NC, NC to FL, FL to NC, NC to CO).

On Tuesday we packed ourselves in my Cube and drove to FL. On Wednesday morning we picked up our Penske moving truck and began loading things from our massive storage units. As we packed the truck like a well-planned puzzle, we arranged and organized things in our remaining storage units (went from having 6 units to 3 units). We filled the truck by the end of the day. Went home and got a good night's sleep. There were still many loose ends to tie up in Jax, so we didn't make it out of town until 6pm on Thursday. We drove straight through the night and all day on Friday. After stopping for 5 or so hours at a hotel, we were rested enough to continue into Colorado on Saturday morning (this morning). After returning the car carrier, gassing up, and getting a weigh ticket we finally made it to our new rental house a little after 1pm.


We were greeted with such love! This sign has been around for a few years, as a reminder that even if we don't have a house, we always have a home in Colorado.

With the help of our amazing friends, the truck was unloaded in record time and we were able to enjoy a nice meal before beginning to unpack boxes. Collier and I were able to fit in some much-needed school work!


We also celebrated sweet little Katrina's 9th birthday! She was so kind and helpful in her eagerness to spend her birthday helping us unload our big moving truck.

We are incredibly tired, but there is still much to do. I am looking forward to worshiping as a complete family and spending time with the Nabeta family on Sunday night. It feels so good to be home!

Westward Bound!

We are finally moving back out to Colorado...but in true McGehee fashion, everything has to be complicated.

Here is the plan of the moment:

September: make one trip to CO with 1/2 of our belongings. Move these things into the new house that Dad found for us to rent (for our new address, please send a request to me via e-mail at brideofchrist88@gmail.com). Return from CO and continue working on the barn in NC.

October: Finish barn work. Get final inspection. Compete in another tractor pull.

November: Dad comes to FL to help us load the rest of our posessions and drive one last truck to NC, where we unload all of the stuff we have been saving to furnish the barn. Drive the truck the rest of the way to CO and STAY there!

Of course, plans are always subject to change.

Whirlwind Work Week at the Barn!

Last week was extremely busy and equally productive! In about 4 days we accomplished what would normally take us about 2 weeks. We were in a great rush due to our looming trip to Colorado. In order to meet our October deadline for the final inspection of barn construction, we had some essential repairs and improvements to make.

Our outside work consisted of a few major projects:


Continuing construction on the retaining wall to improve the appearance and stability of the bank and protect the house from it's tendency to erode.


Papa wrestled his bulldozer out of the garage and down the mountain to grade the driveway. Because of some unwise initial grading on the house pad, water tends to sit around the bottom of the barn like a moat! This has caused some unsettling rot around the entire perimeter. This grading will hopefully direct water away from the house.


Here, Collier uses the scrape blade on the tractor to smooth out Papa's heavy grading. To achieve an appropriate angle, Papa put some extra pressure on the left side of the blade by standing on it. I called this "mountain man surfing"!


We dug sawdust out of the Taj Ma-stall in preparation for it to receive a new cement floor. We have done a great deal of digging this week, to the point that I am developing bulging arm muscles again!


We chose paint colors for the exterior of the house, the trim, and the doors!

Meanwhile, on the inside of the house we finished priming the sheetrock...



Painting the whole house with the final interior wall color...



And faux finishing most of the higher walls while we had access to scaffolding!



Up close, the walls with texture (called Skip Trot), primer, paint, and faux finish looks like this...


While we are making this next trip to Colorado (see next blog), our carpenter will be pouring a cement floor in the stalls, cutting off about 2 feet of wood all the way around the bottom of the house and replacing it, and generally becoming our hero. Having this work done will set Mom's mind at ease about our rot issue and while it was not necessary for passing the final inspection, it was a major concern for the longevity of this structure. When we return from Colorado we will be continuing on with finish work!

There are many more pictures of construction progress in our photo album!

Is Chivalry Dead?

Last week my Lit class had a lively discussion about whether or not chivalry is dead. I wanted to share my thoughts with you as well as my responses to the thoughts of others. I argued that chivalry is NOT dead, nor can it change with the times. In addition, I strongly recommended that the concept of chivalry be viewed as a verb rather than a noun (it's dictionary denotation). The discussion question was:

"A Rose for Emily" portrays a Southern town in decline. The elegance and chivalry that marked Emily Grierson's young adulthood appear to be gone by the time of her old age and death.

Looking at today's society, why do you agree or disagree with the notion that chivalry is dead?

After posting your response, read and respond to the posts of your classmates.

My discussion post was the following:

Chivalry as a Verb

Is chivalry dead? The affirmative statement is the most commonly promoted statement on the subject of chivalry. Taking a quick glance over the definition of the word 'chivalry', it reads: "the sum of the ideal qualifications of a knight, including courtesy, generosity, valor, and dexterity in arms". While we do not exactly have knights riding round our cities and defending our honor, the premise of this definition is clearly understood.

While the word 'chivalry' is considered a noun, I would consider it to be a verb. Words are simply words if they have no substance; the turning point between an idea and an action. Courtesy is meaningless if it is not acted upon as is generosity, valor and even dexterity in arms.

I have been examining our culture thoroughly and deeply for many years and have come to the conclusion that chivalry is NOT dead. To say that it is, would be to concede that there are no honorable men in this world and to deny the few who do exist. I do not believe that would be proper or respectful to proclaim. I know first hand that chivalry is not dead. I also know first hand how rare it is.

Looking at our current literature, film, television, internet and other methods of influencing today's youth, I do indeed see a horrifying pattern in the way parents are allowing their children to behave. There is a complete lack of accountability for children and young adults and the result is a self-centered, self-serving generation. In their lives, chivalry is history and will continue to be until we begin expecting humility and maturity from the generation of future leaders, pastors, politicians, waitresses, teachers, lawyers, and doctors; the servants of tomorrow.

------------

One of my classmates posted the following thought on the topic:

Chapter 2 Discussion (pardon the spelling and grammar errors as I copied this directly from the discussion board)

I do not think chivalry is dead, I just think as the generations come along, certain things are not taught the way they were a long time ago. I think that men need to be reeducated on how to do simple things such as opening the door for women, helping older women with their groceries, etc. I think there is also a different with times as well because women are different in this generation. Before, women were very dependent and were not as hard of workers as they are today. Today, women want the same respect as men, and don't want to be dependent, they want to be independent and show that they are capable of doing just as much as men. As I said, I don't think chivalry is dead, it is just different with the times.

To this post, I responded:

Mikeisha,

You bring up the cultural paradox of our feminist society. Women want both independence and chivalry. I would propose that the definition of chivalry has not changed, nor should it. Rather the expectation of men is being lessened and women are allowing it to happen in their quest for independence. A result is the utter confusion of good men because women seem to want both independence and chivalry in a way that causes the two to combat each other in practice.

Chivalry can NOT change with the times. It is when we accept actions such as honking a car horn to summon a girl from her home as chivalry that we threaten to stoop to a new level of disrespect.

------

I greatly desire to honor those men, young and old, that have proven to me that chivalry is not dead! The following are men that I have gotten to know who embody this call (first names only). When I think of chivalry today, these men immediately come to my mind:

Dale
Collier
Allen
Ron
Tyler
Daniel
Bradley
Peter
Jeff
Jarrod
Sawyer
Cam
Josh
Craig
Rich
Luke
Paul
Isaac
Chris
Zachary
Joshua
Carl
Kevin
Nathan

McGehee's Law

We have often joked about our seemingly stellar ability to find some dilemma in our every undertaking. Today, we collected more evidence in favor of "McGehee's Law": If anything can go wrong, it will.

We rented a Penske moving truck in Jacksonville to move the first half of our belongings to Colorado this week. When we arrived at the rental dealership we discovered that the truck did not have the promised lift, but a typical ramp. Quite disgruntled (for this lift was the ONLY reason we rented a Penske truck) we had to shrug our shoulders and drive the oversize vehicle to our storage unit.

Please keep us in your prayers today as we load the truck with minimal injury and a great deal of patience and loading skill!

I will post a few more updates from our NC construction adventures tonight (hopefully). Check out our family photo gallery for pictures of the progress!

#3. You Know You're Building A Cabin...

...when the process of "primping" in the morning consists of slathering on copious amounts of deodorant (while knowing that you will still smell like a box of rotten cat food at the end of the day), and "doing" your hair with a ponytail and bandanna (to minimize the amount of paint and debris that you have to cut/wash out).

#2. You Know You're Building A Cabin...

...when the employee at the Lowe's paint counter spends the last 2 1/2 hours of his shift mixing your 51 gallons of indoor and outdoor color and both of you can still manage to laugh and smile at the end of the ordeal.

Fire-retarded

Important goals were achieved today. This morning we set out to cover the ceiling of our barn/workshop with fire-rated plywood. Acquiring the plywood was an adventure in the first place, so we could assume that the application would be just as interesting! It was a little slow getting started, but with some precise measurements and physical collaboration we completed installation of 12 sheets in the ceiling of the barn.


This portion of the barn is what we call the "Taj Ma-stall". When I had my horse, Danny, he lived in this barn. It is a luxurious 14x24 foot stall, which he had all to himself. In this picture, you can see where we have already installed the ceiling on the right, and the portion on the left still to finish.


Here, Dad and Collier are holding the plywood above their heads as they try to screw it into the rafters. We were creative with scaffolding. Thankfully the ceiling is only about 9 feet high.

We were blessed with a yummy Chinese dinner at the end of a long work day, and we were very thankful to make it through the day injury-free! We're looking forward to a day in town tomorrow, worshiping and running errands in preparation for another work Monday. We hope you are ardent and sincere in your worship tomorrow as we are eager to be!

#1. You Know You're Building A Cabin...

...when your list of to-do's for town is written with a fat Sharpie on a 2"x4" scrap!

No "R&R"

We are so excited to have Dad with us in North Carolina this weekend! He took a late flight out of Colorado and arrived in Knoxville at nearly midnight last night. We had the two hour drive back up the mountain to catch up on all of the important happenings of our dual lives. We plan to spend Dad's visit working on the cabin.

Today's objective is to mount fire retardant plywood to the ceiling of the workshop and stalls in the downstairs portion of the barn. This is another big step and generally a big job. It requires at least three people: two to hold the plywood up in the rafters, and one to use the pneumatic screw gun. It is also very important to spot important plumbing/electrical lines and make sure that we don't screw the plywood into them! When we're finished, it will be time to cover the downstairs walls with rough-sawn wood and begin finish work upstairs.

Speaking of which...today marks the completion of texturizing the upstairs walls. Our paint samples turned out to be too dark for the space, so we still have some hunting for the perfect color. On Monday morning we should be ready to start painting!

Finish work is exciting, but not necessarily easier than all of the prep work that we have been doing. Just as with any "fun" job (what we consider as a job that provides more instant gratification with visible results) there is still a great deal of prep work involved.

Meanwhile, the little projects we've been doing in the evenings are coming right along! So far, we have "up-cycled" an old brass chandelier, transformed old horseshoes into toilet paper holders, and created adorable wooden fish from a fallen tree. The current project in progress is a circular saw blade clock. One of the joys of building a rustic barn is our ability to look at just about anything and see it's potential for use.


This chandelier has been sitting in the barn for five years waiting to be recycled. We found a can of black spray paint with a hammered effect and decided that it would be a perfect wrought iron style accent!



Papa helped us heat these extra large horseshoes with an acetylene torch and bend them about 90 degrees at the apex. We can utilize the original nail holes to attach the shoe to the wall and viola! We have created an easy-to-use, slip on-slip off toilet paper holder for each of the two bathrooms. I painted both with the hammered effect spray paint.



We spotted a similar piece of decor in a restaurant in Asheville a couple of weeks ago. About five of these wooden fish were strung through the "mouth" with twine and hung over a nail in the wall above our booth. I LOVED the idea and told Collier that he needed to make something like it. This is what he brought me. Needless to say, Collier's version is far superior while maintaining the rustic feeling of the wood. He plans to purchase a stringer for about four to five of these fish.