It seems the drought in SE TN has broken large on our heads. It would be great if we didn't have so much digging to do and no shelter. What they call a drought here is three weeks with not more than .5" of rain. According to our crude estimate gleaned from careful calculations of the wheel barrow and our up-turned dinner bowls, we've gotten 1.5" in the last day and a half. The tree frogs are loving it: pollywogs leaping from the water with amorous plans sung out at all hours of day and night. I've never heard so many varieties of song-birds. It sounds as though a mocking bird near our camp has been smitten with a cell phone ringer and calls potential wireless mates at first light. Box turtles venture into the open in the rain, but not their venomous reptilian cousins. It is paradisaical here, but with a trace of hostility. The poisonous plants are only a few of many elements that make it unsuitable for human habitation in it's raw form. Without some serious efforts at civilisation, this place would best fit the "fine place to visit, but . . ." category. However, those who have carved out a foothold for themselves and come to some balance with nature never want to leave. It will be a long process to make late spring through early fall really enjoyable, but we've seen that it can be done and with great rewards.
On the civilisation note, a couple of observations: 1. As we constructed our path to the building site, the many refrains Isaiah uses of the rough ways made smooth ran through my mind. When approaching a mountain, one cannot even estimate the value of a well-formed path. One of my joys as a younger mountaineer was the absence of any such path. Becoming lost to the route-finding was part of the thrill. Yet, it was then, as it is now, impossible to really communicate the difficulty of forging ahead without a path to those who'd never ventured off the trail. Now, a new dimension has occurred to me: the perspective of trail-maker. I lost track of how many times Dan and I wold turn to each other and say, this is really hard work. Isaac settled in to the repetitive task of cleaning the organic matter from the fill dirt as we excavated. The clean fill would be used to fill the voids left by boulders we removed. As we looked back on each section, the indications of what had taken place to smooth this very rough terrain under foot were gone. In their stead was a path that looked as natural to any hiker, and as ancient, as the roads of Rome. Gone was the frustration of rock and root, poison ivy, saw-vine, stump, and overdense saplings, unspeakable insects and arachnids. There was just a path in the wilderness made smooth. It looked like it had always been and there was no reason to expect otherwise. 2. The inherent inhospitality of the wild I spoke of can be seen in Exo. 23:28-30 and Deut. 7:22. These are current realities for us and we have the benefit of a mighty Western civilisation minutes away. It is terrifying to think of Adam and Eve banished from a garden, tended by the Great Horticulturist, into the wilderness, showing them only fang, claw, and thorn. It's not much better to be Noah and family. For those who don't experience this end in the wilderness, please be mindful of Deut. 32, which tells the fat and complacent, grown so by the ready availability of consumer goods and general ease, that their feet will slide in due time, for the day of their calamity is at hand.
2 Comments
Pete and Susie
5/14/2012 01:24:33 pm
And sooo...I guess you solved the generator DC connect issue. Did you get it done with the banana jack plugs we spoke of or was the jury rig more complex than that ??
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Lance
6/11/2012 01:59:21 pm
Sorry for the tardy reply, Pete. We ended up not using the plug-in, but rather just tied it to the gen battery directly. We added a quik-disconnect to the 12V output plug on the gen, but the voltage was just too high for the inverter (no load about 16+V). The battery, however, had perfect voltage, so we did a disconnect terminal and wire to it instead. Works like a champ.
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LanceLance doesn't like to publish his writing, as he reserves the right to change his mind. =P Archives
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