Bouldering with Friends

In the mid-30's with the sun shining is ideal for bouldering. It would have been perfect if it hadn't rain torrentially the day before. But it was the first time out after the challenges of recent months, and I was just thankful to be out.

Carrying a refrigerator and mobile home on your back on a trail lined with small trees that 3-4 feet apart is a bit challenging, but my climbing partner seems all smiles and ready to go.

I had one of two small pads and a front pack- pretty chill.

We wondered what to expect as we went up the mountain. In town and most of the way up there was a dense, cold fog. But above that was cloudless blue sky and quickly warming temperatures.

Right next to the first boulder was the top of a fallen tree hung in the fork of another. Somehow it looked bigger and weirder in person.

Now down to business. Warm up on some big, cold jugs with plenty of pads and spotters as needed. We cycled around taking turns. A good rest between attempts and visual beta (for non-climbers: information to help you complete the climb) always increase your chances.

Friend #2, as you will, is long, lean, and intense. He is also Eastern European by birth and I learned some interesting facts about his growing up and transition to the West.

My climbing partner's wife can be quite intense about climbing, but this day she wanted comfort and sunshine.

Grandfather Mountain above the trees and fog, oh, glorious day.

The uppermost low cliff line has a cellphone tower perched atop it. In reality, it was a DOE windmill tower back in the seventies, but variable and high winds required the windmill blades be feathered most of the time to prevent damage, sort of a failed experiment you might say.

A sit start means just that, you are sitting on the pad and then lift your body up to start the climb. You can see the dynamic power involved in such moves from the low angle of the rock and motion in this picture.

On the same climb she gives it a try, and the sun's rays filter over the lip of the boulder as morning progresses and the potential spotters nonchalantly look on.

The happy couple catch some rays and smile for the camera.

Struggling to make headway on the hard problem being projected, I got the urge to get up top in the sunshine. I scrambled up an easy route and saw this view. Just as I topped out my cellphone intoned an incoming call that could deeply change my future, but the certainty of the offer has since wavered. I am so glad it is a beautiful day.

Hump Mountain on the Tennessee-North Carolina border and Yellow Hump to the left pictured next. That is the mountain on which I have hiked more than any other. and it speaks to my heart of things past and potentially future.

The sun doesn't shine under this boulder until late afternoon.

We moved on to another boulder and found a worthy challenge. My two friends were able to complete it after several and many tries, respectively. I could not make the crux (hardest) and final move before much easier terrain. On what was to be my next to last try, my heel hook peeled off and I came down hard on the pads. I thought that only my ego was harmed because there was no pain. I stepped back to become a spotter and started seeing blood on the pad. I looked down to see my hand bleeding profusely and then saw that my pinky pad was torn off. (It bled so much that now, a week later, I never got any infection in it.) I went and cleaned it up and wrapped two band-aids around it to stop the bleeding. Only as we walked out did it begin to throb and intensified as we rode home. (It has healed amazingly well.) I want to go back and complete the climb, but I should at least wait until I have regrown a fingerprint. I have never had a pad rip so deeply. I think it was a combination of all of my weight suddenly on four fingers of my left hand and a minor bit of dehydration.

Why do we climb? It's the challenge, the exercise, the comradery, the time outdoors, the elements, the focus that decompresses the mind and body. I am thankful at 62 to still be able to try hard, even if I am not all of that good. God's Creation is beautiful and reminds us of His power and wisdom and the joy and peace He imparts to us. So, I keep going out.

Parting Shots

 One of the last times that I went to the house we are selling, I looked around and reminiscences abounded. So, I took a few parting shots. There were the many times vacuuming water out of the basement, for instance. But the picture I show here reminds me that our house closing date was delayed a month because the inspector was concerned that the wall was slowly collapsing. We had to have carbon fiber straps installed to stabilize the wall. The horizontal crack had paint in it from where I had painted the wall over 15 years earlier. I don't think it has move much in that time. 

Two dehumidifiers worked non-stop to try to mitigate the moisture. Many professionals suggested solutions but none that would work when you are a foot below the water table and lower than any point to drain the water to. The platforms prevented tracking paint upstairs when you came down to do the laundry. The Dagger whitewater canoe had many good memories. It is really hard to carry by oneself, however.

A cellphone does very poor digital zoom, but if you look closely you can see the molting hawk sitting atop the swing frame.

A fairly modest home from the street, but it met our needs for 22 years and had many characteristics and memories we enjoyed.

The Willow Oak at the back corner of the carport is about 2 1/2 feet in diameter and spreads over the house. Everyone who looks at it seems to think it should come down, but we like trees.

The flower garden is so dense in the summer with lilies of various kinds that no weeding is required. It typically blooms from April until late July.

There are two Northern Catalpa Trees, the following one with a double trunk. This section of yard was the best for soccer, throwing ball and has a basketball hoop and backboard off to the left.

The other one has a very twisted trunk with a very large fork about seven feet up. It used to have a large Wisteria vine that wrapped up into the fork upon which my oldest son would mount the fork to read. You can also see two out of three firewood sheds that I built for keeping several winter's wood dry.

The lot is actually two lots for a total of about 3/4 acre, pretty big for in town. along the far boundary are five stately Shortleaf Pines that laid down a large bed of needles every year. For many years a hawk nested in the top of one of these and kept the squirrel and songbird population in check. There were numerous squirrel nests in the hardwoods.

I had built the swingset fort at another house we rented some 25+ years ago now. In more recent years it had become a place to store firewood and few swings for the rare occasions when grandchildren come to visit. At one point a zipline ran back to right of the shed.

Being winter it is hard to see the six blueberry plants I bought from the extension office soon after we moved in. In recent years they had produced gallons of berries but this last year the animals must have lacked other food because they decimated my crop.

I had tried gardening the first few years I was here, but the soil was so poorly drained that dwarf plants were the rule. The last few years I had tried a raised bed, but the groundhog, possum, and rabbits like greens too much. I had built the compost pile the first year we were there. Worms and bacteria and moisture are rough on even treated wood. Someone will need to replace it. The Chinese Chestnut at the right produced copious chestnuts but most years they were underdeveloped and worm eaten. If you collect them early, you can get a few to roast, though I never tried it on an open fire.

I built the 12 x 20 shed and added the lean-to roof a year ago for the riding lawnmower. The pine log to the right of the shed roof was what was left of a large Virginia Pine that fell on the shed about 6 years ago during a heavy ice storm.

It was a good tool/workshop shed.

I built the center roof trusses with a vaulted ceiling so that I could flip over boards when using the tablesaw. When the large pine broke off about 3 feet above the ground and flipped over onto the shed it broke one truss and cracked two others. The repairs were not extensive. You can see where I spliced one of the cracked ones. I was pleased that my trusses could take all of that strain and the trunk not come down into the shed. Nothing inside was harmed.

The two small trees are a Jonathan and Winesap Apple trees I planted about four years ago. I was hoping for some fruit this year. Hopefully someone will enjoy good apples. Beyond that is a twenty foot American Holly and three Willow Oaks.

There are also three Maple cultivars planted perhaps 40 years ago.

At the back corner is a Walnut tree that has grown over the corner marker, obscuring it from view.

The drainage problems were not just in the basement. I dug several diversion ditches to direct water into the grate and the underground, 30 inch concrete pipe carrying the creek. During heavy rains this pipe probably needs to be at least 48 inches.

I don't understand the trend to paint brick. I like a simple brick veneer house with its low maintenance. I also find it fascinating how cameras pick up light wave interference in the bricks, revealed as curved cement joints, which are not there.

A carport long enough to accommodate two vehicles or many partiers on a few occasions. I see numerous evidences of efforts to reduce water inundation in this end of the house. None of them ultimately worked.

And we heated with wood for many years, but you already know that if you have read even a few of my blog entries. So, I end with warm thoughts about our home of 22 years, but no regrets for what had been a rather high maintenance property. I hope someone else enjoys it as much as we did and finds a way to reduce the maintenance.

 

Trailer-rig

 I had to get it home after dark. So, I jury-rigged the plug ends together. You can't see the real artistry of the fix. I had four nails whose heads I clipped off to fit the holes of the female plug ends and forced the sharp ends into the opposite plug ends. This only made connection and worked the lights if I put side torque on the plugs, so I taped a carpenter's pencil between the plug ends to provide the torque. The lights worked without fail the several days I had it hooked up.

Before I left the house that we sold for what I thought was the last time*, I spied this curiosity on one the carport posts. The spider egg sac in the center was hung for a Spring reveal of the spiderlings. It was the pine fascicle with only two needles that drew my attention. Since we don't have Red Pine in these parts and only Virginia Pine and Eastern White Pine are in the yard, I assume it was the latter with three needles detached. My eye was drawn to it because it was perfectly vertical and held as if displayed in a museum. In reality, upon closer inspection, I saw that the spider's silk had displayed it alongside the egg sac. The features of weathered paint complete the shadow box effect.

Outdoor Living Space

 I never remember to take pictures early on. We began by digging about 30 feet of shallow trench for downspout drainage under the agricultural cloth and gravel. Joists went fast in a day.

We extended out the ten foot deck 12' and then ran 18' along the back of the house. I always tar the part of the post below grade. Aligning and plumbing tall posts is a challenge. 3 out of 4 were dead on, but the last one was a slight bit off when we went to cutting joists. In deck building, I shoot for 1/32", feel good about 1/16", and accept 1/8" tolerance. Boards have crowns, vary in width by as much as 3/8" in the larger ones, and bow. Some have to be trimmed, which is tedious and time consuming.  The joists went in decently fast.

Decking always goes down fast, but with 20 screws per board, it can wear you out after a few hours. Here I am saying fast a second time, so what takes so long? There is always some hiccup of alignment or boards to be cut in as pictured around the posts below or as can you see in the previous picture of the joist into post. Why not just bolt the board onto the side of the post? Regardless of how stout the bolts are, the wood can only hold so much, and it is holding the end of ten joists in this example.

We were trying to match the pitch of the main roof. That was actually quite tricky where the deck turned. I like the sun rays and shadows in this next picture. It looks warm but was anything but.

Symmetry and perspective are pleasing to the eye. The Creator placed that desire in us and reveals it in so many ways in His creation. He is a God of order.

Since the side deck was 10' wide and the back deck is 12' wide the intersection of the two at the corner made an interesting geometry problem. They may put a lath ceiling up later, but if not, I wanted the rafters at the corner to meet. Therefore, they had to be a different distance apart on one side of the corner rafter than the other. The attachment of the corner rafter is crucial. Imagine a record 28", wet snow, and the owner decides to climb up on top to clean it off because of the groaning rafters. It has to support all of that. Four 6" lag screws diagonally through the double beam rafter into the second story floor joists were my solution. I am confident that it will pass the test.

The second story deck was already there when I arrived, but they didn't like the railing and they wanted a roof over it, too. Removing the existing railing posts out of the hole and custom fitting the 6 x 6 posts for the roof into those holes was tedious. Here you see that they are braced by 2 x 4's which double as safety railings. 

The rafters and roof battens or purlins in place, it is ready for roofing. He special ordered the roofing length and the holidays were imminent, so it was not finished as of this writing. I will get in on that later.

The roofing went on fast, I was told, because I had COVID when that happened and sheltered in bed for two weeks. The fascia will sport gutters later on that drain into the corrugated drain lines, which brings us full circle to how we started. They had already set up the living space and had a party before I returned after the holidays. Everyone seemed happy with the result.

9th Grandchild