Since it was May since I did the last blog update I figured I would start from early June the goings on. Since NC is pretty much the epicenter of reported tick-borne illnesses in the US it would stand to reason that my chance of contracting this is pretty high given that we are in the woods just above very weekend. Around June 5 I started experiencing the classic symptoms (headache, low grade fever, sluggishness) and went to the doc to be checked. Upon my indicating I had been bitten several times by ticks in the past weeks she took a blood sample and prescribed doxycyline. Five days after the doctor's visit I got the spots (which was actually my capillaries leaking under the skin - very bad news...). However the good news is that I was already on the treatment and starting to get better so the damage was not worsening. The spots disappeared another 3-4 days later and I felt much better.
This is what RMSF looks like after about day 5 of when I suspected I had a tick-borne illness. I was on doxycyline at this point for 4 full days.
The cabin worked continued in earnest in July, August and September with us finishing the last bit of the deck (to be used as scaffolding for siding the dormer).
Taking a break to enjoy the quietness.
Completed siding and partial painting done
Beech log in front of the cabin has taken on some beautiful fungal arrangements
October 16
We added this awning after Hurricane Matthew dumped a whole lot of rain on us. We decided we needed to redirect water from the main roof above the door off to the ground as water splashed on the walkway deck onto the door sill and leaked into the cabin.
Oct. 16
Exterior cabin finishes nearly done to make it ready for winter. Needs deck railing and then we move inside to build the loft.
With cold, but dry weather over the weekend it made for ideal conditions to do some tree clearing for the homesite. This will take a number of weekends to complete and we are hoping to have this done before the trees bud. Fortunately we have some labor saving machinery to help make this adventure more productive and quite a bit safer than when we cleared the driveway. Any trees that get hung up in a fall we can put the winch on it and pull it down with relative ease from a distance. When we did the driveway we had to hook up a come-along winch (hand powered) with a rope. The tractor powered winch will easily pull 3-4 logs at a time from the forest up to the skid plate of the winch where I can then latch them and drag them up to the wood shed area where we limb, buck and split them into firewood.
We started in on the homesite clearing this weekend. Temperature was a comfortable 30 degree fahrenheit, sunny with variable wind conditions. A decent day for sawyering. However since it's been almost a year since I was last felling trees I was a little out of practice but still full of confidence - a recipe for mistakes and potential injury! Chainsaws are very dangerous machines that require full concentration and attention to proper protocols. I had just finished notching an 8" diameter ash, completed the back cut to drop the tree and moved a safe distance away for the fall. At that point I brought the saw across my thigh to rest it there and accidentally snagged the first inch or two of the chain bar on my thigh...thank goodness for my safety chaps!! The chain cut the outer fabric of the chaps and caught the microfiber mat causing it to bind and slow the chain speed almost to a stop. This little mishap was a bold reminder of how important it is to ALWAYS wear your PPE!!
