Picnic on the Grounds

Accompanied by my good friend, Dana, on the construction visit, we improvised a picnic area in the master bedroom with buckets, a board, and our simple spread of goodies.  As always, I love sharing our cabin with friends.  We brought a dark chocolate-chip pound cake to share with the guys after lunch.  It fueled their efforts towards the present goal of getting the main cabin "in the dry". 

All of the rafters are in place now for the main cabin roof.  I love all the varying angles and the way the chimneys tie into the roof structure.  When the cedar shingles are completed it will be spectacular.  From this view, which is the back, the far left is Devin's bedroom, followed by the gathering room, kitchen/dining area, ending at the master bedroom on the right.

The Daniels brothers from Ecru/Thaxton delivered the doors they built for the bedroom of the guest cabin.  Built of reclaimed oak, the doors are gorgeous!  There are two interior doors with glass and two exterior doors with screen instead of the glass.  They open out onto the porch above the running water of Canoe Branch.  It will be a great place for hosting the guests we hope to have at the Glen.  The sounds of nature promise to surround all who stay at the Glen, washing away the cares of the world, and connecting them to the heart of the Creator Himself!  All in good time...

Dig, Billy Joe, Dig!

Have we ever discussed the energy issue?  How many times?  Over and over the discussion has taken many rabbit trails as I've previously mentioned.  Today, October 1, 2009 was monumental.  Mike and Ed are to the right in this photo, discussing the ridge as the location for the solar tracker.  This is a great change of events as we had thought it was not going to work and the tracker (which is huge) would have to be placed behind the main cabin.  Arriving on the job today, my goal was to come to agreement on the placement of the tracker so it would be least visible, especially from the huge kitchen window over the sink.  As we looked there was no way to "hide" such a monstrosity.  It was painful to think such a gorgeous rustic cabin was destined to have a space-age contraption in plain site.  The numbers were crunched, options tossed around, ramifications identified, and what was left was a no-brainer...

    Put the tracker on the ridge! 

So we turned the backhoe loose and yelled,

"Dig, Billy Joe, Dig!",

sending him up above the cabin on the ridge.  It is about 350' up, but completely out of site through the woods.  The other huge bonus is that the increased range of sunlight up there makes a huge difference in energy-generating capacity.  All around, it seems to be the decision we've all been waiting to arrive at.