Alta, roofing, Smart's Crossing

We headed up to Alta for some roof shingling, wood splitting with my new Gransfors Large Splitting Axe and hanging out with some of Chloe's friends from UCSD (Becky and Fred)




I decided to use the subie as a shingle carrying device since I was getting sick of the heavy 20 packs tipping the wheelbarrow over. You see, there is a magical moment in which gravity takes over, the shingle packs are expelled from the barrow and the barrow itself is dumped sideways. It's a remarkable phenomenon for which I have coined a term: "the Falling over point", and I expect to be writing more about this soon. Anyway, I got the car to within 30 feet of the cabin and even managed to drive it back up the hill without getting mired.



After a long day of laying down shingle and chopping a few rounds of oak (The arborist did a fantastic job, by the way) we all took Rotenburo baths. Unfortunately, a mouse had fallen into the bath right before Becky and Fred used it

But was saved from a nasty death by Fred.



We walked down the road to Smart's Crossing for a brief swim. The water was FREEZING, and made for a quick exit. Someone has made a nice rope ladder to get up onto the log with.





After heading back and eating lunch at the cabin, a very unwary deer and her two fawns came within seventy or so feet of the cabin.

=
I spent the rest of the day trying in vain to finish the roof. I got pretty far though.


It doesn't look like it in the first shot, but there are actually four more rows needed just to get to the top. The shingles around the chimney were also a big pain in the butt to get right.