Good To Be Back …

It was good to be back at The Cabin.  Three weeks without a dose can cause withdrawal symptoms, and my hands were starting to quiver.

“Maybe you should go check on The Cabin,” my WW (Wonderful Wife) said out of the blue.  She can always tell when it’s time, and she’s too courteous to say a couple of days without me might be good.  I was too courteous to tell her my bag was already packed. Probably why we’ve been married going on 48 years.

Two hours later I was passing Joe’s welding business on Highway 129 about eight miles from The Cabin.  Joe had made an iron cover for the lakeside fire pit years ago.  The lid weighs a hundred pounds or more but can be raised or lowered with a finger because of the balanced weight system Joe rigged for it.  No telling how many racks of ribs have been slow smoked on that fire pit.  Couldn’t wait for the last eight miles to pass so I could stack some wood in the pit and throw on a couple more racks.

Nothing was really new or different with this arrival at The Cabin even though our separation had been longer than usual.  The field camera was still strapped to the tree where I left it weeks earlier.  Trees and leaves littering the driveway were sure signs of a storm, but those are normal in middle Georgia.  I couldn’t wait to review recent activity on the camera.

I made my way to the creaky screened door on the porch.  Nuisance carpenter bees had tried for another hostile takeover.  Nothing new about the piles of sawdust left by those nasty tunnel churners.  Once found 84 of those destroyers in one plank of the courtyard fence.  Removed the plank, flipped it over and let them come out of their tunnels one at a time.  Direct hit with bug spray on each one.  Used up two cans and not one pest escaped.  Thought I was winning the war that day, 84 carpenter bee corpses, but their cousins are constantly getting revenge.

No surprises on the drive-up side porch.  Squirrels and chipmunks still think it’s their porta potty.  They also run there for cover during severe storms, and that’s okay.  Just wish they would find another bathroom.

The field camera had been set to snap four pictures of any movement around the circle driveway – one picture every two seconds for eight seconds.  More than 400 photos were waiting for review.  Not surprisingly, the first pictures showed a doe keeping watch over The Cabin (picture above).  The movement of deer is predictable – early morning and a couple hours after nightfall.  Could set your clock by it.  They know they are safe near The Cabin.

The fox was not as predictable but always quick.  The camera was lucky to get two pictures in the allotted eight seconds and usually could get only one as the fox could scoot by in less than two seconds.  Raccoons showed their striped tails forever, and squirrels practically posed for multiple snaps.  Stray dogs, we know who you are.

The pest control guy unknowingly hogged a lot of camera time, and workers next door found it easier to use our driveway, which was fine.  The Petitt gang hammed it up a couple of times for the camera while cutting, edging and blowing the grass.  Brett and Bradley usually locate the camera while taking care of the property.  I cannot show their Dad all of their shenanigans.  The camera doesn’t miss much of anything.

The screened porch on the other side of The Cabin, the lake side, was covered with pollen, the screens seeming to sift that awful stuff into an even finer layer of mess. Hose and mop time for that porch, the rocking chairs and every nick nack neatly placed by my WW.  Probably would take half a day to get the screened porch right for the next morning’s cup of coffee.

But nothing at The Cabin is a chore. Blowing off the driveway and hosing down the long walkway, no problem.  Clearing fallen limbs from a recent storm, no problem.  Plugging carpenter bee holes, no problem. Hauling wood for the fire pit, no problem. Putting on two racks of baby back ribs … are you kidding?

Good to be back.