Sweetwater Dreams

I have written about Annie’s and my search for just the right property for our cabin, and I’ve told you how we searched and how we looked at several places until we found the perfect place.  I tasted the clear, cold water from the spring and named the place Sweetwater.

Now let me tell you how we want to change it.

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The first thing I’m going to do is fix the broken step you can see in the video I posted last time.  There are a lot of things I would rather do first, but breaking a leg might slow us down a little, so I’d better repair that step before anything else.

Next, we want running water to the house.  The cabin has already been plumbed and has utilized water from the spring in the past, but the springbox washed away in high water a while back and there is no sign of it or where it was, so that would be a logical first step.  I may go into details about the water system in this blog at a later date.

One of my goals is to make the place entirely self-sufficient eventually, but I also need to make the cabin comfortable for Annie as soon as possible.  Somebody paid a chunk of change to have a power-line easement cut about ½ mile through the neighbor’s woods so that they could have a power-line run to the place, and they wired the cabin for 110 volt power so we’d be silly not to take advantage of it.  We’ll have that turned on before we even start working on anything else.

The cabin already has a gas line and propane tank, so we will want to find and hook up a cook stove before too awfully long.  We already have a white-gas camping stove we can cook on so I’ll put the propane cook stove on the back burner, so to speak, until we find one at a good price.

There is already a nice bathroom and septic system so I don’t have to build an outhouse and Annie won’t have to live with me stinking up the place after I’ve worked, hunted, or hiked in the heat all day.  There’s no water heater so we’ll need one before too long.  Until we decide on whether we want a propane or electric water heater, we can heat some water on the stove and pour it in the tub with some cold water for Annie’s baths.  I can live with cold showers or just take baths until we hook up hot water.

The cabin already has a window air conditioner for the hot days, so that’s not a problem.  I have a wood-burning heat stove I’ll put in later but the place already has a propane space heater so I can hold off on the wood-stove installation for the time being.  I am eager to get that wood stove in though, because it has a glass front which will allow us to watch the fire crackling in it when the weather outside is frightful.

The property has plenty of rocks so I can build a fire ring out front, not too far from the cabin or the creek. With a couple chairs to put around the camp fire we can cook on that and enjoy those romantic evenings by the fire.

Hey, we’ve only been married about 37 years; the honeymoon is not over.

We have several old ice chests we can use until we find a good, used refrigerator.  I’ve got an old mini-fridge out in the machine shed. If it still runs, I’ll clean it up and it will do if we get tired of hauling ice before we find one.

Yes, we’ll want to acquire some furniture and decorations for the cabin.  In my studio I have a nice, rustic couch that folds out into a bed and there is a similar one in the little house where Mom lived her last months with us. Neither of us is so spoiled that we won’t buy used so there’s no big hurry about any other furniture either.  We’ll wait until we find something we like, and we’ll like it even better if it’s cheap.

I have a few bookshelves that Annie moved out of the house when she got tired of them.  I’d like to have a place to put some books and knick-knacks in the cabin so, if they haven’t started to rot since she put them out in the barn, they have a new home waiting.  Many of the things I’ve collected over the years will serve quite nicely for decorations, and we have lots of photos of family, as well as some of wildlife and nature that we’ve stored for one reason or another.  No problem using them in our getaway.

Over the years the boys and I have gathered quite a collection of hunting-related stuff.  Deer and elk skins will do quite nicely for rugs…as long as they don’t have to get much foot traffic.  Hopefully one of us will get a bearskin rug before too long.  I may finally get to hang up the many skulls from animals the boys and I have taken or found.  A little bleach-water soak will whiten them up and they’ll be suitable decorations for the den.  One of my daughters-in-law came into the family with a nice head-mount of a deer she got while hunting with her dad.  She has entrusted it to me since there was no place for it in her house.  If she doesn’t object, it will occupy a place of honor in the cabin, at least until one of us gets a wall-hanger worth replacing it with.

A-a-a-ah, the place is starting to sound like a dream, isn’t it? 

Well, I think so and that’s what matters.

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As time and money allow, I want to add on to the cabin.  It’s currently about 750 square feet, which is fine for Annie and me on weekends, but, if I double it, there will be more space for kids and grandkids, and even great grands someday.  OK, maybe I should triple it or build a bunk house nearby.

Heck, I don’t think Annie or I would either one object if some of the boys wanted to build a little cabin of their own.

I want to add a deck big enough that we can sit outside at night.  There will be no lights on the place that can’t be turned off, so Annie and I and our loved ones can sit outside in the dark and watch the beautiful night sky.  We’ll introduce the grandkids to the meteor showers that we used to show their daddies when they were little.  We can watch fireflies, and we’ll have to catch some too.  We can listen to the frogs and crickets and the melodious call of the whippoorwill. Heck, we can take a blanket outside and sleep there if we want because there won’t be any human noise.  No cars, trucks, or trains.

Yeah, that’s it.

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I want to build the water system really soon, as I’ve said, but I’d also like to put a little dam across the creek sometime in the near future.  The little pond that backs up behind the dam could make a great wading/splashing pool for the little ones when they visit.  I’ll probably throw some small fish in it, just to make things more interesting.

As soon as I get everything figured out, I want to install the solar-power system I’ve been planning for so long.  I’ve got enough solar panels to produce a maximum of one kilowatt.  I also have a wind generator that will add 300 watts max.  It’s all 12-volt power and I want to leave it at that if at all possible, as converting voltage wastes a lot of power.

Pretty much anything can be bought that will run on 12-volts.  Heck, some things like radios and computers will actually use less power as they are hooked up to 12- to 18-volts.  They come stock with a converter built into the power wire so that they can be plugged in to 110, which is then converted to the proper voltage.  I can’t wait to sit out on the front porch with my computer and write about the awesome things I see and experience on Sweetwater.

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There are other things that I’d like to do as soon as possible but they are not absolutely top priority.  Since one of the reasons for buying the property is for me to get together with the boys (Girls are welcome too!) during hunting season, I want to plant food plots to attract deer, bears, and turkey. I’d like to put up some hunting stands and blinds to make hunting easier and more enjoyable.  I’ll make the stands and blinds big enough that “young’uns” can learn while sitting safely beside a loving parent…or grandparent.

Just saying.

I haven’t even touched on some of the improvements I want to make that will benefit the wildlife more than us.  Sure, the food plots will attract animals for us to harvest, but they will feed many, many more animals than we will ever need to shoot.  Brushpiles to serve as protections for birds, rabbits, and other critters would be built whenever we have to cut a tree.  The bunnies and such can hide in the piles to rear their young safely protected from coyotes, foxes, and bobcats.  Believe it or not, in the long run, it will be better for the predators too, as more animals will reach adulthood and the carnivores will have more, bigger animals to eat…if they can catch them before they disappear back into a brushpile.

In Arkansas it is illegal to stock feeders for game animals until just before hunting season, but there is no restriction to keep us from putting up bird feeders so that we can enjoy seeing our fine feathered friends just like we do at home.

I’m sure there are other things we will do.  Our second-eldest son, J.B. is working on a sign that says, “Welcome to Sweetwater.”  I’ll probably hang it over the front door so that visitors can see it when they step onto the porch. 

There is another sign I want to hang on the wall at the cabin. This one I found on eBay. I’ve already ordered it and had it personalized so that it says:

Grannie & Pa’s Camping Rules

Sit by the Campfire

Explore         Relax

Watch Lots of Sunsets

Go Hiking and Fishing

Gaze at the Stars

Unplug         Read

Take Lots of Naps

Wake Up Smiling

I think that pretty well sums it up.

Yup, sure does.

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