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styrofoam delivery
Thursday, October 27 2022
location: 800 feet west of Woodworth Lake, Fulton County, NY
Fierce winds blew through during the night, howling loud enough that I started wondering what winds the cabin had been built to survive. But aside from blowing down nearly all the leaves remaining in the trees, nothing bad happened.
I never sleep well after ingesting a dose of cannabis, and last night was no exception. When I awoke and saw the daylight outdoors, I startled, not knowing how late it was. But it wasn't yet 8:00am on the one day every three weeks when I don't have to do anything until 10:00am. I actually had a little time this morning to do some furtive digging along the north foundation wall in preparation for the installation of more styrofoam panels. I'd ordered 20 more such panels from Home Depot that would be arriving at the cabin today along with 16 three by five foot sheets of 7/16 Wonderboard (what will provide a layer of protective skin on the outside of the styrofoam).
Unfortunately I didn't think to change my contact phone number to my cellphone until this morning, meaning all the printouts associated with the order had the Hurley landline phone number on them. This accounts for why I never got a call from the delivery guy. I just happened to see him walking down the driveway trying to figure out whether or not he would get stuck. It was hard to determine the quality of the roadway, since it was covered with a thick layer of freshly-fallen leaves (mostly from beech and maple trees). I assured the delivery guy that the road and even part of the yard was sound to drive on. She he went back and got his truck, which was far bigger than it needed to be. I would say my styrofoam and Wonderboard (the only things back there) took up less than five percent of the volume. (It's a mystery why delivery companies don't have a fleet with a range of truck sizes both to save fuel and to be able to access more marginal locations.) The delivery driver backed the big truck into the space between the stone walkway and the propane tank and he began the process of unloading while an enthusiastic Ramona sniffed him intently. Initially the driver was friendly to Ramona but then he asked me to put her away. Evidently she'd nipped at his privates, something of a first-date no-no. The driver and I unloaded the styrofoam and Wonderboard together, and as we did so, the driver asked about the latter. I explained that it was a product containing cement and fibreglass mesh that can handle dampness and frost and that I would be using it as a skin to go outside the styrofoam. (I should mention that this mix of materials has held up for fourteen years at the greenhouse, though it's important to use actual Wonderboard for this application, as mesh-free compressed-fibre material like Hardiebacker tends to delaminate if repeatedly frozen and thawed.)
I mostly stuck by my work-issued laptop up in the cabin's loft area throughout the day, though at 5:00pm I put some real effort into digging further west along the foundation's north wall. I also at some point I took a walk with the dogs out to the Woodworth Lake Road and saw a lineman hooking up Ibrahim's electrical lines to a pole. While I was out there, I collected some milkweed seeds (which were erupting from their pods on little cottony tufts and blowing away in the wind) to plant along the eroded bank northwest of the cabin. I found the milkweed cotton very difficult to gather and compress; it just wanted to escape from my hand and blow away.
After the leaves blew down, a lake is once again visible to the west from the upstairs bedroom.
Last winter I'd assumed this lake was Lake Edward, but then I saw buildings clearly east of the lake,
and I know there are no buildings between our cabin and Lake Edward. This means that this must be
Peck Lake, the next lake west of Lake Edward. It's about 2.5 miles away (whereas Lake Edward is only
0.6 miles away). Click for a wider view.
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