All the Doings at Shabo-Mekaw

 Welcome to Shabo-Mekaw

 

 mountain laurel

Scout, Sunny, and Arlo would like to welcome you to Shabo-Mekaw.  Well - actually, Scout would like to eat grass, while Sunny and Arlo would like run down the driveway.  You can follow if you like...

The field, formerly known as the blueberry field, and beyond it, the pond...

... which Arlo enjoys immensely on a hot day, as you can see.

Update on Construction Progress

One thing we had to do this spring was to fix leaks in the chimney so rain won't get inside. Mainly this is done by shoving cement in all the cracks and in the holes between rocks where it has fallen out; this is called 'repointing'. The ladder was just to sit on, so my butt wouldn't slide down the metal roof.  It is not at all comfortable, btw.

We attached a porch to the front of the log cabin, complete with cedar posts and a metal roof, and it turned out great, if I do say so myself.  It will provide a cool place to sit, and most importantly, keep rain off the front logs.

Though we had already done the porch floor in stone, we decided to spiff it up with these old, used bricks.

First we had to cover the stone floor with sand and crushed limestone...

Here, Scout and Arlo are chillaxing on the finished left side of the floor while we continue working on the rest.  We cemented the bricks in place around the edges...

... and got the other bricks laid down, but have not yet filled in between them.  Obviously, the stone steps will need to be revised as well.

Todd has been working very hard on the inside floor,

 and has a lot of the sub-flooring in place now.

He's also been trying to seal up the space between the soffit and the roof, to keep the critters from getting in.  Now he says we have to lift up part of the roof.  Whaaaaat?!





Bird Morning

 A couple of weeks ago, I went down to the swirl hole (the part of the Kinneyconick Creek just below our cabins) early in the morning. Usually, I don't get a chance to take pictures until afternoon.
 

 It was glorious - still and quiet except for the sounds of birds, with mist rising from the water. As the sun was beginning to clear the hill on the other side of the creek, the contrast between dazzling mist and deep shadows was exquisite.

 While I had my camera on the 'macro' setting ...

... because I was so into photographing these really cool dew-covered spider webs,

two great blue herons flew directly over my head!  They're very fast, and the camera was on   

  'macro'...

So I switched  my camera back to the normal mode in case there were more...

... when suddenly a kingfisher flew right in front of me, going in the opposite direction from the herons. I aimed and shot wildly - it was even faster than the herons - and got this horribly blurry picture.  (No, I do not have a DSLR.)  I circled the kingfisher so you could at least tell that I wasn't making it up.

Less than a minute later,

a third blue heron followed the other two, heading upstream. 

Here's what they actually look like:

A few more early morning creek photos:

You can see the mist better where the light comes through the trees...

A view of part of the swirl hole, looking upstream from the island.  I'll never be able to show you the whole thing, unless I hire a plane...

The last time we left it, our sweet home-away-from-home looked quite lovely.

The tour guides would like to thank you for coming with us, but they're too tired...

See you later, alligator (or - whatever you are)!