Winter Cabin Trip

We went to the cabin on Wednesday, December for New Year's. The weather was interesting, to say the least! After the first day, the temperature stayed mostly below 20 degrees, with some stiff wind. We had some snow every day, including Monday, when we headed home. We never got officially "snowed in", but it was fun, never-the-less.

The two pictures from the Trail Cam show a small bear and an Eastern Flying Squirrel (look close on top of the stump...he's about the size of a chipmunk) that came to have a snack. The trail cam took 662 pictures, mostly Gray Squirrels, over about a week and a half!

Web site updates.

I spent most of the day updating the web site. A bunch of new stuff has been added to the main page and a new page has been added just for the Bradford County weather data. Check it out!!
http://www.n3hcp.com
http://www.n3hcp.com/new_albany.htm

The gas rush in Bradford County

During a recent trip to the wilds of Bradford County PA we say a number of operating gas wells and even more drill rigs. 7000 feed below is the ground, the Marcellus Shale underlies much of the Appalachian Basin. The gas wells are being drilled 6000 to 7000 feed down and then up to 6 wells from each hole are drilled horizontally 4000 feet or more into the shale.

The wells are springing up across Bradford County like mushrooms after a spring rain, and producing a number in instant millionaires in the bargain. Think "The Beverly Hillbillies" To my great dismay, we are not among them.

A cold day at the Gap

Today my fellow Honor Guard members from VFW Post 23 were privileged to provide military honors for the funerals of seven veterans. Today's weather was cold, wet, and windy...looks like it's time for the winter uniforms! The picture is from a funeral a few weeks ago when the weather was a bit nicer!

Regardless of the weather, it is an honor and a privilege to be able to help provide the military honors at Indiantown Gap National Cemetery.

Schaefferstown weather is back!!

Yes...it's true!! The weather station at Radio Free Schaefferstown is back on the air, and the Internet!! We actually have two weather stations up and running...one at home and one at the cabin. The links are available at Http://www.n3hcp.com Enjoy!!

Cabin upgrades.

We've had some major upgrades to the cabin in the last couple weeks. The worn out, old, sliding doors have been replaced with shiny new french doors. We can finally go in and out through the front door without straining a muscle pushing it open!

We also installed a new composting toilet. That long walk down the path, especially at night, was getting a little old.

Bear in the back yard

Here's a picture taken by our trail-cam about 50 yards behind the cabin, in the woods. Maybe he was looking for the outhouse!!

Long time, no post.

The schedule has been a bit full here of late. We just returned from a trip to Eastern Canada and Maine. While in Maine we were able to visit what's left of Loring Air Force Base where I was stationed in the early '70s. Mostly, it a ghost town. The picture of the fire plug kinda say it all.

We also had a close encounter with a moose while in Maine. That's not actually that unusual in that part of Maine, but coming face to face with 800 pounds of cow moose is an interesting experience, to say the least.

Memorial Day Weekend

We were fortunate enough to be able to spend the weekend at the cabin and were honored to entertain guests!! Some of our camping/geocaching friends spent Saturday afternoon with us, enjoying the piece and relative quite (is was a holiday weekend, after all, and the 4-wheelers were out and about) of Bradford County.

We also had a few visits from some of the neighbors who live there all year...

Ready for visitors

OK...now that we have the cabin shaped up a bit, it's time to show it off. If you would like to visit the cabin, we are ready to welcome you to beautiful Bradford County. We had given some thought to an "open cabin" or "cabin warming" sort of thing, but the distances involved and every-body's bust schedules, that just seems out of the question.



So, anyone who might like to take a drive in the country and visit us, just send us an e-mail (at the address below) and let us know some dates and we will check our all-too-full calendar and see if we can come up with a mutually workable time. Unfortunately, we still don't have provisions for over night guest yet, but the cabin is only about three hours from Lebanon County, so it makes a good day trip!!

We have set up a special e-mail account just for cabin related stuff. It's:
overton.cabin@yahoo.com

New furniture at the cabin!!

Well, new to us furniture, anyway. We would like to thank our cabin-neighbors, with the help of their daughter, for the kind donation and delivery, no less, of a chair and reclining love-seat. With these additions, the interior furnishing is finally complete!

The new bushes planted last month appear healthy, and we have no serious damage from the winter storms. After almost a year we have made the place our own, and it is now very comfortable (we have satellite TV, after all).

Easter at the cabin

We decided to spend this Easter at the cabin. The nights were a bit cool, but the days were sunny and nice. We were able to attend services at the New Albany Methodist Church in nearby, you guessed it,...New Albany!!! We also took the opportunity to plant a few bushes in front of the cabin to help hide the large empty under the building caused by the almost 45 degree slope upon which it was built.

Yet more pictures have been added to the web site at http://n3hcp.com/Cabin_pictures3.htm

Curb appeal.

With the completion of the painting of the new steps and deck posts, the outside repairs at the cabin are complete. We may be adding a little landscaping this summer, but for the most part, this is as good as it's likely to get any time soon. It's been a lot of time and work, but at last we will be able to just go up and relax!!

Where's Mike Rowe when you need him???

This past weekend we got into all the stuff we've been putting off at the cabin. There was a little carpentry work, but the real "dirty jobs" came with cleaning and painting the inside of the out-house and cleaning parts of the loft that likely haven't been touched since the place was built. As with any place in the woods, mice are always an issue. There was plenty of old insulation that had been used by them for nesting. Hopefully, our efforts to seal the cracks and the judicious use of other rodent control measures will put an end to that problem, for the most part.

Spring is near!!

This afternoon this robin was singing in our larch tree. Can spring be far behind??

The storm is over.

So,here in Schaefferstown we ended up with about 6 inches of loose, powdery, dry snow. The blowing and drifting made accurate measurement impossible.

Living in the country with farmers for neighbors has its advantages. This picture is how our driveway was cleared...nice!!
(The garage and old truck are my neighbor's. We share the driveway.)

Here comes the snow.

It looks like we are getting a bit more wrap-around snow then expected from this coastal storm. It's starting to look like a good old fashioned Nor'easter! We here at Radio Free Schaefferstown already have between 4 and 5 inches with snow falling at the rate of at least an inch an hour.

Back from the cold north.

Well, I'm back from the cold reaches of Bradford County. Two full days of work accomplished most of the projects that were planned, plus some unexpected repairs. It seems whoever mounted the kitchen cabinets on the wall was unaware of the advisability of finding a stud. As a result, one was mounted with nice big lag screws into nothing but the wall board. No realizing this, I foolishly stored some stuff in said cabinet, thereby exceeding its rather low capacity. On Friday, while opening it, the top came loose, placing the cabinet at a precarious angle and allowing much of the stuff stored therein to slide out!! With very little trouble wall studs were located and the cabinet remounted. Makes me wonder how many other interesting surprises await us. Well, at least it keeps the project interesting!!

The weather Thursday was fairly warm and sunny. Friday was around 48 degrees with showers all day. Saturday morning the temperature plummeted to 17 degrees with light snow flurries.

The camp weather station is back on the air at:
http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/wxpage.cgi?call=N3HCP-3

Leaving for camp.

I'll be leaving for the cabin in a few minutes. One of the first projects will be to get the weather station back on the air. Watch for it at:
http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/wxpage.cgi?call=N3HCP-3

The weather this week, and other stuff.

It looks like the weather may warm up a bit over the vest few days. I may get a chance to go to camp in Bradford County for a little cabin maintenance. For one thing, the last time we were there it seems I inadvertently turned off the weather reporting station...probbaly by bumping the radio controlled with a bag of potato chips (you had to be there)!

On another front, a classmate of mine from the ELCO class of '67 has put together a video using photos from our yearbook and audio from recordings made at the time. A true blast from the past!! Even if you don't know anyone from the class, the video is still worth a look, just because of how well it is done. Here's the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuhX77KjGMA
Enjoy!!