It’s a dreary morning. The lake is shrouded in mist… and it’s drizzling, no surprise there. It seems like it’s always raining these days. Andor left at first light to go to the village and bring up a load of supplies. I didn’t go with him this time because I need to finish working on my garden. Before I start though and since I have our new place to myself I thought I’d start journaling again. I want to write down how we built this place so I don’t forget when I’m old and gray.  I began journaling when we first got married but when Andor got back from deployment his health and recovery took all my energy and free time. So, I was compelled, for a time, to stop. Since we have a more relaxed lifestyle now, I’m able to journal more regularly. ### May 25 **Gathering Material** The heavy rains which ensued from the fallout (I don’t know what else to call it right now), after the meteor, completely saturated the ground. When the winds picked up this caused dozens of trees to topple over. This made the first step in the construction of our island home much easier: harvesting beams. We chose the strongest, straightest trees we could find and cut them to about nine feet in length. Then, together - they’re way too heavy to carry by oneself, we carried them to our cave. We propped them upright with one end going into the earth and the other end wedged tight against the underside of the enormous overhanging boulder. This was by far the hardest part of the job. If things were not so miserably claustrophobic in our two-person tent, we might not have made it through this stage of the project. With this step complete (thankfully, we didn’t need too many beams), we moved on to: **Framing the Walls** Initially, we had planned to weave saplings between the beams to build our walls. We quickly realized this construction method was not going to give us much insulation or wind protection. So, instead we cut the plethora of downed trees into eight- to ten-inch long pieces and stacked them like firewood between the beams using the woven sapling wall to keep them from falling over.  Our first trips back into the valley for supplies, we brought back a two-man lumber saw, which made the work of cutting a two-person job. It’s a lot less arduous that way —and much quicker too. We used clay to caulk the gaps in the wall which makes it strong and surprisingly very insulated too. ### May 28 Andor came back from his supply run a couple of days ago with two very comfortable and inflatable camp mattresses and seat cushions. I’m glad he did, we desperately needed a proper bed and somewhere comfortable to sit. **Interior Design** The floor of the cave is hard-packed earth. At first we thought about building a wood floor but we quickly realized it would be more work than it was worth. So, we left it the way  it was. The earth is comfortable to walk on barefoot anyways…  While the floor is comfortable to walk on, it isn’t comfy to sleep on. So we are building a bed today. My idea is to arrange several large stumps in the shape of a rectangle. Then we can lay split wood beams across the tops of the stumps. Across those beams, we laid hand-split pine boards which we smoothed down with sand from our private beach. The bed’s quite strong and hardly squeaks, no matter how much we toss and turn. For chairs, we used large stumps and placed the seat cushions on top. For a table, we fashioned one in a similar fashion as the bed with hand-split pine boards. It’s rudimentary, but I kind of like it. It’s very practical and functional - the fact we built it together using our own two hands is pretty cool too. **The Fireplace** With the walls framed in we just have a gap for a door and window - to be added latter. We do need to figure out at some point what we’re going to do about making a door and window. For now the summer is warm enough we aren’t too worried about figuring it out. One big problem we’re having is that the fireplace smoke can make our home almost unlivable. Yesterday though while I was out foraging, I came across the remains of a hunter's cabin. Not much remained except a cast-iron skillet and a galvanized steel chimney. What a find! I disassembled the chimney and carried it back to camp. Fitting it together felt like solving a puzzle—and we had a lot of fun with it. We had to knock a round log out of our wall which was about the same size as our chimney and then we stuck the chimney through it. Next, we routed the chimney up along the outside of the wall of our home and held it in place with some wire. Last night we had a fire inside of our home and we didn’t get smoked out! With the thick walls and our ‘new’ fireplace we were quite cozy. We only need to burn a few small logs to keep our home toasty and warm - even without a door or window. ### June 1 My garden is finished! We came back today from the valley with a large roll of plastic deer fencing material. Andor and I carried it between us on a long stick stuck through the roll. We also brought up a large amount of seeds which I planted while Andor put up the fence. The hardest part was digging up the soft loamy and sandy soil and working muck from the lake bottom into it. With the added organic matter the plants should have plenty of nutrients that the harsh alpine soil was lacking.  Several of the fir trees that border our garden have the freshest supple needles that make a wonderful tea. Deeper in the forest we found several great dead trees covered in Birch Polypores, Turkey Tails, Reishi, and Tinder Polypores. These are great for everything from starting fires, to making clothes, medicine, and eating.  The mountains are packed with food and combined with our ever growing stash of canned and shelf stable foods we are eating quite well up here.  I will say that going back and forth two or three days a week is getting tiresome though. We have a lot of supplies to bring up from the valley, I guess there are worse problems to have. Every time we go back we keep checking to see if there is any cell phone or satellite communication but there is none.  We are both worried sick about our families, we just want to let them know we are alright, that we are alive. Right now it’s easier not to think about it too much though. There’s nothing that can be done and worrying about it, won’t change anything. Of course that is easier said than done. ![[caveHome-iii4.jpg]] ### June 4 Last night, there was a huge rock slide on the mountain above our home. The roar was deafening. All we could do was lay there in bed, holding each other, hoping we were safe. It sounded just like when the meteor had streaked over us the night we were driving across Nevada. After the noise abated, I could not go back to sleep. Andor, on the other hand, was snoring peacefully before the last of the roar had died down… I don’t understand him sometimes. Since I can’t sleep though I’m up and writing. I must say that I dearly miss our tub in our home back in Strawberry. It would take a long time to fill up, but I fit perfectly inside, and the faucet god I loved the faucet. Speaking of tubs another bit about our day-to-day life which has been a bit of an adjustment is: **Bathing** Once or twice a day, we have to fill a five-gallon bucket from the nearby brook and carry it back to our home. We use it to fill our drinking cups, do dishes, and bathe ourselves. The latter we accomplish by heating a pot of water over the fireplace and using washcloths to clean ourselves. We sit outside in the sun on warm days to do this (if the floor in our home gets wet, it turns to mud). Let me say bathing naked, outside, and with no privacy has been an adjustment. Out here in the mountains, under the warm sun, though it’s kind of nice. I guess… Due to our circumstances, I cut my hair short (you know the character called Trinity in the old-time classic “Matrix”? Yeah, my hair is as short as hers). Andor likes it… A LOT… Plus it’s so much easier to take care of. ### June 6 **The Bridge** Back when Andor was a kid and discovered this island, he had to swim from the mainland to the island. At some point in the ensuing years, there must have been a rock slide (geez no shocker there). Now there’s at least a half dozen or so boulders strewn across the gap. Most are close enough to jump from one to another. Closest to the island though there’s a large eight or nine foot gap. It’s too big to jump, and the water is too deep to put any more rocks in place to continue the crossing. The first few times we crossed, we had to strip off our clothes and toss them across, then swim the gap. One time I missed the toss - my clothes got soaked AND I lost my favorite pair of socks. So, figuring out a bridge became my pet project since the garden is mostly finished. Thankfully finding a down tree close by wasn’t hard at all and now we have a sturdy bridge; so we can get on and off our island easily enough. I’m quite proud of the little home we’ve built. I really hope it will be a safe place to ride out the storm taking place on our little planet right now… ### Next Chapter: [[23 - Contact 👾]] ### Previous Chapter: [[21 - Settling In 🍄‍🟫]]