My Country Life

Range and cabinets were delivered today.  I must have prayed for patience because I am getting lots of opportunities to practice it lately.  The counter top which I ordered nearly four weeks ago was due after "two or three weeks." At the end of three weeks I called to check the status, only to learn it had never been ordered.  Argh! Supposedly, it has now been ordered, and there's a rush on it.

My new old floors were worth the wait! The floors are FINALLY installed. I chose reclaimed antique heart pine, sourced by a company in Florida. I feel like they looked out for me, waiting to deliver until they had wood of the premium quality that I paid for. But the wait was long and sometimes taxed my patience. When I ordered in late January, they estimated three to four weeks until delivery.  In the end, I waited a long seven weeks.

Lenten Rose Blossom (Helleborus orietalis)  Yesterday was a beautiful day. It started out a little overcast, but by afternoon the sun was shining and the temperature was spring-like. Perfect for a walk in the woods. I drove over to check on the cabin and pay a visit to LaMama. (That's my mama and stepdad, Lamar. I refer to them collectively as LaMama.) The cabin sits on ten acres that adjoin their property on the back. You can walk through the woods, down the hill, across the creek and back up the hill to get from their house to the cabin.

Longleaf Forest Carolina Sandhills National Wildlife Refuge photograph by Jack Culpepper I finally made a decision on flooring for the cabin. Last week I placed an order with Goodwin Heart Pine Company for antique longleaf pine flooring. Longleaf Pine once covered the southeastern United States, but it was harvested to near extinction during the building boom of the late 1800's and early 1900's.  Only a small percentage of original longleaf remains, and for the most part, it's not planted anymore because of the slow growth rate.  It might take 100 years to get a mature longleaf and no one has time for that anymore. The slow growth is also what produces the highly sought after, beautiful, tight grained heart pine.

A perfect winter sky. The sky was perfect today. That's all. That's enough.

White Christmas at the Cabin December 25, 2010 It snowed at the cabin on Christmas Day last year, making it one of the sweetest in my memory. It ranks right up there with Christmases from my childhood, back when a year seemed like an eternity and December 25th truly was the best day of the year.  Back then we didn't get toys except on Christmas, and our "new" clothes came in a giant cardboard box from my Great Aunt Minnie.  We didn't mind though because even as hand-me-downs, they were nicer than anything we could have afforded.

  I stopped by the cabin this morning to check on things and found this backhoe hanging around. The septic tank is being installed this week. That's the single biggest news since the well, water tank, and water line. In addition to the septic, lots of things are happening.  Here's a list of what has been done since I last wrote.