"Always read something that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it." - P.J. O'Rourke

Hit the low 90's today, one of the reasons I didn't go for a run. The other: yesterday's increased distance took its toll, and a rest day is in order. Tomorrow I'll go back to the track and then do an LSD on Saturday. Yesterday I did 3.5 so I'll shoot for something between 4 and 5 miles.
When I did distance running in CA - the last time I did distance running - I had places I could stop for water, like gas stations (back when they had drinking fountains), and small businesses that got to know and take pity on the crazy guy who ran by every few days. That's not going to happen here because we're 5 miles from the closest business, my $7 barber, and he doesn't have a drinking fountain.
When I was marathon training I'd go out the day before my long runs and hide water bottles and a snack in the bushes of my route. May start doing that here.

Related note: we haven't had any measurable precip in over two months. In Oregon. But if you look at national averages you'll see this isn't unusual. Summers here are sunny and dry.

We have a date! The logger will meet here next Thursday at 8 a.m. with Robyn, the Dept. of Forestry lady, to agree on the cutting plan, and by 9 a.m. Charles should be cutting trees. Woot!!
In between Charles and I have to agree on our % split of the money he gets from the mill and details like how much cleanup he does before he leaves.
I'm glad to finally have a start date. Ten days from now I *should* have all the dead trees gone, all the at-risk trees gone, and hopefully a few bucks in my pockeet.
And lots of work to do cutting and splitting what's left behind into firewood.

Except for a few little items I got the loft in Fred done this morning.

This is what it looked like when I started. All surfaces were covered with cheap panelling except the floor, which had that fake grass carpeting. The window was wood, rotten, and didn't close right. That's a double bed mattress set sideways that sat on a platform and was beyond gross.

I finished the carpet yesterday and the baseboard this morning. I still have to put up the grab rail to make getting into the loft easier and safer, and I'm going to make a cedar shelf along either side wall up by the window.

Visualize this loft as a big upside down "T". The footprint is a rectangle, 11'6" wide and 13'6" long, with the window at the far end. But at some point someone built pony walls that run from that window end 7' back, creating a triangular storage niche behind them on either side. Those pony walls and the window wall are what I covered with cedar. The space in between the walls will take a queen air bed with a little over 1' on either side. That's where the shelves will go.

At the back end the 6'6" is open all the way out to where the sloped ceiling meets the floor. That will get a dresser and maybe a chair. I also need to come up with some kind of trap door so that during the winter all the heat from below, my office, doesn't go up there.
In one corner is the hole that gives access to the loft. The grab rail will go on the wall above that opening.
You can't see it, but there's a light in the apex over where the bed will go.
I'm pleased with the transformation; it's a lot brighter and neater looking (though you can't really tell from these pics). It will make a good guest room so long as a bathroom isn't required.
Maybe I'll get an antique chamber pot to set up there.