2/26/09

Another bit of snow came to Silver City, we got about 3 inches.  It is cold again so outside work is at a standstill and we are busy at our desks getting paperwork done.   I am almost ready to get taxes done.  

Tally brought the newest addition to the Silver City VFD home yesterday.   Johnson Siding VFD sold a tender to the SCVFD.  It will provide us with more functional structure protection in forest fires.  We will be helping with a controlled structure fire on Saturday.  It will take a day from our Happy Trails work but we do need the practice.

2/24/09

It is amazing what gets done when the weather is nice.  Though we are officially in the glacial season here in Silver City, Tally is getting a lot of wood put up  and I am busily staining wood when the sun is shining and the temps are over 40 degrees.  The top 1" or so of the ground is thawing in the sunlight so where it isn't ice there is mud.  Rapid Creek is still almost solid ice below the garden area and quite beautiful.  

Boxcar Cabin Progress

The weather has been good to us.  Tally has been putting up soffit.  I would be helping but the demands of the being the Silver City VFD  treasurer are keeping me occupied.   I have about one more day of treasurer bookkeeping duties and I can concentrate on cabins again.  Our next stage of cabin decisions is to try and figure out what color we ultimately want this cabin to be.   The roof is grey, the soffit is stained canyon brown, currently the cabin is grey.  Any suggestions? 

Happy Trails.

Boxcar Cabin history

The Boxcar Cabin is a real boxcar moved into Silver City and placed on the lot in 1933 by the Potter family.  The wheels were taken off when it was put on its current site.  There are various additions onto this cabin and all the roofs were flat and leaked.  

We are the 3rd owners.   

We took a look at the cabin and decided a flat roof is not acceptable in snowy Silver City.  Plus it leaked.  We did try to save the rounded wooden boxcar roof ( see right picture).  It was so rotten and unsightly we could not.  Instead we took it out and made a vaulted ceiling.  We do try and incorporate original structure whenever we can.  We believe in reusing and recycling.  All the interior  trim boards are from reclaimed lumber.  The Boxcar is the middle window part.   There are 2 bedrooms in this cabin and we thought it was a great addition to our cabin rentals here in the Black Hills.  Unfortunately we discovered that as it is not adjoining our property it cannot be used commercially but we can still let people stay in it for their vacation.

It's snowing

It is snowing at Happy Trails Cabins.  Tally has all the inside trim done on the Boxcar Cabin and after I get the accounting done I will get the curtains and blinds in.  I will admit I am not very good with window treatments - cellular shades will most likely be in the living room, curtains in the master bedroom and I don't know yet for the kitchen area.  

Tally has started putting up nailers for the soffit boards.  He will need to find something else to work on if we get much more snow.   I need to stain boards before he puts them up.  That is sometimes a race as he gets so anxious to see the final result.

The creek is frozen and getting higher as the running water freezes from below.