Cairncrest Farm

The last few days were exciting in a way that I hope does not continue on the farm. On Wednesday Garth, Alanna, and I (Normandy was in Bryn Athyn assisting a friend with a newborn) went to Kempton, PA to pick up some lumber I stored in a barn many moons ago. On Thursday I drove an overloaded 24' budget truck for 6 hours over a distance that should have taken 4 hours to traverse. Nothing hairy happened during the ride, but shortly after arriving home at Cairncrest Farm both Alanna and I began to feel the prodrome of a nasty gastroenteral virus. Alanna was stricken after dinner. I woke feeling nauseated and light-headed. With a big truck to unload and return in 10 hours I had no choice but to rise and get to work. Luckily Garth didn't succumb to the viral woes until the drive back from the truck drop-off. Unfortunately he had the worst of it and slept little on Friday night thanks to the microbial invaders.

I didn't sleep well on Friday night either, both from the tail-end of by stomach distress, a mild fever, and the wind. The wind was amazing. It blew in from the east at an angle diametrically opposed to the prevailing winds here. And the intensity was ferocious. There is some piece of hardware attached to the old farm house that sets up a loud monotone hum when the wind hits it just right. Winds from the east hit it just right a lot of times and the humming woke me again and again. The bluster lasted all day on Saturday and into the night. We woke on Sunday morning to find two sheets of old galvanized metal roofing out past the cars. I walked around the whole house and then the hops barn in search of the their source. Finally I found it on the far side of the hops barn - a patch of old shakes showing themselves next to a solid run of metal. Today I bought some replacement sheets for the roof since the midnight flight did little for integrity of the original pieces. Tomorrow's job - fix the roof.