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satisfying notchmaking
Saturday, August 30 2025
location: 940 feet west of Woodworth Lake, Fulton County, NY
This morning after I finished with the usual morning cabin rituals, I took Charlotte (Neville didn't come) on a walk down to the outflow of the lake via the trail down through the cliffs. We then crossed over and went through the woods to the East Bifurcation Falls (which due to low water levels, were most unspectacular). From there I walked mostly westward, ultimately arriving at a familiar overhang, which I looked over with an eye to perhaps building an Anasazi-style shelter beneath it. If some rubble were removed, it looked like there would be enough room for someone to have a desk and a bed under there, perhaps sheltered from the mosquitoes by netting. But I could never be relaxed under there knowing there are hundreds of tons of rock overhead that could let go at any moment. Sure, that rock has been stable for millennia. But when it decides to move, that is one hell of a fly swatter.
Back at the cabin, I spent a fair amount of time using a power handsaw, a chisel, and a hammer, to notch three six by six beams so they can each support two-by-eights arriving at 90 degree angles. Notching beams this way is one of the more satisfying things one does in carpentry, since it doesn't take all that much work or skill (well, it doesn't seem like it to me, but I might be well out there on the Dunning-Kruger curve) to produce impressive results.
Once I was done with that, I took a beer with me down to the lake. This time Neville tagged along, with him arriving at the dock after I'd left it on a kayak to paddle along the south and east shoreline. He was waiting for me on the dock when I got back, and I proceeded to walk with him (and Charlotte) to the lake's outflow and then back to the cabin via the cliffs trail.
For some meal of the day, I made a big pot of medium shell pasta, which I ate with just mushrooms, onions, and tofu I seared in a pan. (The cabin still had no Rao's.)
One of the last things I did today that gave me some satisfaction was explaining to ChatGPT an issue regarding defaulting in a widely-used datetime picker in my ESP8266 Remote Control system and having it fix it (seemingly successfully) in a couple seconds.
The stone overhang where it might be fun to build an Anasazi dwelling if I weren't afraid of being crushed to death. Click to enlarge.
Medeola virginiana, a member of the lily family. Click to enlarge.
Whorled aster (I think). Click to enlarge.
A bed of oxalis plants with their trifoil clusters of heart-shaped leaves. Click to enlarge.
In the process of notching a beam (the leftmost one). Click to enlarge.
Now that the lake level has dropped, you can see the entrance to this beaver lodge along the lakeshore near the boundary between Ibrahim's and Shane's parcels. Click to enlarge.
Neville on the dock late this afternoon. Click to enlarge.
Striped maple forming helicopter seeds along the old dock trail. Click to enlarge.
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