Steak By The Lake II

As predicted, Southern Man was able to slip away from work early and get out to the Land for more progress on The Workshop and another delicious fire-grilled steak with peppers and onions and mushrooms. By sunset the lake was dead calm and Southern Man popped a beer and relaxed by the water and watched the fish hit the surface and waved at a couple of neighbors who were out in a flat-bottomed boat and listened to the sounds of the night. Which unfortunately includes a rather loud natural gas pumping station across the road. Does Southern Man profit from this reminder that his home state was once the oil capital of the world? No; only surface rights were available so someone else reaps the carboniferous harvest that lies beneath.

The Workshop project comes in roughly five interior sections: a little garden tool room (what Southern Man worked on over the weekend and Monday and today; it's almost finished) and the fishing room (next on the list), both of which were tacked on to the north side of the main building fairly late in the game; the downstairs (future wood and paint shop); upstairs east (electrical and plumbing tools and stuff); and upstairs west (with a big window overlooking the lake, it's already been dubbed the "Sunset Room" by eleven-year-old daughter and, unknown to her, is destined to become her personal playroom furnished with a twin bed, chair, bookshelf, play table, TV, video player, and air conditioner; he hopes to surprise her with it later this summer). On the exterior, all that remains is trim on all of the outside corners and gutters and paint. Lots of paint. Lots and lots and lots of paint. Southern Man is leaning towards a dark green. Once completed The Workshop will take a lot of pressure off The Barn, which is currently so stuffed full of boxes and furniture and junk as to be well-nigh unusable, and will serve as construction central for all future projects - which includes actually finishing The Barn after ten years of sitting at 90% completion.

Southern Man writes about The Land a lot because it is one of the few constants in his life. And to think he almost gave it up and sold it as part of the divorce settlement. There is no place he'd rather be and he's trying to figure out how to live out there in one fashion or another as soon as possible. The main hurdle is water; there's not yet a well down. Heck, he's only had electricity out there for a couple of years. But once a well is down Southern Man may well carve a little bedroom out of the upper floor of The Barn and plumb in a little bathroom and just rough it out there for a while. As if electricity and running hot water and a high speed 'net connection is "roughing it."