What a topic to write about in the midst of a pandemic. That’s going to be a really tough assignment. I think, Can I do it?
The obvious thought echoes in my brain, Not much to celebrate just now, is there?
However, as I do like a challenge, the subject floats idly round my head as I labour up the wet and slippery track, carrying half a pallet.
When I reach the top of the hill, I have a ‘Yes!!’ moment and punch the air. I heave a large sigh of satisfaction and relief, and give the dog a biscuit. Suddenly I realise, that has been a sort of mini-celebration, and, looking back over the last month, there have been at least 21 of those. I know there were 21 as I have been keeping count.
So what is this all about? Have I been passing lock-down by carrying pallets up to inaccessible places simply for something to do?
Well yes, actually I have been. But not just for the hell of it (and hell it has often been). There is a plan behind this seeming madness. Or should I say project.
Several seemingly unrelated things led to The Project. Let me explain – like many people, my work came to an abrupt end in mid-march 2020 when lockdown began. So did expeditions round the country and beyond, and most social activities. After a lifetime of working, I suddenly had acres of time on my hands. Luckily, I had just downsized to a smaller house and the garden was a blank canvas. I found myself tackling projects that I would ordinarily have paid someone else to do. I threw myself into the planning and construction, sourcing many materials from the nearby beach and anywhere else that sprang to mind. My neighbour helped sometimes and kindly donated some DIY tools to the cause. It seemed only fair to start experimenting with them, and I produced some very weird looking stools and benches. Soon the garden was filled to capacity with outdoor furniture and other creations.
Long walks with the dog punctuated the garden work. One day I visited a friend who owned some woodland nearby. When lockdown threatened, he decided to live in the woods rather than stay cooped up in the city. He built a beautiful cabin and had many projects on the go. I was very envious. Looking back now, building a cabin in the woods was always my childhood fantasy but it never occurred to me to turn it into reality. Seeing that cabin put the simple but deadly Why not? question into my mind to fester.
By late autumn, the garden was finished. Although I had started work again, it was less than before and all online so I had no commuting, and thus still plenty of free time. The prospect of winter with nothing to hold my attention filled me with dread.
I started to think more seriously about the cabin prospect and play around with it. After a few days mulling it over, I was committed to give it a go.
The first task was to find a suitable spot. I canvassed local landowners, and, to my delight, managed to locate a small area only five minutes drive from home. By now, the bit was well and truly between my teeth. My thoughts turned to the construction. Much as I would have liked to fell trees, cut notches and fit them together, this was impractical for a 67 year old, small and not very strong woman. So I turned to YouTube, searched for cabins and was overwhelmed by the amount of information available. Obviously many people indulge in cabin building. Maybe I am not so eccentric after all.
I settled on building a cabin from pallet wood. How hard could it be to find suitable pallets going spare? YouTube also came up with the ideal way to deconstruct them, and I spent many happy hours with lump hammer and crowbar. Great for working off any aggression.
My original grand but extremely vague plan has been honed into shape over the last few months. I am now a seasoned scavenger, alert to any signs of potentially useful materials – scavenged from friends, in skips, down the beach. A period of gloom occurred when I came to working out how much wood was necessary for the framework and found it came to many metres. Buying and transporting it would be expensive. Then out of the blue a friend phoned to say she had a pile of spare spars, were they any good to me? I certainly celebrated that night when all the wood was measured, sawn to size and loaded into the back of my car. It has formed some of the twenty one trips up the hill to my cabin site.
The floor is nearly completed now, walls and roof to follow.
My first thought about this topic was to document the celebration when the cabin was finished – if indeed it ever is, but, looking back, there have been so many mini-celebrations along the way. This realisation has made me ponder on what exactly a celebration is. For me, each has produced great feelings of relief and achievement, but perhaps the biggest feeling has been that of gratitude – for having the opportunity to tackle the project, for being fit and well enough to do it, for the many people – friends and strangers too – who have helped. No one has mocked or told me to act my age, they have all been interested and supportive. All these things give me such good reason to celebrate.