We got up early today and went back to working on getting the spot ready for the hot tub. Yesterday we quit in late afternoon after the cable got stuck as we tried to thread it through the conduit to wire the dedicated outlet. Tom had threaded through wire and we attached the cable to the wire so we could both pull at one end and push at the other (it reminded me of a pushme -pullyou from Dr. Doolittle as he would pull and I would push, then it would stick so I would pull and he would push until it moved freely again and then we would reverse directions again). We got all but the last 10 feet through when it totally stuck. It wouldn't budge in either direction. By this time in the afternoon we were sore from moving gravel and pushing and pulling, and pushing and pulling so we gave up for the night.
Today we finished leveling the gravel. We decided to work on the deck before attacking the conduit and cable again. I think both of us dreaded discovering that we couldn't budge it, not because it would be a big problem but because it would mean more delays and irritation. Finally Tom got the pulley out, nailed it temporarily to a board to stabilize it and began to crank it. That didn't work either. We took a section of conduit off hoping that we would be able to move it if we pulled directly on the cable. No luck. He moved the pulley to a longer board and we went back to the pushme-pullyou, using the pulley.
A friend stopped by to visit. She must have brought us luck. She was acting as our birthing coach, she said. "Push, Push. Don't forget to breath!" And finally the cable moved. Aha! Success.
To celebrate we went for a walk on the land. The fall weather was perfect and the forest beautiful. The underbrush is dying off and there are a lot of weeds already drying but the leaves haven't fully turned yet. Some of the bulbs that we planted around the Sacred Cauldron at Belsummer are up. I have to get out there again though and rebury some of the bulbs that aren't covered by dirt anymore. It should be beautiful in the spring.
I want to extend Artemis trail so that we can use the Sacred Cauldron for a part in a ritual, which I am working on. It calls for an oracle and this seems like the right place for that part of the ritual.
Copyright © 2000 Kyril Oakwind