The last couple of weeks have felt particularly cold after enjoying the summer-like weather we had around the first of the year. In fact, I was outside working on tasks that normally can't possibly be done this time of year.

I put up some soffit around the roof and painted some spots here and there, work I thought I might have to wait until spring to do.

However, with the recent return of weather more typical for this time of year, I have moved my projects indoors. Since the temperature outside in my building and other structures is not amenable to humans this time of year, I had been using an old kerosene heater that I built out of parts. However, it started smoking last month despite my best efforts to control it. The broken wick adjuster likely didn't help matters — it got to the point that I couldn't turn it with Vise-grips, so I had to fix the top so that it would come off and I would then drop an old coffee can over the flame to put it out.

Now I love junk as much as the next fellow, but enough is enough. Instead, I decided to put it up for a later project and use some left-over birthday money to make an investment in a new heater. Once I saw that the new kerosene heaters, much like the one I made from junk, were never really going to do the job, I decided to follow a different route. One of my friends has a fan-forced space heater in his garage. Seeing it helped me make up my mind. I found one that pushes twice the heat of an old-type kerosene heater, but still burns on kerosene.

I have been using up the stockpiles of kerosene I built up when the old tank was removed from the yard. Once I realized it had about 75 gallons in it, I decided to drain it before the company came to get it. They told me that they would charge me to pump it out. Go figure. They charge you to bring it, then to haul it away.

I drained it into three 25 gallon drums and have been using it to run my heater.

The new blower requires electricity, which might seem like a hold-up, but it hasn't been. I simply hooked it into my inverter, which pushes about 400 watts, and then run a drop cord from the truck to the heater. In case anyone doesn't know, an inverter hooks onto the battery of a vehicle in one way or another and then changes the DC current to AC, or household, electricity. It is a marvellous invention, especially for $30 or so.

I really needed the inverter to heat the place in the woods, which has been somewhat neglected this past year. Since I could do many of the tasks that need to be done there indoors, I opted to start back on it recently. It needs to be re-wired to replace the aluminum wiring inside it.

I was smart enough to draw a wiring diagram for each room as I started, a task that ended up looking like something off an Etch-a-Sketch instead of a professional electrical blueprint.

Even so, I started pulling wire and managed to complete one room and a hallway before having to quit the first day. I figured at that rate I would be finished in about 60 hours or so, not a bad thing at all. I also started, simultaneously, as usual, a sheetrock project in one bedroom. I tore out the old paneling and re-wired the room and then put in new insulation and started installing the sheetrock. No small task there, I might say. Sheetrock is much easier to put up than paneling, in my opinion, unless you count the finishing. I won't have to worry about that for awhile — the mud would freeze on the walls this time of year.

The bedroom I am working on was once two smaller rooms, but I tore out the wall and combined them to make one decent-sized opening.

It all sounds pretty wonderful, but it is actually somewhat less than glamorous. Adding to the problem of finishing the room is an old ceiling jack that used to handle furnace emissions. The furnace was long gone by the time I got the place, but the jack had been incorporated into a new closet. I also did away with it to make more room. After all, one closet in a bedroom should be enough for anyone.

The second day I finished 'sheetrocking' three of the rooms four walls and half of the ceiling, no small task, I might add.

However, there is still a lot more to go, including wiring the kitchen and living room and checking out the plumbing. Sometimes it is easier to just start over than it is to fix what is already there.

I hate to admit it, but I am not always as thrifty as I could be when it comes to construction. Certain things, like insulation, wiring and plumbing, are important enough to me that I want to do them over and do them right. Those are things that I don't want to have to worry about later.

I have been approaching my work with my normal zeal. For me, the work is not that hard to do, but the hard part is going to be figuring out what to do with the property once I do get it finished. I really don't want to be a landlord and deal with that hassle, so I might consider selling the place. After all the work I have invested, it is going to be hard for me to justify selling it. The place is almost as much a part of me as any I have been. I started with a patch of tree-covered earth and made a home, a cabin and a little mark on the world. It would be hard to let go of that.

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