Chronicles Of A Deerfield Cellar Rat

Even a Cellar Rat needs a place to live. For the harvest season I'm going to be living on the winery! That'll be great because winemaking requires you to start early. Robert Rex starts his day at 4 a.m. There are a couple of trailers available for interns to stay in during the crush season but I thought it would be more fun if I built a big Camp Curry style tent instead. I'm finding out that it's not as easy as I thought it would be though. The tent I bought is 14 feet by 16 feet so I'm building a wood platform of the same size. That's almost 250 square feet! It won't be finished before I start work on August 3rd so it's going to be a bit of a challenge to get it done while learning the ropes at the winery. Check out the photo gallery for pictures of it's construction. I salvaged lumber from the winery that wasn't being used so the construction has proved to be very difficult because a lot of the wood is twisted and doesn't span long enough... Still it's going to be the perfect rat nest when it's finished!

Update on Thursday, August 6, 2009 at 9:25PM by

The Cellar Rat

My tent came today! Hooray! The material is much nicer then I expected - it's going to look really cool! So I've been chipping away at it and I'm almost done with floor. My work day starts at 7am and ends at 3:30pm, and after work everyday I've been hammering down the redwood floor. Which, by the way, is salvaged from a fence. But I should be able to finish tomorrow and then I need to sand and oil. After that the tent is ready to be put up and then I can move all my stuff in. I've been living in a Deerfield trailer in the meantime which I have to say is less than enjoyable... I can't wait until my rat nest is done!

Update on Monday, August 10, 2009 at 1:10AM by

The Cellar Rat

I finished my tent today!!! I sanded and oiled the deck and I gotta say: The old redwood fence turned out to be quite a luxurious floor. Only one problem (and it's a big problem): There's a giant oak limb running directly through part of the tent. Uh-Oh. My father and I tried to come up with a variety of solutions and finally I just climbed the tree and muscled the frame of the tent around tree. It kind of had the desired effect as the frame was now complete. Except that the beautifully square frame that we tried so hard to build became as my dad says "caty-wompus" (I'm not sure that's how you spell that). So know I have to choose between the lesser of two evils: A skewed frame or an incomplete one? Hmmm....

More pictures to come!

Update on Wednesday, August 19, 2009 at 9:13PM by

The Cellar Rat

I moved into my tent! Hooray! Sunday, I loaded up Deerfield's pick-up truck Beverly Hillbillies style: four chairs, table, trunk, dresser, La-Z-Boy, couch, 46" TV, computer, ottoman, tea cart, microwave, refrigerator, four nightstands, 2 lamps and all of my clothes. It was amazing we got it all on there. We got a late start and by the time we got back up to the winery it was after dark. So I was busy unloading all my earthly possesions until eleven at night. My parents helped and I have to say: they were definitely troopers. When I got up for work at six thirty the next day my entire room was already in order. It looks amazing! Pictures to come!

I also figured out a solution to the oak limb problem. I'm going to a muffler shop tomorrow and having them bend me a piece of metal. Hopefully it won't cost me a limb. yuk yuk yuk...

There's still plenty of stuff to do though. I need to build steps and run proper electricity up the hill. Robert thinks I should lay PVC pipe for well water. I've been working on it every day but by the time I'm done it's going to be time for me to move out.