2025!!!

 Well...... the new year is here and even though not much actual work is getting done there are little bits and pieces that are moving forward.  

It's really been a strange year for the cabin - it's been moderately cold, but there just isn't a whole lot of snow right now.  This is particularly problematic because without the snow (that I have a love/hate relationship with) we don't have the moisture and with no moisture, everything dries out and we have a higher risk of fires.  We had the same situation a couple of years ago, and we were evacuated, but we and the cabin survived without burning, and we are hoping for continued luck. 

This past weekend, Jim made a quick trip down south to take some supplies out of my livingroom and store them at the cabin... The most important job was fixing the "bird damage" caused to the stove pipes last fall.  Jim had to purchase a bunch of parts and he and Ben spent a couple of hours making the repair.  And when all was said and done its fixed and ready to roll.  I am hoping this next year we can secure the chimney cap so birds can.t get down the pipe...

I was not able to make the trip and was told I need to sit, do nothing this past weekend.... I did have my knee replacement surgery on January 13th and I am stuck at the house...a prisoner... Jim has turned into my warden and we don't see eye to eye on many subjects... I really hate losing my independence and I hate asking for help.... There have been a few bumps in the road (passing out in the doctor's waiting room...twice and having to be taken to the hospital by ambulance) and overdoing my workload and having to call the doctor at 11 at night - only to get reprimanded and told to sit in my recliner and watch Netflix....  I prefer Hulu but it's all getting really boring... Diagnosis:  dehydration..

Jim probably could have made the decision to go south and work on insulation or who knows what else, but he chose to babysit me instead.  I really appreciate all he does from putting up with my "totally cheerful, upbeat and happy" attitude and moods, to cooking my meals, and bringing me drinks, and listening to me meltdown... but, I am concerned about work that needs to be completed.  He was going to take the trip this past Monday, under the condition that I could get into my car and be able to drive, but.... when I tried that exercise, I failed miserably and was a puddle of sadness...

Today was a treat however... I did my office work at home on my laptop... My boss keeps threatening me to disconnect my laptop to work if I didn't slow down so having access was amazing.  He really is a good guy and I appreciate his concern.

As hard as it is to just sit, its harder to take all the drugs.... not a fan.  I avoid opioids like the plague but until you have a knee replaced you don't understand the pain factor.  They always ask what my pain level is from 1 - 10 and I always say... 35.

I'll spare you the gory look of my knee from the outside, but, here's the inside!  I'm going bionic.

Jim went to the cabin last weekend, and spent Saturday night at a motel in Panguitch.  It's still too cold to stay in the cabin without the wood burning stove.  I received a text from him with the caption..."Which of these two undershirts do you suggest I wear."  I looked at the picture and realized that I had packed two of my t-shirts for him, instead of his undershirts...  I called and we had the discussion that I'm not at the top of my game yet...  But, I must say, I would have got a kick of out Jim wearing the giraffe shirt...  Giggle.  One shirt says, "You make me smile" and the other says "Love" in giraffe font.  

Jim sent me this little picture.... It was on one of the doors at the hotel he stayed at.  Made both of us giggle.

We picked out the flooring for the kitchen this past week, and I think it's going to look beautiful.  I love the look of natural wood, and with the island all wood, and the black granite countertops, this is going to look amazing!

I've been looking for a cabinet to hold towels in the main level bathroom... I found this cabinet and thought it would be amazing.  Jim tells me that it's too tall and it will partially cover up one of the sunflower glass pieces in the window.  I really don't care if part of it is covered... I think I worked on these two pieces so long, I really have a different feeling about them than he does.  So, we're going to have to look for another piece.  I don't know where we are going to put this piece, but we're back on the hunt.

But, I did buy a bookshelf for the kitchen.  I have tons of cookbooks and I saw this bookshelf and I loved how different it looked.  I think Jim just puts up with me... I think it's great.. he thinks it's interesting...  I'll go with interesting.

And, this is what our Bryce Woodlands scenery looked like a week ago....

and, this one was a week ago also....

And, this is what it looks like today with the snow melted.  It's been such a weird winter...

And, I found these toilet paper holders online, and I just couldn't resist...  I thought they were darling, and Jim went..."uhuh".  

I was getting my haircut a week ago or so, and the stylist was making small talk, and she asked me if I had travelled anywhere interesting... And, I told her that Jim and I had been to England and France.  She asked what we did in England and I kinda went through the list and told her that we went to Liverpool and did a Beatle's tour.  And, her response was "The Beatles were from England?"  Um... yep.. pretty much...

And, with that, this edition is over.  It's been a tough couple of months, but we're making it through....

..the adventure continues...

Love, Jim and Cheri

..of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt....

And.... the year ends....

Well, Christmas has come and gone... as well as New Year's, so I'm playing catch up!  Here's our Christmas card... I didn't get many out this year, so, sorry about that.  Life is just getting too crazy for words. We didn't have pictures take this year until it was well into December, so everything was a scramble.!  But, here ya go... Merry Christmas.

I found this shirt for Jim... and I thought it was the perfect Christmas shirt for him...

And, here's Christmas day at the cabin...  No, I didn't take the picture, my friend Kelly did... But, it's beautiful none the less.  

And, for the past 100 years, I have always said that I wanted to plant amaryllis bulbs so they would bloom at Christmas.  And, this year, I actually did it!  I have two plants growing in my office, and six at the house, along with 2 paperwhite plants at the house!  Some of them bloomed for Christmas (2) and the rest are going for after Christmas appearances.. One more thing off my bucket list.

And, I'm starting to work on a new project for the cabin.  I think I mentioned before that there is a little space in the loft that just needs.... something...  So, I'm going to make a glass panel and Jim is going to figure out how to mount it.  This is the beginning.... planning the size.  I'm not really good at this.  When I was making the sunflowers in the bathroom, Jim told me what size to make the panels, and I really thought that I had done it correctly.  When I saw him having to saw the hole in the wall bigger, I realized that it wasn't quite right.  

Now, I've made the pattern to follow... It has to be in black and white, otherwise you can't see the pattern for the colour in the glass...

And, this is what it is going to look like in all it's colour.  I really think it's going to look amazing!  It seems I always pick a pattern that is super difficult to make...  grrrr...  I can't help myself.

 Not a whole lot is happening at the cabin as we near the end of the year...  There's no heat up there except for the wood burning stove, and with the cathedral ceilings, it doesn't really warm up....  So, we've got out efforts going elsewhere..

We're at the buying in winter and building in summer phase, and I bought another box of ceiling tiles for the kitchen.  I really like this pattern.. kind of rustic, and a little old fashioned... But, really pretty.. 

On another note....  my friend Kelly was recently diagnosed with breast cancer... So, collectively, let's have good thoughts and prayers going out to her for a speedy recovery.

It's been a busy and frustrating year... So many things we wanted to get finished, but between the conex and the bird stuck in the wood burning stove, and little bits and pieces of this and that, they will be completed this next year.  Jim, bless his heart, has worked just about every weekend all spring, summer and fall... But, here's the good part... Jim retired in November, so, instead of making the drive back and forth every weekend, he'll be able to spend longer amounts of time without the long drive...I knew the retirement was coming, but I'm still struggling with space.  For 20 years, Jim has got up at about 6:30 in the morning to go to work, and I get up later... But, by the time I get up, I get the whole house to myself... and now, I have company, and, poor Jim...He's said he just wants to stay in bed until I'm gone, or stay in his office downstairs.  I'm really trying to be patient, but that's not my strong suit... So many thing have been a challenge this year, and it's been emotionally difficult... I am having knee replacement surgery on the 13th of January, so my anxiety level at this point is over the top, and I'm just trying to make it through day by day... Jim has had to "coax me down from a tree" many times... I'm not the calmest person at the best of times, and this has me pushed over the edge.

On that note... yes, this is a really short blog......  the adventure continues...

Love, Jim and Cheri

One More Time....

Let's start with a beautiful sunset.  My friend Kelly was at our cabin last week at sunset, and snapped this beautiful picture.  It looks so calm, and serene...  sigh..

Meanwhile, inside the cabin, there is always a whirlwind of activity.  There have been a couple of milestones this past week... and, here's the first one.  

The first full wall of sheetrock went up!!!  This is the longest wall, and I think that's why Jim wanted to get it completed before we got snowed out for the year... And, here it is...

I am so incredibly stoked!  And, it looks amazing.  Jim is such a freakin' perfectionist, I can guarantee that it's an all but perfect job.  And, it looks pretty.

The saga of the birds continues.  Jim got up to the cabin on Thursday morning this week, and as soon as he opened the French doors, this is what attempted to fly out... Unfortunately, this little bird didn't realize you can't fly through glass windows, and knocked himself/herself out... permanently.  We don't know where the birds are getting in.  With so much of the insulation completed, there has to be very few spots that are open for entry.  I told Jim that at sundown, he needs to turn off all the inside lights, and turn on all the outside lights and then start looking around.  But, it's so cold when the sun goes down, he's just ready to get out of the cold.

And, the saga of the bird in the stove pipe is coming to an end.  Ben went up on the roof trying to clear what they thought was a bird and the nest out of the pipe... and, it didn't work very well.  So, the two of them decided they needed to dismantle the pipe and attack the problem from below rather than above.  And, the first thing that they realized, was there was a bird in the pipe, and unfortunately, he was cremated...

But, the problem was not the bird, (and there was no nest) but the pipe.  Here is the first stage in fixing the problem...

Here's another picture of the dismantled pipe...

And, here's the problem.  This is a double walled pipe that goes from the wood burning stove to the roof.  Apparently, the aluminum inside wall collapsed and blocked everything, like smoke, from going outside - filling up the inside of the cabin.

And, here's another look at it...  big booboo.  Jim needs to purchase another piece, and make a modification (of course he has to modify... really.. it's Jim...) before he takes it back and installs it, thus solving the stove pipe problem... 

And, Ben was working on insulation in the loft.  There's still so much insulation work that still needs to be done, but there was amazing progress in this department over the last year.  

And, that ends it for this edition. We are coming up to Thanksgiving Day, and Black Friday... so, enjoy your turkey and cranberries, be thankful for those around you, and things you hold dear, forgive and learn from the experience and don't spend too much money on Friday!

With that, the adventure continues...

Love, Jim and Cheri

"Be Grateful for every sunset and thankful for every sunrise, because every day is a blessing."

...Winding Down....

 Well, as you can probably tell, this edition is going to go over several weeks...  It starts with Trunk or Treat at my work, which doesn't really have anything to do with the cabin, except for the fact that Jim was at the cabin the night this was happening... My theme was "Hockey Night in Canada" complete with a little hockey net that kids did their best to get the "puck" into the goal... Seems to be a hit with the kids - there was a lineup of kids just waiting to take a shot...  This was the first time that I've ever participated in something like this, and it actually was pretty fun!

Our Mahayla received an award at her school for getting honours... So proud of her.  What happened to that little bundle that used to climb up on my lap and fall asleep on my tummy?

And, Brea, in the same month, received an award for Student of the Month.  Again, we are so proud... and I miss these kids something terrible.

Election Night 2024 - Jim and I can't vote because we are still Canadian citizens, but we did our civic duty and volunteered to be poll watchers.  We had to make sure all the ballots were collected at the end of the evening and taken to the county court house.  We were at the Provo Library... and, it was freezing cold that night.  I had two fingers that lost feeling and I think Jim had three... We both thought we had frost bite setting in.  Fortunately, we didn't, but it was a fun experience.

Here's Jim looking stylin' in his official election vest!

And, here's all the bags that the ballots go into for transport.

And, here's Jim putting all the bags into my car to go to the polling station! Really was kinda fun.

Jim bought tickets to see the Rivalry game between Team USA and Team Canada at the Maverick Center.  What a fun time! 

Jim and I did our best to adequately represent Canada as best we could.

Jim had his Olympic mitts with him, but it was warm enough in the arena that you really didn't need them. Canada won 5 - 4 in a shootout.

And, the work on the stove pipe continues.  Ben was showing off his best rock climbing skills trying to get the cap back on the pipe... The first try it was getting dark, but the 2nd try was successful.  We haven't got the bird out of the pipe yet, and hopefully that job is in the near future.

We had the county inspector come out and he ok'd us to start installing sheetrock.  I find this so incredibly exciting - it's another step forward.  And, here's the first sheet that went up.

And, the 2nd.....

... and the third....

...and the little piece is where my piece of stained glass is going to go.. That's my project for this winter... It has been bitter cold in Alton with temperatures around 40 during the day, but falling to the teens at night.  It makes it really difficult to work in the cold.

As I said a couple of paragraphs up... the cap on the stove pipe was put back on... Jim thinks he is going to have to drill a hole in a part of it, because the cotter pin that comes with it, has nothing to attach to.  But, that's for a later date.

And, here's the trusty bucket truck doing it's job.  I swear, we have used this bucket truck for so many things in this building project.... everything from roofing, to moving wood, to bringing a refrigerator into the cabin.  It was a good investment.

On one of our travels to the cabin, when we stopped in Fillmore to fill up with gas, Jim noticed that one of my tires was a little low.  So, he went over to an air station to add a little air.. It was at that time that he realized that the air valve was deteriorated and fell off in his hands.  We had to make a quick trip to a tire center to have the donut put on. We were going to get it fixed when we got to Panguitch the next day, but all the tire stores were closed.  Jim finally called a towing service and they said this type of thing happens all the time, and they could fix it... We were thrilled we didn't have to drive 4 hours back to Provo on that stupid little donut.

With that, this edition is complete and the adventure continues.

Love, Jim and Cheri