I DON'T EVEN WANT TO POST A PICTURE....NOT GOIN' THERE...

We had a really productive weekend at the property!

We bought a little 5 x 9 foot trailer a couple of months ago, and we really getting out money's worth out of it... Yesterday, we loaded it up with a storage building (it's in pieces...) and we took it down south.  We have two storage buildings in Provo that are chuck filled with stuff for the cabin, and we decided we are going to little by little, take all the stuff down south...  It was supposed to be a quick, there and back, kinda trip... Well, the little storage building probably weighs 1000 pounds, and we couldn't drive the usual 80 mph on I-15 - so instead of taking us 3 hours to get there, it took about 5.5... So, we got into Kane County really late.

We decided to spend the night, and get a little work done today, and then come home Sunday night....We check into a motel in Panguitch. Jim takes me to a the little grocery store just down the street so I can get the essentials...  You have to remember that this is not a planned trip... so, there was no change of clothes or anything like that...  I thought it would be nice to maybe have a comb and maybe some lotion... we go to the store and there isn't a single comb in the place...but, I did find eye liner and lip gloss - really crappy lip gloss, but it was lip gloss... I thought that I could survive...

Spent the night in the motel... Jim fell asleep at about 9:30 pm, and at 2:30 in the morning, he was refreshed and ready to take on the day!  Really?  He turned on the tv...I hadn't really got into my serious sleep pattern yet, so I was ok with him watching tv...(ok, I have a really strange sleep pattern... Poor Jim just kinda puts up with it...)

We wake up at about 8:30 in the morning, take a shower, and that's when the sad state of affairs starts...  Not only do I not have my regular shampoo, but there is no conditioner, no lotion, no blow dryer, no curling iron... and especially... no comb...  Jim runs his hands through his hair, and looks pretty good...  I look like I just got scared by ghosts and my hair is standing up all over the place... Bad hair day doesn't start to describe this look... I put on my eye liner and my lip gloss, and it doesn't make up for the hair..And, there is nothing I can do about this...( I won't get into the whole thing about wearing the same clothes Sunday as I did Saturday... that's a whole other discussion)...

I'm resigned to go out in public... we go to a restaurant, and I've decided that maybe I should buy a bandana and cover this mess up a little bit...  There's a little general store on one side of the restaurant, I ask if they have a bandana... and of course, no...  I explain the situation to the lady at the counter, and all she says is.."You look fine.. you fit right in with the town"... Oh, my...  did she just say that to me?  I was more than horrified...

So, Jim sits down and orders breakfast.  I walk across the street to a gas station, and they have this whole display of "Support the Cure" items... all in pink... They had a bandana, but I chose a pink hat...  The lady at the gas station, take a pair of scissors and cuts the tags off and gives it to me, and just says, "Bad hair day?"...  again, really?  Giggle..

So, I'm sporting my pink Breast Cancer hat... feeling pretty good about my look... all the mess is covered up...

On the way home, we pull into Provo, and I tell Jim that we need to stop in at the grocery and get some milk... we're all out at the house.. We get into the store, and Jim, bless his heart says to me, "Honey, do you remember when you've said to me, stuff like, "Don't let me go out in public looking like that.."".....Then he says, "Don't take the hat off"...

Uhuh...

Apart from my hair experiences, we moved Beluga down to a storage facility for the winter... planted spring bulbs on the cabin site, moved the backhoe back on the property,  and even found a guy to help clear the property over the next couple of weeks.  Was a pretty good weekend... considering...

And it started snowing on the way home.

 

The season is ending too quickly.

The Randstone Continues

We took matters into our own hands tonight.  The selected method of removing the final bits of sunflower was pyrotechnics!  The first attempt was to pour a little gasoline in the stone and light it afire.  Well the teaspoon of gas soaked into the fibrous material and lit nicely when the flame was introduced.

Unfortunately once the gas was gone the flame went out and the fibrous material worked much like a wick and had very little change.  We didn't want to get the stone so hot that it might crack.

Attempt #2 involved a MAPP gas torch.  Now we got black charred material turning to white ash on the top.  Much better!

Once the entire top has a white ash on it the scrub brush was brought out and holy frijoles, the concrete was appearing and the sunflower was being washed away.

A little more burning and then a serious wash and the stone will be free from the bonds of that very fibrous flower.

Until next time, bye for now, 

Jim & Cheri.

THE RAND STONE - CONTINUED...

Remember the Rand Stone?  Well, we started pulling out all the sunflower body this past weekend.  The sunflower body is so dense and thick and fibrous, it's been difficult...  Jim took a wire brush and started to cut back the thick body and show the pattern that is now in cement.  A whole lot of the body came out, but we had to be really careful with the wire brush because it started to knock the points out of the sunflower pattern.

We're liking how it's turning out so far!  We'd like to find some kind of 'something' that would decay or eat the rest of the sunflower out of the cement... Don't have a clue what to use...

Does anybody have any suggestions?

Cheri

A few more photos from the weekend.  I hope my Love doesn't mind.

This is Cheri in the motorhome on Saturday night making dinner.  I swear I eat better when we are away.  She goes out of her way to make fabulous meals.

We cleared a space for a more permanent location for the motorhome.  A little more level and it will be perfect.

Some of the locals getting ready for winter.  Oh and hunting season is right around the corner too!  Hope they hide out well.

Bye for now, Jim S.

DIGGING, DIGGING, DIGGING...

We did more digging this past weekend....  Actually, Jim was on the backhoe, doing the digging... I was directing traffic... making sure he didn't smash over the power pole, hit the motor home, or try driving with the two stabilizers still down..... Jim tells me that I'm supposed to be the spotter - it's kind of a boring job..

But, there was enough of that stupid Manzanita dug that we could reposition the motorhome from a vertical position to a horizontal position..... making headway - slowly, but surely.

Cheri

The backhoe is now parked farther down the hill...

It's the "CANADIAN WAY"

There aren't a whole lot of cabins or houses in the neighbourhood where we are building our cabin - you probably already figured that one out...  Of the neighbours that are there, many of them have named the road/driveway that goes to their property.  I haven't met them, but there's a racing fan, because his road is called "Earnhardt Drive" and there's another one called "Retirement Freeway"...  they're kind of cute...

But, I wanted to have our sign really scream, "Jim and Cheri" whenever someone saw it... This is what I came up with.....

...mission accomplished....  Giggle...

Cheri

THE RAND STONE - PART DEUX

Well, the Rand Stone has spent the night drying overnight....  It's still very, very soft and is going to take a little time to cure...

This is what it looked like when the form was taken off the side...

Jim took a file and rounded the edges a little bit....

And then, started to cut the sunflower away....  The cement is really, really soft so we didn't want to cut down too far into the stone just in case it fell apart before it was totally cured.

This is what it's going to look like while it's curing and the rest of the sunflower is decaying...  As it decays, and cures, we can pull more of it out...You can see where the leaves are woven through the cement... Just what we wanted!

We are totally excited and happy with the progress!  

Cheri

THE RAND STONE

My dream for part of the decorating of the cabin was to make stepping stones that were imprinted with leaves or branches from different places that Jim and I have been over the years.  I've been collecting succulents and freezing them until I could get to the point of making a stepping stone with them.

Well, today, we made the Rand Stone.  This is our first stepping stone for the cabin.  I know, in time, our technique is going to change a little bit, but, we are quite proud with what we've done today!

This is Rand's sunflower that grew in his backyard.  After his mum and dad helped him harvest it, his mum brought it to me to be set in cement.

We let it dry out a little bit and the cut the stem off so that it will fit flush in the mould that Jim made.

Here's the base of the mould. Jim put screws in a circle so it would hold the form from moving around.

We put the sunflower inside the form and screwed it down to the board that it wouldn't shift when the cement was poured on top.

Here's the sunflower just before being covered with cement.

It's now going to take a couple of days to dry, and then we peel off the form, and we have a stepping stone with an inverted imprint of Rand's sunflower.

Here's to the beginning of beautiful stepping stones.  Thanks to Rand for sharing his sunflower with us!

Cheri

STEEL SOMETHING OR ANOTHERS....

 Well, Jim is all excited about buying steel...  It goes in the cabin - exactly where, I don't have a clue... I don't know what this stuff is called... All I know, is that it's about 30 feet long, and it's heavier than all get out... and Jim is excited that we bought it...

There ya go...  Cheri

Well, now it's my turn.  These are I-Beams and they are structural steel used to hold up the main floor.  This allows us to have a large two car garage under one end of the cabin and we won't have a pole in the middle of the garage.  The other allows us to build a mother-in-law apartment downstairs next to the garage that doesn't have a pole in the middle of the living room area.  So it's one of the details that definitely has nothing to do with decorating.  This is function rather than form.

Talk to you soon, Jim S.

YES, I HAD A STICK IN MY HAIR... AND FLAT DIDN'T CARE!

Such a busy weekend!

Jim and I had specific goals set out before we even got to the property.  His goal was to set the power pole so that Garkane power can run the power to it!

My goal was to keep cleaning the property of all that stupid Manzanita and scrub oak that seems to be multiplying every time we go there!

Both of us achieved out goals!

We found that the best thing to do was to buy a trailer and start hauling all that crap out of there....You can't even imagine how long it takes to load the trailer with all trees and bushes...The property is not level, so every step back to the trailer is uphill... exhausting!

At the end of it, I was really pleased!  I looked really bad, but it was such an accomplishment.  Now, brace yourself with the next photo.......  Just remember how I felt when I realized what I looked like, AFTER I had dinner in a restaurant and was out in public....  And, last night in the shower, I realized I had a stick in my hair on top of it all.... I guess, if you can't laugh at yourself.... ya ya ya...

Jim's job was to install the power pole....  Had had to first of all dig a hole, then level the power pole and then fill the hole in with dirt.  But, again, that stupid Manzanita was interfering with our plan.  Jim was using the backhoe to dig the hole, and just kept digging up more and more manzanita roots... I hate that stuff...

And, as you can see, at the end of the day, we had a power pole set!

And, before we left, the backhoe and Beluga are back in their proper places!

Here's a couple of pictures of the inside of the motor home as it is now.... It's very, very comfortable and we're enjoying it....

Jim keeps telling me that it's the journey, not the destination.  This journey is amazing.

Cheri

POWER POLE!

This past weekend didn't quite get started as planned, but we did make it to the property, and it really was quite productive.

We had it in our minds that we were going to clear the way to put the power pole in so that we can stop using the generator.  There is power at the street, we just need to run a line from the street to the power pole.  The problem is... that stupid manzanita that I swear is reproducing all the freakin' time... We moved the RV out, and, after a little intense discussion, Jim pulled the stupid manzanita up, and I moved it over to the trailer so that we can throw it into the dumpster. We bought a chipper, which we thought would do the job of getting rid of the mass of limbs, but it is just not up to the task.  What a waste...

Talk about viciously hot... We are both so sunburned, it's incredible... and the dirt factor is out of this world... We were both wearing socks and shoes, and when we got home, our feet were so disgusting, it was  directly into the shower....

On the way out of the area, it was really sweet... we saw a mama deer and two babies.  The babies still had their little spots....  I've got a picture.... you have to look really close to see one of the babies..

Really productive day... really hot day...

Cheri

NOT SURE WHAT TO CALL THIS BLOG ENTRY....

Last night was the first night that Jim and I actually stayed in Beluga AT the cabin site...  We've stayed in it before at a campsite, but never at the cabin site... Wow... is it quiet... and dark...and almost scary... when we turn off the generator, it is dark, and quiet... and things outside are howling... not sure I'm quite used to it... I'm used to always having the stereo blasting or the phone ringing, or the tv on or something... but, this quiet is really, really strange.

While I was contemplating, I had a thought from years and years ago... actually, it was when my brother Bart and his wife Jackie were getting married...  Bart had Jackie's wedding band picked out, and Jackie had made a comment about wanting a freezer instead of a diamond.... and it hit me, I'm not that kinda girl... I'm not very practical, and I sure like my conveniences.... actually, I get downright snarky if I don't have my modern conveniences......  I think I realized I was being a little on the snarky side today when I asked why Jim didn't say something to me about a subject I was complaining about, and his answer was, "ARE YOU CRAZY?"  .... ya....

But, the air conditioning in the motorhome works, I cooked a meal, the potty works - though it is a little on the small size, but over all, it's ok...  I don't want to live there for the rest of my life, but it's ok...

Jim plotted out exactly where the cabin is going to go today, we cut down some more trees and figured out where the power pole is going to go...  Next weekend, we are hoping to get some boy scouts or help or some group of people to help chop down the rest of the trees and the stupid manzanita so we can really move forward... We figure that we are going to spend the rest of the summer getting rid of that stupid manzanita, so it's time to get some help.

While we are at the cabin site, we always see deer and squirrels and chipmunks... lots of critters running around...  Today, on our way home, we encountered a different kind of beast.

These guys were not particularly friendly, and really didn't want to move out of the road...

Over all, it was a pretty decent weekend...  Maybe next weekend, my disposition will improve....

Cheri