Sawdust is Man Glitter

I was at Upper Case Printing in Orem on Friday, and there sitting on the counter, was this great little book marker that just seemed to be written for my Jim.  It read, "Sawdust is Man Glitter".  I brought it home for Jim and we both had a giggle over it on Friday afternoon.... flash forward to Sunday night after we've spent the weekend at the cabin, and here's the picture that Jim sent me...  made me giggle.  Love that man.  Big thank you to Lynda at Upper Case for designing this gem.

I wanted to show you the beauty of our mountain this weekend in our blog.  There's along drive into the area where the cabin in, and it's usually filled with deer and elk, and rabbits and turkeys and coyotes and everything else.  We have a family of blue jays that regularly visits the cabin and squirrels and chipmunks galore.. BUT, my favourite thing is what Jim calls, "Cheri's Heart"..  When you are driving up the mountain, at one specific angle, there is an area of rock that is that beautiful Bryce Canyon red rock... everything else around it is white, except for this one little spot, and it's red.. and it's the shape of a heart...  I love it.. I tried to get a really good picture of it.. but, the red colour just didn't come through.. but, I think it's lovely.

We got to the cabin at about 9:30 on Saturday night - and it was...  24 degrees.. What a shock!  Freezing cold.  Jim had me wait in the truck while he plugged in the motor home and turned on the heater... We sat and visited in the truck for about 30 minutes before we decided to venture out.. Was so cold even with the heater on.  Jim went into the cabin and found a little space heater, and we turned it on also.  I was sure we were going to catch fire - space heaters really make me nervous... but, it was sooo cold, we really had to have something to warm us up, and keep the motorhome warm all night... We got into bed, wearing our hoodies and two quilts on top.. and it was sort of warm.. Jim sleeps by the window, and he always says that it's colder by the window.. I did my best to keep him warm, but... cold is cold...

Got up in the morning, and we both had projects that we needed to get done...  Jim's job was to build a door frame for the basement and install the door, and my job was to unpack the trailer and get all the stuff I could into the basement of the cabin.

We have three storage buildings that I am determined to get at least one cleaned out and closed before winter comes... So, every time we go to the cabin, we pack a trailer and take it down... We only had one casualty this time which was a light globe, but it's replaceable, and it wasn't a major piece, so it was good.

Our contractor got two more windows installed this week...  And some of the Canadian equivalent of Tyvek.  Travis said they were working in a heavy wind, can you tell?

When we looked at the windows this morning, we thought he had installed them sideways.. We came to realize, that it was us who were wrong, and Travis installed them correctly... He told us that there's this little vent opening at the bottom, in case water has to drain from the vinyl around the windows... yep, we're spazzy.......what do we know..?  We didn't notice.

I got as much of the trailer unloaded as I could... there were things this time that were just a little too heavy for me, but I did my best... Jim finished unloading the heavy stuff....like the propane deck heater, and more vinyl siding.  This stuff just keeps showing up at our house.  Giggle....

Jim got the door frame done, and almost has the door installed.. Needs a little more work, but it was getting late and I didn't want to do that getting home at 1:00 in the morning again... So, we left, and drove back home and actually got home at a decent hour.

Was a productive weekend... happy, cold campers here.. but, the adventure continues.

Jim and Cheri

Busy, Busy, Busy, Busy

To say this past weekend was busy, is truly an understatement.

We started the weekend off by traveling down to the cabin on Friday night.  Jim's son, James was running the St. George Marathon on Saturday morning, and we figured it would be a smart move to drive down as far as the cabin on Friday night, and then it would be an easier drive to St. George on Saturday morning.

We got to the cabin a 0 dark hundred, and it was freezing.... 29 degrees worth of freezing.  We turned on the heater in the RV, and slept with two big, thick blankets and hoodies on... got up on Saturday morning, and it was still freezing cold.

We drove down to St. George, and waited with the thousands of other people waiting for our runner to cross the finish line.  James has been such an inspiration to everyone.  Several years ago, he decided to change his life, and got on a diet and exercise program and dropped around 250 lbs. in two years. no kidding...  And, on Saturday, ran the marathon and shaved a cool 45 minutes off his marathon time.  5 hrs. 35 minutes for his second marathon.  I must admit, I was truly teary eyed watching him cross the line..  so proud.

After visiting with James a little bit after the race, we headed back to the cabin.  With so much to do, it's a little hard at time to decided exactly WHAT to do.  We were missing the kitchen window, so we had bought one during the week.  That was the first to go in...Was so exciting... I now have a kitchen window to view my domain from!

Jim put up strings of lights on the main level, because before long, we are going to be working after the sun goes down - no more of this working outside until 9 at night.  We went into town for dinner, and left the lights on while we were gone.  That way, we could see exactly where our house was from the base of the mountain.. and sure enough, driving up, we could see all these little lights shining.. Really was exciting.

The RV wasn't quite so cold the 2nd night...  We didn't have to wear hoodies and the RV was quite warm.

Sunday morning I unloaded the trailer while Jim worked.  We were able to get all the duct work for the furnace system in the cabin.  We scored on this one.  The 70 year old next door neighbor had it in his garage and traded one home cooked dinner and two haircuts!

The next big project Jim had was to install the front door.  It didn't come with a door frame, so he had to build one.

I thought it looked like a coffin, but, no, it actually was a door frame.

He got it installed and the two of us got the door in the hinges and nailed into place.  I think it looks beautiful.

We are trying so hard to get the whole cabin all closed up for wintertime.  We are missing an exterior door for the back side of the garage, so that is our purchase for this week.  I'm still waiting for my stained glass piece to be done - would be nice if it was ready for this weekend.

Usually, when it gets to be about 4 in the afternoon, I start telling Jim that we need to start packing up to go home.  At 4 in the afternoon on Sunday, he was still in the middle of installing the front door, so we were a little late getting out....  If we leave at 4 or so, we get home about 8...  Well, we ended up leaving around 7:30, got into Panguitch, and realized Jim had forgot his wallet at the cabin, and had to go back...  so, we were back on the road at 8:30 pm and didn't make it home until 12:30... totally exhausted.

We didn't see a single deer this time - I don't know where they are hiding.. we saw lots of rabbits, smelled lots of skunks, and this time, we saw a family of three, fat raccoons on the road.  I think they were trying to cross the road, but when they saw our big truck coming, they ran back into the brush... I've never seen raccoons there before... I imagine there's all kinds of interesting creatures lurking in those woods.

Today was Canadian Thanksgiving, and as we crawled into bed last night, I told Jim what I was thankful for... and that is... him...  He's an amazing husband, supportive of me and my crazy ideas, and has such a warm and loving heart.  Although I am thankful that we have the opportunity to build this cabin, and complete a dream of ours, Jim keeps my spirits up, and makes me smile.

I am blessed.  And, the amazing adventure continues.

Jim and Cheri

..Still Movin' Forward - One Step at a Time!

This week ended with projects that were started some time ago and now completed.

The first one to get done with my glass project.  I got the actual leading of the glass done last week, but, it still needed to be soldered and the remaining part of the frame built.

With Jim's help, it got done, and the frame built and tomorrow morning at 7:30 am, it will be taken to the glass shop for thermal insulating and the vinyl window flanges put on...

Jim made me a little carrying case for it, and I'm thrilled. We got it scrubbed down on Friday night, and hopefully, all the writing and numbers and marker has been washed away...I am totally pleased with how it turned out.

I also pulled out the pattern for the 2nd piece of glass to be made, and picked out the colour scheme.  That's usually the hardest part for me - trying to pick out colours that will blend with the 1st piece.  But, I think I got it right.  On a side note:  I did something this time that I have never done before.  When we filled the glass piece over, and pulled the paper out so we could solder the bottom side, I set the soldering iron to the top of the piece... and put the paper on top of it...  kinda started a fire...  In all the years I've been doing glass, I've never started a fire... got it put into the sink really quickly with no damage done.. was a little exciting for a minute there...  I think I'll be a little more careful next time.

Here's the raw pattern for the 2nd piece.

We were at the cabin all day, and when I came home, I looked at the colours of glass, and I like it.  Tomorrow evening, I'll starting cutting and piecing it together.

We drove down to the cabin early this morning with a load of "stuff" from storage.  Slowly, but surely, we are getting storage buildings emptied out, and taken to their new home.  I didn't sleep particularly well last night, and my dear husband, just let me sleep in the truck for the 3.5 hour drive.. I think I've got too much on my mind, and my sleep pattern is suffering for it..

The cabin looks lovely as always.  Jim and I got the 2nd window in the garage installed today - well, I held the window in place, while Jim got it secured in place with screws.

We took the top windows for the prow as well as several pieces of glass that we picked up for the loft bathroom.  Hopefully, they'll be installed this week.  The top windows for the prow are 29 feet in the air, and no, we don't have a ladder that tall.. Even if we did, I don't think Jim would venture that task, and I know for sure I wouldn't.

We were going to install the 3'0" X 3'0" kitchen window  in the upstairs kitchen, but somehow, it went missing.  I mean, really... where does a window disappear to.  We looked in the conex and in the storage, and it's just... gone...  so, we'll have to get a new one this week.

Jim also got the door handles on the french doors in the living room..

Thank goodness he knows how to do this stuff - I sure don't.

The fall colours are starting to appear on our mountain... and, it looks beautiful.  When we  were coming home this afternoon, we just had to stop and admire.

Our adventure continues - we are blessed.

Jim and Cheri