...MOVING FORWARD

Oh my... I am not quite sure where to begin..

We have not been at the cabin for a whole month...until this past weekend...  The last time we were there was April 22 - We made a fast trip to Toronto in March for my mother's funeral, and made it to the Cabin in April, and, in retrospect, it's had me a little off balance.  Jim hasn't been pushing me, and has let me sort things out in my head a little bit...  and it's been good.... so, this post is going to be a little bit of everything that's been going on for the past couple of months...

Back in April, we really have tried to get work done... Our April trip resulted in a whole lot of talking and planning and deciding what we were going to do... I was of the opinion that we should just sell the cabin and the property... I felt that I would die before we got it done. We have had such a terrible time finding help in the Panguitch area, it's kind of depressing...Jim, is being the optomist here, and just wants to move forward... I think we have that little "help"  problem solved...

We made it to Panguitch on the Friday night and planned on staying two nights at the Purple Sage..  the lady that owns it is so nice...  can't say enough good things about her.  We slept in a little bit - we find the 3.5 hour drive after working a full day at our jobs, makes us more than a little weary..

We start the day by going to the grocery store in Panguitch... And, it was here, that I realized why I kinda like Panguitch... it might not be everybody's cup of tea, but I kinda like it..

Joe's Market is small, but friendly... doesn't have a HUGE variety of the same item, but it always has what I want.  But, it was in the parking lot, that something really appealed to me...

DOGS!... these three warmly greeted us when we parked our truck...  just happy to see us...  and they're cuties...

The 2nd thing that I really like is the community pulls together as a huge family.  I have participated in the Garfield Caring for Kids program for several months - such a worthwhile cause.. This group makes such that school aged kids get meals to eat over the weekends.  Some kids only have breakfast and lunch at school, so when the weekend comes, they go hungry...  Such a great cause..

When we got to the cabin, the number one project was to get the stairs from the basement to the main level - didn't quite happen - but, we're learning a lot...  Jim got a couple of the stair treads in, and then realized that the platform at the bottom wasn't high enough, so the stairs didn't go in correctly... so, out they came...

We hired a local contractor (Justin) to help with the deck, and he and his wife, Jody came on Saturday to start work on the deck.  I was told that you don't nail the deck into place, but you screw it on the framework, so, with that reasoning, Justin and Jody were screwing on the deck...  Nuff said...

We picked up a load of brick earlier in the week, and towed it with us on this trip... It's super heavy, but I didn't have a clue what we were going to be towing in just a mere 6 weeks... Jody was such a help in getting this trailer unloaded...

We purchased the carpet padding in Provo, and decided to haul it with us on a previous trip.  It was being stored in the kitchen of the cabin, so Jim decided to put it in the loft. The only problem is... there are no stairs going to the loft, so we had to get all Mcguyver on the situation.  Jim got up into the loft and made a pulley system, and we pulled the carpet padding to the loft... pretty smart, huh?  Two paper clips, a stick of gum and a pulley, and my man has it looked after!!!  Giggle..

During the building process, our original contractor took it upon himself to remove the manzanita in front of our cabin... did we want it removed... nope... But, it's gone.  So, we have this gaping hole in the "hedge" about 10' wide.  So, I've decided to plant some trees in the space - and I am hoping they survive.. I put a couple of lilac trees there, and a 6 or 7 other flowering trees in the space.  We wanted that hedge there to block the view, from the street, of our patio area...

Now, if we fast forward 6 weeks, the best way we can describe this time period is... RELAX!  It started with the graduation day for our little Coy...  Now, this kid has personality plus!  It was such a joy to see him walk to the front and "graduate".  Jim says that we are looking forward to him to graduate from university with his engineering degree!

   

The next thing we did that was a blast was taking a little trip to California... just relaxing and visiting with friends... we love it... I usually pack the vehicle and the suitcases, and Jim puts the trailer up... I must admit, this is not my favourite job.  Jim is really organized, with everything in it's place... that's not quite my forte, but I came up with a plan to get the job done the most efficiently... Because I work for a printer, they always have these really cool boxes from paper... I snagged some of them, and the job was easy!  When Jim got home and went to load the last of the "stuff" into the van, he was shocked beyond imagination... This is what he saw, and the first thing that went through his mind was... "what happened to my wife"?  Giggle...  'ya just gotta shock these guys every once in a while...

How freakin' organized right?  Sometimes, I even surprise myself..!

Not one of Jim's favourite jobs...  (he told me not to take a picture of his butt.. BUT... I think it's kind of cute, and I couldn't resist...)

While we were in California, my dear sweet husband surprised me... with sunflowers.. They spent the week in our trailer...  such happy and cheerful flowers...  they make me smile.. I am wanting to cast them in cement and make a stepping stone..  they didn't fair so well on the drive home... But, they'll be perfect for stepping stones.

Fast forward a little more and.... we drove down to the cabin on Friday night - I swear, when we drive down on Friday night - we're just beat the next day....  We got into Panguitch at about 11...  and yep, we tried out a new motel - let's just say, we won't stay there again...  The beds were the hardest things on the face of the earth.. I think the floor would have been softer... outlets didn't work in the bathroom... and there was no other outlet to plug into anywhere near a mirror... Was interesting getting ready in the morning...


I've been shopping for furniture inside the cabin, and I am looking for black, wrought iron pieces.. I found this piece in Salt Lake - wanted it to go outside on the deck - just as a table to go between the two chairs...  turns out, it's a little taller than what wanted... so, I'm not sure what to do with it now.  Jim is thinking about cutting the legs down, so it will fit... we'll have to see... I love the design and love the "knuckles" on the legs...

I was in the hardware store in Panguitch on Saturday and was talking to the cashier, and was telling her how hard it was to find help.. She told me about a family that lives in Hatch, that have a bunch of kids and all summer long, their mother gets them to do odd jobs, like cleaning up property, and mowing grass and stuff like that... She gave me their phone number.  I talked to the mom, and she said she would send her boys over.... at this point, they were fixing somebody's sprinkler system, but when they were finished with that job, they would come by.  A couple of hours later, these three boys show up - 17 years old, 15 years old, and 12 years old.. We had bought some glass brick (I swear, about a billion pounds of glass block) and it needed to be taken out of the trailer and onto pallets... I had started stacking them, and got about 3 rows high and I was spent...  They guys tackled that project and got it done in no time.. I was stoked.  I then got them to pick up some of the construction garbage from last year...  they got that all loaded into the trailer and then hauled it off to the dumpster... Talk about a happy camper here!!  They were amazing...  We have a couple of other projects we want them to finish, and they are going to show up during the week and complete that job!  They told us that while they were throwing stuff into the dumpster, a lady from our subdivision came up to them and they were visiting... They said that she told them that she had some work for them to do also.. We were like, Hey!!!  These are OUR workers - no stealing!  Giggle..


Here's the before picture of the construction garbage...

Here's the after picture!  Amazing..





Here's the glass block on the trailer...




Here's the block that I got stacked before I was totally beat!!!

This is what the boys completed.. in record time... and were still breathing afterwards...  See that stack that I moved...  I was having a minor heart attack... There is definitely something to say about youth... mainly, I ain't got it any longer!  Giggle.

And Justin and Jody came by Saturday afternoon and again, were screwing on the deck!

And, you remember that little booboo with the stairs from 6 weeks ago.. Well, it got all fixed, and I am now the proud owner of a set of stairs!  No longer do I have to go outside and around to the side of the house to go to the basement!  I am totally stoked!  Jim wanted a very gradual, easy on the knees staircase so when we get old it won't be too hard on us.

I really like this first picture... don't know why... just do.

                                                                                                                      Last stair tread going in.

This staircase weighs about 1500 lbs.

Jim worked so hard all day Saturday and Sunday to get them finished.. He was determined to get them done before we left on Sunday.  Each 3X12 inch stair tread weighs about 80 lbs.  We always plan to leave by about 5 or 6... With the 3.5 hour drive, it gets us home at a reasonable time.. Well, we left the cabin at about 8:30.. and didn't get into Provo until 12:30 - had to take a couple of pit stops along the way...  Monday morning came waaaaay too early!


During all this working and driving, we try to keep the little booboos to a minimum... It was the truck that sustained damage this time... Jim was backing up the truck with the trailer, and a tree jumped into the way...  scuffed up the door of this truck...  The poor truck is taking a beating.

I must say, all in all, it was a productive weekend, and I think we're back on track.  We were leaving Sunday evening, and I actually felt like I would have liked to stay a couple more days...  The time with Jim was nice.. the things were accomplished were nice... the help from Jody and Justin was amazing.. the help from the three boys was nice... just a great weekend.

The adventure continues.

Jim and  Cheri