CAN I SAY.. SIXTEEN!!!?

One more weekend down, and the summer is quickly coming to a close.. This means, the number of weekends left to work on the cabin is getting smaller and smaller.  With September just a couple of weeks away, we have September, and October, for sure, to work... and November is questionable.  So, we are under the gun.

I haven't been going to the cabin because I have just felt miserable sick.. I finally went to the doctor earlier in the week and found that I have ear infections and infected lymph nodes in my neck.  My right ear was so infected that the ear drum split, and it's caused me major pain.  I've been on antibiotics for a week or so, and a little by little, I'm feeling a little spunkier, so, I think in a bit, I should feel well enough to spend a weekend at the cabin...

Lots of things are appearing in the cabin...  but, these are appearing on my walls!!!

You know, there are times, since Jim and I got married, where the two of us are so in sync with each other, it's truly scary... sometimes, not so much.  But over the weekend, we were so in sync, it was terrifying, but amazing all the same.  Jim calls me, and says that he is doing the electrical wiring in the kitchen.  I, at first, thought this was pretty boring, until he said he put 16 electrical plug outlets in the kitchen in the back splash area.  Yes, I said SIXTEEN.... This is like a dream come true!  Eight plugs on each side of the kitchen window.  Does this man know me, or what??  This means I can have my two Kitchen Aids on the counter at the same time, along with the Blend-tec, waffle maker, toaster, hot pot.. etc, etc, etc.  Giggle..


One of the huge projects that needs to get completed before the snow flies, is finishing the siding.  Jim started once again nailing the siding on, Sunday afternoon, and I think it looks fantastic!  We have the prow yet to do and around the dining room bay window... two really big jobs, but the front door looks pretty good.

On Saturday afternoon, Jim calls me and said that we had fatalities in the cabin again.  Several weeks ago, he called and said that there was a dead woodpecker in our living room.. and we figured that she got into the cabin while the doors were open, and with the heat and the lack of water, she died during the week.  On Saturday, Jim called to say that there was another dead bird in the living room.. and while we were talking, he found a 2nd bird.  So, we figure, there had to be another entrance.  Jim spent Saturday looking at the eaves, and around the doors.  He found several smaller openings, but nothing big enough for a bird.  By the time he left to come home on Sunday afternoon, he had figured out where the hole was - and it's 23 feet above the floor, at the top of the ridge beam.  There is a little space, where we think birds sit, and eventually come into the cabin, and then can't figure out where to get out.  The only problem is, we have a 16' ladder, so, it's going to be a little tricky to get to.  I just hope we don't wipe out the whole woodpecker population, before we get it closed off..

While Jim was at the cabin, I was back in Provo, working on my glass.. As I've said many times, it's not if you are going to get cut, it's when...  I was going to grind a piece of glass, and there was one tiny little little shard of glass sticking out on the off the side... when I went to grind the glass, that tiny little piece punctured my thumb, and the bleeding was incredible... Took me the longest to get the bleeding stopped... Not a huge cut, more of a puncture...now to let it heal for a couple of days, before I'm back at the cutting and grinding...

I got a call from Jim on Sunday morning, and he started the conversation with, "Um, there's a little fuzzy tail that just ran under the couch"... I was having a freak... A mouse?  Jim says no... bigger.  A rat?  Jim says no.. bigger... and I'm thinking bigger?  He finally tells me that it is a chipmunk that ran from one couch to the other.  About that time, the little beast ran out the front door, and was just hanging out on the deck.  From that, Jim figured that this little guy, probably has been getting in under the door.  So, that little space was filled in and those visitors will be no longer welcome.(Yes, he's cute.. but...)

A couple of weeks ago, we purchased two book-matched slabs of wood for a sliding barn door in the loft.  I forgot to mention that we bought a slice of wood to make the perfect charcuterie board.  After all the projects that Jim has going, I am sure this piece won't be finished for a couple of years, but, I can wait.  It is a slice of maple, (those maple trees hold a special place in my heart...sort of like moose), is interesting, and beautiful all in one.  This slice of maple is about 3 feet wide...

When I was out shopping on Saturday, I found a piece for the kitchen, that holds a sentiment unlike anything else.  When I was growing up, my parents always had this Corningware coffee caraf on the stove.  They were not coffee drinkers, but my mother and dad brewed up some of the most interesting teas... from peppermint to chicory to who knows what... it was this coffee pot that reminds me of my parents, my home, and growing up...  a sweet memory.

I was reading about a couple in a publication this past week, that interested me.  They had very successful careers, but decided to walk away from their careers, and go on an extended bike tour - because they wanted to prove that people were essentially good... Unfortunately, their adventure came to an end when they were killed by ISIS.  But, it was something the husband wrote before they left that interested me.  He wrote:  "I've grown tired of spending the best hours of my day in front of a glowing rectangle, of colouring the best years of my life in swaths of grey and beige. I've missed too many sunsets while my back was turned.  Too many thunderstorms went unwatched, too many gentle breezes unnoticed."  How beautiful; how poetic; how sensitive and touching, but how true.  This is sort of the philosophy that Jim and I have... we are building something lasting, enduring and a monument to the love we have for each other, and for our children and grandchildren... not to let the sunsets go unnoticed, to take time to sit on the porch here in Bryce Canyon and enjoy the breezes and the rocks, and learn how to love those things around that are given freely.

Once again, the adventure continues. . . .
Jim & Cheri