HooDoo?

When I was a little girl, many, many, many years ago, (as my brother Eldon would say...) our family took a trip into the US, driving through Montana and Wyoming... I remember certain experiences vividly...( I know I've told this story before, but just go with it.. it's MY blog...  giggle)  I can't remember what state we were in, probably the state of oblivion or boredom, but we came across cowboys, on horses, herding cows.... we had that experience again this past weekend...  We were driving to Koosharem, Utah which is about an hour north of Panguitch, Utah (southern Utah)... We were driving through a canyon totally enjoying the scenery, when we run into a dust cloud and hundreds of black steer (maybe they were bulls or maybe cows... I didn't really check that closely......) but they were walking down the road towards us and then right next to the van... it was amazing!  I roll down the window to take pictures, Jim rolls down his window to moo at them, and, guess what.... they moo back!.. and drool... giggle... then, out of the dust comes... cowboys... real live cowboys... not those squeaky clean, country singing types, like George Strait... but, dirty, dusty, horse riding' cowboys...(don't hate me, I have nothing against George Strait.. just a little too clean for a cowboy...)  One of them rode right past my window with a "Howdy, ma'am"...  like I'm city folk or something... it was great!!!  They even had dogs, 3 to be exact, and they're not sit on your lap kinda dogs, they're actual working dogs...  Amazing!

Was an amazing sight and brought back wonderful memories.

Onward ho, we tried out a new motel on Saturday night - the Hoo Doo Hideout in Hatch, Utah, which is about 7 miles from our cabin.. We had been watching it for the last couple of years... it wasn't in operation for years, and then we saw a sign go up about the cafe being open, and then motel rooms... So, a week ago, we tried out the cafe, and it really was delicious... At that time, we decided to book a room for last Saturday night... very, very comfortable.. I always judge a hotel room by how it compares to my bed at home... and, this was really nice... (Jim always laughs at me because whenever I crawl into bed at home, I say, "Oooooh, I love my bed"...  and, I really do.)

Jim has been working on the balcony off the loft - getting it all waterproofed and ready for winter.  This past weekend, he got the deck completed, and I think it looks amazing. Here you can see him covering the joist that sticks out from the cabin so that, in years from now, water doesn't get in and rot them... he put on vinyl roofing material to keep the water off.

After they were covered, the decking part goes on... I can just imagine myself sitting out here, in the morning (not too early morning... I don't do mornings very well...) and drinking orange juice and eating croissants... reading a newspaper from the weekend before - being that we don't have mail delivery here, or newspaper delivery...or pizza delivery... giggle.

Jim also did some timber work... Here he drilled out the big 8X8 in the middle of the cabin and bolted it into the saddle that fixes it permanently.  He said it was very satisfying to tighten up these big bolts knowing it was an integral part of the structure.  I'm good with it.

One of the projects that we are most anxious to get going on, is putting the hearth and rock walls behind the wood burning stove.  Jim had to cut a corner out of the front right hand corner of the base so that a big rock gets set right there in the corner... the rock weighs about 150 lbs. and should look very dramatic.  Here's the front corner cut out before he set it back down into place.

He also put the angular wall on the stairs for the cement board to attach to.  You gotta have cement board on before the rocks are attached...  I'm learning a lot in this process, even though I really don't want to be building another cabin in my lifetime...  this adventure is enough for this old girl... So the rock wall will go across the right hand wall and then down the angular wall next to the stairs.  The hearth is that wooden platform.

I think it looks amazing and I am super stoked. We already have the majority of the rock ready to go, but, we're still washing and scrubbing a few rocks in the dishwasher, and taking them to the cabin.. I didn't realize we had so many rocks still next to the driveway...  grrr..

Through all this, I still love that guy I live with, he loves me, that's all that matters, and the adventure continues.

Jim and Cheri