Lots of things are beginning to happen, and I am thrilled. As I said last week, I won't believe anything until I see it.. and guess what... I see it!
To start off with, we were driving to the cabin, and Jim pointed out it has rained so much in the past weeks that the fields are so green and then I made a joke. I said, "Those cows in the field are... underlie tickled"... Kind of a Dad joke... groan... But, it made Jim laugh, so go with it!
About 2 minutes up the road, we came across cowboys - herding the cows. I don't think I've seen anything like this in years, and it really was impressive. This is a dad, or at least I'm assuming this is a dad, and his son. Really was nice. There are probably 100 or so cows in the field.
Jim and I both took Friday off work and had decided to drive to the cabin on the Thursday night. It was going to be really late that we got into town and we got a hotel room. The bed was super hard, in my opinion, but, the room was nice.... We slept in a little bit on Friday morning, so we kind of took our time getting to the cabin.
The first thing that I do when I get there, is always check for some lifeform that is no longer a live form... sort of like, mice or birds, or chipmunks - some of the other intruders that we have found. I looked around and Jim looked around, and nope... no creatures... but, as I sat down on the couch, I saw this bird.. dead... behind my glass table.... seriously? We still can't figure out where these birds are getting in. We thought we had sealed everything up!! Apparently, they know better than we do, and they aren't spilling the beans... I still don't know what kind of bird this is... but, she is really pretty... Maybe they come in during the day when we have the doors open?
(On Saturday night, we were downstairs, and there was this little flutter of black wings fly past my face...Jim and I both saw it, so I wasn't hallucinating... We looked around and couldn't find it afterwards.. I think it was a bat.... Jim thinks it was a moth... I'm almost afraid to go looking any further.)
Outside the first thing I noticed was that the trench to the front of the cabin is covered up, and only the plastic pipe and cable/wire was hanging out a bit. Progress! Jim had to do a little work on the water line - I think he said he had to get a crimper to crimp the buried line to the house pipe, and then it would be ready to bring the water into the bathroom downstairs...
Jim borrowed a crimper from a friend, and, we thought it was going to be a straight forward job to bring the line into the cabin.. BUT, no, he found that what he told would be a quick job, was a little more complicated... He was told that the buried pipe coming in from the road was a 3/4"... but, it was bigger than that.. So, we had to drive to Orderville which is about 25 minutes away, to get a one inch size fitting. We got back on site, and found that, it didn't fit either. Not 3/4" but something between 3/4" and 1"... So, Jim used his spidey powers to figure out what to do, and decided to use a hot air blower gun to soften buried hose, slide it onto the receiving new brass fitting, and then crimping it with a one inch crimp ring. That's exactly why I married this guy... He's like McGuyver in disguise.
And, sooner than later, WE HAD RUNNING WATER AND FLUSH TOILETS!!!
It's not every day that I would post a picture of our toilet, with water in it, but this is truly memorable!
Lowell, Brianne and Coy were working with us this weekend, and Coy was the first to christen the potty. When he was finished, he came running up to Jim and hugged him and thanked him profusely for making a toilet... He was so excited that there was a flush toilet!! It was very real, and very heartfelt.... and, I thought I was the only one excited for a flush toilet.
On the way back into town on Friday night, there were so many deer just grazing.. absolutely not phased by the cars driving by. It was really pretty to see... so calm, so serene, so relaxing... And look at the racks on them. I'm not quite over those stupid deer eating all my flower bulbs, but, I've calmed down enough years later, to appreciate how pretty they are.
As I said, the Thursday night, we stayed in a hotel, and, because we were having problems getting the water into the cabin, we decided to stay the 2nd night in a hotel also. Different room, same rock hard bed, same terrible night's sleep... They must have moved the bed knowing I was coming back. But, Saturday night, was going to be my first night sleeping in the cabin... We've had one bedroom set up, complete with beds and sheets, and a closet and really basics for Jim... So, I felt reasonably comfortable it would be ok for the both of us...
Another of the big projects this visit was attaching the sewer plumbing in the cabin, to the septic tank We realized that the pipe was still a little high at one end, and it needed to be dug down because as we all know... "S**t runs downhill". Lowell did all the digging work on this project... and, to add insult to injury, it rained on and off all weekend. So, Lowell was outside, in the rain, digging. Then, repositioned the piping, and covering it up...
As he started filling in the trench it started raining and he took a break. Here's what he had when he came back.
I still don't think that Coy knows exactly where he's sitting.... Giggle. We are so grateful that Lowell helped us out. Since the beginning of this project, 10 years ago, neither Jim or I, are are strong as we used to be. Thank goodness, we have an amazing helper.
Saturday night came, and Lowell and Brianne and Coy went to their hotel room. Jim and I stayed at the cabin. It was about at that point, that two of us realized we don't fit comfortably in a queen sized bed. AND, Jim sleeps in the middle of the bed! (No he doesn't. edit by Jim) We have a California King at the house in Provo and it's very comfortable, even though Jim always complains that I have too many pillows on the bed, and I hog the blankets... This is a lie (No it's not - Jim edit) ... Jim and I have separate blankets. He's still sleeping under a quilt and a blanket because he says I have the air conditioning too low and he's freezing his butt off. I have a very light blanket because the bedroom always feel hot. I even turn on the ceiling fan (You can imagine Jim freezing - edit by Jim). And, I do have several pillows on the bed... Since having my knee problem, I always sleep with a pillow under my knee, and a pillow under my shoulder and I like two pillows under my head.. makes sense to me... BUT, that bed was waaay too small. So, I decided to sleep on the couch at the last minute. I'm still trying to decide which was worse... the bed in the hotel or the couch in the cabin... Sooooo, on Monday night, we went bed shopping, and purchased a king sized bed for the cabin. We are going to take it down this weekend.. We've decided to take the queen sized bed, and put it in the loft, for now. Jim thinks that Coy would love having a big bed and the whole loft to himself! I agree.
Sunday was set aside to finish off the plumbing, and to start putting in the furnace. Though the men aren't quite sure how to put a furnace in, they're learning a whole lot. They placed the main furnace and the air conditioning unit, and then the plenum over top of that... and, even had enough time to put a few feet of duct work in.. I am absolutely thrilled.
We still have a 2nd, smaller furnace to install for the basement apartment, but that's going to be a "in the future" project. The main focus, is to get the big furnace and the air conditioner installed.
We are many steps closer to getting our four-way inspection completed... I saw this project get worked on with my own eyes, so I believe, and it's a fact that they are being worked on! Giggle.
During one of the rain storms, Jim realized that the majority of the group wanted a change of plans on the placement of the jacuzzi and that area even though the project manager didn't....The Jacuzzi is supposed to be delivered in about a month, so we are going to have this area completed soon... or at least, the pad for the jacuzzi needs to be poured and the underground electricity in place. That's on the horizon...
So, except for a really uncomfortable bed situation, a lot of work got completed... Tons and tons of thanks to Lowell and Jim for a job well done.
As always, the adventure continues.
Jim and Cheri
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