Ok... this edition of the blog has been a long time coming......

Well, this week (July 1) we celebrated Canada Day... And, every Canada Day, these little cuties wear their finest t-shirts, and celebrate with us!

Featured in this first picture is, left to right - Ben, Brea and then Mahayla....

This year, we had Chance "attempt" to get into the Canada mood... He doesn't quite understand the whole Canada Day celebration, being that he has absolutely no Canadian in him, and the other do so.... But, he humoured me for a little while... at least to have his picture taken!  (Chance took his shirt off immediately after the picture was taken... I think he does these little things just to tease with me... makes me giggle).

And, featured in this second picture.. again, left to right is Coy and then Chance....

Coy was his usual ham self and played that role perfectly!  What would we do without any of them!!! In my personal opinion, these are the cutest grandkids on the face of the earth!

The fire near the cabin has been blazing for several weeks, but it finally was under control on Friday - thank goodness.  We had a few very scary days there, where it just seemed that they couldn't get it under control... But, Friday, we got the message that the fire was "contained" 100% and that was a relief...  We learned on Saturday that the word "contained" does not mean the fire is completely out.. It actually means that the perimeters of the fire have been contained, but the interior still has fire.. But, the fire patrol said that they are not going to send out any more updates because, for their purposes, there are bigger fish to fry than our little fire...

These are the type of reports that I received every morning...  We went for several days where containment was just 5%... so, when the report came that it was 100%, we were thrilled.

I had started a Facebook page just for people living on our mountain, and I am so sure they were sick of reading about the fire.  But, I am grateful for everyone's good thoughts, and prayers and concerns for a successful outcome.  Hopefully, we can get through the rest of the summer without much more of our beautiful southern Utah burning.

When we got to the cabin on Friday night, there was this little pink plastic ribbon tied to the deck...  and in looking around on Saturday in the light, we figured this is how the Forestry people were keeping track or who was evacuated and who was not...  We were!!!

When we left at the beginning of July, this is how the back porch looked... the tubes were in and the cement poured in the tubes and the work of covering it all up began...

I think that even big boys like to play in the dirt...

And, this is how far we got before evacuation.

...and, this past weekend, the steel poles were put in place.  

Jim shot a line between the four poles to see how straight the lines were, and he reports that they are spot on...  

The next part of the deck process was attaching boards to the side of the cabin so the deck can attach to the cabin... Here's Jim and Ben working to get the boards up in order to move to the next step...

It's super hard work.... Jim took a little nap before we left to drive home - he was exhausted.. we got as far as  Fillmore, and he took another little 30 minute power nap before getting back  on the road .  We took a watermelon over to Ben's pig (on our way home) and Ben said that his arm and shoulder were killing him...  So, both men were feeling the pain!  They were wanting to get the glu-lam beam installed this weekend, but ran out of time and energy...

I was wanting to cast some leaves for our shower grotto, so we are in the experimenting stage.  I snagged a leaf from California when we were there, and decided to cement it... It has been quite a learning process...  I have the ideas, and Jim implements it...

We used some metal flashing to go around the outside of the leaf to keep the shape, and then spray glued the leaf to the bottom of the form... then, the cement went on top.

And, I know this next part is going to freak people out.. but, just go with it.... This was my kitchen sink after the process...  Giggle.. I told Jim that I have had car parts and tools and rocks in my sink AND dishwasher, so cement in the sink is nothing new...   The first time he put car parts to clean in my dishwasher, I had a stroke... now, it's no biggie... at least in my world, it's not a biggie..

Here's the finished project.  This leaf was about 2 feet long and about 1 foot wide - so it was quite a project to get it set in the cement and not broken...  But, Jim is a genius, so I knew it would be amazing....

This is what the mould looked like before and after.  Jim got the leaf so beautifully flat before pouring in the cement... and you can see all the detail on the leaf just perfectly!  (I had to go to google for this part of the blog... I couldn't decide if I needed to write "mold"  or "mould".  Apparently, one can be used as a noun, and the other as a verb...  )

I love that Jim just goes along with all my hairbrained ideas!  I am now looking for some large rhubarb leaves to cement... I am also trying to find some cement colourant in green for the next project.  Haven't found any yet, but I'm still looking.  These are going to look amazing in the outside shower grotto!!

This is kind of what I want our grotto to look like.. The leaves will be part of the rocks on the left side of this picture..

The fires in  Southern Utah have put us back a few weeks... It would have been nice to be working towards getting the four way completed, but, we're now back to work.  Getting the back deck completed is a chore, but, once done, the tyvek can continue and then the siding.  I have to learn a little patience - something I just haven't got the hang of yet...  groan...

Until then, as always, the adventure continues,

Jim and Cheri