...Let's start with calm and relaxing trees....

 

When I was living in  Colorado, I was absolutely intrigued by Quaking Aspens and have always wanted them at the cabin..  those, along with blue spruce.  Well, I was at Home Depot last week and I saw the aspens, so I bought three of them!! It was raining so hard over the weekend that I couldn't plant them, but hopefully, next weekend, we'll see a little sunshine and that job can be realized... I'm still waiting for my Blue Spruce to come down in price, and I might make the investment... But, spending $199.00 on a single small tree, is not my idea of a smart purchase...  So, we wait!  Also, at Home Depot, they had pallets of flagstone on sale for $300.00.... Remember, a couple of weeks ago, I bought a pallet of flagstone from a guy in Payson... paid $80.00...  I think I did ok..

But, Jim and I did find a rock shop in Orderville (about 15 miles away from the cabin) and we stopped in.  I am looking for flagstone for the grotto in the outside shower.  We didn't find any flagstone, but I did find pieces of stone with fish fossils...  I think they'll look cool.  We are going to set them in cement to make them a little stronger.  I think they will be a welcome addition to the leaves!

There were all shapes and sized that totally intrigued me!

While we were in the rock shop, I saw these pieces of glass and I just had to get a couple of pieces for my grotto... Not quite sure where I am going to put them, but definitely on the waterfall side... It reminded me of the movie, "Shawshank Redemption" - one of my all time favourite movies...Andy and Red are the two main characters and Andy escapes, but tells Red about meeting him in Mexico... In their conversation, he is told to look for a long wall in the middle of a hayfield in Buxton... and in that wall, there is a piece of black volcanic glass and that piece of glass has no business being in that field or that wall... And, under that piece of glass, there is a box ... And, the message said, "And, if you've come this far, maybe you'd come a bit further".  I love that line... So, I told Jim that I wanted to get a piece of black glass like rock to also put into the grotto.. He told me that he has a piece of black obsidian that I could use... I am so stoked...  It is going to look amazing... and always remind me that just maybe, I can come a bit further... (If you haven't seen the movie, find it and check it out!)

Here's the two piece of glass I picked out from the rock shop... They are Japanese made glass, primarily used in making beer bottles...  I really love the vibrant colours...

And, I was all excited about getting the balusters started on the deck. We have half the deck completed but, I was dying to see how the balusters would look.  We had the dimensions that we had to follow, so Jim made little spacers to put between each piece just to make sure I was on track.  I got it all laid out on the island, put the little spacers in, and then realized that I needed to add two more pieces to have the correct width.  So, I added double knuckles one on each side of the "S" shape, and now it works perfectly.  BUT...

... it started to rain, so the baluster project was delayed.  We have had rain for the last couple of weekends and I am hoping that this next weekend, there will be no more rain.  Everyone keeps telling me that we need rain, but I need balusters and railings!

So here's the propane pipe that comes from the big white tank leaning up against our cabin with the regulator on the end.  But the big news is, next to it is the pipe that runs through our cabin to fuel up the barbeque, the cook top, the hot water heater, and the furnace!

Going out to the barbeque.

Headed over to the cooktop in the island.

And being distributed to the big furnace, the downstairs furnace and the hot water heater. 

And, the shut off valve for the barbeque in the basement.

And, here's the visitor we had on Friday and Saturday night.  We knew, from the week before, that we had a chipmunk in the house, but couldn't find him... He came in through the downstairs sliding doors and then was sleuth and we couldn't find him... So, Jim and I are sitting on the couch on Friday night, watching tv, and out pops this little body... looking at us like, "Hey, what are y'all doing here?" He didn't get the idea that we owned the place and he was a squatter.  It took us the next two nights to serve him eviction papers... we tried all kinds of different efforts... and, they all failed.  Until, Jim had the idea that if he squished the couch cushions together to stop his escape, we could block him in and then just reach in and pull him out... Well, in theory that works... While Jim blocked him in, and I reached in with gloved hand, I got educated on squirrels and chipmunks...  Here's an excerpt from Wikipedia..."TAILS DETACH TO ESCAPE PREDATORS".... I reached in, and pulled my gloved hand out, just holding his furry little tail... I about freaked... I have been called a lot of things in my lifetime, but never, ever predator... I think Alvin the Chipmunk was as freaked as I was and he just sat there shaking... I reached back in, and picked him up, and put him outside... far away outside...  Was disgusting.

Apparently, squirrels and chipmunks can regrow their tails... I don't want to stay in contact to see how the recovery is going... not happening in my world.

This chipmunk issue is not the kind of adventure I want to be a part of again.... But, the adventures continue....

Love, Jim and Cheri