Doe, a Deer... a Female Deer...

 And . . . , a new week has begun!

...Planted the Forsythia, and the damned deer stripped all the leaves off them again, and have left them to die... I am so annoyed... Who came up with this stupid "deer resistant" crap?  And, this was after just a couple of hours... Ben drove by to check on the plants and give them a little water, and this is what was left...  We are going to have to put a little miracle grow on them, to try to resurrect them... grrrr...

The little orange flowers and the roses survived... And, the Russian Sage the deer are not fans of either - thank goodness...  Deer - not my friends.

Here's the little jerks that were on the road as Lowell and Chance were leaving.. There were 8 - 10 of them just waiting for us to leave... There was even a mama deer and two babies crying for her.. again, as she packed her face...  Baby fawns were not happy and Cheri was not happy either...  Ben keeps telling me that I should take a BB gun and scare them away.. I was thinking something a little larger that would take care of the problem permanently...  Like something with Smith & Wesson or Winchester or Ruger written on the side...

My aspens, as you can see to the bottom left of the deer picture, have been perfectly protected and the jerks can't get nibbles.

We have a roofer lined up to put the stove pipe through the roof, and to build the cupola in the next couple of weeks.  So, we figured we should get the wood burning stove from storage and get it situated on the hearth.  We had a little trial run with it - started a fire, and it burned amazingly well. We are planning on painting it black so it's like every other wood burning stove on earth.  When the roofer calls and says he's ready to start our project, we'll be ready.  It was fun and Lowell and Chance were with us this weekend - all the heavy lifting jobs that we needed help with, got taken care of.

And, the Tyvek job continues.  We were hoping that we could get it all tacked down by the end of this weekend, and have the Kane County building inspector drop by and give us the ok to put the siding on, but, we didn't get that far.. We're making progress slowly but surely.

Ben had a little helper this weekend, and they work well together.  Chance is learning a lot about working and getting paid and minor things like that...  He's a terrific worker.

We were trying to get the Jacuzzi to fire up last weekend, and this week, Jim and Lowell were successful - after a 60 minute call to the hot tub technician back in Springville, Utah... Apparently, when the guys came to install the hot tub, they ripped a couple of electrical lines out of their receptacles - like the outlet that turns on the heater... and, even though we could get the water to bubble, we couldn't get it to heat.  Problem was solved, and, by evening it was 94 degrees... Now, 94 degrees sounds pretty tempting, but, when it's 50 degrees out, with wind, it gets chilly after about 15 minutes... Jim and I took that challenge, and had our first experience in the jacuzzi at about 11:00 at night.  As said before, the first 15 minutes were great - until we adjusted to the water temperature, and then it was a little shivvvvvery..

Jim bumped up the heat to 105 degrees and by next morning, it was amazing...  

Funny story...  We are sitting in the hot tub, and looking at the amazing stars - and they are absolutely amazing...  As I'm sitting there, something floats by and I let out a scream... I am thinking that one of those stupid squirrels or chipmunks has climbed into the water and drowned... I push the mass away, and realize.. it was Jim's bathing suit... Seriously?  I look over at him, and he's laughing and has what my father called, "A skunk eating sour bologna" grin on his face... Last week it was, shiny hiny, and this week it's floating bathing trunks...

I saw a little blurb on Facebook and this guy was talking about how much he hated carving pumpkins for Hallowe'en.  But, he had an idea... he carved out a mouth and eyes, put peanut butter in the holes and then left it on the porch for the squirrels and chipmunks to carve...  It looked pretty interesting...  I put one out on Saturday morning, and Sunday morning, the peanut butter was gone, and the bottom of the mouth was gnawed on... When we left on Sunday afternoon, some of the inside guts were gone, and the mouth was chewed on... So, after a week, it should be interesting to see how the experiment progresses.

And, there is a 2nd part of the deck that needs to get finished before the inspector comes...  The main deck is to the front of the cabin. The 2nd part of the deck is to the side of the cabin... But, there was no connection between the two parts of the deck.  So, the guys had to build a corner to join the two so that he can walk around and see the Tyvek.. So, that was part of the project on Sunday.  

We realized on Saturday night late, that we were one Simpson hanger short to complete that project.  Jim called the hardware store in Orderville to ask if they had any of the size we wanted, and, was unable to get an answer.  The guy that was working there, was new, and didn't have a clue what Jim was talking about.  So, Jim decided to drive the 30+ minutes just to see.  When he got there, he was looking for the Simpson hanger that he needed and he couldn't find any... So, he chose one that wasn't exact, BUT, was close.  As he was leaving, there was a table in the middle of one aisle that had clearance stuff on it.. On that table were two of the Simpson hangers that Jim needed...  And, they were buy one, get one free... So, he picked up both of them, and one worked perfectly..

Brianne saw this picture, and says that Jim looks like the foreman...

Jim thinks they need supervision.

And, this is where they stopped at the end of the day!

One of Chance's projects this weekend was grinding all the remaining cement and red crap off the floor and the walls of the main floor shower...  It took quite a while, and there was pink dust over everything in the bathroom, but he finished it perfectly.

Poor Chance, he had to stop every little bit because his hands and arms were aching..  He had to use an angle grinder on the whole project.

But, he did a great job.  The next step is up to Lowell and Chance to put the cement floor back in, put the  drain in the shower, and put the vapor barrier on the floor and the walls...  Then, we check it for leaks, and if it doesn't leak, we make another appointment with the building inspector...

Last Christmas, I bought Jim this antique desk.. I thought it would be beautiful in the cabin...  Lowell, Brianne and Chance met me at the seller's home, and took it apart and carried it down a spiral staircase and put it in the truck...  When Jim received it, Lowell had put it back together..  Now, this desk weighs about 300 pounds... she's a sturdy girl...  We took it to the cabin and it's lived in our great room for the last  9 months.  The problem is, with all the construction going on in the great room, it was getting dinged and we wanted to protect it.  So, we decided to move it under the tv that was behind the couch... The only problem, it's super heavy.  So, Lowell and Chance got the legs back on it, and picked it up and moved in.. something that Jim and I had a problem doing.  

So, now, it's safely tucked away, protected, until we choose to move it again.. to another room...

It's a beautiful piece of furniture... I just didn't realize what it weighed when I bought it.  Giggle.

I don't know why, but this was really different type of weekend for me... We usually have the same routine for weekends.. I get off work early, go home, pack the truck, and drive to the cabin and work crazy (actually Jim and Ben do) and then we drive home...  But, this weekend, Jim and I were talking, and I told him that I feel that all I really do when we go to the cabin is take pictures, cook meals and wash dishes... And, he expressed to me how important I actually was.. and, I really needed to hear it.. Love that man..

Well,  we're making progress and the adventure continues...

Love, Jim and Cheri