I think the small window of time we had has closed...

 Well, our time at the cabin this year is coming to a close.  We had a little bit of a window to do some last minute jobs, and then the winterizing has started full force.  Jim was at the cabin on Saturday and Sunday, and on Sunday morning, this is what greeted him...  He was not particularly impressed...

By Sunday afternoon, it really started to snow, and it was time to high tail it off the mountain and come back to Provo.... where it was pouring rain... sad face...  Fall and winter is not my friend...It's my theory that you won't be burning in hell, people will be frozen in hell...  I don't like the heat, but I like the cold even less... When I was a teenager, I loved going skiing... now, not so much.

Jim was making a little footprint path across the bridge to get back and forth to his truck..

Here's the side view of the property... The jacuzzi got winterized and the top was supported so it didn't sink like it did last year...  and a tarp was put over the backhoe.

And, this is the road everybody is totally ticked off about.. From the highway to the turnoff, it's Garfield County... But, we live in Kane County.  Garfield doesn't get our taxes to plow this road, so they have decided not to plow any longer... We've owned property here for over 10 years, and they've plowed every year... until last year they decided not to both, which leaves the residents that stay on the mountain year round, stranded...  

The furnace was installed, but the duct work was not finished, so this is our only source of heat.  Saturday afternoon, Jim said that it was in the 20's in the cabin.  This little stove did it's best but with cathedral ceiling and no insulation, unless you stand right in front of it, you don't feel a whole lot of heat.  (Side note:  when Jim went to start a fire in this baby on Saturday, he found a bird... and the bird had gone to visit friends on the farm...) The top part of the stove pipe blew off during a wind storm, and it got too windy and cold to hoist Ben up there to get it back on... so, some little bird decided to check out the pipes and couldn't find it's way out... rather, it went to the farm...)

And, I found his ceramic basket last week.  I know it's handmade, but I don't know the story behind it.  I love it.  I wanted to put it in the upstairs loft bathroom because it's all in white/grey and green, but I think Jim had another plan for it.  I want to put the spare bathroom tissue rolls in it... Made sense to me.

And, I found another ceramic chicken.  Jim is at the point now that he says I have too many chickens, but doesn't complain any further.  I guess he's getting used to it.  This was just too interesting to pass up.  

And, remember the Pika from last week.  Well, he brought another friend to visit, or maybe this is the same one we released last week... don't know.. We just know he was caught in the trap.  We haven't found the entry yet, but sooner or later we will.  Jim thinks that he came in when door were open, but I think he's found an entry and we haven't closed it off yet.  It's been too cold to have the doors open.

And, here's one of the granite window sills.. They really go nicely with the ceramics in the bathroom.  

And, here's the finished floors all grouted and dried.

And, Jim started putting everything back in its place...  One piece by one piece.

And, this is where Jim decided to put my ceramic basket.  I don't know if this is going to be it's home, but for now, it's in the main level bath.

Jim told me that he didn't figure for the ceramics behind and under the cabinet, and when he went to put everything back into place, the holes in the back were a little bit off and need to be drilled out... I just think it looks pretty.

It's been a crazy year.  Jim is wanting to get back down to the cabin a couple more times this year, but I am not sure with the crazy weather we have been having.  Salt Lake City had a major snow storm on Saturday and Sunday (about 45 minutes north of us) and Duck Creek, which is about 20 minutes away, got slammed also.  It's supposed to be a super snowy winter, so it's going to be a hit and miss.  Drive carefully, friends.

Jim and I were watching the series (Six Feet Under) on Sunday night, and someone on one of the episodes said a line that resonated with Jim.... He loved it, and came upstairs as I was doing dishes, and so sweetly said to me:

"I must have done something really good, because I've been rewarded 1000 times over." Still love this man something stupid.

With that, the adventure continues and we'll close this chapter.

Love, Jim and Cheri

..... Starting to winterize...

 Oh my... it has been an incredibly busy couple of weeks.... starting with our first snowfall of the season... it was just a dusting of snow and it was over and done with - but, I know, it's coming.  Jim was at the cabin this past weekend, and the days were comfortable, about mid 50's, but the nights were in the low 20's... I've been sick this past week, so I avoided the cold and stayed home.

My son, Brad and his family, who live in Alaska, bought a snow blower at the beginning of this season... after 7" of snow that had already made an appearance.  I just don't think I could handle that much snow... and I'm from Toronto!!! I think when I was younger and was a skier, it was exciting when it snowed... But now... not so much.   (My son just told me that they now have 18" of snow...)

Ben, my grandson, had an other idea how to spend his time.  He found a Leaf's' hockey game and stayed cozy inside!  Makes perfect sense to me.

We didn't make it to the cabin a couple of weeks ago, hence the pause in the blog.. We made a 5 day trip to Atlanta, Georgia...  Jim was asked to speak at CAMX - which is an Engineering conference.  It really was an amazing trip!  I was so proud of him as he spoke with such poise and passion about autoclaves..  And, there was a whole crowd afterwards that wanted to speak with my celebrity husband.  He did amazingly well!

The best part of the trip... I think, was that we ate our way through Atlanta, and the food was amazing.  We found this amazing little restaurant called, "Atkins Park".  Great food, and the atmosphere was beautiful.  I took this picture and I love it because Jim "almost" has a smile...  Almost - I'll take it!

The restaurant used to be a butcher shop/delicatessen on the top floor, and a lot of the architecture has been preserved.  I did a little research and found out that it was first opened in 1922, and it is Atlanta's oldest continually licensed tavern... It is one of those places where you can't decide what part of the dinner you liked the most... All of it was that good - the flavors were amazing.

And, of course, we had to have breakfast at a Waffle House!  Giggle.

We stayed at the Marriott Marquis, and again, the architecture was spectacular.  Jim didn't want to look up from the lobby and see all this, but I thought it was fascinating.

As mentioned in previous blogs, we have been trying to catch a little visitor. The last time Jim was there, which was before Atlanta, he put out a live trap, and we caught this squirrel.  We don't know how he was getting in, and don't know what he ate because we make sure there is no food left when we leave.. But, this guy came to visit and had a snack in the trap...  uhuh...  I'll keep this picture small.

Now, Jim was at the cabin this past Saturday and Sunday, and after he emptied the trap on Saturday morning, he set the traps again, and, Monday morning, Ben was there letting in Will and his sons to finish the ceramics job in the bathroom...  And, this little guy, was alive and well, in the trap.  This is a Pika... I have never heard of a pika, but apparently, they are cousins to rabbits...  smaller, with no tail, and, in my estimation, a pain in the rear.  They are native to the area around our cabin.  I never thought I would have Pikachu in my cabin, but apparently, he found an entry, and wanted it to be home.  He is not invited...

The ceramics job continued this past weekend, and when Jim left, Will said they weren't quite done and would be working one more day..  it really looks beautiful - Will is quite the artist.

Here's the work in progress.

We decided to put grey granite on the window sills...  We found this granite in an old federal courthouse in Price, Utah - many years ago.  It was being demolished, and they were getting rid of all the window sills.  At first we put the regular ceramic tile on the sill and Jim saw it and decided a piece of this grey granite in the 2nd window might look better.. When I saw the tiled window sill job, I wasn't too impressed.   When Will came back Sunday morning, he told Jim that it was really bothering him, so, he broke out the one window sill and replaced it with another grey granite window sill, and it looks amazing.  I like the look because it accents perfectly, but, I really like the history of it too.

And, this is what is looks like.. dusty and almost finished.  Without the grouting.

And, this is what it looks like installed and WITH the grouting...

I think it looks amazing.

This is one of Will's sons who comes to help. Will has had three of his sons lend a helping hand.  Good kids..

And, the floor in the shower is completed...

We had several pieces of white ceramic corners to make little shelves in this shower, and we realized that these don't quite match.  So, I ordered samples of corner shelves.  I'm going to return the two bottom pieces and have already ordered one additional piece that will match of the top triangle.

And, here's the finished product.  Jim will be back this next week to reinstall the commode. cabinet and the sink and hang the mirror.  We still have to purchase the glass shower doors and get them installed, but I think that's a project for next year.  I am absolutely thrilled how this turned out.

I had an interesting thing happen on Saturday morning.  I got a knock on the door and when I opened it, there was a Sheriff's department officer standing there.  He asked if James Streeter was home, and I told him he was not.  He said he had an arrest warrant for Jim and wanted to serve him with papers.  I told him I was his wife and asked what was this regarding.  This is so not like Jim, so I was really questioning everything.   The officer said that Jim was summoned to serve on a grand jury panel back in July and did not show up.  I told him that there was a really good reason why Jim didn't show up... he kind of looked at me and said, "And, what is that reason?"  I told him that Jim is a Canadian citizen and is not allowed to vote or serve on a jury.  He just looked at me for a couple of seconds and said, "I'll have this warrant dismissed....." and walked away.  Was weird.  Every once in a while Jim gets a jury duty notice and we just usually send it back with the Canadian excuse and we don't hear anything else.  But, for this one, we never got a notice.. Strange.  So for a few hours on the weekend, Jim was a wanted fugitive.

When we have subcontractors come in to work, we usually feed them lunch.  Because I wasn't there to make "something" for them, I had Jim make them a stew for lunch.  He apparently did an amazing job because 2nds were offered and received happily..

It was so cold in the cabin, I thought they needed something piping hot and it would be appreciated.  I told Jim that this one crock pot of stew would feed, "one elder, two sisters, or a family of 10".  I figure it nobody complained and they went for 2nds, it was a win.

The back deck was resealed this past weekend.  Jim and Ben are starting the process to winterize the cabin, and this was a necessity.

We had used two different kinds of sealer, and one of them didn't quite cut it.. So, now, it's so much better.

They also put sealer on my plant stands...

I had a vision of what I wanted to do with these plant stands, but now, I've gone a different direction... so, I think for now, we'll bring these in the cabin over the winter, and I'll make decisions in the spring.

And, the whole weekend ended with hot chocolate, and whipped cream...  Great weekend.  Poor Jim and Ben are both hurting and need a break...  Hard work... lots of hard work.

And, as always, the adventure continues.

Love, Jim and Cheri

"Keep an open mind - you never know what might crawl in"