Panguitch, Utah

It's snowy outside, but we are going to be making a trip to Panguitch, Utah this weekend...(Panguitch is about 15 miles from the cabin - it's not a huge town, but it sure is bigger than Hatch, Utah, which is the closest little town to the cabin...) We have a storage unit in Panguitch that we are transferring building materials into.  Today, we're going to move door frames, roof trusses for the garage, the garage door and opener. We already have the parts for a 11 X 8 shed in storage.  Jim has plans to move a whole lot of other stuff - I don't know until I actually see him putting the stuff into the trailer... Exciting times.

Jim says this is what the garage construction is going to look like with the arched roof line.

For Christmas, I bought Jim a mirror from the 1920's - about 30" in diameter. (Jim just asked me if I wanted the radius.. no....)  It has carved glass at the top, very retro.  We are going to put it in the loft bathroom - this is the bathroom that we have the claw foot bathtub for, and the toilet that has the tank that is at the ceiling with the brass pipes and pull chain...  We also bought a brass sconce that looks like a sea shell for that bathroom also.   It is coming together nicely.

Last fall, the temporary power pole went in.  We talked to Kane County to get the electricity turned on, and found out, that as soon as they turn the power on, they charge you $35.00 a month, whether you use it or not.  We don't have access to the property from November to April because of snow load, so we opted not to have it turned on until spring.

We have started working on the package to be submitted to Kane County for our actual building permit.  We don't have to apply for a building permit if we are just doing dirt work - which we spent the last year doing.  This year is going to be actual building.  Jim used his CAD system and mapped out where the cabin is going to be, and the garage, and I got to put in the pergola and fire pit and things like that.  It gave me a better perspective of exactly where everything is positioned on the property.  When we had just 2 lots, I had an idea, but over the past couple of years, while we have been buying the extra lots, the positioning of the cabin changed.  So, it's very exciting.

Life is good... and as we always say, "Another amazing adventure".  I'm glad I get to share the adventure with my Jim.

Jim and Cheri

I DON'T EVEN WANT TO POST A PICTURE....NOT GOIN' THERE...

We had a really productive weekend at the property!

We bought a little 5 x 9 foot trailer a couple of months ago, and we really getting out money's worth out of it... Yesterday, we loaded it up with a storage building (it's in pieces...) and we took it down south.  We have two storage buildings in Provo that are chuck filled with stuff for the cabin, and we decided we are going to little by little, take all the stuff down south...  It was supposed to be a quick, there and back, kinda trip... Well, the little storage building probably weighs 1000 pounds, and we couldn't drive the usual 80 mph on I-15 - so instead of taking us 3 hours to get there, it took about 5.5... So, we got into Kane County really late.

We decided to spend the night, and get a little work done today, and then come home Sunday night....We check into a motel in Panguitch. Jim takes me to a the little grocery store just down the street so I can get the essentials...  You have to remember that this is not a planned trip... so, there was no change of clothes or anything like that...  I thought it would be nice to maybe have a comb and maybe some lotion... we go to the store and there isn't a single comb in the place...but, I did find eye liner and lip gloss - really crappy lip gloss, but it was lip gloss... I thought that I could survive...

Spent the night in the motel... Jim fell asleep at about 9:30 pm, and at 2:30 in the morning, he was refreshed and ready to take on the day!  Really?  He turned on the tv...I hadn't really got into my serious sleep pattern yet, so I was ok with him watching tv...(ok, I have a really strange sleep pattern... Poor Jim just kinda puts up with it...)

We wake up at about 8:30 in the morning, take a shower, and that's when the sad state of affairs starts...  Not only do I not have my regular shampoo, but there is no conditioner, no lotion, no blow dryer, no curling iron... and especially... no comb...  Jim runs his hands through his hair, and looks pretty good...  I look like I just got scared by ghosts and my hair is standing up all over the place... Bad hair day doesn't start to describe this look... I put on my eye liner and my lip gloss, and it doesn't make up for the hair..And, there is nothing I can do about this...( I won't get into the whole thing about wearing the same clothes Sunday as I did Saturday... that's a whole other discussion)...

I'm resigned to go out in public... we go to a restaurant, and I've decided that maybe I should buy a bandana and cover this mess up a little bit...  There's a little general store on one side of the restaurant, I ask if they have a bandana... and of course, no...  I explain the situation to the lady at the counter, and all she says is.."You look fine.. you fit right in with the town"... Oh, my...  did she just say that to me?  I was more than horrified...

So, Jim sits down and orders breakfast.  I walk across the street to a gas station, and they have this whole display of "Support the Cure" items... all in pink... They had a bandana, but I chose a pink hat...  The lady at the gas station, take a pair of scissors and cuts the tags off and gives it to me, and just says, "Bad hair day?"...  again, really?  Giggle..

So, I'm sporting my pink Breast Cancer hat... feeling pretty good about my look... all the mess is covered up...

On the way home, we pull into Provo, and I tell Jim that we need to stop in at the grocery and get some milk... we're all out at the house.. We get into the store, and Jim, bless his heart says to me, "Honey, do you remember when you've said to me, stuff like, "Don't let me go out in public looking like that.."".....Then he says, "Don't take the hat off"...

Uhuh...

Apart from my hair experiences, we moved Beluga down to a storage facility for the winter... planted spring bulbs on the cabin site, moved the backhoe back on the property,  and even found a guy to help clear the property over the next couple of weeks.  Was a pretty good weekend... considering...

And it started snowing on the way home.

 

The season is ending too quickly.

The Randstone Continues

We took matters into our own hands tonight.  The selected method of removing the final bits of sunflower was pyrotechnics!  The first attempt was to pour a little gasoline in the stone and light it afire.  Well the teaspoon of gas soaked into the fibrous material and lit nicely when the flame was introduced.

Unfortunately once the gas was gone the flame went out and the fibrous material worked much like a wick and had very little change.  We didn't want to get the stone so hot that it might crack.

Attempt #2 involved a MAPP gas torch.  Now we got black charred material turning to white ash on the top.  Much better!

Once the entire top has a white ash on it the scrub brush was brought out and holy frijoles, the concrete was appearing and the sunflower was being washed away.

A little more burning and then a serious wash and the stone will be free from the bonds of that very fibrous flower.

Until next time, bye for now, 

Jim & Cheri.

THE RAND STONE - CONTINUED...

Remember the Rand Stone?  Well, we started pulling out all the sunflower body this past weekend.  The sunflower body is so dense and thick and fibrous, it's been difficult...  Jim took a wire brush and started to cut back the thick body and show the pattern that is now in cement.  A whole lot of the body came out, but we had to be really careful with the wire brush because it started to knock the points out of the sunflower pattern.

We're liking how it's turning out so far!  We'd like to find some kind of 'something' that would decay or eat the rest of the sunflower out of the cement... Don't have a clue what to use...

Does anybody have any suggestions?

Cheri

A few more photos from the weekend.  I hope my Love doesn't mind.

This is Cheri in the motorhome on Saturday night making dinner.  I swear I eat better when we are away.  She goes out of her way to make fabulous meals.

We cleared a space for a more permanent location for the motorhome.  A little more level and it will be perfect.

Some of the locals getting ready for winter.  Oh and hunting season is right around the corner too!  Hope they hide out well.

Bye for now, Jim S.

DIGGING, DIGGING, DIGGING...

We did more digging this past weekend....  Actually, Jim was on the backhoe, doing the digging... I was directing traffic... making sure he didn't smash over the power pole, hit the motor home, or try driving with the two stabilizers still down..... Jim tells me that I'm supposed to be the spotter - it's kind of a boring job..

But, there was enough of that stupid Manzanita dug that we could reposition the motorhome from a vertical position to a horizontal position..... making headway - slowly, but surely.

Cheri

The backhoe is now parked farther down the hill...

It's the "CANADIAN WAY"

There aren't a whole lot of cabins or houses in the neighbourhood where we are building our cabin - you probably already figured that one out...  Of the neighbours that are there, many of them have named the road/driveway that goes to their property.  I haven't met them, but there's a racing fan, because his road is called "Earnhardt Drive" and there's another one called "Retirement Freeway"...  they're kind of cute...

But, I wanted to have our sign really scream, "Jim and Cheri" whenever someone saw it... This is what I came up with.....

...mission accomplished....  Giggle...

Cheri