Cabinet Doors and a Day Lost in Westcliffe

Last Friday, after a stressful week(s) of work for Mikey, we took a 3 day weekend to Cañon. The weather was abnormally warm for late March/early April. The bank clock said 88 on Sunday when we were headed home. The sky was fabulously blue, and we were happy to be back in the wilds in the sunshine. Yay for vitamin D!

The first order of business was to fix the barb wire fence to keep out MegaHoof and his friend Kong.

They look so innocent, but those butts can be dangerous.

They had a bad habit coming across the one downed section of fence and pushing around our straw bales. That in and of itself isn't so bad, except that the bales they accosted were being used for important things like keeping the gutter drain in place and insulating the water line from the cistern. Now that we have a well with a hydrant, we were concerned that they'd rub their butts on the hydrant and snap the thing off. So wrestling with barbed wire became desirable. Sort of.

The geodesic quonset in Westcliffe when the tarp was new. This becomes relevant in a minute, but I needed a photo here because the text is too long. Patience is good for the soul.

Mikey did a bang up job of fixing the fence, as usual, while I performed my usual outstanding tool fetching and annoying comment making. It was amazing how tight he was able to re-string the wire!  We'll see if it keeps those rascals out. The PO (previous owner) seemed to feel that cementing in corner posts was against his religion, and as such, the posts that "anchored" the large metal gate were also flat on the ground, along with the gate. Mikey hauled them back into position, but if this four footed black knight and his sidekick lean on them a little bit, the gate will flop right over again. It was late Friday afternoon when we finished, and we were too tired to even think about dragging larger posts down there and setting them properly. Besides, we didn't want to get it all done in one day. Where's the fun in that?

The wind and sun really took their toll on the tarp.

We had heard from one of our neighbors in Westcliffe that somebody had pitched a tent on the land next to ours, and was driving at 60 mph on the dirt road, and doing who know what else. Since they had also sent us the above photo, we decided it was time to take a trip back to the Wet Mountain Valley.

The beloved geodesic quonset had to be divested of its tattered tarp, and generally given the once over. There was only one cracked strut, which we thought was pretty good considering the 90+ mph winds they had up there last winter and this spring. Its fate is unknown. We'd like to finish it, but then again, we'd like to haul it to Cañon and use it for storage there. One problem we keep running into is that one of  us works all the time, and the other of us isn't supposed to sweat or breathe hard. It is REALLY tough to get anything done under those conditions.

Our trip to Westcliffe took up most of the day, and when we got back, napped and ate it was time for more stuff.

OK, so that's really a 3 day total, but you get the idea.

We finally reinstalled the crappy cabinet doors on the crappy cabinets, but after they were all painted. It's kinda cheery now!

Every photo looks better with a dog in it. Maybe some day I will remember to remove the blue painters tape from the floor.

Before. Uck.

 Mikey started the trim work on the hood thingy, but ran out of material before he got too far.

See that little bitty white trim so neatly mitered at the corners? That's Mikey's work!

If we're not careful, pretty soon it's gonna be time to start on the guest bathroom. The one with the black tub.