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| Inside view looking through the front door towards the west bedroom. |
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| Front wall |
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| Front wall from a different angle |
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| Back wall |
I took a couple of vacation days off from work so Steve and I headed for The Drunken Bear. It was a beautiful day with brilliantly blue skies and a moderate temperature and we were anxious to get started. Once 9:00 a.m. rolled around we began adding more logs and the walls began to rise. It became obvious right away however that we needed more pieces cut to replace those that were either rotted or were just plain missing. I have explained this in a previous entry...including how unhappy we were with the person who sold us this "2 year old Pan Abode", and this is where the cussing began. We decided to walk through the house and figure out how many pieces needed to be cut. We had already cut quite a few, but that day alone we had to cut 116 more pieces! We know we will probably have to cut a few more, but now we should be able to continue adding to the walls without having to stop and cut a piece here and a piece there all the time. We worked until the sun was directly on us and it was getting too hot, and then we retreated to our recliners by the river. First we grabbed a couple of Coronas and some chips for nourishment. It is so relaxing sitting by the river looking at the beautiful scenery and the crystal clear water of the Skykomish River. It is amazing how clear that water is. The other nice thing is this area is shaded by tall Douglas Firs and Western Red Cedar trees. It is a nice break to have in the middle of the day, but it is a little hard to go back to work after being at such leisure!
Once the sun had moved off a section of the cabin we went back to work in that area. Looking at the pictures, you can tell where the shade was most often. Those are the walls that are the tallest. Every time we get towards the top of a wall it gets exciting. This is when you add the pieces that bring it all together and assures you that you are on track. We worked until around 7:30 p.m. the first night. I told Steve, let's keep it easy as far as dinner goes. And easy it was...on the way up to Index, I stopped by our lifesaver, Costco, and picked up Polish sausages, sandwich rolls and potato salad. Earlier I had also stopped by the liquor store to replenish our stock, so we were able to have margaritas again...until we ran out of mix. I wish Washington laws were like those of California where you can go to Costco and get your liquor for about 2/3 the cost of what is charged here in Washington.
While we were roasting our sausages over the campfire we were discussing a phenomenon in the area where we are building. This phenomenon is the lack of wildlife. Here we are out in the middle of the wilderness and we never see any animals...other than the occasional squirrel. Even the squirrels have been allusive. Here it is August and we have yet to see one in 2008. Of course I don't particularly like the squirrels in the city who think my cedar roof is very tasty...as well as the outside lights at Christmas. Wait, back to our phenomenon. We have tried to analyze the absence of the wildlife and the only reasoning we can come up with is the landscape. The Drunken Bear is located along a stretch of the Skykomish River which runs through a bed of river rock making it difficult for anything (including humans) to walk. We are thinking it must be too difficult for those on four legs to get to the water and they must choose a "better" neighborhood to live in.
Although we have never seen any animals, that is not saying there aren't any however. A few years ago Steve and I were at the property just enjoying the day. I decided to take a walk down to the river and look for another "interesting" rock to bring back to our property to use in the landscaping. All of a sudden I hear this shouting. I turned around and saw a neighbor waving his hands and motioning me to get out of the area. With the roar of the river I could not understand what he was shouting. I was thinking, "This isn't private property and you can't tell me to get out". I leisurely took my time, found my "interesting" rock and moseyed on back. When I saw Steve I told him about the neighbor telling me to get out of the riverbed and saying "He doesn't have the right to do that". By this time I was letting my blood get a little overheated. A few minutes later the neighbor came over and before he could get a word out I asked why he was telling me to get out of the riverbed. And then the nice man explained that on the other side of the trees from me was a mountain lion. I learned two things that day...there can be wildlife at The Drunken Bear...and don't jump to conclusions. Of course that later lesson has to be relearned from time to time. And mind you, we never did see the mountain lion, so this could have all been an allusion on the part of our neighbor :-).
As mentioned in an early entry, we do have quite a few birds...from the very beautiful sounding song birds to those @%&*+! crows and their evil offspring that fly after their same-sized mother, cawing and cawing looking for Ma to give them more food. Luckily the latter are not heard on a regular basis. We see eagles flying in circles, catching the updraft about the mountain tops. Every once in a while ducks will fly upstream just barely hovering over the river. There are the blue jays which are pretty to look at but almost as obnoxious as the crows. But most of all are those birds we can not see, but which serenade us with their songs. I think these are mostly finches, warblers (I wish you could have heard Steve imitate the sound of a warbler...for some reason, they just don't sound the same...especially after a couple of margaritas) and wrens...but then again, I am not an ornithologist.
That night was another beautiful star filled sky. The temperature was warm enough that long-sleeved shirts weren't even required. The darker it got the more twinkles took over the darkening sky. We only saw one satellite, but we weren't looking too hard for them. At one point I saw this really bright object moving across the sky ever so slowly...that is until Steve made me rest my head on the back of my chair and made me realize that "Venus" was really not moving.
The next morning we were having our morning coffee and bagel around the campfire when all of a sudden Steve squashed our phenomenon and said, "Look, there's a deer". Sure enough, across the river standing in the rocks, which I described as being difficult to walk in, was a lone deer (we couldn't tell the gender). In the ten years we have owned this property, that is the first deer we have seen. It stood there for a bit, then turned around and retreated into the woods. To us it was a beautiful sight. Living in Montana and Washington, I have seen thousands of deer, but this one had special meaning.
We got back to work on the cabin once the "starting time" came around. We have learned to start working in the area where the sun is going to reach first and move with the shade. It was getting to the point where the whole area was in the sun and we were starting to get hot. A vehicle pulled into the driveway and out jumped Steve's daughters, Shannon and Heidi, their children and Shannon's husband, Mark. Shannon and her family were in Seattle on a visit from California and they wanted to stop by and check out our progress. And the thoughtful people they are, they brought us lunch. We all retreated to the shaded bank of the river. It was a very welcome break and a very nice visit. The kids enjoyed going down to the riverbed while the adults talked. We visited for a couple of hours and when they left we went back to work. This time it was really difficult to get going again. We worked another couple of hours and called it quits for the day. Every time we leave we seem to look back and be really pleased with our progress.
