The Gold Street Cabin In Mammoth, Utah

Now that cold weather has set in, a lot of effort is expended in just keeping the home fires burning.  A friend who was also a neighbor and a co-worker of Don's recently died of the covid-19.  Don had been exposed to him and another co-worker who also tested positive for the virus.  We are grateful that Don did not become ill.  Don worked extra shifts to cover for the one co-worker when she was off recovering so that gave even less time for working on the house.  The deer come right up to our front door as if to say, "Okay, we're here.  Where's dinner?" We've seen this young buck come only once.            We put our Christmas tree up.  We wouldn't dare have a live tree in a room heated by a wood stove, but this still brings the joy of the season.  It will always be with a little nostalgia that we put up the tree.  Barbara took her favorite ornaments to Chile since we were going to be there for two Christmases....

 Now that cold weather is upon us, a lot of effort is spent just keeping the house warm.  Our progress on working on the house seems very slow and there doesn't seem to be much to report. American Gold Finches have been visiting our bird feeder.  They are so pretty. Sunsets can be really pretty here.  We're so glad that we oriented the house the way we did to take advantage of the beauty of the area. Barbara found a place to put this gift from her sister.  The calendar is mostly a birthday calendar.  With 10 children, 10 in-law sons and daughters, 44 grandchildren (plus two on the way), four honorary grandchildren keeping track of birthdays is significant. Don discovered a problem in hanging the balcony. The wall studs are not where they appear to be from the placement of siding nails. After much thought and prayers, he decided to attach the balcony to wooden cleats which each span two or three studs. Here he is painting the cleats he has already made. Our ...

This has been a short work week because a colleague asked Don to trade shifts so two work days were out, we had a trip to the 'Doctor with the Magic Hands' in Salt Lake (a chiropractor) because Barbara has a muscle ache the local chiropractor hasn't succeeded in bringing relief to (neither did the Doctor with the Magic Hands), and Barbara with Don's help has been frantically finalizing her recent publication Farewell, Fleeing Repatriation before a review comes out on it in an international digital magazine Nov 12.  Still, a few things happened.  Sweet picture of a mother and baby sharing a drink.    Some of the adult deer are getting so brazen they just stand and watch us and wait for us to bring out food. This pretty little bird visited our feeder just one day.  There is too much glare fore the picture to show that he has a neon yellow breast.  Barbara tried to identify him with online resources but he didn't really look like any of the options. The...

   Barbara was busy, so Don painted the desk alcove. After painting, Don laid the vinyl flooring in the alcove, cutting the pieces to fit. Now for the hard part: installing the mop boards in the corners. Protecting the edges of the finish flooring with pieces of scrap plywood. Our neighbor Patrick helped move the oak, roll top desk. It separates into two pieces, both HEAVY. Installed. Don had to climb over the desk to plug in the outlet strip behind the desk, then get Patrick's help to climb back over the desk to escape! Barbara decorated the desk, while Don and Patrick moved the "baker's rack" into place. Don calls it, "Mehetabel", after an eyesore "white elephant" lamp belonging to an old friend of his.