In the summer of 2005, we went in with Shawn & Emma to purchase one of the last empty lots available at Camp Blue Haven...it was kind of a leap at the time, and the hopes of building a cabin was something that we thought might happen in 20 years or so. Fast forward to 2008...and last summer as we were teaching at camp, we began the process of actually getting all the permits to build a cabin and meeting with the builder. By the end of the year, the cabin had been all but completed, and this last weekend, the Montandon men made a trip up there to move a LOT of furniture to get the place ready to stay in. Shawn started in Georgetown, bringing a refrigerator with him. Paul started in Tyler, bringing a hutch and dining room set with him. They met in Weatherford where my mom had pretty much an entire garage full of furniture, and when they got to Lubbock, we added 3 beds, a sleeper sofa, and what can only be described as a bunch of other random stuff that we didn't want at our house anymore. Basically, the cabin is the new Goodwill...for the past year, instead of anyone getting rid of anything, we ask, "Could we use it at the cabin?" So now it's nice that we can actually take the stuff up to the cabin instead of just storing it indefinitely. Anyway, enough talking. Here are pictures, which I tried to put in sequential order.
We stored the sleeper sofa in the baby's room, which is one reason it looks so much more like a baby's room now instead of the room of random furniture. One thing about our house is it definitely wasn't built for big furniture...navigating around the corners and through the doorways can be a little iffy sometimes. Anyway, Shawn and Chad made it look pretty much effortless. Needless to say I stayed out of the way and kept my mouth shut and my "helpful" suggestions to myself.
Check out all the junk we were able to get rid of! I knew those big ol' Ikea bags I bought for $.59 each would come in handy at some point.
Here are the guys after stop two. They're still smiling! As you can see all the furniture pretty much took up the whole truck. The guys decided to go ahead and drive to the cabin last night. It must have been fate--Beth made stew and cinnamon rolls for the counselors (in counselor training week) and the guys showed up right before they were about to put up the food. Good timing!
Here are some views from the top of the loft so you can kind of see how the furniture fits in there right now...also it gives you a little bit of an idea of how big the space is.
The kitchen area has nicer furniture than my kitchen. If this is roughing it then I think I'm gonna like this place.
When you walk to the top of the loft and turn right (you can see a little bit of the stairs in the bottom right corner of the picture), here is a little nook where one of the twin beds is. Perfect size for the bed and a little side table.
And the all-important bathroom. I am happy to report that the water runs and has good pressure and the water heater works. I'm glad the boys made this re-con trip so I didn't have to find out the hard way that something didn't work.
The bedroom. Anyone have a queen bedframe they don't want?
Erin, the washer and dryer fit perfectly under the stairs! Thanks for letting us have them.
This place is finally starting to look like a cabin. The only problem is I'm jealous of the cabinets and light fixtures in this place. They're much nicer than what we have at our house! The kitchen appliances are all there thanks to donations from Shawn & Emma and one of our neighbors in the canyon...I don't know their name, but they were getting rid of their oven/stove and microwave and another cabin owner knew that we needed these appliances and kept them for us at his place for a year. I think I'm going to like hanging out with these people.
Oh good, they're still smiling. These guys were serious troopers.
Our cabin is complete with a porch glider, which mom bought as a "cabin-warming" from a place around Ft. Worth that makes porch furniture. I haven't gotten to try it out yet but I hear it's pretty nice. I think I'll be spending some time on that thing this coming weekend, when Chad and I go up for our first weekend trip! We're going to make it in time for 1st session closing campfire, worship on Sunday morning (which is the first Sunday of 2nd session), and opening campfire on Sunday night. At least if we can't teach this summer, this is probably the next best thing. I can't wait!
Some kind of bean plant. Last year the birds and squirrels got to these before they even had a chance. Chad put chicken wire over pretty much everything in the garden this year until it had established and wasn't a little seedling anymore, so the plants were mostly able to withstand the animals.
Here's a further-away picture of the squash plants (top left), some sorghum (Chad planted "just to see if I could"), and some tobacco and okra, maybe? I am never sure what's what--and pretty much every time we're out in the garden I'm pointing to plants and asking Chad, "What's that? What's that?" He patiently explains every time. The tobacco (another thing Chad just wanted to see if he could grow, before any of you think we are actually using the stuff) has turned out to be a good pest controller. The leaves are sticky and attract whiteflies, which are our main pest out here. And boy are they pesty.
This is amaranth. Another thing that didn't "take" last year because of the animals. Chad orders seeds from this place in Arizona and he's always finding these odd seeds to order.
And the following pictures are what I would consider "my" plants...first up, the basil plants which are doing great. I used basil in my pizza sauce last week, and yum!
Two of my tomato plants are doing really well, and they are my favorite variety that I've planted, Celebrity. They are growing like crazy and starting to produce blooms...hopefully we'll have about a month where the plants actually produce tomatoes. Interspersed among the tomatoes are a few different pepper plants--serranos and jalapenos. They're doing well too.
In the back of the bed, we've got some melons going (notice the lattices) and in the back alley (not pictured) we've got mint, thyme, and strawberry, and a honeysuckle plant which already smells great. Honestly this will probably be the last garden post from me, since I'm bad enough about it as it is and this blog is most likely going to become all baby, all the time pretty soon (which I'm sure some of you are not complaining about).
Speaking of...here is a picture of me in all of my 38+ weeks of swollen pregnant glory. I am feeling better than I felt a few days ago, maybe because my body has once again somewhat adjusted to the 7 or so pounds of person inside my stomach. I know y'all are excited to meet the little one, and believe me, I can't wait to introduce him.
