We made a day trip up to the cabin. I can handle the hovel for a day. And a beautiful day it was! We left the poochies at home, much to their chagrin. As soon as the snow duds and packs started coming out of the closet, they knew where we were going. There was much hopping and jumping, then some very sad little faces when they were made to stay home. There is 3 to 4 feet of snow at the cabin right now. When snowmachining in, it is important to stay on the trail other snowmachines have already packed down. If you go off the trail into the soft snow, there is a darn good chance of sinking in and getting yourself good and stuck. Digging out is no fun. So to stay on trail with snow this deep, it means lots of standing, sitting, hard steering, and generally wrestling the machine around. Hard to do when you are trying to hang on to a wiggly puppy. We sure don't want to risk anyone ever being hurt, so home was the safest place for both of the wild woollies this time around.
It was a brilliant, sunny, sparkling, blue sky day! After so much stormy and cold lately, it was a welcome break. The drive up is half the joy, and I really put the push on my little camera.
This guy and his friends met us at the park spot for leaving the vehicles. Then we fire up the snowmachines for the remaining 5+ miles to the cabin. I was sure wishing I'd had a treat for them, but no such luck. I did give him a good ear scratch and tickled his nose. He seemed happy with that.
A lot of the snow had blown off the bushes, and the chunks that were left looked like blossoms; snow blossoms I guess 🙂
The snow in this field was so sparkly and unmarred.
Winter wonderland.
This was one of my favorite sights of the day. Those very black Angus bulls against that clean white snow was so striking.
That's a 3 1/2 foot jump down into the “shovel out” to get into the potty. Note to self: don't drink a big swig of coffee on the 50 mile trip up. Really. Ever again.
The snow slides off the metal roof and makes it pretty tricky trying to get in the door. That's really the whole reason we were up there. A few weeks before, when Bruce was up there by himself, the snow avalanched off the roof again during the night. Even though the chimney has straps on it, the snow is so heavy it bent the chimney off it's base. Oh joy! Crawling on a metal roof covered with snow to fix a chimney is every one's idea of a good time, right?!
Good neighbor John came to give Bruce some back up, and lend his big ladder. At the hardware store they had these harnesses you could attach a rope to and use for roof work. So Bruce traded in the gift card my folks gave him for Christmas, and hooked up a heck of a unit with ropes and straps to keep him safe on that slippery roof.
It was a scary endeavor, but he got the job done and the stove was drawing well when he finished.
A doe moseyed by with her fawn close behind just as we went back into the cabin.
We decided to take the snow machines around the quick loop, for fun before heading home.
We then put all the tools and such in the garage, buttoned up the cabin, and snowmachined back the 5 miles to the truck.
The weather didn't waver all day, and it was just as beautiful a drive home as it had been coming up.
Gosh, I can hardly wait for the day that everything is put together and we can really spend some good, long stretches up at that little mountain house. Be able to cook properly, do dishes in a sink, wash your face at night in a bathroom, and pile into a real bed in a real bedroom at the end of your day…….but for now, it is just like a big, messy garage! And apparently serves well as a “man cave”, as Mr. Bruce has no problem with the disarray.
But, then again, he lived just like that as a bachelor for many, many moons! :-/
TTFN,
Teresa 🙂