The Balsams & The Build

I just returned back home to Empty Mountain after taking an 11-day solo road trip to visit my mom in Arkansas. I spent 6 out of the 11 days driving, in which I managed to cover a total of 3,630.7 miles (to be exact). I had a lovely trip. Tossing oneself to the wind and shaking up one’s routine is a good thing to do every now and again, I reckon. And now I am very glad to be home.

The balsam root flowers are in full bloom here in the EM canyon. Just a wee bit down our gravel road they are coloring our otherwise steady forestscape of browns and greens with mad awesome blazes of goldenrod. Coming up on July 1, it will be three years since we moved here, and this is by far the most active I’ve seen the balsams. They are wonderfully everywhere.

The guest hut build is coming along steady as she goes, and the mix of rain & sun, warmth & chill, is coaxing the larch needles to return with vigor. The light is getting longer in the day. Last evening after dinner, I walked to where Mike was working on the hut to see if he wanted me to take a short video for us to upload on our YouTube channel (which we try to do once a week) and instead I wound up offering to help do some clean up. Mike is superbly awesome at what he does. And. His way and style of working equates to making a BIG mess. I’m really not trying to give the guy a hard time. I learned a long time ago to get over my own stuff when it comes to Mike’s lack of organizational and orderliness efforts. We all have different skills and talents. The man is super skilled and talented at many other things. And he will and does clean up at some point. Still, it can be a challenge for me to manage my need for non-clutter with his work style approach. We both do our best to compromise, with him cleaning up more when the chaos of stuff is in our direct living space and me loosening up around such things as neatness, which I can be too militant about. After I gathered up all the tools strewn around, sorted the many scattered scraps into two piles: OSB and wood, and organized the other random bits and bobs accordingly, I walked back to our cabin and thought: Gosh. It’s sooo nice to have the build site be elsewhere other than our dwelling space!

I’m really enjoying not living in a construction zone (at least for the time being). Don’t get me wrong, I am incredibly grateful for the life we’re choosing to live and I wouldn’t change a thing about moving out here in the woods, sans structures or services. And. Living for almost 3-years in active construction mode has been a lot to endure. It’s been genuinely good growth-work for me, too. And while we still have our kitchen to tackle building at some point, in the meantime I will do my best to enjoy & savor the fact that right now the construction taking place is happening somewhere other than inside or directly around our small cabin.

Skillsets & Strengths

Progress on the Guest Hut