The best way to make sure it will be a rainy day, of course, is to wash your car. Same goes for lots of things. Like having a really high medical insurance deductible since "I'm never sick and I'm healthy as a horse." It's almost to guarantee a steep medical bill. My over-use of Ibuprofen last year (the arthritic thumbs situation) landed me in the E.R. I switched to daily capsules of turmeric and prayer. Praying that someday insurance companies will decide that thumbs are equally as important as knees and hips. Last time I checked, having opposable thumbs are one of the things that separates us from most of the animal kingdom. Maybe someday thumb replacement surgery will be viewed as valuable as other joints. Manifesting it to the universe!
We've had an extraordinarily busy summer. Most evenings we collapse from sheer exhaustion rather than from my preferred post-hike fatigue. After all, we moved up to the mountains to have hiking available from our front door. I remind myself this is temporary and that the peace and solitude of our surroundings soothe my savage soul.
The other night Dave pulled out our two reclining lawn chairs and set them up side by side where we would have complete visibility of the star-filled sky. The Perseid meteor shower put on a show unlike any fireworks show I'd ever witnessed. Streaks of light crossing the sky one after the other. Wrapped in my blanket and holding my love's hand, my heart felt so big, simultaneously feeling so fvery small in the vast universe.
As we continue to slowly trudge along the process of adding on to this tiny cabin, I've totally adapted to having only one kitchen drawer and using a large cutting board over the sink as my main food prep counter space. As I chop veggies or stretch and fold sourdough I look out the kitchen window to the space that has been excavated and imagine all my children and grandchildren gathered (and spread out). And now when I look past that over to the mountain opposite our cabin I see the oak leaves turning crimson and the aspens yellowing.
Last week Dave ordered four cords of cut wood to be delivered. I stayed inside the house cooking, occasionally calling out the front door, "How ya doin' out there?" He'd look up from the neat stack he was building and smile at me. I took that for "I'm fine, you just keep cooking." I can take zero credit for the beautiful stacks he made but I did make an amazing brunch with thick-cut bacon and sourdough blueberry pancakes. We each have our skill-set. If I had to stack the wood it likely would have tipped over in the first five minutes and if he'd made breakfast we'd likely have eaten bowls of Lucky Charms, with a side of protein drink because #balance.
This summer has been almost daily thunder/lightning storms. My favorite sort of summer. Though it's made it rather difficult to find a time to take even a small hike. Do we risk getting struck by lightning if we don't make it back home in time? Do we risk an encounter with the bear that's been spotted by several neighbors?
Yesterday we had a bit of a Goldilocks moment. Just a few clouds, nothing too threatening, and our local bear friend had recently been relocated to join his friends further up the mountain. "Let's go for a hike down to the creek!" You don't have to ask me twice! Considering whether I should change into long jeans or just keep my shorts on, I didn't want to waste any more daylight changing so I quickly laced up my boots and we headed out. I usually follow a few feet behind Dave because I like to snap as many photos as possible while still keeping him in my sight.
Not only did Utah have record snow-fall last winter, it's been a wet/rainy Summer. The creek was hardly visible from all the undergrowth, small trees, shrubs, and flowers that have sprung up. I stepped over a bent branch not realizing that just underneath it lay a broken dead branch. It tore right into my non-jeans-wearing calf. Dave turned around and saw what had happened. "Allyson! That's deep!" I tugged my leg free from the branch. It didn't hurt and wasn't really bleeding. "No biggie, I'll just wash it when we get home." I protested. "We need to take you to the doctor and have him look at it, it looks like it needs stiches."
You can take the girl out of the city and put her in the mountains; and sometimes you have to take a bit of the mountain out of the girl. A few hours later a wonderfully kind and unrelenting E.R. doctor was able to find and remove several pieces of the broken branch from my leg, and stitch me up good as new. My left leg. The same leg that has a scar from stitches I got when a jar of peaches I was canning burst and gashed my knee open. I suppose on the bright side my scars have come from doing things I love.
On the mountain we are surrounded by a lot of rugged do-it-your-self'ers. I continue to meet and be awed by especially one of my newest friends Kathy, a widow, who knows how to handle heavy machinery, chop and stack wood, all while being an excellent mother and doting grandma and leader of our women's church group "Relief Society". She is such a combination of tenderness and strength. I am honored to know her and call her my friend. She called to check on me today. We had a little chuckle about having a pact with our children that they'd be sure to let us know when we are "losing it" and no longer able to live this mountain life. In truth, I hope I can live here forever.
I promise to wear my jeans when I go hiking from now on. Even when I'm 99 years old.
P.S. Here is a picture of me posing with the beautiful pile of wood that Dave single-handedly stacked.
And here is another picture of the beautiful jalapeno-cheddar loaves I single-handedly baked. Teamwork makes the dream work!
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