Chapter Four - Auspicious New Beginnings?

So exactly how does one begin a whole brand spankin' new life up on top of a mountain, off grid no less? Where does one start? There was so much to do and we were both so excited we wanted to jump right in. I mean we had our gorgeous property complete with three springs, starting a new life of independence and self-sufficiency, knowing that if everything went to heck in a handbasket, we'd survive up here. We were Homesteaders and Modern Day Pioneers and were very proud of ourselves, especially since we weren't as young as we used to be. We were both heading for our fifties but it didn't scare us! (mostly because we had no idea what we were getting into but still....)

Since it was now February, the property was completely covered in snow so there wasn't a whole lot we could do. We spent our time researching off grid properties, solar energy, wind turbines, batteries etc... while my genius-can-do-anything husband drew up the architectural plans for the house we agreed on. I didn't have a lot of particular things I wanted or a specific house in mind. My desires were summed up this way, "Wood, big porches, huge utility room and lots of windows. I don't care about anything else." He was free to design it himself which he was tickled about. He is so creative and talented, a true artist. When I tell him this, he scoffs, but it's true. He could do whatever he wanted. I knew it would be amazing.   

We planned and dreamed and studied and read and did more research while waiting for the snow to melt. Which it finally started to do in March. Which was weird. The snow never melts in March up here. It holds on stubbornly until May most years. We didn't know to be grateful for the early spring that year. We thought that was normal. Snort! SO not normal. 

As the snow began to melt we were a little dismayed at what was underneath. It was a doggone mess. Since the place had been logged a few years before, there were sticks, branches, stumps everywhere.  No one had lived here since the miner a hundred years ago and many, many people had been coming up here to see the view and shoot glass bottles and cans and leave trash all over the place. There was so much broken glass and branches and spent shells, you crunched or tripped everywhere you walked. It looked like a war zone. We didn't realize we had such a huge clean up job before we got to work building but my husband, being the stoic he is, just said, "Part of it" and got to work. 

We picked up sticks and branches until I thought my back would break. We made lots of little bonfires everywhere to get rid of said sticks and branches. We picked up bags and bags of trash. I began to believe there would never be an end to the sticks, glass and trash. It's also really rocky up here. In needing to clear out several places for building sites, we picked up a ton of rocks. It was hard work but it was still fun. Exciting. Satisfying cleaning up our own property, making it nice. Plus we had this gorgeous view to look at while working and it was so quiet up here. I had never heard such quiet. It was so quiet that it was loud, if you know what I mean.

Butch's son Jay was living with us at the time; he was a huge help and made us laugh all the time. We had two dogs named Daisy - the Boxer/Pit mix, and Baby - the ugliest Yorkie alive. They were no help at all but they loved it here, spending most of their time in the truck with the heater on. 

We bought a tractor which was so exciting for me. I, being a city girl, had never owned a tractor before! Whoop! I learned to drive it pretty quickly because luckily for moi, I knew how to drive a stick shift. Me, driving a tractor. Who'd have thunk? Too fun. 

The old miner's cabin was sitting right on the most perfect building spot so it had to be moved. We wanted to preserve it exactly the way it was. Butch and Jay numbered the logs then Jay, all by himself, took the cabin apart log by log and moved it down the hill not too far from its original site. Then Butch put it back together log by log, all by himself. It took forever and was hard work - those logs are heavy. I watched with trepidation as Butch would grab one of those big logs and walk up other logs and set it in place. I couldn't believe how strong this skinny, wiry guy was. Once put back together, you couldn't even tell the cabin had been taken apart. Very impressive. Who knew Butch could do stuff like that?

Have I mentioned that he and I hadn't been married very long by this point? Less than a year and a half actually. He had been friends with my dad for a long time and I knew he was a builder/carpenter/all around do anything guy. I knew he had built houses and done all kinds of work, but to see him in action was impressive. Especially when he didn't have a shirt on. Made it hard to concentrate on my own work. Tsk. He may have been close to fifty but he still looked gooood. Ahem.

Suffice it to say, we were still getting to know each other. It was going pretty well with a few bumps along the way. For instance, his idea of cleaning was way different than mine. He thought it should be done regularly and with a lot of monkey grease and gusto. To me cleaning was something to be avoided as long as possible, just this side of shame. I like a clean house, I just don't want to be the one to do it necessarily. My idea of cleaning is firmly in the camp of "Impressionism" kind of like my favorite painters. The 'Illusion of clean" if you will. His idea of eating was way different than mine too. He liked SPAM. Enough said. I was a foodie and loved cooking things like coq au vin and beef bourguignon and chicken cacciatore. He liked only meat and potatoes and everything fried, even his cereal. I regularly ate vegetables. He thought a potato chip was a vegetable.  He was a workaholic. I was decidedly not. He was tough and sort of grumpy. I was a total wimp and sweet. He was a hard-working, no nonsense, country kind of boy. I was a "life's for living", let's-have-fun-now-and-work-later-if-we-have-to city kind of  girl. I said the word, "Anal" to him a lot. He said, well, he said a lot of things, some unprintable. Let's just say I frustrated him quite a bit. I cried quite a bit. Our differences made for some interesting days and discussions, a 'little' frustration and a 'few' misunderstandings. We had to learn to work together though because we had a LOT of work to do. Thank goodness we both had a good sense of humor. It might have been our saving grace honestly. And the fact that we loved each other. That helped. 

My wise advice to any new couple just starting out is this: the absolute worst thing you can do to learn more about each other is to build a house together. Yikes. You wouldn't believe the strain this puts on a new marriage especially when one of you (I'm not telling who) doesn't know the names of tools or how to wield a hammer or a drill or know stupid things like measurements. So, not a healthy, easy start for a marriage but blindly plunge ahead we did. It was hard. And a lot of work (not my favorite thing). It was boring some days. There was a lot of griping and cussing and throwin' stuff and the eternal damnation question of, "What do you MEAN you don't know.....?!" Butch is really smart but it must be selective or spotty because his not being able to take one look at me and just know that I wouldn't be handy in a house-building situation is beyond me.  But I get ahead of myself.  

By May, the snow had melted, it had warmed up to a toasty 40 degrees, we had cleaned up pretty well and cleared several spots. The pretty glacier lilies were all over the place. The birds were singing. It was time. It was finally time to start building. It was also going to be a time of going through some tough stuff and making awesome new mountain friends. Here's to new beginnings.......