What I Did on Summer Vacation.............

This summer I took vacation days to plan for and have the family reunion and celebration for Teresa's 90th birthday.  I took about two weeks in July.  I have found that the only way to truly get a vacation in my job is to leave town and get out of cell phone range!!!  Of the days that I took off in July, I went into the office at least two times each of the days except for the last day.  The last day of my vacation was also the last day of our reunion.  So I spent the day cleaning up and putting things away.  

This past week I received a call from a family friend and another cabin owner up in Cave Creek where our cabin is.  He told me that our cabin had been broken into.  So later that day, I had to drive up and give the keys to  a lady who offered to help get the window fixed.  I also wanted to see if there had been any damage done.   Fortunately, the only damage was the window being broken.  We don't leave anything of much value up there.   Once the person got in through the back window, they weren't able to open either of the doors to take anything because we have so many locks on the doors.  Our cabin is very remote and we have had some problems over the years--thank goodness, nothing major.

As we were looking at the window, one of the people there to help noticed that the pole holding the back porch up had been clawed by a bear!!  Since the fire last summer, bears have been coming down further than in the past.  I have never seen one at the cabin and the only time I remember hearing about one was when Teresa saw a bear several years ago.  

Then on Friday I took a vacation day to go back up to the cabin so that the outhouse could be cleaned out.   We have had the cabin since 1960 and I believe the outhouse has only been cleaned out twice.  I remember many years ago our Uncle Johnny cleaned it out with a shovel. I remember that very well because I spent the day climbing up a mountain so I wouldn't have to "deal" with this particular job!

When I got up to the cabin, I had to wait for about 45 minutes for the guys to arrive.  My poor puggies were not happy with this huge and very loud truck on our property.  Notice what a brave pug Diego is..............

They put 300 gallons of water down the hole and then used some kind of tool to break things up.   I certainly don't wish to go into detail on this blog...  They got as much as they could but there are so many tree roots that have gotten into the hole that they weren't able to get everything.  As the guy told me, the outhouse is a "smorgasbord" of nutrients for all of the trees--never thought of it that way.

By the time I got back into cell phone range, I had a text from Kerri saying she was sick and they wouldn't   be able to make it down for the long weekend.  Needless to say, I was disappointed as we were going to celebrate Cameron's 14th birthday.  When I talked to her, she sounded awful.

Since I had already purchased everything for the weekend and was really looking to get away from my cell phone, etc., I decided to go up anyway.  I had also invited one of our administrators and his family for Sunday.   So the pugs and I packed up and headed backup for the third time this week.  Fortunately it is only about an hour away.

Although it was a bit warm during the middle of the day, it was still beautiful.  There isn't much water in the creek which is very unusual for this time of year. There has been a lot of rain, but obviously not in the right places to cause the creek to flow.  The desert between Douglas and Portal is absolutely gorgeous--so green.

It was a peaceful, restful weekend.  Didn't see any bears or burglars!!     Listened to music, read two books, enjoyed my friends yesterday and totally relaxed.

I love the cabin and the area around it.  It is so peaceful and so beautiful!!  It is so great to be only an hour away!!