House & Garage Update or ( What We Have Been Doing In Our Spare Time)

Eileen got the wood on the back porch stained on Fri with the second coat on Sat. We still have the steps to do. The yellow thing by the hose is a squeaky toy of Rocky's. It was so annoying, it got banned from inside the house. Rocky just loves things that make noise!
Got the paint for the doors Friday evening and Rick got the well room door painted. Still has 2 more doors to go. The door on the left is to the bathroom and it's next. This kind of makes a before and after picture.
Reid has been wanting pictures of the jeep showing the things Rick has been doing to it. Here is the new back bumper, spare tire and gate. The tire cover still has to be put on. We put the top back on and windows in yesterday as we wanted the A/C. He had to grind the hitch off the old bumper to get that bumper off. The people had welded it on! What a "fun" job that was. Eileen got to stand there with the fire extinguisher, just in case.
Flickr didn't put these in the order I had them. This should have been before the jeep. Oh well, this is Eileen's sewing room. We got the blind put up and Rick finished putting the baseboard in Thurs. night. Eileen painted it on Sat. morning. She really loves the yellow color (called Scrimshaw). With the white accents it really looks great. The left wall (without baseboard) is where her cabinets are going. They are white. After they are in, Rick will put baseboard where needed. Rick did a really great job of installing the tile floor. Eileen can hardly wait to start putting things in here to use it.

This is the new front bumper with the winch. Rick was really glad he had this when he went 4-wheeling on the "Top of the World" trail and had to use the winch to get out of a bad spot.

The insulation came Friday for the rest of the garage so after painting, that's Rick's next project. It gets really hot in there now. The sewing is insulated and what a difference.

Capitol Reef - Day Two (Mother's Day)

One of the things Eileen has wanted to do since we moved here was to go to Capitol Reef and walk down the Grand Wash. Since it was Mother's Day we decided to to this. Neal and Annette had never done it so it was lots of fun. We didn't make it all the way to the end of the wash (maybe next time) but since going back to the parking area was uphill we turned around just as we were starting to get tired. It is a gentle slope up and we took our time.
There are so many sites to see with all the different formations it can be overwhelming. These photos are just a small sample. You can see more on our flickr under the group called Capitol Reef. Be sure to check it out.
As you can see, most of the way is very wide and easy going. There were only a couple of places it gets rocky and you have to watch your footing. But boy is the walk worth going on.

We are standing under an overhang and looking up. It was starting to get warm and the shade felt really good.

Eileen really enjoyed her Mother's Day walk.

Castle Valley Home Update

This is what our place looked like last fall. You can see extra shingles on the roof for the porch that was to be added. Also, notice the cars are parked in front as no garage yet.
Finally, they got the porch finished last month. It is wonderful. We really enjoy sitting out there. Really changed the look of the place.
Also, the garage in pretty much done. We have blinds to hang at the windows and the floor in the sewing room to grout. Then the cabinets can go in and the baseboard. We are loving it.
We think the porch really changed the look and the garage adds so much. The driveway is almost completed. They will spread gravel after this road base is firmed up. Notice the parking areaa in front of the house. That's for all our guests. We can park 2 or 3 vehicles there and we can put one in the garage. Hope to see you all soon.

Rick's "Baby" Is Finally Home!

Yesterday, we finally got the '56 Chevy home. What an adventure. The local U-Haul didn't have a car carrier. And Monticello never called us back. So we ended up driving to Grand Junction to pick up the carrier. Then back to Moab to put the car on it. That was fun pushing it. Then home to the garage. Had to get the neighbor to help get it off and pushed into the garage. Then back to Moab to return the car hauler. Finally got lunch while there (4:00pm). Then home again. Got the car onto these rollers Rick had gotten and pushed it to the side so we could get the FJ back into the garage as well. We were really tired when all this was done. Plus, it got up to 90 in Moab yesterday. We had left the house closed up and it was only 75 inside. Never had to turn the air conditioner on. When it cooled off, we went and sat on the porch for a while.

Capitol Reef - Day One

After visiting Goblin Valley, we drove on to Capitol Reef. We spent the afternoon driving around and seeing the sights. We did walk over towards Eileen's camel. Along the way, we discovered a lot of petrified wood lying around. Rick would have loved to have some but didn't take any.
This is Eileen's camel. There are no signs pointing this out nor is it on the map. But the first time we visited here she saw this formation and named it. It is one of her favorites in the park.
We drove out to Cathedral Valley and spent some time there. This is Glass Mountain there. Very unique and interesting.
Twin Rocks are near the camel.

This is also from Glass Mountain. It was dark by the time we got back to our motel. Tomorrow we plan on walking the Grand Wash. Something Rick and Eileen haven't done since just after getting married. Neal & Annette had never been so should be fun.

More pictures on our fickr. Be sure to check them out.

Goblin Valley

Many of you have commented that we haven't posted for a while. Yes, we have been busy getting the garage finished up so we could move stuff out of storage. However, our dear friends, Neal & Annette came to visit us so we took some time off and did a few fun things with them. The first weekend they were here (May 10-11) we went to Capitol Reef. On the way we stopped and spent a couple of hours at Goblin Valley. None of us had been there before and we had a great time walking around in it. We still didn't get to see it all.
What a great place for kids. They were running around and climbing on the rocks and in general having a great time. Wish we had known about this place when our kids were smaller. Great place for them to run off all that extra energy they get when riding around on vacation.

More pictures on our flickr. Later I'll post from the rest of the trip to Capitol Reef. We sure had a great time.

Dewey Bridge - After the Fire on 4-6-08

Yesterday we took a drive in the jeep. We took the top down and had a great time and incredible views. We drove into Arches and took a back road out. Then after getting gas in Moab and chocolate malts at Milt's (they were fabulous) we drove out to Dewey Bridge. It burned last Sunday evening. This was on the National Historic Register. Apparently a 7-year old was playing with matches at the campground some ways from the bridge. But the fire traveled along the bank of the Colorado River and burned the old wooden bridge. Here are some pictures as it looks now.
At this time, there are no plans to retore it again. But I'm hoping they will. It was a beautiful white wooden bridge. You can read about the fire in the Moab Times Independent newspaper. They have color photos on line of the fire.
Flickr didn't upload the images as I had put them in so they are out of order. This, of course, is Delicate Arch. Took this from a 4-wheel drive road just past the viewing area. (We were here long before we drove out to Dewey Bridge.)
Now, back to Dewey Bridge.
This plant is called Loco Weed. But isn't it pretty? This was in Arches also, but it is all along the River Road. Looks nice, but sure don't want it in my yard!

As usual, more photos of the bridge and Arches in our Arches folder and Dewey Bridge folder.