Help me here. I know it can’t be forced, but I would love to find a name for the place. We already have the Honeybush and Honeybee cabins, a utv named Mary Anne (from Mike Mulligan and his Steam Shovel) and the Lodge (main house). Suggestions are appreciated! Of course, it’s likely critical that you actually visit to be able to understand the feel of the place. But until then, here’s some more for you to check out:
I headed up on July 2nd for a week. Lance joined me for the long holiday weekend and there was no end to our adventures. Friday starts off with fixing the fire ring. I had decided that it was way too unstable and the rocks were certainly too small for the kinds of bonfires I expect there. So fire ring 2.0:
And the progress on the house – foundation poured and floorboards going down:
Oh, then it’s more work to be done. Time to create some easier access to the creek. Lance uses the machete to clear the path and sets the first step. When he goes hiking up the mountain in the afternoon, I level the path, line it with stones and add a few more steps:
a bit hard to see, but there’s a stream going into the main body of the creek right at the bottom of that path.
After that long period of work, I stagger up back to the Honeybee, plop in an adirondack chair, have some lunch and enjoy the painting-like view of a beautiful tree and my rickety park bench that overlooks the creek (hard to see on the right of the tree, sticking up just over the grass, but it’s there. you can double-click the photo and just see it):
Love that view. Every morning when I wake up, I have to put on sweats, a long-sleeve shirt and a light jacket, cuz it’s pretty darn chilly out. About 8:15 (was 7:30 earlier in the summer), the sun peeks over that mountain and everything starts warming up pretty quickly.
So Saturday morning I decide it’s time to start enjoying being in Montana. All work and no play makes Jill a dull girl. So Lance and I drive up the road about 20 minutes, to the Burdette creek trailhead. There’s another trailhead across the road, but that one has a 1200 vertical climb, and probably not a great idea with all the other work going on and the delicate state of my backside…So we hike in about 3 miles. A mild 300 foot climb up and down to the creek. We are walking through a forest ripe with flowers, downed trees everywhere in every state of decomposing, birds (a particularly striking one that’s all yellow), and a stillness that you can only understand by being in it. Just like when I’m scuba diving, I keep checking the perimeter for outlying activity. Instead of sharks, I think maybe I’ll see a bear or a moose, but not this trip. I did ask Lance to take pictures of all the wildflowers I didn’t recognize as well as the wild varieties of mushrooms we come across. I have the books, now I have to use them! Foraging intelligence is added to the list of “things to do”. The trail goes on another few miles, but after 3 in, that’s enough for me and we sit and have a picnic. And what’s around our feet? Little miniature wild strawberries! I’m down on my hands and knees and pick all I see, mostly along the trail, and have a cute photo of the little bundle. I must get that chip from Lance and add it in! By the time we get back out to the car, it’s around 4 o’clock. We head back to the cabin for some relaxation and cheese and crackers before the next activity. It’s like camp! You just never know what adventure will be next!
Sunday comes around and it’s time to take Lance to the airport. But we do have time for one more adventure! I purchased a 4-person raft, really for floating on the Clark Fork river. However, we don’t have a second transportation vehicle, so until we figure that out, we decide to go for a short float/ride on Fish Creek – and it’s still running pretty fast! We head down the road, and Lance pumps it up. We decide I will be in the stern, with all my canoeing experience, and he will be in the bow to report on any obstacles in the river. We’re pumping! (boys?):
The water is moving quickly and it’s a bit of a trial of teamwork to not bump into trees and whatnot, but we make it back to our territory in about 12 whole minutes! We hop ourselves and the raft into a (former) beaver pond, and it’s a magical moment. The pond is still, surrounded on one side by a field of wild daisies, and an old tree stump, covered in moss with plants growing up out of it in the middle, and we drift and paddle up and down. I say, I could swim laps in this thing! We enjoy the slow beauty, and eventually pick it up into the smaller pond, then over onto the bank. Up the hill and over to the Honeybush, where we deflate it. Another great adventure. Busy B Adventure Camp?
Time to clean up and head to the airport. As we wind our way about 6 miles up Fish Creek Road, we see a plethora of large work vehicles….what’s going on? There’s a photographer from channel 13 Missoula news and she tells us that there was a train derailment and 3 Boeing plane fuselages rolled into the Clark Fork River. Parts were being pulled out of the fuselages, then all of it shipped back to Washington. But here’s the view from the road:
Pretty amazing site! Dropped Lance off at the airport, then hit the grocery store, because Monday I cooked lunch for all the builders on site. It’s a bit of a feast, and here they are in the midst of it:
You can’t imagine how wonderful everyone is! That’s Damian and the far right, then heading left are Chris, Jesse, Caleb, Noah and Doug. Damian and Chris are in charge.
That night, I drive into town to the Top Hat Lounge to see the Carolina Chocolate Drops. I get to meet Damian’s wife Darcy, and the concert is great! The audience is too, and even though 50% of the sold-out crowd is over 45, everyone is dancing, stomping feet and singing along with the band. So fun, and I head out about 10:30 because of the long one hour drive back.
The next couple of days are taken up with rest (which never lasts long), collecting firewood and errands. Meanwhile, the excavator is pushing dirt back up to the foundation and filling in the garage to be ready for cement on Wednesday:
Preparation is underway for pouring the cement that is being stained as flooring for half the house. As a result, all rooms, closets and spaces are marked clearly. Here’s the guest wing, which has the bunk-bed room, a queen room and a bathroom for both:
So hard to imagine it’s going to be big enough, but I’ve been through that before with Sumac, and I know to trust the numbers. Cement going in at the end of the week, and then framing on Monday. Yay! It’s so hard to believe and so wonderful, all at the same time. Can’t wait to see what I find in August!