A view not far away from where we camped in this slot canyon (this was the wider part of the canyon).

How much could possibly happen in three weeks?

Adminisk8or

07/15/2024

So... it's been a few weeks. And what a few weeks it's been, man. What a few weeks it's been.

To say I've done some home fix-ups feels like an understatement. I've spent countless hours, sometimes long into the night installing and fixing things. Just in summary...

I built my wife an easel (from scratch materials) for painting.
I bought and setup a new TV that is as wide as I am tall.
I installed an intercom box by our door
I replaced our attic door hatch and gave it hinges and handles
I fixed magnetic latches on our kitchen cabinets
I (with the help of my brother and parents-in-law) disassembled a collapsed plastic shed, rescued the items from within it, sorted through the items and moved them to a different sanctuary, threw away all the broken pieces of the shed, sorting out scrap metal, and hauled off some donation items, as well, resulting in about 4-5 trailer loads of stuff- one of which I haven't taken to the dump, yet.
I installed an actual power outlet in my carport.

And without question the most time consuming of all, I installed power to my backyard. This includes a patio light, a plug adjacent to it, and a plug down low for common use- and a switch inside the house to control the light.

I feel like I can't even begin to summarize how tedious and difficult it ended up being to get everything in that last sentence accomplished, but I did. I had to fish wires through my attic, fish wires through my walls, replace junction boxes that were nailed in without destroying more sheet rock, troubleshoot GFCI problems, snake my way carefully in tight corners of my hot and stuffy, cramped attic to try and pull wires up from the wall, make the very unfortunate mistake of drilling under my eaves right up clean through the roof, wire everything up and realize I made a logistic error and rewire it, again, and finally mount everything (including conduits and boxes) in place in the back yard. I thought it'd take a day or two- and I think it took a week of most all of my free time, plus some long nights into the early morning. Was it worth it? Yes. Would I do it again? ...ask me in five years.

And while I would love to go on about the repeated failures and mistakes I made in the process, let it suffice to say there were more than enough of those- the worst of them probably being the hole through my roof... that was a true Captain Picard face-palm worthy moment.

No, rather, I would include one of my fun adventures I took! I and three other friends went down to the far reaches of the Southern Utah desert and backpacked through a pretty little area. I say pretty- and it was- but Southern Utah in late June is no joke. It was hot. But our route (though it was admittedly by mistake) took us directly down a river (and I mean IN the river most of the time) through a pretty little canyon. The sights we saw and the wildlife around us is something you really don't find anywhere else on Earth, I think. It's truly its own unique ecosystem.

Traversing the river was not terribly hard, but a) there had just been a number of flash floods and storms that made everything that was within at least 3 feet of the river pure, sticky mud and almost quicksand; and b) I was lent a pair of shoes (and I was grateful to have some, make no mistake) that were a little bad at staying on my feet when the mud would try and snatch them away. Plus, the surface of the water shoes was oddly a fair bit slick. But we made it 7 miles down this river and arrived at a junction, to which we hung a right, hoping to find a good spot to camp in the canyon which was now becoming a slot canyon. And by all good fortune, we found not one but several good spots to camp within about 3 minutes of our split in the road! Tired from the river hike, we unloaded camp and all knocked ourselves out for an hour or three after getting some dinner. The rest of the story of that day is mostly just one of relaxation and enjoying the scenery.

The bend of the canyon we were in had walls that reverberated in such a way your echo sounded about 10 times in the span of 5 seconds, and it was pretty awesome. And the songs of the birds in that area are something- the song of the canyon wren in that area is truly melodic and seems to pull you into a realm of quiet and beautiful light. This was true especially in the setting sun, as the air around us, excepting the noise we made and the quiet trickle of the brook below, was so still and ethereal it really did feel like you were in another world. And if that wasn't convincing enough, when the stars came out at night, that was all the more true. Being in that somewhat narrow canyon, looking up overhead at the towering walls above, you could see a large canvas of stars laid out in the frame of the curved but sometimes craggy cliffs. Truly, it's an experience like no other, and one I always find I love returning to.

And here we are, now with the summer already half over. It seems unreal to me. Meanwhile the world around seems to be spiraling faster and faster into chaos, no matter where you look. Well, I say a fig to all that stupid chaos that's trying to be pushed into our faces. I, for one, am grateful for my personal adventures- my ability to conquer new things, learn new skills, practice becoming better in some ways, and finding and discovering new things for myself. I hope everyone reading this post will also feel somewhat the same. Step away from the constant barrage of information (and misinformation) that is all too easy to access and think about the more important things in life. Maybe not he most important- sometimes that's too overwhelming. Just find something good to start with and go from there!

I know, personally, I meant to do regular weekly morning hikes this summer and that's failed, so far. I blame the list of tasks I've had with our first home. And there's no shortage of them, either. Next comes installing sprinklers in our backyard and, well, you can only imagine how fun that'll be. Until next time, see ya!