We arrived on Monday around 2:00 p.m. and right off the bat had a problem facing us. Our lovely archway over our driveway fell down over the winter. We knew it was on its last legs (so to speak) because the bottom of one the poles had rotted out because the builder did not coat them with creosote. The year before last our neighbor propped the leaning post up and it lasted two years that way. It had fallen across the driveway and of course was unmovable. Rick put the truck in 4-wheel drive and drove around it "off road."

The next issue facing us was not a pile of welcome from the pack rat as you might have thought, but upon flicking on the light switch we discovered we had no power. Not good. Not good at all. The batteries were dry and apparantly had not had a charge in 66 days. We powered up the little generator to at least be able to turn on a light. Rick went to add water to the batteries only to find he did not have enough distilled water. Off to the neighbor who wasn't home. On the way to another neighbor who might be able to help us, he came across David (the first neighbor) and told him our tale of woe. Soon David and another neighbor showed up with distilled water and a chain saw. The sad result you can see above. It breaks my heart. 

For several hours we did not have enough juice from the generator to power the water pump, so we could not use the toilet and had no water either. We didn't know at that point if the batteries would come up enough and the charge controller did not appear to be working, meaning the generator was powering the batteries but no charge from the solar panels was coming in. Kind of a dire predicament. Rick called the company that takes care of our batteries for us when we are not here and tried to figure out the problem. They couldn't, and they also could not come up until Friday. 

Long story short, we finally got enough to run the water pump, and the batteries starting charging. Whatever the reason, the controller finally reset on Monday night and all is good!! Whew! We still did not have TV or Internet until Tuesday afternoon. It was great to be able to be in touch with our little world again. Tuesday the satellite folks came up and mounted a new dish with better and faster service. Plus, it's cheaper than our old program.

Tuesday morning we had a visitor to the meadow. A cow.

Normally Hailey is our cow dog, but she has been having troubles with one of her rear legs, so we let Bella out instead to see what she would do. At first she barked and ran from the cow. Big Brave Bella. The minute the cow moved she spooked. When I went out to get its photo Bella got braver. They had a little stand-off going on.

Finally the cow turned tail and Bella gave chase! Good girl Bella! She chased him almost completely out of the meadow and then ran back with a big grin on her face. Okay, it wasn't a moose, but it was something.

Today Grant from Laramie Heating came up to fix our non-functioning furnace. Poor Grant. Last time we had him up it was for a smelly squirrel that had gotten stuck in the furnace pipe and died. I guess they still talk about that in the office and have a good laugh on him. We knew we had a problem last year during the last two days of our stay when the furnace pre-blower came on but the furnace didn't light, therefore no heat. It turned out to be an easy fix, so now we can add heat to our list of comforts. Not that we have needed it, it's unseasonably warm.

Tomorrow the chimney sweep comes and on Friday we will go into Laramie for supplies and all the things we forgot to get our our shopping trip on the way in. (Canned dog food, bird seed, other things.) We did not keep a good list last year of what we needed.

As you can probably guess by all the busy doings since we arrived, we have not had a chance to just relax and enjoy and let the cabin weave its spell. But, things must get done and it's hard to leave a place for an entire year with no one really looking after it. We still have the meadow clean-up to tackle and we are not sure when they are going to come.

The aspens are starting to turn and should be peak before we leave. As I type a sweet little rain shower is tapping on the metal roof. 

When I got up last night to use the bathroom, I tweaked the curtains open to see a sliver of moon and Orion in the middle of a cartwheel. It's good to be "home."