My Journey

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

Ghostdancer.....this book is a bit different than all the others that I read as it focuses on the people that have lived in the Bears Ears and the surrounding area over the years. It's a whole new perspective which I found to be very interesting. Lots to learn about the Bears Ears.....



Now one thing that I've been missing in this cabin is a desk.....it's just nice to have a place to sit at other than the dog recliner chairs.....



So keeping with the same style as the other two pieces of furniture that I just recently built, I cut more weathered wood and used more of the black lag bolts to frame the desk up.....



I had just enough space in that corner to build a 36" wide desk.....no longer does my ego need one of those massive desks of the past.....36" wide will do me just fine.....for the top I used 11" wide 2" thick weathered boards.....and on top of that I'll place a 1/4" thick piece of polished glass which has been ordered.....



I tacked the antique wooden skis to the weathered wood wall.....all of the antique snow shoes & the wooden skis were picked up somewhere in my travels.....





Then I added these metal templates of the world that I found in my travels while visiting Red Lodge, Montana .....I just happened to walk into a guys' metal shop when he was throwing these things out.....every traveler needs a map of the world at his desk I think.....



Now my favorite decoration in that room are these ceramic tiles that I found in Jackson, Wyoming .....once again found during my travels.....looks almost like Montana & Yukon.....



And finally to complete that room, I finished the closet walls with weathered wood and since the trap door to the crawl space is located here.....



I needed a place to store my boots & shoes that didn't block that trap door so I built myself a shelf to one side for my boots & shoes.....



Life is good.....

 

[Ace Brown]

I like the bedroom wall a lot. Are the black sections where you left boards out and that’s the black wall showing? Or are they stained that way. Either case it looks great.


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[mekcanix]

I love your cabin. I love the projects as well.
Nice to see and to still be a part of your journey Jerry, be it adventures with dogs , wood projects, building stuff, hikes through the wilds, or discussing books.

John

 

[tgil]

"it looks great but no more please".....cracks me up!
I have 0.0 creative/decorating skills.
I think it all looks great, and if it was my place, that's all that would matter.

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[longhorn1]

tgil.....so here's one of the many projects that I've been working on since returning to Montana.....

Ace.....I thought that pumpkin was going to land in the field behind my cabin.....it came so close.....the dogs ran inside the cabin and stood at the door alternating between growls & barks.....it was entertaining.....

pkripper.....I'm just another guy in the room.....far from amazing.....thank you.....



I doubt anyone will remember the day that I met a couple in Washington during my travels while at a Walmart that subsequently invited me to stay at their Cascade Mountains log cabin but I certainly do. After my three night stay they gifted me a beautiful Moose antler rack which I mounted on the BigFoot truck camper and which would eventually cause me to get into a bit of a legal mess as I passed through Yellowstone National Park.....anyhow.....

So one of my first projects was to build a Moose antler rack display stand.....or some might call it a sofa table.....I cut four legs of ALMOST equal lengths from some of the weathered wood that I found in the barn.....

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Then I cut the frame boards & started to build the frame from the weathered wood that I snatched up off of the hoarders' property.....

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That wood was heavy so I hauled it into the cabin in pieces and then bolted it all together.....

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Continuing with the rustic theme I screwed in some old fence boards for the top.....

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I didn't care much for these boards.....so I brought in the Moose antlers to have a look.....nope, they wouldn't do.....

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I removed those boards.....next I took some of the same boards that I used for the frame, split them down the middle, and tried them out instead.....

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I liked it.....

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The dogs were heavily involved in most every aspect of this build.....it seemed as though every scrap piece of lumber becomes a dog chew toy.....

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Here's the completed project.....I added a vase from Mexico , a wood carving from Tibet, and a couple of great adventure books.....it came out far better than I could have hoped for.....

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Love the table build. Fits right in with the interior.👍

 

[longhorn1]

Well, I got side tracked and forgot to check in. Getting it all in one reading was the best. Will he, Won't he, move into the cabin? The envelope please. Awe, I picked the winner. All kidding aside, I figured you would. You will be on the road again

As far as the furniture, weathered wood is the best. I look at those pieces and they look like some well known furniture builder. As far as the walls, well I'm a lover of aged wood.

The dogs definitely deserve to be lazy. Keep posting on your projects.

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

Ace.....the black boards are "stained" with a solution that I make.....I use black chalk line & mix it with water. This technique allows me to have an endless number of colors.....simply depends on the amount of chalk line & water that I choose to use. Thank you.....

tgil.....when I was young, I really only had two dreams for my life.....endless travel & a small log cabin. In some ways my dreams came true.....not exactly what I envisioned but I take what I get. The weathered wood is my substitute for real logs. Thank you.....

mekcanix (John).....thanks so much.....obviously there will be less & less to post as time goes by. I'm starting to settle in.....becoming complacent one might say.....and beginning to wonder if that's a good thing or not.....

JD.....thanks & will do. Your post reminded me of the morning I had coffee with Ace in Colorado. I think it may have been in November, we were both trying to guess if I'd return to Montana early that season or if I'd continue traveling. Ace said he wanted his money back (he bought my coffee) if I cut the trip short. Well, you know how that one played out.....my coffee was free.....



So this will be the last post for the inside of the cabin.....

Now I'm not much of a kitchen guy so it seemed to me that three kitchen cabinets would be more than enough.....



Well, it really wasn't, so I decided that I needed to turn part of the coat closet into a food pantry.....



So the first task at hand was to line that coat closet with more weathered wood.....



Then I built myself some shelves on one side.....



Honestly.....it came out just perfect.....



Next up was giving that free leather couch a bit more love.....in the next picture you see the left side of the couch treated (it has a bit of a shine).....



The guy that gave me that couch said it had been in his family for over 20 years.....I have to wonder when that leather was last treated.....looking much better now.....more treatment to come.....



So that's all I've got for the inside.....



.....but there's plenty going on outside too.....



Welcome to our cabin.....it ain't much.....but it's our home.....

 

[halseyt]

Fantastic cabin.. that and the barn/shed makes a great base camp. Well done and thanks for the tour.

 

[Sticky9]

The cabin is looking great... everything fits so well. I'm just getting back from 3 weeks out in northern Alabama and southern Tennessee. Did a fair share of rock climbing and cliff jumping. Good times. However, I'm beginning to think I'm getting too old for the big cliff jumping part. Stopped at a friends lake house on Lake Martin and did some skiing and realized how out of shape I am. Time to get back to pounding out the miles running. Glad to see you are still posting here and hope all is well up that way. I've got a nice trip up to Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana coming up at the end of the month. I can't wait! My mom is actually going to fly into Bozeman and spend a week with me "to do the things I'm always out doing" . Coming from a small country town in La my family aren't big travelers, just simple country people so it's a big deal. Anyhow, as always, thanks for the posts.

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

halseyt.....my pleasure.....thanks.....

Sticky9.....when I see Alabama, I immediately think Alabama Hills so that took me by surprise. Your trip(s) sound great so you should posts a few pictures at the least.....I think we're all ready for travel pictures.....enough with this interior decorating ! And.....thanks.....



Just Another Morning in Montana.....

 

[Sierra Valley]

Yes time for Jerry to hit the road!

 

[Foy]

The cabin looks great--you missed a great career as a builder!

My point on "taking a trip and never leaving the farm" was less a comment on how things may have to slow down some (and for better or worse, most of us experience some degree of slowing down before checking out entirely) than it was a note that having a long view as you do, one of the great things is that you can look at it for hours and hours every day, and never see exactly the same aspects of the terrain, vegetation, snowpack, wildlife, signs of human activity. Long range mountain views are always changing, so those who choose to stay close to home or can't get out and about for whatever reason, can always enjoy "a trip without leaving the farm".

All the best,

Foy

 

[Arjan]

Good progress on the cabin !
Looks nice and a real home to you - and the Goldens obviously..

Enjoy !!

 

[longhorn1]

The cabin looks great and the dogs on "The Masters" bed says it all.

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

Ace.....I was working in the barn a few days ago and thought I should share this with you (knowing of your love for bicycles).....



That was my rig years ago.....here Trapper is filling in for Yukon as she was the one that actually road in that trailer.....



She was just a pup when she took her first trip.....



And the following picture is simply a picture of a hole that Yukon chewed into the trailer webbing so that she could have better views.....what fond memories it brings to me of her nose sticking out of that hole and her eyes pressed against the mesh.....those too, were the days my friends.....



JD.....yep.....the cabin turned out much better than I ever thought it would. And I could never have predicted how lucky I was to having a hoarder live nearby. It really paid off the four years I spent helping him out. I have the freedom to take whatever I need whenever I want.....thanks.....

Arjan.....I've slowed down this year but we continue to make progress.....thanks.....

Foy.....I understand completely your point(s) and it's just that I struggle to move into the next phase of life.....20 years of unemployment and mostly excellent health has spoiled me. I've always struggled with fitting into the mainstream American lifestyle so I would imagine that things will not change for me anytime soon. This paragraph written by George B. Schaller in Stones of Silence, Journeys in the Himalaya best describes who I am.....if you haven't read the book, you sure should.....

''Descending from the heights we met the first blade of grass and the first flower, and finally the slopes were hairy with sage brush. Perhaps our passage from the cold upper reaches to the familiar earth had been too rapid; as I looked back at the lonely peaks, then at the huts and fields below where people groped their whole lives away. Torn between contentment and longing, caught between two worlds, one that possessed me, yet could never be more than a passing phase, and that other which is a part of human existence, I yearned to retain my dual identity."



Sierra Valley.....we actually had plans for an overland expedition 😁 heading over to the Beartooth Highway, then heading west and passing through Yellowstone National Park, then heading south into the Tetons, and then further south to visit friends in Jackson, Wyoming, all before I started physical therapy. The Beartooth Highway had mostly been cleared but then we got massive amounts of snow.....so much so that the road crews said it was too dangerous to clear the highway again due to avalanche activities. Now I'm not sure what our plans are.....the photo below was taken by highway crews recently.....






So yesterday I actually started physical therapy.....my prognosis is good. Unfortunately I complicated things a bit when I slipped on a ladder while installing 2"x6" weathered boards for trim on the barn.....my right knee is now injured and movement is further challenged.....



So with our trip postponed we mostly hang out and get drunk.....sometimes we pass out on the couch.....



.....and sometimes on the floor.....



During the day we're out in the yard picking up our beer bottles and nursing our hangovers.....and that's our story and we're sticking to it.....