I was reading about a small Utah town where a citizen was quoted as saying she witnessed as the fire came over the mountain, down into the valley, heading straight for her home, it suddenly split in two and went around the town missing all of the homes in the town. Granted, fields were burned as were a few storage sheds. She called it a miracle and said that it was an answer to prayer.
Yesterday, my childhood cabin was destroyed by the Church Camp fire in Utah. I have fond memories of building this cabin when I was roughly 15 years old. A miracle occurred during this event, but I will tell you about that in a few minutes. My family is really good friends with another family. Together we had discovered that property was being sold in a Utah canyon for a super really good price. We packed up the families and traveled to this canyon. Once we arrived at the turnoff from the main highway, we noted that the real estate agent wanted us to get into his four wheel drive Chevy Blazers to go into the canyon.
Now granted the idea that it had been raining all day might have had something to do with this. I also suspect that a couple of station wagons trying to navigate a very muddy dirt road would have been a recipe for disaster!
Once we headed down the main canyon road, we didn't seem to have any problems. We forked off the main road up a more private canyon to a gate, which the agent unlocked. We then proceeded up to the top of the mountain, driving out into one of the most beautiful meadows I have ever seen! There were wild flowers, grass, even the remnants of an old saw mill. We fell in love with this place! Since the lots were in 10 acre sizes, we bought the one that included most of the meadow, envisioning a cabin at the treeline on the south side of the meadow. (I won't tell you about how the two Blazers got stuck going out and how we had to hike to the main road in the rain and mud to get help.)
It was a few years before the cabin actually took shape. We built a platform where we setup a tent. Our friends had a trailer that they pulled in. The Father of the other family had some industrial knowledge, which worked out to our benefit. One weekend when both families were at "the property" as we called it, this Father cut a portion of a tree and placed a level on top of it. Using this technology, he could eye where the supporting columns of our cabin would go. We marked these locations, as we had been clearing a location for the cabin.
In the following weeks, months, is where I saw the miracle take place. One trip we crated column forms, dug some holes, placed the column forms in them and poured cement. The next trip we removed these forms and used railroad ties to create a solid infrastructure for the cabin. Yet another trip and we built the floor.
My Dad and the other family's Father got together and built the trusses that would become the walls and ceiling. On our next trip to "the property" we were accompanied by a rather large construction truck with a big crane. This crane was used to place each of the trusses into place and then we would hammer them into place. On the truck was also some very large piles of plywood and rolls of tar paper.
Once the trusses were all in place, we nailed plywood to the outside of the trusses and also created an upper floor for bedrooms inside. In an effort to beat an approaching thunderstorm, we were able to get all of the tar paper on the outside and some of the shingles before it started to rain. We were able to fill in the front and back walls to enclose the cabin. We added a front and a back door, which we locked when we left.
Future trips involved constructing inner walls, running plumbing and electrical wires, placing sheet rock. Also laying carpet and installing a bathroom. It was going to be good to have a running water bathroom instead of the pit one we had constructed shortly after we bought the property.
The last few touches included installing a custom stove to heat the cabin, building a generator shed for the generator, and crafting a front deck and stairs. The front deck and big front window looked directly out into the meadow. Lastly we started bringing up older furniture to decorate it.
So the miracle that I witnessed was the building of this cabin. This included harnessing a spring to provide water, a way to get rid or waste, and many other things. All of this was done with my family not knowing a lot about building or construction and with the other family knowing a little more. I would say faith played a big role in the creation of this cabin. You really can do great things when many people are involved!
Let me wrap this blog up by saying that even though my family decided to sell our ownership in this cabin to the other family, it still had a soft place in my heart. Hearing that it burned to the ground this week almost brought tears to my eyes, not to mention the destruction of one of the most beautiful meadows I have ever seen.
Till next time,
Bill
