Happy Labor Day!!! We had a fabulous weekend as we drove the 8 plus hours up to the Habel cabin in Montana! We went with Christina's Aunt & Uncle, Cindy & Colin, and Christina's sister Jana and her husband Kyle. It was our first time up to the Habel cabin and we were so impressed!

It's a beautiful log cabin with real logs all around the base and then pine boards on the top. It has a loft that is on one half of the cabin and then a beautiful deck out by the kitchen. These pictures of course don't do it justice so you will just have to go and see it for yourself!

Unfortunately, we just didn't have enough time. We got up there late on Friday then Cindy & Colin went fishing on Saturday, and the other 4 of us climbed into Mike's 2-seater truck and drove an hour to go to the Car Museum and old Prison in Deerlodge. It was really neat to see the history and go into the cells where very bad people had lived for years, but it was kind of creepy.

The prison was intriguing and then there were some beautiful cars to see in the other museum. We wished that they were set up a little easier so you could walk around them and look in, but it awesome to see the first car and see how they just kept getting better and better.

Then on Sunday we drove over an hour with Cindy & Colin to go to Great Falls where Christina's Dad grew up. It was neat to see the old house and the visit the grave of Christina's grandparents. We also took a quick tour through Great Falls, and walked along the Missouri River. It was beautiful!
Giant Springs along the Missouri River. Great Falls is famous for Lewis & Clark and also for having the world's shortest road. A 5th grade class put the ROE River into the Guinness Book of World Records!

(Working up an appetite for a nice steak dinner on Sunday night.)

We wished we had more time to explore the land, old mines, and lakes that are close, but we just ran out of time, but we had a blast! Just like we've run out of time and space to show and tell you everything about our trip. For more fantastic pictures go to the web albums on the left.

We can't wait to go back up and just enjoy the cabin. It's definitely worth the drive!

Yeah! The cabinets are done! We finally found the right paint and they are looking good! Check out the progress...




Then you add a few handles and knobs and ta-da...beautiful cabinets!
Finishing the cabinets wasn't the only thing that's new in the cabin. Terry & Cheri found some fabulous things at IKEA to help complete the cabin. Angela's reaction captures how amazing it all is!
Another recently exciting thing is that Mike got a new engine for the tote gote!! It includes an alternator and a new gas tank. Mike still needs to set up the electric start and attach a headlight, but it works great right now with just one pull!

We've celebrated many wonderful birthdays up at the cabin, and August is no exception. Christina's 24th birthday was on Sat. August 4th, and then next weekend we celebrated our brother-in-law Steve's birthday.

The cabin still is and will always be our favorite place to go. It has been a long but fun project. Even though the inside is done we still have a lot more that we want to do. So it will be our continual project, but at least now we can go up to just kick back and relax in the new Hobo Haven!

Yeah! Cabin updates! Well, ever week things look better and better up at Hobo Haven! While we were on our Escalante trip, Mike's family made huge progress upstairs by laying the carpet and even getting beds up there. That was no easy feat as they had to take down the stairs completely to fit the beds through the loft opening.

They were also very inventive as they made their own carpet stretcher. It worked pretty well and things are looking good!


Another huge success and amazing design story is the hatch to the loft. Mike's Dad likes to go to bed early so he wanted to make something that would keep the sound out, and be sound and secure to walk on.

So the boys put their master minds to work, and came up with the perfect solution. This hatch is insulated like 5 different ways, and Terry says that you can't hear a thing up in the loft when it's closed.

Last weekend we busted out the primer and paint on the cabins. It took a little prep work before. We had to cut the lazy susan door larger, put a new siding on, fix a few holes, and redo the hinges on the old white cabinet.


Just painting everything one color made it look better than they did before, but we're not sold on the color. We need to look into getting a darker brown or something, but we'll see what we end up with.

Aussie tried to help too. :-)

The Cabinets Before...
And So Far...