“How do you do ma’m,” he said politely.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Alberto. Thank you for taking on this project. This is going to be our home for the rest of our lives,” she said proudly.
“We’re gonna build you a good log home,” he assured her.
Lynette sat in the pickup truck and watched as the blade of the excavator struck its first blow, gouging out a huge mound of reddish dirt with small chunks of limestone rocks in it.
“There it goes, Honey,” Blaze said as he kissed her through the open window.
“Where are you going to get your logs from?” she’d heard Aaron ask someone over the phone a few weeks earlier
“Back over there on the east side of my land where the forest fire burned about an acre,” he replied. “I’ve had most of the trees cut and the burned outsides stripped away. Those are going to be the foundation logs. They’re all just about the right size. The guys up on the reservation at the lumber mill are going to handle ‘em. When they’re all ready and kiln dried out like they should be, they’ll haul them back over here. I’ve also got an agreement to purchase some other burned ones from the tribal lands, that are not in the National Forest. It’ll be a bit more costly, but it’s good stewardship of the land. Wouldn’t make much sense to have trees cut down up in Montana or somewhere, or Colorado, and shipped down here, when we have just about all the building timber we need for the house,” he added confidently. “I’m going to get some seedlings and replant that area. Maybe Lynette and I’ll live long enough to see a good stand of pines over there again.”
“Remember the Kokopelli fire back in 2002, well I heard they needed some of those trees cleared, and I had them moved up to the mill also. All we don’t need can go to the mill for profit. That way, everybody wins,” he said.
“Your perc tests all come back Ok?” Aaron asked.
“Did. No problem,” Blaze replied.
“I’ve got a good well less than 300 feet down also. Hell, you know about that. You recommended the guys who dug it,” he said to Aaron. “I was thinking about trying to put a wind turbine out there. Maybe it could pump the water and bring us electricity too. Don’t know if it’ll work though and Lynette and I aren’t really sure we want to live with that hum all the time. You know they’re not quiet. I’m working with a New Mexico energy company to see if it’s feasible. If it is, then that’ll probably be what we’ll use, even if it’s part-time. Have you ever given any thought to using the wind for energy here? With the way the wind blows so much of the time, I’m surprised that the county hasn’t considered setting out a field of turbines,” Blaze finished. After a long pause, he said, “You know, that might be an opportunity that no one has seriously considered around here!”
Lynette heard the two brothers talking about energy and conservation, preserving what the Lord had given them, and leaving things better than they found them. She liked what she heard. “I need to get My Pretty a new truck,” Blaze said to Aaron, loud enough on purpose for Lynette to hear.
“A truck,” she exclaimed as she walked over to him. “You already bought me a car!”
“Yep, a truck,” he said. Trucks are for hauling stuff and they sit up high so they can bounce over rough spots. You need a truck, so when I’m not here, you can go do whatever you need to, or go over and pounce on the construction workers at the house if they’re not doing what they’re supposed to,” he laughed.
“I only know a little about building a log home from many months of reading my Log Homes Magazine. I did go to a few log home expos,” she remarked. “They had one in Austin a couple of years ago, down at the coliseum.”
When she dumped – literally dumped - that brown expandable folder on the kitchen table after their trip to Austin, Blaze was astonished at the wealth of information and research Lynette had collected. She had a basic understanding of high-performance and moisture resistant building techniques and by choosing hard surface floors rather than a lot of carpeting, it could reduce toxins in the air and other pollutants that could make them sick. So, she was being modest when she said she didn’t know much about building a log cabin.
“Now, I heard you talking to Alberto the other day about log fasteners and tread lengths. You know more than you want to let on, City Girl,” he smiled. “I watched you checking over the worksheet. You know what they’re doing at every turn,” he said patting her firmly on her butt. He liked to pat her butt and grab it too, squeezing it with adept fingers. It was soft and full and it felt good in his hands. Truly, she did know more than the average bear about building that log home. She kept a copy of the Log Home Magazine in her briefcase. It was not unusual for her to read up on advances in the technology while sitting at an airport waiting for her flight to somewhere. She and Blaze decided together on which model they would build. They found the photograph and floor plan in one of her stacks of magazines and she ordered the blue prints to be over-nighted to Blaze. They decided on one that was smaller than Aaron’s home by about 200 square feet which made it approximately 3800 square feet on one level. There would be a loft over the kitchen area with an additional 325 square feet of living space, which they intended to use as both a sitting area, with easy conversion to a fourth bedroom for guests, or grandchildren. Their design had three nice size bedrooms on the main floor, two and a half baths, a major Great Room with adjoining dining area, nice Tuscan kitchen open to the entire house, a laundry room, which also served as a mud room, and adjacent pantry. There was also an office for them to share, with a walk-in closet for Lynette’s research materials! It was a really comfortable floor plan with the prow front Lynette always wanted.
The master bedroom, or what she preferred to call, the Owners Suite, was fashioned with a Kiva fireplace, and one entire wall was created as a huge divided bay window. There would be two fireplaces in the house. The smaller one in the Owner’s Suite, and the one that soared from floor to ceiling in the Great Room. The huge, Great Room fireplace would be situated in the center of the house, as tradition suggested. The house would be a green home and as energy efficient as possible. They planned for pipes running under all the floors so that in the winter time, there would be radiant heat coming up from below their feet. There would be adjustable solar panels out behind the house, as much out of sight as possible. For the sun’s energy they didn’t mind sacrificing a bit of the aesthetic. All the cabinets in the house would be made from either recycled wood, or wood from Blaze’s land. The two fireplaces were designed to incorporate the piles of limestone rocks dug up during excavation for the foundation. The one in their bedroom would be covered with the diamond-plaster finish to simulate a smooth, shiny Kiva. Wherever there was wood logging inside the house, it would again come from Blaze’s burned trees. There would be not one, but two trash compactors in the kitchen area - one right in the kitchen, and one in the laundry/mud room. They decided to try the tankless water heaters with a larger unit for the side of the house with the most water demand, and a smaller one on the other side. These water heaters would eliminate the need for continuous reheating of the water as is the case with water held in conventional heaters. They chose paint rather than wall paper over most of the house where the logs were impractical, and decided to install propane so they could cook with gas. Lynette dearly disliked an electric stove. She burned something daily on one. As an excuse she joked that she worshiped Blaze so much, that she gave him one burnt offering each day!! Everyone laughed, but try though she may, she could not get used to the uneven heat of an electric stove. For longevity and durability, they chose an unpainted tin roof. It would outlast the common asphalt shingles, and use much less energy to construct. All windows would be double hung with solar inserts to keep out the cold and the heat. Wrangling about how much UV rays they wanted deflected without loosing the bright, openness of the plan, created a tiny bit of tension, but they came to consensus. There would be very little carpet in the house. Most of the rooms would have either slate, saltillo tile or wood floors. And where w
ood floors were used, the material would be made from recycled wood, or from downed trees. They opted for a full surround deck made of recycled tires, that mimicked wood, with a lifetime guarantee. No more replacing cedar deck boards, like Lynette had to do at her home in Austin.
All and all, the energy and conservation upgrades added about an extra $90,000 to the overall cost of the house, but they agreed this was going to be their home for life and they would do all they could to leave as small a foot print on the environment as humanly possible. If they missed any opportunity, it was purely due to ignorance.
In addition to their conservation efforts in the house, Blaze had even contracted with a company to gather, haul away and use, the cow manure from his and Aaron’s steers to turn into burnable fuel in upstate New Mexico. The Irish had been burning peat for centuries, but they dug up the earth to do it. This was fuel produced from the waste of the animals. Blaze lived what he believed about Mother Earth.
And how did they accomplish all this “concensus” in so short a period of time? Lynette had spent many years thinking about a log cabin in the woods. She’d even sketched out a cabin plan. Though her vision was extremely modest, compared to what they were about to build, her years of “dreaming” became the springboard for designing their new home. If she hadn’t squirreled away her dream home, it would have taken them many weeks to find materials to read, and lots of consultations with people who were experts at building these structures. Building a log home is much more complicated than building a normal stick and frame house. There are decisions to make as to whether the logs will be hand-crafted or machine milled. There were architects and engineers to contend with to determine the structural integrity of the proposed building site and building itself. The fire marshal had to review the plans since this was a rural build. There were contractors, subcontractors, and the general contractor who would operate in place of the owner when it came to some important decision-making. Blaze was able to cut through a lot of the red tape because he knew people in the area. By hiring Mr. Montoya as the general contractor/project foreman and builder, he cut down on the time and red tape. He didn’t have to wrangled with a bank or loan officer, as he was financing the project himself, and the land belonged totally to him. So, much time was saved in the planning and preparation to build Lynette’s log cabin, as he liked to label it.
The operation moved from him building her a house, to them building their dream home. Blaze loved the partnership. He had originally viewed this biggest project of his life, as a labor of love, but he intuited that it would come with drudgery and overlapping problems. There would be problems, as the structure went up, but they’d work through them together, taking a virtual load off his shoulders. And frankly, he’d come to depend on her ability to make considered decisions, keeping both their needs always in mind. He trusted her. Lynette was a smart woman, Blaze said that all the time. He confided to Aaron that it was like two people inhabiting the same body. She could be cuddly, charming, tender and sweet – vulnerable and mildly dependent, though he never mistook her acquiescence for weakness . On the other hand, she was an astute business woman, had a good head for numbers, could be decisive almost to a fault, and she generally knew exactly what she wanted. She was a strong, confident, mature woman – the kind he always needed. Blaze couldn’t exactly explain it, but he said there was a completeness about her, as though all the pieces of a woman had been put together just right.
“I didn’t know. I truly didn’t know that there were women like Lynette,” he admitted to Aaron one evening, as he sat out on the back deck, comfortable, content and so very much in love. “She’s everything a man could need, or even want. Sometimes she just overwhelms me, and all I can do is look at her and shake my head in thanksgiving.” There was a long pause before he spoke again. “Aaron, I guess I didn’t know that a man could love a woman like this.”
“ITS KIND OF A LONG TRIP. Aaron and I are going down to Timber and Wimberly tomorrow. It’ll probably be an all day trip but would you like to come with us?” Blaze asked Lynette one morning.
“What’s down there?” she responded.
“I bought some property dirt cheap there years ago for about $500 an acre, when nobody even knew there was such a place. Now there’s some guys wanting to cut some of our land up into lots. Fine with me. But if they’re thinking of selling quarter acre tracts for as much as $12,500 on the low end, which is what I hear, we want to get a good price for my the property. Want to talk face to face about price before we agree to sell,” he answered. “I do the business end, and Aaron handles the legal end. Quite a pair, aren’t we?” he said slapping Aaron on the shoulder.
“I’d love to, but remember, we’ve got a wedding to plan, and I’ve got a million things to pull together. Can I take a rain check on that Sweetie?” she asked.
“Sure Babe, we’ve got the rest of our lives,” he said confidently.
CHAPTER 19
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Ordering For The Wedding
Lynette was a master at organization. That characteristic, borne probably out of an excellent Catholic school education, strict female parentage, and many years of having to move around the world on short notice with her career military husband, made her adept at pulling together a wedding with only a few weeks to plan. Instead of loading all the information onto Blaze’s computer, or lugging her laptop everywhere she went, she opted for a simple yellow legal pad. How primitive! Each sheet contained a different heading. She could add, scratch out, or circle items with the stroke of a pen while on the run. Only she knew what all the scribbling was, but it was her tablet of petroglyphs and pictographs, she explained to Blaze. When Clare was there on the weekends, she asked for her help and advice, mindful that her time with Aaron was precious. She had the entire week to run errands, talk to people, and get contracts where necessary. And, oh was she grateful for her truck. Blaze bought her a silver Dodge Dakota, smaller than his big Ram 2500, but it was more than big for her. In fact, she had to put a pillow in her seat to boost her up to a comfortable height, so she could see clearly over the hood. He purchased the same color as his because he wanted his-and-hers trucks.
The tablet had 20 pages with headings, from ministers, flowers, transportation to and from the ranch, seating, tents, unity candle, readings in the ceremony, to who was going to do her hair. She discussed with Blaze their putting the wording no gifts please, we request only your presence and your love as we join our lives together on the invitations. He had not thought of that but said there would be gifts, ceremonial gifts, if nothing else, and that might be a problem. So, instead, he said, “let’s make sure that everyone has a good time, with plenty of good food. We should make it as easy as possible for them to get here and back, especially anyone who might have too much spirits in them. It is customary to have a gift for each attendee, however.” It worked for her. She added another page to her yellow tablet. Gifts for guests!
Much of the “fluff” as Lynette called it, was eliminated from the planning of this special event. There would be no rehearsal dinner, and no rehearsal. It just wasn’t necessary. She would spare the both of them those wicked appointments that men hate, tasting seven flavors of cake, and picking butter icing or fondant. Yellow cake with traditional white icing was it! The flowers wouldn’t have to be shipped in from anywhere. As far as she was concerned, they could be picked out of the florist’s back yard, as long as they were wild and fresh. There was no need to decide which kind of caviar to use on the appetizers! There wouldn’t be any appetizers; just a full, filling buffet with numerous choices of meat. And, there was no need for place cards or a seating chart, trying to decide who hated who or who had slept with who’s wife, at a casual buffet style meal. Choosing a venue or deciding on which type of orchestra or band was out of the question. And Clare and the other women could just wear one of their nice summer dresses. No rustling taffeta and no fittings. And God forbid, those painfully tight dyed-to-match satin shoes. She remembered how badly her feet hurt
when she was a bridesmaid for her sister. If she had to, in order to save her life, she couldn’t tell anyone what was said during the service. The pain radiated up from her feet all the way into her butt and she had to pray throughout the service to keep from crying. Her feet were so tortured, and she hated those shoes so much, that they never made it back into their house. She slung them into the trash bin outside the family home and walked barefooted into the house. Renting a tux was out of the question for the men. Though she didn’t know what Blaze would wear, she knew he and Aaron had several nice business suits, and plenty of crisp dress shirts, any of which would be appropriate. There would be no tiny bundles of rice or birdseed to make and throw at the departing couple, nor plastic baskets of mints to construct and sit on the tables. As much as possible, she was going to do what she and Blaze had decided – keep this wedding simple. First the invitations had to get out as soon as possible. Four to six weeks was the preferred time, but she had only 3 ½ weeks till the wedding. She asked Blaze for a list of persons he wanted to invite. As usual, he was in sync with her needs, and produced a short list of about 13 names, but these names included families. So they guessed at about 4 persons per family – about 52 people. She was working two lists at a time; number of invitations on one list, number of expected attendees on another list. There was no time to order formal invitations, and they didn’t want this to be formal anyway. Just a back yard ceremony with a few friends and family. Her list included persons to whom she wanted to send invitations, but who might not be able to attend. There were the personal friends she knew could attend. And then there were Aaron’s friends. The elders of the tribe would need individual invitations. It was proper that Blaze deliver them personally. The officiant or officiants would need their invites, as would the hands, Maurice and Hawk, as a courtesy. Tallying the numbers, Lynette found that there could conceivably be around 106 people, at a minimum. She thought it best to plan for 125 so there would be plenty for anyone else that might just drop by. After all, there was a community up there.
Thunder In Her Body Page 21
