Time moves inexorably forward, but sometimes it feels like Sequoia and I are going backwards; maybe it all just runs in a circular motion. The hot tub saga is a good illustration. Sequoia and I are both fans of hot water; we had our first conversation in a hot tub. When his dad bought a new tub, Sequoia hauled his old wood tub here. He bought a second used wood tub off the back of a truck in the Shop N Kart parking lot and pieced the two together. He tried to install a salvaged propane water heater and pump as his heating system, but it never worked and the tub sat empty for a couple of years. One day, we found ourselves with a little extra cash and figured, what the hell, let's buy a genuine Snorkel hot tub wood stove. We have to generate solar power and haul gas from town, so an electric or gas stove was out of the question, but wood is abundant out here. He bought the stove, installed it in the salvaged tub, slapped together a bit of deck and we were good to go for several years - that is, until he started a fire with some hot ashes and burned the tub, half the deck and a big old fir. We were damn lucky the house didn't burn. Sequoia tried to repair the damage, but the tub never held water again. Last month, he finally caved and bought a new cedar tub from Snorkel. He spent the last two weeks setting it up and installing the stove. We took it on its maiden voyage last week and, Houston, we have lift off.
Most people would just bought a new hot tub and stove from Snorkel right off the bat. Most people would have put it on the Visa and paid someone to install it. That's not how my husband operates. He has to do things for himself and get there by his own path. I can't complain. In the middle of winter, in perfect silence, I float in hot water and gaze at the night sky. There are more stars than you can possibly imagine. Life is good.
Sunrise from the tub:
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