Every year we have an extended family Reunion (Grandpa Gifford's Siblings) on some property on the East side of Zion National Park. This year our Family (Ramona and Melvin Gifford) is in charge of the shindig. I am so excited because there generally are not a lot of that family group that can make it up to the reunion consistently so it is usually just my sister and I up there for the whole weekend with other family members coming up for a day here or there. It will be so fun this year to see everyone.

The tough part is that our outdoor bathroom (with plumbing) has been limping along completely unfinished for years. In anticipation of having all the extended family up there for most of the Reunion, my sister and i decided it was high time the bathrooms got finished. By "finished" our goal was to :

1. fix the leaky toilet water supply lines,
2. wire the bathrooms for lights (hooked to a deep cell battery)
3. replace the broken toilet
4. tile a shower
5. put in the plumbing for the sink and shower
6. seal all the holes
7. install a corner shower curtain rod
8. put in an outside water tap.
9. re-glue the linoleum

Now this list may seam a bit lofty ...and in hindsight I admit it absolutely was insane...but it really needed to get done.

The toughest part of the project was the fact that the nearest hardware store was a 2 hour round trip away - and it closed at 7 pm (which we found out on our first of 3 trips to buy parts). Other things that make a mountain work party difficult - no power supply. Which means when the battery powered drill doesn't quite do the job mixing the tile grout...you gotta do it by hand...literally (by the way does anyone know of a really good hand cream???). Another lesson we learned (by the fact that we actually did it right) is that if you are gonna try to cram all of these projects into 3 days - you better put up the lights first so you can work through the night. Thanks to Barbara's (my sister) work, she is a master electrician and the lights were the one thing that went off without much of a hitch at all!

Another thing that makes mountain work parties difficult is when the plumbing has leaks...and the leaks are on a copper line...in the middle of a brick wall...coming up through the concrete foundation. We ended up having to completely rework the water supply coming into the bathroom. So in addition to all the projects we originally had planned, we had to tap into the water supply line and dig a trench around the outside of the bathroom and break a hole through the outside of the cinder block (the easiest part it turned out).

And finally the very, very, very worst thing about a mountain work party. The mouse family that had taken up residency in the bathrooms. And by residency I mean they set up several different living locations (including a nest in the U bend of the toilet we had to pull -ugh!!! - thanks Mike for taking the hit on that one). There were several holes in the brick walls (light switch holes - water pipe holes etc) and when you were doing something in one hole the mice would run out of a different hole ALONG THE WALL and into another hole. It made it great fun to be over at the campfire and hear Barbara screaming like she was dying only to find that a tiny little mouse just decided to pop out and say hello. Of course she responded to the nice hello by ruthlessly beating the poor thing with the broom. In the end though I think it was more unconscious than anything as Autumn informed me "its still breathing". Seriously gross though. And it made it hard to work effectively when your toes are curled the entire time with the innate fear that a mouse could run out at any time from the very hole your sticking your hand in.

But after 3 grueling and exhausting days we finally got it done. Now mom just have to find enough paint to completely finish the paint job on the outside - of course without covering up Hannah's name or smiley face! ;-)