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A sexy bachelor pad.
September 24, 2009 | 15 Comments
There’s a lot of sage online advice on how guys can turn their bachelor pads into girl magnets.
Their frat buddies ask them to kit themselves up with faux stag heads, scented candles, a big plasma screen, surround sound, leather couches, a wet bar, framed art, vinyl records and floor lamps. (Gotta have them floor lamps and the reasons are highly technical.)
Girls, on the another hand, are all about damage control. They advice them to hide their porn, Superman figurines and Rambo posters, throw away the couch that smells of wet dog, shower every day, take out the trash and fart only inside the toilet. And CLEAN, CLEAN, CLEAN.
Some dudes get the concept, but falter at execution.
I wouldn’t say my place smells bad, it just doesn’t smell good. Ever walk into a girl’s place and it just smells, well, nice?
What the f**k black magic do they work in there to make everything smell so good, and is there a manly equivalent that I could buy in the next day or two because I have a girl coming over on Thursday night?
Most helpful answer:
I believe it’s because they, like, wash stuff.
We females (most of us) have very simple needs, really, unlike this “professional designer” who’d like you to think that
“Women need special soap to wash makeup off. Ivory won’t do.”
Ivory works fine as long as it a NEW bar of soap, or liquid soap. Girls don’t like to wash their hands with the hair-encrusted used soap bar a guy scrubbed his armpit with. And not all of us like scented candles. They give me a headache.
So yeah, going by all those criteria, J’s was the sexiest bachelor pad I’d encountered – clean towels and sheets, interesting books, good music, innovative wall art, a giant bean bag, a new bar of soap and Ramen noodle-free meals. No nauseating odours or candles to mask them. Until I saw this guy’s digs.
(Pic: National Parks Service)
In 1894, a guy named William Menor hauled all his possessions into a wagon and rode from Idaho to Wyoming.
Jackson Hole, in the valley below the Grand Teton Mountains, was one of the last places in the lower 48 states inhabited by white settlers. This place has very harsh winters and some really rough terrain and even the Shoshone Indians chose to stay here only during the warmer half of the year.
So, in one short summer, he cleared out a parcel of land next to the Snake river and built, log by log, a home …
and a ferry to transport people and goods along the river.
The cableworks
Let’s assume he was interested in gals. I can imagine him casually showing her his ferry before taking her inside his home – the way a dude today would show her his private helipad and Cessna.
This ferry was a “green” operation – using the power of the river’s currents with a pulley system. No electricity or gas required.
This is a refurbished replica of the original ferryboat.
The ferry is a simple platform set on two pontoons. The cable system across the river keeps the ferry from going downstream, while allowing it to move sideways. By turning the pilot wheel, the rope attaching the boat to the cable is tightened and points the pontoons toward the opposite bank. The pressure of the current against the pontoons pushes the ferryboat across the river in the direction the pontoons point. This type of ferry existed in ancient times and was used elsewhere in the United States. (Source)
Menor charged 25 cents for a horse and rider to cross the river and 50 cents for a team and wagon; pedestrians rode across for free.
Prior to ferry service, residents who lived primarily on the east bank of the river could only cross when the flow was low enough to ford, or when they traveled south to the small village of Wilson, Wyoming where they could cross over on a bridge. After the ferry began its operation, residents made regular trips to Menor’s homestead in order to cross the river to gather berries and firewood …
Menor’s Ferry (Pic: National Parks Service)
The ferry was sold to Maud Noble in 1918 … and ceased operation in 1927, when the State of Wyoming built a highway bridge across the river, just south of the Menor homestead. (Source)
The other end of the cable across the river.
When people starting crossing over to his side of the bank using the ferry, he made the front of his home a general store.
Menor’s General Store
Today, the property is part of Grand Teton National Park. It sells replicas of vintage items as souvenirs – ceramics, tinware, linens, enamelware, soaps.
80% of the store’s “heirloom” items (like these bowls we ended up buying) are Made in China. It did have some interesting vintage cookbooks and manuals. The “local” items are mostly jams and jellies full of “modern” ingredients such as high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated vegetable fats. That store is a real disappointment. Walk through it into Bill Menor’s kitchen, and it’s a whole different world, full of delightful little treasures – all original and mostly handmade a century ago.
This stove, we are told, is the original, hauled over a hundred years ago by wagon from Idaho Falls up and down the 8,500-ft. high Teton Pass. It’s fueled by wood and takes three hours to heat up. It makes the whole cottage nice and toasty and is used every day in summer by the guy who runs the store to bake ginger cookies. If you visit the place between 11 a.m. and noon, you may get to taste them.
CLICK: Heirloom
Event Details HERE
Photographer: Jai
Camera: Canon 5D Mark II
Lens: 50 mm
Shutter speed: 1/80 sec
ISO Speed: 400
F-stop: f/1.4
DEADLINE: Sep. 30, 2009
Someone has a big sweet tooth. Note the sack of sugar on the left corner of the third shelf.
The dining area is part of the kitchen. Behind it is the living area/bedroom.
Elk antler chair
Thermal wear, snowshoes and boots.
Office
Knickknack central
No Superman figurines, no Rambo posters, no funny smells, no scented candles.
Wait a minute. Where’s the bathroom that he’s supposed to shower in and the toilet he’s supposed to fart in and the sink where he’s supposed to keep the liquid soap? Oh well, bachelor pads in the old days didn’t have any of these distractions. Or things such as running water and electricity.
And where does one go potty six months of the year when there’s ten feet of snow and it’s 6F (minus 14C) outside?
Maybe in that little metal pan.
“Heirloom”, “natural” and “antique” are quaint and interesting as long as they pertain to someone else. In my self-absorbed opinion, the “bare needs” of life – in the absence of which one faces a crisis situation – go beyond air, food, water, shelter and clothing. They include a bathroom (with plumbing and running water) and an internet connection.
““Psychiatry’s chief contribution to philosophy is the discovery that the toilet is the seat of the soul.” ~ Alexander Chase
Left to right: Menor’s ferry, cableworks and general store.
Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming.
- bee
Grand Teton National Park, heirloom, Menor's Ferry, Menor's General Store, MUSINGS, national park, Photo Essays, Snake-River, TRAVEL, Wyoming
Gah. A stove?! *grumble* Couldn’t he have picked a pot or some of those dishes. *grumbles even more*
Bee this is a lovely piece brought back memories of me walking into my friend’s home where the only lady at home was their mother who had spoilt them completely. One of them had sprayed a deo on his sports shoes and socks coz he had not washed it for months.
Wow! Thats simply superb! We recently went on a pilrimage to a temple on a mountain in far south of Tamilnadu. Its almost 3500 ft high and there is no transportation. There is an open tank filled regularly with ice cold spring water and the forest around the temple serves as opn toilets. Its totally a different kind of a world for us and for some good reason nobody complained during their two day stay there.
I just think we ladies have a much more nicer body odour than the men maybe because we are far more cleaner than them
totally true.
Love that chair, but have doubt than it is comfortable.
Totally with you on the bathroom being essential, as much as I fancy myself to be a traveller, simply don’t like the idea of roughing it out in that aspect.
I think the idea we will visit with delight and view with nostalgia a spot where somebody lived in such “deprived” conditions proves that everything looks better when viewed from far (far) away. The “good old days” are at least partly good because they are are long gone.
Also, we should never underestimate the effects of the aroma of hot ginger cookies on any summer traveler coming in from fresh air and beautiful skies. Probably induces a particular form of temporary “I LOVE this!” dementia.
PS -When I first visited the Hub’s bachelor pad I was a near instant sale. It was clean, well decorated (in his sparse aesthetic) and he cooked a delicious dinner for us. Bingo!
I NEED a nice, clean private bathroom and we know J was trying to impress
He never worried of any utility bills. The stove is a beautiful antique piece!
Nice capture ,..bring back our memory about old times
you are so lucky can visiting nice places, and I enjoy the pictures as always.
Dear Bee & Jai, I sent my entry couple days ago. I hope it works. Thank You
Hey, are you going to to NaBloWriMo with us again? C’mon, it’s fun, right?
http://nablowrimo.blogspot.com/2009/09/this-year.html
Amy
Love the sexy cabin and the description. I would make this my home any day (of course, I would need plumbing!)
“Let’s assume he was interested in gals.” – hee, I love that. The lovely kettle on the stove may hint otherwise, though
Thats sure an impressive post! And yeah am impressed about Jai’s bachelor pad. I adore people who are well organized as its missing with me
And this ferry is so efficiently made of using nature’s power effectively. Reading about him gives lots of insight!
Which reminds me I need to take a bath! Oh, wait, no…I don’t have to!
Actually, I’m clean(-ish) and well-organized to a fault; my dad was the same way….the women in our family are the clutter-bugs! But I like this guy’s pad- tidy, efficient, no frills. That red-and-white graniteware has to go…
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