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Mountain Man Mondays; A Modern Love Story Chapter 2

Now that I have a tack room, I’ve been looking at trunks in the horse catalogs. They are used to store various horsey items and are very beautiful but also very expensive.

I asked Mountain Man if I should go purchase a rubber type container with a lid instead of spending money on an extravagant purchase and he said, “What if I make you one?”
“You can do that for me?” Oh, I was so thrilled.

Sunday, as I spent the day reflecting on some issues that are very important to me, Mountain Man spent the day in his shop creating a tack box for me. And, now that he’s finished building the tack box (still going to oil it and add the hardware), he is creating a ramp for our elderly dog to be able to get in and out of the truck with ease.

My Mountain Man might not be a man of many words but he is a man of action and his actions always speak to his love.

Months ago, when I started this blog, I began our love story. If you want to read Chapter 1, you can click Read it By Clicking This Link. But what better day to do Chapter 2 than on Mountain Man Mondays.

A Modern Love Story Chapter 2

In the last chapter, I introduced you to my story and I left you with Mountain Man’s photo appearing in my in-box on Eharmony. There he was, a ruggedly handsome man, cradling a beautiful, elderly mastiff. But what brought Mountain Man to Eharmony?

My journey through life had been one of a long, happy marriage cut short by tragedy but Mountain Man’s story was very different.

After leaving his teaching career and moving to Vermont to start a new life when he was in his late 20s, he fell in love and decided to marry. He and his wife were together for fifteen years before differences drove them apart. Irreconcilable differences is the legal term but that doesn’t even begin to describe the heartbreak of divorce and the pain involved in an unraveling relationship.

Mountain Man remained behind on Red Pine Mountain and struggled to find his way. The divorce had left him in a precarious financial position and his only thought was earning enough money each year to keep the farm he so dearly loved. Day after day, night after night, he worked to keep up with his financial obligations. He was exhausted with little time for socializing but he was lonely as well.

He decided to enter the dating world again. He did meet women but the right one did not appear. Yes, in the beginning, things would be okay but life on Red Pine Mountain is not an easy one and most women don’t appreciate farm life. They struggled to understand why Mountain Man didn’t just sell the farm, make a nice profit and live an easy life on a smaller piece of property in a more urban setting. They just didn’t understand Mountain Man.

Mountain Man tried meeting women at local venues and he tried various dating sites but even though he met nice women, the relationships always lacked that special something.

One day, when he was about to give up the search and resolve himself to being alone, he heard about Eharmony and decided to give it a try. Even though Mountain Man is not comfortable with the computer, he completed the extensive Eharmony matching profile. Then, he sat down and waited for the computer to work its magic.

His first matches weren’t promising. They were mostly big city women with high profile jobs and big career goals. Not exactly the kind of woman who would enjoy getting down and dirty in the mud. Then, one day he was matched with a woman who seemed perfect. She was an avid outdoor enthusiast who understood harsh weather. Better yet, she was ready to ditch city life for the country. They started corresponding and then started talking on the phone. Things were off to a good start and for the first time in quite a while, Mountain Man had hopes of finding love again. He invited her to visit Red Pine Mountain and she quickly accepted.

Their meeting was auspicious. She was an attractive, personable woman and they enjoyed a lively conversation on the drive from the airport. But as the truck left the paved road and traveled miles along back country dirt roads to reach the farm, the first cracks in the young relationship appeared. “Oh, you’re so far away from town? How do you drive on these roads? “
How do you stand being so far away from everything?” As the words kept tumbling out of his date’s lips, Mountain Man’s spirits started to drop.

The complete isolation of the farm proved the relationship’s undoing and as Mountain Man took her back to the airport that evening and they mutually agreed to part ways, he wondered if he would ever find anyone who would appreciate the land he so dearly loved. They were a package deal, Red Pine Mountain and Mountain Man.

He was getting discouraged, yes, but perhaps he was even getting bitter. A hard shell was growing up around Mountain Man’s heart. Would he ever meet a woman who would accept him and cherish the same things he did?

He decided it wasn’t worth the effort of being disappointed time and again and he let his Eharmony account sit idle until Halloween day when he received an email message from that his subscription was about to expire. Late that night, he sat down one final time to examine his matches and there was a beautiful, smiling face of a woman who lived with three dogs and was looking for a man who loved animals and the rural life.

Ah, but my Mountain Man had been so hardened by disappointment he was immediately suspicious. He held out no hopes and this time, he was going to keep his guard up and not allow one bit of emotion to cloud his judgment. Not one bit at all. He would contact this woman who said she loved rural life but he did not believe her, no he did not. Little did he know his life was about to change.

To Be Continued.