It has been a while since I have posted much to our blog. I still have not found the time to go to the Bancroft Library in Berkeley, California State Library in Sacramento, and even the County Offices in Auburn to continue our historic research of the lodge and our little hamlet.
We spent Christmas at the lodge and were lucky enough to have some snow just before Pattie, Jeremy, Jody, Jenny, Ryan and the kids arrived. It is always so much fun to have snow play with the kids. Also the cabin is much too large for just Jim, Katie, Mary Beth and I over the holidays.
Between Christmas and New Years Billy, Mary, their two and Mary's sister Tish came up from So Cal. We had fun playing in the little bit of snow that was left and touring Lake Tahoe area.
Christmas was our only big snow storm. Though there has been a little snow here and their - we have already reached Springtime weather in February.
The first week of February, our cousin Debbie and her boyfriend Chuck came up for the day to see the lodge and try some gold panning. I finally got to eat at the Dash and Dine in Colfax. I have to say that the Chili is really good and the decor is cute.
We gold panned in the Bear River for a bit - no luck. But we did not bring our wading boots and shovel. Just a gold pan. We'll try again later. I think we need a paint bucket for good luck (everyone else on the shore had one).
For Valentines Day weekend, Jim's college buddies Jim and Laura and Dave and Karen came up for a weekend. Unfortunately, just before they got to the lodge, I tweaked my back and was down for the weekend. So Jim got to entertain with the help of Katie and Mary Beth. Then on Sunday afternoon since I was still sitting on a heating pad, they went to Nevada City for the Mardi Gras parade. I think they had a pretty good time and it was something new to do in the foothills.
We have not been doing much construction lately at the lodge - but we did have to cut down one of our healthy cedar trees over Christmas (it was listing into the cabin a bit too much for comfort). And Jim built some new basement doors (which may be a bit to small for what he was going to use them for).
Our cedars continue to die from the beetle blight and with the lack of snow and hard freeze, I fear we will lose them all this summer. Additionally, we have to take down the trees that are within 20 feet of the cabin due to the high fire danger this year (alas). I think our lovely property is going to look scalped soon. But it has been that way before and will be that way again. We still have oaks, pines, and fir trees.
I am still looking for a 3000 gallon water tank for the lodge (first line of defense in a fire until Cal Fire gets to the lodge). Wish me luck. The restaurant at the hotel down the road burned down this fall and still is not repaired. We hope it opens again soon.
Someone broke into the old small cabin down the road that is across and down from Tom's place. I boarded it back up and hope that the damage in the place is not so severe. The cabin is a historic railroad residence and should be cleaned up and preserved by the railroad - but they really don't care much for their historic buildings and refuse to give it to our community for restoration. Alas again.
A guy from a company called Plexar stopped by the town and said that they may be adding a high speed internet hub for the school (tapping into the cross continent fiber line that runs along the road). I hope they do and that the school allows us to use their hub for a fee (or possibly a trade since they use our land for their portable building). We shall see.
Projects for this year will include some of the new siding and re-doing one more of the upstairs bedrooms. I would also love it if we could get stairs to the basement and stairs to the attic - but that would be a miracle with Jim still working.
Well that is it for now. We continue to welcome ANY historical information about our little lodge and our town.
