November - 2016 Last Big Project Before Winter and Sad News

This weekend, Jim and team worked on removing the old worn out aluminum roof over the snow roof (and tar paper below) and replacing it with new plywood, roof paper and rolled shingles in anticipation of adding a new steel roof late this month.

From a previous post, the interior of snow snow got a facelift last spring when we removed the firewood stacks and moved the interior non-load bearing wall and entry door closer to the front of the building.  This change essentially enclosed the area and created a room for taking off snow gear when the kids (and kid-adults) come inside from snow play.

It is still the primary entry for both floors of the lode during the winter season.  We hope with the new roofing that leaks will be eliminated and we can add insulation to the ceiling and slate the floor (currently a mixture of concrete with stone steps).  Also, we would like to replace the staircase that is poorly built and getting a bit old.

Here is a photo of the roof work from this weekend.

On a sad note, our friend, Eleanor who lived at the lodge during the 30s - 40s with her mom and dad, passed away recently.  She visited us at the lodge with her daughter a few years back and we visited her, at her home, in southern California last year.  She shared stories of her time at the lodge (then the Emigrant Gap Hotel) and sent us artifacts and photos.  We corresponded over the years and I kept her up to date on changed and updates we were making to the lodge.  She reminded me (and Jim) so much of his godmother - Mickie. A warm loving soul!

Her daughter was kind enough to send us a post she made on Facebook about her mom:

It has been a difficult week knowing what was inevitable yet not wanting to face it. My beloved 93 year old mom joined my father in heaven at 8 tonight. My heart is bursting with gratitude in having such a loving, generous, kind, fun, amazing and beautiful mother for so many years. She was my role model in life and my best friend. I am grateful she and my father were so involved with my friends, and my daughter's lives. Everyone adopted Grandma Moo and I was honored to share her with the world. Wherever she went she managed to put a smile on everyone's face and touch their hearts. Friday night one of the last things my mom joked about with the ICU nurse was that she now had a Halloween mask referring to the obnoxiously heavy uncomfortable helmet oxygen "mask" she was outfitted with to help her breathing. (BIPAP machine mask) ☺️ She loved life and made a positive difference in her world each day! She felt blessed beyond words to become a great grandma of Bexley and Zaylor! Don't cry because she's gone but celebrate happiness because you knew her.

She was a delight and we feel so privileged to have known her!

September, 2016 - Post Reunion and Summer Visits

We had such a busy July, August and September, I did not have any time to update our blog.  At the beginning of summer we were busy building the screen room over the deck.  In previous years, we put a Costco portable garage with side screens there with the hope that someday we would be able to build a roof with screens on the side.  Well that "someday" started in May and continued through most of the summer.

By the time of our annual family camping trip (this time to Lake Valley Reservoir just a few miles up the road since all other lakes were booked by the time we got our act together), most of the roof was up - but no sides or screens.  Denise, Matt, Pattie and the boys came up early for the camp trip to spend a day or two at the lodge.  The boys were surprised to see the exterior lodge color change,  we are slowly changing the from Forest Service Green to Hot Cocoa brown (see below as the painting progressed-photo from July 19) and we have since painted the trim beige and the front door a brick red (see below)  .

from green to brown

A roof but no sides. 

The camp trip was on July 22 weekend, followed by more work on the screen room and the paint job.  We also managed to get a few minor repairs done (maintenance is always something extra to do).

Front of lodge patched and painted.  Flags ready for the reunion. 

Screens and sidewalls in 

Starting August 11 we had a Guida/Atkins/Plotke family reunion with about 43 people attending from New York, Mass, Conn, Texas, and So Cal.   We had finally finished installing the screens on the deck, and we also set up two portable garages on the new acre that we purchased next-door that we used as a banquet pavilion.

Family members were able to tour the high sierra area, go to the lake swimming and kayaking, and basically have a great time eating, talking and playing games at the lodge.  We celebrated Ralph's 70th birthday by having the first Emigrant Gap almost 5K Fun Run which included a bell ringing start and finish line and trophies for our participants.  Here are a few photos below:

5K runners with Running Route Signs

Happy niece and grand-niece

Group Photo before dinner

  

Clay, Martha and Jim with Texas Flag

  

New screened in deck area

BANQUET PAVILLION

OUR RUNNERS (AGAIN)

The final day of the reunion was not a great one.  One of the children (4 years old) climbed the TV armoire to get an iPAD (we believe) and pulled the large TV down onto himself.  We were lucky that we had an ICU nurse at the reunion, who tended to him while we waited for the paramedics and helicopter-transport. He was unconscious from the accident and had several skull fractures and a contusion.  He was in intensive care in Reno for 2 weeks with his parents who stayed at the Reno Ronald MacDonald House nearby.  His grandpa (Ralph), his baby brother (14 months old) and I stayed at the lodge.  Ralph traveled from the lodge to the hospital each day (120 miles round trip) and the 14 month old accompanied him every other day.  I took care of the baby on off days and held down the fort until the 4 year old and his parents were able to have him transported to Children' s Hospital in Orange County for therapy.  Currently he is making an excellent recovery.  There is still work to do on his small motor skills and  slight paralysis on one side.  We are hoping he makes a full recovery by Christmas (the doctors said by next summer - but he is making record strides to get better).

On the last day of Ralph and the baby's stay, a forest fire broke out right across the street from the old Hyatt Mercantile  cabin (our next door neighbors place).  Their water pressure was low, so Ralph, some good samaritans, and I ran 5 gallon water tanks over to the fire while our neighbors (young Russian men) ran the water up the hill to put out the fire.  Within 15 - 30 minutes, 4 small Cal fire trucks, the highway patrol, the sheriff's office, Tahoe National Forest and Truckee Tahoe fire department arrived and started blasting the fire (which had spread to 3 or 4 of the giant cedars). Luckily, under 1/2 of an acre burned.  There cause of the fire is unknown, though we did here a large POP sound just before we smelled the smoke.  We were fortunate as it was not windy that day. Otherwise we would have had to evacuate (and hope our place was still standing after).  We did take the precaution of putting the baby in one car and Quincy in the other in case we had to make a run for it.

After the reunion, the accident and the fire, we were ready for the drama to be over.  Some of our friends (neighbors) came up one weekend and we had our 40th Cal Friends reunion the next with trips to the lake, star gazing, hiking and lots of food and fun and conversation at the lodge.  Then mom came up for a weekend of Reno thrift store shopping and we had a visit from Jim's friends Phil as he was heading up to Tahoe.  

We still have work to do this fall on the screen porch - adding plastic to the south windows and adding plywood shutters to the north windows for winter and finishing the deck floor where the old steps used to be.  And we need to fell about 6 trees that we have decided are too close to the lodge for comfort (they are dying anyway due to the drought and the pine beetles).


Things are beginning to wind down now that summer is over.  The campgrounds on our road will be closed by next weekend (Lake Valley closed Labor Day weekend). Hunting will soon begin and tree debris bonfires will start after the first few rainstorms. Though I love the summer, I also love the slow time of late fall and early winter.

June 2016 - The Work Continues!

The lodge is a project in progress and probably will always be.  With the family reunion pending for August, we elected to tackle a few big projects that will make everyone enjoy the evenings at the lodge a bit more.

First - we are working on enclosing the snow entry.  So far, we have re-enforced all the walls and the roof rafters, fixed the windows (they were installed prior to us without any flashing or leveling), moved the interior entry door so that it is closer to the front of the building and moved the deck access door so that it no longer bangs into the house staircase.  There is still a lot of finishing work to do since we have to finish the siding, - both inside and out, and put in a new slate floor.  Also the roof may need patching since it currently leaks a bit.  But already it is so much nicer to walk through there without having to dodge limber, firewood and the critters that go along with that.

The second bigger project is to add a screened in porch over our existing deck.  Jim has been busy with that one for weeks now.  Photos of the progress below.  We are just finally adding the plywood to the roof to get ready for the shingles and in the future - metal roofing.

The third project is to start and continue working on the new siding.  We plan to have both side fronts and the screened in porch sided, primed and painted by the reunion.  The paint is brown (sorry - no more forest service green for the lodge) and we will be painted the front of the building where the siding is in OK shape as well.  There is a photo of the work in progress of the painting below.

The fourth and least focused project is to start clearing all the dead debris on the new land we purchased next to the lodge.  I have already cleared and mowed the flat area on the property (so that I could erect our temporary screened in porch for evening relaxation).  But there is much more to do.  There are at least 10 downed trees on the acre and a lot more standing dead trees, plus a lot of junk was thrown down the hill at some point (old hot water heaters, an old jalopy, tires, etc) that will need to be hauled out eventually.  I think this project will trail into fall when we need to start cutting firewood for the winter.

Once we get these projects completed, we will relax and enjoy the reunion and the rest of summer.

Photo 1 - Patching and new brown paint going up on from of lodge.

Photo 2, 3, 4.  New screened-in porch roof going up.

Photo 5, new siding being primed.  See tree cut outs on shutters.  

  

May 20, 2016 - Snow closes Summit!

This year was not a banner year for snow. It was also not a bad year since we had plenty of snow at Christmas for our ever other year family reunion.  But just as we had begun to think about pulling out the summer lawn chairs, we were hit by a major snow storm that closed I-80 from Baxter to Truckee.

I left Woodbridge for the lodge at 4:30 on Friday (I know, I know - should have left sooner).  Got stuck in traffic on the Capitol Freeway and then finally started to break free when I reached 80.  Called Jim to have him check on the weather since it was raining buckets in Sacramento.  He said it was snowing on the summit, so I asked him to check the chain requirements (I hate to put on chains).

That is when I found out that there we so many spin outs on Whitmore grade and the summit, that the highway patrol had closed the freeway.  Since I had some time to kill, I stopped by one of my favorite thrift stores in Sacramento.  Called Jose to let him know about the road closer.  Then I headed off again.  Checked the chain controls - the freeway was still closed at Baxter.

Next stop - Taco Bell in Auburn to get Quincy some cheese roll ups (his favorite) and me a taco salad.  We sat in the car eating and killing more time, while the weather went from cloudy to sunny then back to cloudy again.  Checked chain controls again - still closed.

So off we went to Safeway to pickup some food supplies, bought some gas and headed up to Colfax.  The highway had trucks parked in long lines at every off and on ramp.

At Colfax, decided it was time to take a nap (it was 9 o'clock) and parked at the local McDonalds (along with about 10 other cars waiting for the pass to reopen).  At 10:30, Jim called to let me know that all the hotels in the area were full from Auburn to Colfax. I decided that I should get some tea and use the restroom, then chanced it that the road was open and the chain control recording was wrong.

Started up the summit and everything was pretty clear.  There was a lot of snow, but the road had been plowed so I just took it slow.  I was the only car on the road for quite a ways.  No one was in front of me, and it took a long time for cars to show with their headlights behind me.  I got to Baxter and the chain controls had been lifted and moved up to Kingvale.  Called Jim and Jose to let them know and headed for our exit.

I wish I had been as lucky with our road as I was with I-80.  There was about 8 inches of snow on the road and only one set of tire tracks for me to follow.  I do not have four wheel drive.  But I was carrying so much big timber, that I thought my new tires were properly weighted.  I just took it snow and made it to the lodge.

It snowed all night and rained the next day.  We had Jose and two guys there working with Jim.  We started clearing some of the debris from the new property that we purchased next to the lodge and setting up for a bonfire.  But it was raining so hard on Saturday,  I could not get the fire going.

Sunday was a big work day.  Jim and team started installing the big 6 by 6 posts around the deck for the screened in porch.  I worked on burning the piles of branches at the new lot.  Later Jim and team installed the 6 by 8 post headers and worked on the support wall for the structure.

Monday we had a new propane tank installed and upgraded the exterior gas line.  Then back home again.  The sky was getting darker as I left the lodge.  Who knows, maybe another epic snow storm?

February 23, 2016 - Changing the Snow Shed

One of the more "rustic" areas of our rustic lodge is the snow shed.  It provides us access to the cabin from the side, provides access from the house to the deck, and from the main to the lower floor.  It has always been "open" with no door on the front, shutters on the side and little siding on the bottom. The steps look like old porch steps and are step and have narrow treads.  And we use it to store a lot of firewood in the winter time (which means it is a home to all kinds of crawling and creeping critters since it is somewhat dry, dark and dingy).

Jim has decided it is time to re-enforce the area and move the entry door up closer to the front of the house.  He as also decided that our critters have to go, so the area that he is fixing will also no longer have shutters - and will have solid walls.  All this means that we will need to patch all leaks on the roof, add 2 by 6s to the shed walls for additional strength and support and insulate and finish the area with either tongue and grove cedar or drywall.  I will be adding slate pavers to the floor (access steps) that are currently concrete and we will be re-landing the steps from the main floor to the lower floor for easier access.

Here are a few photos of the beginning of this project.  Hoping we will get it done soon.  At least get the exterior sided and the door moved.

 Windows showing, lower shutters removed and redwood lathe gone.  Temporary siding added to keep away snow for now until we can add tongue and groove.  Front white shutters will be removed later as part of residing. 

Inside view of added 2 by 6s and corrected windows (they were originally installed without any flashing or header before).  The new "room" will be fully enclosed with a lot of light now that shutters are removed - so less opportunity for our little friends of the forest to nest in the area.  Back wall shown will be removed since we are moving the entry wall closer to the front.  

February 8, 2016 - Christmas and New Years in Review

It has been a while since I have posted to our blog.  We had our semi annual Christmas (over 30 of the Jacobs side) at the lodge and also a big group up for New Years (over 20 of the Guida side).  Plenty of snow and sledding and skiing and food and drink and general fun.

Some of the family built a snow fort to allow the kids to throw snowballs at us as we hiked down to the sled run.  I built a fire in the upper fire pit with the help of Devin who hiked over with me to get firewood.  The babies played on the merry go round - even with all the snow - it was fun for them.  We managed to have 3 inner tubes, lots of sleds and snowboards for folks to use on the mega sled run built by the guys.  Some of the nieces and nephews did the traditional double and triple deck sledding. The hill by the septic tanks would make a great "drop" on the run - and the boulders made great turns (with plenty of snow padding).  The run ran all the way to the back of the property (by the big pine tree) and the kids whined and groaned about having to pull their sleds back up the slope. Uncle Jim still needs to build a tow rope.

This year we had a few new folks join us.  Mel brought up her new beau and Angela brought up her fiancé.  Also, Jessica and Josh brought Jackson and little Josh (for his first lodge experience).  There were a lot of little boys at the lodge, so the BOYS ROOM downstairs with the new log bunks got a lot of use.

At New Years we were lucky to have family from Washington and Long Beach/Anaheim join us.

The game room has a large leak in the roof due to the El Nino Rain and Snow combination, so we had to move the furniture around and set up a tarp on the roof to cover the section that is leaking.  Jim, Dave and Matt installed piping for a propane heater over New Years for down there and we hope to add a cast iron stove there someday.  I think that the game room will be more of a summer fun spot since it is difficult to hike down to it in the winter and snow sledding is a much bigger draw (over ping pong and air hockey) for the kids at Christmas.  But then again, there are those drought years. The game room is right next to the Emigrant Gap school (temporarily closed due to poor enrollment).

We kept up the tradition of cutting one of the small douglas firs for the sad, Charlie Brown Christmas trees and had about 6 kids working on making ornaments the day before the tree went up.  Christmas day had all of our families clustered around the main room, opening their gifts.  We were hoping that since we got "SNOWED IN" most of the holiday, that the snow would continue to pile-up the sides of the lodge, but alas - February came with unreason like warm weather (60 degrees) and most of our snow is now gone.  The second half of February is supposed to get wet and cold again - but not as cold as December and January - so no Marshmallow Lodge for this year.

We are beginning to work on building in the snow shed area so that the door is closer to the front of the structure and the sides and roof are built better (no more shutters for the sides) making the staircase between the two main floors more like an interior room than a shed room.  Next, we plan to put a roof over the deck so that we can create a permanent screened in porch area for all season use.  We have a reunion scheduled for this summer, so any large scale work needs to be completed by end of July.  So the siding  and attic/basement stairs will need to wait for another year. Alas.

I finally purchased the two books as a Christmas gift for Jim about our town - 30 Years Over the Summit and the Baggage Car with  Lace Curtains.  The books were written by a man and his wife who working with the railroad from WW2 to the 1970s and were stationed for a time at Emigrant Gap (they lived in one of the railroad cabins that is across the street from us).  I read the Baggage Car book - not much about Emigrant Gap - but still an interesting read.  Jim is reading 30 Years.  The family retired in Colfax and the wife, Kaye - became a member of the Historical society there - so I am hoping there is more information about her life at Emigrant Gap there.

Next post will include pictures, but for now, I wanted to make sure I captured these new memories of the lodge.