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) .
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| from green to brown |
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| 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).
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| Front of lodge patched and painted. Flags ready for the reunion. |
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| 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:
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| 5K runners with Running Route Signs |
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| Happy niece and grand-niece |
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| Group Photo before dinner |
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| Clay, Martha and Jim with Texas Flag |
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| New screened in deck area |
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| BANQUET PAVILLION |
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OUR RUNNERS (AGAIN)
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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.
