May 17 - 20, 2019 - Continuing the Snow Saga

We thought that snow season was about over with our last post - but not this year!  We became complacent during the drought years and thought that May was no longer part of the storm king season.  Our road signs clearly state that no parking is allowed at the end of our street from Oct 31 - May 31 for snow removal - but the thought that we would actually get a lot of snow in May became quite foreign with warmer temperatures and early fire seasons for the last 6 or 7 years.

The weekend on May 17 - 20 gave us another 4 - 5 inches of snow and much cold weather.  That did not deter Jim from installing a new dining room window (the old one had lost it's double pane seal some years ago and just needed to be replaced) and from adding the hardwood flooring to the landing and and cedar tongue and grove to the walls in the Snow Room.  I spent most of my weekend painting the 2 story high ceiling in the snow room and patching new landing drywall.  I have a paint topped baseball cap to prove it.

After hanging off a number of ladders outside and in, we both felt like it was ibuprofen time!  Here are some photos.

Photo of the snow with one ladder propped against our new window and one ladder laying on the snow.  

The snow room  ceiling was previously forest service green with lots of "age" spots and damage (including some fire damage from the 1950s fire that consumed the restaurant building next door).  Interestingly, painting the ceiling beige actually made it appear less prominent.

It snowed on our ladder so exterior window work had to end.

Jim's parquet floor with Oak apron on landing in snow room.  He is installing, I will be finishing.  Then maybe the soda referring can finally be moved out of the dining room.  

May 2019 - SNOW?

We are having some very interesting weather this month.  While at the lodge last week, we had 6 inches of snow.  This week it is snowing again (see photos below).  We had an epic snowfall this winter resulting in one broken window on the lower floor (apparently impaled by icicles falling from the upper floor roof and 3 broken screens (also from icicles encounters).  The roof on the screened in porch was pushed bent back a bit from the big snow pile falling off the main roof.

Other than that - the snow was glorious, amazing and fun.  We love big snow years and the repairs that need to be made to the lodge after, are well worth it.

During May, I have spent more of my time clearing branches from the property and building bonfires.  I have had all 4 bonfire pits going at different times since there was a lot of debris that fell this year and still quite a bit that we are clearing from the woods around the property.  As part of our fire proofing, we removed another gigantic cedar that was a bit too close to the screened in porch and the cabin itself.  That leaves the big Oak in front of the screen room and one big cedar below.  We are keeping the Oak (it is not as flammable as the cedar) but deciding if the final cedar that is within 20 feet of the building has to go.  Photo below of how the area looks now.

Jim has been working in the snow room.  He installed a new landing off the main floor and new stairs heading down to the lower floor.  The old stairs were rickety original outdoor 2 by 6 stairs and had been painted many many times.  The change also moved the lower landing up so that the stairs are now wider and easier to climb.  So far, he has the framing completed - built like Fort Knox (as usual) and the plywood down.  He has ordered the oak treads for the stairs and is hauling up Oak Flooring for the landing.

We are also going to be replacing one of the large windows in the dining room.  One of our many "repurposed" windows ended up losing a seal and now has drips inside the two pieces of glass. We are replacing the "slider" with a double/double hung window.

I was glad to see that we have not lost our blog after all.  Though we received a post that google was doing away with Google +, looks like our blog has been spared.  So - more posts coming in the future.

Jim's Project

Missing Cedar

Snow in May

The Icicle Window

Epic Snow from 2018-2019 season