December 9, 2020 - Late Winter Equals More Updates to Cabin

If there is anyone left who does not believe in climate change, please take an extended visit to the Sierra. Millions of trees are dead in our national forests from the Pine Beetle Blight making the forest a tinderbox for fire. The lack of snow in the high sierra is alarming and weather has continued to be unseasonably warm. And we are hearing the dreaded "drought" word again.

With the warmer climate, Jim and I have continued our fixer projects later in the season than usual. The west side of the cabin is completly resided now with one coat of paint (second coat will be next year). Scaffolding has been taken down and loaned to our neighbor. Cleanup of all the debris is done. All reusable plywood has been stacked and covered with tarps for winter.

Jim has also completed the roof over the game room deck. I have been busy with our annual branch burning in our firepit and being Jim's helper whenever I am at the lodge. I also did our annual firewood splitting and stacking and cut up some small logs for firewood at home. I still have a lot of indoor work to complete (drywall patching on two downstairs bedroom window sills from the residing project, painting, inside trim work) but that will wait until I return to the lodge after the Christmas Holiday.

Our neighbors have been busy as well. The "other" Jim is busy working on the shed he inherited from the previous owners of his cabin. The shed was left as a shell, clad in plywood and chipboard and Jim has added roofing, siding and is working on getting a deck added (it is on the hill so access is tricky). Adrian is working on limbing his trees and removing his (and some of our) chain link fencing from the property and basically cleaning up and setting up his cabin. He is also our "resident adventurer" and has found ways to access the Mountental Spires and trying to locate the ghost town by the Hellester area. His amazing photo of Spires below.

Few guests at the lodge and less adventures due to the COVID crisis. We are hoping for a vaccine approval soon. The election is a hot mess. I am clearly just tired of the mess and would like us all to focuss our attention on healing the country now.

Jim is bringing home the Polaris this weekend which is a sign that winter is about to descend on the lodge. Snow expected next week. Let's hope it is enough to get us out of thie dreaded drought.

September 27, 2020 - The Year Continues to Challenge

It took me a while to learn how to update our web pages after Google changed it's format and rules. The web design tool for Google Blogspot has been simplified quite a bit, removing the capability to use different font choices, spellcheck and headers. In the future, I will see if there is an option to use html tags to add these back into the site. But for now, since Blogspot remains free, I will continue to use it for our pages.

So here is what has been going on at Emigrant Gap since our last post.

Jim ordered some planks for our scaffolding and has started working on the west side of the building, adding Hardie Panel to the lower 9 feet of the building.

Above the Hardie Panel, he is removing the old tongue and groove siding and resetting all of the windows. Whoever installed the lower floor windows originally, placed the fins on the outmost plywood siding, causing them to leak. As he removed the windows, he added one new plug outlet to each bedroom. He also pulled the old insulation out of the walls and added new. The last window on the wall unfortunately did not have any header or side 2/4 to keep it in place (how it managed to hang as long as it did is a mystery to all of us). Jim fixed that, but had to open a lot of the wall in that room (more drywall in our future).

Jim also added a deck to the game room (where the sliding glass door was added in July). And our wonderful neighbor at the school (Adrian) was taking down his back chain link so he decided to take ours down as well. This was a huge and wonderful change and I can not wait to get back to the lodge to see it.

I have been working on fixing the towel rack in one of the downstairs bathrooms. We have had a lot of trouble keeping towel racks tight to the drywall. We have tried all kinds of molly bolts - but have had not success. So I decided to add a chair rail to the bathrooms that have the most trouble. No photo of that yet - but I will add it as soon as I get it painted.

I also expanded our stone patio a bit and worked on gathering more patio stones to add another patio on the deck side of the house. To get patio stone, I have to drive back to some sandstone outcropping by the campgrounds and look for road kill rocks (basically rocks that have split and fallen down to the road). It takes quite a while to find these rocks so more often I augment with Craigslist purchased or free rock. On the last trip back to the campgrounds, I drove about 4 miles on a dirt road, picked up about 5 “pavers” and unfortunately hit something that blew my left front tire. Since I had no cell phone reception, no way to change the tire (I was on a very narrow road on the side of a mountain in the middle of nowhere), I had to drive the truck back with the failing tire. I made it as far as the campground, and had to send someone 8 miles to the cabin to let Jim know. A good samaritan helped me change the tire before Jim arrived. My tire was shredded. I was thinking it was going to cost about $300 for another one - but I was lucky that I purchased tire insurance and only had to pay $50.00 for the repair.

I have also been working on repairing the walls in the game room (lots of wall board to put back up and patch after the window and slider installation).

My work has been a bit slower than usual due to an injury I sustained just before we left on vacation. Our vacation was changed quite a bit due to COVID. We went camping in the National Forests (dispersed camping mainly) to try to avoid the crowds of the campgrounds. Our trip took us to South Dakota, Montana, Utah, Nevada and Idaho. We saw a lot of amazing country and got used to camping longer term (about 3 1/2 weeks).

When we returned, we had an unusual dry lightning storm that resulted in thousands of strikes and 100s of fires in California. That has left us with months (yes months) of unhealthy air and lots of scorched earth. Fires continue to ignite around the state. We have been lucky in Emigrant Gap to see only one wild fire so far this season (knock on wood). I was driving back from a Reno trip and saw a plume of smoke on the hill behind Nyack. I immediately called 911 and they patched me over to the fire service. We were lucky that a helicopter was dispatched immediately followed by a plane that dropped fire repellant on the plume. The fire was out quickly and the forest service checked on it for a few days.

We have also had quite a few power outages at the lodge due to extreme winds and high heat. Jim is thinking of solar in the future to manage our electrical needs. Solar is difficult in snow country. At our snow depth, I don’t think that mounting on the roof is an option. That means that the panels would need to be placed on solar “palapas”. This makes them more apt to be stolen so the panels probably would need to be used or cheap. Then of course, we would need to have PG and E set up the solar converter. So this becomes a big project. Plus we would be losing a lot of ground space for the palapas.

My mom can no longer come up to the gap. She is 91 now and has A-FIB and a blocked valve to her heart. Coupling that with low blood pressure, the lodge is a dangerous elevation for her. This is sad because I know how much she loves it at the lodge and of course, we love having her stay with us. And she recently had two minor strokes which is now keeping me at home mid week so I can visit her. We know we are living on blessed borrowed time with my mom now.

We continue to miss our Quincy. It has been 4 months since we lost him to bone cancer. I still find myself crying with the thought of him. I will never love another dog as much as I did Q. It is hard to wake up at the lodge, knowing that we will not be going for our routine morning walk, or playing tennis ball and sticks in the back yard, or going swimming at the river and the lake. COVID quarantining is not helping this. Alas 2020 is the year from hell for most of us.

Photos of lodge below.

July 23 - It's been a long rough road

It has been a long time since I last posted on our blog.  This is mostly due to the fact that our wonderful dog, Quincy, passed away from bone cancer in mid May and I have not really felt like posting anything to our blog since then.

Quincy loved the lodge.  He and I we the first in our family to spend a night here when I had to go back to the bay area and pick him up from the dog sitter during our first Christmas owning the lodge. The summit was closed due to snow and I had planned on going to the lodge to start cleaning after our Lake Tahoe Christmas celebration.  I had a fold out couch, a table, a chair, a couple of sleeping bags, a heater, a flashlight and a lamp with me (loaded on the truck) and I had the keys to the cabin. And I had our puppy Quincy.  This was the first of many adventures for Quincy at the lodge.

He loved the snow - he shredded it, he loved the summer with swimming trips to the lake and the river.   He loved to fetch sticks in the back of the property and catch tennis balls in the upstairs hallway.  He loved to lay by the fireplace in the winter and lay on the cool hall floor in the summer.
He loved all the visitors we had and all the family events.  He was part of our family and the lodge does not seem as joyful without him here.

We are also dealing with the COVID pandemic and the stupidity of others who refuse to believe that this mess is real.  We have lost one extended family member to COVID already and worry about my sister and my mom.

We sheltered in place at the lodge until Quincy got too ill to stay here.  Then we went home for 5 weeks prior to losing him.  His last week we were able to bring him to the lodge one last time and took him to the river and the lake.  It was cold but we could see that he still loved it.   After Quincy passed, we came back to the silence of a cabin  that has lost one of it's own.  Since then, we have not really been able to entertain (we have had a few small dinners with some of our fellow Emigrant Gap homeowners).  Adventures have been minimal because so many people are flocking to the sierra for their vacations, making it hard to social distance at the lake, the river and on the hiking trails.

So Jim has been busy with COVID projects and I have been busy trying to heal (my heart and myself after a few accidents and illnesses).

For projects, Jim has started putting cement board siding on the bottom 8 feet of the lodge.  This is a fire prevention step and will look nice in the end.  He has also added a door and window to the back of the lodge basement level.  Jim and Lynn added 4 new windows and a sliding glass door to the game room, and then Jim added a small deck below the door.  This will change the orientation of the game room to be accessed closer to the lodge,  We plan to remove the lower chain link fence this summer which will make the entire game room area seem to be more our, then part of the school.

Our new neighbor Adrien (who owns the school) has had a few lunch  BBQs at his place.  He has cleaned up the school and plans to add furniture soon.  We went with him back to the spires and he used his drone to get a 3d overhead shot of the pillars.  Then we tried to find the access point to the "hiking trail' to the spires mentioned by Russell Towle on his website.  We are still looking.  I think the trail has probably grown over and will require bushwhacking.

We are still heartsick over the loss of Quincy.  Photos of what we have been doing at the lodge will be posted when we have better internet access.

New stone patio (lower tier ) for BBQ.  New cement board siding below.

New deck, windows and sliding glass door  - game room.

And Quincy's last trip to the lake. . . . . . . . We love you, Quincy. 

April 23, 2020 - Amid Covid

Shortly after our last post the COVID 19 virus struck our country and while we were at the lodge, the shelter in place orders came.  Jim is over 65 and I am very close, so we decided to stay at the lodge and weather the storm.  We did not realize that weathering the storm meant more about two major snow storms in the sierra.  The first storm brought about 5 feet of snow over 3 days.  We lost our electricity and were seriously considering heading home but PGE was able to fix the problem within 4 days.  Karen and Larry came up for a visit while the electricity was out.  Though they are real troupers, they decided to head home after an overnight.  

One evening, (just prior to the storm) the highway patrol visited us with a report that someone was in danger at our school.  They checked around the school area, around our cabin and our neighbors cabin and did not find anyone (thank goodness) and we thought that would be the end of our excitement at the lodge for a while.

As the storm was going on, the sheriffs department came to check on a report of a RV stuck in the snow - since there were no RVs in the vicinity, we prayed that no one was stuck in an RV down the hill.  We now believe the RV was actually on the other side of the freeway.

Some of our neighbors down below Fulda got trapped with over 8 feet of snow at their cabin and had to hike up to the railroad to call for help (there is little phone service down the road).   Their kids and friends tried their best to snowshoe back and rescue them, but in the end, the sheriff's department was called.  They used snowmobiles partially back (the snow was very deep and very soft), and snow shoes the rest of the way to get our neighbors out.  We were told that they had been stuck for 3 days with little more than pancakes to eat.  The "rescue team" and "rescued couple" ended up sharing a spaghetti dinner with us before heading home.  The actual statewide shelter order came right after they departed.

We enjoyed the massive snow - but would have enjoyed it even more if we had been able to go skiing.  The ski resorts along with all entertainment and restaurants were quickly closed as part of the pandemic measures, so Jim, Quincy and I basically just stayed in the cabin, worked on small projects  and took walks down our snow sided street.

It kept snowing with small amounts for about 2 weeks, and then came the second storm.  This storm dropped 2 feet of snow (which may not sound like much - but we already had over 6 feet of snow standing on the side of the road and more than that next to the cabin).  Our electricity was knocked out again - this time due to a line being weighted down.  And it was repaired by PG&E in a much shorter wait time.

By the way, when our electricity is out, we do not have running water.  The pump goes out with it.  So washing dishes, flushing toilets and other water based fun things are a bit of a challenge.  In these situations, we get really good at melting snow on the big stove.

Quincy started to limp between the storms and we thought he had hurt his ACLs again or possibly fractured a bone.  He started to complain and limp more, so we elected to head home for treatment about 2 weeks ago.  Unfortunately, our vet did some X-rays and found that our boy has cancer on 1/3 of his scapula.  Since Quincy is a big dog, once we talked with our fantastic nephew, we decided that he was not a candidate for invasive treatment (which would include an amputation, chemotherapy and radiation).  We decided to medicate him for pain and as we shelter in place, we spend most of our waking hours with him.  It is a tough time for all of our family right now.  We are hoping he lasts long enough to head to the lake for some swimming (one of his favorite things to do at the lodge).

Some good news.  The school has been sold to our of our Fulda neighbors.  We are happy it sold to someone local.  We are sure he is going to fix it up and make it nice again.

And more good news - our neighbor across the street (who has been sick) is doing much better.

As spring continues and the shelter orders also continue,  we plan to complete the hardie panel on the ground floor of the lodge and work on many small projects.  Due to the COVID 19 virus, we have been forced to cancel our July Family Reunion and are not able to plan any camping trips in the foreseeable future.  So, we plan to spend as much time at the lodge as we can.  Hopefully, things will get back to the "new normal" soon.

February 15 - 18, 2020

It has been a long time since I have created a post for our blog.  We spent Christmas with the family at the lodge and though I was out with a nasty cold, everyone had a pretty good time.  As usual, we did crafts, cut down our own "Charlie Brown" style tree, ate lots of food, sledded and had a big Christmas day (though I missed it since I was pretty much out of it with the cold).

Pictures may, or may not be added later.

So up to present time.  The weekend of February 15th was spent with our lovely niece Jessica and her husband and two boys and my sister Mary and her husband Lynn.  On Sunday we were lucky enough to be able to attend the Nevada City Mardi Gras Parade (an event we have managed to attend for the last 4 years).  The boys (ages 4 and 7) had a blast, collecting parade necklaces and watching all the floats march down main street.

On Monday, we went skiing at Sugar Bowl.  The boys had an all day lesson and Jessica and Josh took a half day lesson.  Lynn, Jim and I did the Jerome Hill lift and did pretty well.  Lynn has not been skiing in years so it took him a bit to get his legs back.  And just as things were getting back into sync, I took a fantastic fall and wonked the back of my head pretty hard.  It must have looked badf from the top since a couple of kids asked if I needed help and the ski patrol stopped to check on my.  The bonk left me with a headache and a stiff neck which took me out of skiing the next day.  I hate ski injuries.  So December 25 - January 10 I had a bad cold, then January 12 - January 24 I pulled a muscle (skiing I think) in my leg which turned into muscle spasms, medication and no skiing.  Then head bonk took away one day.  I am done with that.  Once we get some snow. I plan to ski the rest of the season and get my money's worth out of my season ticket.

On day 2 of skiing, Jim and Lynn went back up Jerome as did Jessica, while the boys graduated up to the chair lift (beginners) and skied all day long.  Since my neck was stiff, Mary and I went to Truckee and took care of grocery shopping.

The next day, Lynn had to head for home and work (not retired yet) so Jess, Mary, the boys, Jim and I went in search of a sled hill.  There is not much snow on the summit (even less at the lodge) and highway 40 is open all the way from Sugar Bowl to Truckee, so we ended up sledding below the China Wall on highway 40.  It was a bit ice-y but Jim and Josh brought a shovel and created a pretty decent sled run.  Mary, Jess and I created a lawn chair block so that the boys would not sled over the edge of the area and into a pretty deep canyon.   The view from the sled hill was amazing.  Usually this part of 40 is closed in the winter - but not this year.

That night we went up to Northstar with plans for skating and pizza.  We had the pizza - but only had 1 hour available for skating - so that will have to wait till next time.  The boys enjoyed roasting marshmallows over the Northstar fire pits before we heading home.

Next day was a travel home day for our intrepid skiers.  Jim and I stayed on at the lodge and started to do some finish work (cedar tongue and groove on the walls) in the snow room and the screened in porch.   I also pulled weeds and put down some Shasta Daisy seeds for spring.  And I collected fallen rocks for our retaining walls (from the side of the road).  It was very weird to have 60 degree weather and no snow at the lodge. Anyone who denies global climate change should visit Emigrant Gap.  We used to get record snowfall every year - now. . . .   We are hoping that the snow weather is just delayed and that March will be snowy - if not, back to the dreaded drought.