I can't believe it has been almost a year since I have posted to our blog. A lot has happened in that time. First, by September of 2021, we completed the re-siding of the east side of the lodge. We added about 9 feet of Hardie Panel to the lower basement wall for fire prevention. Then replaced the old cedar siding with new which we caulked, primed and painted (just like the west side of the building). This project took most of our summer and went a bit into fall. The photo below is before we completed the painting. Usually I do all the caulking, priming and painting - but by the time the siding was up, I was pretty busy preparing for fall visits, so Jim and Jose did a great deal of this side of the building.
In October, while my sister Mary and her husband Lynn and my mom were visiting. my mom suffered a massive stroke. We had just visited Reno the day before and mom bought 4 sweaters for winter. We had lunch at drive through JimBoys (since we were still in COVID) and headed back to the lodge. The next day while chatting at the dining table and eating chips, mom suddenly slumped over. We were unsure at first if she was having a mini seizure (something that occurs when you have A-FIB), but we figured out pretty quickly that the situation was quite different. We called 911 paramedics and they told us things did not look good. Next, at their recommendation had her helicoptered to a Sutter Hospital in Roseville - a Stroke Center (where our sister Pat joined us). Since the hospitals were still following COVID protocol, we were lucky that they allowed the 3 of us to stay each night, and allow the rest of the family to visit and say goodbye. Mom never regained consciousness and passed away 3 days later. My mom was 92. We are still coming to terms with her passing. She was the center and anchor of our family. She is deeply and daily missed.
Also in the fall, our dear friends from Oakland, decided to purchase the two railroad cabins across the street. It is so much fun having them live near us again.
In December, we hosted our semi annual Christmas event (Snow Christmas). On December 26th, a huge storm came into the Sierra and everyone had to leave fairly quickly and sooner than expected (traveling on a closed and snowy freeway). Jim, Katie, Mary Beth and I stayed on with 3 days of freeway closer and being snowed in. It was heaven- no freeway noise, no road noise, no train noise. Just the sound of snow.
In January, out friends Wade and Mary came up for a visit. Fun skiing and snowshoeing.
In February, our nephew Bill, Adam, their families, friends and cousin came for a visit to the lodge. At about the same time, our niece Jessica and her family and Mary and Lynn came up. It was fun and silly and noisy - just the way we like it to be.
We had some late snows during springtime and some big thaws and rain which resulted in our neighbor's gravel driveway losing it's gravel, which blocked the huge road drain by our back access road. This resulted in TONS of water going down the back road to our portable and our neighbor's house (the old school house), We did what we could to create a blockade on the road to route the water and gravel down our hill. Later Jim and many of our neighbors dug out the big drain and routed the water back to it. It was pretty crazy. Photo below of neighbors digging.
In April we went over to an Ashram in Grass Valley area to see 17,000 tulips. My mom would have loved it. Photos below.
The late spring slowed down the beginning of our final siding - the back wall. To work on the back wall, Jim has had to remove our fire escape and add 4 stories of scaffolding. During the teardown, he discovered that we needed to reset 3 windows and a door that were installed incorrectly by the previous owners and he had to replace a major wood beam across the back of the building (between the lower floor and basement). Now that the beam is replaced and the windows are reset, we are adding back in a window that had been removed sometime in the past to the back bathroom on the main floor and adding ventilation to the attic. As this is being done, Jim is adding the siding, floor by floor. We plan to have the last wall complete by the end of this summer.
On June 22, Katie hosted some of her friends from Crockett to a weekend of fun at the lodge. They got to hike to the falls, swim and kayak at Lake Valley and hike the train tunnels. We believe this may become an annual event (like the one that Mary Beth hosts for her birthday).
On July 2 we hosted a Celebration of Life for my mom. Much of the northern California family plus Adelaide and Sylvester and a few select friends were able to attend. To prepare for the event, I built a rock garden in the back yard (to hold some of mom's cremains). We also set up the picnic table for rock painting and wood burning and set up the pavilions for a big BBQ. My mom had asked that her cremains be at the lodge so she could look out over her entire family. She also requested no big deal, just dancing, singing, and eating. We think we did that justice. At the end of the weekend, it seemed like the end of an era.
