January 2018

Christmas at the lodge was not as crowded as planned.  Instead of our expected 42 family members, we had only 30.  That meant that the younger couples did not have to sleep in the screened in porch and Katie did not have to sleep in the hallway by the pump.  But it also meant that a wing of our family did not make it due to scheduling and not being able to get off work.

And of course we are facing another possible drought in the sierra with only a trace of snow on the Thursday before Christmas (and not much since).  Even with all of that we managed to have a wonder, fun-filled Christmas.

Laura, Mike and Allison flew in from Georgia.  Ann and Jeff were there.  All of Patties family were able to attend and so was ours.

We spent our time making Christmas cookies and crafts for our own version of a Charlie Brown Christmas tree.  Some of the  kids, Mike and Jim found a douglas fir tree in the back of the property that they handily cut down.  It was one of our best Christmas Trees so far.  We cut the lower branches off to allow for all the gifts to be stored under it.

Crafts included lots of glue and glitter and some of the family managed to do some wood working off the screen room (branding some wood for signs).

We had one day of sledding before all the snow was gone, so the kids went skiing at Tahoe Donner and ice skating at Northstar for excursions.  We also managed to do a bonfire out in the back yard.  And of course, they played lot of games in the game room.

Pattie and Katie set up a puzzle and then another when the first one was completed.  Laura and I got time to do a painted window and Allison made Bull Dog Coasters for her mom and dad.

We had one slight accident (it would not be a Tahoe Christmas without some mishap).  Matt had a seizure of sorts, probably from going from an over heated room to the cold of the screen room and he was not feeling well that day.  Luckily he rebounded and all is well.  

We ate way too much food (as usual) and way too many sweets.

Once the big crowd departed, we had a much smaller group for New Years.  We celebrated New York New Years at Northstar and saw some pretty impressive fireworks. Then Jim took our small group up to Tahoe for a tour of the lake the next day.

Here are a few photos I have thrown together from our event and our finished (mostly) screen room:

November 10 - 19, 2017 - Roof, Snow and Installing the cast iron stove

The weekend of November 10th, Jim worked on the final touches of the metal roof on the screen porch.  Since I was planning to stay on til Monday, it was my job to check  for leaks (in the event of rain).  Well the Monday stay ended up being a week stay since I had to pick up fireplace pipe from Truckee and replacement glass for our Lopi in Grass Valley.

A trip to Truckee (Tuesday) sometimes includes a trip to Reno for thrift store shopping.  I didn't manage to find much of the items that are needed at the lodge - but it is always a fun trip.  I got stuck in traffic coming back, so Grass Valley and the glass purchase had to happen on Wednesday.

Grass Valley also has some really nice thrift stores (visited a few), a Habitat for Humanity (got some joist hangers there) and a great Grocery Outlet (our fresh food supplies were getting low).

On Thursday and Friday, I stayed at the lodge.  And it rained and snowed quite a bit, so I was able to verify that the new roof DOES NOT LEAK!!! And I started installing the stone work to the hearth of the cast iron stove (picture below).  I also finished stacking the rest of our firewood near the game room (we need a cast iron stove in there too) and did some general clean up and laundry.

Saturday, Jim returned to install the cast iron stove and the stove pipe in the screen room.  Well that stretched into Sunday and is still not 100% complete.  But we are close.  Once the stove is installed, we will give it a virgin burn and then continue insulating and cedar shiplapping the lower walls in the screen room.  We also need to insulate and shiplap the snow room (cedar of course).  The stone tile in there will have to wait until spring now.

I have a few small projects pending - but since I was being way to helpful (with suggestions) on the stove, I was sent out to do a burn of the tree debris that we have stacked up on the property on Saturday and Sunday.  I managed to burn everything near the big fire pit - but still have a few stacks way in the back of the property that probably will not be burned until spring.

And we have a mouse in the house.  Since we do not live at the lodge full time, we have always had a challenge with rodents.  Quincy learned how to open the front door (from our dearly departed Dakota) when he is out and wants to be in and has not learned how to close it.  So we have a mouse to deal with.  I am hoping that the traps I put out before I left the lodge work and we have a expired mouse when we return for the holiday weekend.

Our neighbors at the Hyatt Mechantile Store (now a cabin) are outshining us in building.  They have just weathered in their new recreation building which will include a sauna and a hot tub lap pool.  So they will soon have three building on their property.  We have not met the new neighbors who purchased Rad and Paula's place yet.  The neighbors across the street have not been at their cabin much, but were there Sunday winterizing the place.  They told us AT&T are going to be putting a cell tower up the hill behind their property.  Hopefully we will not see it from the street.

That is about all to report for now.  Waiting for the Storm King to really reach us and Christmas with the family.


Snow Storm on Friday.

Adding stone in Screen Room

Stove Installation

October 29, 2017 - Getting ready for SNOW!

The  weekend  of Oct 29 was all about buttoning up the lodge for winter.  Our first big snow storm is due in Friday November 3rd. I finished the metal roofing top on the wood carrier by the screened in porch, added some additional lumber to the existing wood carrier in front of the house (so that water will not pool as much on the tarp).  Built another firewood rack (this one is 32 deep by 5 1/2 feet high by 5 1/2 feet long) for on top of the old concrete foundation and filled it with firewood before Jim arrived on Saturday.     

On Friday we had a nice visit from Jim White and his wife (just a drive by but always fun to hear his history at the gap).  He talked about a guy he used to know from PG&E who had scads of old pioneer relics at his place  Oxen yokes, wagon train stuff, etc.  Jim told me there used to be two large metal posts on the hill that leads down to Bear Valley (the dirt road is a mess now and probably does not go all the way down anymore).  The posts were used to help lower the wagon trains into the valley. A few years back there was a landslide there and PG&E just plowed down the area (wiping away the posts).  Some more of our history lost.  

He also told me there is a trail off North Fork Place that leads to two lakes.  There are a few cabins back that way - one on Black Mountain, that he hopes to explore sometime.  

His wife is currently working her strength back up from a spinal injury and is in a wheelchair - I invited him into the cabin for a tour - but we couldn't figure out how to get her wheelchair down the steps.  Hopefully, when she gets better, they will stop by for a real visit (coffee included!).  

He reminded me that there used to be wonderful old pictures on the walls of the lodge of historic Emigrant Gap - I wish we had some images of those.  They were long gone before we bought the lodge.  


When my Jim got to the lodge, he worked on getting the final metal on the screened in porch roof.  He also started to install the posts for the new fireplace mantel.  Next, I get to add the lathe and mortar to prepare for putting in the stone work.  

I piled up all the firewood from the patio near the game room and  swept off all of the debris so that the water can drain there.  Water has a tendency to puddle right in front of the room - though there is screening under the building, I think one day we will have to lift it and put a taller foundation with better drainage below it.  

We were taking the Polaris home this weekend, so I pulled the tarps off the Steel Frame Canopy for winter.  Next year, I plan to double up the frame (one more canopy and a lot of steel cutting to make the rafters closer) and add a metal roof to the structure.  That should make it a nice winter storage for the Kayaks and Canoe.  


Since we resided a bit of the lodge this summer, I added some trim to the edge of the house and cut and installed a plywood snow blocker wall on the lower entry. I need to paint it since it is repurposed siding plywood in Forest Service Green - the color we are slowly eliminating from the siding.  

Saturday night came too quickly, so we headed over to the Rustic Table for dinner.  They have some really great people working there and they are well on their way to starting their new futures in Restaurant and Hotel services.   The Rustic Table and Sierra Woods Motel are owned by Teen Challenge, an international group that helps older teens recover from drug issues.  They train them and then move them to Alta as they find jobs around the lower summit area as their final transition back into the workforce.  They are a great group!  Anyway - Jim had the burger (always delicious) and I had the Cobb Salad - yummy! We met a guy - Joe, who owns some land off North Fork Place in the meadow.  He lives over by Forest hill and works in Auburn.  He plans to build a small cabin on his property next year.  He uses his property as a get away and for a staging place for hunting.  I am sure we talked his ear off,  but was very nice!  


I put away the picnic benches (still need to stack in the basement).  And pulled some fallen branches and trees onto the fire pile.  I am still waiting for Cal Fire to lift the fire restrictions so that I can burn the debris.  Lastly I tarped, tarped tarped.  

I still need to add the door to the outhouse near the game room, add some plywood to the outhouse peak, paint (almost everywhere), build a canoe rack and stone the wall behind the new cast iron stove before Christmas. Of course, Jim needs to install the cast Iron stove which is much harder to do .  And we need to haul some stuff down to the basement - plywood, drywall etc.  But we are making progress. Sorry - no photos. Just too busy!

October 15, 2017 - Wind Storm Damage and Log Splitting Weekend

Last weekend we had planned to spend most of our time cutting down trees and splitting logs for this winter's heat.  However, mother nature decided we needed to take a few steps back and fix 3 panels on our new metal roof.

When we left the lodge a week ago, it was very windy. So windy that the traffic on I-80 came to a complete standstill at Davis due to poor visibility.  The winds were epic and caused power lines to fall all over Northern California.  That resulted in the Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino fires killing over 40 people and burning thousands of acres of prime wine country.  Thousands of homes were lost.  So I guess we were pretty lucky that the wind only took off 3 of our new roof panels on the Screened-in Porch. So cancel tree cutting, still split wood and fix the new roof.

Since we had a log splitter reserved, we started Saturday with splitting all the rounds that we have been stacking in front of the water tanks, in front of the game room and over by the backyard gate.  We ended up with over 6 cords of wood (mixed cedar and oak).  We are ready for winter!

Once we got all the wood split, we moved onto repairing the roof (Sunday).  Jim did most of the work - while I helped him and worked on cleaning up the debris from the storm.  

Then we updated some of our wood storage area that used to be tarped by adding our old aluminum roofing to the top of the storage pallets.  

On Monday, with Jim gone, I started loading all the wood into our storage areas and then stacked a lot in front of the water tanks (the wood by the gate and the game room is still in a big heap).  

And finally, since we are adding a cast iron stove in the Screened-in porch, I built a slanted roof log storage holder that I put on the small deck for this winter.

We still need to add the ridge cap to the new roof (2 weeks from now) and get those darned dead trees cut down.  

One more thing.  While Jim and I were clearing some of the debris from the new property, we found and old car canteen (rusted out of course).  They used to hang these on the front of the cars and used them to cool down hot engines while crossing the Sierra.  It looks small in the photo - but it is actually at least 16" diameter.  Goes well with the Model A engine guard we found a few months ago.  

We also found a Lea and Perrins glass bottle stopper (with the plug part broken off).  Vintage 1860 - 1910. 

No gold yet.  We just keep hoping. . . . 

September 20, 2017 - Snow (in Summer?!)

I headed up to the lodge this week to work on the new hearth for our cast iron stove that we are installing in the screened-in deck.  Jim finished re-inforcing the deck framing the last time we were up at the lodge, and added the 3/4 inch plywood that was needed for the base of the stone tile and the heavy stove.

I had the task of adding the hardiebacker and tiling the base with random, slate.   Usually, this would not be too difficult of a task - but Jim's base measurements were a bit off (the hearth was about 1 1/2 inch too deep for the deck flooring).  So, after two trips to Colfax, running supplies down the hill in a rain downpour and adding another layer of Hardiebacker and 1/2 inch of base mortar, I was finally able to thin-set in and the stone tile (picture below).

Another layer of difficulty, it started to snow (yes, snow!) on Thursday which made the screened in deck close to freezing (well actually it was freezing since it was snowing).  On our last visit had not put up the storm windows or shutters yet (it was only September and officially still summer) nor have we pulled the portable heaters out of the attic yet so the job got quite chilly.  I kept running up to the kitchen for hot water for tea and to add to the thin-set.

But all is well and next week I will be mortaring the stone to the back wall of the hearth and adding the grout to the hearth floor.  I see a lot of warm fires in our future!

I also managed to refinish a new addition to our fireplace lounge chairs.  I scored a maple western chair on Craigslist last week which is much like our existing chairs.  But, as usual, it had to be sanded stained and varnished.  And it still needs new cushions - but it is a great add to the living room.

The bad news about this stay - due to the snow, there was a jackknifed semi truck up at Cisco (resulting in a fatality) and several piled up cars that smashed into the accident scene.  The traffic was back-up over the summit for 3 1/2 hours.  Luckily, I was in the screen room working when this all happened and did not hear about it until the nightly news.

When I returned home, I found that I have received an email from one of the descendants of the Laing Family (they owned Laings Pioneer Resort from the early 1920s to the 1950s).  The person who emailed me lives in Alberta Canada and could only tell me when the Laings moved to the area ( around 1903).  I told him that if I ever hear from the Laing descendants up on North Fork Place, I would advise them of his email.

And our dear neighbors Rad and Paula, have sold their cabin (papers signed yesterday).  So of the new people at Emigrant Gap (folks who purchased in the last 8 or so years) we are now the last ones (all of the folks who purchased at the Gap when we did, have now moved on).   It is hard to have a cabin in the snow.

Photo of the snow (it is the grayish white stuff on the ground) from the 21st.

New hearth for the screened-in deck.  Plywood wall behind will have stone added next week.

  

September 12, 2017 - Thoughts of Yellowstone

Last week, we took an amazing trip to Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons.  Of course, we came home with lots of ideas for the lodge.  We stayed at the Three Bears in West Yellowstone for a part of the trip.  The owners (who we believe are in their late 70s), are also trying to preserve the history of their place.  When they remodeled in the 80's (after a nasty fire), they kept much of the preservable wood and used it to create furniture and wall accents.  They found layer upon layer of old wallpaper in one of the walls and used it to create a lovely framed history (no fiberglass in the 20s)  and added fuel to the fire.  Since their lodge was build around the same time as ours, the walls were filled with sawdust for insulation.  They worked at the Three Bears as managers for many years prior to purchasing the place.  They also took a road trip to southern California to meet with the previous owners, prior to their deaths in the late 80s.

We fell in love with the Old Faithful Inn and the rustic quality of the great hall.    We are thinking about adding some "log" look to the exterior of our place with some of our dying Cedar trees (we shall see!).  We were sad that they replaced the old dark Douglas Fir floors with something that looks like Pergo (though I think it is light stained hardwood).  But they were smart enough to recycle some of the old wood and make it into furniture and frames that they have for sale.

And whoever let them design the addition to the dining hall should be sat on a log and run out of town. It has none of the log quality that is in the older part of the hall. Why do \ designers sometimes feel they have to mess with a really really good thing.  The pillars in the room were pretty with a relief mural quality, but they did not fit in with the overall look and feel of the main dining hall.   And the lowered acoustic ceiling was atrocious.

We took many photos of accents at the main hall that we thought would be appropriate for our place.  Now - just to find the time.

Unfortunately, the Grand Teton - Jackson Lake Lodge was not as lovely as the Old Faithful Inn.  It was build in the 1950s during the time of budget constraints, concrete and linear lines.  We did not find many ideas there that we would wish to carry to our lodge.   But we were lucky to see a few moose out in the bogs from their deck.

We stayed at the Heart 6 Dude Ranch while in Grand Teton/Jackson area.   The owner is a collector of vintage Jackson items and had most on display in his main building.  Another lovely log great room to admire.  All the individual rooms are built in log ranch hand style.  During the peak season they offer tours into the back country on All Terrain Vehicles and in the winter on Snowmobiles.

Speaking of snowmobiles, here is a story of how the bad few have ruined things for the many.   In both Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks, during the winter season, people were allowed to snow mobile until recently.  A few idiot yahoos, were found chasing the already stressed wildlife with their machines, so now, the only way to take a trip on snowmobile is with a guided tour.  Not that I am a fan of snowmobiles in the park - but it reminds me of how much disrespect some people have for our public lands.

Additionally, (and I am ranting now), many of the boiling pools at Yellowstone have been ruined by people throwing coins and rocks into them (for good luck?).  Each year, the park has to fish out loads of debris from these pools and it has left them with bacteria that is killing the ecosystems.

We caught some foreign women collecting small rocks at the entry to Mammoth Hot Springs.  Of course,  they did not "understand English" as I asked them what they planned to do with the rocks.  I did follow them around for a bit to make sure that they were not pitching anything into one of the pools.  Such fools!

At our lodge, we have to deal with people who litter our streets with beer/soda cans and paper bags, drop glass bottles into our creek and dump their plastic garbage bags on the side of the street.  Sick though that is - it is not as bad as what some people believe they can do in our national parks.

One of our neighbors is trying to set up an "Adopt an Exit" for our neighborhood.  I will be happy to join her in that effort (since I already pickup everything I see), but I would prefer it if people would just stop littering!

One last thing.  I found a copy of a 1955 map of Emigrant Gap Area that I would like to add here - but alas - too big, so the URL is below.    It shows the route of Highway 40 and the railroad during this time.  With Siri and Google maps, I am wondering how long paper maps will be used?  For me, paper maps are dreamweavers and I hope they will always be published for our use.

https://www.sciencebase.gov/catalog/item/58954d34e4b0fa1e59ba62ac

August 19 - 21, 2017 - The Great American Eclipse

We spent the weekend working on the lodge (putting in a new foundation in a section of the screened in porch so that it can hold a cast iron fireplace).  While Jim worked on the foundation, I worked on getting a railing on the bunk bed in the lower floor, providing cooking and cleaning support and on picking up supplies.

We found out that Placer County is planning to sell the schoolhouse next door.  We don't know when it will go up for sale or for how much - but the pending sale makes it rather important to complete our lot line adjustment (granted by the school district) for 10% of the portable.

I am pretty sure that the well at the school is bad.  Last time the water was running - it was running really red (iron oxide) so  the well may need to be dug a bit deeper to clear through that issue.  I don't think a whole house filter will do the trick - the water is just too mucky.  Above the well on the hillside is a lot of Sierra Slate (or shale) which is quite full of iron.   And the well is located up near the street (was broken into when the school closed).

Other than that, the building is in rather the same shape the lodge was when we purchased it - sad.  It has limited heating, only a small kitchen and bath, and no bedrooms (just a small loft over the main room), broken window (it was broken into a few winters ago) rest of the windows are vintage single pane and has been boarded up for 2 years.   I believe it is on less than an acre of land.  Not sure if anyone is crazy enough to take on that project.  It will need a whole lot of work.

The only access is through the pedestrian gate.  The road down to the school is on our property and there are no easements to allow for it's use once the property is no longer a school.  But with the sale, we will lose our winter parking area in front of the school fence.    Something to think about.

On Monday, I tried my best to capture the great eclipse.  I didn't have any special glasses with me, so I just put my phone over the brim of my baseball cap and shot photos every 10 minutes.  Since I have limited photo storage, I deleted the photos that did not show anything and the only one I kept is below.  Does not show much.  The sky did get a bit dim and the air got a bit cool - but not much to see of the eclipse itself.

Also on Monday, one of our long time neighbors from Fulda (they have been there since 1972) told me about a book that would be an interesting read.  It is titled "Diary of a 49er" and it is a diary that was found in a cabin up on the Yuba river.  Though it is out of print, I will try to find it an add it to our collection.

Once the foundation work is done and the floor joists re-supported, I will start working on the stone work for the cast iron fireplace.  While I am doing that work, Jim will probably be working on the interior wall siding (cedar shiplap) and on getting the metal roof installed over the screened in porch (the sheet shingle roof did not fair well last winter).  No rest for us.

10:37 am Eclipse Photo