October 30, 2018 - School For Sale

The Emigrant Gap School is finally going up for sale.  The school has been closed for about 3 years now and the building has not been maintained since then.  A few years ago there was a break-in that left a broken window and debris scattered inside the building.  I added some plywood to the window to keep as many critters (and creeps) out as possible.

The land was donated by Mr Cortopassi back between 1925 and 1940.  He and Mr Hyatt of the Mercantile put up the funds to build the one room school house.  It replaced an old clapboard school house that was located across the street.

I toured the building last week to check the condition.  Whoever purchases it will need to redo the Kitchen (currently galley style and pretty yucky) and Bathroom (the bathrooms are currently set up as boy and girl with stalls and sinks),  remove and rebuild the shower room (which is currently in a pretty rotted out lean-to attached to the building) and add 2/10 supports,wiring, etc to the attic to allow for bedrooms (there are no bedrooms in the building) and build a staircase up to the attic.  The windows are all single pane but they have a great view of the woods behind the school.  The worst issue is that the land in front of the school (street side) belongs to the state, so access could become an issue at some time.  Also the well and pump may not be located on the school property. The crawl space basement appears to be in good shape.  And it does have a metal roof, pretty much a requirement in our snow country.  Though I think one of the stove pipes (there is no stove) has fallen down).  The property is under 1 acre.

Of course, we would be the best candidates to purchase the school due to it's land locked location  - but we already have to maintain an 11 bedroom 5 1/2 bathroom building that has much work that still needs to be done.  I personally do not wish to maintain another building.  We had hoped one of our nieces or nephews would like to purchase it - but it looks like they are going to pass (too much work, too little land).  So - we will probably be looking at new neighbors in the future.

The road down to the property is on our land and has been narrowed since we needed to move the portable off the property line - so we may be building a garage next to it, which may make the school even more land locked.  They are asking $179,000 for the building which seems a bit high with all the work that needs to be done.

October 21, 2018 - Autumn Weekend with Friends

Another great weekend at the Gap with longtime friends Niki, Patrick, Karen, Larry and Rodger.  Mostly good food, good talk and great wine.  On Saturday, after a very late breakfast and some cajoling of Jim from me, we took a trip over the the Fairground in Grass Valley to attend a Craft Fair. The fair was rather small - but everyone (except me) managed to find something.  Jim bought a handcrafted Birdhouse for Orinda.  It is really nice (probably too nice to put outside in the weather).

Saturday night was Jim's Chicken Masala which - of course was a big hit.  Karen, Larry and Rodger had to leave after dinner.

Niki, Patrick, Jim and I headed to the Hardware Store in Colfax (Jim can not get through a weekend without doing some kind of project).  On the way back, we drove through Dutch Flat and got to tour the Dutch Flat Hotel.  It was sold about 1 year ago to someone who lives in Grass Valley.  Glad it went to a foothills person rather than someone from the Bay Area (I know that sounds bad - since we are from the Bay - but the Rainbow Lodge was sold to someone from the Bay and they have not reopened it as a Restaurant/Bar/Hotel).  Anyway - Niki and Patrick got to roam through the building and loved it.

Our final trip was to our falls.  I have never been to the falls in Autumn.  It was quite lovely with all the dogwoods turning colors.  Though I decided not to climb down the cliff to the bottom of the falls (wrong shoes), everyone else did and took some really nice photos.

Niki and Patrick got on the road before nightfall, and Jim did his small project and left for home around 7 pm.  I stayed on (of course) since we had an appointment with Amerigas to re-hook up our propane to the game room.  And, as always, there was clean up to do.

September 2, 2018 - North Fire at Emigrant Gap

We had hoped we would make it through the summer without a forest fire - but alas, on Monday September 3 at about 4PM a forest fire started near the North Fork Campgrounds causing a huge plume of smoke and evacuation of all the SR 18 campgrounds and Lake Valley/Snowflower campgrounds.

The fire reached 500 acres fairly quickly and has been fought by at least 40 fire trucks, a couple of big bulldozers, air tankers and helicopters and many, many firemen.  One person had to be helicopter rescued from the falls area.  Campers left their tents and camping gear as they were rushed out of the area (the condition of the North Fork Campground is unknown right now).  One camper told me she was separated from her dog and the ranger was kind enough to go in and rescue him.  She seemed pretty frightened about the event so I think the fire was quickly started and very fast moving.

Luckily, it was not windy on Monday or Tuesday and though we can not find any current updates on the news and internet on the fire (it is a National Forest Fire so it is not being tracked by Cal Fire), we hope that the fire agencies now have it under control.

Once the fire is completely out, I plan to head back to the campgrounds to take photos of the area.  But for now, only fire personnel are allowed back in the area.  On Monday and Tuesday - both our freeway exit and the Yuba Gap exit were closed with Highway Patrol guarding access.  We were not evacuated since our cabin was not in the direct fire path.

We stayed over Monday night and doused our back yard and back of our building with our trusty hose and water from our well.  Our building has very old plywood siding on the back (to be replaced when we get some time) and it took quite a bit of water to saturate the back walls.  And the soil is sandy loom, so watering it was only an attempt to slow any progress should the fire reach our property.  We kept a close watch on Sailor Ridge (the fire was directly behind it) as we monitored the comings and goings of the fire personnel. Once of our neighbors lives directly behind us and they would have been first in the fire path if it crossed the ridge.  They, like we, manage their property pretty well and keep their meadows cut down and trees trimmed. We have cut down over 2 acres of our meadows and cut down many of our weakened cedar trees (that is not to say that we are not going to have to cut down more as the beetle blight and climate change continue to cause havoc in the sierras).

On Tuesday morning while walking our dog, I found 3 Nevada City Prison Guards camped out in front of our school.  They told me that minimum security prisoners had been deployed to the fire to help cut and dig a fire break.  After offering them coffee (they did not take me up on that) I watched another 5 fire trucks head down the hill.

Fire brigades came from areas I have never heard of and from as far away as the Sacramento Delta Area.  I believe they thought this fire would become a big mess since the timber in the area is so dry and the terrain is so steep.

Here is a map of the affected area (as of Tuesday) and a photo of the fire plume as viewed from our back yard (taken Monday). The star on the map shows where our cabin is located.  The arrow shows the direction the fire was moving on Tuesday (up toward Lake Valley via Black Mountain).  The fire area has been logged in the recent past and the area where the fire is moving was part of the Yuba Gap fire in 2007.  We are hoping that since the Yuba Gap fire cleared a lot of timber - that the fire will have little fuel to build and move to other areas.   With thunder storms starting this week in the Sierra, lets hope that the rains come early and we are out of the fire season soon. As of Wednesday - the fire has burned 1000 acres and is only 10% contained.

August 19, 2018 - Moving the Game Room

The Lodge Game Room has finally been moved.  On Friday, the movers came with their big equipment and moved the building 12 feet onto our property (it used to cross the property line by about 3 feet plus the overhang).  They were able to raise the building up about 24 inches so that we can add new supports and keep it out of the snow drainage.

Jim was busy all weekend adding new support framing while I worked on staining and sealing the mantle and some of the woodwork in the screen room.  Here are some photos of the moved building.

(photos to be added tomorrow from my phone).

August 12, 2018 - Work Weekend

We had to pick one of the hottest days of August to work on fixing the foundation and drainage on  the portable Big Game Room.  The room is actually a doublewide prefab building that we own next to the Emigrant Gap School.  When we first surveyed the land for the lodge, we learned that the school had placed the prefab on our property and, at one time, had payed a minimal lease fee for the land.  Once we notified the school district of the survey results, we re-instated the lease (which included the requirement to restore the property back to it's original state at the end of the lease).  Restoration would have required removal of the prefab, removal of a chain link fence, removal of all blacktop.  So when the school was about to close, we agreed that the restoration would not be required as long as the school gave us the prefab (a pretty good deal for both of us - since restoration would have been very costly and we liked the idea of having the pre-fab).


Since then, we have added a bunch of game stuff to the building (a foosball table, ping pong, a bumper pool table, and air hockey table) and added a propane heater (the original electric heater was broken) as well as detail cleaning and painting the inside of the building.  But we recently noticed that one side of the building was becoming unlevel - hence the foundation work.  And we need to adjust the location slightly since the building is just barely on the school property.

Once we get the problem corrected and the building adjusted, we plan to add a door on the "lodge side" of the building, close off the back side of the building (adding a storage room where the overhang is located today) and possibly add a small deck.  We will also be removing the chain link fence on our side of the building, fixing some leaks on the roof and painting.  One day, we hope to add a cast iron stove and possibly water.

There is no water or sewage in the building so it is not "living space" but it is fun for everyone to trek down there to play games.

This summer has also seen more and more forest fires in California, so Jim and I used the better part of two days to remove low branches from many of the trees on the property and cut down our now dried out sweet peas.  The lodge still has a lot of debris clean up to do and a lot of dead and dying trees to remove this fall.  We continue to lose trees to the Pine Beetle.

We hope our next visit hold less work and more fun.

July 21, 2018 - Slow Summer

It has been a rather quiet summer at the lodge.  No reunions, no big parties, no family get togethers.  Jim has been working on updating the deck next to  to the screened in deck room - a 8 foot by 20 foot deck that is down about 4 steps from the room. The original trex on it needed to be flipped (like the trex in the screen room) and it needed new railings, support and steps.  I am hoping it will be done by the end of summer.

However, we have run into another project that may take precedence.  Rather than doing a lot line adjustment for our Game Room portable, We have decided to move the portable about 10 feet onto our property and raise it about 3 feet off the ground (for better drainage).  After that project is complete, I plan to remove the lower chain link fence from our road and from behind the game room since we no longer need it.

Additionally, I will be scouring Craigslist for a nice (but affordable) wood stove for the game room for us to install - hopefully this winter.  And of course, I need to paint the game room to match the lodge.  Once all of those items are done - the game room will look more like it belongs to our property than the school property.

We have not seen a lot of our neighbors lately.  Bryan and Leslie are working hard at their bike shop and Leslie is dealing with some health issues - so they are not up often.  The Russians have left and the rest of the owners of the Hyatt building are still deciding of they want to keep their shares in the site or sell it.  And they have not been up since June.

So - it is just Jim and Quincy and me most weekends at the lodge.  That's ok though - it is alright to have a slow summer for a change.

June 3 2018 - Butterflies and Bugs (It's Spring!)

This weekend, spring finally arrived at the lodge.  While Jim worked on the stringers for the new sun deck (someday I suspect to be a covered and screen deck because of the bugs), I used 3 of our 4 fire pits to burn branches and rotted wood that we had gathered from around the property.  I then attempted to mow some of the 3 foot tall meadow grass.

Since we are continuing to lose our majestic cedar trees to the beetle blight, much of our property is beginning to look like a steep hill meadow with moraine (boulders and rocks).  It is a pretty site in spring - but very dangerous if not cut back once fire season begins.  So, around this time of the year, we usually hire some guys to come in and whack down the grass using our gas string trimmer.  This year with the delayed spring, we have not found anyone to do that and the grass keeps growing higher.  The weight of the old gas string trimmer is a bit hard on my back and shoulders, so I pulled out the old weed mower and started cutting the grass that was under 3 foot high on the main "lawn" and side 'lawn" (last trip) and  around the fire pits and on the lower "lawn" (this trip).

I use the term "lawn" loosely since the grass is mostly clump grass and meadow grass and dies out by mid-summer.  Leaving us with a lost of "camp dust" (alas).

While I was burning the debris, I was visited by many of our local butterflies and, unfortunately, bugs.  Below is a photo of one of the butterflies.  I did not take a photo of the bugs, but I have some nice mosquito and horse fly bites to prove they were there.

Once I finished the closest burn piles and it got too hot to continue mowing, I put the cover on the portable car canopy.  I plan to convert the structure to a corrugated roof canopy this summer. But for now, we needed to find a place to store the old mower and old outdoor yard stuff (and the old ATV as we haul it up and back to the lodge).  The structure is currently good for keeping the tree sap and sun off the stuff - but not much good for keeping the rain out as the cover has many many holes and patches.

Once the structure is more "permanent", I may use it to store the old canoe and kayaks during the summer.  It would be nice to get those out of the basement.

I am hoping that I will be able to do some more burning on our next trip (and that the burning moratorium is not in effect by then).  That way, we can clear some more of the debris piles in forest area behind the school and make the property much safer from fire.

I am also planning to remove the chain link fence from the lower part of the road (heading to the portable) and installing a picket fence.  The chain link divides our property in two and is just an eyesore. Ugly though it is, I plan to keep the upper chain link and gate fence in tact to keep people off our shared property with the school.

Our neighbors that own the Hyatt Lodge are still making a decision about whether or not they are going to sell (last weekend).  I have not heard any decision yet about that.  Hoping to know by next visit.  It is a lot quieter now that the Russian Church construction guys are gone, and only a few people are at the Hyatt lodge.

Additionally, someone has been marking and cutting trees on the property down from the Hyatt Lodge.  The good news is that they are cutting out the dead cedars there, the bad news is that they are leaving them cut, on the property, sometimes leaning on other trees (which is a dangerous decision).  I am hoping that they cut them up and remove them - but that may be a silly hope.

And some low lifes stuffed a lot of boxes and garbage into the old boarded up railroad cabin basement (which means someone gets to haul all that stuff to the dump!). And then either a bear or some one else ransacked the junk to see if there was anything worth having in it.  A mess!!!!  I hate when people are too cheap and lazy to haul their garbage away!  There is currently an old couch and a bunch of junk wood piled on that property just rotting away (and not much I can do about that since it is covered with debris, rusty nails and probably full of mold).

And finally, we have transitioned from winter and our campers have returned.  I am hoping that they respect the area this summer and do not litter or start any forest fires.  Ah, spring (soon to be summer).