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

January - April 2019 - Epic Snow Year

It is now April and our blog still seems to be "online".  There was a notice from Google stating they were removing a lot of stuff - but gladly did not turn out to include our blog.  So looks like we can continue posting updates.

We had an epic snow year this season with visits from Gina/Tom and family and Bill and his cousin in February and Jenny/Ryan and their friends and family in January.  Lots of digging out and snow play.  The snow was much like the depths we had during our first two years at the lodge.  Since we were worried we were losing our blog, keeping this short and just adding some photos.

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.