A family gathering and a week at the cabin. 05-19-15

 

Patti and I spent the last week at the cabin.
I went up on Friday 05-08. Got moved in and puttered around the rest of the day.

Saturday morning after breakfast I decided that it was time to fire up the weed eater.

 

I worked on that for a while (no after picture).

It is still chilly in the mornings and at night so I am still dealing with firewood.
Of course dealing with firewood is one of the reasons I come up here. It is the best all around workout that I can think of and when you are done you have a pile of firewood to keep you warm when the weather gets cold.
I split a few logs; enough for a couple of days and stacked  a mixture of splits, rounds and thick chunks of oak bark in the wood box and on the porch.

After lunch I went up to the trail head and did a little more cutting on that down tree.
I like my new Echo Chain Saw.  It has a 14 inch bar and is about three pounds lighter than the old husky. It’s a lot easier to use in brush or when limbing out a tree. The saw will handle larger stuff and will go through a 12 inch oak log without a problem. Since it is a light saw, I can cut for a longer period of time now before my back tells me to stop.
We will see if it holds up to the punishment it will get in the woods.

A family Gathering:

Sunday morning around 10:00 I left the cabin to go to Ukiah for a family gathering at Lake Mendocino. It was mostly Wayne’s kids and their family’s. Kathy and Bob were also here from Oregon.
Family gatherings are always fun. You see people that you remember as little kids, all grown up with kids of there own. 
I guess you can classify that as fun… let me get back to you on that one.

Wayne, his daughter Teresa, and granddaughter Monica.

Things always work out but they don’t always work out the way we expect.

The plan was for Kathy and Bob to follow me up to the cabin after the gathering and spend a week with us. Wayne was also going to follow us and spend a couple of days.

As it turned out Bob’s motor home experienced a complete electrical failure while they were camped at a casino in Fortuna on the way down to Ukiah. They ended up renting a car to get to the gathering. Unfortunately they were not able to spend the week with us at the cabin as they had to go back to Fortuna to try and get the motorhome home.

Wayne decided that he was going to head straight up to Washington state to stay with Teresa.

After the picnic I headed for the cabin. Patti had to drive to Santa Rosa to take Dina home then she drove back to the cabin. She got there around 7:30.

A productive week:

Monday:

I took Patti for a walk on the new trail. We went about half way but her knee was giving her trouble so we turned around.
We spent the rest of the day puttering around the cabin.
We planted some poppies and butterfly and humming bird mix flowers along the path to the bench.

Tueday:

Patti and I spent a little time every day working on the pile of trees that Bob N cut down the last time he was up here.

 

We spent about an hour or two a day and by the end of the week we had it all cut up and piled.

Here is Patti raking up the last of the debris.

 

We spread our time between clearing the driveway and splitting and stacking firewood on the porch.

Wednesday:

We had been cutting on the driveway for about a half hour when Joanne and Dave showed up.

We took a long break and visited with them.

After lunch Joanne and Dave took a walk while Patti and I went back to work on the wood cutting.

I made some Nopalies and Joanne and Dave stayed for dinner.

Thursday:

I needed to order some rock for the base to the shed at home. I also wanted to bring the van up here to get it out of the way while I have the shed and the space along side the driveway rocked.
I wanted to make sure that I gave the rock company plenty of time to deliver the rock so I decided to go to Santa Rosa, order the rock,  pick up the van, have lunch and head back to the cabin.
We left the cabin around 9:30 and were back by 4:30.

Friday:

Got the driveway open.

Saturday:

Patti and I went up to the trail head and did some more cutting on that down tree. We got all the smaller parts cut up. I’ll have to drag the big piece out with the jeep to cut it up.

Dave came up around 11:00 to spend the night.

After dinner we played Ukrainian rummy.

Sunday:

I cut up the last big logs along the driveway and Patti raked up the last of the debris.

We left the cabin around 4:00 and stopped in Windsor where we went to dinner with Joanne and Dave at KC’s on the green in Windsor.

Monday:

Spent the morning unloading the Patti’s car. Oh yeah, we left the van at the cabin.
Patti started doing laundry.
Goofed off the rest of the day.

Tuesday:

Patti has been having problems with her right knee for a long time.
Today we went to see Dr. Howe an orthopedist. They took x-ray’s and found that her knee is definitely worn out the outside of the socket is worn down to the bone. She needs a new knee so we are going to get it taken care of as soon as possible.

I spent the rest of the day puttering in the garden.

Okay, that was the  last 11 days.