Kayaking at Jenner with Bob 01-20-14

It has been a while since I have been kayaking and I am recovering nicely from my recent surgery so I decided that it was time to try a little yakking.

I got to Bob’s around 10:30 yesterday morning.The weather was clear but really cold when I got there so we sat around in the house for a while. About an hour later we loaded the boats on Bob’s car and headed for the coast.

The car was running very badly by the time we got to Guerneville so Bob decided that we might be well off going back to his place and see if we could figure out what was going on with his car. By the time we got back to Bob’s place, the car had warmed up and was running normally. We turned around and headed for the coast. Again.

We got to Jenner a little after noon. As we approached the town we could see large waves breaking over the sand bar that has the river mouth closed.

We launched the boats at the visitors center

and paddled up river to Penny Island where we stopped and sat around for a while.

From here we continued up stream to Eagles landing. Eagles landing is a group of tall Fir trees along the west bank of the river.

The trees are very old and covered with Spanish moss.

After paddling around up river for a while we headed back to Penny Island where we pulled out on the southeast end of the island to take a break and have something to eat.

After eating and sitting around for a while we took a little walk on the island.

We went through a grove of ancient Eucalyptus trees

near the old milking barn.

The barn is still in pretty good shape with the stalls still in working order.

The barn has some small rooms in it. A couple of them have been “tagged”.

Bob checking out a geo-cash in a eucalyptus tree near the barn.

After our little walk we got back in the boats

and paddled out to the mouth of the river.

The mouth was closed but we could see large waves crashing on the other side of the sand bar.

We kind of blew it.
When we got to Jenner we decided to paddle up stream instead of going to the mouth first. That was a mistake since when we got there the tide was higher and the waves were going over the sand bar and into the river. With the waves, were many large fish that would get stranded on the sand bar between waves. 
The seals and sea lions were having a feeding frenzy snatching up stranded Steelheads and Salmon. 
Unfortunately, we missed all that action.

On the way back to the boat ramp we paddled along the north shore of the estuary. You cam see more of Jenner from the water than you can see from the highway. There are some very nice homes along the shore. 

Eventually we got back to the boat ramp and headed for home.

It was a very pleasant day playing on the water.

A few days at the cabin with Patti 01-17-14

I got to the cabin around noon on Sunday.
Got moved in and had a little lunch. 
After lunch I went over to where Dave and I cut down some trees a few weeks ago and Harvey and I bucked some of the trees up last week.
I wanted to see how well my cordless electric chain saw would work for limning out trees before bucking them up. The good thing is that the saw is very light which takes a lot of the strain off my back. The down side is that the saw cuts kind of slow and the battery doesn’t last very long. I used up one battery just limning out these small Tan Oaks.

 

I took a little break back at the cabin and then took a walk down the road toward where we shoot. I wanted to clear some brush off the road.

I particularly wanted to clear this one spot where a bunch of redwood branches were starting to take over the road.

I cut out some branches as high as I could reach and cut  just enough saplings to open the road.

Monday;

After breakfast I bucked up the rest of trees that Dave, Harvey and I had been working on and began bringing logs back to camp.

One Jeep load at a time.

The first load is stacked by the cabin

After a short break I decided to stack some of the dry Madrone on the porch and fill the wood box in the cabin.

Spent the rest of the day hanging out and reading.

Tuesday;

After breakfast I brought in another jeep load of logs and added them to the stack by the cabin.

After a short break, I took a ride up to the bear spring to see if there was any more wood available on that old downed Madrone. There is still some wood left on the tree but getting to it is a bit tough so I will have to look some where else for dry firewood. 
I cut on a few other down trees but they were all soft and punkey. Not good for firewood.

Went back to the cabin and hung out there until Patti arrived around 3:00.

We spent the rest of the day sitting around in the cabin visiting.

Wednesday;

Patti and I spent most of the day playing with firewood.

We brought all the cut up wood back to camp and stacked it.

You don’t get much wood out of a Tan Oak as they are tall skinny trees with small limbs near the crown. 
This is all we got out of three trees.

I will have to cut down several more trees to have enough firewood to get us through next fall.

There was a widow maker hanging in a tree where we were gathering wood. I think it was the top of one of the trees that we cut down. It had broken off a couple years ago and was tangled in the branches of another tree.

I tied the bottom of the widow maker to the jeep with a tow strap and pulled it down.

 

We cut it up and loaded the logs into the jeep.

The wood from the widow maker was kind of dry and a bit punky so we took it back to camp and put it in the wood box in the cabin to be burned tonight.

We took the rest of the day off and just hung out and enjoyed the day.

That night and the next morning we used up most of the dry wood in the wood box. When we left, around 1:00 Thursday we put all the wood that was left on the porch in the cabin and loaded a large pile onto the porch. I think there is enough dry fire wood left for a couple more days.

As always we had a great time at the cabin.
Now we have to get started getting things ready to go to Quartzsite around the middle of next month. 

 

Weekly wrap up 01-12-14

As you probably noticed I haven’t done a blog this last week. That’s because we haven’t done anything to write home about.

I took the jeep in to get the steering box replaced. It took a couple of days. I had no idea just how bad the steering box was until I drove the jeep after the box was replaced.

On Friday, Allen from 4wheel Parts called and we set up a date to get a new slip shaft eliminator kit installed. This time we are getting one from a different manufacturer.  

Last evening we went to Santa Rosa High School to watch Harvey get his letter for football.

Today (Sunday) I am going to the cabin. Patti will be coming up on Tuesday and we will stay until Thursday.

 

Harvey at the cabin 01-06-14

I picked up my grandson, Harvey, around 10:00 Friday morning and we headed for Boonville. We stopped at the Boonville Market to get a couple deli sandwiches.
From there we headed for the cabin.

We got to the cabin around 11:45. and got moved in.

I got a fire going in the woodstove. Harvey hadn’t had breakfast so once the fire was going we attack the huge sandwiches we bought at the Boonville Market.
They really make a big sandwich; we could only eat half each.

After lunch we went up the hill to check on the springs.
There was water coming out of both overflows. Great!!

There still isn’t a good stack of dry firewood at the cabin so the next thing we did was to drive up to the Bear Spring and do some more cutting on that down Madrone tree. I was able to start the chainsaw so I cut and Harvey and I loaded the logs into the back of the jeep. We hauled the wood back to camp to split and stack.

Harvey Split and I stacked.

We ended up with some more wood but not enough for me to feel comfortable with the stack. We burn through wood pretty fast when the weather is as cold as it has been.

Later we took a walk up the road toward the gate. I carried the loppers and Harvey had an ax. As we walked along, we cut any brush that looked like it would encroach on the road. That included small trees and sticker bushes (White Thorne).

We didn’t make it all the way to the gate because I pooped out but we did clear some brush away from most of the road.

After a spaghetti dinner I taught Harvey how to play Rummy. I won :o)

Saturday morning I fixed a big breakfast of sausage, eggs and pancakes. We were both stuffed after breakfast.

Later, we headed back up to the Bear Spring to cut some more pieces off that old Madrone.
We brought back another load and Harvey split it up.

After a little break I decided that we had done enough work for the morning.  We went down to the shooting area where we blasted away at flying clay pigeons. We shot up a case of clays in about an hour. Lots of fun!!

We headed back to the cabin. We were still full from the breakfast. So after a short break I decided that we should do some cutting on the trees that Dave cut down a few weeks ago.

I showed Harvey how to run the chainsaw and let him cut on one of the trees.

I think he enjoyed it. We cut up a lot of the three trees.

Back at the cabin; I needed a short nap so I suggested that Harvey take the BB gun and go for a walk. He was gone for about an hour. And came back as I was waking up.

After a while we took a ride down to check out the grove. We checked out the swimming hole

and wandered around the grove for a few minutes.

It was very cold down there so we didn’t stay long.
We got in the jeep and drove out the road to the North Fork, turned around there and headed back to the cabin.

We had steak and baked potatoes for dinner.

After dinner we played some more Rummy. Harvey did  better this time, but I still won. We left Sunday morning around 10:00

It was a good couple of days playing in the woods.
Harvey is a good kid and willing to help. I enjoyed his company.

A ride to the coast 01-03-14

We have been sitting around for a few days without much to do.
Yesterday we decided that we would take a ride to the coast and have lunch there.

We headed west on highway 12 to Fulton Road where we turned north and drove to Guerneville Road and drove west again until we got to hwy. 116. We turned right on 116 and drove through the town of Forestville and followed Pocket Canyon Road

to Guerneville

and followed the river west to Jenner by the sea.

We drove through Jenner and north along the coast for a little ways looking for a place to have lunch.

We stopped at a pullout to take a look at the estuary and the Pacific Ocean. The mouth the river had been breached to allow the water to flow out to sea and allow fish to enter the river.

We didn’t find a place where we wanted to have lunch so we turned around and headed south again. We crossed the bridge over the Russian River and pulled in at the restaurant there. The place is called “Sizzling Tandoor” and is an Indian restaurant.

We know nothing about Indian food but fortunately they also had fish and chips. Patti and I both ordered the fish. It was a bit disappointing. We were served two fish sticks and some fries. Not exactly what we were expecting at a restaurant on the coast but was enough food for a small lunch.

We left the restaurant and drove south along the coast to Bodega Bay.

We stopped to buy some Saltwater Taffy.
From Bodega Bay we drove south to where highway 12 intersects with route 1. We turned east on 12 and headed for home.

It was a pleasant ride except for the guy who was passing a truck and some cars going around a turn and almost hit us head on. Fortunately there was a wide shoulder at that place so I was able to get out of the asshole’s way.

This morning I am going to pick up Harvey and go to the cabin for a couple of days.