Heading for the Cabin Again.

Birthday

Ok, so Sunday is my 77th birthday and we are going to the cabin because that is my favorite place to spend a birthday.
We are going up on Friday and coming back on Tuesday.
No party or excitement.

It is supposed to rain a little over the weekend so that should be nice. I love the sound of the rain hitting the roof and it is a good excuse to stay in by the fire. Also the rain will soften the dirt and help make any work on the trail a little easier.
The most important thing the rain does at this time of year is it lowers the fire danger.
It will be a little while before the springs start to flow again but it is nice to know that the rains are starting. They are a little later than on a normal year but at least it is starting.

Okay that is all I have for today. I’ll talk to you next week.

Computer Trouble and a Visit With Bob and his Chickens.

Computer Trouble.

The Acer Mini Laptop.

My old Acer mini laptop is getting pretty clunky. Some of the programs aren’t working correctly. Mainly the photo manipulation  software (ACDsee) and the blog writer (Windows Live Writer). These programs as well as email are the main reasons for me to have a computer so if they don’t work I’m in trouble.

The Dell.

When we were on the Continental Divide trip, the Acer was acting up so about half way through the trip I stopped at a Walmart and bought a Dell mini laptop. I haven’t used it much but I did install Live Writer and ACDsee so it was ready to take over if the Acer crapped out except for the mail system.

After trying to get the mail set up for a couple days I finally got fed up and decided that I needed my computer guru, Bob.
I contacted Bob and made arrangements to check out the computers  on Tuesday.

At Bob’s.

I got to Bobs around 12:00. We sat around visiting for a bit, then we went over to check out his chickens. When we went into the chicken pen we sat on a couple of chairs. We had been sitting for less than a minute when one of his chickens hopped up on Bob’s lap. A few seconds later and another chicken hopped up there.
“This is Sweet Pee” Bob said indicating the first hen, “and the other one is Poo Butt”
Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera at the time so I didn’t get a picture of this.

Working on the Computers.

After checking out the chickens, it was time to check out the computers.
We spent most of the rest of the day sitting under Bob’s carport in the shade trying to get the email to work on the Dell and trying to find out why the programs on the Acer don’t work.

Around 4:30 we finely got the email working on the Dell but still didn’t know what was wrong with the Acer so Bob started a full security scan. The scan is still running as of this writing.

Just as I was leaving I asked Bob if the chickens jumped on his lap every time he sat down in the chicken pen. He said that most times they did.
I told Bob that I wanted to get a picture of that so we went back into the pen and sat on the chairs. This time when the chickens came running over to see what we were doing.

Sweet Pee hopped on my knee followed shortly by Poo Butt.

Here is Sweet Pee, Poo Butt didn’t stay long.

I left Bobs around 5:00.
It was a good day, we got the mailer working at least so now I can use the new Dell computer.

Computer crash and 5 Days at the Cabin

Computer Crash.

My old Acer mini laptop finally bit the dust. It will no longer publish my blog and I can’t manipulate pictures because it won’t save anything.

I am using another laptop but I am having trouble getting some stuff to work on it.
I am able to do my blog but can’t receive or send email’s.

A week at the Cabin.

I went to the cabin last Sunday everything was in good shape.

Goals.

My goals for this week were to:
Replace the baffle in the refrigerator.
Renew my drivers license in Ukiah,
Cut up the tree that fell across the Bear Spring Road.
Make a new box to cover the water valves.

Refrigerator.

The propane refrigerator that we use at the cabin has not been working as well as I think it should. The freezer gets good and cold but the fridge doesn’t.
Everytime I come up here and turn on the fridge there is a pile of rust sitting on top of the burner that I have to clean off. The rust comes down a pipe where the heat is supposed to go up. The only thing in the pipe is a “baffle”. A spiral piece of metal that is connected to a rod that sticks out the top of the pipe.
If I wiggle the rod, rust falls down the pipe and collects on the burner.
I ordered a new baffle and installed it in the pipe on the fridge.

The fridge seems to be getting colder now but it sits outside and the out side temps are also getting cooler. We won’t know if it is better until next summer when the temps are in the 90’s and 100’s

Drivers License.

Monday morning I drove to Ukiah, CA about an hours drive from the cabin. I decided to get my drivers license at the Ukiah DMV office because it is a smaller town and the DMV office is not nearly as busy as the Santa Rosa Office.
As it was, it still took about 3 hours to get everything done. Now I am good for another five years.

Dave.

Dave came up for the day on Tuesday.
He had a project he was working on and I wanted to get the wood for the valve box. While Dave was working on his project, I went to the lumber pile and got the wood I needed and started making the box.

A little later, we walked up to check out one of the upper springs. There is still a little water coming from the spring but the flow is getting very low. I hope it lasts until the rains start again. 

Dave went home around 3:30.

Wednesday.

I got up late this morning and just puttered around in the morning.
Eventually I got the water valve box built and in place.
After that I went up the spring road and cut up the tree that fell across the road. I stacked the wood where I cut it.

Thursday.

I really slept in this morning and didn’t get up until after 9:00.
After breakfast I started packing up to go home. I left for home around 12:00.

Okay that’s it for now. As always, it was real nice being at the cabin .

Patti and I are going back up there next Friday, 9-28 and will be home on 10-02.

A trip to the VA and Cards.

At the VA

Several people have told me that I should get a veteran designation on my drivers license. Since I am renewing my license next week, I went to the Cal-Vet office to apply for the form to take to the DMV.

After the paperwork was approved and I had the form, the guy helping me asked  if there was any thing else that he could help me with.

“Well”, I said; “When I was in the service I was working in the squadron carpenter shop and cut the end off my thumb.

I was not aware that I could get compensation for my injury after my discharge.

I found out about that several years after I was out of the Navy and called the VA then. They told me that all my records had been burned in a fire at the records storage area in Virginia  so there was nothing that could be done."
I gave up on it then but when the guy asked me if there was anything else he could do, I asked about it.

He said that he could not guarantee anything but I could submit a request to open my case.

I got the paperwork and an appointment for next month. I am sure this will take several months but if it works it will be worth it to get into the VA system.

Sea Food and Cards.

Around 3:00 Joanne and Dave came by. We visited for a while then went out for supper.

We went to the Santa Rosa Seafood Grill.
Really good Chowder and very fresh fish. A bit pricy but worth it occasionally.

After supper we went back to our house and played two games of Jockers Rummy. Dave and Joanne were the winners.
Around 9:00 Joanne and Dave went home.

A Change of Plans.

I was planning to go to the cabin on Friday and staying there over the weekend. The plan was to go to Ukiah to get my drivers license on Monday and go back to the cabin, coming home on Tuesday.

Patti was texting my oldest daughter, Gabriella, trying to set up a day to visit her and her husband. As it turned out, the only day’s she had free were this Saturday and Sunday.
Therefore  we are going to the city on Saturday and I will go to the cabin on Sunday and come home on Tuesday or Wednesday.

The reason I am going to the Ukiah DMV is because the Santa Rosa office is always crowded and you have to sit around for hours waiting  to be called. The Ukiah office is smaller and there are less people going there so the wait should be less.  I Hope 

Okay, that’s all for now.

Lumpia and a tooth Extraction.

Lumpia.

Lumpia is a Filipino style pork roll. If they are done right they are wonderful.

Shopping.

Patti got a recipe for Lumpia from Face Book so we decided to try it out. We made a list of the ingredients we would need and headed for the store. As it turned out we had to go to two store’s to get everything.

Making the Lumpia.

Ingredients

Ground pork, carrot, onion, scallions, water chestnuts, garlic, salt, pepper, soy sauce and large egg role wrappers.

Method.

Finely chop all ingredients except the wrappers and the ground Pork.

Cook veggies in large skillet until onions are translucent add pork and cook until pork is done. Set aside to cool.

Once the filling is cool, put about 2 tablespoons of filling on large wonton wrapper, fold sides in and roll up like an egg roll. Put some egg wash on edge of wrapper and fold it over to seal it.

Heat about two inches of oil in a deep skillet or pot to 300°.
Slide rolls into the oil and fry until bottom side is golden then role the lumpia over to cook other side. They cook fairly fast so don’t over do them, 1-2 minutes a side.

Good Stuff.

We made twenty of them and they were very good. Patti and I ate eleven of them. The rest are in the freezer.

I didn’t take any pictures while we were making the Lumpia but here are some of them that I took out of the freezer just to take a picture of.

We decided that the filling would also be good for lettuce wraps.

Tooth Extraction.

Patti broke a tooth a while back and she decided to have it replaced with an Implant.
The first part of the procedure is to remove the tooth and insert a Implant, “screw” in the bone to hold the new tooth.

Around 8:00, I went to lab corps to have some blood work done for an appointment with our new doctor in a couple weeks. I had to fast for this procedure so I was getting hungry.

At 9:45, I took Patti to the oral surgeon and left her there, while I went home to get some breakfast.

As I was leaving the house to pick Patti up, the phone rang. It was the dentist’s office calling to let me know that Patti was ready to go home.
I picked her up and we went home. Patti was a little loopy for a while but by afternoon she was getting better.
I fixed her tomato soup for lunch and mashed potatoes with gravy for supper. By bed time she was back to 98%.

Pick Up Motor Home.

Today (Tuesday) we are going to pick up the Motorhome and return it to storage for a few more weeks. We have it serviced every year at a place in Windsor.
In October we will bring it home to get ready to go to Arizona for the winter.

Okay, that’s it for now. Talk to you in a couple days.

Art in the Park.

Mary.

My late sister, Mary was very involved in the Petaluma Art Association, serving as President and Treasurer for many years.
One of her favorite projects was  Art In The Park an open air art show held every year at Walnut Park in Petaluma.
Yesterday Patti and I drove to Petaluma.
One of Mary’s friends (Brigit) had set up a small memorial for Mary at her booth in the park. We wanted to go pay our respects.

This is the memorial.

We stopped by Brigit’s booth and took some pictures.

Joanne and her friends, Darleen and Ronda were there. A little while later Kristine (Mary’s youngest daughter) showed up.
We visited for a while then wandered around looking at the art on display.

Lunch.

After wandering around for a while we said good bye to everyone and started for home. We stopped at the Lumberjack Restaurant for lunch.

Home.

We got home around 2:30. Patti started laundry and I worked on a couple of projects that so far haven’t worked out.
I quit around 5:00 and goofed off the rest of the evening.

A Quick Trip to the Cabin.

Tuesday.

I got home from the cabin Tuesday afternoon.
On the way home I realized that I had forgotten to turn off the propane for the stove and I also left the front window open.
I’ll have to go back up to take care of that soon.

Wednesday.

We had a bunch of errands to do today so I couldn’t get to the cabin today.

Thursday.

Patti was going to the movies today with her two daughters to see Momma Mia 2.
I decided to go up to the cabin this morning. Patti said I should see if Dave wanted to go so I called Dave and he did.

On the way to pick up Dave I stopped to fill up a 5 gallon propane tank to take up.

I picked Dave up around 10:00 and we headed for the cabin.

We got to the cabin around 12:00. I turned the gas off, closed the front window, and hooked the new propane bottle to the fridge.

A Walk on the Trail.

We sat around for a while Bs’ing, then decide to take a walk on the trail.

Here we are at the first bench, looking up the trail.

Lunch at the Gas Station.

After our walk we got in the jeep and headed for home.
We were both hungry so we stopped at the gas station for lunch. I had a carnitas quesadilla and Dave had a burger.
Not bad for gas station food.

I got home around 4:30. It was a good day.

Labor Day Week at the Cabin.

Thursday.

Getting Going.

After breakfast with Donna and Susan we went to Donna’s to see her rocks.  She has hundreds of rocks displayed in her yard.
I eventually got on the road.

Forgot the Pie.

I arrived at the cabin around 12:30.
Everything looked good. Apparently no one had been here since we left last week.

Once I got moved in, I found that I had forgotten to bring the Marion Berry Pie that we bought.

I’ll have to call Patti and let her know. I am sure that she knows but I should call her any way.
I’ll do that this evening.

Take a Walk.

After a couple hours I decided to walk up the road to the spring tanks to check out the water supply. About halfway up the road was a tall skinny fir tree that had fallen across the road. I’ll have to take care of that tomorrow.

When I got to the spring tanks, I found that the inflow was really low. I checked the strainer and it seemed to be clear. The flow is a little slower than the cabin spring.

After checking the spring tanks I decided to continue the walk and take the trail back to the cabin.

I goofed off the rest of the day.

Friday.

Fridge Repair.

The refrigerator was not working properly. The freezer was working but the fridge part wasn’t working. I knew what the problem was. I pulled the back off the fridge and cleaned the rust off the burner.
There is a baffle in a tube that the heat goes up. Due to the heat and moisture the baffle is rusting away. I will have to see if I can get a new baffle to replace the rusting one.

Removing the Tree From the Spring Road.

I took a short break after fixing the fridge. Then I put the chain saw and related stuff in the jeep and drove up to where the tree is across the road.

I intended to cut the tree up into firewood lengths but when I tried to cut the tree I found that the chainsaw was so dull that I could barely get through the tree. I looked for the file for the chain but some how it wasn’t in the chainsaw box.
I ended up just cutting the tree enough to get it off the road.

Dave.

Dave showed up around 11:00. He said that he would have been earlier but there was a wreck on 128. A big rig went off highway on one of the turns. All Dave could see of the truck was the rear wheels of the trailer up in the air.
Dave and I visited for a while.
Eventually Dave went to move into their lodge and get things set up in.

Cob Webs.

It was getting warm enough to open the windows so that is what I did.
There were a lot of cob webs around the windows so I got the broom and swept all the cob webs from the windows and went through the cabin sweeping down what cobwebs I could find in the rafters and in corners and crannies. You can never  find all the webs but it is much better than it was.

In the evening Dave and I visited until bed time.

Saturday.

A Visit to the Lumber Plie.

After breakfast Dave needed some lumber for a project.
He looked  through the lumber that was on hand around the camp but couldn’t find anything that would work.

Eventually I mentioned that he might get what he needed from the lumber pile at the slag heap.

We drove up to the slag heap and dug through the lumber pile. Eventually we found exactly what Dave needed for his project.

We loaded the boards on Dave’s pickup and went back to camp.

The Women Arrive.

Patti and Joanne arrived around noon. We visited for a while and broke up for lunch.
After lunch we shade hopped around the area until supper time.

Cards and Bed Time.

After supper Joanne and Dave came up to play cards. Dave won the game. Around 9:45, Joanne and Dave went to their lodge and we went to bed around 10:15.

Sunday.

Lazy Day.

Had a rough night; refluxed a lot and lots of body pain.
Slept in until 9:00.

We did very little today mostly shade hopped and visited.

Cards.

Around 4:00 we decided to play some cards.The first game was over around 6:00.

We cooked and ate supper.
Around 7:30 we started another card game and finished around 9:30.

Joanne had surgery on her hand last week so Dave made her a card holder. She used it a little but decided that it was to big and in the way and she could hold her cards just fine.

Okay, that was our Sunday.

Monday, Labor Day.

Laboring.

I decided to do a little work on the Trail as I haven’t done much Trail work this week.
About 9:00 I took the Pulaski and a rake up the trail from the cabin. When I got to the first switch back I started chopping out the trail. I spent about an hour at it; by then I was spent.

Here is what I got done.

It doesn’t look like much but the ground is pretty hard.

Joanne and Dave.

When I got back to the cabin Joanne and Dave  were sitting in the shade so Patti and I joined them. We did a little shade hopping until lunch time. We went to our separate camps for lunch. After lunch Joanne and Dave left for home.

The Rest of the Day.

I was tired from my labors this morning so I took a nap for a couple hours.
I made Taco Salad for Supper.
Later, Patti and I played a game of rummy.
We went to bed by 10:00

That was our Labor Day.

Tuesday.

Time to go Home.

It is that time again. Time to go home.
We slept in this morning until about 9:30. It was chili in the cabin this morning and was nice and warm under the covers.
I got up and headed for the washroom for my morning ritual and a shower.

Patti was up, taking apart her bed and packing to go home.
I did the same. Once all my bedding was stored in the bedding bag I stopped to cook my breakfast. After breakfast, I wrote this post.

Okay, That was our Labor Day week at the cabin. It was great!!