Now That's Snow!

I guess we are officially indoctrinated into the population of people that call the Pacific Northwest home. It has been snowing off and on (more on than off) for a week now and is not supposed to let up for a couple of days. It really came down hard this afternoon. I did get to break in my 2 snow shovels on the driveways and sidewalk.

While I was in my shop (better known as the "man cave" by my wife) airing up the tires on the atv trailer so I could take the trash can out to the street I heard a commotion outside. I opened the big door to the shop to find my neighbor on his tractor plowing my entire driveway and the approach to the shop. What a wonderful surprise. We have been blessed with some really terrific neighbors.

The snow is truly beautiful and we have 5 acres of the pretty white stuff to look at and play in. (It is a blast to scoot around in the snow on the ATC we have!)

(Click on any of the pictures to see a larger view)

Our First Snowfall (a dusting actually)

When we checked the weather report before going to bed last night, they said our area was in a severe snow storm watch so we were not sure what we would wake up to. All we got was a light dusting but it sure made for a pretty setting. I am not too worried about the coming snow as we have installed snow tires on our vehicles and we even picked up a small garden tractor with a snow plow on the front. I am actually looking forward to using the plow. (obviously this southern California transplant has never had to work in weather like this before) We are getting acclimatized rather nicely as the cold weather is not bothering us at all. Having a "Heated" shop to work in doesn't hurt either. LOL Most of the snow in the pictures melted by days end but there is still some in the shady areas of the property. We are looking forward to a White Christmas, probably a white Thanksgiving too.

Almost Done!

The shop is almost complete. I don't know who is more excited. my wife or me. I know I am driving her crazy when I hang around in the house. She will be able to send me out to the shop when I become a pest (as if I won't already be there). The concrete goes in this week and then the front and doors go on then I can start setting up my wood shop and welding area. The motorhome, the '54 Bel Air, the little Scamp trailer and the newest addition the Chevy 4X4 truck will also be calling the shop home. I will then be able to park the good old Jeep in the garage. When my son-in laws tractor gets here we will be able to put it in the shop as well. The house is starting to feel like home and Grace is setting up her sewing/craft room (a 30'X12' room). She is very happy!

We're Here!

Wow, what a drive that was. We had one kitty try to escape all the way here and another one slept the entire time. Talk about different personalities. Glad that is behind us! People told us to use tranquelizers but like I told them, I didn't think I could drive after taking a tranquelizer (LOL). We have been here almost 4 weeks now and are slowly getting our lives back in order. We still have a lot of boxes that need to be gone through and put away and now that we have had the daylight basement finished off we can get to them. We contracted with a local company to build us a "Pole Barn" (Shop) and that got started yesterday. I am so EXCITED! I know we came up here to retire or at least that is what I was told but judging by the list of things we want to do to the property, we will both need to go back to work to finance the improvements. As you can see in the picture, there is not a lot on the property but cut down weeds. (They were almost 3 feet tall by the time we got here so I had to get the weed eater out and call a guy with a tractor to mow the property.) I will have another tractor operator come out in a couple of weeks to rototill the front and back yard areas so we can put in some grass and plants. More to follow.....

Almost time to hit the Road

Wow! Only 11 days before we leave for our new home in Washington. We are so excited we can barely contain ourselves. We have been very busy packing up all of our personal belongings and wrapping up our jobs. The moving company will be packing all of our "Breakables" and meeting us there and we will be taking some things that they won't move. Grace will be driving the car and I will be driving the Jeep (with all 4 cats) towing the "Scamp". We will be pretty loaded down, hopefully we won't look like the "Beverly Hillbillies" LOL

Our New Home

We now have a place to go after our home closes escrow. Here is a picture of us in front of the fireplace and another picture of my lady on the deck at the rear of the house.(Do we look happy?) Our new home is located near Spokane and is on almost 5 acres. The home is brand new and there is no landscaping so we will have plenty to do. We have plenty of ideas, now we will see if there is enough money to be able to create what we have in our minds. We will be making the move in the middle of July. Imagine driving from Southern California to Spokane Washington in a 20 foot motor home with 4 cats that do not like to travel. I can hardly wait..... We are very excited to be able to make this move. We have always talked about where we would like to retire to when the time came and this place seems to meet all of the criteria. We are near water and forest (Oh yeah there are over 20 golf courses in the area as well) and we were able to get 5 acres of good workable land. We will get the opportunity to see if we can make it as "mini farmers". There are some things I will miss about Southern Cal but there are a lot of things I will be glad to leave behind. We look forward to finding a new church home there as well as making a whole lot of new friends.

Our "Other Fiberglass Camper"

Well here we are sitting in front of our Chinook motor home up at Camp James on the Kern river. I decided to buy this really nifty motor home because of the "other" fiberglass camper (trailer) that my wife was given. I figured once we took this out a couple of times she would never want to take the little 13' Scamp out and I could just somehow get rid of it and not have to re-hab it. Although she loves the Chinook, she still wants me to finish the little Scamp trailer. I do have to admit, the more I do to the Scamp, the more I like it too. Right now we have it in our garage so it is very easy to work on in my spare time. Oh well , back to the Chinook. This rig is a real pleasure to drive. It is just like driving a van. And power, this baby has a 460 motor, nothing slows it down. The only negative thing I will say about it happened when we recently had our home tented for termites and we spent 3 days living in the Chinook with our 4 little kitties. That motor home seemed really small for those 3 days. (Funny thing, it didn't seem that small when we took it camping.) That won't ever happen again! Grace is retiring next month and we have sold our home and will be moving to Washington in July. We are looking forward to some nice trips in the Chinook.

Well, here is another "interesting" project my Lady decided "we" needed to take on. She seemed so surprised that someone would actually give her this cute little trailer. When she finally told me about it (the day she arranged to meet her brother-in-law, who had a truck with a tow hitch, to pick it up) and took me to see it, I thought she had lost her mind. The floor at the rear had rotted out and was dragging on the ground and the lovely aroma of rotting wood permeated the entire trailer (all 13 feet of it). I really did not have time for this project but things like that don't seem to bother her. She talked the neighbor into letting her park it in her driveway because we didn't have any room. The neighbor thought it would be a fun project as well and talked about helping with some of the restoration. (I have yet to see any help from these two, hmmm) I have since installed a new sub-floor, built and installed new cabinet doors, reworked the wiring and braced up the sagging ceiling. I have purchased new wood flooring and will install it after the interior gets re-upholstered and the windows are replaced. The axle needs to be replaced as well and I have a new rear stabilizer jack I will install. I have also installed a towing hitch and wiring harness on our Jeep Grand Cherokee so we can move it now. Did I mention my Lady seemed surprised that someone was willing to give this trailer away??? Some times I feel like Ricky Ricardo on the "Lucy" show when she comes up with hair-brained ideas. And yes, my Lady usually follows up with a "Oh Ricky" comment when I ask her what she was thinking. LOL

Trout Fishing in the Sierras

One of the things I love to do is to go trout fishing in the Sierras. I try to make at least one trip a year with a fishing buddy. We have been doing this since I was in high school (A long time!).
In 2005 I was fishing on a bank very similar to this one and had a Momma bear and 3 baby bears walk right up on me. Even though I knew the best thing to do was to stay calm and slowly walk away, seeing yourself between a momma bear and her babies tends to make you panic. I slowly got up, grabbed my stringer of fish and tried to run. I slipped and went down face first. With this commotion, one of the babies let out a cry and scampered up a tree and I was sure momma was going to eat me. I was wrong, she didn't even flinch. Seems she was walking up and down the shoreline stealing stringers of fish. (Lucky for me)

Two of my Favorite things in life.

My Lady and Our 1954 Bel Air.

The Restoration of the Bel Air has been 'Challenging' .

(I am sure my Lady thinks the same thing about me)

New Blogspot

This is going to be a new adventure for me. I will be posting some of the things I am interested in and ongoing projects. Please feel free to check in often as I will be adding new "Stuff" as quickly as I can get to it. Gary