California- April 2014

I know it has been a long time since I have posted on my blog and I am sorry.  This is an update on what is going on this Spring for our vacation.  We left Massena on Friday the 11th and headed toward Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.  We had now schedule other than to get there to our hotel sometime that evening.  We arrived around 6:30 pm, about an hour later than it should have taken us, but rush hour around Harrisburg made it take us about an hour to go 16 miles. We got checked in to our room and then went and had supper.  Our flight was scheduled to leave at 6:15 in the morning, so we left for the airport between 4:30 and 4:45.  Got all checked in and through security and waited at the gate for our flight.  We flew from Harrisburg to Detroit, MI, Detroit to Minneapolis, MN, and Minneapolis to Sacramento, CA.  We arrived in Sacramento around 1 pm.  Justin and Stacy were there to greet us and we arrived at their house and just relaxed for the evening.  Got up Sunday morning and went to church for Sunday School and Worship services.  Met many of Justin and Stacy's friends.  We are glad that they have so many wonderful friends.  We came home from church and had Easter dinner on Palm Sunday.  Relaxed for the afternoon, Rachel napped, Stacy napped, not sure what Justin did, and I sat on their balcony and read for the afternoon.  After supper, we took a walk to a park a couple of blocks away from their house. 

Monday we got up early and set off for Northern California.  We drove up route 20 to route 101, past the town of Willits on our way to the Avenue of the Giants.  It is near Myers Flats.  We first stopped in the Leggett area at the Chandelier Tree.  Drove through the tree and spent some time there and in the gift shop.  Continued north and left the main highway near Phillipsville and drove the 13 mile stretch which is part of the Avenue of the Giants and stopped several times to walk in the forest and take pictures of the giant sequoia trees.  On our return home we stopped at a place along the road called the Peg House and got our supper there.  We got home about midnight.

Tuesday we didn't have to get up too early.  Rachel, Stacy and I walked down the street to Krispy Kreme and got donuts a little further to Starbucks for coffee for our breakfast.  We took them back to the apartment.  During this time Justin went on his morning run for practice for him upcoming test.  After we ate, we headed east this time to the town of Grasse Valley.  It was settled by Cornish people brought in to mine gold back in the 1800's. We had lunch at a little restaurant.  We had English Pasties for lunch.  We then strolled around town checking out all of the little shops.  We saw many interesting things that day.  Especially the sets of eyebrows that you will see in some of the pictures.  We did buy a few things that day. We headed back to Yuba City toward evening and went and had some ice cream at a local shop named Brock's. 

Wednesday Justin had to go back to work, but we had another excursion to a wildlife refuge on the other side of the Sutter Buttes.  We spent about three hours walking around the area taking a lot of pictures and seeing a lot more.  We saw lizards, frogs, coots, pelicans, herons, mallards, a squirrel, buzzards, a deer, assorted birds, and a couple of quails. It is sad that the area there has had such a little bit of rain this year and the water is mostly dried up.  It was an enjoyable time. We also drove around the Sutter Buttes which are the world's smallest mountain range.  Got home just about the same time as Justin. We made wontons for supper and then for a first for us, we ate with chopsticks!   Stacy went to her Bible study that evening and we spent the time with Justin. 

Thursday during the day, was shopping time.  We had to get Rachel her Kohl's fix and we also went to Marshall's and to a Goodwill store. Bought an extra suitcase to bring all of our extras home in.  After  Justin got home, we got our stuff together and we headed to Sacramento.  We ate supper at a Japanese restaurant that specializes in ramen noodles. We also ate with chopsticks here which was very interesting.  Attached is the link for the picasa web album.  I will get the pictures labeled as soon as I can but there are many to label. Hope you enjoy them!

https://picasaweb.google.com/111472392053516289027/2014AprilCaliforniaTrip#

Final segment of California August 2013

After we got back from Yosemite on Saturday evening, we just sort of relaxed and hung out.  Went to Church Sunday morning with Justin and Stacy.  The Pastor even remembered us from only being there two other times and they were quite far apart.  Had a wonderful Sunday dinner and then relaxed for the rest of the day, inside and outside.  We got up Monday morning and were on the road early to head toward the mountains again, but this time toward Lake Tahoe.  You will see from my pictures some of the scenery along the way.  We traveled on Interstate 80 which goes from coast to coast. I have traveled the majority of this highway I think I have only missed the stretch that goes from Toledo, Ohio through Indiana, Illinois, and in to Davenport, Iowa.  Someday I may get that section too.  We went through the Donner Pass area and got off near Truckee, CA and first went to Squaw Valley.  This was sight of the 1960 Olympics.  I hope you enjoy the pictures from there.  I thought for sure I was having the "big one" there, but came to realize it was just the effects of the high altitude and the thinner air.  After spending time there, we drove along the Truckee River on the 10th Mountain Division Highway, which is route 89 in California to Tahoe City.  We spent some time at Commons Beach. I didn't take my shoes off and wade in, the water was much cooler there and I didn't want any cramps in my feet. After spending some time there we drove south along the lake and Justin and Stacy showed us the ski are that they normally go to when they go to Tahoe.  We then had supper at a little place called Spoon.  The food was very good and the portion of baked ziti that I got was very large.  After a long day, we headed back to I80 and they took us to Sacramento to our motel where we were spending a very short night.  Our flight was leaving at 6:06 am so we had to be to the airport by 5 am so we got the 4:30 shuttle to the airport.  We arrived back in Rochester, NY about 9:30pm and drove home getting in around 2:30 am Wednesday morning.  Fortunately, I didn't have to work on Wednesday, but there was a certain little man that came in about 9:30 am and told me that Nanny told him to get me up. (she didn't but it was ok)  Here is the link to the last set of pictures of our trip, hope you enjoyed them!

Lake Tahoe and Squaw Valley

Another segment of our Yosemite trip

These pictures were taken on our second day at Yosemite National Park.  We traveled some long twisty roads to get here.  Route 49 from Angel Camp to Mariposa was a narrow twisty road that made me so nervous.  At one point I asked Justin if he thought the level part above us was an old railroad bed and then I hit the hairpin turn and found out that that was the road above us and not an old railroad.  There are no guard rails along this road either.  I wish I had gotten a picture of some of it.
Here is the link to the pictures of the giant Sequoia trees in the Mariposa Grove at Yosemite National Park.
https://picasaweb.google.com/111472392053516289027/MariposaGroveYosemiteNationalPark2013?authkey=Gv1sRgCPrQ8tXIgZTP4QE#

Yosemite National Park, August 2013

The last week of August we flew out to California to visit with Justin and Stacy for a couple of days.  They had just moved into their apartment the week before, and Justin had just come home from a deployment, so, we wanted to see them before school started so we left New York on Wednesday and arrived in California Wednesday night. Had one delay because of bad weather in Denver, CO.  Thursday was just a lazy day, didn't do a whole lot of anything.  Friday we left and drove south to go to Yosemite National Park.  We had to go further out of our way because of a quickly growing forest fire that has now turned into the an historic fire.  We spent the day Friday in Yosemite Valley seeing the sights.  We drove many hours and miles Friday night to the town of Angel Camp to stay in a motel so we didn't have too far to drive Saturday to the Mariposa Grove in Yosemite to see the giant Sequoia trees.  Here is the first of several links to pictures that I took at Yosemite.

https://picasaweb.google.com/111472392053516289027/YosemiteNationalPark2013?authkey=Gv1sRgCICwhdXdyKOSAQ#

Finished Product

This morning we woke to pouring rain.  We still had a few things to do, but about noon it started to clear and we were able to get started with the final few things that needed to be done.  I got a birthday present last night, it was an electric circular saw.  The  battery ones were just not quite powerful enough to get through the heavy wet pressure treated wood.  Anyway, we got the rail on the set of stairs on this side of the deck.  That was the final thing to do.  If you look closely, you can see Jeffrey and Chris sitting on the deck.  Chris is waving and so happy that we are all done. 

 Not sure what Jeffrey is up to in this picture, but I think he is admiring the great work that Chris and I did this week!

 This is the set of stairs that we built this morning.  Last night we laid out the 2 x 10s and drew the lines for cutting the risers, so as soon as the rain quit and the sun shone, we got busy with the new saw and got them cut and they fit perfectly.  So that was my sister's and my vacation.

Friday's Progress

 The deck is completed.  Today we put the rail all around the deck except at the pool side.  It was a real task cutting all of the posts.  Once they were done, everything else went rather rapidly.  This is the view from the  back door.

 This is the view from the back of the house toward the pool and the driveway side of the deck.

 

 This is the view from the ground looking up the stairs showing the rail a little closer.

 This is the end view showing the whole depth of the deck

 Looking from the other side of the deck.  The stairs on this side is the only thing left to do along with railing for both sets of stairs.

Chris posing on the deck.  We are so proud of this major accomplishment.

Thursday's Work

We were very concerned this morning about the weather, but the rain only came down for about 2 minutes and it wasn't very bad.  The sun came out about 3 o'clock.

 

 We had a good day of working today.  We got the section toward the pool all framed in on the pool side and then got extra support all in place.  While Chris was working on the tough cuts, I got all of the screws in on the 8 x 12 section we decked yesterday.

This is to show you the edge along the side of the pool. If you are really wondering we are raising a special breed of "black mollies" in the pool. 

 This is looking back the other way.

 By supper time, we had all of the deck boards cut and in place and screwed down. Looking pretty awesome.

 Jordan came home not feeling the best, so he wasn't out with us while we were working.  He came out as we were finishing up cleaning up.

 

More of the Project

The first six pictures were taken first thing this morning.

 

 Jeffrey brought his pressure washer over and we cleaned the old part of the deck.  It had some moss growing on it and when it got wet it was very slippery.  Jeffrey knew that from experience.  If you look at the next picture, the steps didn't get cleaned yet and so you can see what the deck would have looked like and the difference the pressure washer made.

 This the framing for the deck boards that we actually got finished last night but didn't get in our pictures because it got too dark to take pictures.  This area is 8' x12', the same size as the old deck.

 This is just some of the color in our backyard. 

 I took these pictures at the end of our day today.  We got the framing for the extension toward the pool all done.  It is all supported and framed together all but the facing boards at the pool side.  We will finish those in the morning.

 All of the deck boards are tacked down on this section but the last one, we have to cut that and we were just running out of steam about 5:15 pm.  We called it a day. 

 Looking back toward the house.  The saw is covered up in case of rain, which we didn't get today like they thought we would and we are very glad. The picture below is just from a different angle. Tomorrow we hope to finish the deck boards and then we have a set of stairs to build and put the rail around the top.  This deck has gone much smoother than the last one we built.  



The Vacation Project

 This is a picture of the deck on the back of our house, it measures 8' x 12'.  It had a rail around it and a set of stairs coming down this side.  We are enlarging the deck to reach out to our small swimming pool and also coming toward you in this picture another 8'. We started on Monday with our measuring and then ordering the supplies and they were delivered Monday afternoon.  The middle supports were not under the original deck.  We got those put in on Monday afternoon.   This deck has been in place for about nine years. It had sagged and settled and was an awful thing to level and straighten. We finished all of that by noon on Tuesday. We had torn the stairs off, so we had to get up and down off of the deck using the step ladder shown in the foreground. Jordan just loved going up and down the ladder.

 Our oil tank was originally set on old railroad ties.  Over the last ten years they had started to rot and were in real bad shape.  Monday the first job we got done was to jack up the tank, take the ties out, and put in some solid blocks.  That was a real job in itself, but we got everything in and taken care of so that should be good for another ten years.

 Tuesday we had to jack up the old deck, cut off some of the supports so that the end away from the house would be level with the rest of the deck.  There was a lot of crawling around underneath that deck the last two days.  We finally got it pretty close to level all the way around. 

 After the leveling process was done, then we put the old stairs (that fit perfectly) on the other side of the deck with blocks underneath the end. That made it a lot easier getting up and down off of the deck. 

 Here you can see the start of the framework that will support the addition to the east end of the deck.  We got the brackets attached and then we leveled the frame and got it all anchored and braced so that we can proceed with the 2 x 6 joists on top.  The picture below shows the new blocks in place under the supports that we had to cut off.  Keep watching for more updates, we did more work after I took these pictures.



This is the start of some of the pictures and hopefully a video from Rachel's piano recital back in June.  I am just running a little behind.

Spring Vacation

Rachel and I just returned from a vacation to California to see Justin and Stacy. We had a wonderful Easter and week after with them. Had a lot of fun and saw a lot of new sights. Thanks again kids for a wonderful time. Here are the links to my different web albums of our trip.https://picasaweb.google.com/111472392053516289027/SacramentoOldSac#, https://picasaweb.google.com/111472392053516289027/NapaValleyAndPointReyesNationalSeashore##, https://picasaweb.google.com/111472392053516289027/SanFranciscoTrip##. There are three different web albums here about three different things that we did. We also did things that I didn't post the pictures of on here but these are the real highlights of our trip. Most of them are captioned but a few still need captions. I will try within the next few days to get them done. Enjoy the glimpses into our lives!

Diet Sunday Dinner

Here are the steaks, hot off the grill. I hadn't tried to grill this winter with my new grill because I have never been able to grill in the winter with a grill because it is too cold here in the winter. It was mild on Thursday, so I tried cooking burgers on the grill and that worked fine, so Rachel suggested that we try the steaks on the grill today. I first had to shovel the pile of snow off of the back deck and clean the snow off of the grill before I could even light it. Got it heated up to 400 degrees and cooked them 10 minutes on one side and about 8 on the other side. Just right is the way to describe them.
Added the rest of the wonderful things to go with it and it was an awesome meal. Sauteed the onions with a little butter and a little olive oil, and then added a can of mushrooms and a can of french onion soup, then cooked off the extra moisture and they were delicious.

Savored every bit of it.

Ice Storm

These are the branches of the tree in front of our house. There is approximately 1/4 inch of ice on everything. The light is reflecting through the ice and I just thought it would make an interesting picture.
You can see the ice build up here on the shepherd's crook plant hanger on the porch also.

You can see the icicles hanging on the porch light at the end of the porch. Everything was encased in this ice. Sort of reminiscent of the Ice Storm of '98.

And this is a duplicate picture that I can't seem to delete.

Good- bye Intrepid

Our dear faithful Chrysler Intrepid is finally going to take its final trip out of the yard in the next couple of days. (It would have been gone today, except we had an ice storm) A man stopped and inquired about what we were going to do with the two cars in the yard, I explained that one belonged to my son, but that we wanted to sell them. He wanted the Intrepid for parts, made an offer and we took it. We bought it with 19,000 miles on it and in now has 189,000 miles on it. It has been a very good car for us, it survived two teenage drivers, one deer, one ditch, and one stop sign. Good-bye Intrepid, you have been a good and faithful friend!

Merry Christmas from our house to yours!

Merry Christmas a little early

Justin and Stacy were home on the 1st of December. While they were here, Chris, my sister came and we celebrated with them. They were here for several days and then went to Pennsylvania to spend several days with Stacy's family. They came back home and then Rachel and I took them to Syracuse to fly out on Wednesday the 14th to go back to California. We were so glad to have them here. While they were here we took the opportunity to get a few group pictures. The time flew by so quickly, but it was a good time. Here is a link to the pictures https://picasaweb.google.com/111472392053516289027/JustinAndStacyWereHome##

There was a mouse in our house!

Last night we returned home from our Brushton Camp Meeting meeting and it was late. I checked my papers and facebook and blogs and decided I was very tired and headed for bed. I had just crawled in bed, decided to read a few pages of a book to relax myself. I picked up the book and underneath it was a bug, a stinkbug to be specific. I got up and grabbed a tissue, scooped up the bug and headed into the bathroom to flush it down the toilet. I lifted the seat on the toilet and jumped back startled. There was a mouse in the toilet. I am hoping this was the mouse that we have been trying to catch over the last three weeks, but I don't know for sure. Anyway, it took three flushes to get rid of the little mouse. What a way to end the day! (Forgot to take any pictures!)

Carpentry job at the parsonage.

This week I took a few vacation days and my sister did too. She came and we worked at the church parsonage while the pastor and his family were away. We did casings for two doors and three windows, molding for three doors, one door way (both sides) and three windows. We are also putting wainscoting in the dining room with a cap molding on that. Here is a link to see the work that we have done so far. https://picasaweb.google.com/111472392053516289027/CarpentryJobOnTheParsonage#

Busy day!

No pictures today, but I had a very busy and productive day. After I took Rachel to school, Jeffrey came over and we had eggs and scrapple for breakfast before he had to go to work. Then after he left, I quickly checked email, FB, and a few headlines before heading out to do errands. I left the house, went to the DMV, the post office, the bank, the oil company, and then to Home Depot. I got some of that spray insulation so I could fill some holes where the mice are getting in. I then ran to WM and picked up some D-con to get rid of the mice. Then came home to start working. It all started Sunday night when Jeffrey was here and opened the pantry door and a mouse scurried past his hand. We proceeded to empty the pantry looking for the mouse. There were two large containers of almost everything that was in the pantry sitting in the middle of the kitchen floor. We just carefully walked around them for a few days. So today, I scrubbed the pantry out, and the sealed all of the holes and cracks where a mouse could get in, then proceeded to put most of the stuff back in the pantry. I did throw away some very old stuff. Then I cleaned out the bottom of the pantry where we had canning supplies and pots and pans and roaster and such. I also sealed all of the holes there. Got that all cleaned up and then got into the space where the water heater is and closed all of the holes there. Hopefully, I won't see or hear of anymore mice. The D-con went under the house in the crawl space and I sealed any holes I could see to prevent any critters from getting under the house. I did buy some old fashioned traps and am going to set some of those just in case there are some dumb critters still in the house hiding. After I did all of that, the house cleaner (Tiffany) came so I retreated to the bedroom and finished folding and putting away the laundry and stripped the sheets off of the bed and made the bed with nice clean sheets. It was finally time to go get Rachel at school at about 6 pm. (She stayed late to do some work) Got home and fixed chicken noodle soup for supper and now just trying to relax!

Scenes from around the house outside

This is from my hibiscus that is on the front porch full of buds.
The apple tree in the front yard. I have made one pie from the apples and may do more! It was very good.

Looking from the front yard to the back, about in the middle is where the large ash tree was.

Just some of the sumac in the back yard, it gets very colorful this time of year.

This is from the top of the sand pile looking toward the west, the two maples along the back of the house are gone plus the ash that was at the end of the deck.

From the lower part of the yard, the maple that was in the middle of the yard is missing plus a smaller ash tree just by the shed (you can see the ash started sprouting again).

Taken looking west again.

This was taken from the back door. It is amazing that the back yard is at least as big as the front if not bigger.