Sunday, January 31, 2010

T-shirt skiing


We arrived at Sierra Summit at 12-ish, perfect for a half day ticket. Sun was up, snow was wonderful, taco salad was delish, and live music was kicking. Not too many people in the slopes and we got about 6 runs total. The weather was so warm that we had to go back to the car and leave an entire layer of clothing!

We didn't need the snow shoes to walk to the car as the snow has frozen (if that makes any sense). Huntington lake was frozen and we had an incredible view from the top of the slopes.









Auntie Ann, there is plenty of wood by the
log cabin:









Ski Day!

Off to Sierra Summit! Their website says 34, a couple inches of new snow, and sunny. Sweet!

Saturday, January 30, 2010

Dogs are hungry

Well, we forgot to bring dog food from the car again, and we just ran out after half of a dinner. BUT - there are plenty of mice, so maybe this will work out in your favor...

Antes y despues - Foto Update




Before (taken a week ago)


















After (Taken today)








To see the snow level, check out the window to the right






Tunnel with stairs made for El Tio Poderoso and Auntie Ann:







Before the tunnel



















El Tio Poderoso and Autie Ann's tunnel














Fire Going!

It turned dark and we just turned on the fire. Several chapters of Hiassen down, and we made a hole into the front entry way (with stairs!) because too much snow has melted and going in over the side is going to end in an inevitable and unfortunate railing-family jewels encounter for me. Great news! Al Pacino is napping, Juan is gazing longingly at the fire. Becky is coming behind me with photo updates!

Auntie Ann: Definitely bring Sourdough start if possible. I'll let you guys know what happens tomorrow when I try to make it again. We moved two "racks" of wood so far - there is a lot left by the log cabin, and there is wood outside the house as well. We'll be sure and leave wood drying inside for you. We are saving wood only for the sake of conservation (one earth), not because we think we'll run out of wood. We'll leave you a full report - but no, you don't need to bring anything other than sourdough. Lots of wine + essentials (toilet paper, etc).

Mom: Traps moved. Hopefully we'll get another one! Or not. Actually, I'm not sure what to hope for, so I guess either way I can be happy with the end result?

OK - becky with photos...

Snow!

Its snowinggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggg again!

Just a little, little bit.

Eek! A mouse!

Just caught a mousey wousey in the trap next to the fridge. He wasn't there last night, but we didn't hear the trap go off today, so it must have been last night sometime. I put him in a black bag and then tossed him out. Sad way to go I guess, but he won't be pooping on MY pillow anytime soon. Other than that, no signs of mice (poop, tracks, dance parties, etc) so far. Unfortunately, of course, this no doubt falls in the category of "where there's one, theres more..."

I cooked pancakes this morning (using 2 eggs) and I think it made the not so active sour dough start better. OF COURSE I forgot to save start before putting in sugar/salt/soda/egg this morning, but then I figured "eh, what the heck" and saved some anyway. Can i fake it tomorrow morning or is the start now dead and becky/I now at risk of horrible salmonella poisoning? The potatoes and eggs that went with it were killer, of course.

Becky and I have not started a fire, as we have sunshine (generally) and are saving the wood for colder days later this winter when we hope to be back. We robbed the Los Banos Starbucks of a about 8 copies of the Los Banos Recorder (we did pay for one) because who's going to by a paper at Friday night after 10PM. I'm sure they're happy to have the circulation, anyway.

We are now preparing brownies for a little snack before we start cooking dinner in a couple of hours. MMM warm brownies!

We took pictures of our awesome breakfast this morning. If you're lucky, we'll take pictures of our awesome dinner tonight too, but I'll leave picture posting to Becky.

Snowwwwwww

We just woke up and it's snowwwwwing! It just started, there is only a light dusting and it's already snowing less now than it was 5 minutes ago. I can see some big light flakes. There is just enough wind the flakes are blowing around a little. Doesn't look like it'll last long.


Power electricity and everything



Made it! All looks good. No mice or mouse evidence to be found. Dishwasher running, sourdough mixed for morning, electric blanket is on high. Snow has melted a lot. 28 on the car thermometer when we parked. So happy to be here!

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Mice Musings



I wouldn't have made it without the snowshoe trail Andrew blazed through the fresh, deep, powdery snow.


Climbing up off the front porch to the trail/trench, while keeping an eye on the snow ready to slide off the roof was exhilarating.

Andrew waged his war outside but mine took place inside. For the first time ever mice came to visit for Thanksgiving. By Christmas they had left a few to many presents for us. 18 traps have been left for the next cabin visitors to check. The snap traps are placed:
-to the right of the computer table behind the board
-SE living room corner behind the foam mat
-left of the fireplace behind the woodpile
-right of fireplace behind red cushion
-SW corner behind dining table extension
-under stove (oops, no room to flip lever)
-left of refrigerator behind trays
-under lower stairs to loft
-in utility closet behind the old broken snow shovel
-in both bathrooms behind the wastebaskets
-floor of hallway food storage cupboard
The sticky mat traps are:
-on my bed (hey that's where I found the first de con pellets)
-under the west side of the sofa that faces the fireplace
-scattered in the utility closet
-next to the wine storage, in case they have a palate for 2 buck Chuck
And then because some of us think it's a big coincidence that the mice appeared not long after the re plumbing, there is duct tape around the new pipes in the bedroom closet. If those varmits climb up the pipes they will show us how they chewed through the duct tape, I hope.
One 'crawl inside' type trap is in the water pipe closet and the other in the kitchen.
All traps were baited with peanut butter &/or bacon grease. I knew they liked bacon grease because they had been sampling from the can left out on the counter.
Approaching the war front another front, Andrew & Becky put into action 2 sonic repellents. If we don't catch anything it's because our mouse friends have been driven away. I'm sure.
So that's how I spent my weekend. How was yours?

Monday, January 25, 2010

Igloo



We parked the car at 2:30pm and the snow was 7 feet deep. We were able to walk up to the cabin because Andrew snowshoe a mid-thigh highway for Jane, Juan, Al Pacino, and me. It took us about two hours from the car to the cabin. To our surprise when we arrived, the cabin was powerless and waterless. The house was a little chilly but by 10pm the temperature rose 9 degrees to a comfortable temperature of 49 degrees. We ate dinner by the fire still wearing our snow boots, hats, jackets, and Jane was still wearing her gators.

Last time we visited the cabin Andrew and I did not leave any wood inside. Big lesson learned: leave wood inside the cabin in winter times. Despite only having wet wood Jane, girl scout extraordinaire, built a very warm fire--she had to sacrifice the thanksgiving turkey pine cone. The power came back up sometime around 3 or 4 am and lasted for about 8 hours until it went out again.

Saturday morning Andrew revived the sourdough start and we had some incredible sourdough pancakes for breakfast. Then he shoveled the snow from the deck near the new barn doors. Jane said "Andrew cooks AND shovels snow. What a great company in the cabin."

Our attempt to go skiing didn't quite worked as Sierra Summit's parking lot was full. Luckily we heard this news when we were just at Shaver, so we turned around, went back to the cabin and went to play with the dogs in the snow.



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