Beautiful Clearlake in California

Beautiful Clearlake in California
Pacific Ocean/Mendocino Feb 2016
Update: March 6th, 2016.
After a very very long year of learning to live a new life with my most recent handicap. I am getting movement in my arm!! :) It started the end of August and has been progressing, slowly. My issues with paranioia and depression are also getting better. I am confident that things will continue to progress. However, loosing a whole YEAR of my life is devastating to say the least. However, keeping a positive attitude for the most part has been a huge challenge, but I do it. I am grateful to all my family and friends that have been so encouraging and helpful. Thank you..




Sunday, October 28, 2012

Ernie & Shirley’s Halloween Bash 2012

Ernie & Shirley host a smashing Halloween Bash every year! Shirley is crazy for Halloween as I am about Christmas! They out did themselves this year! Ernie made 3 bird houses that look like pontoon boats and on HUGE hotel type bird house! He does such a fabulous job on them! Then he gives them away as he did last night. (We were one of the lucky ones last year!) They give tickets out and then draw the winning ticket.. Everyone is always thrilled when they win one of his bird houses!! They also did an array of other gifts as well. They have cute little party favors..

halloween 094

We vote on Best Costume, last night we even voted on 2nd Best Costume and prizes are awarded. They both put so much thought into the celebration! The house and yard are all decorated with decorations! Food galore! Most of the food is all done by Shirley, amazing..  They had little games that they also planned, a ring toss (couldn’t get the ring on the witches hat!) and a ping pong ball into glasses that had little candy type prizes (I won some candy).. too too much!! Smile
Fun time was had by all.. Thanks for a grand time Ernie & Shirley!!


Monday, October 15, 2012

Weigand’s and the Harvest Dinner

After fishing up at Medicine Lake for a few days, we had let Stan & Glorianne that we would be coming by to visit them and give a helping hand for Ft Crook’s Museums annual harvest dinner held at the Veterans hall there in Fall River Mills. Stan & Glorianne are very active members with the museum. Glorianne is the secretary along with many other duties. We had offered to help with the dinner earlier last week when we were all camping together at Hat Creek. Plus it was another reason to see them!! Smile
We arrived at the Weigand’s about 3pm.. S & G had made plans for dinner at the Spinner Fall Resort <<(check out this place) for a very nice dinner.. Great ambiance! Lovely grounds and elegant restaurant!
Unfortunately I forgot my camera.. imagine that?? well I did.
We had a nice visit sharing our adventures of the past week with them..
Enjoying our surroundings.. so nice looking off over the Fall River and seeing the paddle wheel moving ever so slowly as the river gently rotated it.. Dinner was delicious. 3 of us had the sole and one had the prawns.. everything was delicious.. The cocktails were a bit skimpy and a bit tasteless.. The margaritas were watery/salty.. My martini didn’t have much vodka and Ev’s bourbon and 7 was somewhat weak as well. They could work on the “bar” issues… Food was wonderful..
We had parked our trailer out in front of S & G’s house. We parked over by the horses by the barn/garage. That way we could have water and electricity.. Smile It was great!
We had some apple crisp when we got back to the house after dinner.. then retired soon afterwards.. Long day on Sunday.. Harvest Dinner..
Got up early and left about 8:30am to get the Veterans hall set up for the dinner at 1pm. We stopped off at the museum first to get the supplies we needed to set up the tables etc..There was lots of help.. Nice to see everyone come and and help! Everyone did their part. We packed up the cars and trucks and took what we needed to the hall.. Everyone had a chore it seemed and they knew it well. Everything came together rather quickly and it wasn’t long before we were ready for the 100 guests they would expect. There were lots of raffle prizes, gorgeous barn wood with local brands framing large mirrors, a very nice rifle someone donated, along with various other prizes..
Stan & Ev and another cowboy went to someone’s ranch that wanted to donate a “tack” room (OLD) that was about to fall down to the museum.. So they had to go out and measure it to see what they could fit the building on to move it.. Turned out the building was only about 12’X18’ so they could probably move it on a low boy trailer (un-assemble) and then re-assemble it at the museum..
Glorianne and I served on the food line and served the dessert too. We had about 100 people for the dinner. We ran out of food.. Sad smile but that happens sometimes because you just never know how many will show up for a full dinner at the price of $8! Pot Roast/roasted potatoes/gravy/carrots/squash/biscuits/butter/dessert! It was wonderful meeting new people and making new friends. We really enjoyed ourselves helping out! After the dinner we broke everything down and took it back and put it back in the places we had gotten it.. Then off to home we went.. The guys got their dinner, however Glorianne and I were not as lucky to have the dinner as they ran out.. So Glorianne made us some potato soup and some snacky foods and that was our dinner.. Smile Had some dessert (homemade rhubarb pie.. ) and played dominos for a couple of hours.. S & G shared with us some wonderful history and great family stories.. so interesting to listen to. Ev & I loved it!
We were gifted with some of Glorianne’s books she has written (history of family and friend of the Big Valley area of CA/OR). Glorianne’s books>>
http://www.amazon.com/Glorianne-Weigand/e/B001K93MQ4
we will treasure them.. Smile


Got a note from Glorianne today after getting home and now they are going fishing up to Medicine Lake this week and try their luck!! Smile Good Luck! Keep us posted!!

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Medicine Lake last day..

Burrr soooo cold this morning.. ice in the tubs outside, ice crystals everywhere.. too cold to jump up this morning.. started generator and finished watching our movie that we started last night.. Smile It was just too cold to get going early..
Ev wanted some trout this morning for breakfast. I put them in some foil with some lemon, butter, salt & pepper, wrapped them up and put them on the bbq on low for about 20 minutes and they were perfect.. cooked up some eggs and toast.. good to go.. Today is surely colder than the past couple of days, more wind.. not sure if we will get to kayak today or not??
Went down to the boat luanch to fish.. threw our lines in and again and probably 30 times, NO BITES NO FISH!!?? OMG!! The bite was done.. Sad smile Ev’s reel isn’t working the best so we decided to get some water for the trailer.. uumm but on our way we decided to stop at Little Medicine Lake.. here the bite was good!! Not terrific, but much better than the boat launch on Medicine.. Wind was still strong, but the small lake was more protected.. took us a couple of hours but we limited once again… Smile
When we got back to camp, the neighbor/next camp over asked if we had seen the 10 year old boy named Michael when we were driving?? We said no, but were happy to go looking.. So we hopped in the truck and started driving up and down the loops asking people if they had seen Michael.. Went down to the boat ramp and asked there as well.. people were genuinely concerned! After about a half hour of looking, someone from our neighboring camp said they had found Michael.. He had gotten disorientated and walked down by the water where his Uncle saw him and picked him up..Thank God.. such a relief.. we were so worried!

Ev cleaned the fish and I made lunch.. we had our lunch and then Ev took a rest while me and the dogs took a walk around the camp ground.. I put in an apple crisp in the oven before our walk.. uummm smells so good…
We will be leaving in the morning.. good thing.. we are almost out of fuel for the generator!! Sad smile and we are low on propane.. didn’t think we would be this far from any services.. need to be more prepared next time.. Smile
Dinner is a bit late this evening… wanted to get some things packed up.. And needed to get the last bit of fishing in.. caught a couple more but let them go.. too much cleaning of fish today… Had to worry about getting things packed.. weather is changing.. rain/snow possible tonight.. got what we could packed and what we couldn’t went under the awning.. In the meantime.. we had a gourmet dinner.. Filet Minion, twice baked potatoes and sautéed mushrooms along with some home grown sliced tomatoes<< last of the season..and dessert was homemade apple crisp…uuummm ummmm so good.. great last night dinner..

Saturday we leave Medicine Lake.. We will spend some time with Glorianne & Stan at their place in McArthur.. They are putting on a Harvest Dinner and the closing of the Museum at Fall River Mills for the season..
Can’t wait to help Glorianne and give her a hand in getting things ready for that Harvest Dinner.. ..Smile and then on Monday we will be home.. Looking forward to our cooler weather.. Smile By the 15th of Oct.. should be pleasant..

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Medicine Lake

We don’t usually get up too early while camping.. 7am seems to be the perfect time.. Of course camping in the mountains this time of the year is a bit COLD at night! Like FREEZING!  Heater is running all night! Daytime is gorgeous, like about 65 to 72 or so.. Medicine Lake is about 6500 feet..
This is our second day here… aww and it is gorgeous.. We met our neighbors Gina & Patrick.. Gina is retired school teacher from Sonoma County and Patrick is a wine maker.. Both are serious kayakers.. We ran out of eggs.. no stores for more than 50 miles…We were very grateful to them.. … They were kind enough to leave us their 6 eggs as well as some left over ice, they were heading out for Tule Lake.. Our ice maker seems to be on the FRITZ! It’s a camping ice maker, Mr. Freeze.. got fried earlier this year when we were at Hereford Ranch when they were having power problems and got a big power serge.. fried.. well not working right at all! As the day progressed we decided to take our kayaks out.. We started paddling across the lake down by the boat launch.. we noticed that people were catching the trout like crazy! Every cast! OMG how  does that happen?? We hurried and paddled back to camp so we could go fishing..
We got our poles, and gear and drove over to the boat ramp so we could fish.. We weren’t out here for an hour and we both limited!! OMG it was crazy! Every cast nearly there was a bite or fish on! Some we let some go and some got off, but mostly they stayed on!! Incredible day fishing! These kind of days are not a regular happening!!
So really today, we did about 2 or 3 miles kayaking, we did a 2 mile walk with dogs to “Little Medicine Lake” and caught our limits of fish.. Perfect day! Dinner was Chicken Faitias, refried beans (homemade) and some pumpkin bread for dessert.. Perfect day!! Smile

medicine lake 042

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Travel Day heading for??

We left Hat Creek campground about 10:30 this morning.. We had originally planned to go to “Cave” campground here at Hat Creek, but changed our mind while we were the dump.. Smile Said to Ev we should try McCloud Res, where our neighbors/friends Craig & Jane go.. Ev agreed so I called Craig the directions and off went, Craig was so nice to give us a great detailed info how to get there.
We pulled into McCloud just before lunch so had lunch at “Floyds Frostys”, I think that was the name of it?.. had a hamburger (very good) and headed for the secret place where Craig & Jane camp.. Well we drove out to the lake, and just as we got to the boat ramp, the rest of the road was CLOSED!! USFS had placed signs that read “road closed”!! DANG! Turned around and now the questions is “where do we go now”? We drove back to McCloud to the “ranger” station.. Stopped and asked a “ranger” what was open?? We were pretty irritated thinking that everything “forest service” is Closed??!! It is only October 9th and it is like 80 degrees! Hat Creek Campground closed 10/9?? OMG, trout fishing season is over November 1st ! TOO MUCH REGULATION! TOO MUCH GOVERNMENT! Punish us who pay our taxes.. but waste where the government wants it!! ok ok.. no politics!

So when we were talking with the ranger at McCloud he was surprised that Hat Creek was closed!! It is only 1 hr south of McCloud.. anything government, the “right hand don’t know what the left hand is doing”, so typical (WASTE). Ok.. so we asked the ranger “what is open”, he said I do believe (he believes? this is his job!~)“Medicine Lake” is open.. Ok so we decided to take our chances.. too us about 2 hours or so to get here!! Smile To our surprise it is OPEN!! Yipeee!! We drove through the campground looking for the perfect spot.. Smile We found it.. however it was a “son of a gun” to get into.. we had to have lake front! So it took some maneuvering, but we got it!! Had to jack knife the trailer to get it in! But did.. aawww… pheeewww.. but all worth it.. GORGEOUS! Love it! 2 Reasons why we love it.. The obvious reason is that it is gorgeous! number 2, the price is normally $7 a night, but there is no water on in the campground (due to freezing weather at night) price is $5 and if you have the senior pass it is half that price!! Smile YEP $2.50 per night!! wooo hooo we scored!!!
As you can imagine we are pretty exhausted after all our travel today..more than we had anticipated at any rate! We are about 50 miles from the nearest “service”, store/gas/etc.. happy we have everything…
I did txt a few people telling them where we would be, that was when we going to McCloud.. no one knows where we are now.. oopps…

medicine lake 005

medicine lake 004        

        medicine lake 008

Monday, October 8, 2012

Hat Creek/Stan & Glorianne

We left bright and early on Saturday morning so we could meet up with Stan & Glorianne at the Hat Creek campground. It was 7:30am when we left home.. this has to be a first in a very long long time.. Ev and I don’t ever get out of home before 10am.. It was nice to leave early and get to the campground before NOON!! woo hoo! We weren’t here about 5 minutes and here come S & G!! It wasn’t till the day before we left that S & G decided they were going to join us! So happy they did! They didn’t have far to come to meet up with us.. They had about an hour’s drive from McArthur, up off hwy 299, just east of Burney…Soon as we got camp set up we packed up into the truck and went up to the “Bridge” fishing.. we had a little luck.. caught a few but let a couple go, and came home with one.. put that one in the freezer, hoping that we might fill the bag??
That evening we had a crab lasagna, one extra one that I had made up from earlier in the week. uummm Very good..
That night was cold, freezing I do believe. We felt the cold that night even in the trailer… Thank God for the generator, we fired it off early that morning got the heater going..
During the day the temps warmed nicely nearly 80. But, at night the cold returned. Changing our clothes probably 3 times a day.. warm to cool and back to warm.. Stayed close to camp today and fished.. no luck.. but still it was a great day.. We took some nice walks, had some nice talks, had a great lunch with friends and shared some great stories. Dinner was ribs and more stories and a great bon fire with friends. The day couldn’t get any better than this.. Hat Creek campground closes on the 9th of October.. so S & G left on Monday we are scheduled to leave on the 9th and probably head over to “Cave” campground as it will stay open till the first snows.. Before S & G left we had “lunch”, that would be brownies and berry pie with a glass of milk.. pretty good lunch I thought!! At lunch we discussed what Ev & I were going to do for the rest of the week. We decided on joining Stan & Glorianne at their place on Saturday.. for a couple night stay.. Smile Plus there is a celebration at the Fall River Museum on Sunday night.. The closing of the museum for the winter.
We took a ride into town (Burney) after S & G left, so we could check email, phone messages, etc.. Checked out some other camp areas but settled on the “Cave” campground.. with our “Senior pass’ it will only be $5 a night to stay.. we are fully self contained.. There will be no water, no other facilities, we will be fine for a few days.. Hope we get some good fishing in over the next few days.. also have the kayaks, maybe we will hit Balm Lake or another lake??

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Crab Lasagna Night w/friends..

The day started with me getting my canning done.. Got 9 pints of pears put up.. Then did 3 apple crisps, 2 pie sized for the freezer and one large one for the Moose Breakfast on Sunday, sent home with Larry & Lynn..
We are going to Hat Creek this weekend, for a few days or more?? It was a last minute decision.. and can’t wait to go! (Let Glorianne and Stan know we are coming.. Smile Excited to see them..)
So that meant I needed to get all that canning and pies done and had some plums in the fridge that needed to get froze.. ahhh done…
Last night I got the lasagna made for tonight dinner.. Turned out fabulous!! OMG.. so rich and soooooo good!
Dinner was a hit.. Larry & Lynn donated the crab.. which took Ev and I about 2 hours together to get it all “picked”..

004

Smile Then I put the lasagna together and let all the flavors melted together over night.. uumm so good..
Beautiful day and beautiful evening.. weather is finally perfect.. awww.. cooling off.. so nice…
We saw a strange sight on the lake tonight.. it looked like a small sail boat.. actually it was a reflection…

=002

Weird reflection..
Dinner was great.. Judy brought a wonderful Blackberry pie for dessert.. as you can see it had a little critter on mine!!

018
I think as always we all had a nice evening.. Good Evening..