Honor Flight Veterans Return Home

I got a call from Laura on Saturday asking if we would attend the return of our veterans from the “Honor Flight” down at the park down by the Senior Center at 2pm on Sunday.
Lee Weldy (Laura’s husband) and Bill Hahn would be a couple of Vets from our community that were invited to take this trip to Washington DC.
There were lots of people at this evening.. some we new and some we didn’t, everyone having the same goal which was to welcome our returning Soldiers! What a grand welcome they received!! Patriot Music played by John Z, food provided by the Senior Center, Military Guard, Motorcycle escort, cheer leaders as well as so many grateful citizens!! Lots of tears of joy for both Military and civilians!

Honor Flight VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Earlier in the day our friends Frieda & Ryan were up visiting and asked if we would like to join them for breakfast. We had a lovely visit. We don’t get to see much of them as they live in Vallejo and only visit a few times a year.. They brought their friends Sheri & Stan.. Fun times…

Halloween Saturday!! Ernie & Shirley’s

Ernie & Shirley planned their annual (4th) Halloween Party many months in advance. I remember back in early September getting an invitation from Ernie via email.
Shirley goes all out in her decorating.. It is wonderful and of course they are always adding new and exciting creatures!
They are amazing hosts! When I say they go all out they go all out! Shirley does a bountiful array of finger foods/fruits/desserts as well as ham/sausages/wings/etc.. Guests do bring sides as well to add to the already variety of culinary creativity! 

Our hosts below, Ernie & Shirley

Ernie is an expert craftsmen. He builds very detailed bird houses! Bird feeders, bird house for one family all the way up to log cabin type/hotel type that hold many bird families! The detail is incredible! Ernie has been building these “master pieces” for years and he always donates them for raffles or just as a gift for the best costume at their Halloween parties. Of course they have other wonderful parties throughout the year that they also give out as a door prize. Very generous gift! This year was no different at the Halloween party, a lovely log cabin type of bird house went for the best costume, whom just happen to be Keith. He was dressed as a “cheerleader”.. A very “riskay” costume for a man to wear.. He did have a “partner” in crime” so to speak, Chad.. Oh my they were so funny! There was also another Hotel type Bird House that was a door prize. Incredible! Chad is always the “MC” at Ernie & Shirley’s parties. He loves getting on the “mike” making people laugh, embarrassing, making harassing comments,etc.. he loves it!! You can just tell.
John “Z” (Zimmerman) is our music for the evening. He always does a great job! This year he added a wonderful lady, Karen.. She has a lovely voice and is very fun.
A great evening again! Thank you Ernie & Shirley!!

Ernie & Shirley’s Halloween Party VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Eventful week

As this eventful week has been unfolding, we had yet another dinner party on Tuesday evening. We had invited Winny/
Rob/Mama Willie, whom are from Holland to join us for dinner that evening, however they were unable to attend due to travel plans being changed.
I had called our new Doctor Andrew Schwartz to also join us that evening for dinner. He gladly accepted. Doc Andrew is new to our area and doesn’t know many people. I had shown him some photos of the fish we caught at Medicine Lake and he was excited to be invited to try some of the fish!!
We all enjoyed the evening, talking about this and that. Andrew loved the views from the deck overlooking the lake. It was a very pleasurable evening.. didn’t get any pics that night…
Wednesday was a kick back day.. Not much going on that day.. Thursday was about canning in the morning and Moose meetings in the afternoon.
Friday evening we went down to the Moose because Charley Baker Band was playing for the Animal Coalition Halloween Costume Dinner and Dance fund raiser. They had sold out of tickets, 250 tickets had sold!!! The Moose was hopping that night!! However I don’t think there were 250 people there, but there was probably about 150! Everyone was having a ball!! It is always great to see the Moose Hall full of life!!

Animal Coalition Halloween Party VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Quad Ride with Doc & Pam

First thing when I got up on Monday morning I called Andrew Schwartz md.. my doctor (new to our area).. I was into see him last week for some test results and mentioned to him we had caught lots of trout.. He looked amazed so I said would you come for dinner sometime? and his eyes lit up, so I told him I would give him a call..So called him and invited him for Tuesday night dinner.. He said he would be here..Andrew is a nice Jewish man.. He is about 45 years old. New to this area and a bit naive and seems to be a bit lonely.. He has no family here and doesn’t know a lot of people..

Pam called last week so we could set up this time for a quad ride in the “outback”. A ride out to Indian Valley Reservoir.
About 80 mile round trip ride on the 4-wheelers. An easy ride really, all dirt roads there and back. Beautiful country and the weather was perfect!
Doc & Pam had bought a new quad and needed sometime to break it in.. Easy ride and good break in for it.
We had a lunch packed and they arrived here about 930am or so. Doc unloaded the quad we packed everything on we needed to take and off we went.
It was a very nice day… we stopped periodically to enjoy the views of the lake and just pass the time chit chatting and enjoying nature.. Had lunch next to the very slow moving stream, not much water this time of the year..
We were all in shock when we finally reached the reservoir there was pretty much NO WATER!! OMG! We took pictures at the boat launch and then it was about a 2.2 mile drive down to the water line!!

         

The picture above was taken Nov 2006, the one next to it was taken Oct 2013.. 2.2 miles to the water line.

This reservoir is used for irrigation in Yuba county. But never had I seen it this low.. pretty sad..
We got in about 530 that afternoon.. had a beer together and then we parted ways… Nice day..

Quad Ride VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Dinner Guests :)

Cully and Rhea arrived about 5:30 on Sunday afternoon. Cully lives in SF and Rhea lives in Oakland. They met about 6 weeks ago on the internet!! Wishing them the best.. Like her a lot.. They have a long drive home after dinner..
I cooked most of the day. We had tri tip, fresh caught trout, homemade sourdough bread, twice baked potatoes, summer salad and homemade apple crisp.. It was such a nice evening..

Cully & Rhea over for dinner VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Fashion Show at the Moose October 19, 2013

It’s a given that Ev and I are busy! We have so many great friends and we love them all dearly! So, when the opportunity arises to spend a little time with them? We do! and we always Love it!
This week as you can already see it has been busy. We started out with the Fashion Show at the Moose on Saturday. The fashion was the “bomb”!! It was fabulous!! The models were incredible! The food was wonderful! We all had a wonderful time! However, Tina and I were having such a good time we decided to continue on into the evening.. We had some fun at the Moose, then Charles came in and we continued to have even more fun.. From here we decided to have more fun and go on to the Happy Garden.. We were having so much there we continued onto the Barn (cocktail lounge) for even more fun!!! About 11pm I called Ev to ask him to come pick me up..Too much fun!!!
The next morning Ev and Kaylee took a walk down the hill to the Happy Garden pick up the truck that I had left there from the night before.. What a wonderful husband I have!!!

Fashion Show VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Home and the work begins!

We arrived home from our week long adventure up in the Northeastern part of CA. Fishing with Glorianne & Stan. Then staying with them the majority of the time we were gone! Sometimes I feel like we are taking them away from things they are so busy with? But always seems to work out ok..
Got home Oct 14 late afternoon. Washed the trailer, started getting things put away, etc.. soon we were both tired and decided we needed finish this job tomorrow.. We needed to get the trailer ready to go down to Santa Rosa for yet another warranty trip, hoping this time everything gets actually fixed! We were planning on taking it down on Thursday the 17th.
In the meantime just trying to do catch up from being gone a week. We had new renters coming in at the lake house, un packing the trailer, etc.. busy time..WOTM have an upcoming Fashion Show on Saturday.. I am heading up the fashion show part. Have chair people heading up the food.
Dropped the trailer off on Thursday. Always an adventure taking it to the Santa Rosa RV Sales! never do they want to hear or see us! I called them back in Sept to let them know we would be bringing in around the middle of Oct to fix the warranty stuff before it was up in November. Of course I called as we were driving down there and Jared the service guy hit the fan when I said we were brining it in, he was sooooo busy.. Seems be the norm.. Never a good time to bring it in. I told him this was the only time we had and could park it in their lots next door till they could get to it. When we arrived he pointed out that “all those trailers over there in that lot, WERE PAYING PEOPLE”.. really? and we didn’t pay? Same crap every time we go there! Half the stuff gets fixed and have gets denied or some excuse! so we will see what we end up this time.. This time the shower pan has to be replaced due to LACK OF SUPPORT IT CRACKED! I told them this back in Feb.. Jared said well don’t stand there….
Pam called me on Wednesday and we set up a quad ride out to Indian Valley Res for Monday.. aawww.. that will be a nice relaxing day.. While in Santa Rosa, had a nice lunch with my daughter Lindsy.. Nice to see her had been a few months.. Miss her when I don’t’ see her.. did some shopping and soon we were headed home…
WOTM fashion show was very nice.. Food was good, fashions were very nice. Got an unexpected visit from one of our friend’s with his new girlfriend. Cully and girlfriend Rhea.. Invited them over for dinner on Sunday.
In the  meantime after the fashion show, Charles came in and Tina and I were at the bar.. well?? we decided to keep the party going on and on and on.. We hit up the Happy Garden for a little while then ended up at the Barn.. Called Ev to come and get me about 11.. now I am so worried to be ill all day on Sunday.. But to my amazement?? I was fine.. Thank God cause I was having company for dinner that night..

Fun with Glorianne & Stan

When we woke up Wednesday morning at Medicine Lake we had about an inch and half of snow, not to mention how darn cold it was!! burrrr.. Ev decided he was going to try his hand at fishing, but soon returned to camp with no fish and he was pretty cold. I stayed in the trailer concentrating on keeping warm with the heater going!! It wasn’t long and snow started melting enough so we could get packed up and head down the hill to Glorianne and Stan’s.
Ripley had a dental appointment at 8am in Adin. So staying at G & S’s was very convenient and we could enjoy our friends for the next couple of days..
We arrived mid afternoon at G & S.. They had us all lined out to where to park the trailer. This would our home till Monday.
Glorianne is so organized and a whiz at cooking up some great dishes at a moments notice it seems. She has so many “irons” in the fire that girl!. Upcoming antique fashion show in November. Using the fashions for the museum. She has more than 45 outfits to get models to wear. The interesting thing is that the fashions from this long ago era are all very tiny.. so it just got show how we are all filling out more these days.. Glorianne has some mending and ironing/steaming to do on all these clothes as well. She also has the harvest dinner planning as a community event and her hand in the Heritage Days at Burney Falls. This event Ev and I would attend. Over the course of the next couple of days we were pretty busy with a few things.
Thursday we were up bright and early so we could take Ripley over to the vet to have his teeth cleaned ($165). We come up here to have the teeth done, because it is so darned expensive at Clearlake at Dr. Sally’s ($500 plus)..
We dropped Ripley off and we took a ride over to Eagle lake.. Second largest natural lake in CA. It seemed like it took us forever to get to the lake! Finally we came upon the lake for which it was extremely low! Drought definitely had a part in this what looks like barren waste land with a puddle water..
Docks in laying on the lake bed and the lake has receded as much as a 1/2 mile!! Driving further to the south end of the lake the marina with breakwater was completely dry!! Really so sad.. There was a “low” water dock that the state put in for those who still would like to try their luck with those “Eagle lake trout”.. someone told me that average depth of Eagle Lake as about 40 feet..? so that would make this lake very low.. Hopefully this year they will get some good storms to fill the lake!!

Eagle lake VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

We picked up Rip about 1pm and then went over to Oney’s for lunch in Adin.. Great little place to eat!!
When we arrived back at the ‘ranch”, Stan had his little run about boat out and wanted to take it down to the Fall River lake to test it out. I had thought the engine might be a problem, but? we were going to give it our best shot.
We got it in the water late afternoon that day. Motor wouldn’t start.. but had the trolling motor, so we motored around a bit.. The next day we planned to go out again, but not before Stan & Ev stopped at the marine shop to check out the problems with the motor.. turned out the old motor had a bad piston.. Good news the marine shop had a nice used one with a “push button” start.. While these guys were fixing up the boat, I went with Glorianne while she passed out flyers for the upcoming fashion show. Met up with the guys with some deli sandwiches and then out on the boat we went.. Boat ran nicely with the new used motor..
We planned a day trip to Big Lake fishing on Saturday (caught no fish).. We packed a lunch and off for the day.. Gorgeous Day! However as we sat out there on the lake, we could see a possible thunderstorm coming in. We packed it up and got back to the “ranch” mid-afternoon.. Ev & I took a walk down the street over to Pittville (about 6 blocks away)Big walk.. We say a couple of white face bulls in the creek below as we walked over the bridge, never dreaming the bulls had escaped their home. We did find out a few days later one of the local ranches were looking for them..
About an hour later the thunder was cracking and hail began to fall. Good place to be in the trailer!! We all enjoyed another wonderful day and dinner with are wonderful friends!

Fall River Lake/Big Lake VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Sunday we were ready to go and on our way to McArthur Burner Falls for Heritage Days!
What fun day we had. Glorianne had put together a booth where we served “Dutch Oven” peach cobbler. Harry was our cook. This booth was to promote the Fort Crook Museum at Fall River Mills.

Heritage Days at McArthur Burney Falls VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Medicine Lake October 6-9, 2013

We met Stan & Glorianne on the Hwy 89. We had pulled off so we could “wagon train” up Hwy 15/49” up to Medicine Lake. We didn’t really know what to expect in the way that we didn’t know if the campgrounds were open due to the government shut down. When we did arrive the campground was open with no services and no fees. We pulled in and found some “great” spots for the next couple of days.
It was pretty windy and cold. We got our camps set up and were now ready for a nice warm drink. Dinner was at S & G’s camp the first night.. That night was pretty cold, down into the mid 20’s that night. The heater ran most of the night.
In the morning we had our breakfast got our fishing gear ready and off we went to Little Medicine lake. We were all fishing with different baits.. Myself I like a silver kastmaster.. Ev was also kastmaster and Glorianne also had a lure. Stan was fishing with a worm.. I was the lucky one that caught the first and second fish, Glorianne was second one to get one. We didn’t stay much longer and decided it was a bit slow at this fishing spot.. We went back to camp got some coffee and a bit to eat. Soon we were back fishing.. this time we were down by the boat ramp.. As soon as I through my line out, got a hit!!!!!!!! And almost ever cast after that I was getting a hit and I was hooking them too! What fun it is!! It is so thrilling to feel that hit on that lure! Once you feel it, you are “hooked”, sorry for the pun on the words! But it is true!
Ev was also getting hits and catching the trout!! Exciting! Soon Glorianne & Stan were there with us! They too were catching them on almost every cast! What a fun fun day that was!!
That evening when we returned from a most prosperous day of fishing, we got all the fish cleaned and put on ice. G & S had decided to stay at the boat launch and see if they could catch a few more.. but didn’t have any more luck.
Soon I was cooking up a mess of ribs, made a wonderful Lemon Meringue pie all in celebration of Glorianne’s up coming birthday toward the end of the month..  We had a great time! This was also the evening we met some other campers that were really “ruffing” it. Phil & Marc, brothers from Napa, Marc in a tent and Phil in the pickup.. (temps were in the mid’20’s) these guys were tough! I sure as heck could have never slept in a tent or pickup with no heat! OMG!!.. The guys took to us and came and joined us for a cocktail at our camp at our picnic table and fire.. It was a nice visit getting to know our “neighbors”…New Friends…
Tuesday morning was a slow morning for fishing.. none at all..
S & G were going to pack up and leave about noon to get home. They had obligations at home that needed tending.
Ev and I tried our luck once again over by the boat launch, but this time we fished on the other side over by the beach area.. And again we knocked’em dead!! Just thrilling!!
We got the fish cleaned and saw Phil & Marc coming from fishing and Phil asked if we all would like to go kayaking? We were up for it!! So it wasn’t long and we were all in the kayaks. Beautiful day.. A bit cool, but water was calm and the sun was bright!! We weren’t out long but long enough to enjoy the beauty of the lake and the surrounding mountains. The mountains are carpeted with tall green pines! Fresh crisp air, every breath you take you could feel the coolness of the air filling your lungs! Invigorating!!

The photo above courtesy of Phil..

Ev and I did a little more fishing after coming in from Kayaking.. Soon we were cleaning fish once again.. A good feeling..
I had made some fudge earlier and shared some with Phil & Marc. Marc has a sweet tooth like me..
The next morning (Wednesday) we woke up to a nice dusting of snow, about an inch and half.. “happy snow”, happy to see it and happy to see it go and happy for us to get the heck out of there!!
We started packing up as soon as we got up. A bit difficult as everything was pretty frozen..
Phil & Marc must have really been frozen! We saw them a few hours after we were up and they didn’t seem any worse for wear.. they too were packing up and moving on.. We were all slow in getting moving that snowy morning. We finally pulled out after noon. It took us forever to get things thawed and ready to move. Phil & Marc, were packed up and ready to move into a warmer climate to the lower elevations.. There wasn’t any more rain in the forecast, they were heading down to Hat Creek.
We were headed to Stan & Glorianne’s for the next leg of our journey..

Medicine Lake VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Medicine Lake on Sunday!!

Rick and Lynn are back in WA.. had a great time with them while they were here..
Today I spent catching up on the blog from this past week. What a wonderful time we all had!
We have a party to go to on Saturday afternoon at the Moose. We have decided we will take the trailer with us Saturday when we go to the party and park in the camping area at the Moose. So we can just leave early Sunday morning to head for Medicine lake and other parts we may find new to discover.. We just hope we keep this nice weather for the week!!
The rest of today will be spent packing the trailer.. excited about going fishing..

continued Rick & Lynn visit 10/2-10/3

We wanted to take Rick & Lynn out to the coast to Ft. Bragg on Wednesday, but they wanted to go to Petaluma that day to put flowers on Mom’s and Greg’s grave. Plus they had some other errands to run.. They got back later in the evening Wednesday.. we kicked back and did some TV watching..
My day was filled with doing catch up for Moose stuff on the computer and catching up on laundry etc.. Good day to get all this done.. Made an appointment for Lynn and I to get a pedicure for Thursday morn. We are planning on leaving on Sunday morning for Medicine Lake..
Thursday morning Lynn and I got ready and headed for Clearlake so we could get our pedicure..

We had a nice relaxing morning..Don’t have a pic of Lynn’s feet..
The original plan is to meet up with Pete & Bea Garcia, old friends of our parents. Rick hadn’t seen Pete & Bea in more than 30 years. I had only met up with them earlier this year. Kind of had lost track of them.. It was wonderful to find them!
We all meet for lunch at the Main Street Café in Clearlake.
We really had a grand visit! Rick & Lynn went over to Pete & Bea’s home to visit longer. I had meetings at the Moose and needed to attend. So Ev came home with me.
Tonight Rick & Lynn decided to leave for WA (home) after our dinner tonight..
I got my meetings done.. Rick & Lynn were all packed and ready to go when I arrived home from the Moose..
We were having our “last supper” and then they would head home. I made some ‘fried chicken/mashed potatoes/gravy and corn on the cob!
And after dinner we said our farewells.. So sad to see them go.. but knew they couldn’t stay a long time. Our visit was just too darn short!! So we will plan to go to WA next year and over stay our welcome!!!
Turns out they left at about 8pm Thursday night and arrived just in time for breakfast where they were meeting friends for the weekend on the coast in WA.. Happy they are safe..
Thank you both for such a great week! Love and Miss you already!!!

Pete & Bea Luncheon VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

continued Rick & Lynn 10/2 Quad Ride

Gorgeous day for a ride!! We took our time getting ready that morning before packing up the quads. We packed a lunch and a cooler and off we went! We love it because we leave right from the front door our home and ride the “outback” toward Indian Valley Res.
What a beautiful day! a bit chilly, but not hot so that is a good thing! We road out to Bartlett Springs old resort, however someone burned it down a few years ago, what was left of the ruins from the early 1900’s. We had our lunch and a nice break here.. reminisced about what the old resort supported way back when. This resort could accommodate up to 5,000 people! back in the day!! amazes me.. Click on here to see old photos>> Bartlett Springs
After lunch we were going to head back home. Rick had back surgery about 2 months ago and the quad ride is a bit tough on his back. But after a pain pill we were checking out new places we hadn’t ridden, road up toward Twin Valley.. On the way we saw a HUGE black bear running across the road.. couldn’t get the camera quick enough.. DANG!
Soon we were headed back toward home. Seems we always make better time coming back than going.. Rick & Lynn shot out in front of us and probably got home at least 15 minutes earlier than us.. They wanted to go to the casino for a little while before dinner. Dinner was only going to tacos.. I called Lee & Laura earlier and asked if they wanted to come for dinner so they could visit with Rick & Lynn a bit.. They are good at impromptu visiting too..

Quad ride VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Continued Rick & Lynn Visit/Phil & Toni 9/29

Amazing Phil & Toni were here almost before we were up and going.. Think they get up at 5am! And on the road by 7am from Petaluma!! They’re shinning faces were here about 9am.. just in time for breakfast! Toni had done some shopping at Costco for us, things needed for our breakfast and dinner later that day..
If you can believe it? It is raining today.. rain rain go away.. we never get rain this time of the year, and it rained last weekend too! uumm?? maybe we will get some water in the lake this year.. lake is low..
We had our breakfast, took time to visit with everyone.. It was nearly noon by the time us girls were going over the Clearlake for a few things I needed to pick up..
When we returned the guys decided to take the boat out for a test drive on the lake.. Lynn went with them. Toni & I wanted to stay here and get the dinner going. We were having ribs/rosemary potatoes/bacon wrapped asparagus  and a “pumkin better than sex cake” for dessert.
The “boat people” got back early..? Seems the boat is running really rough!! Couldn’t open it up.. ran fine in the driveway, but once opened up? it stalled and died,well needs some more work.. will worry about that later..I am about to put brother Rick on restriction!! Every single time he is out on the lake in our boat, he HITS rocks, sand bars, something!! uummm?? Will let it slide this time, considering he had gone through so much to get this boat fixed for us! Bless his heart! I have the best brother in the whole world! He is always taking care of us.. He does so many nice things for us.. Love you so much!!
Jim & Shirley were also going to our guests for dinner tonight as well. Jim was be silly putting the napkin on his head.. LOL  What a wonderful evening!
Next day (Monday) Phil and Toni had made arrangemenet to look at some properties. Phil & Toni are planning on retiring here..
After looking at couple of properties we drove over to Jim & Shirley’s to see their shop and loft area. Phil & Toni were interested in looking at it.. And it was the perfect excuse to see Jim & Shirley again too!! They loved having us! Wonderful host and hostess! <<Love these guys!!!After a short time we were all heading into Middletown for Pizza early dinner..
Charles joined us for a brief moment to say Hi.. and then he was off.. Phil & Toni decided to head home and be on their way.. Now Jim & Shirley say’s heck lets go by and say Hi to Rudy & Faith.. an impromptu drop in!! .. So all six of drove over to their place (only a short drive) and we surprise Faith for sure! She is such a treasure! She welcomed us with open arms, as did Rudy when he came in from the vineyard with his son, who is from Montana visiting..
Rudy had a replacement pace maker last week and had an appointment that day to have it checked, but since were all there, Faith called and asked if it could be rescheduled!!  
And she did!! And then the wine began to pour and pour! And bless her heart she even had made some enchilada’s that morning and served a lovely late evening dinner to all of us! We had such a wonderful visit with everyone! Faith & Rudy were wonderful impromptu hosts.. Thank you both for your wonderful hospitality!!

Phil & Toni /Jim & Shirley/Rudy & Faith Visit VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL