There's No Place Like Home........

Dog toothed violets carpet the forest.  First flowers of spring.

Just some random thoughts on coming home to our cabin here in North Park.  First, I wanted to use some pictures on my cell phone but I can't seem to figure out how to get them to my computer!  Because our house is sitting in a hole , it is difficult to get cell service here but also ATT is absolutely useless all over North Park (except on our airport hill) but you can't message or send photos from there either.  Apparently, ATT doesn't have an agreement with Verizon and that is the only tower anywhere near here!  I even tried emailing my pics from Danny's house in Nebraska but I never received them so that was out.  Then Brent and Erin tried to hook up the phone to my computer.  (My Kindle cord worked)  But then it asked for me to put in my CD that came with the phone.  I couldn't remember where I put it but I knew it was here somewhere--oh well, it was time for them to leave when Erin found it still in the car where I hadn't finished unloading!  Too late for them to do it but I figured it would be easy to do.  Today I tried.  No dice!  I tried everything including support and help menus and it didn't work.  I finally put my model number in for a search and Samsung couldn't even find it on their list!!  What a bunch of nonsense!  I can't use any pictures I take.  ATT you suck!!!  As well as Samsung!!!  OK, I got that off my chest.

The useless phone.  It has a great camera but I can't get the pictures off it!  HELP!

Next,  there are many things we needed to do when we got home.  The first was to turn on the pump and hot water heater.  Well, that turned out badly......  Shortly after Bob turned on the pump, I started to get dinner and noticed water pouring down the wall behind the sink!  Our trusty Maytag valve finally rusted out and water was pumping into the machine and couldn't shut off.  It overflowed for awhile until the floor was soaked and finally came pouring down the wall.  We got the water shut off and I tried sucking up water with the shop vac.  Not too effective with the bunk bed, washer, dryer and dressers all in the way!

The Blue Room, pre-flood.

Pre-flood view.  Notice the lack of space to suck up the water .

  Kenny, Tony and Levi were coming out on Sunday 4 days later and offered to help move the bunk bed.  Each day I messed around but water kept coming out from under stuff.  It was smelling very sour by Saturday and I began to think we would need to tear up the rug and subfloor and start over.  It wouldn't be that bad, I would get a new wood laminate floor that would be easy to install and easy to keep up too.  We got the bed taken down, I got my laundry done (another frustrating story) but still we needed to move washer and dryer.  Oh well, Erin and Brent would be here on Tuesday to help!  Still pretty sour smelling but parts of the floor were getting drier as I shifted to using the Bissell but still not very good.

Bunk bed is gone and we can finally get that floor dry!

Erin tried her hand at "Bisselling"

She was much better at directing the clean up!

So was I !

Wednesday morning Brent was up early ready to start moving stuff.  We got the washer out and moved the dryer.  We sucked up more water from under these appliances and decided to let things dry for another day.  The next day we shampooed the rug and let it dry--the smell was going away!!!!  Finally the floor was dry, there was no smell and we could move around the furniture!  I sure am glad everyone showed up to help us out.  We even found a working Maytag (from Wendover) out in the shop so I am back in business!

Looking and smelling good!

The room seems so much bigger after we got the furniture back in place minus the bunk bed!  I need to move the mattresses on the floor under the window in the big room in here!  Sorry, Paul.

By Saturday I was ready to go over and check out the fishing.  I headed out for our little bridge over the rushing creek and here is what I found!

 

A project for later in summer.  At least we have plenty of logs to support it!

I did catch 2 fish and one was pretty big.  I froze it and want Danny to smoke it in his new Big Green Egg knock off.

Everything wasn't a disaster.  We got the hot tub set up and filled without incident although the rusty water (Brent described as hot tubbing in warm tea) did not clear up until after they left, but it is crystal clear now!

I LOVE hot tubbing even in summer up here!

  The TV's both work after calling to get them rebooted, our internet connection works just fine (Yea Wildblue!), and the light over the sink is now working after buying just one replacement bulb!  I found the pictures I was looking for to upload onto Facebook for West Wendover's class of 2001 reunion,

Some of my colleagues at West Wendover High School in the first few years of the school's existence.  Maybe around 1998.  We sure had some interesting experiences--didn't we, ladies?  But where are Patty Ekland and Heidi?

Up at the head gate.  It needs opening!

we got the ditches opened and did some hiking.

Trying to decide how we are going to pry that old thing up.

Erin and Brent even hiked all the way up to Aqua Fria in the snow on June 5!

Aqua Fria, buried in snow the first week of June.

Proof that they made it all the way up there!

  I got a new puzzle going, made some bread and baked brownies and peanut butter cookies!

A very rare picture of all three Corkle boys together!

Despite all the woes of getting organized for the summer, I am sooo glad to be home and able to swing on the porch,

sit in the sun and drink my morning coffee,

go out and fish while watching the beaver try to chase me away,

Look at the snow on the mountain!  Rare to have that much in early June.

 soak in the hot tub while reading my Kindle, hike up to the thinking rock,

I'm not sure why we love the Thinking Rock but it seems we all do!

ride the 4 wheeler up to airport hill, and yes, looking forward to picking some rhubarb for pies, cake, and cobblers!  Ahhhhh!  I LOVE  summer!  Now, I can look forward to mosquito season.  I am looking forward to entertaining guests, too.  I hope some come to visit!

Brothers and cousin plus Brent all together in one place! 

  Maybe I ought to plan an open house for this summer........  Anyone want to come?

The Promised Memorial Day Recipe

So, I'm a few days late but this recipe promises to be a summer stand by.  To be honest, I was waiting until I tried it, but I don't have any beans in the house!!!  This is bad especially when I have a Jones visiting me and it is their stand by food!  Oh well Erin also has other cabin food she has to have while visiting so it's not a complete disaster.

Anyway, this is a recipe sent to me by a very good friend and former colleague from Wendover.  Her husband is a chef who worked with me in my professional cooking classes and Becky was an English teacher there.  She is now teaching in Parump, NV.  I trust her recipes implicitly and this one sounds so easy and good I have to post it!  No pictures to go with it though.

Jean’s Beans

For each 1 lb of pork and beans, add 2 tablespoons of ketchup and 2 tablespoons of brown sugar. We add chopped onion but Aunt Jean would take a small peeled onion, cut it in quarters lengthwise and insert a piece in each quadrant of the baking dish. Top with bacon cut in narrow strips, laid across the entire surface. 4 strips will cover a 1 ½ quart baking dish. So no mustard and no vinegar. Bake at 300 degrees for 3 hours or so. A smaller amount of beans will be done in a bit less time and if you start with a huge 7 lb can it will take longer. As the bean liquid concentrates it can become almost like candy. Yum.

June 1 Hike to the Thinking Rock and the Headgate

The new Headgate which is not opened yet.  I guess we'll have to go back up....

**You can click on the pictures to get a better look and then click on the back button to get back to the blog!  It is worth it!


Yesterday Erin, Brent and I went for a walk up to the National Forest.  It is one of my favorite hikes and we just HAD to see if there was any snow up there.  On the way up I took a few pictures of the dog-toothed violets and the snow banks we had to traverse to get to our destination.

The first flowers of the spring.  Dog-toothed violets!  Don't they just brighten up the mud?  They are blooming as they stick their heads out of the snow.  I love them!

A whole carpet of them out among the trees.  So pretty.

The first snow we encountered was at the big hill going up to the thinking rock.

Looking down the hill.  Notice the slash pile from the clear cutting at the bottom of the hill.

We made it to the "Thinking Rock" with very little snow but were amazed at all the trash of twigs and branches around the rock.  We could hardly climb up it because of all the sticks and "stuff".  But, of course, we did get on top of it and sat there and thought for awhile.  Of course it had nothing to do with the fact that none of us were acclimated to the altitude yet and had to catch our breath after the first hill climb.

Brent made it!  On top of the Rock!

Erin and Brent with that old dead tree still leaning up there. 

Then we decided to head on up to the headgate to see what Richard had done to fix it.  We came to some trees in the road and heard some scary creaking in the woods as the the breeze blew through but pressed on.  At the National Forest gate we came to another huge drift but we could walk up it pretty easily without sinking too deep.

OK, now we're getting into some serious snow!

Erin, you're going the wrong way!  You have to come UP the snowbank.

We made it to the weir and saw the big new ditch.  I had to do a little back tracking

to figure out what had happened to the road but finally figured it out and made my way to the top of the hill.  Erin and Brent chose to walk up the ditch--which was not running yet.

The new ditch,  Does it look like it is going up?  Must be an optical illusion!

Brent and Erin standing on the old headgate.

Look at that snow in the trees!  This is June 1!

More snow pictures!  Those drifts look deep.

Not much bare ground.

The leaky old headgate.

The shiny new headgate!

  I walked back down to the headgate and took these pictures.  It was incredible.  The whole north face of the hill on the other side of the creek was covered with snow and huge drifts.  My pictures just couldn't do it justice!  The creek is rushing but not as high as I've seen it. Seeing all that snow tells me it will be a lot higher the first really warm day we get! 

Brent surveys the snow drifts.

The old headgate and more snow!

Water is leaking under and through the old headgate.

A Trip to the Zoo in San Antonio With Second Graders!

An elegant egret showing off

Well, I haven't written anything in about a month although we kept really busy while we were in San Antonio and I have lots of pictures to write about.  One of the things we did while we were there was to go to the San Antonio Zoo with the 2nd graders from Alyssa's school.  That means almost 200 seven and eight year olds!  Bob and I kind of did our own viewing the first part of the day while Kim, Natalie, and Micah were with Alyssa's small group.

Alyssa's group took time out for lunch and we joined them.

They had a whole list of things they had to find and do--kind of like a scavenger hunt.  When they got back to school the next day they had to write reports on their findings.  Kim was assigned to take pictures to document all of it for their group.  It sounded like a great idea and worked very well so the kids weren't racing around looking at their favorite things and not noticing anything else.

I also took some pictures.  I have done a lot of zoos in my day so usually don't take pictures since they all look the same it seems like but here are a few of what I took the day we went there.

Alyssa's school mascot is an alligator so, of course one of the things on their list was this big guy!

Flamingos are always fun to watch.

Feeding time for these young flamingos.

Nap time in the warm sunshine!

Bob's favorite spot to sit and watch the fish and wish for a fishing pole!

We (Micah, Kim, Bob, Natalie and I) decided to stay for an hour or so after the school kids left so that we could see some of the things they offer for preschoolers at the zoo.  Here are the pictures I took.

They had kind of a beach and wading creek for little kids.  Natalie made herself at home and did some posing on the turtle.

Nat tried to comb the goat's hair.  He was a patient guy!

Going boating on a raft, zoo style

Micah reads a book to Nattie about bears in the learning center

The monkey gets a kiss goodbye from Nattie.  No naughtiness at the zoo from monkeys that we saw!