Now you see it - now you don't

We were promised this last week that we would have plans in our hands to take to the building department and to a contractor, so that we could get going on the primay pieces of our remodel.  Didn't happen.  But in order to be prepared, we emptied the potentially affected areas of furniture.  Here are some photos.

 Soon the exposed beams and woodwork (the underside of the roof) will be insulated and covered with sheetrock.  The idea is to make this room actually liveable in the Winter and Summer.

 Also, the sunken living room will be raised to level with the rest of the house.

And that area on the right of this photo, separating the entry hall from the living room will magically vanish.

 It only took us 23 years to rid the place of all the wrought iron.

But it is all gone now!

 Peter's suggestion was to forget about raising the floor and insulating the ceiling.

Just put in some birdseye maple on the floor and a hoop on the wall 

and have a small 1/2 court for shooting hoops.

What do you think?

 We got a good deal on a 10x10 storage unit and that's where most of the furniture went.

But we didn't want to move the TV or the dining room table, so they came for a visit in my office.

And as a dry run on installing shelving in our bedroom closet, I extracted the old computer hutch and now have a built-in desk where I can have the scanner right next to me.

The two shelves just above the desk are temporary until I figure out what kind of shelves I want there.

This is a great work area, I love it!  Can't wait to get my hardwood floor so I can wheel around my office.

Castle Peak

Last Friday we had a delightful time with Peter & Leigh-Ann scouting out a hike for the 4th Level YW to go on later this summer.  There was actually a lot of snow on the trail, making for a pretty wet hike, but not impassible.  Peter & I went almost all the way to the top before we got smart enough to turn back.  And although our feet got pretty cold, and eventually we were soaked to the skin well up past our knees, we had a blast.  And the view from "on top" was worth the climb.  This is definitely going to be a great hike (because the snow will be gone in a couple of months).  In fact, I hope my hiking buddy from Washington will go with Peter and I on this one if he is in town when the snow is gone.  Here is the photographic evidence of the lack of one ounce of sense between Peter & I.  But although I cannot speak for him, I had the time of my life!

 There was this much snow at the trail head as we began our hike.

 

The first meadow we passed.

The summit of Castle Peak is there in the middle of the photo.

We only made it to the outcropping seen toward the left of the photo.

  The intrepid hikers dodging the snow when possible.

 Looking back to where we had come.

Not long after this was taken the two of our party with good sense (and good looks) turned back.

 

It really was a beautiful day, and pretty warm until we got up to where we stopped.

But our feet were soaked from the start and pretty cold.  We took this photo to compare with the trail in July to see how far up the tree we were.  In most places I think the snow was only 3-4 feet deep, but in other places I am sure it was deeper.

 As can be seen here, for the most part we were pretty successful in staying on top of the snow, generally only sinking up to our ankles.  But every now and then we would break through and go in up to our knees or further.  It was much worse coming back down as the sun had softened up the snow, but we were going downhill and that made a lot of difference.  In places it was a pretty steep trail.

 This is where the trail we followed in met the Pacific Crest Trail, which crosses I-80 just east of the rest stops.  As you can see, about this point the ground started poking through the snow.  So the snow wasn't as bad (except in a few places) - but from here on it got a lot steeper.

 Castle Peak from the trail junction.

 Not to the top yet, but still great views.

 We called this rock our "Ebenezer", even though we didn't raise it.  This is looking back down the trail toward the junction with the Pacific Crest Trail.  After this we encountered hardly any snow on the ridge we were following.  Or at least it was easier to avoid it.

 Castle Peak from the outcropping we stopped at.  As can be seen, the trail descends to a saddle (where there is a lot of snow to go through) and then ascend steeply to the top.  If it weren't for the snow I might have tried to go on, but considering all the snow we had to go through to get back I left good enough alone.

And boy am I glad that for once I knew when to quit.  To get to this point we had hiked not quite 2.5 miles and gone up in elevation just over 1,000 feet.  But the snow just did us in.  Other than there being precious little shade along the trail, it would make a pretty nice hike (sin la nieve).

 

Looking back to the west the way we came.  If you look closely you can see the junction of the trails where the trees look like they come up and over the saddle, about mid-way from where we were to top of Andesite Peak, which can be seen in the background. 

 That's me on top of the outcropping, pointing to Old Man Mountain.

 That's us, happy that we made it and enjoying the view, which was nothing short of spectacular.

 

Near the point we stopped someone had ditched a nice sled under a tree.  I suggested that we use it in our descent to speed things up, but the trail boss nixed the idea as it didn't belong to us. ;)

 Just one of the spectacular views.  Andesite Peak is on the left and although you may not be able to make it out in this photo, we could see I-80 at Kingvale off in the distance, toward the right of the photo.

 Basin Peak (with Peter getting some lunch in the foreground).  I really think that lacking snow, a great day hike would be to begin early in the morning where we did (the Boreal exit), climb up to Castle Peak, then follow the ridge over to Basin Peak, then just drop down to pick up the Pacific Crest Trail and come back by Peter Grubb Hut and back to the start.  It would be a pretty good hike for a day, but I think it would be doable.

There it is folks.  The real deal.  Old Man Mountain on the right and 

Signal Peak on the left.

What a view.

Homemade Pickles

When we were in Indiana visiting Andrea she got us hooked on her homemade dill pickles.  They are so much fresher than store-bought, and you can still taste the cucumber along with all of the other sensations.  So when we got home we bottled some up and today we finally opened up a bottle and tasted our product.  They were not as good as Andrea's, but oh so good anyway.  And we made a few notes on the recipe to do the next batch better, such as less salt and more red pepper flakes.  And we decided that we need to be putting up a batch every week if we eat a bottle a day (as we did today).  It takes a couple of weeks in the fridge for them to pickle, and it is hard to wait - but well worth it.

Foggy Foggy Morning

This morning we woke up to a foggy day.  Yesterday it rained pretty good here and it was much cooler when we awoke.  We actually closed all of the windows!  So we are enjoying the cooler weather while we can as it is predicted to be in the 90s in a couple of days.

Easter Family Traditions

We had a wonderful Easter yesterday as we gathered with family, thanks to Peter & Leigh-Ann, who graciously opened their home to us all.  Most of those in attendance were Uncle Peter's posterity - in fact all of their chilren were there to help celebrate Aunt Melody's attaining the milestone of 60 years.  It is a bit amazing that we will be facing the same milestone in just a few months.  What a blessing it has been over the years to have our two families so close - geographically - and then growing together in other ways as well.  Getting together for good food and great company at holiday times has long been a joint tradition of our families.  Other traditions that I have developed in preparation for each Easter is to (1) watch Ben Hur, and (2) listen to Handel's Messiah as many times as I can during the preceding week, and then at least once during the day.  Although I did not do the first one (yet), I did follow through on the second.  What a great piece of work.  Mack Wilberg quoted someone as saying that it is not so much an oratorio as a collection of scriptures set to music.  What can bring us closer to God than listening to His word set to good music?

It is a shame that most people only associate the Messiah with Christmas as only one of the three parts of Handel's Messiah is associated with scriptures announcing the birth of the Savior.  And although a great piece of music, the Hallelujah chorus is actually not my favorite part of the Messiah.  And it does not come at the end of the production, but at the end of the second part.  If pressed, I think my favorite piece from Handel's Messiah is the aria, I Know That My Redeemer Liveth.  When well-performed it is probably as close as I will ever get to hearing an angel's voice.  But a very close second is the final chorus, Worthy Is The Lamb That Was Slain.

What a pleasant surprise I had this morning as I found that the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square are in the process of recording for release a new rendition of Handel's Messiah.  Apparently in preparation for the recording next month they have given/are giving a couple of presentations in the Tabernacle.  In an interview with Mack Wilberg he indicated that he was surprised that they sold out (in 7 minutes, as it turns out).  What a special treat for this Easter!  So here I am listening to it and enjoying every moment.  Bro. Wilberg explains that he tried to present it with, as much as possible given that he has a choir of 300+ voices and a rather large orchestra, an 18th century flavor (it was written in 1741) in a baroque style.  So just to whet your appetite, here is the MTC signing the final chorus, masterfully, as always.

I'm off to watch Ben Hur.