Lake Tahoe!!! - Part 1

The little circled area is the bike and trailer in the parking structure (taken as we went by in the gondola).

A view from just getting on the gondola

Goodness! What fun this empty-nesting can be!

We took off after work on Friday on the Goldwing with the trailer behind. You couldn't even feel the trailer at all. It got a little cold going through the mountains and we had to be constantly on the look-out for deer (scarey!), but we got there safely. We stayed in a little rustic lodge on the north side of the lake. What a gorgeous view! Lots of reminders of bears around and lots of reminders of $$$ around, also (boats, tourist spots, expensive homes, etc.). Had a lovely breakfast at a lovely little spot called "Ye Old Post Office."

Then we got on the bike and stopped at a little arts and crafts fair. Went all the way through without being tempted once! We then saw a cute little Christmas store up on a hill and stopped in there. They had a yummy smelling Chocolate Candle there, but it would probably melt in the side bag, so we left it in the store.

Then we drove around to the south end of the lake where the REAL action is - the casinos and the major shops. Oh, brother! You need to bring BAGS of money when you come to Tahoe! Little did we know....

First of all, we parked the bike in a parking structure. You can see it by looking in the circle of the picture. This shot was taken while we were going up the mountain on a gondola. This car went all the way up the mountain and beyond - quite an amazing site. The pictures won't do it justice.
This is a picture of Mike in the Gondola and if you follow the cables all the way up the mountains, that where the gondola took us - way up to the top of the mountain and beyond! It was a fabulous ride for a magnificent view.

We went up, Up, UP!

This is the first level, where the gondola dropped you off to walk around the deck and get all your good photo shots. You got back on the gondola and went FURTHER UP if you wanted to ski and what-not. It's the what-not that always gets 'ya, you know?

This is the Tahoe airstrip from way far away.

This is part of Lake Tahoe.

This is also part of Lake Tahoe - The bottom of the hill that we left from.

All around the decking they have interesting facts about the lake. We used this to compare it to Utah Lake. Lake Tahoe holds much more water than Utah Lake.

Here's Mike up on the decking playing tourist. It was a lovely day, the wind was blowing, but there still was snow up at that elevation.

OK. So, there's more to come, but rather than bore you with this post, I'll cut this off and save it for our next installment. More Fun, MORE FUN in LAKE TAHOE with us!!! I'll bet you can hardly wait. (All right, so maybe you can...)

Life On The Farm - Part 3

It seems we're a happenin' place! this here farm! I no sooner get one blog post up about the farm, and I need to put up another one. So, here goes....

Remember the decomp smell in the garage?

Here comes MIKE to the rescue again! He says, "Aw, shucks. It twern't nuthin'," brushing his foot across the ground in front of hisself. "The little ole mouse jist up and died right there in the middle of the floor by my tools. I found his poor little dicrepit body a stinkin' up the place and thowed it in the trash all by myself, I did."

And the smell has magically gone away. Hurray!!! Guess the fabric (Mickelle) and scrapbook stuff (Emily) will be fine after all. Thank Goodness!

Now, the food in my pantry.... That's another story.

It seems we've become infested with moths in the pantry. How they got in there and why just the pantry, I don't know. EXCEPT, I did find a partially open bag of flavored almonds that had some webs and some ... um..... shall we say..... little wiggly.... creepy crawly worms that had made themselves at home. (Sorry, Laura)

Next project, going through the pantry and throwing out lots of foodstuffs and disinfecting shelves, walls, etc. Good thing the pantry isn't that big. Just what I wanted. Another project! Oh, well. Spring Cleaning is upon us, eh?

Life on the farm...... sigh...........

Life On The Farm - Part 2

I Know, I KNOW! Time for ANOTHER posting about "life on the farm" already?

As they say on the farm, "Gotta make hay while the sun shines!" So, here goes:

I was telling Laura about all the critters that we have that come to visit us here in our house. She's a wee bit squeamish about bugs, 'specially spiders and such. And, she just couldn't get it through her pretty little head how I dealt with all these elements of nature.

"Easy," I told her. "Just one critter at a time!"

Why, I've showered with yellow jackets, spiders, beetles and lady bugs. So, I always look IN the tub before I put the mat down in the bottom of the tub - just to make sure I don't squash anything under the mat. So, I got in this morning to take my shower before Church. Mike was on the computer in the family room working on his lesson. I turned on the shower and out of nowhere appeared one of our friendly little critters - a lizard with a very long tail. I guess I let out quite an exclamation because Mike quickly asked me if I needed a shoe. I told him no and that I needed a cup. He dashed about and rushed in with a paper plate and a disposable cup. The lizard was captured in no time and transported outside to be set free with the other lizards that love to run around outside our house.

I mention his long tail because the other day, I moved the garbage can in the same bathroom and found another friendly little critter - this lizard was quite large, but only had half of his tail. He preferred to run around the back of the toilet and hid, wrapped around the toilet plunger. Not a very clever lizard, I must say! I had to use the toilet brush and the empty garbage can to catch, transport and relocate him to the front porch. He was greeted by a group of crickets trying to get into the house that night. Sorry, crickets! Not tonight!

I did have one jump up onto the laptop (just to say hello) while I was up in the wee hours of the morning. Surprised the heck out of me because it came out of nowhere. The least it could have done was give me a little warning that he was coming up, Right?!?

We haven't seen any baby lizards yet this spring. I suppose I missed them while I was away with Emily's baby. The first spring we were here, they kept trying to scoot under the front door because there seemed to be a gap that was just right for them to squeeze in through. Some would make it all the way into the kitchen. I'd find them and have to escort them back outside onto the front porch where some of their siblings would be waiting for them.

Sad story, though. A couple of times I found some of their siblings inside the little blue and white watering pitcher that is on the porch. They'd be dead because they'd have fallen in and would not have been able to get out. I finally had to tip the pitcher over and leave the little corpses in there as a warning to the other ones for them not to go in there again. They finally learned their lesson and didn't go in there again. Of course, it never hurts to give them a good talkin' to, also. I think that even though they were in the bushes, they heard me scolding them. They knew I meant business and they stayed out of the water pitcher. We've not had any more sad instances.

Just one more sad instance to report. I'm afraid both Mike and I are smelling a bad smell in the garage. This means that there's a dead something in my lovely boxes of storage. Somewhere in my fabric, scrapbook stuff, Christmas decorations, etc. is probably ANOTHER little dead field mouse - at least it smells the same as the inside of the car when they died there (see previous stories). I only hope it decomposes quickly before I find it and that the smell serves as a warning to all other critters to stay out of there. I suppose it's a losing battle...

Oh, bless this life on the farm......

OH, Life on the Farm.....

They say life on the farm is kinda laid back....

EXCEPT when there's a smell in your car that you just can't get out. De-comp. The smell of something dead is not for the squeamish. A smell I'd never encountered UNTIL recently.

Over a month ago, there came this HORRIFIC smell in the car. Something had crawled inside the car and died. We suspected a little furry animal because there kept being little piles of insulation from between the trunk liner and the metal of the trunk inside the trunk. Later we even found some little seeds in one of the side pockets of the trunk wrapped up in some rags. All the signs were there, we just couldn't find the little varmint. We hunted the entire car over very carefully and finally gave up, thinking it was long gone, and had just left its smell behind. We put in a Yankee Car Jar Air Freshener in hopes that the smell would magically go away. For Mike, it did. All he could smell was the Air Freshener. Surely the smell would be long gone by the time I got back from Salt Lake, Right?

Wrong! It was almost as bad as before and Mike just couldn't smell it. So, I took out the Air Freshener. He smelled it then! He gave the car a really good cleaning and guess what he found?

Way up in the spare time compartment was the skeleton of a little field mouse and his nest. Hooray! The smell would now go away with our help of THREE boxes of baking soda in the car to continue to absorb the smell. IT WAS BAD I TELL YA!

Our Luck! Something else breaks on the car and we have to take it to the shop. The shop guys ask us if we had noticed a funny smell in the car (because they had smelled it and because they noticed the baking soda - sharp ones, they are!). They cleaned out the air conditioner filter - something that had to be mechanically taken apart to get into and guess what they found? ANOTHER little dead field mouse and its nest.

So, that's TWO dead mice in our car, making it stink. How they ever got into those tight spaces and what actually killed them, we'll never know. How do we keep them from getting in again? Who knows? But I now know what the smell is and I'll know not to have to put up with it again - No Sirree!!! I took one pregnant lady home from a singing practice and she almost died riding home with me. Poor thing!

Yes, Life on the Farm is kinda laid back EXCEPT when a dead mouse gets into my car! Look Out!!!

California REALLY is a Beautiful Place!

This is Mike and Buster Van Meter trying to figure out the route we'll be taking. They both have goldwings. Buster's is the white one and Mike's is the silver one. Even though both bikes have a navigation system on them, it's still best to check the map and be sure you're not going to be led down a dirt road-DANGEROUS and dusty to travel on. Look at all those beautiful pine trees. They smell so good, too.
Mike and I in our matching goldwing shirts up at the headwaters park of the Sacramento River. The day started out at 70 degrees, but went up to 102 degrees before we got home. Lovely, Lovely day..... As we were riding I was reminded of why I love living here. It's just really beautiful. We really saw some pretty country today.

This is Mike and Buster Van Meter having a chuckle over something during our break. Buster is the chief mechanic at work and a real nice guy. His wife JoAnn couldn't come today, but usually rides with him. They're a fun couple.

These are the pretty little violets that were planted up around the park where we stopped to look at the river. There were other flowers too with a sign that told us they were flowers. But, I already knew what these were.

This is the headwaters of the Sacramento River. It actually starts right here at this place - just a hole in the ground coming out of some rocks. People come here and fill up their jugs full of the clean, lovely, pristine water. While we were there we saw several people coming there to do just that very thing. It's part of a nice little park.

Branching Out

Be sure to check out my new exciting adventure. Go to this site:

http://caseytscreations.blogspot.com/

I'll be adding lots more as time permits.