We can get mail @ Pinon Rock

Marlys did everything to set up for mail delivery last Wednesday, and believe it or not, we got our first delivery last Friday, a happy anniversary card from our neighbors back in Minnesota.

Mail is only delivered Monday, Wednesday and Friday and the mailbox is at least 3 miles away, but it is another step in the transition.

I had assistance.

I was advised by the "help" yesterday morning that I should let people know that assistance by a local geriatric in removing the 5300# of OSB from the truck.

Herb felt he was not getting his due.

So yes Herb helped me remove and restack the OSB in the shop. It only took us about 30 minutes.

In a couple of weeks Herb and I are going to do the Democrat, Cameron, Lincoln, Bross 14er circuit. This should be an all day hike at 7.25 miles and 3700' of altitude over the course of going up and down from one peak to another ( http://www.14ers.com/routemain.php?route=bros6&peak=Democrat,+Cameron,+Lincoln,+Bross .

That Damn Squirrel Showed Up

Getting the lumber ready for winter projects

This actually got started during the 25th weekend as a project for some of the guys in the shop and all who have read this blog know how I like projects in the shop.

A few weeks back Marlys and I had moved the sawmill outside and set it up in a semi-permanent location. We use to set it up as needed, but that chewed up a lot of time, so it tended not get used that much. Since this change, I have sawn wood every couple of weeks.

Knowing that some of the invitees shared my interest in wood and knowing that they were coming from locales that didn't offer the Ponderosa beetle-kill stained varieties around here I offered up some of the slabs in the shop. These would need to be re-sawn to rough widths.

My nephew John had also joined us by Friday and since the younger crowd was still 24 hours out I volunteered him as the mill assistant. This meant replacing a blade (when I screwed it up), tension it, moving the lumber, and running the mill head on a few swipes.

He would also go on to fame in the repair of the patio umbrella later that day. In that, action he moved from natures materials to the fabrication of a joint using UHMW (ultra-high molecular weight) plastic (Teflon). The strength of the new joint resulted in a down-stream failure of another joint on Sunday. The umbrella has since been retired.

The wood targeted for sawdust donations on this day had been from beetle-kill trees taken down at Pinon Rock in 2005. The wood had been "seasoning" in the shop since then. Bill, the recipient of said slabs of course picked the best stuff from the stack. Little did he know that I have two more trees to be taken down this Fall that will replenish the stock.

Since it was going to be his wood, he would need to run the mill as I wanted no blame for any errors. That wood is now another non-native species residing in La Porte, Minnesota.

Last weekend I re-sawed just about all of the remaining house scrap pieces, the Cedar will be going into the office work surfaces and the slabbed 15" glulam cutoffs in to an as to be identified project.

You can also see in this picture the Ponderosa that is destined for the continuing bedroom set project. The first chapter was last winter's headboard build. This pile will become the side tables to the bed and with the participation of some pieces from the new Ponderosa mentioned above will become the long dresser, Marlys has deemed appropriate for her stuff.

This pile will be added to this coming weekend by the load of 100 4'x8' sheets of 1/2"OSB that is in transit (Caulfield Cartage) to be used in finishing the walls and ceiling of the shop.

I have been looking for the best price for OSB, since the light fixture purchase, thinking that it would save allot of work doing both at once. I had resigned to putting in the lights this Fall, and at $6-$8 a sheet from a lumberyard, waiting on the liner until next year sometime.

Friday night I stumbled on to this OSB at my favorite store...Craigslist. It was used for floor protection during a re-model of a Middle School in Westminster (Denver Metro). The General Contractor was selling it off since the project was done. It looked good in the picture and the price was in my range at $3 a sheet.

When I picked it up on Tuesday the site manager said that since I was the first to buy I had my pick of the bundles (60 sheet packs). He pointed to a group of four and said those were brand new and had not been used...I of course selected those.

His picture on CL had been of the used ones (which I appreciated), he even got a material lift and a couple of guys from the crew to load the truck.

I wouldn't know until I got home how big the load actually was.

The stack reached a few inches above the truck cab and the F450 actually had a little squat to it. Finally, a load worthy of the new truck.

My 1" wide straps used to secure it seemed pretty underwhelming and a stop at Lowes to pick up some that were up to the task was the first stop. Of course a thunderstorm moved through as I rescued the load. It was a pretty wet, dusty, dirty and sweaty guy in polo shirt and khakis that went into MacDonald's to get a cone and a Diet Coke for the drive across town.

I called Marlys (up at PR) about a half a dozen times during the drive commenting on the load, the truck and where I would put it back in Parker until driving back to PR on Thursday night. The truck handled the load amazingly well. I was real impressed. My MPG only dropped to 14.1, but I am waiting for the slog up in to the mountains.

Once in front of the TV, I googled the weight of a 1/2" 4'x8' sheet of OSB. The answer was 53lbs. So the load weighted 5300# or over 2 1/2 tons.

Memorable Meals @ 25th Aniversary Party

Although all of the food during the party weekend was memorable there are a few I would like to mention.

• The lasagna on Friday night comes to mind, simply because I am still eating it as leftovers for lunch. Even though it was great then, there are some foods that seem to get better as they are re-heated e.g. chili, and this is one. The carbo loading for the coming events also helped. Thank you Stretch.
• The boil in a bag breakfast on Sunday morning worked on so many levels, if you haven't tried it, you need to find an occasion to. First off, after the late night (or early morning) end to the festivities on Saturday not everyone was on the same schedule e.g. the Gunnison group. So the ability to make a breakfast when you wanted to was great. Then the buffet style setup to pick and choose what you wanted in your omelet allowed for some creativity (or not in my case). Then the conversations it struck up between folks on how to do it and what was going into it seemed like a real nice way to continue the spirit from the day before. Thank you Joy and Tom.
• Then there was the last meal of the gathering on Sunday night. Ione started prepping for this dish even as the Joy and Tom were putting on the morning event. She seemed to slicing and dicing things forever up in the kitchen. On one of my trips through I asked about the ingredients and then made a snide remark about leaving our the finned and seawater based fare. I was answered with "the look". Later that day I was made to eat my words quite literally, as this was a great dish. Thank you for the piaya (hope its spelled right) Ione, I had seconds...and thirds.

A couple of items from the Party

During the get together we had everyone (and will continue to) sign the glulam bench. This was not an original idea as a friend of mine had people sign the wall of the ante-room to the sauna at their family cabin in northern Minnesota. We also saw this "signing of everything" at the bar across from the Hotel California in Baja a few years back.

I don't know if it is a "Kilroy" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilroy_was_here ) thing, but I kinda looked at it as a mark in history gesture. We will bring it out at the 50th in 2034 and see who is still around to scribble and/or dribble?) on their sig.

Another item that seems to have caught peoples fancy was the scrap table Marlys and I put together a couple of weeks before the party. Marlys thought that with all of the chairs we really needed something in the center to set 'stuff" on. We combed through the scrap pile and rescued some old glulam post cut offs for the legs and a longer piece that was re-sawn for the sides. The tile is also leftover from the build and this was our first tile setting effort. The tile is laid on two layers of 3/4" plywood (have to see how that works long term.

We set the tile with a acrylic mastic and grouted using sanded caulk (normally for kitchen counter back splash use. We thought we would need to accommodate some movement, so we will need to see if the experiment actually worked.

There must have been some shrinkage in the side boards which surprised me in that the chunk of glulam had been sitting around the barn for over 3 years, because my miter joints were perfect upon assembly. Must have been the power of it sitting in the high altitude sun.

25th Anniversary Party - After Action Report

What was to be a one day Anniversary Party turned into a 4 day Party Encampment.

Folks started to arrive last Wednesday with the northern Minnesota crowd. This worked well since both groups brought their own homes on wheels and we could get them arranged by the house.

Marlys had been here all week and I drove up on Tuesday night, giving us time to get everything arranged.

We were also well stocked with wet and dry provisions, so the starting flag was dropped and the celebration began.

We couldn't have gotten better weather which was chancy based on previous weeks experience. It was hot and dry with only a brief tunderstorm on Thursday late afternoon which most folks just sat through...until it started to hail. It has to rain pretty hard up here before you get wet.


By this time the place was in full party mode, but because of the altitude (8300'), which most folks were not use to, it collapsed by 10:30pm after a firepit sit around.







This also made for a later start each morning, except for the dogs, which pushed a few of us to keep to the regular schedule.

The place had a real lived in look to it. I think that is the PC way to say that.

More folks arrived each day leading up to Saturday, with the emptying out process not getting going until Sunday. This place was full! My concern all weekend was that with the number of folks we would drain the water cistern. We rented a porta pottie to reduce the use of the house toilets. In the end we used about 3/4 of the stored water capacity, so everything worked out fine.
The porta pottie did need some modifications by Tom J. , the Sultan of Satellities , to actually dispense TP and hold the hand sanitizer. I think it only took him about 3 hours and multiple trips up and down to the shop to produce this work of art.

I believe he also took it for a few test runs (?) before releasing it to/on the public.



It will be kept in the archives for a possible 25th Anniversary - Sequel celebration or our 50th, which ever comes first.


BTW, I believe that Tom is going to submit a patent or design mode to Satellite and try to make a buck off of his sweat equity investment. Who knows maybe Tom has a furture as a "crapper customizer". As the Mayor of Garage Logic would say "Good Luck".



Friday and Saturday folks took advange of the area by hiking, going to the Gorge or washing their car...which John did several times over the weekend.


11 miles of dirt roads can be a bitch on a black Vette.


Marlys took a group up on the wagon trail road around east Anelope for a hike and the pictures don't do the views justice.







Our place is just above my sister Maureen's right shoulder at the foot of Ceyote/Samson peak.




The rain we have gotten made for a real green area, which is kinda unusual for this time of year.



By mid-afternoon on Saturday everyone was ready for the real thing. We took some pictures.


The Girls of course, since this was there annual summer weekend replacement event. Try and point them out as the day-night progress'.

Marlys and I, hadn't changed a wink since our wedding day.


Well Marlys anyway.


I think I use to have more hair...and it was darker...and I was more svelt that I am now and had a better memory.


Big Burger World showed up with more food then we have still been able to consume and the feedbag was on, to carbo load for the evenings festivities.


Most everyone was here by now, at the Rock (Thanks Joy and Tom).

We received a number of great gift/momentos, we even played on at the dance. I lost my voice singing to Colorado Rocky Mountain High, it didn't come back until yesterday.

Derek gave a toast. Which he is becoming more acustomed as he has reached the age where friends are starting to tie the knot.

Even the group from Derek's school had arrived, and taken over the shop, which had been outfitted for the basic human needs.


There was a some time spent letting the meal settle before, some of us decided to take a walk down to the shop to see what the young'uns were up to, since we could already hear it.

Let me do some context setting before getting into the next part.

When we started the planning for this party we invited Derek to bring some friends over and they could take over the shop, set up their DJ equipment and have some fun. We also thought that some of the younger crowd may also want to join them to dance and whatever.

Marlys and I thought we would show the flag then stay with the mature crowd up top listening to classic oldies, since the music that Derek played tended to be like the "techno twins" in the AT&T (?) commercial.


Derek had told us about the DJing gigs over the last couple of years, but we had never been to one since they tended to be in Gunnison or Vail. I pictured a couple of turntables, an amp, some speakers and vinyls which he had absconded with from our vintage stash over the years.


So walking into the shop was a surprise. There were the turntables and amps, but the speakers were huge and formed a wall around and under the table where there was also a big Mac desktop, mixers, effect generator and lighting controls. Arching over everything was a light truss.
This was the real deal. He even had to show me around the setup. And in the shop that meant safety glasses.

Hell, I even recognized the song being played.

Also setup on the workbench (I won't call it mine, since Marlys uses it at least half the time now) was whated looked like a double ended plastic beer cup bowling alley.

But before this got going, the lightweights were deserting the ship, especially the chief grey goose consumer.



Wait can't say that since even though I have been known to have a cup. Later transfering the contents to my lap.



They had to go home, something about putting horses away. Heck, the way they are trained, all they need to do is put a timer on the stall doors and they would put themselves away.


Now some would say having a dance in a shop, where there are sharp things and power tools around, would be asking for trouble, but I say "hell no" it a great place to spend time.





Even some of Derek's pals knew there was a hammering in the offing.


Things didn't start slow.

What I now knew as beer pong was active.









There were rules taped to the bench.


..but they seemed rather dynamic in there interputation. Any arguments were all in good fun though.


As the night went on it appeared that we had a couple of ringers at one end of the table. The rules always went their way...but I think they wrote them and were probably the only ones that could read them without helpers.


By the end of the night there were many winners and losers at the game table. And no, the cougars were not on the prowl.

The dancing was intense.

Especially when the turntable/MAC got highjacked.











Bill and I seemed to be wearing about the same color of everything, so since he is taller then I, whenever you see a big ass from behind it is probably him.









I was much mistaken in that regard, on the narrated first run through of the pictures on Sunday. Sorry Bill for stealing the spotlight from you.




And that must be him that spilled the gg in his lap.



How is this for a family portrait. Maybe we should blow it up and have it applied to canvas like the last one. I can see it hanging from the wall in the living room.

As the night rolled on into an early Sunday morning, even the "Dancing Queen" was running out of gas.

About 12:30 am we called it quits and headed for the rack.

I think some folks probably are thinking that should have headed there sooner, not quite sure what the private drive sign means:>.

I haven't danced so much in years, who cared that I was in hiking boots and wearing safety glasses most of the time.

Well all good thing must come to an end and so did this weekend.

Some folks took off on Sunday after preparing their own breakfast using a secert Park Rapids recipe taugh to all by Tom and Joy.

Pretty simple, everything you may want in an omelet is put in a bag and boiled. It was pretty good.

By Monday we offically stuck a fork in it with the return of the facilities.

When evening arrived we were ready for the next event at the Rock.

The Board Room is Ready.

In preparation for the 25th anniversary shindig this weekend, Marlys and I have been in chair making assembly line mode.

What was suppose to have been a project to build a couple of extra chairs has now turned in to a covey of 8 in all.

As expected the later in the series the better the chairs. Keep in mind that all of these chairs have been made left over materials when building the house. Also all of the skis and boards came from garage sales or consignment stores.

We have built a few theme chairs.

There is the Judy the K2 chair.

There is the Martini and Rossignol chair.

The misc. Japanese chair, but one set of skis may actually be Finnish or some other Scandinavia country.

And the chair for the Head honcho, whoever that may be.

The latest update has folks starting to arrive on Tuesday.