We're (finally!!) in business

After having to cancel our first two rental weeks here at Lakeview Cottages, and after shoving three weeks of work into three days, we are finally open for business and guests have arrived!

We had record snowpack this year. It went from this on June 2

to this, taken this morning (see that little snowdrift in the background?)

There isn't enough water in the lake yet to float our boats (that is kind of fun to say...), at least not the motorzized fleet. They are still resting on a snowbank.

But the kayaks, canoes, rowboat and paddle boat are ready to go. Here at LVC we like to name our nonmotorized fleet, so there is a kayak with my name on it, the "Cindy Lou." This year we named the paddle boat the  "Cheri Lynn." Cheri chose the paddleboat for her namesake because that is where George proposed to her.

Cleaning up the waterfront involved walking through snowdrifts to get to the shore.

We had some extra help, including Jill (putting the decal on the paddleboat) and Jason (being very helpful with many tasks throughout the weekend).

Don't get the wrong impression that it is all work and no play. We still take time out to enjoy the view.

Mark was able to capture these pictures, taken at the same time.

Cheri, raking:

George, snoozing contemplating what needs to be done next:

And then the guests started arriving. It doesn't take them long to get into the swing of things. Some of our long-time guests were spread out in four cabins, and at least over the weekend there were nine kids under the age of 12, eight boys and one girl.

Wondering if we actually rent to real pirates up here? Cal (aaaarrrrr....) probably wouldn't like me posting this picture of him, but you have to do something to keep the kids entertained, so they were having a pirate scavenger hunt.

Not only did the guests arrive this week, the fish decided to show up as well. Can you believe the size of these rainbow trout?

Mark and I went down to the valley on Sunday afternoon, and I came back up yesterday afternoon, and stopped to take a picture of Big Creek on the way.

I arrived just in time for this very excellent meal shared by the same "pirate" crew, only last night they had a Hawaiian luau theme going.

Believe me. I was glad to be back up here at 7,000 feet elevation where the high temp today is going to be a balmy 73 degrees. Tuesday night in Fresno, we decided to go to a Grizzlies game (the AAA affiliate of the San Francisco Giants). It was 105 when we got to the stadium! By the third inning, it was starting to cool down and there was a bit of a breeze, so by the end of the game it was very pleasant.

In a few minutes I will be setting up my sewing machine and starting on the Farmer's Wife blocks. Carla from Lollyquiltz and I will be doing a Farmer's Wife Friday series. We tossed around different ideas and finally decided to follow the book from start to finish, including some comments on the letters, which are really fascinating to me. So we'll each be making the same blocks each week. She is using prints, and I'm using....well, I guess you'll just have to come back tomorrow to find out!

Quilting in the Cabin: Year 11!

Last weekend was our 11th Annual Quilting in the Cabin. Eleven years of spending time with good friends, fabric, and food in Dotty's cabin,just outside Yosemite National Park.
This was the view of the inside. We have sewing station set-up down to a science. Seriously. We had stuff unloaded from the car, food into the refrigerator and our sewing gear set up in about thirty minutes.

Years ago we decided that three meals a day was way too much food. So we cut it down to two meals a day, and a midday snack. Breakfast was typically nice and hearty: bacon, eggs, and fruit. For dinner we would have something like this: lettuce wedge all dressed up with cherry tomatoes, bacon and bleu cheese, cheesy potatoes and steak, a nice bottle of wine. And traditionally, Dotty makes the most amazing lemon pie in a meringue crust (and next year maybe I'll remember to take a picture of it...). Last year we nearly forgot it. We drove back to her house to get it--it is that good!

So no lunch. Just a nice light midday snack:

We hate to overeat. Which is why we stopped having lunch and went instead with a midday boatload of food light snack instead. Because it takes nourishment to do all that sewing...

It is always a cause for celebration when someone completes a quilt top. We stop whatever we're doing and take pictures.

It has taken us eleven years to figure out that we can take our completed projects outside and hang them over the deck railing. We may be a little slow on figuring out good photo-ops but we are not slow when it comes to having things to photograph!

And then one of Dotty's neighbors wandered by and agreed to take a picture of us. I wish I would have taken a picture of him, holding four digital cameras! Have we not figured out yet that one picture could be emailed among the four of us? Um. Guess not.

(Dotty, me, Maggie, Ruth)

I even surprised Ruth with this little pincushion made with selvages everyone contributed (Dotty contributed the one called Cozy Cabin Flannels--perfect!!)

I snatched a piece of this uber-cute batik that Ruth was working with and used it for the back of the pincushion (it's much brighter than the picture--bright limey green with purple, hot pink and blue, and the cutest little stick people).

During the weekend, whenever we finish anything, we hang it over the staircase railing. Such a pretty site by the end of the weekend. So sad when we have to pack things away to leave.

Thanks, Dotty, for one of the best weekends of the year!

And for those of you who have been following along with our efforts to get the cabins open at Lakeview Cottages: I think we have become, thanks to Mother Nature, a nonprofit organization this year (boo!).  The first two rental weeks were canceled and we are still waiting for water (which seems ironic since we have had record amounts of snow, but one is not related to the other). We're hoping all the problems will be fixed and the water will be running by Saturday so our third-week guests can arrive.

We're trying to maintain a positive outlook, but here is a picture of Mark last Saturday:

*sigh*

Philosophy Friday: I'm the one in charge here

Memorial Day weekend is traditionally when our owner group goes up to our rental cabins at Huntington Lake to open them up and get them ready for the fifteen-week rental season, which should start a week from tomorrow. Last year we lost the first rental week due to snow. Someone told us that was a once-in-fifteen-years type of thing. They were wrong.

So what we should be doing: painting, cleaning the cabins, hanging the curtains, plumbing maintenance, etc. Not happening.

George and Cheri drove up yesterday to see just how close they could get to the cabins. Their progress was blocked by the snow plow. And the water hasn't been turned on yet either, which is a big turn-off for me, because no shower, no potty? No me...

Mark has some plans for projects around the house. This is what I will be working on, the Amy Butler Weekender bag. Which probably won't be completed in one single weekend. Thirteen steps, each with a gazillion sub-steps...

Mark and I have been taping and watching the final episodes of Oprah for the last month. We have been sporadic viewers. But these final episodes have been interesting, especially as she looks back over the last twenty-five years. And remember. She and Mark are "tight" since they both started their careers in the same year.

Last night we watched her final episode, where she stood on stage and talked about what she has learned over the past twenty-five years, what her guests, audience, and viewers have taught her. I watched it again this morning to jot down some of the best parts:

*Find you passion. Whatever you are supposed to be doing, embrace the life that is calling you and carry it forward.

I'm working on finding my passion. I know creativity is an essential part of my life.

*People make bad choices, blaming everybody else but themselves for the state of their lives.

This one really hit home. Choices and consequences. Choices and consequences.

*When you know better, you do better.

Keep on learning. Keep the spark of knowledge burning.

*Nobody but you is responsible for your life. You are responsible for the energy you create for yourself and the energy you bring to others.

We have the choice to be happy, to love, to forgive. We can't control what other people do for us or to us. But we can make good choices because we have that capacity, and our life is our responsibility.

Except when Mother Nature decides to take charge...

Drive-by (photo) Shooting

First of all, after this post, I'll leave the word "photo" out of the title. Here's the deal: Mark takes pictures. While driving. I know--don't notify the California Highway Patrol. So you all realize there will never be any blood and guts pictures when I post further "drive-by shootings," right?

Okay. The other day he and our friend George went up to Lakeview Cottages. If you have read my blog at any point during the summer, you have already read about our rental cabins at Huntington Lake, a gorgeous, quiet lake at 7000-foot elevation. One of my favorite things to do: sewing on the deck of an unrented cabin, with a view of the lake.

Our rental season runs for fifteen weeks and starts the first weekend after Memorial Day. Last year, we lost our first rental week because there was too much snow and the water had not been turned on yet.

That was last year. It can't happen two years in a row, right?

Mark and George borrowed some snowmobiles on Friday, to go around the lake and check things out. So you see, technically these photos are not drive-by shootings, as he actually stopped and got off the snowmobile at times.

Anyway, our rental season starts in about five weeks. Tell me what you think our chances are of opening on June 4.

See the street sign?

Our "commons" area with the tetherball pole sticking up through the snow

Cabin G, "our" cabin in the off season.

Reservations, anyone?

One if by land, two if by sea

When you are part of an owner group of rental cabins dating back to about 1917, there is a lot to do. The usual stuff: leaky plumbing because those pipes are old, touch-up painting and cabin repair. Those are the things we can always count on.

Then are the unexpected things:

An injured osprey that a guest brought back to the cabins. Hmmm. We weren't even quite sure who to call.

I can tell you one thing if it's an emergency by land: we get quick response and we get a lot more than one answering the call.

We had several response teams, none of whom was really sure what to do. They finally took the osprey down to the Fresno area and then we heard he was moved to a wild life center closer to the Bay Area. And finally released back to our area. Not sure about that. But it seemed like there were several osprey circling above our cabins for a while trying to find their lost friend.

Sometimes a guest will twist an ankle or something while hiking.

Again. Fast response and lots of it.

It's a little more nerve-wracking when it involves your granddaughter's injured elbow. In this case, we had the response team but they couldn't fix the elbow.

But Levi was pretty happy to stand near the fire truck.

And while Charlotte looks a bit like a movie star here, ultimately her parents had to drive her down to the children's hospital in Fresno to put her dislocated elbow back into place.

Yesterday we really did have "two by sea." Well, okay, "lake." Saturday, all the way across the lake, the forest service had cut down a tree because people kept putting a rope swing on it. That wasn't the problem. The problem was that people would swing out over the water, get scared, not let go, and then swing back and hit the tree. Is the same thought running through your head as mine? Like either let go and fall into the water. Or don't do the whole rope swing thing in the first place.

So anyway...they just cut it down and left. It drifted to the marina of the guy who has a business directly across the lake from us. It got tangled in one of his boats, with the potential to cauase a lot of damage. So at 10:30 at night he got it loose from the boat and set it adrift. And it drifted all the way across the lake to our shore, right at one of our best fishing holes, and in the afternoon it started drifting toward our dock, with the potential then to smoosh our boats. So Mark called the forest service and basically said, "Come take care of your tree."

We got the forest service and the sheriff's department, all tryingto figure out how to tug the tree away from us and to somewhere more safe.

It was pretty funny interesting to watch.

And as they finally figured out how to drag it away, these two drifted right in front of my camera...