May 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th

The 2006 General Motors V-6 cargo van is a marvelous vehicle. It’s as wide as a house, tall as a steeple, and has enough bed space to park a Hondo Civic in. It’s also capable of hauling 1500-pounds over Donner Pass without dropping down into second - the engine has a powerful lot of horsepower where it counts. Tina and I filled it absolutely to the brim with boxes of HERO books, but it’s gearbox didn’t so much a murmur a complaint when we popped over the top of the Sierras doing 85 mph. I only wish it wasn’t a rental.

During this trip we continued with our "early American shack" ceiling project. To be honest it’s going a quite a bit better than my mocking nickname implies. Although I seriously doubt that the Midian ranch house will be making the pages of better homes and gardens anytime soon, the new birch wood paneling is an enormous improvement. I am hoping to at least finish the living room and dining room next trip.

The trees are all doing marvelously well. The new ones have sprouted leaves, and the apple has blossomed already. I’ve also spent considerable amount of time re-plumbing the drip feed system to distribute water more efficiently. Hopefully we can avoid the clogging problems that occurred in the lines last year.