I stopped by again on the way back from my trip to Mt. Fellows, this time with the truck.  I loaded some of the birch from a pile, as much as the little truck could handle.  There is only a spot of snow near the canopy.

The family over on lot #8 were very busy, and they have completed a tool shed and have begun framing up a small cabin which is set back in the trees, very low impact on the clearing.  It is Mike and his wife (name?) and about 3 year old boy, Mike's dad and his brother and a nephew.  Robbie and Willie were also there.  They are all very nice.  Willie had brought over a bunch of toy excavation equipment and cars for the little guy.  That group will be on site for a full week, and will be there when we go over for Memorial Day.  I invited the mom to use our "facilities" when needed, and she really appreciated the offer.

Robbie had the small, rubber-track excavator there which he had used to dig some small holes on lot #8, including their outhouse hole.  The unit is just about three feet wide and Robbie says it can dig down about three feet as well.  This would probably work great for coming onto our cabin site from the driveway or from a narrow utilidor along the back side and digging some post holes.  We might have to finish them, but this Kubota can get most of them.

I also got a photo of Robbie's new Cat, which has all the latest gadgets, including rear-view camera, automatic oiler, and a side-tilting bucket (so he can clear the sloped sides of a ditch without tilting the main unit).  Here they are together.

Robbie did say that there is very little of the F-1 gravel left.  If we are going to get some more for our trails, we should do that right away.

I stopped by the Holler on the way to the Seven Summits show, and was very pleased to find the driveway clear of snow!  There was just a bit left down in the parking area.

I also ran into Robbie Davidson, who was just completing the gravel cover for the new, short, driveway onto lot #8, off of Mathison.  He has a new Cat excavator which he purchased this time, instead of renting.  It's a beauty.  We had a fun chat, about Mexico, Hope Point, skiing, our plans for the summer.  I asked Robbie to keep an eye out in case he spots a travel trailer in Hope that might work for us.

"Coyote Gulch"

I stopped by the Holler last Tuesday, 4/10/12, while on a firewood-gathering trip. Tim Branson and his son Brian were on a spring break trip from California, and they volunteered to help with the wood. Tim spent some time years ago logging with his dad, Del, and wanted a chance to run a chainsaw again.  Anyway, I marked our birch piles alongside the driveway with survey tape, to help Willie avoid piling snow on them if/when we have him clear the snow out.  We could walk right on the bobsled run, no problem, and the Branson boys made a couple of sled runs down the utility road trail.  It was killer fast, on the hard frozen surface.
A guy came by and parked his big truck in the cul-de-sac, and stopped to talk.  His name is Dave Vaughn; he is the guy with the signs trying to sell the 15 acres along the road at Sunrise (he asked if I knew anyone with money...).  He said we out-bid him on lot 11; it seems he did not win any of his bids.  He said that we own "Coyote Gulch".  When the dump was open, the coyotes and blackies moved up and down the gulch between the bluff and the dump.  I asked if the critters made that trail, but he didn't know about that.  I told him we had named it Whiskers Holler, and he liked that.
Dave said he has known Robbie and Willie for more than 40 years, and he knows they are great guys.  He said Robbie has a reputation as a hardhead in business deals, but that everyone loves Willie.  That's a new viewpoint.
I should also mention that Tim wanted to look up a family friend, Walt Wilkins, who has a summer place in Hope, so we drove up Clark Road to a cabin that may have been Walt's but he was not home.  While Tim was knocking, I noticed three travel trailers in the yard, tarped over for winter.  Two smaller units appeared to be identical to each other; about 16 feet long, looked in nice shape.  Another longer unit seemed to be older and a bit beat, but was well tarped for storage.  Walt Wilkins is 92 years old; if indeed the trailers belong to him, it seems likely he would be willing to part with one.  Finding a deal on a trailer in Hope would be slick.  I will pursue the idea, get Walt's number from Mrs. Branson.

Brian and Tim Branson

Ah, the bench in spring (early spring).

That is some fine firewood.

And that's the way we load it!

Hadn't Realized That We Bought a Sledding Hill. Awesome!

The family spent a weekend in Hope in mid-March to go sledding, have a fire, and camp out in the Gillespie's cabin . . .

The view down the driveway before we made any tracks.  The snow was deep and the berm high.  We'll probabal need to have it cleared out by Willy with Heavy Equipment in order to have driveway access before July.  Our sledding day was initially driven by competing ideologies . . . some that wanted to spend time carefully crafting a bobsled track with banked turns, and others that JUST WANTED TO FUCKING RIDE THE SLED DOWN THE HILL!!! YEAH! LET'S GO!! WOOOOO!!!! 

Here's Jeanie clearing a track while the going was still slow . ..  

Arran and Matt riding . . 

Mom and Dad riding . . .

 Here's a video of Matt riding . . .

Jonas was tired but had a big grin when he rode the sled . . .

The outhouse in the snow

The bench still works

The Gillespie's cabin where we stayed the night . . . we need a cabin like this in the Holler.

Last trip down the drive.

With heavy snow and possible rain predicted for Hope, I felt it was the last chance to get the canopy down before we had structural failure.  Didn't get to head north until 2 PM, so time was tight (or daylight anyway).
The subd roads were well-plowed, the only new tracks on the Alley were snowmachine.  The first thing I noticed was a big spruce down on the side of the Alley, off our northeast corner near the drainage culvert.
It's green and big.

  I noticed that Willie must have pushed the berm away from our drive, so I headed on down the hill with 4WD Subaru confidence.  The little car began drifting a bit on the way down, so I knew I was in trouble.  Got it turned around and tried the hill right away.  Not even close, way high-centered, nearly got stuck trying to back down.  Parked it and got busy getting the snow off the canopy; it was right at it's load limit.  Loaded every tool and rope and lawn chair and baby swing into the car, took the roof tarp off and folded it over the big trash can and a plastic tote in the middle of the standing canopy frame.  Noticed two more spruce tipped over; one just south of the canopy, one on the trail to the outhouse.  Luckily it won't hit the building.

That was a big, unusual wind storm we just had, but it's getting real hard to trust any of those tall spruce on the property.  It was dark before I got the hill shoveled off, then the car just barely made it out.  It was snowing heavy all the way back.

Link to Matt's online photo album

This should work:

Whiskers Holler https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/110741625355731730721/albums/5636086760282301105

Lots of snow

Sue and I took the truck to Hope with the plan to bring back some firewood. Surprisingly, it snowed all the way there, and there was a snow berm at the top of the driveway. Looked like about 10 inches of snow on the ground, more coming down, and it was warming up. We knew the canopy tent would need clearing; couldn't just turn and go home. While I began shoveling a spot to at least get the truck off the road, Sue went down to bump the inside of the canopy with the broom. She had to work pretty hard to get it to clear. I started working my way down the drive making a slot one shovel wide along the left side. At the bottom of the steep part, I went back up and made another slot for the other wheel. Before too damn long I was around the corner and to the parking spot. Made a slot for the truck to tuck in against the canopy, and then drove it down. We were committed at that point. With the newspaper, birchbark, and kindling we brought, we soon had a nice little fire going right on top of where the F-1 had been dumped. Sue tended the fire while I finally cleared enough to get that lame little fake 4WD turned around, and then we had lunch of weiners and pretzels and ginger beer. It was lightly drizzling so we had chairs under the end of the canopy; pretty cozy. I knew that the only way the Ranger would get back up the hill was with some weight in it. Thought about just loading some birch, but we always need dry wood at home, so I checked out the standing dead spruce behind the parking pit and decided to drop it. Waded back there with the saw and soon had the tree jammed up in the timber. Managed to get a number of lengths cut off it, and left the top still standing amidst the birch. By the time I had carried the chunks to the truck through the snow, I was whipped and it was nearly dark. We cleaned up, crossed our fingers, and I drove out in compound low without a hitch. Not the time to get stuck.

Will have to keep an eye on the Hope weather and try to track how much snow is falling. That canopy can only handle so much loading. May have to call Willie (227-4378) and have him plow the driveway if we can't stay on top of it (or just wait out the winter?).