Hart Hill; The Nighthawks Are Back

Trip Date: June 12, 2021

Find this Spot

Mike, Bob, and I were planning to head up to the property a little later this week, but stuff and things were happening all over.  We finally settled on these dates, and then Mike still ended up playing music so it was just me and Bob.  Mike called to say he could come up Tuesday, but I told him that roadgrader Mike called to say he wrecked his excavator so he couldn’t come Monday as planned, so he bailed altogether. I was still a tad thrashed from Jordan and Jenny’s wedding on Wednesday, having just returned Thursday afternoon, but as always, I was super excited to get back up the Hill and do a few more things.  This trip, with Bob, we could finish the deck and finish the water tower platform if all went well; two massive additions.

Coming out of Covid, the crazy economy, the supply chain fiasco, and the tremendous rise in process of just about everything, I had been working the phones pretty hard trying to find used lumber.  I thought I might have some newly milled Cedar from up around Grass Valley, but like many Craig’sListers, it didn’t materialize.  Fortunately, Verlin was able to deconstruct 3 barns recently, and set aside the material I needed and at .75/lf, the price was awesome compared to $3/ foot at Home Depot and Lowes.

I headed up I-5 at 6:00 in hopes of being at Verlin’s in Red Bluff by 8:30.  It went swimmingly, so I even had time to pull off in the shade, pee, and listen to the end of the NPR story on the radio.  As I pulled up to Verlin’s Quonset hut, he came up the road to greet me.  He had my load all pulled and piled within a couple feet of the back of my truck.  We had it loaded in no time and then I remembered the 2×12 Bob wanted for the stair stringers, so we added that on top.

As we were loading, one of his daughter’s came out with a freshly baked cinnamon roll for me, as sweet as could be.  I am not sure what their religion or customs are, but one could imagine Amish, although they are not that restrictive on modern tools and vehicles and such.  My guess is Mennonite or Quaker perhaps, although I don’t know much about either.  I just see the girls dressed head to toe in cotton or flannel dresses, long sleeves, buttoned up to the neck and sometimes wearing bonnets, in a truly old world look.  Obviously Verlin uses a phone and computer for his work, drives his truck, and operates machinery, but their lifestyle is also rooted in some old world customs.

Since I still owed Verlin $5, he suggested I could stop at their vegetable stand at the front of the house. As I pulled up, the mom and daughter greeted me warmly and encouraged me to look over their baked goods.  It was awesome.  I settled on a roll, and 3 chocolate zucchini muffins.  My lord were they good, and it was great to interact with them and give them a little business and appreciation for their talents, plus give them the 5 bucks I still owed Verlin.  It is always a treat going there.

I was concerned about the weight of the load, so Verlin weighed a few boards and approximated an average weight per foot.  My 650 linear feet of 2×6 came out to be about 1200 pounds.  Plus me, the tools, ice chest, food, and the 2×12, I am sure we were pushing the limit.  I had used part of Friday to add air to the tires and to the two air shocks under the bed, so I felt good about doing what I could to help carry the load.  The truck didn’t seem to mind at all as she cruised up Highway 36 into the mountains to cross the Cascades above Mineral.  The load was sticking out beyond the lowered tailgate some 8 feet, but I wasn’t too concerned about getting stopped for that.  I only worried about my old truck with 190,000 miles on it still working hard for me.  Soon we crested the summit and rolled into Chester, then over Fredonyer Pass before dropping into Susanville.  I had to stop for gas, but was out at the gate in another hour or so, safe and sound.

It was quite a ride, but all went well.  Even better, the gate, fence, outhouse, etc all seemed secure and void of human visitation since our last trip, other than Bob who had already set up his tent.  We greeted each other warmly and celebrated being back up here.  As much as I wanted to relieve the truck of the weight, I didn’t want to unload all the wood, just to move it again when we started building tomorrow so it sat.  I set up my bed in the cabin, put all my clothes in the dresser drawers, set up the propane tank and stove in the kitchen, and unloaded the tools, ice chest, kitchen supplies, etc. from the truck.  It was windy but the temps were great and it was nice to kick back for a minute.

Bob asked about the potential cabin location I had been thinking about and he showed me a spot on the far West side of the top, just beyond where the eventual loop road will go, that he was super excited about.  We decided he should build his cabin there, so that was settled.  I could tell he was excited, but I didn’t quite know how much.  It was plenty early in the afternoon, so I decided to cook the Salmon K had bought for us, and Bob heated up the taters, onions, and bell peppers and we had a feast.  The clouds and sunset were awesome.  The wind kept up until bed time, which was barely darkness, maybe after 9:00 o’clock, but I stayed up in bed following the basketball game on the phone and looking at the laptop.  Sleep was not very good.

I woke up about 6:30 and that crazy Irishman was already hauling these concrete ballasts with 4×6 posts attached to them out to his building spot.  I got up and was out there, without coffee, before 7:00 AM working on his corners.  It was awesome to see him so stoked about the cabin.  It really made me feel good that he still wanted to build, even with the break-in, but that he was just totally into it.  It really picked me up about the entire affair.  Bob had his level and transit, and we had the 4 posts set in no time.  We went ahead and cut them to height and then loaded them down with rocks to keep them set in place.  It was great to make that little progress so easily and quickly, and even better that it was still so freakin early.

We retreated to the kitchen for refreshments and relaxation for a spell, and decided that perhaps a hot lunch was in order.  We reheated the potato, onion, pepper brew and threw in some hotdogs for good measure.  It was delicious.  When the spirit moved us, we gathered around the deck project.  Bob was sufficiently impressed with our framing and no adjustments were deemed necessary.  He also didn’t mention blocking which I was more than pleased about, so we just got to laying the decking.  Bob was measuring and screwing and I was cutting boards to length.  It is much more difficult working with old barnwood, for as beautiful, tight grained, and historical as it is, it is hard as iron, very weathered, and often crooked and bent, so one is often tempted to try to sort it and get picky and obsess over the imperfections.

Up close, each board looks like it has just enough defect, to be set aside for the next.  However, I have done enough work on myself, and worked with this wood enough, to fight the temptation, and just keep moving through the line.  I really only sorted on length to try to keep the waste to a minimum, and that lead to a real good pace for both of us.  As usual, we found our groove, and made fast work until it was lunch time.

The break was perfect, because by the time we came back to the deck, it was mostly in the shade.  I almost always arrange my projects by the shade, so as to minimize my time in the direct sun.  We picked up where we left off and soon had the entire surface covered and partially screwed in place.  I laid boards along the boardwalk from the deck out to the rear of the trailer, and it was just about quitting time.  I helped Bob unload the massive metal platform out of the back of his truck.  We scratched around in the dirt a little to remove a few pointy rocks, but we essentially dumped it in place.  A few tugs, and a pry bar or two, and she was exactly where we wanted her.  It was awesome.

And it was early afternoon, so we had plenty of time for showers, cleaning up, relaxing, and starting to slowly get into dinner mode.  I had a bunch of chicken that I wanted to BBQ so I got a fire going and we tuned into the games and enjoyed a great evening.  The clouds and shadows were awesome and kept us entertained for hours.  Darkness again took a long time to arrive and we were both hell bent on not going to bed before it was even dark.  Although it took, all of my strength to keep my eyes open, it absolutely was well after sunset when I ambled off to my cabin, and tuned into the end of the game.  It cooled down and calmed down nicely, such that sleep was deep and sound.  I awoke refreshed with no sight of Bob bounding about in the sage out West.

We had coffee, the zucchini muffins, a banana, etc. to start up the engine again, and were back at it early.  Bob went to the stair stringers and I screwed in the walkway and the rest of the boards that Bob had just put a screw or 2 in yesterday to keep them in place and to keep the timing with me.  By then he was ready for me to put the treads on one set of stairs while he made the stringer for the second set.  We were crushing it, until we ran out of battery packs for the drill and saws.  Being good scouts, we fired up the generator to charge the batteries and used the sawzall to trim the ends of the deck joists.  It ran out of gas in 8 minutes.

It was almost lunch time so we took the time to break and to read up on running the generator on propane.  It seemed way too easy and it WAS way too easy, as she fired up with half choke on the third try and purred along from there.  I was stoked to have chosen this multi-fuel model and already have needed it and it came through for us.  We charged our battery packs and fired up the sawzall to finish what we had previously started and barely finished before we ran out of gas.  This also allowed us to trim the joists under my cabin deck so we could put the steps out in front of my door instead of on the end of the deck.  This was a huge adjustment and both of us were happy with the final result.  In no time we were completely finished.  It really looked great and it was only about 2:00.

We took a break to hydrate and admire our work.  I asked Bob if he had a couple hours in him for the water tower and he was game.  We weren’t pushing yet and I knew this wouldn’t be hard work; mostly the finish work on top of what Mike and I did last trip.  Again, Bob was pretty pleased with our work, so beyond adding more rock around the legs at some future time, he didn’t see the need for any adjustments or additions, so we got right to adding the lengths of metal strapping Mike and I had cut last trip.  Some of the railroad ties were like iron, unyielding to nail, hammer, or screw.  We pounded and drilled as best we could and added multiple nails and screws everywhere.  We added another strap to the front posts just for good measure and we went around again with additional screws and nails.  Now this monstrosity had its beams strapped on top of the posts for another level of strength and rigidity.

We were now ready to hoist the double 3/4” sheets of plywood up top; the part I most feared, but between the 2 of us, we carried the first one upslope along the West side of the structure and therefore were up higher, closer to the top.  Rather than hoisting these bitches from the front where the hoist would have been the lowest, this approached proved most worthy.  We flung her up and slid her over the beams in place with much rejoicing.  We got up on top and screwed her down about every 4 inches.  With screws comes use.  Up went the next and in went copious amounts of screws, and then another row for extra measure.  It looked tremendous.  We were done with everything we had wanted to do this trip and had plenty of time to do it.

Another shower awaited, clean clothes, a cooling breeze, and cocktails, although having a little less time than usual to prep, we ran out of ice cubes.  Being in the Great Basin, we resorted to coolish whiskey and found it to be quite satisfactory.  Bob wrangled up some excellent chicken soup, a few slabs of BBQ’d tri-tip, I finished the roll from Verlin, and we somehow saved room for a slice o’ pie.  My god I love pumpkin pie.  The Nighthawks worked the skies above our camp again, and we saw the fatty squirrel that seems to live nearby.  We saw lots of tracks in the dirt and plenty o scat as we walked down to the cemetery to say how’ do to the boys.  We admired all the Juniper I drug up the road and stashed along the naked fence line.  By the time we got back to the kitchen, I was jonesin for my pillow (not the racist Trumpian fuck, just my bed in my cabin that has my cozy pillow that I brought from my liberal home).

I was extremely content that night knowing all we had accomplished and how great the final product looked and how excited Bob was about his cabin site.  The wind died to a real gentle breeze across my face and sleep was fantastic.  We were both up pretty early.  Bob and I both get pretty antsy to get on the road on leavin’ day, but they are a little different for me up here.  For me, it is often a solid few hours of cleaning up, putting away, organizing, and leaving less behind for the future.  This trip was no different; plus I wanted to try to get a few little things done before I left.  Bob was packed up and headed down the Hill about 9:00, so I called K to check in and let her know the plan.  Shortly though, Bob returned, having forgotten his phone charger cable.  Oh, these modern troubles.

I unloaded the last 8 or so boards we didn’t use on the deck and put them under the shade tarp in our “big wood” pile, but of course, not until after I moved all the rocks and branches weighing the tarp down, removed the tarp, reorganized the pile, and brought over cinder blocks to pile the new wood upon.  Then I brought over the 10 or so boards we still had piled up along the far side of my cabin.  Then I covered it back up and weighted it all down.  Nothing is as simple and straightforward as it first appears.  Then I began gathering all the cinder blocks and before long I had about 10 of them in front of the trailer.  Since Bob and I had just talked about possible materials, shapes, sizes, and designs for the power house, it dawned on me these may fit into the project.

I soon had a diagonal wall, which I then moved to a squared off wall.  I checked out the battery connections to see how difficult it would be to move them and began to try keys to unlock the propane tanks so I could fill the empty one.  None of my keys seemed to fit so I called Mike to see if we happened to have a hidden key up here somewhere or maybe there was a special word or thought that would release its hold.  No such luck.  Oh well, that would have to wait.  I wandered about switching between loading up my cabin stuff, the kitchen stuff, the tools, the leftover materials, and eventually getting stuff in the truck.  I brought a load of materials back to the boneyard, and put the yogurt and milk in the outhouse to improve digestion, and then brought a few boards back up for use next time.

I was pushing a little bit because I really wanted to clean up a few things in the kitchen, attach the screen door to my cabin, and move the water in the kitchen tank to the cabin tank so we could hoist the kitchen tank up onto the platform next time.  I knew I was running out of gas, and time, so I scrapped the other jobs, and just focused on moving the water.  I had left the generator hooked up to the propane, so I got out the pump, went up and down the road a couple times until I got the right type and length of hose, moved the fan propeller a little on the pump to make sure she was loose, got the hoses set up in each tank and connected to the pump, plugged her in, and nothing…I got a pencil to manually move the propeller blades to get her started but nothing.

For good measure I gave her a little tap on the side, then a smack, then a pliers tap, then a good shaking, then I grabbed the hose and smashed her into the ground several times, spraying rock and dust all over.  Fucking Chinese piece of shit!  Even though it has worked 9 of 10 times, I just have a bad feeling about this pump.  In despair and disgust and shrouded in failure, I headed to the generator to shut her down.  As if the heavens above opened and the guiding light of all that is good and pure and holy beamed down upon the end of the extension cord laying on the deck, my legs trembled and my knees became weak, and I received the holy message like the stone headed, tiny brained rock mover that I am.  Fuck me.  Oh well, I had passed my peak, and it was beyond time to call it a trip.  Looking more closely on the sad little water pump that could, I hope the plastic nipple can be replaced and the dents and indents repaired.  If not, I shall invest another $39 bucks on a Chinese, throw away, water pump.

I had figured I could be headed down by 2:00, and it was only a little later as I closed the gate behind me and called K to give her an update.  I had my pot of chicken thighs, onions, and peppers, 1 chocolate zucchini muffin, several thirst quenchers, a slice o pie, and a quarter of the box of Cheezits.  Perhaps I could make it home.  It was supposed to be getting hot in the valley, so I figured I would stay in the mountains as long as possible.  That meant 395 to Reno and 80.  That also meant only about 4 hours to get home.  Traffic and malfunctions were minimal; shithead drivers fairly abundant, but they can go around me, the fucks.  I listened to great new tunes on the way home, and reveled in not only our accomplishments, but the deck and water tower in particular.  These were big pieces to the scene and would really be big pieces to the look and feel of the place.  I can’t thank Bob enough.

PS:  A big shout out to Ken and Vince who used a lot of time and muscle to find, carry, and load rocks into the wire fencing to make a huge rock foundation for the water tank.  Alas, this was an early design feature and was not meant to be.  However, all that rock was used to stabilize the railroad tie legs of the water tower, so they became an integral part of that feature, and what a feature it is.  The all glass shower stall awaits completion.

 

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