Trip Date: June 8, 2020
Find this SpotI had been getting estimates to build the fence since we had been ripped off over the winter. I laid out the line and location of the gates with Mike and sent them out to Monty, Dale K., a recommendation from Sheriff Dave, and John, whom we had met through Marty. We had gone back and forth, hoping at different times each guy would do the job. Monty is just a good young cowboy dude. He is the kind of guy I don’t mind giving my money to and I know he would do a great job.
John, whom I had just met, seemed like a good dude. His girlfriend was born and raised in Likely and knew everyone around. She knew all the people I remembered from being up here and playing softball, so there definitely was a connection. I thought that connection could also come in handy down the road if we needed help or recommendations to have more local folks we had a connection to. John seemed like a skilled/handy good guy that could do a lot himself or would certainly know somebody else who could do whatever we needed.
Dale was just a name and number from Sheriff Dave Jr.. He sounded real positive and upbeat and energetic on the phone. I explained to him that I needed a pretty detailed estimate to be able to compare bids. Things like post height, spacing, bracing, number of strands, distance between strands, barbed v unbarbed wire, cement v none, etc. We also needed a clean solution at the cemetery to allow “visitors” to come in without it becoming a security breech. He was very responsive, explaining things, answering questions, providing details.
He also came up with a slick design for the small access opening by the cemetery and called again to ask about gate locations and slight adjustments in the line to allow for a real straight fence. As I am prone to do, I sent him a couple emails with specific requests or questions about the job to make sure we were on the same path, so when his bid came in the lowest cost, I was ready to go with him without hesitation. He was ready to start in a few days to get the job in before another big job started, so that was all working out.
I was also trying to get Bruce, the guy I bought the trailer from at Sylvan Supply, to let us know if he was still willing and able to tow the trailer up there for us. He has spent time in Eagleville throughout his entire life and thought he could incorporate bringing the trailer up for us with a visit to the folks he knows over there. I was not pushing from our side as I had hoped the cover would be built first, but when I realized it wouldn’t be, I started to try to get Bruce to commit to getting it up there. We could get it out of the way and position it in place on our own when that time came.
Finally the stars aligned and Bruce said he would bring it up Tuesday, June 9. Then he said his wife/girlfriend was having a medical exam and he wanted to be there so could we do it Sunday (this discussion was occurring on Friday). I said I needed more time to prepare so how about Monday. So Monday it was. He called back to push for Sunday again, but I told him it was supposed to snow, so we had to stick with Monday. All of a sudden in a couple of days, we would have a fence, 2 gates, and the trailer up top. This was getting real.
Dale started on the fence line, mowing and clearing trees on Friday afternoon. Sunday afternoon at 2:22 he sent me a picture of 3” of snow on the ground and complete white out sky. The dogs didn’t seem to mind but everyone else was fairly miserable. He also said that with clearing the trees he had a clear sight of the property line and it wasn’t lining up with our concept of where the cemetery gate and access would go. Rather than putting in a third gate, because the property line crossed our diagonal access road, we decided he would make a new route for the road, just make the turn off the diagonal road up alongside the cemetery about 50’ sooner, thereby staying inside the property line. Crisis avoided.
Mike was excited to come up again in his new Exterra and I knew Bruce was just going to turn around and come home right away, so I headed out about 6:00 with a huge load of the last of the cabin materials on the trailer, and a fair amount of miscellaneous in the truck. I had to tighten the ratchets before I reached Fair Oaks which diminished my confidence even lower than it had been. I was driving very slowly on 80 and then 5, stopping again to tighten ratchets. I decided to stay on 99/70 and then 70, probably the lowest speed limits, but straightest shot to get to the property.
I got up to Chester without incident and was gaining confidence. This was by far the slowest I had driven, but I was still on schedule. I had reached out to Bruce a couple times by phone and text with no response, but I assumed he was on his way too. I finally heard from him about 11:00 and he was a few miles East of Susanville. I was a few miles West so I waited for him at 139. He followed me out to the property where we found fence Dale, his buddy and worker Martin, and his 2 sons and three dogs all talking to neighbor Dale. The fence was in alongside South Grasshopper Rd. and along the southern boundary road. It all blew my mind.
I knew Bruce was in a time crunch so I didn’t stop long but headed on down to the boundary road and up to the cemetery. Dale had a trailer and equipment strewn about so we had to stop and make a path. Unfortunately, Bruce didn’t wait long and kind of punched it across the new road, up and over 2 sizeable humps that hadn’t been smoothed out yet, and scraped the shit out of the bottom of the trailer and the stabilizer jacks. He got out proclaiming he wouldn’t take the trailer up the hill. I told him the road got much better, wider anyway, since he had blurted out a concern about scratching his shiny white truck.
He had his brother with him, who could have been a twin, but neither seemed interested in being here another minute. Bruce grabbed a couple blocks that were behind tires of Dale’s equipment which he didn’t appreciate much. A few unpleasantries were exchanged, but Dale quickly said he would take the trailer up for us and to just get Bruce out of their way and away from here. With their help assured, I was happy to see Bruce go, even though he didn’t walk us through the trailer or give us any help, tips, directions, etc as he said he would. Oh well. We only want positive vibes; so off he went.
Having only met Dale and Martin a few minutes ago, all the commotion with Bruce, the shock of seeing the fence and gates for the first time, and the massive trailer sitting in front of me, my mind was blown. Dale and Martin could see it in my eyes and could hear it in my rambling nonsensical mutterings, so they were both very reassuring. They had 2 huge diesel trucks and bringing the trailer up top would be no trouble at all. These guys were already proving to be fantastic people.
I had kept my truck and trailer below and out of the way so I hopped in with Martin and he towed us up top. Once we got there, I couldn’t clear my head enough to figure out where I wanted it, so I put Martin through a whole bunch of back and forth until we finally unhooked her and got Martin back to the work he was supposed to be doing. He was a little uneasy having been gone so long, but I was clearing my mind by then so I suggested I needed a beer and boy they jumped on the suggestion. We teased each other about the beer we drank, and I settled for a “light beer from Miller.”
We had some laughs and ripped Bruce a bit. They had had a good talk with neighbor Dale and the weather was good, so they were appreciative of that. I was wrapping my head around the fence and seeing how freaking straight it was. It wasn’t as tall as I had imagined, but it was strong and the wire was tight as hell. Before long Mike ambled up the diagonal road and was the first vehicle to pass over to new tighter turn up to the cemetery. There was much rejoicing.
I was very relieved that Mike liked the fence so much. He said it made him feel safer and more secure; at least that we had done something to make our scene better. It sure fit in the country; made us seem like real cowpokes. We yakked at the crew a while longer and then we drove up top to check out the trailer. Mike was again happy and impressed. The more he looked, the closer he saw things, the more pleased he became. This was finally settling me down, and along with a few more beers, I was beginning to relax. Trailer up top, fencing all but finished, Bruce gone, Mike happy; this trip was off to a good start.
We were unpacking and setting up and organizing for a while when the guys came up in a side by side and a quad, the 3 dogs raging all about. Dale had brought a bottle of champagne to celebrate so we went out to the point to enjoy the view. We were laughing and joking and Dale was fooling around with the boys. One had a wrestling shirt on so we talked wrestling and football. Dale also wrestled and ran track and now coaches wrestling, so he knew all the kids that came out of the area, and his son knew Jason Strain’s son in Alturas. We were having a great time.
Dale offered to walk through the trailer with Mike and show him some of the buttons, controls, etc. I offered to write the check for Dale if he knew how much he wanted for the extra walk-through gate at the cemetery and the new road work. Much to my surprise, and relief, he said to just stick with what we originally agreed on. This is the kind of people we want to be around. I jokingly made the check out to his son and we all had a good laugh. Martin gave us a ton of shit about being from the bay area, hippies, pot growers and all the rest, but really seemed to enjoy the back and forth and the camaraderie. We said goodbye for a long time and hoped to see each other again some time. Simply great people.
With all the commotion gone, we drove down to really check out the completed job and the gates. Wow. I was still adjusting to the impact, but I knew the quality of the materials and the work was there. I was happy about that. Mike was happy, and I knew we did the right thing, so it just was. I was so amped, we didn’t cook or really eat dinner. We ate a bag of chips, I remember that. I had a few cocktails for sure, and we finished the pizza I brought up for the ride, but that was all I could handle before heading off early to bed. What a freaking day.
In the morning, despite it being the first thing I saw, the trailer did not look so massive or intrusive. I think being out in the open helps that too. Fortunately, I could still see the kitchen from my tent so it wasn’t like the trailer obliterated everything else and dominated the hill top. The area is just too big and open for that, so it had already begun to fit in. I got a fire going and coffee, made my morning constitutional, and greeted Mike as he emerged from the first night in the trailer. He was happy.
Mike was excited about his boom box that he bought at the flea market years ago that turns out to have a lifetime subscription to Sirius Radio. It really is incredible. He also got out a portable battery that can power the radio, charge other electronics, start a car, probably run a fair amount of tools, so he hooked that up and we had a mellow morning listening to tunes and bathing in all the progress and excitement of having the trailer up here. He was reading through a bunch of the manuals that were making a little more sense now having the rig here. We checked out the damage to the rear stabilizer from Bruce thrashing across the road. We opened all the compartments and looked at all the doo dads and widget gizmos. The generator on the back fired right up and was real quiet. Everything seemed to be in order.
But we had work to do. With the fence now from the SE corner heading West to South Grasshopper road and then extending up into the rock, we felt like we had a good southern and western perimeter. The rest of the Western side, was very steep and rocky, as was the north, making it very unlikely any rig could make it up. And, those sides had the most traffic and visibility; two more things the burglars don’t want. So now we just felt exposed along the southern half of the Eastern boundary which is relatively flat, not rocky, and not visible from any roads. We needed to fill the gap.
We drove along the boundary road collecting all the PVC piping we had used to mark the fence line and then up to the S. Grasshopper gate on the diagonal road. There we stopped just to admire it all and talk about what the reaction might be from neighbor Tom about our 35 acres being behind his fence. We collected more garbage and pipe along to the SE corner. From there we eyeballed the property line to the North up the Eastern boundary and put a few PVC markers at intervals allowing visibility between posts.
I headed up the mid point on the eastern side and tried to eyeball the alignment of the old wooden fence posts and the new line flagged by Leo when NST did the survey. It all seemed fairly reasonable so I just went with it. The first 300’ or so, South from the center point was super rocky ground. I can’t see any rig getting through there. It rises slightly before dropping off fairly steeply to the corner. From about the 300’ mark, the slope increases and the rocks disappear, making it reasonable to fence this 1000’ or so from the corner to the top of the hill and the transition to the rock. Mike and I began pulling the wire still remaining from the old fencing.
We soon realized this was going to be a job. The weather was great; not hot with a nice breeze, but the fencing was alternately buried in the ground or grown over by sage. We soon needed the axe to break off stout branches of sage to allow us to pull out the wire. Often times where the wire was buried, it rusted enough to break, so we found numerous sections that had varying numbers of strands. We would free a significant stretch of wire and then lift it over the sage to get it out nearer the property line as we saw it. We made it down most of the way, just about onto the flat ground at the bottom, when a white pick-up appeared on the road.
I first assumed it was Dale, but it didn’t quite look right. It turned out to be Cindy and Tim, so we took the opportunity to take a break and visit. We felt like we could be finished in an hour or so so they agreed to come back later in the afternoon. We also mentioned Dale was coming so they were excited to see him too.
Back to work, we freed the last of it. We got all the wire with the exception of one strand that ran behind a 4” Juniper sapling. I went back up the hill to retrieve my binoculars and to try to get the fencing a little closer to the property line, but who knows. What we did realize though is that we probably would wreck ourselves if we tried to do the fence ourselves, and we realized there really wasn’t enough wire remaining to do the job. Perhaps we could just reinforce the first 300’ up top. I’d love to retrieve the wooden posts and see what we could do with them.
At any rate, we were done; both with the job and energy expended. It was time for rest and refreshments. Mike soon found his way to the trailer and I was jonesing for a shower. I was a little concerned about when the neighbors might roll up the hill, but I needed to be clean. I got all my gear together and clean clothes and cleaned up by the kitchen, and sure enough, up rolls a rig. I scrambled behind the kitchen to get clothes on and didn’t respond to Dale’s calls. Fortunately he headed to the trailer and woke Mike up, which gave me enough time to get dressed, just as they came up the trail. Dale quickly figured what had happened and we had a good laugh.
Mike was real happy to see Dale and chat away. We had a beer and caught up and soon Tim and Cindy crested the hill. Dale was happy to see them too, so we all gathered in the kitchen and yakked away. We heard an update on the neighbor’s spraying, and the dangers of 5G, and what is or isn’t happening with our tax dollars. Mike gave them a tour of the trailer before they left and it was cocktail time. Mike got his steaks going and I heated up the same kind of vege brew Kristen made last time and the same chicken enchiladas. The tunes and cocktails were delicious.
I was feeling great from all the activity and from being clean, so I settled in for the long haul when Mike went down. I went off the pee and saw the second best shooting star of my life; and huge, glowing green ball with a huge tail crossing a huge swath of the sky. It was barely dark and this thing glowed like an emerald. The only one that surpasses this was a very similar green screamer I saw from my backyard in Carmichael a few years back. Very similar in size, brightness, angle, tail, etc.; even the early time of evening was the same. I got a fire going and melted into the vibes, tunes, stars, and beverages.
The sleep was glorious. The morning was spectacular. I headed down early to visit the boys and make sure they were OK with all the commotion. I had coffee going by the time Mike joined me for a long leisurely morning. Neither of us were feeling like a huge eventful day was in front of us. But with plenty of rocks and concrete around, it wasn’t long before something caught my interest.
I started to fool with the cement piers I brought up to build a deck alongside the kitchen on the West side. We have planned on adding the Annex to the East side; about a 4’x 8’ extension off the deck and 42” wide stairs coming up from the trail alongside the new decking. But I had been using the West side as a shady morning spot, and storage, so it began to get used. Now I figured we should just build the “Western Addition” that would provide more flat space, more shade, another hang out spot, and possibly steps to tie in to the trailer and cabin below.
It didn’t take as much pry bar work as I had expected and soon I had all 10 piers in place and level. Each new step exposes new possibilities, so my mind was racing with next steps, and some finishing touches. I continue to struggle with water movement and distribution. I am somewhat comfortable with the collection, but I would love to hook up a large supply of water directly to the trailer so it can be continuously supplied, perhaps enough for an entire season. We need some elevation to do that, but one tank to flow down to the trailer would be too high to collect the water from the kitchen roof, so I am a little stumped.
Mike and I reviewed a few more of the trailer brochures and had a great lunch of ham and Swiss on sliced sourdough with tons of mayo and mustard. He got out the solar panel and connected it to the system and it immediately began charging the batteries. Mike also fired up the generator and let it run a bit and it too charged the batteries, so both systems were complete and operable. The trailer continued to impress. We futzed with the propane tanks and hoses enough to see that some were worn and could be replaced. We made a list of parts and pieces we needed from low land upon our return.
Soon it was time for a nap and I snoozed for a couple hours. I had a great nap and awoke to the slightest pitter-patter of a slight drizzle; hardly enough to wet the ground, but enough to sweeten the sage and provide an olfactory treat. Upon awakening, it was found to be cocktail hour, and I prepared for a repeat of the previous night. No massive screamer, but I saw 7 shooting stars. Some may have been said to be “falling,” but I am not sure I know the difference. After the free lifetime subscription to Sirius went to bed, I hooked up my tunes and had a great little fire. It was a great night.
After coffee, we moved the trailer out of the way in anticipation of the cover being built. We spent some time measuring and placing the posts to mark the corners of the cover, realizing yet again, how visible it was going to be from the pavement below. We just couldn’t get out of sight unless we cleared a whole bunch more ground out West. It is a tough balance to do some things you need to do to feel safe and secure while at the same time, not getting too worked up about getting ripped off and all the dangers that surround us all the time. We are trying not to over-react and stay happy and positive about the place, but taking a few rational steps toward securing our place and belongings.
Mike headed out about 10:00 and I set to bringing up lumber for the Western Addition. I was making great progress with the materials we had on site, when Mike called to tell me he had broken down. He was awaiting the tow truck, but didn’t think they would let him ride with the driver because of Covid. He thought it would be some time before they got there, but I hadn’t begun to pack up or load the truck, so I was going to be some time as well.
I was hugely relieved to not be towing the trailer back home, and although I gave up trying to get the baby lizard out of my tent, the packing up went fairly smoothly. It got awfully windy and I got coated with dirt and dust, so after a quick rinse I was rolling about an hour after Mike called, but he was an hour away. I came to the spot where I thought Mike had stopped, but there was nothing. I assumed he hopped in with the tow truck guy, so after looking around a minute, I headed on down South, satisfied he was on his way.
Just about the time I was comfortable with the idea Mike had been picked up, I noticed a suspicious white rig on the back of a tow truck. Pulling over, here he was, just about the minute he was going to hop in with the driver. The local dispatcher said they would never leave anyone behind, even though that was the corporate position. Nonetheless, Mike hopped in with me and we rolled. The tow truck driver called in a few minutes to say that he was taking the car to the shop and his boss would bring it on down to Roseville, so they would be a little later than anticipated. Although Mike didn’t grab his bag, it really didn’t change our plans. We got Macadonado in Truckee and it gave me a stomachache all the way home, but it did help pass the time.
Holy moley. What a trip. The fence and gates, the trailer, the tow truck. A huge load of cabin materials. Dale, Martin and the boys, Bruce, Dale, Tim and Cindy. Massive changes to the property. I feel like we have a good idea where we want the cover to stand and I think I can move the trailer out of the way and then reposition it with my truck. I still am not certain about water transport, but I know we will have tons of it. I think we will have plenty of everything from the trailer, although the poopy management will be interesting. I hope the cover is in place before July. Stupendous progress!
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