July 4th and a new art form

Local folks say summer doesn't start in Oregon until the Fourth of July.  Well, they were right.  The weather turned warm enough to have an old fashioned Bar-B-Q of ribs, corn and all of the other trimmings.  We stayed in the "Reim Compound" for the day while Joel worked on a very large project.  We did take a few hours off to float the new Eagle FoldCat a few miles on the McKenzie.  I'm still not impressed with it and much prefer the Kayak.

This is where Joel spends a great deal of time.  It is a fix-it- man's paradise. It's a full shop with every kind of tool imaginable.

In previous posts I wrote that the radiator on Joel's Beaver had been completely removed and cleaned.  While in the process Joel also fixed a large lump in the floor due to the leveling jack pushing up.  While fixing that and while everything was torn apart he decided to tract down some water damage which he thought was coming from the window so he removed the window and discovered the area around the window was tight and the water was coming in from the gutter or molding above and causing some of the laminate next to the fiber glass to get wet.  Do you see where I'm going with this?  Well, he had to figure out a way to get glue down between the layers and then clamp it tight.

Thus a new art form for window coverings:

So far the gluing and clamping was successful.  Joel got the window put back but hasn't water tested the area yet.  The sun has been out and there has been no rain. But, wait there is more...while doing all the work, the upholstered valances in the bedroom were damaged and now have to be reupholstered. The fabric has been purchased (no easy task finding something that worked with the existing decor) so now the frames have to be torn apart and rebuilt.

Now that the weather has cleared up, it's time for me to go to Portola, CA again.  The last time I left Oregon they had 14 straight days of sun! I arrived at my son's house on Friday to warm temperatures of 87...but its a dry heat in the Sierras.  I'll take it! So what am I doing back in Portola?  Well, for one thing guaranteeing my friends in Oregon will have several week of clear, warm weather.  I'm also planning to do some long overdue backpacking on the Pacific Crest Trail which passes through near Truckee and Portola.  First I'm going to have to do some conditioning hikes at high altitude so stay tuned for more.