Hi guys-

Doing the grill party at the ranch again this year and everyone is invited!

Watch this space for more info (not much time just now), but last year's info is very useful.


Perseids peak mid-week this year and the weekend will have a full moon, so it won't be much of a meteor shower party.

My bulldozer man is grooming the dirt road this week, so it should be nice and flat and wide, if not a bit dusty.

I've just started building a pergola over the deck and should be finished in a couple of weekends. This should mean some good shade for those who come early and plan to fly kites and play in the sunshine.

I'll put together the info soon- hope some of you can make it!

-Stew

edit:
BTW, the pergola project is going smoothly, but I could always use (and would greatly appreciate) a couple extra helping hands.
My next trip up the hill will be this Saturday, July 19.
We'll be working on the main structure.
Food and drink provided!

If only you could make it approx. 1 month later as we'll be about.

Sorry, Andy, can't.
But I look forward to your visit and we NorCalers would be remiss if we didn't have a get-together for you.
Have you posted the dates yet?

they're posted somewhere. Will have a look and update my trip ideas thread i started a while ago.

Pergola Progress Pic!

The main backbone is up and the first of four beams is holding a few of the spars.

Wow - what a view! That is going to be awesome.

Okay, we're in SF from 6th to 8th of Sept. LA from 11th to 13th and back to SF on the 19th.

Playing with Google Earth this morning... they've updated the aerial photos of the area with higher resolution.

Attached is a view of the San Antonio Valley. You can also cruise around and see my 16ft travel trailer (north of the attached view) and the picnic deck.
(In order to get the view to load fully, you might have to shift the view and then try again)

The main structure of the pergola is complete! I'll post a couple of photos as soon as I get them off my phone.

Pergola Progress Pic II

I need to finish off the trim, put on all the 2x2 toppers, and paint!

Are they canted or is that a lens artifact?

A little of both.
I'm surprised at how good that came out, considering it's from a phone.

Since the posts are on pier blocks it's not hard to straighten them up with a kick or two.

That looks awesome. I wish I could bring the family over. Maybe next year...

That would be wonderful, Roger!

better late than never- info attached.

(smacks head against wall)

I MUST CHECK THE BBS MORE OFTEN!

<sigh>

We had a great time last year, would have loved to get up there again this time but am about 27 hours too late!

(edit... and even worse, Stu PM'ed me about it but I managed to only read the bit about the september meetup...)

DOH!
I was wondering about that.

Well, it was a small group- about 20 total, with more than half staying over.

I was quite happy to play host to Doug and Jean (tanstaafl and ??) for the afternoon and evening! Thanks for coming out to my hide-away, guys!!

We did some 'plinking' with pellet guns down at my dry pond in the afternoon and then fired up the grills for the roasted corn-on-the-cobb and chicken dinner.

My friend Dan showed up in the evening with a fantastic telescope. Hopefully he'll share some of the photos soon.

The evening was fantastic- great people, wonderfully mild weather (very hot day, but warm night, too), good food and conversations.

In the morning we scrambled a load of eggs and corned-beef hash, as well as cooked up some 'cowboy coffee'.

A strong attack was mounted against the pergola and much work was accomplished! It's still not finished, but it's much closer. The shade is sooo nice!

Dan has posted up some of his photos here.

?? = "kayakjazz".

Thanks very much for the party and the free food! We had a great time, some interesting mountain biking around there, too. Attached is a picture taken while the crowd was still pretty small...

(Please excuse poor picture quality... my camera is in the repair shop, had to use SWMBO's toy camera that had a smudge on the lens that I didn't find out about until I downloaded the pics.)

tanstaafl.

Wow!

Mmmm.. I must remember to book a "free" (plus huge fuel surcharge, taxes, improvement fees, tourist fees, etc..) points flight to attend this event if it is offered again in 2009!

And I'm quite proficient with both hand and power tools, should the host desire any further assistance with whatever the current construction project might be at that time!

Cheers

The pergola is now finished and ready for another August party. Looks like August 15-16 for 2009.