Another camping trip!!!  I met Cindy at Butt Lake Thursday afternoon, and stayed a couple of nights up there.  Beautiful!  I like it better than Butte Lake (and it's easier to get to!)  We got, by chance, the perfect camping site.  When I went to reserve a site, there was only one left - #49. It was perfect!  It was almost the last site on the loop by the lake, and was directly on the water.  This was pretty much my view from the campsite.

A couple of steps from the site, and you had this view.  Cindy and I just dropped our kayaks here when we finished kayaking - perfect!  (The site next to us were also kayakers, so we shared....)

  

We had a visitor sneaking in one evening.....can you see her?

Can you see her now?

I logged over 18,000 steps Friday on my pedometer - Cindy and I went on several walks around the area.  This is on the way to the boat ramp from camp.

Nighttime on the lake....

I'm getting better at backing a trailer, but still needed help to get the trailer and RV in the site (I can't see the Trailer in the RV mirrors - next upgrade is different mirrors).  Bummer, but the couple across the road from me were terrific.  I got out to assess the situation, and she volunteered her husband (a tow truck driver for 35 years!) to park it for me.  He took a good look at it, had his teenage daughter direct him (I don't think he needed the help, though) and put it in perfectly.  Whew!!!  Campers really are the nicest people - at least the ones that are at the more remote sites.  Everyone there was great - lots of kids riding around on bikes and scooters, playing in the water, etc.

Some of the local wildlife......

Cindy and I got in a couple of good kayaks.  The first day, we put in in the afternoon, and it was a bit choppy.  The next morning, it was like glass.....

We spent the morning on the lake, and the afternoon shopping in Chester.  

This is the remains of a telephone pole....

  

Camping Trip!!!  Meredith and I took off Saturday to join her sister Veronica and family at Butte Lake for an overnight stay.  Each time I go out, I try to do a few more things on my own.  This time, I tried hooking up the trailer to the RV by myself (which involves backing up the RV - a difficult task for me, since I'm not the best at backing up my RAV, and I can see better in it.)  I did manage to get REALLY close to the hitch on the first try!  (Then, I didn't get the hitch on the ball quite right, but...one thing at a time!)  

The trip went well - until we headed home.  Meredith had to be at work Sunday at 12:45, and I finally got her home at 12:30, and she had to walk the last few feet....

First, the kayaks kept coming loose on the trailer coming out of the lake (6 miles of dirt road - most of it washboard).  We stopped twice to reload, restrap, etc.  Then once more stop once we hit Highway 44.  Everything was smooth until we got to Meredith's house.  She is in a cul de sac, and someone was parked wrong, so I couldn't get the RV turned, and when I tried to back up, the trailer was starting to jack-knife (and the jerk with the truck parked in the middle of the street was standing there watching.....).  Luckily for me, Chris was out working in the yard, so he came and unstuck the RV, showed me a new way to strap the trailer, and sent me on my way.....Whew!  Next time, I'll get it!!

Our view from the campsite - a beautiful campground, but not a lot of flat land for parking the RV or pitching a tent. They do have drive-thru's on every campsite though - a big plus for our two cars and a trailer group.

 

Launching the kayaks at Butte Lake

Looking back toward the "boat ramp" - a true misnomer as they have everything blocked off so much we can only launch the kayaks one at a time.  There are no motorized boats allowed on the lake, and I guess they really mean it.

The guys:

We had nice fluffy clouds overhead, and the color of the water was so different, depending on where they were.  We also had a nice (not!) wind that picked up while we were out.  Coming back, if you stopped paddling, you went backwards.....

Another busy couple of weeks.....

I looked out the kitchen door the other day, and I wonder why I bother cleaning the patio table......

I have my new quilt started - here's the beginning of it.  I've added two more rounds to it since then (I am loving the look of the quilt, but it is a boring quilt to put together....a trade-off)

Sunrise the other day:

Margene and I had another kayaking adventure....we set out from Oak Bottom Marina at Whiskeytown Lake.  I've never been there, and it's been years since she has.  It is a beautiful spot - but I think they all are beautiful on Whiskeytown.

Margene was making friends with the geese...

We saw a HUGE eagle nest, complete with an eagle.  We didn't get close to it, so this was taken from quite a distance away.  I couldn't remember if they would still be nesting at this time or not.

We find a nice little cove that we floated in and had some crackers and cheese while just absorbing the solitude of the lake.   Ahhhh.......

Margene remembered from when she was at the lake years ago that there was a place you could kayak through and see part of the road that had been submerged when they filled the lake.  At that time, you could still see the paint lines on the road.  The problem - it was MANY years ago, and she didn't remember where it was.  We did manage to stumble across it though - lucky us!  It has a very narrow entrance.....and you can still see the paint lines!

Headed back to the marina...

Dawn came up for a short visit last week - unfortunately for her - it turned into a longer visit.  While she was here, her apartment had the power shut down to it.  Not a good thing for Fresno in the summer.  She decided to hang with us a few extra days.....and I don't blame her!  While she was here, I had a couple of days of vacation scheduled, so we took a road trip through Lassen Park.  They opened the road through just recently.  The lakes at the top (Helen and Emerald) are still covered in ice, and most of the parking lots are not cleared of snow - awesome!

My main objective was a walk around Manzanita Lake.  This is the best time.....the babies are out!  

If you wonder why the babies were all hanging out at the edge of the lake - check out all the minnows here....

When Dawn and I got out of the car at the lake, we saw two young boys go running up to their (assumed) dad.  "Guess what!  There's an eagle over there, there's an eagle over there!  We were next. They came running up to us to tell us there was an eagle at the lake.  One of the boys followed us for a bit on our walk telling us all about it.    We did eventually run across the eagle.  He spent part of the time flying overhead with his signature screech,  Once again...Awesome!

My favorite shot of the day....

 
The stellar jays were out as well.  They are so handsome!  (but noisy!)

This guy decided to join us for lunch, hoping for a few handouts, I think.

I did it again - got busy, and didn't post.  The good news - I have tons of pictures of what I have been busy with!  I'm going to post separately for my kayak and road trip - these are just the 'normal' busy things......

While I was camping at Hat Creek, I ignored my garden.  I came home to HUGE zucchinis.  Luckily, they weren't too seedy - at least the one I ate wasn't.  One went to Margene, and the other was spiralated for dinner.  

Here's my harvest from the other day - more zucchini (normal size this time), a pepper, an eggplant, some tomatoes and a round zucchini.  The garden is doing well - last night was a stir fry with my beans, zucchini and tomatoes, along with other veggies from my box from Churn Creek Organic Farms.

I recently taught Margene how to crochet net scrubbies, and she wanted to learn to make the dishcloths, so she started shopping (on-line) for yarn.  She got a little excited and ordered ME a bunch of cotton yarn and netting.  I got this package shipped directly to my house:

Book club this month was Margene's pick, and she was planning on having it her garage - until the temperature spiked.  She had it at my house (with air conditioning!) instead.  The book was The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom (good book!) so this month, instead of bookmarks, I made "kitchen things' - washcloths and scrubbies - and used some of the yarn/netting from Margene.  Here are some of the combinations I came up with.  While the ladies were here, they rearranged to their satisfaction the combinations of dishcloth and scrubbies - evidently my choices weren't the best......

One of my fortune cookies - I told AJ it should have been his!

From a couple of our walks recently.....

 

Just to show I've been busy!!!