Where We Were - California

Where We Are

A Deck Party

Before.. .

In-between. . .

And now! The deck is about 75% finished. . .

. . . which is just finished enough to lounge in the sun watching the hummingbirds buzz at their feeders.

Aunt Patty and Uncle Dick zipped up from La Jolla for a surprise visit over the weekend, and Bill did not hesitate to put them to work!

Lynn lends his able hands to the finishing of the joists.

This ain't no rustic living. . .

Our dining nook is the perfect size for this little family of two.

The open design of the kitchen/living room/dining room means we can keep each other company while cooking, puttering, and cleaning up.

The cozy living room centers around our new hand-made coffee table. . . just waiting for a round of Rummikub or Carcassonne. The doorway off to the left leads into the guest room. Our futon awaits your arrival!

Every morning, a glorious sunrise streaks across the sky outside our bedroom, welcoming us into the day. Every night, we lay in our bed and look up through the shadows of the Jeffrey pines at Orion's glittering belt.

This is the view from the window of the office where Shannon writes and Toby will make camp a smashing success.

Our little cabin is finally our home. Come spring, we may actually get a front porch.

This is prime real estate. Really. This shot is from the "back yard" into the house. The room at the top of the stairs will be Toby's camp office. Can't beat that commute!

Construction at Coulter Pines - September 2005

A whole gaggle of fellas are working hard to finish the house we will live in by the end of October. They ripped off the rotted wood panels from the front and replaced them with new siding, using the salvageable used pieces to make repairs elsewhere. They've run wires through all the walls and ceiling, installed pipes for water and propane, and filled the outer frame with insulation. Since these photos were taken, they have installed windows and begun painting.

The best part? We will have one whole extra room just for you!

A view from the living-room-to-be down the center hallway.

Jim whistles while he wires.

The master bedroom.

Chris and Danny strike little confidence as they wield tools for nailing wood siding onto the front of our house.

Construction at Coulter Pines - August 2005

Once our house in finished, camp staff will begin gutting the old cabins to transform them into wash-houses, making renovations on the dining hall and kitchen, and building platforms for the tents. Toby will help out with labor (Shannon might make an appearance with a hammer - you never know). However, Toby will also be responsible for continuing to oversee programs at ELK and reaching out to recruit groups for camping for the upcoming sessions.

Jim, the Camp Director, performs a breathtaking feat of balance with a nail gun and a lit cigarette.

Jim and Lynn prepare to install our bathtub.

Toby purges the guts of our house.

We are living Camp ELK temporarily until our house at Coulter Pines, down the road, gets windows, walls, and working pipes.	Life at Camp ELK & Camp Coulter Pines For the next few months, we will be living at Camp ELK, one of two YMCA camps on Big Pines Highway in the Angeles National Forest. The closest civilization is Wrightwood, a small town mostly made up of ski shops, kitschy candle-and-candy markets, and biker bars. More on Wrightwood at a later date.
We take a few of our vibrant wedding gifts out for a test drive. Entertaining involves inviting Toby's program staff over for celery sticks, cookies, board games and gabbing.	Camp ELK is where the main action is right now. We are living temporarily in the VIP house, accommodations usually reserved for teachers and leaders traveling with campers. It is nice to arrive at such a busy time of the summer, with groups filling camp with noise and energy every week. We live right in the heart of camp. Not only can we hear the creek outside our window at night, we wake up to the sounds of singing kids and counselors in the morning. We can join campfire in the evenings when we need a fix of silly songs, or we can stay in, playing games or hanging out with the program staff.
What we see from the bedroom window of our house-in-progress at Coulter Pines.	Camp ELK and Camp Coulter Pines are about 2 miles apart. Most of the groups using these camps are from the San Gabriel Valley Family YMCA's four branches. Other groups will use the camps as well, especially as the summer winds down and weekend groups and weeklong outdoor education groups start signing up.
An alternative view of our house. Definitely in progress.	Camp Coulter Pines is an older camp whose fate is to become a seasonal camp where campers stay in platform "tipis." Right now, the only person living at Coulter Pines is Bill, the food service director, along with his vicious dog, Dutchess. Bill and Dutchess will be our neighbors once our house is completed. It will be much quieter at Coulter Pines for some time to come. Camping groups do not use this camp right now.
Some of the program staff take a break from the sweaty work of filling a rented dumpster with construction debris.	Toby is responsible for supervising about a dozen staff members who are in charge of programs like arts and crafts, high and low ropes, archery, nature, pool and waterfront. He also will begin overseeing the maintenance staff, especially as camp slows down and construction projects gear up.

YMCA campers go for a ride at Jackson Lake.	One small body of water, Jackson Lake, serves these two camps as well as many surrounding camps and communities. Fishing, canoeing, swimming and picnics take place here every day of the week. It is really nothing more than a puddle, but it is cool, fresh water. We can't ask for more in the high desert. When we move to Coulter Pines, we will be an easy 5 minute walk from this lake.
Anne and Shannon not only manage to hike the 4 miles up Mount Baden-Powell. . .	Living right on top of the San Andreas Fault and on the border of the San Bernardino and Angeles National Forests, we can drive minutes in any direction and discover a trailhead leading us into another adventure. Old mining camps, meandering creekbeds, sheer rock faces and mountain ridges are all potential explorations. The Pacific Crest Trail passes two miles from here (pretty much straight up). Two nearby National Forest Ranger Stations offer kids' activities, nature hikes, history talks, and geology tours of the surrounding area
we manage the 4 miles back down.	In August, our friend from the DC area, Anne Burson, visited us in our new home. She and Shannon succeeded in scaling Mount Baden-Powell, a nearby peak. This was Shannon's maiden voyage into these jagged, awesome hills. When winter comes, we can snowshoe and ski in these mountains, and if we need a break from winter, folks keep assuring us we can drive an hour and be at the beach. What a concept!

page updated 5/16//06