Enjoying Lake Tahoe…

The next day at Lake Tahoe, the snow had already begun to melt, and I did another walk around but this time took a look at the Pope estate. The pond I showed pictures of last time is on the Pope Estate and these shots are again of the pond and just a bit further inside the property. And in better weather. Although a coat was needed, the warm sun helped to lift the spirit.

The pond could use a good cleaning. This is the garden where the volunteers will be growing veggies for the Pope estate. This is the exact location of the original garden and it took some archeology work to find it. They had to identify roots and the like. Took a few years before they had the resources to do that little job. But now it’s known where the garden went. The small fence is to keep the wild rabbits out. The laundry and storage building. To the left and further on, that small building is the creamery, which has thick sawdust insulated walls. Kept the milk and other items nice and cold for the guests.  The main house, with the kitchen in the building on the left. There is a covered and screened walkway into the main houses pantry that the butler used to serve food. There’s no kitchen inside the main house. Upstairs from the kitchen is the schoolhouse. This building has two rooms and they’ve been restore to become the chauffeur’s room on the left, the tutor’s room on the right. Each outbuilding was made as a double residence, so the servants had their own rooms, but only the butler had a large room, big enough for his own cook stove. Many rooms were tiny. Then there was a washroom with a toilet, sink, and tub in the same building as the butler’s quarters, that only the upper servants could use, most used an outhouse.

The fountain isn’t ready to turn on just yet. The buildings there are the blacksmith shop in the left foreground, and the nanny’s room, and seamstresses room in the building on the right.

So that was my Sunday walkaround. The next day, it was time to appear at the shop and make myself useful, even though the official opening for volunteers wasn’t until Tuesday. It was a very nice day, and the sun soon warmed everything up enough that it was pleasant to work outside on another set of gates that had been built for the bone yard extension a few years before. They were sticking too often and making it difficult to open or close them. Not a very good design, that diagonal piece isn’t really supporting much. But, Steve, the current professional carpenter knew that I’d designed the other gates, and assigned me the job of getting these gates back working right.

Without tearing them down and throwing them away, about the best thing to do with them was to just use a sawzall and shorten a few pieces. That did the trick and when finished, and there was a nice 1/4″ gap between the gates when closed. No more sticking. Steve came out and did most of the sawing since he’s more use to using the sawzall.

We knock off at 4 pm so I was back inside my RV around 5 when this bear sauntered by, I took too long finding & fumbling with my camera so only got one photo…

Hard to see, but it’s right there in the middle of the picture. Brown fur matches the tree to it’s right. Fairly big bear too.

And that’s it for today, next post will be about the crew’s visit to Virginia City. Where Mark Twain worked as a reporter for 4 years or so. Stay tuned, and thanks for reading!

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One Response to Enjoying Lake Tahoe…

  1. Dawn Fagan says:

    Hi Jim!
    Wow…that place looks lovely. And now that it’s getting warmer I’m sure you’ll really enjoy puttering around. Don’t get eaten by a bear…or anything else. Are there ticks there?
    Vermont never had ticks before, but now they have infiltrated. (warmer winters because of that ‘hoax’ of climate change ). So the vet gave Katie new external treatment for fleas And ticks. It made her sick. Very lethargic and not herself at all. Now I’ve been giving her liquid clay from holistic vet in N.M. It should soak up toxins. She is feeling better after 3 days. I really love that kitty and was very upset. After all, I bought the motor home for her…so I could take her with me on vacation! Friends now call her the $60,000 cat! 🙂
    By the way, the RV is still in the shop yard. The spring mount actually had to be made. Hopefully they get it this week and maybe I’ll get her back here by end of June.

    Other than that, things are okay here but overwhelming me. Hard to keep up with the flora and fauna. This time of year everything grows so fast. And guests in and out. So I get up in the morning and don’t know where to start.
    But wedding plans are pretty much set. It will be a whirlwind with me going to NJ. Maybe I should have had everyone come to Vermont instead!
    I miss the simplicity of the desert…and Baja.
    Take care, my friend, and enjoy!
    Cheers,
    Dawn

    It’s odd that I didn’t get a notice that your comment had been posted. The WordPress system is suppose to inform me via email. Well, whatever, I’m seeing it 8 days later so, HI! Nice to hear from you.

    Yes, it was very nice at the Estates. There are 3 of them side by side on the south end of the lake, all donated to the Forest Service. The weather was chilly but not bad. Really enjoy it there. And the work is fun too, well, mostly.

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