Scary Cabin

Took a bit of break from all the construction to do a ranger led hike at the North Table Mountain Ecological Reserve. If you’re there at the right time of the year (we weren’t), the table is supposed to be a mosaic of color from the wild flowers. This year, they bloomed early and mid March would have been ideal. However, the hike is still interesting and there are some vernal pool areas that aren’t completely dried up and still have flowers blooming. The grasshoppers are out in force, every step would sends dozens hoping out of the way. There are also canyons with small streams sill running. Those are filled with tadpoles and a few aquatic gardner snakes. The landscape is quite interesting and the result of a large lava flow millions of years ago. The area is open to the public so you can hike on your own. The best trail maps are available from the Chico Hiking Assoc. . Pictures from our hike are available in the photo section.

On the road to the hike trail-head we spotted a sign for a covered bridge. Turns out there’s a covered bridge just down the road from the trail-head in Oregon City. Given how rare covered bridges are in California, finding one is an unexpected pleasure.

Being able to explore new and interesting locations was one of the main reasons for purchasing the cabin. As the cabin becomes a more comfortable place to stay, we plan to do more of these explorations and less construction.

Hiking wasn’t all we were up to this weekend. The main goal for the weekend was to put down the laminate flooring in the downstairs bedroom. Once we got the hang of it, it went pretty fast. Finished, it does look nice but we won’t get to really see it for a while. We covered it up to prevent any damage since we’re still using that room as part of the construction site.

In addition to the floor, we were able to install the inside trim on the bedroom door and install baseboard in the hallway. We also turned a lot of good wood (OK, maybe not good) into sawdust.