Company in the cabin

One of the delights of my last few years as a soil survey project leader was the chance to make some really great friends.  After six years in the Air Force, and lots of other experiences, Chris arrived in Sonora in early 2009, an energetic, incredibly brilliant, funny, sweet young man, ready and willing to learn to be a good soil mapper.  It was fun teaching him all the inside stuff about field soil survey that I knew, and by the time I retired last year, I had not only a great employee, but a true  friend.

Another delight I enjoy by sharing a home with Mo, is the pleasure of the guest cabin just next door to the big house.  The cabin was the first thing on the property when Mo acquired it many years ago and is still a great little cozy spot to hang out.  Complete with running water in the summer, a composting toilet, and a great wood stove, it’s a lot more fun for guests than hanging out on the living room sofa or in the guest room with the bath across the hall.  Chris loves the snow and loves to come and visit so we welcomed him with his friend Karen for the weekend.

They arrived on Friday night armed with salmon that Chris smoked, along with all the ingredients for a great Smoked Salmon Chowder.  Gotta love friends that come with dinner and Chris is a great cook.  Many of the co-worker bar-b-que’s at my house in Jamestown were enhanced by some of Chris’s amazing grill roasted rosemary potatoes.

You know how cold it has been here, with all the deep snow, so Chris and Karen came prepared with snowshoes ready to tackle the deep high snows at Crater Lake.  Ever heard of a January thaw?  We got it big time this weekend with long warm hard rains on the deep snows, making a great big mess of everything.  Even at 8,000 plus feet at Crater Lake the snow was mushy and almost impossible to slog through.  Instead our friends spent more time in the big house with us, watching football, while Karen and I knitted, and playing killer Racehorse dominos. 

On Sunday afternoon, Chris and Karen went ice skating at our local ice arena at the Running Y Resort. It was a first for Chris and the movies were truly funny.  Mo made her famous waffles on Saturday, I cooked some sour cream apple pies and a Guiness Irish stew, and Chris and Karen made fat, juicy breakfast burritos for us on Sunday morning.

I noticed that a lot of the RV bloggers down in Desert Hot Springs are having great times catching up with fellow RV’rs and it sounds like a ton of fun.  Having company now and then is a lovely reprieve from the cold, dreary days of winter, especially when the company is as wonderful as my friend Chris.