This holiday weekend we traveled up I5 to “The Cabin”. The Cabin in a piece of land in the Mendocino National Forest that is partially owned by someone in our family. We talked about the history of the ownership this weekend and let me tell you – it’s confusing! Several local families bought the land – I’m guessing in the early-mid 1900s (that narrows it down doesn’t it?! LOL) – and either my Grandpa and his brother were part of it. Or, maybe it was bought earlier by my Great-Grandfather and my Grandpa and his brother inherited it. We don’t know. And, not knowing means we really don’t know what the ownership situation is now…but we know that we love it there. It’s hot. There is no electricity. There is no cell coverage. There is an old well where, until recently, we had to pump water by the bucket and carry it inside. I have a whole scrapbook of our trips there. We try to go each Memorial Day weekend…and since Joshua’s birthday is around that weekend…it adds a special significance to gather together with our family.
This year, my brother-in-law, Kevin, and my sister, Beth, took my mom and their 3 kids up on Friday night. We joined them on Saturday morning. Unfortunately this year my brother, Brett, and his wife, Christy, and kids could not attend as they could not find anyone to watch the animals at their place. On Sunday, my uncle Butch and my cousins, Andy & Matt, joined us for the day.
So, here are some pictures from this year….enjoy!
The young boys really enjoyed shooting targets with their BB guns.
and so did the big boys…
Here are the jr shooters….
and, the sr shooters…
J3 spent alot of time trying to ride a bike. Of course, the meadow is not even…so he fell more than anything else. But he enjoyed it all the same!
I was laughing at the boys with their ‘toys’ until this guy crawled out from under the cabin!!
This picture is after he was already shot…since things were so crazy we had to re-enact the shooting:
Why two shooters? Well, only one of them had snake shot (Eric).
Matt & my mom salted the snake skin – we plan to display it at the cabin.
After all that excitement, we did what we normally do….sit around the fire and tell stories.
Honey ~ I thought you knew that it was Greatgrandpa Marshall “Red” Davis, along with two other family friends, who purchased the land (380 +/- acres) because his wife, Greatgrandma Edith Davis, had tuberculosis and didn’t want to go to a sanitarium. This property, southwest of Fouts Springs (which at that time was like a resort area for Colusa folks trying to get out of the valley heat) was very hard to get to, horrible crooked roads, higher in elevation at 4000′ near Letts Lake. When Greatgrandma got sick Grandpa dropped out of school (I think this was in the 1920’s) so that he could take care of his mom as his dad (being the very important blacksmith in Meridian) could only come occasionally. In those days their friends loved that location in the cool timber and there were 3 cabins on the edge of the meadow. There used to be horses and a corral, near where our guys were target shooting, and they planted the meadow to pasture to feed the horses. Mama had a great old photo album which we can’t find, with lots of old photos of the original cabins and all the folks that use to visit after Greatgrandma recovered her health. I always thought you kids were aware of all this. (recently it has gotten complicated with all the extended family of the original families…) oxm
Now there is a good reason to carry a weapon.
The photos of the guys with guns reminded me of a conversation I had here with a friend about wanting to take Jr. somewhere to learn how to shoot. For some reason this friend of mine thought it would be legal to do it in our backyard (we are allowed small farm animals). But then she realized that it might look bad since we also homeschool and have only boys. Folks might think we were starting one of those “gun communes” like they have in ID. lol.
Looks like it was great fun. I’ll try not to think about the no running water or flushing toilet or heat or…yikes. 😉
Okay, so I’m NOT going camping with you any time soon! Your mom is amazing! I wouldn’t have gone NEAR that thing!
Haven’t written in for a while so thought I’d say hi, I’m here, praying for you as always!
The cabins looks great! The snake…not so much. :o)
Wow! That looks like so much fun!… Well, except for the snake part! *lol* …. But the cabin looks wonderful!