For Rog’s birthday, we drove up to cool Lake Tahoe. We brought chairs and snuck onto the lakeshore spot north of Fanny Bridge to relax in the shade. We watched the ducklings following their mama, a lot of paddleboarders and kayakers, boats and the wonderful scenery that Tahoe provides. We probably stayed for 2 hours. While we were there, we checked out Jake’s and found that they were open to outside seating. So it is still on our schedule to return in a few weeks for our annual lunch. When we got home, Rog got a delivery of Incredible Edibles from his karate group. His present from me is a security camera...but it won’t get here until August. Max made a stained glass fish for our combined birthdays. Karissa did a painting for him. He also got a bunch of lottery tickets from Beth and Ryan (happily redeemed for $38).
All of the Fourth of July activities were cancelled (more pandemic consequences) so we watched fireworks on TV.
Max had a “virtual” Court of Honor. It was online with Zoom and was done exceptionally well. Max got another handful of badges.
Ryan hosted a swim/lunch/birthday party for me and Rog. Beth had some great “70th Birthday” decorations, we had delicious tacos, and a yummy cake made by Michelle. We were able to enjoy a few hours together while the kids swam. Great day!!
We took Max and Karissa with us for a 4 day camping trip to the Yuba River at a place called River Rest Resort in Washington. The Hawkinsons met us there with their grandson, Isaac. The kids had a blast riding bikes, floating down the river and playing in the water. There was a campfire with s’mores every night, lots of games to play, and daily trips to the office/store for an ice cream. Michelle drove the kids up Thursday afternoon and Eric picked them up Sunday morning. (No seatbelt safe seats in our van.) Karissa slept in her tent and Max slept in a hammock. Karissa made pancakes for my birthday breakfast the last day there and we used blueberries from the Hawkinsons for syrup. The kids also blew up a bunch of balloons to help me celebrate. The days were pretty hot and dusty, but good times!!
We celebrated my birthday later in the week so that I got a decent day off. Rog bought some yummy treats that we took to the Zauchas for a couple of hours in the morning, had BBQ steaks for dinner followed by a trip to Coldstone. Great day!!! For my birthday, I asked Rog to design and build a table for our dining nook.
We finished up the month with our annual trip to Jake’s Restaurant at Lake Tahoe. Ryan and Beth joined us for what we figured was our 25-30th year. Good view, great food and, of course, hula pie.
Watching the paddleboarders at Tahoe gave us the idea to take Max out for his date this month. We rented boards from SUP in Folsom. He and Pops boarded to Rainbow Bridge and back and had a great time. We followed up with burgers at In N Out. (We had hoped to go to Taylor’s but they are locked down.)
The patio is done...the door is FABULOUS. We had a bit of trouble with it; one of the hinges was broken and the whole door fell down in the wind and tore the screen. But we got some heavier hinges, replaced the screen and all is well. It swings both ways and returns to closed position. Perfect!! On to the aquaponics. Rog made new wood supports that I stained and we got the troughs hung. The bell siphons on each row were tricky but they work great now that we have the water flow right. Speaking of water flow and siphons, I wanted 2 water inputs. One for the 2 front troughs and one for the back 3 troughs. Rog had a T connection at the top with 90 elbows and when we turned on the pump, water went up and came out of only one side. Took us a while to figure out how to get it to come out both sides. All good now. Then we worked on leaks. For some reason, the caulk he used didn’t hold. He finally epoxied them and we are in business.
Meanwhile, I filled the tank and started the cycling. The theory of aquaponics is that the ammonia from fish waste is eaten by bacteria which turns it into nitrites which then becomes nitrates for the plants. It takes about a month to build up the bacteria for all of this to work. I add ammonia chloride and take daily measurements. When I start to get nitrites, then I wait until ammonia and nitrite readings go down and then we add the fish. I will start my seeds then as well, so I am ready to plant after the fish settle in.
I also started about 15 lantana plants from cuttings and got those into the yard this month. Not too smart to do it in the middle of summer, but we water them daily and they are still alive and doing well.
With the gyms closing again, Ryan bought some weights and came over with a 2 x 12 to make a workout bench. Two hours in the Lloyd shop and he now has a pretty nice workbench to use.
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