Saturday, March 24, 2018

Road Trip!


1300 miles, 27 hours of driving, 130 gallons of gas......that is what it took us to get from Klamath Falls to Salt Lake City and back to Oregon in just three days. Forrest and I went on a road trip to Salt Lake City to empty out the storage unit they have had for the past two years containing what little they did keep before going on the road. 
Most of the stuff was Forrest’s hunting equipment and tools. Throw in a bed, a couple of mounted animals, a TV and a bunch of sentimental items and you have a 10 x 10 area crammed full of stuff. When Somer’s work offered to pay for this trip as well as the U-Haul rental we jumped on it and headed to Salt Lake before they changed their mind! It was 12 hours there and 12 hours back with 2 nights in a hotel. Although it was a long way and a lot of driving, it was nice to spend the time with Forrest. 
The first day we drove almost 10 hours and arrived in Wendover Nevada about 5:30pm. Just in time to hit the buffet and do a little gambling. The buffet was average at best and the gambling was not very kind to me. Although my belly was full I still had a bad feeling in my stomach from the money I dropped into some of the machines.

The next morning we drove the remaining two hours to Salt Lake and went directly to a U-Haul place. They recommend a 20’ truck to empty our a 10’x10’ storage unit but we did not want a truck and settled on a 12’x6’ enclosed trailer in the hopes that we could fit everything in the trailer, bed of the truck and back seat of the truck.   
Of course it started raining right as we arrived at the storage unit but it was light enough not to deter us. We tackled the two heaviest items first; a 900# gun safe and a 400# tool chest. The tool chest was on wheels so we were able to roll it right up to the trailer where we lifted one side in and then lifted the other end in and rolled it in place. The gun safe was a little more challenging as it had no wheels. For that we tipped it on edge and slipped a blanket under it then Forrest pulled the blanket while I pushed from the back side 1 foot at a time. We eventually made it to the trailer.Tthere was no way we were going to lift it in so we slowly tipped it into the trailer on its side and slid it into place. The rest of the load went pretty well as we loaded everything around those two items. 
Of course we ran into snow on the way back, just what you want while towing a U-Haul trailer for 12 hours.
Fun winter driving conditions


Nice to have that chore crossed off our list and move onto other projects. Somer has been busy sanding a lot of the pine for refinishing and Forrest and I have been sheetrocking, taping and mudding the area upstairs where we took out the closet.

Did I mention I hate mudding?
But our biggest and most complicated project was moving a large shed that extended onto the neighbor’s property by about 3 feet. The neighbors want to finish the fence around their property so we set about bracing the heck out of it to hold it together while we move it.
All braced up and ready to move!
Next up was cutting each of the 10 posts sunk into the ground and creating some skids for it to slide on when we pulled it.
Digging out and cutting the posts

The property  line hit about 3' in on the shed on this side

And only a few inches on this side
After digging out, cutting all the posts, bracing it and putting it on skids it was time to try and move it. We put a strap around two of the posts and used a come along attached to a tree for one side.

And another strap on two more posts for the other side and moved it inch by inch checking each of the posts to make sure they were following along like they should. A hour or so later we had it moved over enough to make the neighbors happy!
Easy does it!

Success!
While all this is fun, it is not fun enough so one day Forrest and I went out fishing on the infamous Klamath River. This part of Oregon is known for its trout fishing with some absolute giants roaming some of the area rivers.

Although we did not catch any giants we had a great day. Total we caught 16 fish. The weather was beautiful and it was great to get out fishing again, it had been too long. 
Fun day on the river!

Forrest with one in the net!
We have also been shooting our bows almost every day in preparation for the upcoming turkey season. Forrest has a turkey tag for here in Oregon while Barb and I plan on getting out when we return to SD in a couple of weeks.  
Bring on the turkeys!
Although Barb's birthday was a couple of weeks ago we really did not get a chance to properly celebrate it as we were busy moving the kids in and then she flew to Minnesota. So to make up for it we had a celebration this past week. We found both ribeyes and king crab legs on sale at Fred Meyer and did it up right!
Barb and Lily getting their party on!
Remember last post where we set up the trail camera to try and capture some of the local deer on camera? Well we did end up getting a couple on that camera location but it ends up we did not need to have it as far away from the house as we thought as we had a herd of 9 within feet of the house the other day. 

Right outside the back window!
I did move the trail camera however and was able to capture a rare photo of these creatures wandering the property! 
Sasquatch!
On one of our escapades into town Barb and I stopped by the Klamath Falls Brewery where we shared a flight of beer. My favorite was the Hard Hat Hefeweizen while Barb's was the Backroad Vanilla Porter.
Time has been flying by. Hard to believe it has already been three weeks and we only have a week  left!

28 comments:

  1. Moving our kids is tough work. Now we have a storage unit to empty when we return to PA this summer. It is only a 5x5. We plan to empty the bays in the MH and have an empty Jeep. Glad your trip was successful. Wow! What a job to move that shed. Great work! Good you are getting in some fun along the way!

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    1. With some new siding and a coat of paint the shed will look as good as new!

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  2. Ingenious way to move the shed. Think I would have thought first to use a match :-) There's no better way to top off a good day then landing a few pan fryers from the river.

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    1. Believe me, the thought crossed our minds more than once but it us a solid shed on the inside and was worth saving. It felt really good to get back out on the river again. Forrest is going to have some great fishing in this area!

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  3. Glad everything worked out. Hopefully there are no more "snow events" and spring is truly here. :)

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    1. The weather is really funny here. 50 during the day, then snow at night. 60 in the forecast for next week so maybe winter is on its way out!

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  4. You certainly keep yourselves busy. We have a 5x10 storage shed in the town my folks live in. Don't want to even think about emptying it, thankfully just boxes of stuff I, not Dave, didn't want to part with. Dave's looking forward to CO and some fishing this summer, glad you have had some "fun" time too.

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    1. The water was cold and fast with the winter runoff but we managed to find a couple of slower stretches where the trout where hanging out. You certainly would not want to trip and fall in that frigid water!

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  5. Glad to see it wasn't all work and no play! Moving that shed must have been a lot of fun. Sure looks like a nice piece of property and a bonus having all that venison running around too. What's with the beer tasting without us? 😜

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    1. Hey, what are we supposed to do?!? We gotta have our beer and you weren't within a couple hundred miles!

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  6. Oh my goodness, you’ve been busy! Glad to see you both enjoying some fun times too. The picture of the deer around the house had me missing my herd in Junction.

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    1. Ya, it should not be too hard to fill the freezer with venison here!

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  7. Happy Belated Birthday Barb.
    Looks like you are keeping busy helping and getting used to the cooler weather.
    Be Safe and Enjoy!

    It's about time.

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    1. The long range forecast in Pringle shows more of the same, hope it warms up soon!

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  8. What a crazy fun time! Steve says you should've tried moving the safe with some PVC pipes to roll it. Those fishing pictures have me itching to get to Oregon to do some fishing in May when the Salmon are running! Cute picture of Barb and granddaughter. You Wisconson's are a harding bunch driving in that snow! We'll have to take the long way home from the rally in Pahrump due to all the snow in the Sierra's.

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    1. If you get out this way look Forrest up, he will take you guys out!

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  9. Staying busy in a beautiful place!!!

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    1. It truly is beautiful, they are going to enjoy it out here!

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  10. Is the Turkey season bow only? I always thought you used shotguns.

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    1. They have both a gun and bow season. We opted for the bow to make it a little more challenging. We will have to see if we made the right choice in a few weeks!

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    2. Snow here this morning and 30 plus inches of ice still on the lake. Fishng opener May 5th we might be drilling holes.
      Bob

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    3. Yikes, I bet you are looking forward to getting out on the water!

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  11. So what did you do with the 900# safe once you got it to Klamath Falls? Maybe it's in the shed?
    Quite an adventure in a beautiful part of the country. Hope it warms for you this week.

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    1. That was much easier as we were able to pull right up to the back door and slide it to its spot on a piece of carpet. I told him it is going to stay where it is and there was no way I was moving it upstairs!

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  12. Ah yes, moving a safe..... one of my "most" favorite things! The last time I hired it out and let someone else have a great time.

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    1. We have one to move when we get our place built in South Dakota. We had a second one but left it with the house when we sold it. One is enough!

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