My yen got yanked yesterday to follow Horace Greeley’s entreaty to “Go West, young man…” not that I (remember Free-Labor Bob) could be dubbed a “young man” any more unless standing next to Senectus, the Roman god of Old Age.

So, as the sun rose over the Lassen Range on this beautiful NorCal winter’s day, I bent to the yearning, loaded my two rescue pups Poly and Kona into the Suburban, and headed out Highway 299 to Camp for a look at progress on the Kitchen Project….

On our trek west, we first passed glass-like Whiskeytown Lake, the once-pristine jewel, mightily and vainly trying to recapture its former glory on this calm winter day but now bearing the unforgiving and tortuous scars of the recent Carr Fire…. brown and black has replaced the green that used to saturate the landscape… Vulcan’s wrath left scorched and barren hillsides staring blankly back at pasersby, pleading helplessly for restoration to their former glory.

Further west huge earthmovers still work the hillsides heading up Buckhorn Summit to Trinity County, hoping to reshape drainages to prevent massive runoffs of mud and debris when winter storms bring their heavy rains, while logging trucks burdened with their blackened harvest rumble to local sawmills before bug infestations render the timber useless.

Rounding the 137th and final turn on the road from Hayfork we were greeted with the reassuring sight of the Barn down below the road and Camp buildings just ahead. Up to this point, my view of recent work on the Kitchen Project had been limited to the website’s Camp Cam images. The view of the big framing timbers that will support the roof over the Eating Platform had looked pretty much the same since my last visit just before Thanksgiving so I was somewhat worried that a fly had landed in the ointment and that progress might have been stalled.

But Kent assured me that lots had been going on, but not in view of the Camp Cams… and, wow was he right. As I walked across the muddy Eating Platform and into the kitchen-to-be, I had to step around stacks of drywall piled and ready for installation next week.

The walls, only bare see-through stud partitions a couple months ago, had been stuffed with insulation.

Footfalls were now muffled instead of echoing throughout the building as they had during my last visit. The table saws and piles of tools, extension cords, battery chargers, and wood scraps had been moved elsewhere to make room for the sheetrockers, who would soon begin hanging the huge, 100-pound 4’ x 12’ sheets of 5/8” wallboard.

I could now feel a sense of the final scale of the kitchen and adjacent bakery and just how big and wonderful they will be. I just might have to roadtrip out from Redding rather frequently this summer for the lunches and dinners.

Climbing up the staircase to the second floor guestrooms the pups and I saw that much of the sheet rocking on the walls had already been finished with only the “lids” awaiting insulation and sheetrock. For those of us not in the building trades, “lids” are what we call ceilings.

The views out the second-story windows are spectacular and the winter-warm air flowed through the open spaces. Those will be prime spots to book for visiting guests, though the upwafting of aromas from hot bakery delights might be deliciously tortuous.

Once all the sheetrock is in place, taped and textured (projected to be late March), electricians, plumbers, and flooring contractors can finalize their respective chores. Window and door trim is being custom-machined by Dick Arey from wood salvaged from the old kitchen and from new Ranch lumber milled on site. Doors and cabinetry will be hung and the stove, ovens, and other cooking equipment installed. The huge walk-in refrigerator/freezer has been in place from the outset; it is so large that the building had to be constructed around it. During this visit it was really possible to envision the culmination of this huge project so generously supported by Camp alumni, staff, and friends.

But so far the pups and I had only seen the Kitchen building so we walked up The Avenue to witness “the rest of the story.” And again we were wowed, or I was, anyway… from the get-go, Poly and Kona were more interested in searching for ground squirrels and sniffing deer tracks than paying any attention to the massive assembly project taking place on the summertime Dance Floor.

The post-graduate division of BigBoy Construction 101 was laid out ahead of me in the truss pre-assembly area. Jeff, Jean, and Nick had been carefully cutting the massive logs (up to 14” in diameter, some 19’ long, and every one weighing A WHOLE LOT !!) and measuring and siting the locations for the slots and holes that would allow the hefty 14” construction bolts passage to connect to the heavy metal plates that would secure all the truss pieces together… Mike did the heavy lifting with the boom arm of the backhoe… a Tinker Toy project on steroids, to be sure. It all looked massive enough to support a 30’ Minnesota snow load.

And all from Douglas Fir trees harvested from the Ranch as part of the on-going forest management, fire protection project Kent has initiated. Check out the butt end of this log below that will be milled into exterior siding for the Kitchen. I lost count at 100 rings so I know that this tree had been in its youth when Grover was a young lad, a time when it appears that a lot more rain contributed to much fatter growth rings.

The trusses are being pre-assembled on the Dance Floor where there is a good, clean, flat surface to work on;

Ultimately they will be disassembled and taken down The Avenue for reassembly on the massive horizontal joists already in place (you can see them on the website Camp Cam). Depending on weather (snow is predicted for this weekend) this imposing part of the Kitchen project could be in place in a couple weeks.

Before the pups and I left for our trip back to Redding, Poly and Kona insisted on checking out the strong odor they had detected, emanating from down by the chicken coops, so we headed down the hill. We quickly verified the happiness of pigs in their slop and pinpointed the source of the mellifluous aroma. In doing so, a novel idea occurred to me to raise some off-season revenue, a new Bar 717 Ranch profit-center, perhaps.

Mama Sow (aka “Rosie”) looked so comfy in her sticky, (stinky ?) soggy “bedding” that I think we might be able to market the beneficial effects of The Bar 717 Ranch Mud Bath Experience: a therapeutic seesion in Rosie’s private tub with that view, a few rooster cockle-doodle-doos, a baby goat to nuzzle, perhaps a back rub against the hairy spine of a young piglet, and the 2nd Movement of Mozart’s 21st Piano Concerto lilting softly in the background (https://www.youtube.com/watch?)v=FZNt3ESnf8Q) …a restorative experience that may go viral.

So what do you think ? A Ted Talk in the making ? Well, maybe not quite that original, but remember: Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder…

Then on down to the Swimming Hole where we found very little beach due to the beautifully clear, fast-moving waters from the recent rains. But the pups were having no part of crossing that swaying swinging bridge so they could not enjoy the view I had.

As we wove our way back to Redding that evening, my mind drifted to Camp’s desire to share the experience of Camping at the Bar 717 Ranch with an ever-broader spectrum of young boys and girls and then to our current urgent need for additional funds for the 2019 Camper Scholarship Program to accomplish this task for the approaching summer. If you haven’t made your tax-deductible donation yet, you may do so by clicking on this link: Click to donate to the ACA Camper Scholarship Program. Any amount will help. As Grover often said, “Many hands make light work.”

So, for the next couple months, Free-Labor Bob (remember him ?) morphs into TaxMan Bob, hoping to guide clients through the maze of new tax laws without their forfeiting too much skin to the governments’ treasurers all the while restocking his own treasury after funding the January wedding of daughter Whitney to long-time beau Paul Barr.

A undoubtedly weary TaxManBob plans to return to the Ranch soon after April 15th to catch up on progress, perhaps wield a paint brush, and to recharge his batteries after some grueling battles with Uncle Sam’s new tax laws… so more Blobs ahead!