Ken Gamble:
In Memoriam

Our Family cruise to Alaska -July 2008

Uncle Dave's Music Web Page - Buy the CD

Kids Camp Wildwood August '06 

Visit from Niomi and Ivey 4-10-05

Hot Tub & Deck Project Updated 6-23-05

Pumphouse Remodel Updated  3-7-07.


Sari's Wall of Stone
Updated 6-23-05.


Miscellaneous Updated 5-4-05

Disney Trip 2005

Wildwood News Archives

Dec 2009-May 2010
Aug 2009-Dec 2009

Mar 2009-Jul 2009
Nov 2008-Mar 2009
Aug 2008-Nov 2008
Jan 2008-Jul 2008
Jul 2007-Jan 2008
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Oct 2006-Mar 2007
May 2006-Oct 2006

    
Currently Reading

 

1-21-08.  Snow on Hwy 9!  Sari, Peter, Molly, Niomi, and Ivey, visited Sunday.  We went out to Pacific Ave in Santa Cruz for lunch and shopping, and had a fun time.  They went back over the hill Monday and got caught in a snowstorm.  (Thanks to Sari for the picture.)

12-25-07.  Christmas morning opening some gifts.

12-22-07.  We got our Christmas tree decorated and presents ready!

11-24-07.  The shed is stocked for use.  

This wood filled up the old shed completely.  Now we can at least see what's what and get to it.

Here's a neat picture of a spider who thought this was a good place to get a meal, next to the bug light.  One way or another...

11-3-07. The past 2 weeks have seen the inside of the shed primed and stuff loaded in.  We've cleaned out the laundry room of the basement and put most of the contents inside the shed.  Here's a before picture of one side of the laundry room.

And the same location 2 weeks later.

That's a lot of stuff to move.  One of the cabinets was so long and heavy we had to put it on our little red wagon to move it to the shed.  That actually worked great!  I could even steer it accurately! Here's some more pics around the room.  Ma worked very hard on painting the room, as well as moving stuff and being there to help out with most everything.

Of course you have to have a TV in front of the workout equipment.

10-13-07.  During the week, Pa and Ma got the rest of the walls of the shed in place and even part of the roof installed.  Today I helped put in the last few roof tiles (still missing 2 panels since Home Depot only had 16 of the 18 we needed - and I didn't pick up any on my way here Friday because it was pouring rain.)  There's still trim to install, and a sliding door, then there's rumors of painting the inside white so we won't need any lights inside.  It's very bright as it is.

Below shows the clear roof panels.  Everything is looking good!

10-7-07.  There's been some more shed work today.  We got one wall built and up today with a couple of partial walls as well.  The side panels were primed and painted during the week by Ma and Pa. Saturday was taken up by the Cruise info and lunch afterwards with the whole family, so we didn't have much time for this project this weekend.

10-6-07.  The cat is out of the bag!  Today we all gathered to give Ma and Pa their (early) 50th Wedding Anniversary gift - an Alaskan Cruise!  And better yet, we're all going with them!  This will be a lot of fun next summer.  Since we were all together for the surprise, we thought it would be a good time to get a group photo.  I only put one of each of the inside and outside shots, so if you'd like the high resolution copies of all 5 of the pictures, click this link.  It's a Zip file almost 5 MB in size.

9-29-07.  Pa and I mixed up some cement for the new shed project, about 20 bags worth in my estimate.  Everything went well and we finished in about 3 hours, and the last boards we put in were level with the first boards we put in.  Imagine that!

9-16-07.  Ma and Pa have left for Tennessee with Clif and Bon, and I get to relax at Wildwood all by myself!  But I don't know who's going to cook for me!?  Oh, well, I like sandwiches.  

Sari and Peter were up this weekend and I helped out a bit with projects at their place.  Sari seemed eager to get work done, but I think Peter wanted to enjoy his new retirement.  We first patched the edge of the road with asphalt.  Next weekend is a neighborhood work party and we'll probably use all the 10 tons of asphalt we have tucked away for community use, so this was a timely project.

Another thing Sari and Peter have always wanted to fix is the rain runoff that comes into their yard from the road and drowns the place.  So we dug a ditch and put some flexible drainpipe in, then covered it back up.  We had to borrow Pa's truck to get the pipe, 100 feet of it wouldn't fit in either Sari's car or my truck with the camper shell on it.  We got about 60 feet of the pipe in the trench and covered up, but not very deep.  The rest will have to wait for another weekend.  I also got a few more projects done, so I haven't been able to relax a whole lot.

9-4-07.  Here we go with a new project!  Our old aluminum sided shed has seen some pretty rough days.  A tree fell on it a few years back, and it's so full you can't find anything.  As we were painting the workshop downstairs there was so much stuff to move that Pa decided to move most of it into a new shed, and build it ourselves.

Here's a pic of the old shed.

And the new start.

Here's a closer picture of the base.  The foundation walls will sit on cement, the forms are all ready for it, and the floor will be the pea-gravel.

7-28-07 through 8-4-07  Camp Wildwood 07!!
Yes the long awaited week of Camp Wildwood for the kids finally arrived!  We had Tammy and her kids Lauren and Jen arrive on Saturday.  Unfortunately we couldn't do much in the way of activities because we were fixing more water pipe leaks for most of the day.  We had to shut the water off to the 6 houses on Cherrywood and used that downtime to upgrade some more pipes leading to 3 of those houses.  PVC pipes replaced 40 year old steel pipes, for the most part.  We had the water off for almost all that Saturday and part of Sunday.  To get to the leaky pipe we had to remove some cement.

Then we wanted to use our 4 inch PVC water pipes we installed 20 years ago, but never hooked up.  (The white pipes below.  The black pipes were always springing leaks. Below shows the black pipe sealed up, the valve right there didn't work anymore.)  So we finally hooked that up, but no water came out through the white pipes!  We gave up for the day after using a garden hose to get water through the existing pipes to all the houses.  

The next day, Sunday, we figured out there was another shutoff valve in the road we had forgotten about (covered up 20 years ago when it was first installed)  So once we uncovered that, turned the valve and we got water!  Now Camp Wildwood could officially start!  

First off we got the kids to help fill the pipe holes in with sand.  Didn't I mention Camp Wildwood was a work camp? 

We played lots of games that day.  One of the favorites of the week was Balderdash.  But we got card games in as well as ping pong, badminton, and board games.  

On Tuesday, Suzy stopped by with her 2 kids, Matthew and Jessica.  We had made plans to go to the Boardwalk for the rides, and one of the things we thought would be fun was to make tie-dye shirts to wear while there.  Suzy did a great job getting all the supplies and mixing up the dye colors, and got the kids (and adults) off to a running start!

Yes it was a very messy day, but also pretty neat to work on.  A good project for camp!

And here's a shot of the finished shirts (a few days later.)  Some people had their shirts on already before we could get pictures sorted out, so I made them lie down.

At night the kids asked my sister and I to play "Murder in the Dark"  - a game Tammy taught or told them about long ago and they really really wanted to play, but it didn't turn out too well, as we didn't really know the rules.  I searched for instructions online and the next night we tried again and I have to say it was pretty hilarious.  All sorts of murder happened.  You had to have been there.

Wednesday the kids made a cake.  The girls were disappointed they were outvoted on the chocolate cake that they wanted.  But once they found the candy sprinkles we had, they perked up a bit.  (The sprinkles were probably 20 years old.)

Looks like it was in an explosion in a sprinkles factory...

These 2 were almost inseparable the whole time, Jennifer and Jessica.

Here's a pic on Boardwalk Day with everyone in their respective shirts they made up (ok, I made Pa's and mine.)

Here's Bonnie and Ma

Ma and Tammy (Sorry about the blurriness - not my picture!)

Bonnie and Matthew after the Log Ride.  I told her not to sit in the back, or she'd get wet, but she didn't believe me.

We had a fun time at the Boardwalk.  Here's the merry-go-round with Bonnie and Lauren.

Mmmm!  Lunch!

Bonnie surprised me again and again by going on these rides with me and the kids.  I don't think she knew what she was getting into.  I sat next to her on one ride and couldn't stop laughing because of all the comments she was making.  Like - "Ohmygosh - When's it gonna stop!"

Where's Waldo?

7-4-07.  Happy Fourth of July!  We had a BBQ.  Initially it was just for 5 people, but invitations flew free and we ended up with 15 very welcome people. I got to tend the grill as well as help my folks with a lot of the prep work the weekend before. Below, Clif, Bonnie and Dave.

L to R. Sari, Jean,  Peter and Pa.

Clif and Matthew playing Horseshoes.

We've got lots of games here.  No one was up to volleyball.  The ping-pong table has seen a little too much rain.  It's very challenging.  Pa and Dave.

e-mail me: TJFredrick@aol.com