IT IS SNOWING!!

Boy, is that an understatement!!  In the past three days we have had three FEET of snow.  The road conditions today were a "white-out" in several places; the snow was coming down so quickly and in such quantity that Cal-Trans couldn't keep up with it.  Add to that the wealth of PG&E trucks attempting to find the sources of the scattered power outages and the roads were a MESS!  Storm is to end this evening and sunshine is the forecast for tomorrow - opening day for Dodge Ridge Ski Area!  They definately have plenty of snow - powder skiers paradise!!

We still have a few vacancies for the weekend at The Rivers Resort, but the snow has set the phone to ringing.  It will be a white Christmas for sure.  I will be in the Realty office tomorrow, hoping for some sales to close before the end of the year!!  Wouldn't a second home near the ski area just make your Christmas!?  Call me - 209)770-3168

Winter is TEASING US!

TWO snow showers at our 5,000 foot elevation this week!  It sure was pretty until about noon; poof, it was gone!  We have had the prerequisite six inches of rain needed by the ski and snow play areas to wet the dirt so that the snow will not just soak right into the ground!  Two "gulley washers" three days apart showed where all the runoff problems were, the leaks in the roof, and the weak tree branches!  So now we are ready for the REAL STORMS!!  The storm cycle is usually pretty predictable with the storms coming on the same day each week or every other week, except for this year!!  We have had rain on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday!!  The two snow showers were Monday and Wednesday; so who is going to guess which day will be the "big storm day" this winter.  Let's hope and pray that it ISN'T Saturday; that makes for a slow year in the snow business - who wants to pay to play in a blizzard?


In my thirty one years on the mountain, the year that sticks in my memory is the really dry year when the sledding hill was brown every Monday, got three inches of snow every Thursday night and the snow players were ecstatic each weekend.  It amazes me still to watch people sledding in the fresh snow.  Instant replay memories of my own youth where our favorite hill had a LARGE pine tree in the middle of the run with two or three fathers deflecting the sleds away from that tree!!  Oh, those shins by the end of the day!!  Sacrifice!!


Making memories is one of the tasks of parents!  We are so glad that our years in the resort business up on the mountain were spent helping families make those memories - swimming and fishing in the summer, snow play and skiing in the winter, and of course the gorgeous autumn leaves that are just now falling!  We are so blessed!