When it rains, it pours.

[Rick Potter]

Figuratively speaking. Actually in my case it should be 'When the wind blows, it blows'. My son's family accompanied us on an all day cruise to Catalina on the Lane Victory, a WWII "Victory" cargo ship. We were even 'attacked' by a brace of German fighter planes (that looked a lot like T-6's). It was a great day. They only do this three days a year, and it was very special.

Anyway, while discussing airplanes, my son casually mentioned that he had flown over our high desert cabin, and the roof was gone, and maybe the siding. We rarely go out there since the kids grew up, and usually let a niece and family use it. Tim took pics while flying over, and just sent them to me.

The roof is (was) Kaiser aluminum twin rib roofing. I put it on 25 years ago, and figured it would outlast me, but never figured on the intensity of whatever wind storm went through the area recently. The little red building is the palatial bathroom, and the silver thing in the lower left is the water tank. The black on the rear of the building could be missing asphalt shingle type siding, or it could have just lost all the green face material of the shingles.

Just when I didn't need something else to do :(.267358 ---------------- 267359


Upset in Upland

[David G Baker]

That looks like it is in the middle of nowhere. I get what is called straight line winds on occasion that break my trees off at around ten to fifteen feet above ground creating what is called widow makers. Couple of years ago I lost 17 trees overnight but fortunately no building damage.
Looks like you are going to have to make a trip with materials and tools. I wouldn't wait long because Mother Nature can do a lot of damage in a very short period of time.

[Rick Potter]

Actually David,

It's really on the edge of nowhere. It is at almost 5,000' elevation, and there is a mountain range if you are looking the other direction. It's 10--12 miles to Big Bear Lake, by the back roads, without hitting pavement till you get into town. We used to do it all the time in our dune buggy. The next 5 acres to the left on the pic, has a house on property homesteaded by my in-laws in the 1950's. It's built from lumber taken from old barns. My brother in law still lives there. Behind the picture, the rocks get bigger, and are piled up a couple hundred feet high by a glacier. Fun climbing. The power poles over the rock areas were put in with dynamite and helicopters.

In 1973 we bought a house for $41K and hoped we could make the payments. Our backup plan was to move to the cabin if we lost it. We paid 6K cash for it, and I am sure it will cost more than that to redo the roof, much less the shingle siding.

Rick P