Pontoon Mama's Blog

Thursday, May 21, 2026

Calpine Fire lookout

In April we got to do one of our bucket list trips. You might think that would be a big European vacation - but it wasn't. It was 2 nites in a fire lookout in Northern California! I have been wanting to do this trip for years and it did not disappoint!

The day we arrived, the weather was beautiful. That allowed us to hike around and check out the area. That night a storm blew in and for the next two days we had snow and rain.

The map above was on the middle of the tower and allowed you to plot fires.

This is me modeling my new had that Grace made for me. You can't really tell in the picture but it has trout on it!

This is the inside of the tower. You can see it has a stove for cooking and stove for warmth. We pre made our dinners (veggie super nachos and green bean soup) and brought them with to heat up on/in the stove.

The tower had no running water but a sink that drained out side that you could dump water down.

Our view was amazing and was even better when a storm was blowing in! Overall we enjoyed the time in the tower hanging out and playing games. And we enjoyed exploring the towns in the area.

Cabin Garden 2026

For the first time ever, we have had the time to do a proper garden at the cabin. Jim built me a raised bed and surrounded it with a fence to keep the critters out.

I started all my plants in SJ about a month earlier and then brought them up in mid May to transplant in the mountains. We waited until we were pretty sure the temp would stay above 50 at night.

These two helpers liked to lay around and watch me work.

Some of the tomatoes were super dramatic about being transplanted, so we had to keep them in the shade for a few days.

Planted were:

8 tomatoes
1 lemon cucumber
1 zucchini
1 jalapeno
2 orange peppers
1 purple pepper
1 anonymous volunteer that looks like it might be a cucumber or cantoloupe!

This lemon cucumber was my first harvest!

Fishmas 2026

This year's tradition of fishing the streams with cousin Lisa and her mom Karen was met with cloudy cold weather and rushing creeks. No a fish was seen or a bite felt. But that didn't eliminate our joy of walking through the woods and having a picnic at Cherry afterwards.

Grace's friend from Davis, Martin, joined us and seemed to enjoy the event, even without fish being caught.

Wednesday, May 20, 2026

Mosaic Art

One of the things I have been wanting to do but didn't have time for was being creative. I had done a couple of mosaic classes in Yosemite the last couple years and scheduled another one for last week. Above is this year's project, dogwood flowers. They go with the last projects which were Half Dome and a giant sequoia tree. I need to figure out a way to frame them.

This is the 4th class that I have taken with this instructor and have become friendly with her. She also is friends with the gal who I went with, who is also a mosaic artist. So after the class we all had lunch together and it was fascinating to listen to them talk about mosaic art and the people they know who are involved. One of the coolest things is they go on trips to Italy to study mosaic art and create in local studios.

Big News - I have retired!

My last official day was May 1, 2026, although I was easing out since the end of January. My last big hurrah was accepting an Emeritus Award from Ethisphere, an organization that has been championing business ethics for decades.

I traveled to Atlanta to accept the award in front of a crowd that included 14 of my team mates. The entire leadership team of the legal department came to see me accept the award. It was truly such an honor and so humbling to receive such a meaningful award. I have always done this work simply because I felt that it was the right thing for my company, the industry and the business world. It was so nice to see that the hard work for 36 years was noticed.

Now that I have moved onto gardening, hiking, reading and looking for a board to join, I hope to find more time to blog my adventures.

Chickpea "Chicken" Salad Recipe

Filling

2 14 ounce cans of chickpeas drained
1 pink lady apple diced

1 stalk of celery diced

1 small shallot (or you can use red onions) - add more if you like onions
1/4 cup of sliced almonds

Dressing

1/2 cup of mayo
1/2 cup of plain greek yogurt (when I didn't have yogurt, I used sour cream)

4 teaspoons of dijon mustard

2 tsp of lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon each, pepper and salt.

Instructions

Roughly smash the chickpeas with a fork or your hands. Mix all the fillings into the chickpea mixture. Stir all the dressing ingredients together and add to the chickpea mixture. Let it sit in the fridge for at least a few hours before serving.

Note - do one and a half recipes of the dressing!