June 14th – June 18th

Squirrel Acres is the Perkin Ponderosa on Axtec Lane just off Pine Creek Rd. near Red Bluff CA.  Their very functional house with 2 bedrooms, 2 ½ baths, large living room, dining room and adequate kitchen are only topped by the very large covered deck that ovelooks their swimable pond.  Deer, grey tree squirrels, brown ground squirrels, wild turkeys, turtles, lizards, rattle snakes, foxes and a miriad of birds can be seen from the Squirrel Acres deck and I’m more than likely omitting many of the animals.  A beautiful and serene setting that whispers relax.

Slinky calls Squirrel Acres her home away from home.

The house is the main focus of Squirrel Acres but other alluring buildings exist on the property.  First there are 2 airplane hangars one of which houses a 4 seater Cessna.  I forgot to mention there is a paved runway down the center of about 20 houses in this little development.  The other hangar is storage for memorabilia, tools including welding equipment and supplies.  Bruce, Diane’s dad has woodshop that I drool over every time I am in it.  And, most importantly is the work room.  The work room is where Bruce and Mary, Diane’s mom spend a lot of their days.  First, there is Mary’s quilting and sewing area.  She uses an old pool table covered with a finished ¾ inch sheet of plywood as a base for her quilting work which we have a few of her works in our house.  Next is Bruce’s digital photography work place.  Bruce is a master at finding the right light to take beautiful pictures, then with the use of Photoshop adjusts his photos to represent what his eye saw when he took the pictures.  Needless to say, but I am anyway, that our house is adorned with Bruce and Mary’s work as well.

This was a special trip to Squirrel Acres as Diane’s sister Betty was visiting from England.  Betty is a veterinary technician and works a the University of Liverpool Equine Hospital.  The whole Perkin family at Squirrel Acres on a wonderful pre-summer weekend was tons-o-fun.  The weekend of relaxation was only broken by a trip to the world renown gem store in Red Bluff and long walks.

All meals and snacks are served on the oversized picnic table in the center of the deck at this time of year and over the weekend a plethora of wonderful foods were consumed.  A very delicious waffle recipe has been enjoyed by 4 generations of the Perkin Family and we were all set to have waffles on Fathers Day.  As Bruce poured the first cup of mix into the waffle iron and closed the lid sparks and waffle mix flew out of the sides of the iron. As we all stared in disbelief at this tragedy and some even shed a tear we knew that there would be no waffles this Fathers Day.  Big Bummer.

Other than the waffle explosion, although it was kind of neat to watch, we had a great time.  Enjoy the photos.