Thanksgiving at Joshua Tree

Thanksgiving Weekend at Joshua Tree is a low key event compared to two weeks previous. We usually have a list of projects from the Rudy Run, or a good idea what needs to be addressed. This year we still had to clean up from our October 12/13 rain event that gave us a whole lot of rain in a little bit of time.
Wednesday afternoon and evening saw all the Ratliff's make it out. Thursday morning and mid day we had Jeff and Tiphani roll in as well as my neighborhood friends Marshall and Matt roll in for a night and a day of helping out. Matt Z made it out Friday mid day to round out the players for the weekend.
Thursday morning we unloaded and stayed close to the picnic shelter as Turkey was the project of the day. As we eat early enough to get most of the meal in before the Sun drops over the hill and cools the place off rather quickly. Still we had three trains make a run around the place. The 4-4-0 stayed in the bays aiting for Friday. Allan's GE, the Davenport and the Alco moved about the place. Let's just say the Turkey was great, the fixings were plentiful and enjoyed by all that made it to the meal. I think we had fourteen enjoying the feast.
Friday, time to boil some water and enjoy a beautiful day. The Sun poked over the hill and sweaters and long sleeve shirts we replaced by a t-shirt for the Sunny duration of the day. Shovels and sand buckets headed up the High Line and soon train loads were coming down clearing the last of the washed down dirt from October's Storm. We loaded 150 buckets, all but ten making it down the hill Friday. At ten buckets a trip, the rails were busy with the 4-4-0 doing the yeoman work, Jeff and I splitting the engineer duties. Marshall and Matt helped out considerably filling and dumping buckets. Kevin and Lori Tolan were out for Friday,as were Leone and Larry Fisher, the later had not been out for some time as his Museum keeps him close to the track so to speak. Good to see all of our visitors. By the end of the day all trackage on the High Line was operable, including the tracked section of Pauline, the siding at the end of track. Friday evening the appetizers came out around the grill. Even deep fried some mini corn dogs as the deep fryer was still available. We do not go hungry out there.
Saturday was another beautifully warm day,  With plenty to do and enjoy it was over all to quickly. The shelter area around Tedder was cleaned up and plenty of stuff that had accumulated seemed to disappear. There was always a train running so things went by rail to their prospective locations on a flat car. Steak Night was the flavor of the night, another feast.
Sunday , as it is always is a slowly pack it up day. Things getting delivered of course by rail , back to where it started. A great weekend with plenty of small projects addressed and tackled. Clean up of the picnic and Tedder area, a bit of track work was addressed, and finally after three of our planned weekends the railroad is back in operating condition fully after The Storm. A big thank you to those that had a hand in that recovery.
We will be back out for New Years Weekend, December 28 through January 1. Hope to see you out there. Always a fun time. Any questions give me a holler at ratsgarage@yahoo.com, Brian.