We shampooed all the carpets, replaced all the corner tiles in the bathtub, as well as many of the broken wall tiles (the shower looks the best it's looked in years), removed the desk and crappy chair from my parents' room (which opened up the room a lot), replaced the fake window in their room with a full size mirror (that makes the room seem a lot larger, too), and repaired the fence in the areas it had been damaged by building the addition and the moron that ran into it. The fence looks great, now.
We also had a bit of an adventure in the Jeep... Saturday afternoon, after we had finished all the work, we decided to go check out a Jeep trail that I've been wanting to explore. It turns out there was way more snow on the trail than we expected for the middle of May. I aired the tires down to attempt a particularly sketchy section. Without snow, it would have been an unimpressive section of the trail. But, there were one foot deep, packed, frozen snow drifts on the uphill side of the trail that made it quite treacherous. I drove the jeep into a drift on a steeper section of the trail and the tires on the right side dug into the snow and started spinning. I don't have lockers or a limited slip diff in the rear, so I was essentially in two wheel drive. During my first attempt through that drift, the rear end of the Jeep slid about two feet to the left (towards the edge of the trail and down the mountain). My dad and I spent two hours digging out the snow bank to try and get the wheels some traction, but each time I tried to move it, the back end of the Jeep slid a little closer to the edge of the trail. We used the ax I keep on top of my Jeep to chop a dead tree and placed it on the downhill side of the trail where the back of the Jeep was sliding towards. We piled a few small logs, then lots of rocks inside the tree to widen the trail about two feet and raise it about two feet. Turns out that was a good move because by the time we figured out we weren't going to be able to dig the Jeep out, the rear end had slid to within about a foot of the tree we chopped to build up the trail.
I forgot to mention that about the time we got stuck, it started dumping snow. It was a heavy, wet snow that made everything extremely slick. We had thoughts about about leaving the Jeep on the trail and walking out, then coming back to get it after the snow had melted. The forecast for the rest of the week was calling for more snow, so I knew we had to get it out then.
Another unfortunate twist of fate was that I had taken the hand winch out of my Jeep that afternoon to lubricate it. It was soaked in PB Blaster, so I left it in the shed, not expecting to be doing any real 4-wheeling that day. Turns out that was a mistake. I called my friends that live in Silver Plume and asked them to come help us, making sure to pick up my hand winch on their way here. There was no way they'd find us on the trail and my buddy drives a stock 4wd Pathfinder so I wasn't even sure he'd be able to get up the trail. After I called him, I started walking down the mountain to meet them at the beginning of the trail. My dad stayed with the Jeep to keep digging out the snowbank. He also started a fire (using the emergency kit I keep in the Jeep - good call) which was great because we were soaking wet and cold. It helped keep moral up and probably kept me from getting frostbite in my fingers.
The trail had almost four inches of fresh snow on it as I walked down to meet my friends (with the exception of the snow drifts, the trail was dry when we first started). After about two miles of walking, I found them, they picked me up, and we headed back toward my Jeep. It was snowing so hard that as we drove back up the mountain, my foot prints from a half hour earlier had been completely covered and weren't even visible. We made it to within about a mile of my Jeep in his Pathy, grabbed the hand winch and an extra shovel, then started hiking up to it.
The recovery of the Jeep was a tedious mission. It took every bit of recovery equipment I had and then some to get her back straight on the trail. We attached two 20' straps to trees up the mountain (perpendicular to the Jeep). We hooked the hand winch to the rear of the Jeep to pull it back onto the trail. To keep the front of the Jeep from sliding off the trail as we pulled the rear end, we had to attach straps to the front of the Jeep, too. But, I didn't have enough recovery straps. So, we had to double up my cargo straps and use them to tie off the front end. First we winched the rear of the Jeep back onto the trail, then tied off the rear end and used the hand winch to pull the front of the Jeep back onto the trail. It took a while, but after some very careful hand winching we were able to roll the Jeep (while still attached to the winch and front recovery straps) down the trail and off of the snow drift.
I felt better once we got the Jeep straightened up and back on the trail, but it wasn't over, yet. It had snowed over five inches since we'd gotten stuck and there were no turn arounds for half a mile down the trail. We loaded the Jeep up, put out the fire, then set off down the trail. My dad and two friends walked down the trail spotting for me as I backed the Jeep down, very slowly, the wheels sliding as much as they were spinning. I was pretty nervous backing the Jeep down, but it went pretty smoothly. Until another snow drift sent the front end of the Jeep sliding off the trail, down the mountain. I braced for impact, but the Jeep stopped inches from a tree and the drop off in the trail. Another round of hand winching and the Jeep was once again straight on the trail and we continued backing down. The drive down the rest of the trail was uneventful, though we had to move very slowly and the frequent slipping reminded me how little control I had in the snow.
From the time we got stuck to the time we hit pavement again, about four hours had elapsed and six inches of snow had fallen. I didn't take the time to take any pictures because darkness was coming and we were racing against the snow to get the Jeep out as quickly as possible. A warm shower, hot pizza, and cold beer were never more appreciated.
All told, the only damage to the Jeep is a slightly bent front tow hook support. Considering all that could have gone wrong, it was a very successful recovery mission.
EDIT: Here are pictures I took when I went back to the site after all the snow had melted. This picture shows where we filled in the side of the trail with rocks and the ashes from the fire my Dad made.
Here's a better look at the tree we chopped and rocks we used to fill in the side of the trail.
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