Last winter, Aunt Lotte and Uncle Richard came to Arizona for a visit.  While they were here, they bought a piece of property in Overgaard: a double lot, with a mobile home on one lot and room for two RV's to park on the other.  The mobile home was fully furnished and functional, but when spring came around, there was much work to be done on the property.

As partial owners of the property, Bill and Erika agreed to put in "sweat equity" by cleaning up the property and doing various improvements over time.  That spring, they began the first round of improvements and asked us and the Guckenburgs to come and help them accomplish the first few tasks: cleaning up the brush and weeds in the yard, painting the new deck, and moving the shed to a new location.  We decided to do this over Easter weekend, knowing that we would all be available to make the drive up to Overgaard to do it.

Instead of staying with Bill and Erika and the Guckenburgs at the property in Overgaard, John and Mary and I opted to camp nearby in the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest, off of FR 504.  We were close enough to town that it would only take us ten minutes to get to the cabin, but we weren't going to be in close quarters with everyone overnight.

With our camping gear packed, John and Mary and I left early Friday evening and drove to Heber-Overgaard to stake out our campsite.  Although we left Phoenix early enough, it was still very dark when we turned off onto FR 504; so we had to set up camp by the lights of the 4Runner.  (Not that we've never done that before...) 

We could have used our lantern to help light the way, but as soon as we pulled it out of the pod, we discovered that it was broken.  After camp was set up, John left Mary and me there with the tents and drove to Circle K (at the corner of SR 260 and FR 504) to see if he could buy another one.  They didn't have one; so he brought back beer instead.  John and I sat in the darkness, after Mary fell asleep, and enjoyed one each.  By that time, we were bored (from sitting in the dark with nothing to do) and tired (from working all day); with that, we decided to call it a night.

The next morning, John and I were up bright and early, before the sun.  While Mary slept, I decided to take a walk to the Circle K, a mile away, to go get my morning coffee - a luxury that I would not have had under normal camping circumstances.  I had an ulterior motive for my walk that morning, too; I had just signed up to do the Breast Cancer 3-Day in November, and I considered this to be a training walk.

By the time I returned to camp with my coffee, Mary was wide awake and dressed, and John was getting dressed.  He had just discovered that he had not brought along a pair of sneakers to wear while working at the cabin; all he had were the top-siders that he had worn to work on Friday.  That meant that we were going to have to take a drive into Show Low at some point during the weekend to buy a new lantern and a pair of shoes for John, so that he didn't ruin his nice top-siders.

Once we were all dressed and ready, we drove into Heber-Overgaard and went to the cabin, which had been aptly called the "Gaard-Chak" (pronounced like "guard shack"): "Gaard", from Overgaard; and "Chak" from "Chakowski", which was Lotte's and Erika's maiden name.  (Lotte kept her maiden name when she married Richard.)  Bill had carved a sign, similar to the one that they hang on the motor home ("Verleys Up the Creek"), and it was already hanging from the mailbox in front of the property.

Everyone was already at work when we arrived, so we, too, went right to work.  Mary and Joshua were given the task of picking up nails and other similar pieces of hardware from around the two yards.  They would receive a nickel for each nail that they found. 

The rest of us had much more difficult tasks to complete.  Erika and Janice and I started by picking up the brush, the pine needles, the tree-trimmings, and the weeds from the around the two lots and putting them into the trailer, to be taken to the brush pit later in the day.  Now that John was there, he and Bill and Danny went to work on their task: moving the giant tool shed from the corner of the RV lot, onto the other lot...without getting hurt, of course.  They would accomplish this task by using logs, placed strategically underneath the shed, and a tow rope, with one end tied around the shed and the other end to the back of Bill's work van (and later, to John's 4Runner).  Using that method, they would be able to move the shed about a foot at a time, and it would take them all day to do it.

Once the trailer was full of trimmings and weeds, John and Bill hooked it up to the 4Runner, so that Erika and I could take it to the brush pit.  The brush pit is a place, just on the outskirts of Heber, where residents can take their yard trimmings - kind of like a dump for foliage only.  Bill explained that we were going to have to back the trailer in, which, of course, is something that I've never had to do before.

"Oh, it's easy," John said.  "You just have to do this, this, this, and this."

That's not really what he said, but that's how I heard it.  It's one thing for him to tell me now to do it, but there was no way that I was going to retain that information once I actually had to do it.

Fortunately, the man working the brush pit was very patient and helpful, because he showed me exactly what to do to back the trailer up to the brush pile.

After emptying the trailer, Erika and I returned to the Gaard-Chak, just in time for lunch.  By that time, the shed had been moved about halfway across the RV lot.  We all stopped working and took a break for lunch.

During the afternoon, Erika and Janice and I switched tasks and started painting the deck, while the boys continued to move the shed.  Unfortunately, they hit a snag; they couldn't get the shed past the outhouses on the RV lot.  The eaves of the shed got stuck on the eaves of the outhouse, and they couldn't move the shed any further.

So naturally, Bill did the only thing he could think of, without having to back the shed up and try again.  He took a skill saw and cut off the eaves on that side of the shed!  That did the trick, too, because the shed was now able to pass easily by the outhouses.

Around 2:00 in the afternoon, they finally had the shed in place, on the corner of the other lot, between the two ponderosa pines!  They put bricks underneath it to level it, and then, they called it quits for the day.

While there was still daylight left, John and I decided to take a break from the work and take a drive into Show Low, to shop for shoes and a lantern.  Meanwhile, Erika took a break as well and took the two children to Ace Hardware, to meet the Easter Bunny!  (Okay, really, she had supplies to buy; the Easter Bunny just happened to be there...)  The kids were delighted and they both got their picture taken with him.

John and I returned to the Gaard-Chak just in time for dinner, which Erika and Janice were cooking when we arrived.  We all ate dinner together as a family; then, the three of us took our tired selves back to camp to retire for the night.

During the night, the Easter Bunny came to our campsite and hid Easter Eggs for Mary to find the next morning.  This was the first time in many years that the Easter Bunny had to come all the way out to the forest to hide eggs for us. The last time we had camped for Easter was in 2001, when we camped near Camp Verde.  Of course, Mary was eight months old then and wasn't able to actually look for Easter Eggs; now that she was five, it was much more fun!

The Easter Bunny also came to the Gaard-Chak to hide Easter Eggs for both Mary and Joshua.  They were hidden everywhere: under the deck, in the trees, on top of the propane tank...everywhere!  And they all contained candy, which was perfect for sugaring up the kids for more work.

Even though it was Easter Sunday, there was still much work to be done.  There were still weeds to be pulled, cinder blocks to be moved, and trash to be picked up from both lots.  It was only a few hours of work, but it had to be done. 

John and I also had to tear down our campsite, which we did right before Easter dinner.  We purposely did this without Mary, so that we could have some "alone" time together.  Yes, we were tired and hurting from all of the work, but we still had enough energy to be naked in the woods...

When we returned to the Gaard-Chak, it was time for Easter dinner.  While dinner was cooking, I dressed Mary up in her Easter dress and took her out into the yard to take pictures of her.  We had bought the dress for her before we knew that we would be doing dirty work for Easter Sunday, and I at least wanted her to wear it, even if it was just for a couple of hours.  She enjoyed the chance to be pretty for a little bit; it meant that she didn't have to collect any more nails!

Easter dinner was a big hit, but unfortunately, John and Mary and I had to eat and run.  The rest of the family was staying until Monday; we had to be back at work the next day.  With that, we said our good-byes and left the Gaard-Chak to begin our two-and-a-half hour drive back to Phoenix.

But we will be back...Now that we have the Gaard-Chak, there will be a great many adventures that will take place there...

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