Hot in the Country, cold in the city

Hello Sweet Things,

Once again it's Friday the 13th OOOOooooooo (scary sound), and I can happily say that nothing so far (knock on wood) bad has happened.

I made use of my long weekend off and went to check my country property and it is fine, but everything around the property is dry, dry, very dry.  My caretakers and I did a lot of brush clearing to make sure there would be defensible space and I am so glad I had the underground sprinkler system installed, it will help keep the grounds wet enough.  

But with a determined fire even that may not be enough to hold anything off.  The goats have been very helpful in keeping a lot of undergrowth under control, and all the milk they produced too.  My caretakers are also small holding farmers, in exchange for living on the property and taking care of it they can raise and sell crops and small farm animals and they are working in conjuction with a 4 H program and our local historical society working together to show what and how an old fashion farm works.

I was surprised to see a cow added to the stable as well as two horses, they told me that some of the fields are plowed using the horses when they do demonstrations.  There was something very comforting to see these two horses, Billy Jo and Bobby Jo  in the corral.  Buddy the dog goes right up to them and sometimes will fall asleep right in either one or the other's stall and they seem to like his company.

Fortunately I do not have to pay for any of their vet bills my caretakers are taking care of that.

But I went over with my caregivers a plan of evacuation in case there is a serious fire.

It has been very warm at the country place and I am so glad that the fire near Colfax is far, far away. 

Waking up in the morning to a rooster crowing, then having breakfast in the kitchen while a hen comes wandering in from outside looking for bits of bread crumbs, not being content with the feed and bugs she might find outside.

Sunday we went to the store and bought boxes of jars for canning, not that I'll be around to do the canning but my caretaker's wife is going to be doing it along with a number of the 4 H youngsters,  but then again I just might run up here just to get involved.

And now for this last week I've been back at work, a heavy marine layer has been making San Francisco the coldest city during the Summer, in a way I don't mind it, having two places to stay helps me balance my mind and my energies.  

I went in early to work today, just blasting through the paperwork,  taking the ferry home, now at this computer relaxing.   Joe will be off duty in a little while if he's not overloaded with paperwork, and I don't feel like cooking, hmmmm I guess it will be take out tonight and a fireplace burning to keep warm, unless it's a spare the air night, I'll have to check.

I've not had a chance to do much traveling so far this year, work and things have kept me home mostly, the family is doing well, so I hope to be able to go down and see them in a month or two,  and I'll take the train, my favorite mode of travel.

Hmmm I thought I was going to be wicked, devilish and instead I've become a homebody,  maybe.   Maybe it's time to see about going through the streets of San Francisco, in search of the elusive black bird, maybe it's something else,  I think I'm restless again.  I shall have to do something about that.

Do you like the picture,  sometimes Buddy the Dog can be like that.

Kisses Sweet Things

A Breath of Fresh, Wet Air~~~

Hello Sweet Things,

It seems my idea to go to my country place was a good choice. There is rain, and a little higher up a light dusting of snow, but not enough to affect where I am.

I got up early yesterday and went to the Gun Show at the Cow Palace, and that was a good move as well. Ran into some old friends, who work the show, they told me that Saturday was very, very busy, today is slower but sales were very good.

I noticed a few changes, the dealers who deal with Ammo have different set up now because of the changes in the gun law, so one can see the ammo, but there are barriers between them and the product, so it's more working with the sales person and asking questions.

A number of security dealers, but in talking with one person I know, the word is that because of the heavy rains many of them will be coming to the Spring show or working more in Nevada and Arizona at this time.

I saw a lot of antique pieces, practically museum quality. But the energy was not as high as usual, but from what I was told the energy was much better Saturday, and it being a 3 day weekend many people might be taking advantage of going skiing.

But it felt good, had a chance over a meatball sandwich (very good), to talk with some members of the Chabot Gun Club that do their SASS shoots on the third Sunday.

Did I buy anything, not really, nothing sang out to me. But it was fun just looking. I left by 1:30 p.m. and managed to get to my place by 4 p.m. Traffic was really very good. Of course things are going to be very rough going home tonight, so I talked to the Powers that be and made arrangements to come in Tuesday afternoon and work through the early evening instead.

Turns out that was a good thing too, the upgrades are not going as fast as they hoped, so going in in the afternoon will be a good thing. And since I don't have any meetings until about 3 p.m. I'm going to take advantage of it.

It is cold and rainy here, but a number of people are glad, the rain is needed. My caretakers were glad that I did come up, some repair work is needed in the barn area, nothing drastic and they were going to e-mail me about it for my approval before having it done, and it was a good thing to be here, I had a chance to talk with a couple of members of the historical preservation board and got an update on things, fund raising is going better than expected, some surprising grants received, land purchases progressing well.

And the educational aspect is moving forward and looks to be very good. The line up for their events for the year is all set and I'm looking forward to it. Then a special request was sprung upon me. Where they hold their meetings is going to be under renovation starting in February and they will not have a place to meet on a steady continuous basis, as it appears that the renovations could take more than a year.

I asked how many people attend these meeting and they said that besides the board members not much over a dozen, if it was going to be a very large gathering then it would be held at the school auditorium especially if it was something where there might be a lot of input needed from people in the town. So I was asked if I would be willing to loan my house, primarily family parlor and dinning room since they blend into one large room.

I asked my caregivers is that would be a hardship on them and they said no, so I agreed with the proviso that anyone attending a meeting here must be made aware that the house was currently not handicapped accessible, that it was a temporary meeting place and that the minutes of the meeting would be posted in the local newspaper. Also anyone coming onto the property could not claim injury if they fell or injured themselves as it was at their own risk. Anyone who is handicapped and wants to attend a meeting needs to make arrangements with one of the board members and all efforts should be made to accommodate those requests.

Getting that in writing the board members agreed. So after dinner I talked with my caregivers and asked if there was any spot in which a wheelchair ramp strong enough to accommodate those motorized scooters could be installed. The best possible spot was through the back into the kitchen, because the doorways were large enough to accommodate most wheelchairs and scooters into the lower part of the house and the angles into the living area was practically a shotgun arrangement. The stairs were on the side and were going to eventually be replaced so this would be an excellent thing to do. The walk way to the back is level brickwork so no problem there.

So I told them to see what it would take and have the work started as soon as possible. Because I had a feeling that it was going to be along time before they got back to their usual meeting place and also if we needed to replace anything or bring in a heavy piece of funiture having that ramp would be a good thing.

I slept like a rock last night and woke to the smell of coffee this morning, it's raining but I'm going to go into town, and just see how things are going there. It's chilly, a bit windy and diffently wet. But it feels like my restlessness is cured, that I'm back insync with myself.

I had a chance to see more of Fram's photos from his apartment, how facisinating those horse drawn carriages so close by, it almost feels like one is in Sherlock Holmes London. And I listened to that piano piece, yes it does sound like the way this wet winter feels. I'd forgotten about Chopin. In the next town over there is a music store that carries CD's I'm going to check it out and see what they have in the classics.

I don't think I'll have a chance to go to Europe, at least not this year. My Baby Sister is going to graduate this June with her Bacholers degree in Business---and her fiancee will get his Master's as well. But Baby Sis will be going back for her Masters as well and Ted will be job hunting---not easy in this current economy, he said he may go back and "augment" his masters by taking other courses, he has to see what the 'waters' are like.

Anyway, I know where I'll be this June. I'm very proud of her.

Now I must be off if I want to do what I want to do. My caregivers and I will make arrangments to meet in town for lunch, they need to do some grocery shopping, while I will "flutter like a social butterfly" oh yeah, right! ***chuckle***

Until Later Sweet Things, Kisses. And Fram keep posting those photos and tell us more about what you see.

Thar's Gold in Them Thar Hills~~~~~

Hello Again Sweet Things,

I'm blogging from my place up here in the Gold Country. Yes Sweet Things, that is the euphemism for the lower Sierra Foothills that surrounds Hwy 49.

First I want to Thank Dear Sweet Fram for his generous compliment on my writing in my last blog. Thank you for the encouragement. I never really thought of myself as any kind of writer, but now you have my mind thinking----maybe I should consider taking some "creative writing' courses or something. Thank you Fram, Kisses to you. (MMMWhhaa) (giggle)

Baby Sis has been following my blog and has also insisted that I save the blogs onto a flash drive and later put them together for a "journal" in print format. Who knows where this might lead.

Definitely not like the "Dame Shirley Letters", but who knows. All I can say is "Thank Goodness for Spell Check".

Because of my work I paid to have installed a DSL connection here at the house, that way I can be in touch should an emergency arise. My caretakers made sure it was done properly and in a way that it doesn't intrude into the 'fabric' of the house, so it was installed in a Armour that I purchased in town and put into the room that was originally the 'office' of the house when this was a large working farm/ranch.

The last time I was here, I suggested to use that room as a office, they looked at me and told me about it's original purpose, and managed to find pictures of his great grandfather at a desk in that very room. Looking through the attic and the basement, we managed to find a number of things, restore them and put them into the 'office'.

There did appear to be an Armour there that was used to hold the account books for the 'farm' years ago, but it was sold some years later for needed cash. Now they are happy that bit by bit things seem to be going back in time.

I have to say that this house seems to "speak" to me, I feel so much at home in it.

But before I digress to far from what I was going to say.....

I once again left early on Friday, first to go to my other rental property towards the south, just to see how my tenants are doing, they knew I was coming and offered to put me up, but I didn't want to put them to too much trouble and instead stayed in a nearby motel and treated them to dinner.

Over dinner they told me what they thought the property needed to have done, so in the light of day I inspected it and agreed. A corner of the foundation needed replacing but the rest appeared to be fine, and they would get estimates for me. Some of the other things, they could do themselves, mostly cosmetic or simple repairs, I asked them to take pictures of before and after and to save all the bills for my records.

I was happy to hear that things were going well for them, Bill was working and Margie got a part time job a few days a week while her children are at day camp. I kept wondering how they could put up with the heat being well into the nineties, but they told me that getting up early in the morning and doing the outside work before the heat became unbearable helped and then towards the cool of the evening to finish it. It was a matter of pacing oneself.

I realized that living with the cool weather of the Bay Area I had gotten soft and had forgotten this wise idea.

Then just after lunch with a final wave I took off and drove up Hwy 49 to my "country home".

Hwy 49 is a mixture of narrow two lane roads with turn outs for slower traffic and modern Highways, but I found myself enjoying the two lane roads with it's twists and turns, because it gave me the feel of what it might have been like in the 1880, with the notorious Black Bart and Joaquin Murietta, robbing the Wells Fargo Stagecoaches, or raiding the miner's camps.

The wild grasses had turn a golden brown, and in the heat when I stopped to stretch my legs I could hear the cicada's with their high whine as they hid in the grasses, and seeing an occasional horse or cow taking shade under a huge oak tree with it's branches twisting and reaching, some of them to such impossible lengths that I wondered how the branches could remain up without breaking under the weight.

Sometimes the two lane roads would be flanked with what appeared to be old rock walls or fences with dried moss in the crevasses, when I took one of my rest breaks I examined one of those fences and was surprised to see that the rocks were of lava and appeared to have been there for years. I wondered what would they look like all wet when the winter rains came, I just knew I had to come back to see the changes.

I thought of those old western T.V. programs, where they show huge dry expanses of land as the hero rode across, and had a sense of what it was they were trying to capture.

But I knew it was more than visual, you have to feel the heat, smell the grass, feel what little breeze there is, hear the rustle of the grass and the insects, to look up and see a hawk or a buzzard soaring over the bright pale blue sky to really get the feel of it, the grittiness and how it could, if one wasn't strong enough, beat a person down.

Tough people those pioneers, I thought, tough and determined.

Then driving through the towns when the road doesn't by pass it, like Jamestown, Sonora, Angels Camp. The towns and people that were written about by Bret Hart and Mark Twain,
"The Luck of Roaring Camp"---"The Jumping Frog of Calavaras County"......

It made me think, think about how I got caught up in this modern world and not taking time to look and see what has made us what we are, the history that surrounds us that we just take for granted, that we ignore and destroy in our greed.

Development and progress is fine if it is done for the right reasons, but before our economy crashed it was done for all the wrong reasons. This country, away from the flash and zip of the big city, makes you think and think outside one's little ticky-tacky boxes. And I got some ideas which I quickly wrote down in my ever present note book, now I just need to formulate them, that will take a little time, but out here you feel as if you have time.

All too soon I knew I had to get back into my car and get to my other house, I had told them to not wait for me as I wasn't sure what time I would arrive; starting up my car I felt like I was on a stage coach traveling to my destination, traveling over the same routes that perhaps even "One Eye" Charlie Parkhurst had driven, cracking "his' whip over the heads of the team of horses and not a single person knowing that Charlie Parkhurst was a woman.

Of course a far more comfortable drive than being in a stagecoach or mud wagon, a lot less bouncing and jostling and air conditioned as well, but instead I turned it off and lowered the window to feel the heat, and catch was smells there were, other than gasoline, from this country.

I arrived just before dinner time and was greeted warmly by my caretakers. That evening over ice tea they told me what had been happening, so many positive changes that made me smile.

And now with the Internet connection they can almost immediately keep me posted on things and send me pictures as well.

I slept deeply last night, waking up early with sun up, my hosts having gone to church this morning, I'll be joining them soon as their church is having a fun raiser breakfast and church bazaar to raise money for a new roof, they are very close to their goal. I'll be meeting them there and I'll give a very generous check for the church's roof, after all it was built in 1878.

I'm not going to be returning to the Bay Area until Monday, allowing me a little extra driving time, but I will be driving to work in the late afternoon to see how things are going and hitting the grind stone once again.

But to keep the feeling of the Gold Country I'll be reading some of those books that I bought, and making plans.

Until Later Sweet Things, Kisses.