From another room
I hear you playing with Zane on the bed and
laughing, and
I suddenly know I am
happy.
Monday, October 20, 2014
Thursday, October 2, 2014
Angel Flight West
In the early years of the 21st century, my wife Edna was eventually obliged to seek an experimental treatment for cancer at a clinic in Bakersfield. That's a long haul from Fairfield, California. The appointments were weekly, and the first couple times we drove down and back on Interstate 5 (the quickest route, although definitely the least interesting). It took several hours each way, which also necessitated staying overnight at a motel. Between the treatments and the drive, these were very tiring and stressful trips for her and for me.
Then, Edna heard about Angel Flight West (http://www.angelflightwest.org), an organization that matches up pilots willing to donate their time, gas, and aircraft with patients who need to travel long distances for medical treatments. Edna took the lead in contacting them and setting up dates and times with local pilots for travel. Soon we were flying to Bakersfield in the morning and flying back in the late afternoon or early evening. Usually we flew out of the Nut Tree airport in Vacaville (once in a while from others in the area) and landed at the Mercury Air Center in Bakersfield (Thank You! folks) How good it was, at the end of a long day, to see the lights of Vacaville and the Nut Tree airport again. It was so much easier on Edna and we could return to our own bed the same day. We flew to Bakersfield many times between July of '03 and February of '04, and each and every pilot treated us in a very caring way. We were very thankful and I think we made our gratitude obvious at the time.
Just a few days ago, I was going through a box of old photos and documents and discovered this photo. It was taken when her sister Millie (left) accompanied her (it was usually me), and shows them just before to take off (with pilot Rick Markwell). About the same time, fortuitously, I came across her flight appointment notes. It inspired me to again express my gratitude to the organization and each pilot that so generously donated his or her time and money to carrying us to appointments.
Below are the names of every pilot Edna listed in her notes. I can't be sure if everyone who flew for us is listed here or if names are correctly spelled. For any errors or omissions, I apologize. To all the folks that flew for us: THANK YOU! THANK YOU! THANK YOU!
Kelsey Hood
Jerry McClelland
Matthias Frank
Barry Scott
Fred Weibel
Don Radcliff
Joe Fitzpatrick
Grant Smith
Mitchell Dion
John Capuano
William Spangler
Robert Mills
Greg ?
Stewart Rosenberg
Brad Ruben
Elwin Smith
Grover Ash
Bob Romero
Paul Kutler
Paul Hart
Darryl Schumart
Gigi Debery
Mike Cottle
Grant Smith
Stan Slaton
Kevin Mnich
Bill Shear
Tom McGrath
Fred Channon
Earl King
Tracy Hawn
Bill Canaran
Doug Kaye
Doug Campbell
Rick Markwell (thanks for the photo)
PLEASE NOTE: Angel Flight West does good work for people who need to travel long distances for medical treatments. If you can, please donate to them at: https://afids.angelflightwest.org/donation/donationEntry. Thank you!
Thursday, September 11, 2014
They say it's your birthday...
I awoke this morning with these very special
blessings from Melina: a beautiful card, pottery stamp ("chop") for the
pots we will soon be making, and a lovely poem celebrating my birthday - all from her amazing hands and heart.
Thank you Love!
Sunday, September 7, 2014
Down in the Holler...
If you have six acres ("+") of land, you might as well be able to walk it and enjoy it, right? But there are a few areas here that, over years of neglect, have been seized by poison oak, dead trees, and dead brush. The gully ("holler") to our North West is like that. Over the early summer, while the poison oak was still leafy and green, I attacked it with periodic spraying (don't ask!). Here is some info on poison oak family - it is aptly named:
Toxicodendron is a genus of flowering plants in the sumac family, Anacardiaceae. It contains woody trees, shrubs and vines, including poison ivy, poison oak, and the lacquer tree. All members of the genus produce the skin-irritating oil urushiol, which can cause a severe allergic reaction.
Western poison oak is called T. diversilobum), which seems apt, too, because it does appear in diverse forms, as bushes, as vines (with yards-long runners just beneath the forest duff), as small trees (weaving their way up through other trees), with a concomitant alteration in the size and shape of its leaves. Brrrrr. Hate the stuff and I have a couple spots on my arms from accidental contact a few days ago. It can sometimes be hard to spot amongst all the other dormant plants this time of year; it has dropped it leaves, showing only brown, undistinguished whips to the less than diligent, or distracted, observer
PART 1:
So now, some of the poison oak has been killed and some has died off (as it does in late summer/early fall.And this seems like as good (and safe) a time as ever to go in and clear it out, and the tree dead wood, too. This is a shot of what the area looked like a few days ago before I started, looking back towards the house from the gully.
This is the gully, looking South towards Triangle Road. Nice rocks and trees, but a lot of deadwood and poison oak shoots.
There are some big rock slabs to be seen, mossy rocks, ancient tree stumps, and boulder clumps (see pix below), but they are shrouded in deadwood and poison oak. This is what I want to open up, to hike, to sit in, and enjoy. Most of it is shady, with patches of sunlight here and there - and it will be even more beautiful in the spring with fresh grasses and flowers.The best would be seeing some water running - a seasonal stream. Up the gully a bit, there is a an old stool next to the gully and some wooden planks across it, so at some time in recent history, water did flow here. I'm hoping for a rainy winter.
For the last couple days I have been working on the area East (house-side) of the gully, using a hedge trimmer to knock down the poison oak whips, and chainsaws to drop the deadwood. I'll be taking photos today to show what's going on (see below) and what's changed...
Part 2 (work in progress)...
I don't want to handle the poison oak, so I've been cutting it up into little pieces that can rot back into the leaf duff. I'm hoping it is the fresh leaves that carry most of the urushiol...
The dead wood larger than an inch or so I have been cutting into stove lengths to be burned this winter. There are years of firewood on this property!
The leftover branches I bundle with a chain, tie it to the trailer ball on the van, and drag out of the gully and over to the burn pile by the garage.
The cut logs I load into the new trailer and use the new tractor mower to haul to the woodpile to the rear of the mill office..
So here's how things look opened up:
Looking down towards the gully: At the bottom by the streambed, there is a little meadow.
And up from the gully - now a walkable slope.
Oh, it turns out that even the dormant poison oak branches will get you a rash - both my forearms can attest to that!
Toxicodendron is a genus of flowering plants in the sumac family, Anacardiaceae. It contains woody trees, shrubs and vines, including poison ivy, poison oak, and the lacquer tree. All members of the genus produce the skin-irritating oil urushiol, which can cause a severe allergic reaction.
Western poison oak is called T. diversilobum), which seems apt, too, because it does appear in diverse forms, as bushes, as vines (with yards-long runners just beneath the forest duff), as small trees (weaving their way up through other trees), with a concomitant alteration in the size and shape of its leaves. Brrrrr. Hate the stuff and I have a couple spots on my arms from accidental contact a few days ago. It can sometimes be hard to spot amongst all the other dormant plants this time of year; it has dropped it leaves, showing only brown, undistinguished whips to the less than diligent, or distracted, observer
PART 1:
So now, some of the poison oak has been killed and some has died off (as it does in late summer/early fall.And this seems like as good (and safe) a time as ever to go in and clear it out, and the tree dead wood, too. This is a shot of what the area looked like a few days ago before I started, looking back towards the house from the gully.
This is the gully, looking South towards Triangle Road. Nice rocks and trees, but a lot of deadwood and poison oak shoots.
There are some big rock slabs to be seen, mossy rocks, ancient tree stumps, and boulder clumps (see pix below), but they are shrouded in deadwood and poison oak. This is what I want to open up, to hike, to sit in, and enjoy. Most of it is shady, with patches of sunlight here and there - and it will be even more beautiful in the spring with fresh grasses and flowers.The best would be seeing some water running - a seasonal stream. Up the gully a bit, there is a an old stool next to the gully and some wooden planks across it, so at some time in recent history, water did flow here. I'm hoping for a rainy winter.
 |
| Streambed and some big boulders on the other side |
 |
| Big slab rocks |
 |
| Ancient stump - something really big grew here... |
 |
| Streambed |
For the last couple days I have been working on the area East (house-side) of the gully, using a hedge trimmer to knock down the poison oak whips, and chainsaws to drop the deadwood. I'll be taking photos today to show what's going on (see below) and what's changed...
Part 2 (work in progress)...
I don't want to handle the poison oak, so I've been cutting it up into little pieces that can rot back into the leaf duff. I'm hoping it is the fresh leaves that carry most of the urushiol...
The dead wood larger than an inch or so I have been cutting into stove lengths to be burned this winter. There are years of firewood on this property!
The leftover branches I bundle with a chain, tie it to the trailer ball on the van, and drag out of the gully and over to the burn pile by the garage.
The cut logs I load into the new trailer and use the new tractor mower to haul to the woodpile to the rear of the mill office..
So here's how things look opened up:
Looking down towards the gully: At the bottom by the streambed, there is a little meadow.
And up from the gully - now a walkable slope.
Oh, it turns out that even the dormant poison oak branches will get you a rash - both my forearms can attest to that!
Tuesday, April 29, 2014
Once Again
It's good to reread old books - you always discover something you missed. I overlooked this in Olav Hauge's "Selected Poems."
Everyday
You've left the big storms
behind you now.
You didn't ask then
why you were born,
where you came from, where you were going to,
you were just there in the storm,
in the fire.
But it's possible to live
in the everyday as well,
in the grey quiet day,
set potatoes, rake leaves,
carry brushwood.
There's so much to think about here in the world,
one life is not enough for it all.
After work you can fry pork
and read Chinese poems.
Old Laertes cut briars,
dug round his fig trees,
and let the heroes fight on at Troy.
Everyday
You've left the big storms
behind you now.
You didn't ask then
why you were born,
where you came from, where you were going to,
you were just there in the storm,
in the fire.
But it's possible to live
in the everyday as well,
in the grey quiet day,
set potatoes, rake leaves,
carry brushwood.
There's so much to think about here in the world,
one life is not enough for it all.
After work you can fry pork
and read Chinese poems.
Old Laertes cut briars,
dug round his fig trees,
and let the heroes fight on at Troy.
Saturday, April 26, 2014
1934 Truck Odyssey
My 1934 Ford flatbed truck finally made it to Mariposa a couple months ago and is getting fixed up a bit to make it drivable.
For many years it has languished in Isleton while I was busy with other things. Over the years, the bed and stake sides have rotted away, and the generator quit working.
I rebuilt the bed last year while the truck was in Isleton, before my marriage to Melina and my move to our new home in Mariposa. This included using pressure treated wood for the 3x cross beams (green PT) and the 2x6 bed itself (brown PT). Stainless screws secure the bed. I also replaced the dead generator with a new alternator, but didn't have the time to make sure it was really working
I rented a big U-Haul car carrier to bring the truck to Mariposa, but it turned out to be a couple feet too short for the wheelbase - I got most of the truck on, but the rear wheels only made it halfway up the ramps. Yeah, I know, I should have measured somewhere along the way...but I was so sure!
We wound up using the rented carrier to haul the 1954 Chrysler to its buyer Stockton. The gentleman who bought it is a roving junkman and, as fortune would have it, he had a long bed tow truck. Hhe offered to haul the flatbed to Mariposa. That cost me a few hundred bucks, but was worth it to get the truck there in one piece.
For many years it has languished in Isleton while I was busy with other things. Over the years, the bed and stake sides have rotted away, and the generator quit working.
I rebuilt the bed last year while the truck was in Isleton, before my marriage to Melina and my move to our new home in Mariposa. This included using pressure treated wood for the 3x cross beams (green PT) and the 2x6 bed itself (brown PT). Stainless screws secure the bed. I also replaced the dead generator with a new alternator, but didn't have the time to make sure it was really working
I rented a big U-Haul car carrier to bring the truck to Mariposa, but it turned out to be a couple feet too short for the wheelbase - I got most of the truck on, but the rear wheels only made it halfway up the ramps. Yeah, I know, I should have measured somewhere along the way...but I was so sure!
We wound up using the rented carrier to haul the 1954 Chrysler to its buyer Stockton. The gentleman who bought it is a roving junkman and, as fortune would have it, he had a long bed tow truck. Hhe offered to haul the flatbed to Mariposa. That cost me a few hundred bucks, but was worth it to get the truck there in one piece.
It sat here for a while, but just lately, before the last rain, I put a coat of sealer on the bed.
I also read up on the alternator conversion and finally got that working. No, that isn't the original flathead V8 engine. I had that one rebuilt soon after I bought the truck, but was quite disappointed in its power...it was OK on the flats, but pretty gutless on grades. Well, it is a heavy truck. Back in early seventies I swapped that for a 1957 283 CID Chevy engine and Hurst bell housing adapter - shoe-horned it in without having to cut a thing. It's a little klugey and ugly, but has run just fine all these years (it got me to the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico and back in '74) and has hauled satellite dishes, chicken manure and all manner of household goods around CA since then).
I got some 2 x 4 lumber for the stakes and the 1 x 4 lumber for the sides, and sealed them wit a nice translucent yellow stain. I've just started to get the sides attached and will probably finish it next weekend (we've got another trip to Isleton planned for the next few days - the house is in escrow and I've finally got to get all my stuff (omg!) out of there)
For now, I'm just happy it is getting back together. Can't wait to drive it into town and see if.anyone remembers it from the old days (we lived in Mariposa from about 1984 to 1994).
For fun, I drove Melina and Zane around our 6 acres. Zane took a real liking to the cab and enjoying just sitting and taking in the view. Melina had to coax him out.
I also read up on the alternator conversion and finally got that working. No, that isn't the original flathead V8 engine. I had that one rebuilt soon after I bought the truck, but was quite disappointed in its power...it was OK on the flats, but pretty gutless on grades. Well, it is a heavy truck. Back in early seventies I swapped that for a 1957 283 CID Chevy engine and Hurst bell housing adapter - shoe-horned it in without having to cut a thing. It's a little klugey and ugly, but has run just fine all these years (it got me to the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico and back in '74) and has hauled satellite dishes, chicken manure and all manner of household goods around CA since then).
I got some 2 x 4 lumber for the stakes and the 1 x 4 lumber for the sides, and sealed them wit a nice translucent yellow stain. I've just started to get the sides attached and will probably finish it next weekend (we've got another trip to Isleton planned for the next few days - the house is in escrow and I've finally got to get all my stuff (omg!) out of there)
For now, I'm just happy it is getting back together. Can't wait to drive it into town and see if.anyone remembers it from the old days (we lived in Mariposa from about 1984 to 1994).
Wednesday, April 2, 2014
Surprise
...looked out the window this morning and thought for a moment that the oaks were blooming!
But No. It's snow!
We go out to take it all in and take a few pictures...
I don't think Melina was ready to have my camera pointed at her (she was still working on her morning coffee).
But Zane, as usual, was so happy to have a visit with his old friend Snow (actually, only his second encounter, but he welcomed it with the same enthusiasm) Ah, snow! ...keeps the belly cool.
The house and trees looked gorgeous; the sky so blue...
On the other side of the hose, the grape vines are just staring to leaf out on the patio
One of the first things I noticed was the cherry tree - blossoms under snow; white on white..
Then, the new garden plots that Melina dug up a couple days ago.
The row cover over the older plot tunnels are sagging under the snow, but protecting the greens, garlic and onions.
The new water tank, dusted with snow.
We walked around the upper acreage...
One oak tree up on the hill had lost a big limb. Hmmmm, oh no! Looks like some chainsaw work and more firewood for next year.
Isn't it amazing how a simple change like rain or snow can open your eyes to the beauty around you?
 |
| Black Walnut |
 |
| Redbud |
 |
| Chapparall |
 |
| Runes of the wild turkey |
Patterns
New Grass
Melting snow leaves its own patterns...
Mill office steps
Iris
and a hint of what Spring will bring...
Along the way, Melina sneaks a few pictures of me.
...and I get even!
Even Zane demands a shot.
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