Days 162 and 163: Bumper Stickers...

I'm in the Napa Valley--earning my keep.

Stepping on the scale Friday morning at the Monastic Dorm, I discovered I'd dropped five pounds in the last two weeks. I don't have a scale at home, so this is the one I dare step on every once and awhile. Hard work on the house has benefits!

Friday I took a walk outside of Calistoga. The Napa Valley is filled with tourists this weekend. Every square inch seems to be occupied by Yuppies in the BMW's, Jaguars and other implements of opulent consumption.

Saturday it was off to watch Springer's son play Legion baseball in Yountville, I drove past the French Laundry (gotta eat there someday) and I took a walk around the Veteran's hospital's sprawling campus. The ball field is located on the campus.

I had fun admiring the bumper stickers on pick ups and SUV's (I'll load photos of them later). Some of these bumper stickers make me pause; makes me wonder if the Oliver North Junta types within our military establishment might just try and pull off a coup if some President got too much out of line. I wonder if Obama retaining Gates as the Defense Secretary wasn't a strategic decision on Obama's part to placate the Keepers of Empire?

The sheer venom against Obama on one Marine's SUV makes me think that a patriotic coup is more than a possibility.

I used to get forwarded e-mails from a relative of Joni's who was a colonel in our military. You know, the mass produced, disinformation kind of e-mail that circulates amongst retired military people. My hunch is that some of these right wing, patriotic missives originate in a disinformation section deep in the Internet bowels of the Pentagon. I'm sure you've come across a few of these in your Inbox. They flutter about the Internet like viruses.

Walking around the lush Veteran's Home grounds, I come across a mule deer. I watch him for the longest time, and he doesn't run off until I'm only twenty feet away from him. Mule deer care nothing about empire. They don't care about some 700 plus foreign bases in 100 plus countries (China has zero foreign bases). They don't care about one trillion dollars having been spent on Afghanistan and Iraq. Deer don't care about the senseless loss of life and the plunder of treasure.

And for the moment, watching the beauty and grace of the deer, neither did I.

Day 161: Chores...

I bought this place in order to have chores to do. Chores are one of those things in life that keep us alive and kicking. Keeps us out of trouble; away from the bars and other potentially negative distractions that perils adulthood.

I've moved everything out of the Addition into convenient piles outside. I've declared it Summer! The dry season.

So I moved the straw bales and insulation outside. I created a large flat surface to house stuff until I can move it all back inside again. The minute I finished, it rained!

Jazzy standing in the Addition..

And another view...

And I created a new bedroom. This will have to serve for quite awhile, as next week we will put the electrical into the Addition. Then I have to level out the floor and start the months long process of putting in an adobe floor...

But that's all for now. Off to Napa!

Days 159 and 160: Meet Abbey!

Doing chores outside the past couple of days. And playing with the new puppy we got this morning. Meet Abbey everyone! A five week old black lab.

Animal count:

One Cat: Rocky...

Two Dogs: Angel and Abbey

Two Rabbits: Shadow and Dutch

Six Chickens: to be named later (if they survive the coyotes).

Up next? A goat or two...

Day 158: I am the Mud Man...(koo koo koo koo koo chuub)

Another great day to make mud...

Today's obligatory Ed Abbey quote:

"If the world of men is as ugly, cruel, trivial, unjust and stinking with fraud as it usually appears, and it is really impossible to make it pleasant and decent, there remains only one alternative for the honest man: stay home, cultivate your own garden, look to the mountains. (Withdraw! Withdraw! Withdraw!)"

Day 157: Flashing the Peace Sign...

More mud plaster work. I'm mudding the South wall in, what one day will be, our Family Room. I'm really liking the color of the clay walls. I'm beginning to think we will just leave the walls the natural color of the mud.

Day 156: And Then There Were Three..

Angel and I headed out to inspect how the forest is recovering from the fire of 2008. You have to admire the Ponderosa pine in the photo that survived this fire. Charred up. Burned at the bottom, but still alive.

Got word from a couple of friends that they want to join me on the Pacific Crest Trail this July. Good news! I didn't really want to do the thing by myself. Since these guys are twenty years younger than me, I better start pushing myself away from the table and start more vigorous training. Forty five days until we hit the trail.

Day 155: Ginsberg and Snyder...

It rained yesterday afternoon, last night--and again this morning. With clouds in the forecast, there is no "dry season" in sight. Since I have a couple of backpacking trips coming up (the Pacific Crest Trail and the Appalachian Trail), it is time to put in a bit more effort in the walking department. Angel and I took a long, long walk---amazed at the lush, green growth this late in the season.

Thoughts of "Eaarth" by Bill McKibben in this long lasting rainy season. The climate is changing and this June rain is evidence of it. Over the next twenty years, will we continue to have feast or famine when it comes to rainfall? We might be better off here in northern California, as the only glacier in the US that is growing is the one on Mt. Shasta (some 100 miles to the north).


And I finished The Selected Letters of Allen Ginsberg and Gary Snyder last night. Mostly I was interested in their discussion of "Kitkitdizze"--the property they owned together located around forty to fifty miles south of here in the Sierra Foothills. Gary Snyder gave me the idea to live in the Foothills. At one point, our next Governor Jerry Brown wanted to purchase the property next to Snyder and company. Seems Snyder had a good idea.

It was a long and fruitful relationship for Snyder and Ginsberg. Much of the book discusses "Kitkitdizze" and how to enjoy and make the property work. Eventually, Ginsberg sold his house on the property to Snyder. Ginsberg called his house: Bedrock Mortar.

Writers often give names to their property and houses. Witness Jack London's "Wolf House". Kitkitdizze and Bedrock Mortar follows within that tradition.

Snyder wrote of his relationship to Ginsberg in the introduction: "I made him walk more, and he made me talk more. It was good for both of us."

Day 154: Get Back...

Another day of playing in the mud. Slow progress...

Day 153: Day of Sloth...

Tried to do some mud yesterday. Ended up taking a nap and reading "The Selected Letters of Allen Ginsberg and Gary Snyder".

Day 152: Cohesion and Humility

Nice weather! Finally!

Back across the state of California; home to the girls---and a walk with my dog. During my walk, I came across this oak tree which has become interwoven to a Ponderosa pine. Two species co-existing. I'm sure the Ponderosa didn't ask the oak to become part of its existence. Nor did the oak plan to become bound, like a Siamese twin, to the Ponderosa.

Before I got in my car to drive home, I came across a huge, Pick up Truck with this anti-Obama bumper sticker:

Next to the Obama sticker, is this wonderful decal calling for the protection of wildlife and of the land:

Obama just might have a career ending disaster in NOT protecting the environment. He called for more off shore drilling, then when a spill occurred, he responded in a very tardy fashion. In this case, I have a whole lot more in common with the Pickup truck driver (who also displayed a Confederate flag) than I do with Mr. Harvard himself: Obama.

A week ago or so, it was reported to me that someone was shooting at Cougars on the Ridge. I've been told that I was wrong. That (just like the Pickup Truck above) the good people were trying to scare the Cougars away (hence protecting their livestock and family). They believe a Cougar is much too beautiful of an animal to kill.

I was wrong.

And I find myself having more in common with those who may not like my politics or world-view than I ever thought possible. Oaks and Ponderosas can share a Ridge!

Adaptation and Cohesion, evident in nature--also evident in people. Our common denominator? Love of this Ridge. This land. The critters who reside here. The Fauna we share our world with.

I am humbled and encouraged by this...