Ironman 70.3 in Oceanside - Its a Family Thing

I would not have normally planned a 4-day trip during lambing season, but the date was set when my kids asked if they could give my husband a special Christmas gift. They wanted to enter a half-Ironman event as a relay team that included Dan. That was his Christmas surprise! The Oceanside Ironman 70.3 was April 1. Matt and Chris have both competed in Ironman events, full length as well as half. We have always gone to support them and now they wanted to include Dan in the event itself. Oceanside is about an 8-hour drive so we needed to leave on Thursday to be able to check in on Friday.

Katie flew in from Texas to be here for the family event. She went with us in the car while the others flew to San Diego.

The recent (and seemingly nonstop) rain in northern California made for brilliant landscapes which I photographed from the back seat.

The brilliant green, blue, yellow, and white have given me ideas for planning a woven piece using those colors.

Getting into southern California we saw remnants of the unusual extreme weather south of us. No more travel photos because I have lots of others to share.

We got to Oceanside in the evening and had time for a look at the ocean. We always think of southern California beaches as sunny and warm. Sunny, yes. Warm, no. Just as in northern California right now, it was unseasonably cool…

…although wouldn’t guess that looking at the kids. (Thanks to Kaleena for some of this photo and some in the next posts.)

Ironman 70.3 in Indian Wells - Part 2

I had too many photos for one blog post so I turned this story into two. The first is here.

On Sunday we set the alarm for 4:15 a.m. and drove to the venue where we could park and catch shuttle buses to the swim venue.

There were plenty of buses to get the athletes to the swim start and after the athletes all had seats the spectators could get on. We got to Lake Cahuilla by about 5:30 and the race wouldn’t start until 7. So there was a lot of time spent standing around in the cold and the dark and waiting. The athletes collected their decontaminated wetsuits and eventually found their places in the line of swimmers based on their anticipated finish times.

Here is a view of the rows and rows of bikes.

Meryl and Chris before the start of the race.

The pro-athletes went first starting at 7 a.m. The people in the water are the pros. All the others are self-positioning based on their projected times.

The non-pros entered the water in a “rolling start” about ten minutes later. I think they released 3 swimmers every 5 seconds…or was it 5 swimmers every 3 seconds? Something like that.

Dan and Meryl and I had to be patient, waiting for Chris to get to the start. Even though it was light by now it was still very cold. The sun was behind clouds for a couple of hours.

The cold was a concern for the athletes. This is a shallow lake and the water temperature fluctuates a lot with air temperature. The lake temperature was about 57 degrees.

I took this after all of the swimmers had entered the water. They swam on the left side of the yellow cones, around the far red cones, to a cone that is out of the photo to the right.

After passing around the far cone, they swam back to the finish and got out of the water.

There was a slight run to where the bags were hanging and then to the bike.

At the start of the bike portion there was a sharp left turn that went up a hill. Some chose to walk/run through that area while others struggled, especially if they started out in the wrong gear to climb the hill. This was the last place we saw Chris until the end of the bike portion.

All of us spectators had to wait to get on the buses until after 9. There had to be time for the last swimmer to exit the water, get on the bike and ride beyond the narrow road where the buses would exit.

The buses took us back to the Tennis Club grounds where everything else was staged. We only saw Chris as he finished the bike portion and ran into the bike/run transition zone.

This is close to half way on the 13.1 mile run. The athletes ran this loop twice.

This is just to give a view of the landscape. The runners are in the middle of the photo running next to the lawn. The hills and sky made a beautiful setting.

This is the second time past this point. Chris reported feeling pretty hot. That’s not surprising now that he lives in Idaho and the current highs are in the 20s or 30s. At this point we had to scurry to get inside the tennis club grounds so we could be at the end when Chris got there.

I don’t have a good photo of the finish, but Chris looks good here.

And Chris and Meryl both look great here at the end. Nice medal, Chris! And we’re proud of you.

By the way, one of the things the athletes were given in the gear bags was a white plastic wrist band. They were told to honor a volunteer by giving it to the person who helped the most. The next day on the way home, after dropping Chris and Meryl at the airport, I looked for something in the center console of the car and found the wristband and a note from Chris. He said that we earned the wristband for the support we have given him over these last years. Isn’t that touching?

Family Time

It’s pretty quiet around here now. We just spent the last ten days with grandkids here or nearby. We share the two grandkids with the other set of grandparents who live in Dixon. Katie and the kids got here about ten days ago and Kurtis came about five days later. They split their time here and in town. For the first couple of days my son, Chris was here as well, but he had to get back to Boise, where he and Meryl moved just a few weeks ago.

Right after they got here the kids wanted to get out the toys they remembered from previous visits. There are a selected group of toys left over from when my kids were younger. Kasen had the box of Lincoln logs and the wooden train set. Kirby went right to the Playmobile cowboy set that she remembered from her visit in the summer.

Kirby always likes to spend time in the barn when I do chores. Katie came out the first morning and offered to help with cleaning. You’d think from this photo that they are worn out, but I think they were faking it.

Jade and Hazel are really going to miss Kirby. She spent a lot of time in the barn and in the pasture and those two sheep always hang around her to get pets (and sometimes treats).

One of the mornings we drove to the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area between Davis and Sacramento.

The majority of birds were to the east past the line on our map that showed the division between hunting and no-hunting. So we watched and listened to those from afar. I think it’s fascinating to see the city buildings just beyond these massive flocks of birds.

This isn’t a great photo but I think these are sandhill cranes. The majority of the birds in the large flocks to the east seemed to be snow geese.

On Wednesday we spent the afternoon and evening with my brother’s family in Fairfield. Before our Thanksgiving meal the kids played football in the street…

…and then went on a Beaver Walk. Dave usually finds beavers at dusk in this creek, but we missed them on this evening.

After our turkey dinner and traditional pies we also had a mini recognition of Kasen’s birthday which is during “the holidays” and when he’ll be back in Texas.

On Thanksgiving Day we celebrated my mother-in-law’s 90th birthday. My sister-in-law organized the party and about 50 family members of several generations came from all over the country.

Kirby in one of her several holiday outfits.

Kirby joined in with the Wild Woolly Wreath class that I did on Saturday morning. This was also presented virtually while I had 5 in-person class participants. The whole Thanksgiving weekend was a bit of a challenge for me with virtual presentations each day through Camp Yarnsie. These were fun, but I had to focus on my organization for the weekend. Camp Yarnsie? That’s a virtual fiber festival. If you missed all it you can catch replays of a lot of the programs here. I had something on each day of the Camp. Check out the video on Thanksgiving Thursday and the Jacob sheep discussion on Sunday.

On Monday my Wednesday Weavers (virtual on Wednesdays) came for a dye day and Kirby joined in. She dyed some of the warps that I have planned for v-shawls and then I made a warp for a smaller version so that she could dye one that I would weave for her.

Kirby usually leans towards the pinks and purples, but then I wanted to use up some of the dyes left over and she dyed this one yellow and green.

She liked the yellow and green one so much that I wound another warp for her and set this up in the house so she could dye this last one before leaving for the airport this morning.

After the dye project we went to the barn for one last session with the sheep before the kids had to leave.

Birthday and Christmas Tree

What does my early November birthday have to do with Christmas trees? A few weeks ago I read that the U.S. Capitol Christmas tree would make a stop at the Dixon Fairgrounds on its journey from the Six Rivers National Forest where it was harvested to Washington D.C. and it was on my birthday. I wanted to go see this.

There is a display that accompanies the tree and it starts with this sign.

This is just part of the next sign, but I was amused when I looked at the base of the tree to see who is sneaking out from behind it.

The next thing to see was the quilted tree skirt make up of 24 panels created by three northern California quilt guilds. You can see the whole thing at the website for the Redwood Empire Quilters Guild. Eel River Valley Quilt Guild and Moonstone Quilters are the other guilds involved.

I was just at the USCapitolChristmasTree website and read this: TREE SKIRTS: More than 50 tree skirts in varying sizes were created and donated to adorn the 50 companion trees that will decorate the Senate and House chambers of many California delegation members, along with the USDA and USFS headquarter offices. Specifically, a 15-foot skirt representing the “Essence of Humboldt” was lovingly stitched by members of several local quilting associations will be placed inside the Whitten Patio at USDA; and a 12-foot skirt representing beloved icons Smokey Bear and Woodsy Owl will be inside the Chief of the Forest Service’s office.

So now I think that this tree skirt is the one for the USDA. I wondered if it was going to be on a tree that was set up outside. Maybe it will at an inside venue.

This is quite impressive. There is a book at the information desk with information about all the quilters and their panels.

Some of the quilters showed their sense of humor. Notice the piece on the left is titled “Bigfoot, Banana Slug Reindeer & Snail Sleigh”. Sure enough, those are banana slugs (who thrive in a cool, moist north-coast forest).

Here are a few close-ups.

The images represent places and inhabitants in the Six Rivers area.

These are life-size cut outs of 3 fish common to some of the six rivers that are important to this area. The are Chinook Salmon, Green Sturgeon, and Pacific Lamprey. This all migrate from the ocean into fresh water rivers to breed. I wish I had a photo of the USFS representative who was there to indicate scale. That sturgeon is a really big fish!

This was cut from the base of the Christmas tree. It indicates that the tree was 57 years old. This tree is a white fir and was 84 feet tall.

There is a special oversized trailer that carries this tree and this is the route it will travel. It is difficult to show the scale of this truck, but think about the trucks we usually see on the highways. Those containers they carry are 40-53 feet and this tree is 80 feet long (after cutting 4 feet off the base). That is a long trailer.

The back section of the trailer has plexiglas sides so that you can see the tree inside. It has been decorated with ornaments that are thematic for the area from which it was harvested.

There are a lot of people accompanying the tree—USFS representatives, and honor guard, and the drivers. There are six drivers who trade off in pairs for the trip. Matt asked one of the staff about how the tree is kept hydrated. He was told that there is a bladder of water at the base in the enclosed part of the trailer and around it is a wax ring that seals the bladder to the trunk. I don’t remember how often they have to add water, but they do keep it wet and the enclosed plexiglass was steamy inside from the humidity.

There is a USCapitolChristmasTree website where you can read about the Six Rivers National Forest, the special truck built for this job, the drivers who were selected, and more.

My own two USFS employees who both said that they’d sign up for this job if a tree is ever chosen from the El Dorado National Forest.

This has nothing to do with the Christmas tree, but it is a cool metal sculpture at the Dixon Mayfair.

So this was a fun activity for my birthday.

We picked up dinner from a Chinese restaurant but forgot to open the fortune cookies until the next morning. I chose the cookies for Matt and Kaleena because they weren’t there. Theirs are the top two. My cookie is next and was empty. Dan’s is at the bottom. Chris and Meryl got theirs later.

Chris and Meryl came over this evening and we finished with the fortune cookies. I got to choose another and got the fortune that is third from the top. I think that describes the end of 2019 into 2020 for me. Meryl’s and Chris’ are the last two but I don’t remember which is which. Considering that they are moving to the next phase of their lives (literally moving to Boise) those are good fortunes to have.

Last Weekend - Family & Rain - Part 2

When I wrote last night’s blog post I realized that I had too many photos (as usual) and it really should be told in two parts. The plan had been for all of us to go to the Sacramento Ironman and support Chris in this event. It was not to be. The record breaking rainfall caused them to cancel the event at the very last minute. That is a whole other story and this post is about the rain at the farm on Sunday.

I took this photo around noon and by that time we’d had over 3” of rain. When the storm was over I had measured a total of 6.8” here. That’s a lot for 24 hours especially considering that our average annual rainfall is about 24”. This photo wouldn’t be unusual during times of heavy storms over multiple days in a “normal” rainfall year, but we haven’t had a normal year in a long time.

I had moved breeding groups around the day before in anticipation of this. This is a group that would have been in standing water with no shelter. They moved to the donkey pen (no donkey anymore) which had at least a few dry spots.

The barn was flooding from the south and I realized that it had been a long time since I’d had to dig ditches.

This ditch brought water from the south and east sides of the barn into the main irrigation ditch. That ditch was so full it looked as though we were irrigating. I checked the end of the ditch where it flows off the property and dug out a few more spots to help the water flow a little faster.

This group had a dry spot at the corner of the barn because they weren’t going to try and cross Lake Meridian.

Kirby spent part of the day in town with her cousins but was ready for some sheep time when she got back. Katie had bought her new rain gear in anticipation of spending a soggy day at the Ironman. She was able to wear it here.

First we spent some time with the favorite sheep. Snacks for these two.

BettyLou is one of the new lambs who really likes her cookies, but usually from someone she knows. Kirby has enough sheep sense that she was able to entice BettyLou to take the cookie.

Do you remember the hopscotch photo from yesterday’s post? A little rain wasn’t going to stop Kirby from using her hopscotch grid.

Kirby and Katie left early Monday morning to fly back to Texas. The day was dry and sunny. The sky was blue, cleaner than we’d seen it all summer, after all the dust and smoke were washed from the sky.

Last Weekend - Family & Rain

If you live in in northern California then you know about the record-breaking rainfall we had on Sunday. I measured 6.8” in 24 hours here. Our average for the whole year is usually 24.5” and I think we had less than 8” last season.

We had big plans for the weekend. Chris had entered the Ironman Triathlon to be held in Sacramento for the first time. Ironman athletes train all year for an event of that magnitude and he fit his training regime into his smokejumper job all summer with this focus. My daughter and granddaughter flew from Texas to be here for the event. So this post is some about family and some about the rain.

Katie and Kirby got here very late on Thursday evening. When Kirby got up Friday morning she went to the barn with me. Kirby didn’t have full access to all the sheep because right now they are in breeding groups and there are rams with the ewes. We brought selected sheep out where they could be petted. Hazel was ready for attention.

Kirby made a hopscotch grid in the sand.

Back at the house we got out this box of toys that Kirby remembered from her July visit. That box holds many, many Playmobil sets that we had bought when Matt and Katie and Chris were this age.

Ginny became a pest with her constant need for attention. She brought a fuzzy squirrel to each of us hoping that we’d throw it. Katie found a new way to interact with her.

I don’t think Ginny was amused, but she tolerated it. I found myself thinking that Katie was the big sister teasing the little sister. After all, Ginny is one of my kids now, right?

On Saturday we drove to Apple Hill to get together with Matt and Kaleena.

Kirby made quick work of the maze at this farm.

Aunt Kaleena treated Kirby to a princess type headdress with ribbon streamers.

There were three states represented by these cutting boards and two of them were appropriately California and Texas.

We drove up the highway to one of the stations of the El Dorado National Forest. Matt’s main work helicopter is gone now, but this one is still there, so we had a look inside.

Kirby got to try out the seating arrangement.

I sat in front. I am amazed at all those switches and dials. A bit overwhelming to think of learning all of those.

I was amused by the simple calculator attached below all the sophisticated controls. Matt said that you have to calculate the load, fuel, etc. while you’re loading so that is a very important component here.

I have realized that this is really a two blog post weekend. To be continued…

Granddaughter Time - Part 3

Only a couple of days were left for Kirby’s visit. (This was a month ago.) I had plans for the morning and Kirby’s schedule showed that she would spend the afternoon with Aunt Meryl. The next day she would see Aunt Kaleena who was back from fire duty in Washington and then to to the Dixon grandparents’ house and be ready to fly out the next morning.

Jade and Hazel were front and center whenever Kirby showed up at the barn. I’m so glad that Kirby has enough animal awareness that I could let her be in with the sheep and not worry about her getting hurt.

I had bought a kids’ cookbook but we didn’t have time to do much cooking. We did try something that looked fun. I can’t remember what these were called but they were supposed to be made with a lot of hand involvement of squishing and patting dough and stuffing them with cheese that had been rolled into balls. I won’t say that the outcome was very successful but the process was fun.

My new yarn came and Kirby thought it was fun for dress-up.

We visited with Grandma and Grandpa Moo, Kirby’s great-grandparents. who live near Dixon.

They have some odds and ends of cattle still around from the dairy days. This is one of the huge steers that was kept with the intention of having an ox team. After this visit Kirby went to stay with the other grandparents for two nights (including a birthday party with her cousins from that side of her family).

Back with me we went to a friend’s house to see her sheep that are different than mine.

Kirby got to ride in style from the field to the hose to wash off muddy feet.

Then we stopped by Orange Theory to watch Aunt Meryl coach a workout.

This was Monday and Kirby was going back to town Tuesday evening so she could fly out with the other grandma and two cousins the next morning. We had plans for Tuesday morning so I decided that it was time to put all the sheep we’d been halter breaking back with the rest of the flock. This is Kirby’s ewe, Belle.

We led the lambs back in pairs.

Goodbye hugs for Jade and Hazel.

Tuesday morning we were able to meet up with Aunt Kaleena. SeaQuest in Folsom seemed like a good half way point between our house and Kaleena’s.

Can you imagine a rodent this big? Yes, a capybara is a rodent and these were certainly tame.

We’d been having a discussion about spirit animals at home and after reading this sign Dan decided that the sloth must be his spirit animal—it was the part about sleeping and remaining motionless that won him over, not the upside down part.

Kaleena and Kirby went into the parakeet enclosure to have some close-up bird time.

I was amazed that these rays acted as though they wanted attention. You could reach in and touch them.

We finished the morning with lunchtime ice cream. with all the toppings.

I hope Kirby has good memories of her trip to California. We certainly had fun with her here. Katie’s comment to her mom after the flight back to Texas was “Why would you choose to drive?” Good question, but maybe we’ll answer that on our next road trip, to be planned when we can do it without pulling a trailer or being in a fire zone or dealing with Covid (hopefully).

Granddaughter Time - Part 2

Kirby catching a ride from Uncle Chris. We had a plan for the day as shown on Kirby’s schedule in the last post.

We got to the zoo and and planned our visit.

Flamingos are near the entrance.

So is the carousel. As I was writing this I wondered why I called this a carousel and not a merry-go-round and are they the same thing. Its easy to find out with Google: “Merry-go-round” and “carousel” are synonyms… Some people say that the difference between a “merry-go-round” and a “carousel” is that they turn in different directions. ... Whatever the reason, merry-go-rounds in Europe tend to turn clockwise. There is more from another source: “Traditionally, horses are mounted from the left side. This is because most warriors were right handed and kept their swords on their left side for fast access. In England, the carousels rotate clockwise so the horses can be mounted from the left, keeping with tradition.”

Look at what you can learn by reading this blog! This carousel definitely rotates counter-clockwise.

I don’t think it matters to a praying mantis if it is mounted from the left or right. I find this one kind of creepy.

I love the bald eagle.

I’ll share just a couple more shots taken at the zoo. A lot of the exhibits had been redone since I’d been there last many years ago. You can get quite close to some of the animals.

It is an impressive view. Kirby spent that night with her other grandparents and we picked her up the next day, which was her seventh birthday. There was to be a party with cousins and the other side of her family on the weekend but she was with us for the actual birthday.

We drove to Old Sac, the Sacramento waterfront where there are shops, dining, and the railroad museum.

We started at the Railroad Museum.

We had been entertained by the long trains on our road trip back to California from Texas. I think Kirby liked seeing the trains, but we didn’t expect to have the same kind of visit that it would be if we were on our own. In fact I think she may have been more interested in riding the elevator up and down.

They have quite good signage and information about the exhibits as well as docents willing to discuss all things trains. This photo was taken in the train car.

In an engine.

We ended the visit to Old Sac with ice cream.

It’s good to have some down time and not have everything planned out all the time. I used part of the afternoon to introduce Kirby to a few of the board games that were favorites of my kids. We played Monopoly, Parchesi, and The Amazing Labyrinth.

The first birthday cake of her multiple celebrations (another with the cousins on the weekend and one more when she got back to Texas)

And of course there were a few presents.

Granddaughter Time - Part 1

Our trip to Texas was over a month ago and our granddaughter returned home to Texas August 4 and I am only now getting back to my blog posts. I’m been too busy to do anything with my photos. I have plenty of farm and weaving related subjects for posting but I wanted to keep the stories on order. So here I am. Start here if you want to read about the road trip.

Kirby’s first morning here we headed for the barn. Jade is everyone’s favorite sheep.

Kirby remembers Jade from when she visited from a young age. I took this photo 4 years ago.

Jade’s daughter, Hazel has become just as friendly as Jade.

I thought that this was the perfect opportunity to halter break the ewe lambs I am keeping. Kirby and I took those lambs to a pen where we could easily catch them and put halters on each day. That big ewe is NOT a lamb, but is Belle, the sheep I gave Kirby to show as a lamb when she visited here in 2019. That makes Kirby the owner of Belle’s daughter, the dark lamb next to her. Kirby named her Beauty. Are you catching the Disney theme here? So we put Belle in this pen as well. For the 10 days Kirby was in California we worked with these sheep every day that she was at our place—there were a few days when she spent time with the other grandparents and cousins that live in Dixon.

On the third evening here we all went to visit my brother. It was a tight fit for Aunt Meryl and Uncle Chris to fit with the carseat. Kirby was thrilled to have them as her backseat companions.

Uncle Matt had arrived separately. Aunt Kaleena couldn’t be there as she was on fire duty in Washington.

After dinner our evening activity was to go on a family beaver walk.

My brother and his wife live in the city of Fairfield. There is a river that flows through the neighborhoods behind the houses and Dave has discovered that most evenings he can spot a beaver family and sometimes otters.

I don’t have photos of the beavers but they were there.

We finished the evening with a guitar session.

Before we left Texas Katie had written out a schedule so that we could all stay organized. Kirby was thrilled to stay with Aunt Meryl and Uncle Chris (who was able to take a few days off to be home for her visit) as often as she could—that’s convenient since they are right next door. In fact, I had to put some limits on that so that they could get their work done. There was unscheduled time but we had no problem finding things to do.

I had gone to the library before Kirby came to find some books to take on the drive. I came home with an owl pellet dissection kit that was that month’s kids’ project. I’ve taken apart owl pellets before but it was fun to have the addition of the special tweezers and the diagram that identified some of the bones that you find in owl pellets.

I didn’t save most of the things that the kids had when they were younger, but there are some select sets of toys. There is a box packed full of Playmobil horses, cowboys, indians, a fort, and all the other stuff that goes with those scenes. This is probably a collector’s item now-I doubt that this is a politically correct toy set in this era.

But Kirby had a great time deciding which horses were wild (as in the movie Spirit) and which were saddle horses and eventually the whole room was arranged with Old West scenes. I am still amazed at these toys. I don’t know how many sets we bought for the kids over the years, but this box has everything from cooking pots to rabbits, squirrels, and bears.

More in the next post.

2021 Road Trip to Texas - Back to California 3

We woke up early in our crummy rundown motel in Blythe, California and got on the road. There wasn’t any point in hanging around. Most of this blog post is drive-by photography on the freeway.

Near Palm Springs.

Kirby was a real trooper. She never complained about the backseat or the long drive. I think it would have been different if she hadn’t had the electronic entertainment of her tablet. There is a time and a place for that stuff and this was it.

Freeway art.

More freeway art, a little harder to see.

Not art, but interesting to use a fancy style of lettering instead of just the standard freeway sign.

This is a very poor photo but I was lucky to catch a glimpse of the elusive pink brontosaurus and the clothed T-Rex. They aren’t often seen in California.

Its always encouraging to see a sign that says Sacramento even when you’re still several hours away.

Grandparents’ indulgence, a Happy Meal, was probably the most exciting thing for Kirby on this day.

Agriculture dominates the drive up the San Joaquin Valley once you get beyond SoCal.

This is possible due to the California Aqueduct system, part of which makes up the curved edge of the field in this photo.

There is the aqueduct but also a massive warehouse which I think is the Amazon Fulfillment Center.

This is the last shot I took in the valley south of Sacramento. We made it home before dark. Yay!

After showing Kirby her room (now, after 10 years, finally fixed up into a guest room), which used to be her mom’s bedroom, we headed for the barn.

One of the best parts of visiting California for Kirby is hanging out with Aunt Meryl and Uncle Chris.

2021 Road Trip to Texas - Back to California 2

It’s sure taking me a long time to tell the story of this trip. (The first installment is here and the fifth is here.) This is the second day of the return trip. We left the motel in Alamogordo and headed to White Sands National Park, only 15 miles away.

The park borders the White Sands Missile Range and there is one road in and out with some parking areas and trails.

We stopped at the first trail.

The dunes are continually changing as the sand is blown into new shapes and this trail was marked by blue posts.

I kept thinking that this is the little girl who, 5 years ago in Hawaii wouldn’t get off the beach towel and let her feet touch the sand.

I have some great video clips of her rolling down these dunes like a kid rolls down a grassy slope but if I take the time to figure out how to post them here I’ll never finish this story.

It’s not all sand. This is a darkling beetle.

I looked this beetle up later and the “distinctive tracks” that we saw were described.

I have not identified these flowers—maybe primrose?

At the last place we stopped Kirby wasn’t too excited to get out of the truck. It was very hot by this time. I wanted to get a look over this dune so I walked up to get some photos while Dan and Kirby stayed in the truck. This view is looking back at our truck (with trailer) in the parking lot.

White Sands National Park protects about half of the largest gypsum dunefield in the world (275 square miles).

It was designated a National Monument in 1933 and became a Park more recently. We checked out the visitor center, let Kirby choose something from the gift store, and then got back on the road about noon.

The rest of this post is things seen along the road.

Remember, I try to entertain myself by photographing things of interest. I really don’t know the significance of this chili pepper. ..

…or this pink elephant.

I don’t remember what kind of inspection or border patrol station we passed through here, but that had a huge array of cameras and other devices as the truck drove through.

Crossing the Continental Divide was exciting for us…

…but a difficult concept to explain to a 6-year-old when there are no mountains in sight.

More freeway art. I’m not sure where this is—maybe still New Mexico.

We weren’t in New Mexico long though before reaching Arizona.

Freeway art cotton fields.

The goal was to make it to California before we stopped so that it would be only one more day of driving to get home. I hoped to redeem myself with a better hotel room choice on this night. We made it to Blythe and found a motel that seemed to have good reviews. It turned out that the motel had been sold and was in escrow and no one much cared about the business anymore. We all slept OK but it was not the kind of place where you could luxuriate in your surroundings. But it was getting late already and we all went right to sleep after a bedtime story with Kirby.

2021 Road Trip to Texas - Family Time

One reason for our trip to Texas was to deliver those goats, but the other was of course to visit with my daughter and her family (husband and grandkids).

The first morning we were there, after getting the goats settled, we went for a walk. Two friends had spent the night with the grandkids so we all went out. The view above is what it looks like when you turn out of Katie’s driveway. The property to the right in the photo is their across-the-road neighbor. The last time I visiting there were cattle in the field, but the property has sold since then.

The new owner has brought in “exotics” which I now know is fairly common in Texas. Katie tells me that this person used to work for someone who had what amounted to his own personal zoo and now he is following suit. Most of the animals were far off while we were there but I was able to get a few photos and later zoom in—zebras and wildebeest in this photo.

I had to ask Katie what some of these animals are. Here is an aoudad, an African animal related to wild goats. According to an on-line encyclopedia: “It is considered vulnerable to extinction in all its natural range, where only scattered, small populations survive. Introduced to the southwestern United States and northern Mexico for hunting purposes, it has established thriving populations there, where it outcompetes indigenous ungulates such as desert bighorn sheep. “

The addax is native to the Sahara Desert. Wikipedia says, “The addax is a critically endangered secies of antelope, as classified by the IUCN [International Union for Conservation of Nature]. Although extremely rare in its native habitat due to unregulated hunting, it is quite common in captivity.”

The springbok is another antelope and is the national animal of its native South Africa.

The kudu is a large antelope, also native to Africa.

Donkeys at another neighbor’s place wanted attention unlike the exotic wildlife.

Later that day we went to the Guadalupe River to do an easy walk and let the kids play in the water. The bald cypress are fascinating trees with huge woody growths at the base known as “knees”.

The Guadalupe River is dammed to create Canyon Lake.

There were plenty of rocks and bugs to keep the kids interested.

I am always looking for interesting plants. This is buttonbush, a plant I first identified a few year’s ago along Katie’s road.

This is a walk up the road the other direction from Katie’s driveway.

The kids like to play on these rocks.

That neighbor with the antelopes has other animals in the exotic category. I had to zoom in here and I didn’t get a better look to try and identify this animal. I don’t know what apes or monkeys these are but they are quite noisy at times. It is the oddest thing to be outside in the Texas hills and hear sounds that are reminiscent of being at the zoo.

I spent a couple of hours each afternoon watching the kids in the pool while Katie and Dan worked on the goat pen. I claim success at teaching Kirby to float with her face in the water. It was the best $100 Katie every spent when she got this pool for the kids from someone who was moving.

Imported mammals aren’t the only odd animals around. While the kids were playing in the pool I found this critter and later identified it as an Ironclad Beetle

I went with Katie when she had to run an errand, and we stopped to meet Kurtis at the Fischer Store. I remember stopping here before when it was open.

Texans do like their star. You see this on a lot of gates. This is Katie’s gate.

Hanging around the house at night, Dan found something else hanging around him.

Dinosaur-loving grandson.

Take Your Parents to Work Day - Touring the Redding Air Attack Base

Matt invited us to visit him at work yesterday and tour the facility before it gets too busy when fire season really gets underway.

According to the website “the Redding Air Attack Base is an interagency base operated by the U.S. Forest Service and hosting CAL FIRE firefighting resources, located at the north end of the Redding Municipal Airport.” Matt works for the Forest Service as an Air Attack Specialist (or something like that). Last summer he was usually based in S. CA and flew in an airplane. This year he is with a helicopter and although he reported to Redding this week, he will go wherever the helicopter goes.

The part of the base used by the Forest Service is a World War 2 era building that was built and used elsewhere and moved to Redding sometime after the war.

When we got to the base the mechanics and pilot were putting one of the Cobra helicopters through its paces after doing maintenance work on it.

There were other aircraft in the hangar. The King Air in the foreground is used as a lead plane when large tankers drop retardant.

The Sherpa flies smokejumpers to remote sites. (That is what my other son is doing in Idaho.)

This is the other side of the Sherpa where they are working on one of the propellers.

This view is from the back when it is open for loading. The jumpers have seats on the right and the gear is stowed on the left.

This view is at the far end of the hangar. There are helicopter rotor blades in those long green boxes and other parts in the crates. The bikes reminded me of touring the base where Chris works. There are random cruiser bikes around that can be used when people need to get from one place to another on the base.

We sat and ate lunch at that end of the building while they were still working on the Cobra helicopter outside and this was in view. I’m not sure if it’s part of the training for the new hires.

After eating we took a closer look at where Matt will spend a lot of time during fire season. The Cobra helicopters were developed as attack helicopters in the 1960’s, and these are retired from the military. The one they were working on outside was used in Vietnam. Wikipedia says the Cobra features “a tandem cockpit, stub wings for weapons, and a chin-mounted gun turret”. Weapons were mounted on those little wings and there is a compartment that opens under the windows that was loaded with ammunition for the gun that was mounted in front. When they are flying Matt sits in the front and the pilot is behind him.

From the side view you have no idea how narrow this is.

Those windows are like a bubble that flares out so the pilot and person in front can have a better perspective of the terrain below.

This is where Matt rides. He has the computer screen on and directs the image from one of five or six cameras mounted where there used to be a gun mounted in front. Those controls on the left are for all the radio channels he monitors while in the air. He is in contact with ground crews and other aircraft and has the job of directing traffic from the air and keeping them all safe. Whew!

The bulk of the helicopter is taken up by its engine.

When it is dispatched to a fire it takes with it a whole entourage. Each helicopter has a dedicated truck and trailer with a mechanic and all his tools, a fuel truck, and one of those vans that contains is set up with electronics and communications systems. We saw a big monitor that can swing into view so that ground personnel can see the image that Matt views on his screen while over the fire in the air.

Cal Fire (the state fire fighting agency that people confuse with Forest Service, which is federal) uses the north end of this air field and there were a couple of planes refueling and filling with retardant. Those tanks at the top left are filled with retardant.

We stayed out of the way while they were filling and then walked over.

The retardant comes as a phosphorus based powder in large bags.

This is the mixing station. Now I can’t remember but I think that each bag mixes with water to make 2000 gallons of retardant.

The retardant is stored in these 24,000 gallon tanks.

This is one of the Cobras. That’s the mechanic’s truck and trailer to the left.

A view of the cameras that have replaced front mounted guns. This swivels in all directions and Matt controls which camera has the active view.

I can’t help but remember Matt in this same position with the TV and Nintendo controller 25 years ago. I guess that experience has paid off.

This is a view through the infrared camera of the proud parents.

Great job, Matt!

Horsetail Falls

Last Friday was National Hat Day according to my special calendar. My kids had written in “while wearing a warm hat go to M&K’s for a hike”. We met them and my brother, Dave, in Pollock Pines. We had intended to go snowshoeing but found the intended destination to be up a slippery icy road and we changed plans.

If you have driven west on Hwy. 50 from South Lake Tahoe then you might know the big waterfall that you see north of the highway as you go down the big switchbacks before the highway heads due west. That is Horsetail Falls. We weren’t far from there and decided to hike that trail.

This is a close-up of the warning in the middle of that map. For us the biggest difficulty was the icy granite.

We brought the snowshoes thinking that we might use them, but it didn’t take long before we realized they weren’t necessary and Matt stashed them off the trail.

Dave helping with trail maintenance (picked up the sign that had tipped over).

This is the view looking south and west. The highway is in the canyon below the trees. You can see snow on the northeast facing slopes…

…but when you look north you see how little snow there is on the south and west facing slopes. This is January and it’s scary to see what how dry it is.

It was also unseasonably warm. I was wearing a base layer of wool on top and bottom plus a wool sweater. I was overdressed.

This is Pyramid Creek that drains from the Pyramid Peak area which is beyond the falls.

Matt doing his part to keep the trail clear of boulders.

Dave tried to venture closer to the falls. We decided to not go further. There isn’t much of a trail—instead it is a lock of climbing over rocks and even though the weather was warm there were a lot of icy spots on the granite. It felt a little treacherous at times.

The water in the deeper pools of the creek looked incredibly green.

The description of emerald comes to mind.

On the way back down. This is almost the same view as one of the first photos, but you can see the highway where it switchbacks up the mountain.

We took a little time for artistic license. Kaleena filmed Matt “rock climbing” and it looks incredibly real when you see her video—that is until Kirin (dog) walks into the scene.

Dave’s artistic idea was to have everyone pose as the hiker in the sign on the tree.

We’ll see what he comes up with when he finishes his video.

Usually I take lots of photos of plants and other components of the overall scene. Not so much this time because I felt encumbered with gloves, trekking poles, and not slipping on the ice. But this brilliant red cedar caught my eye.

Every Day is a Holiday

My family collaborated to give me a very cool Christmas present.

Its actually a silly calendar with a lot of made up National (fill in the blank) Days, but what makes it special is how they personalized it. The kids committed themselves and other family members to sharing certain days with me! They have filled in at least a few days every month.

For instance here is what I can look forward to in March…celebrate Peanut Lovers Day with my 4-year-old grandson on Zoom—maybe with peanut butter sandwiches, spend time with my daughters-in-law on International Women’s Day and listen to my nephew play the bagpipes on International Bagpipe day.

Here is how we have celebrated this month so far. I watched a sci-fi movie with Chris and Meryl for National Science Fiction Day. There was a birdwatching hike with my brother on National Bird Day…

National Hot Tea Day was a good time to use the new mug my DIL gave me.

National Dress Up Your Pet Day was today and Chris brought his dogs over to take part in the festivities. Being a huge StarWars fan Chris has StarWars dress up costumes for his whole family.

Sawyer had to settle for hat and glasses.

Fimm was happier with the hat than with the StarWars get up.

Rusty was a good sport about the whole thing and didn’t even seem embarrassed. He was more focused on Ginny’s ball than the thing on his back.

Tomorrow is National Hat Day and the notation says “while wearing a warm hat go to M & K’s for a hike”. That’s on the plan for tomorrow. I’m sure that at least some of these will generate more blog posts. Stay tuned!

Christmas Day 2020

This was nobody’s normal Christmas Day. Part of that was due of course to COVID. Part was that one of my sons was still on fire duty in southern California where there had not been enough rain to dampen the threat of fire. We had a quiet Christmas Day here and I took Ginny Across the Road. Rusty doesn’t go with us any more because he is gets too sore.

I don’t have to worry about getting lost between my house the the dirt road along the canal.

The ditches are full of irrigation water during the summer and into fall, but usually have rain water this time of year. We read in a report that in a “normal” year we would have had 8” of rain by now and there has been only 2”.

Bare Trees. Anytime I think that I want to break into a Fleetwood Mac song.

The mistletoe isn’t a good thing but it does add some greenery to the landscape.

Was there a party here?

I purposely did not bring a ball with us. Sometimes I’d rather just walk and not have to deal with the ball. Ginny found one though, probably one of the many that we’ve lost in the canal. It’s not what you’d think from the photo. Look down into the water. I had to use a long stick to get it close enough to reach. I didn’t want her getting in that yucky stagnant water.

This is the “ball” that is next to her above the water. That’s an osage orange fruit.

There is her new old ball.

There was just enough rain about a month ago to get seeds sprouted. The 1/2” last week revived those tiny seedlings and got them growing. Now we just need more to keep things growing.

Ginny somehow thought that maybe she had a chance at catching a great blue heron. To her credit she ran with the ball and didn’t lose it.

She didn’t try for the buzzard, but only because she didn’t scare it up off the ground.

This one was across the canal so Ginny didn’t see it.

Back home at our driveway. At least the colored lights add some cheer to the gray day.

Two days later Matt was back home and we met there for our Christmas celebration. We took a walk before dinner and pies.

My great family! Just missing the Texas contingent and my brother’s family who were also distancing themselves from others.