2021 Road Trip to Texas - Back to California

We left home on a Friday (July 16) and got to my daughter’s house Saturday night. We spent four days there. If you have followed along this was the last blog post you saw.

We started the long drive back to California on Thursday.

This time the trailer was empty but we had a back-seat passenger. This is Kirby, age 6.

As usual I entertained myself with photographing things I found interesting or amusing. Kirby entertained herself mostly with her tablet. Normally I’d object to hours of electronic entertainment, but there are exceptions. I was truly impressed with how Kirby handled the drive. Our truck doesn’t have a full back seat and Kirby was in a carseat, so she didn’t have much room. She was more patient that I was.

I’ve lost track of where I took some of these photos.

On the road in Texas.

We stopped more frequently for gas than we would have on our own. Usually we stop only when absolutely necessary for gas or for an interesting diversion of a historical marker or scenic overlook. The frequent gas stops allowed for more bathroom breaks and food. McDonald’s at the first stop was a big hit.

I always follow along with the big map books. I found what looked like an interesting diversion that didn’t take us too far off of I-10. We had been driving about 3-1/2 hours and took Hwy 290 to Fort Lancaster State Historic Site. First there was a overlook with picnic tables and a wall to keep people (especially 6-year-olds) from falling down the steep drop-off onto the road below.

The remnants of the Fort were in the flat land that you can see in the left of the photo. I always think about what it would have been like to be on a horse or in a wagon in “the olden days” and to travel over this kind of terrain.

The State Historic Site “preserves the remnants of the only post established in 1855 to protect the Lower Road between San Antonio and El Paso”. There is a small museum and the remnants of some of the 25 buildings that had been constructed.

Signs inside the museum told of the camel experiment in the mid 1850’s when it was thought that camels would be more suited to the area than horses and mules. As government attention turned to the more pressing issue of Civil War and Texas seceded from the Union in 1861 the camels were sold to private parties.

We went outside to walk around the fort and saw this bug (dead) that was the size of…well, the size of a little girl’s hand.

The site is 82 acres and includes remnants of officers’ quarters, a hospital, commissary, barracks, bakery, and more.

This is what is left of Officers’ Quarters, each with two rooms separated by a double fireplace.

The brochure I picked up says that by 1858 “Fort Lancaster housed approximately 150 enlisted men and three officers…opportunities for soldiers’ recreation were rare and frequently revolved around drinking and gambling.” The day was getting hot so our timing was good that we had stopped here in the morning. After walking around awhile we got back into the AC of the truck.

This bug hung on to the windshield for quite awhile.

More of Texas.

We saw three of these trucks over the course of several miles. Each carried one of the huge blades of the windmills that are prevalent between Sheffield and Fort Stockton.

I have my big map books and I had bought a kids’ atlas for Kirby—it has maps of all the states and notes details (state bird, state animal, etc) for each.

I was impressed with this tile mural in the ladies’ restroom at one of the rest stops.

We planned to visit White Sands National Park the next morning and we wanted to spend the night nearby. Some of you know that on our typical road trips our night-time stops are usually impromptu and “rustic” . I had packed the tent and camping gear with the hope that we would enlighten Kirby about what it’s like to travel with Mama Robin and Papa Dan (as we are called). But better sense prevailed. It was hot, even at night, it was difficult to find a suitable place that was not privately owned, and we had a 6-year-old with us. We decided on a motel. We stayed at Alamogordo, New Mexico, but didn’t get there until well after dark. My frugality overtook better sense and I got a one bed room thinking that since all we were doing was sleeping, what would be the problem. To be continued.

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.

2021 Road Trip to Texas - Visiting Family

Its taken me awhile to get back to the Road Trip blog posts, but I know you’re waiting for the next chapter (at least I know of one person who is). As I said in the last blog post we got to Katie’s house just before midnight. We knew that it would be best to leave the goats in the trailer and get them out in their new surroundings the next day.

They were glad to get out of the trailer. The new goat pen and shelter wasn’t finished yet so they went into the fenced area where the dog stays when everyone is gone. They particularly liked the big rocks that line the fence. The grandkids were told that they could each name a goat. Four-year-old, dinosaur loving Kasen named one of them Indominus (we thought of Indie for a nickname). Six-year-old Kirby chose Snowflake for the white yearling. Katie and Kurtis will name the kid.

Who needs rocks when there is a picnic table?

…or a dog house?

I’m glad the goats finally made it to Texas.

They will have good lives with our family there.

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!

Kirby's Blanket

This is Belle, a 2 year old lilac ewe. Lilac is this color in Jacob sheep that is kind of a gray-brown instead of black. She is pregnant and due to lamb in a about a week. What is special about Belle—at least any more special than any of the other sheep? She is owned by my granddaughter, Kirby.

Way back in 2019 when we all had normal lives, Kirby’s family came from their home in Texas to spend a couple of weeks in the summer. I had selected a lamb to register in Kirby’s name and I got her gentled down before the family got here. This is the story and photos of Kirby coming to the State Fair and showing her lamb.

This is one of my all time favorite photos. Kirby was thrilled to win a pink ribbon! What color is better than pink when you are a 5-year old girl?

I wish I had photos of Belle being shorn and of her fleece. Instead the story will fast forward to fall, 2020. I spun Belle’s fleece, shorn in February 2020, during our weekly Farm Club spinners meeting on Zoom.

I had decided that I would weave a blanket for Kirby to send her for Christmas.

I gave up the idea of spinning all the yarn for the blanket because I just didn’t have time and I knew that the Timm Ranch yarn I use for many of my other blankets would be just fine for warp. I wanted a generously sized blanket so I warped for a double width piece.

I wove random stripes of the handspun brown and the mixed white yarn.

I shipped this blanket on December 14 with plenty of time to arrive before Christmas. However, I made an error in one digit of the zip code. There is a long story to follow, most of which I have forgotten now, and that’s a good thing. I got a message from FedEx that the package could not be delivered. I think it had ended up in a small town in Texas not that far from where it was supposed to go. I corrected the zip code and supposedly all was well. But it wasn’t. I spent countless hours on-line and on the phone trying to track down this blanket and get it sent to the right address. Katie offered to pick it up at a FedEx office, but I was told that wasn’t going to work. The blanket was eventually shipped to Tenessee (FedEx center of some kind) and then to Mississippi to what is called “Overgoods”. It turns out that is a depository for packages they don’t know how to handle or that are lost. The tracking information kept saying that it had been delivered and signed for. I had to insist that it was not delivered to the intended recipient. I eventually worked my way up the management ladder and found that the only way to get the package out of Overgoods was for me to set up an account and request the package.

I did that and eventually got the package back here in California on January 12. This is how it looked. I shipped it back to Texas via good old U.S. Mail.

Kirby has been using the blanket on her bed, but I asked Katie to get some photos so they went outside.

We have all heard about the extreme weather in Texas last week so I think the wool blanket came in handy. Kirby is looking forward to Belle’s lambs and has asked me if she can name them.

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!

Birdwatching in Fairfield

One of these days I’ll write a blog post about one of the Christmas gifts from my family—a calendar with 365 days of “National (fill in the blank) Day”. Then they filled in chosen days to do something with me. For instance my son and DIL came over to watch a movie for National Science Fiction Day. Tuesday was, according to this calendar, National Bird Day. My brother got a new lens for his camera so he could get a better view of his local birds and he has been photographing and identifying birds in his neighborhood. I have been very impressed with his photos because I don’t feel as though I have been very successful at bird photos. He invited me to go on a birdwatching walk with him.

I know…this isn’t a bird. But it was the first wildlife I saw when we walked out the gate of Dave’s backyard. Dave’s house and yard back up to a seasonal creek and there are paths along both sides. At times there have been families of beavers living in the creek and he sees a lot of birds there.

I hate to admit how poor my bird ID skills are, but this jaunt made me decide I can do better. I think when I’m out walking here with my dogs I haven’t been focused well enough to pay attention to the differences in all the little birds that live in the area. And many times it’s easier to ID the bird by looking at photos that I can enlarge on my computer than be trying to see the detail in real life.

I do know that this is a dove—a mourning dove I think.

This one is easy—red-winged blackbird.

We started out in the neighborhood but eventually followed the creek out of town.

These oak galls caught my eye. Stationary objects are easier to photograph than moving birds.

Woodpecker. Hairy or Downy? Dave told me which one, but now I don’t remember.

I noticed several small painted wood blocks in random places. Dave said that he doesn’t know who puts them up but they are changed occasionally.

More interesting and easy-to-photograph objects.

At the edge of town.

I just looked up the history of the area known as Cement Hill. According to an article in the local newspaper:

“The Pacific Portland Cement Co. from 1902 to 1927 quarried the rock and made cement…The castle-like remains in the hills served as the foundation of the rock crusher, with the wooden building and metal equipment now long gone. A rail system transported the rock. At one point, more than 500 workers earned their living in these hills.”

Western meadowlark.

There isn’t much blooming right now, but I love how this Lesser Goldfinch (I think) matches the plants where he is perched.

White-crowned sparrow.

We got to the edge of town and then took a path up into the hills. They are finally getting green after our meager amount of late rainfall. However, these hills burned in October and it is sad to see how little soil cover there is. Lots of bare ground between the little bit of grass sprouting.

Dave’s dog, Daisy was a well-behaved companion on this trek.

We had a great view of Lagoon Valley to the east…

…and Fairfield and the hills to the west and north.

We could see Mt. Diablo, where we hiked last month, to the southwest although I had to tweak this photo to get it to stand out behind the clouds.

Another view east.

Cedar waxwing.

You may have to look closely but there are two Anna’s hummingbirds in this photo. It was one of the few shrubs with flowers (a few flowers) and one of the hummingbirds made repeated dive-bombing approaches, with a call I can only describe as a screech that I never expected to hear from a hummingbird. He’d drop down and then rise straight up as if he was a drone. Very cool to watch and a nice bird to end the day.

Dave kept track of the number of species we saw and he counted 25!

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.

The Night Before The Night Before...

That would be the eve of Christmas Eve. But who is keeping track of what day it is this year?

We put up a Christmas tree a couple of weeks ago. That is early for us but I’m glad we did. I love smelling the Douglas Fir Christmas smell in the house. I put lights up but not all of our ornaments. We have accumulated a lot over the years and I never like the task of putting them all away again.

So I just hung ornaments until I got tired of sorting through them. These are some of the favorites.

I don’t think I’ve bought ornaments in years, except for this one. I couldn’t resist a Clydsedale.

This cow whose legs move has been in our family since our dairy days that started in 1985

Of course I have been given sheep ornaments.

Dan and I got a tandem the year we were married and used to ride a lot. In recent years we managed one training ride and the Foxy’s Fall Century (metric) every year (until 2019).

Another farm related ornament.

Now into the archives. When my brother and I were kids we got to choose one ornament each year and my mom labeled them. The labels are now gone but this is an owl that I chose back when I was very young.

This is another from that era.

I think this is one that I chose when I was 4 or 5 years old. That’s a pink angel in a green sphere.

The year 2020 has a pretty bad reputation and I agree that it’s been rough. However in our family we could make the argument that 2019 was worse—at least the last 3 months. In October 2019 I had a near fatal accident and 2020 is when I recovered, but just as I was rehabbing and recovering, the pandemic hit. So let’s look ahead to 2021. It has to get better, right? Merry Christmas!

High Mountains and Blue Skies

We celebrated my one year recovery from a serious accident by hiking in the mountains with our private guides (son and daughter-in-law who live near El Dorado National Forest and are both wildland firefighters in various capacities).

I’ve been seeing Instagram posts by my Artery colleague, photographer Jock Hamilton, about his hikes in the Sierras and the fabulous fall colors. I wanted to make sure we got there before the color was gone.

Daughter-in-law Kaleena planned the day. We met at their house outside of Pollock Pines and drove to a campground near Woods Lake not far from Carson Pass. Some of the photos in this post were taken by Matt or Kaleena.

We took the trail to Winnemucca Lake.

There are some impressive trees along this trail. We saw a few junipers that must be several hundred years old.

It wasn’t too long before we got above the tree line and into the Mokelumne Wilderness.

The landscape was very dry even though we are in mid-October. The dogs were grateful that there was a small creek where there was still water.

Matt brought his drone to get some aerial footage of the area. That’s it just above the big rock.

We have lift off!

As she has does when Matt flies the drone here, Ginny went a little nutty chasing and barking at the drone…

…until I called her off. I didn’t like her barking disturbing the peacefulness of the area.

Winnemucca Lake. It was windy enough here that there were white caps on the water.

The trail continued on to other lakes. We were between 8500’ and 9400’ for most of this hike. The “kids” and dogs were ahead of us on this part.

Nothing will make you feel more out of shape than living at sea level and hiking uphill in the high mountains. This is the view back down to Winnemucca Lake.

There was a small amount of snow on the north side of this peak. We were after fall color and found it in the low plants growing along the trail.

If you get up high enough on the rocks near the trail then you can see Lake Tahoe.

Just off to the left in the last photo but too far away to really see there are aspen that have changed color.

The next lake was Round Top Lake surrounded by willows that have turned yellow.

On the way down.

We found the site of the long-closed Lost Cabin Mine. One report says there is an old Model T there. I can’t identify this vehicle but Matt thought he’d try it.

Here is another massive juniper on the trail back to where we parked.

On the drive back to Pollock Pines we stopped at a couple of places to immerse oursevles in the brilliance of the changing aspens.

The glow of the trees in the sunlight is incredible.

Thanks to Matt and Kaleena for a truly great day!