April and May 2010

It's been a long time since I blogged! I thought maybe a month. ....think it's been longer than that.

Since the last post, we had an Easter (decorate your bonnet) Red Hat party,

I helped judge a 4-H art show at the Fairgrounds, Jenni and Michael's trip to London was stymied by the Volcano, Branch got back into Costco - full time, Yea!, found a new company from who to buy our house,

attended National Red Hat Day, got a bad cold, went to Shasta City for a "non profit" gathering for the Klamath River Community Hall of which I am a member of the board.


The only work on the property in April was George transplanting Cedar seedlings.



During this chore he discovered a water line - close to the surface. A little repair work followed that discovery.










Most of April we had rain, drying, and rain again. Ed was never able to get any work done - the whole month.

And that was April....had a lot of 32 degree mornings.

May 3: Rick the trucker, who will bring our house came to check things out. He told us where to straighten the driveway, and which trees/limbs/branches to cut.


He marked them with his spray paint..








Ed worked 11 days in May.

George bought a chain saw, which has passed field trials. Many more limbs and branches cut since that purchase.










This is the driveway before....,.

and after a little grading. It's like a super highway now.









These are some BIG rocks that were uncovered in this process.








The best part of May: I went to see our kids... mother's day treat. It was a short over-the-weekend trip, and it was great. Spent my first 2 nights at Jenni & Michae'ls... on the new futon.
Went to a special "guest chef" dinner in the Mission and Impressionist Show at the deYoung.

I spent the next 2 night at Stan & Betty's. Shanna is almost out of school - her junior year.

Got to see Branch at work. He took me to lunch and we shopped and spent some good time together.

Finished the month with a Memorial Day motor cylce extravaganza at the Klamath River Golf Course... which was a bust. They planned for 350 bikers and only 70 to 100 showed up. WE, the brilliant Klamath River Community Hall, thought selling ice cream and cookies would be a great money maker. HOWEVER, our idea may have been a bigger fizzle than the low turnout. Selling ice cream to beer drinkers ??? So it's back to the drawing board for next year's biker event. It was fun tho, just watching the people, their get ups, and their tattoos.

All that rain has made for some beeeutiful wild flowers.














/joB

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Snow today!!! March 30, 2010

TODAY- March 30.... it is snowing at the Klamath River.


I think this might be the third time it's snowed all winter.... BIZARRE!

The temps haven't gotten over 40 degrees, even tho the sun has come out a few times.
This morning's snow probably delivered an inch of snow, but then soon was washed out by the rain that followed.



This is our new butterfly/dragonfly chime from my sister and family.... Easter gift. It was getting snowed on... as well as the humming birds coming into the feeders along side.

It is 2pm, and snowing - yet AGAIN!

March Excavating at the Ranch

A lot of dirt moving has gone on since I posted excavation last. Ed is making great progress. And then it rains.









Casey, his son, has come up a couple times to help. He is really good with the equipment. This is the area in front of the pole barn that we are gathering dirt from and flattening out for drainage, etc. I'm not sure what the master plan is, but Ed and George seem to know what they're doing.





This is the "luge" Ed put in for George.... kidding of course. It's to divert water from flowing toward the house.





The area where the house will sit has some loamy soil (great for the garden) and a lot of rocks, and shisht, and clay. So we have it all.

The sloping hill behind George is the wall/hill behind the house.





Looking down at the drive-way extended from end of the pad, rounding down to the pole barn.










There are only a few more days of work remaining, but we are waiting for rain to stop...yet AGAIN!







Later.

luv/jo

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

George inducted into MSPA Hall of Fame

Wednesday, March 3, we headed to Oakland's Francesco's Restaurant to attend the MSPA (Motor Sports Press Association) 47th Annual Awards Green Flag Dinner.




George was presented with a handsome plaque and inducted into the 2009 MSPA Hall of Fame.








The letter he received from MSPA stated:
"Many drivers can be accomplished in one or two types of racing. Few can be as successful as you have been, let alone in formats as diverse as motorcycles, midgets, super modifieds, stock cars and Indy cars."

Needless to say, George was very honored. He really has a lot of respect for the Motor Sports Press. In the early days of racing it was difficult to get ink for what was considered by many sports writers a frivolous "non-sporting" recreation. He was running races before NASCAR became the "end all - be all" of oval track racing.

The presentation was made by Dennis Mattish, Motor Sports Photographer and Author.


He has recently published his "History of San Jose Auto Racing 1903-2007". It is a coffee table book with beautiful color pictures, including any one you ever heard of who raced at San Jose, in it's hayday. Dennis has done an excellent job of capturing the history and allure of San Jose area racing.




Here the authors are comparing notes discussing the business of book writing.


It was a very nice evening, catching up with old racing friends we haven't seen for a very long time. We were the last ones to leave and arrived back at our hotel room at the bewitching hour.


This is how we started our Wednesday morning:


The sky remained interestingly cloud-studded all afternoon. Quite a drive.










We made our standard commuting down below stops: Brunch at Rolling Hills Buffet in Corning - coming and going - and Trader Joe's, Redding for the grocery stocking-up on the way back.

Thanks MSPA.

joB

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Rita's ranch

Our neighbor, Rita, lives atop a hill near the KR Comm Hall. She emailed me this AM to tell me,




Gem, her pregnant angora goat

gave
birth to two babies yesterday. She named them Sapphire and Ruby.








Aren't they just adorable? Curly, cuddly and pink. So, I learned today, that these are angora goats, which provide mohair.

Angora fur comes from rabbits. So we got that cleared up.

Rounding out her managerie:

cattle



more goats





chickens,




some of which are Polish. That's the breed. Pretty funny, huh? One of my friends says her mom calls these Phyllis Dillers. Perfect nickname, I'd say.










And the dogs.





And last, a familiar member of every family.......







Thank you Rita for the wonderful morning meeting the troops


/joB

>>>>>>>>>>>

Excavating the Ranch - Day 2

This was the scene when I left Monday night.









They started Day 2 bright and early. By the time I got to the ranch, he had already uprooted the stumps and had made a pass or two on the lower level in front o the pole barn.


George and Ed discussing the next phase of building up the driveway.











Pete Haynes came up to look things over.






















4:20 pm. It started to rain, and we called it a day.

/joB
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Excavating the Ranch

It was a beautiful sunny February day when we started excavating our "ranch" Monday (Feb 22).

He started on the pad where our house will sit. These are the stumps from trees that were actually growing together. We cut them down cause we didn't want to take a chance of them falling on our house.



He had to take a lot of passes (They were tenacious) to get them loose and then the oak tree stump split.

Eventually he uprooted them and out they rolled, still hugging each other with rocks innertwined in the root ball.









George hooked it to the Tangerine,


and with some extra throttle, he urged it down the hill...










It was following along ....
until.... it rolled over and hung up on this tree.








Cutting in driveway at the far end of the pad - around the boulder and heading for the lower level of the property toward the pole barn.









This was pretty much the end of Day 1.











Across the driveway toward the pole barn....
at the beginning of Day 2.










Stay tuned.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

/joB

>>>>>>>>>>>