Middle Lake, lots of fishing. Saw a beautiful 8 pound trout caught by a teenage girl who was justifiably proud to show it off.
Upper Lake with woman, dog, rocks, fishermen.
Fantastic weather here, mid 70s for highs, sunny, 40ish for lows.
Friday, December 30, 2011
Yucaipa, CA
Yucaipa, in the San Bernadino Mts, has a population of 51K and an excellent regional park. We stayed here 3 years ago and are delighted to be back. The park has RV and tent camping, trails, water slide, frisbee golf, 3 small lakes stocked with large trout, game fields and more. I rank it one of the top 4 parks we've visited in North America. The other top-ranked parks are one each in MN, NB, OR.
Fantastic weather here, mid 70s for highs, sunny, 40ish for lows.
Fantastic weather here, mid 70s for highs, sunny, 40ish for lows.
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Slab City
See my NYE Trip post of 12-17-11 for Slab City background info.
It's not your mother's campground and one night was more than adequate, although we'd planned to stay for 2. Lot's of trash lying about, some self-propelled and humanoid in appearance but most of it inorganic. 'Tis indeed a strange brew with more than a touch of post-apocalyptic. We're not sorry we stopped though, have to cater to one's sense of adventure and curiosity, after all.
To be fair, the people we chatted with, the ones who were passing through or just there for the winter, weren't strange at all. Sandi (see below) was okay, too. Most of the folks we assumed to be permanent residents, however, were decidedly lacking in visual appeal and basic social skills - like responding to smiles and a friendly 'Hi' from Trish and I as we strolled around. Stoned? Mentally challenged? Possessed by non-verbal alien life forms? Several bricks short of a full load? Hard to tell, probably a mixed bag of the above. Or, maybe they're mostly normal, unresponsive only because they're tired of being considered the main stars in the ongoing freak show.
Gotta LOVE it!
Yeah, REPENT! Or we'll throw your miserable sinful carcass in the cell in the back of The Bible Truck and drive you around so everyone can hiss and boo and throw nasty rotten stuff at you.
It's not your mother's campground and one night was more than adequate, although we'd planned to stay for 2. Lot's of trash lying about, some self-propelled and humanoid in appearance but most of it inorganic. 'Tis indeed a strange brew with more than a touch of post-apocalyptic. We're not sorry we stopped though, have to cater to one's sense of adventure and curiosity, after all.
To be fair, the people we chatted with, the ones who were passing through or just there for the winter, weren't strange at all. Sandi (see below) was okay, too. Most of the folks we assumed to be permanent residents, however, were decidedly lacking in visual appeal and basic social skills - like responding to smiles and a friendly 'Hi' from Trish and I as we strolled around. Stoned? Mentally challenged? Possessed by non-verbal alien life forms? Several bricks short of a full load? Hard to tell, probably a mixed bag of the above. Or, maybe they're mostly normal, unresponsive only because they're tired of being considered the main stars in the ongoing freak show.
Artist and sophisticate in residence, Sandi. Trish bought 3 of her finer pieces.
The Range has live music on Saturday nights. There's lots of comfy seating - if you're into getting goosed with bare rusty springs sticking out of 30-year old bus seats and (un)stuffed furniture.
Main entrance to the Range, no bull.
Salvation Mountain.
Gotta LOVE it!
Once a pickup, now..........?
Whatever.
A parting shot of Salvation Mt.
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Lemon Aid
The Lemon
The vast majority of newer AZ homes are built on a slab so there's no crawlspace. No crawlspace means no worries about water getting under the house, no vapor barriers, no venting. It means that directing runoff rain water away from the foundation is not critical to the long term health of the structure. It doesn't rain that much here anyway, it being a desert.
When it does rain here, though, likely as not it'll be a downpour, a regular flash flood gully washer. Most homes here don't have gutters and downspouts; water just runs off the roof and continues on its merry way to its gully of choice, no problem. No problem, unless: a generous share of the roof's runoff water just happens to be channeled to a spot directly in front of the main entry. And that's the case at 400 Stallion Lane: any attempt to enter or leave the building (take your umbrella, Elvis) when it's raining will be rewarded with an impromptu shower. That's The Lemon.
The Aid
It rained last week and the entry shower was fully operational, bring your own soap and towel, please. Trish said, 'We should do something about that, divert the water somehow.' Duh! Why didn't I think of that? She went on to suggest a rain chain, a device that serves the same purpose as a downspout but is a quantum leap more attractive. Right on, Babe! But first, let's move the shower nozzle so the rain chain doesn't block half the entry.
So, it's off to Lowe's for gutter and brackets, and online rain chain shopping. Several websites offer rain chains of copper and aluminum. There's your basic, plain-Jane rain chain drain from Spain* and your more elaborate devices like strings of funnels, in various shapes and sizes. I opted for the hammered aluminum funnel, a clean, sleek design that elegantly and eloquently reflects the highly refined, yet subtly understated, tastes of the sophisticated homeowner (that would be me). Oh yeah!
Lemon Aid Pix
We like the way this little project turned out. It really was a little project but the reward seems not so little. I'm now qualified to act as design consultant on similar projects you may be considering. Consulting fees will be dependent on the scope of work, certainly affordable by anyone with a high 6-figure income.
* Mine came from India. But some of the others may be from Spain.
The vast majority of newer AZ homes are built on a slab so there's no crawlspace. No crawlspace means no worries about water getting under the house, no vapor barriers, no venting. It means that directing runoff rain water away from the foundation is not critical to the long term health of the structure. It doesn't rain that much here anyway, it being a desert.
When it does rain here, though, likely as not it'll be a downpour, a regular flash flood gully washer. Most homes here don't have gutters and downspouts; water just runs off the roof and continues on its merry way to its gully of choice, no problem. No problem, unless: a generous share of the roof's runoff water just happens to be channeled to a spot directly in front of the main entry. And that's the case at 400 Stallion Lane: any attempt to enter or leave the building (take your umbrella, Elvis) when it's raining will be rewarded with an impromptu shower. That's The Lemon.
The Aid
It rained last week and the entry shower was fully operational, bring your own soap and towel, please. Trish said, 'We should do something about that, divert the water somehow.' Duh! Why didn't I think of that? She went on to suggest a rain chain, a device that serves the same purpose as a downspout but is a quantum leap more attractive. Right on, Babe! But first, let's move the shower nozzle so the rain chain doesn't block half the entry.
So, it's off to Lowe's for gutter and brackets, and online rain chain shopping. Several websites offer rain chains of copper and aluminum. There's your basic, plain-Jane rain chain drain from Spain* and your more elaborate devices like strings of funnels, in various shapes and sizes. I opted for the hammered aluminum funnel, a clean, sleek design that elegantly and eloquently reflects the highly refined, yet subtly understated, tastes of the sophisticated homeowner (that would be me). Oh yeah!
Lemon Aid Pix
We like the way this little project turned out. It really was a little project but the reward seems not so little. I'm now qualified to act as design consultant on similar projects you may be considering. Consulting fees will be dependent on the scope of work, certainly affordable by anyone with a high 6-figure income.
* Mine came from India. But some of the others may be from Spain.
Saturday, December 17, 2011
NYE Trip
Hosting a NYE party has been a long standing tradition for us. But, this year we're doing something quite different, taking the EDGE on 6-day excursion to southern CA and spending NYE in a municipal park we like. The park is in Yucaipa and has a muni golf course nearby.
.
En route, we'll spend a couple nights in Slab City, aka The Slabs, an abandoned WWII military base southeast of the Salton Sea. Slab City, featured in the movie Into the Wild, is now an off-the-grid (boondocking) hangout for RVers. The 'permanent' population is a colorful mix of dropouts, aging hippies, Jesus freaks and artist wannabes. Come winter, hundreds of RV snowbirds join the action, most of which I assume, are relatively mainstream types.
.
Over the years, the locals have created many pieces of imaginative junk art and have painted graffiti/murals on the few remaining structures. There's a year-round flea market (of course) and there's often live music in the evenings. It's an interesting one of a kind place and the natives are reputedly friendly and fun. I'll take lots of pix for the blog so check back in late December.
.
Ho, ho, ho. I've gotta go.
.
En route, we'll spend a couple nights in Slab City, aka The Slabs, an abandoned WWII military base southeast of the Salton Sea. Slab City, featured in the movie Into the Wild, is now an off-the-grid (boondocking) hangout for RVers. The 'permanent' population is a colorful mix of dropouts, aging hippies, Jesus freaks and artist wannabes. Come winter, hundreds of RV snowbirds join the action, most of which I assume, are relatively mainstream types.
.
Over the years, the locals have created many pieces of imaginative junk art and have painted graffiti/murals on the few remaining structures. There's a year-round flea market (of course) and there's often live music in the evenings. It's an interesting one of a kind place and the natives are reputedly friendly and fun. I'll take lots of pix for the blog so check back in late December.
.
Ho, ho, ho. I've gotta go.
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Christmas Family Album
Here are selected members of our extended family in their Christmas finery. They all wish you a great holiday season and new year!
Ranger the Wonder Dog
Pancho the Musician
Grunt the Party Animal
Lil Ms Liza Lizard
Friday, December 2, 2011
Harvest!
Since buying my first home 40 years ago, I've nearly always had a veggie garden. There's some truth to that old saying, 'you can take the boy out of the country but.......' No matter the crop, there was always a little thrill in seeing the little green shoots break the ground surface about 10 days after planting. Weeks later, it was especially gratifying to harvest the first crop and have the produce for dinner that very same day. You can't get fresher than that and the flavor - yum!
.
Take your grocery store tomatoes and deport 'em back to their country of origin; they look great but I suspect that a used Domino's pizza box has more flavor. Come to think of it, the box likely tastes better than the pizza, too. Domino's is lousy. Better yet, have a tomato fight: great exercise, lots of fun and delightfully messy! A word of advice for the novice tomato hurler: wait until they are really ripe. You want maximum mess and minimum bruising (of the people, not the tomatoes). I digress.
.
Now, growing our own veggies doesn't fit our life style. But, citrus does well here so I decided to remove a ho-hum tree and replace it with citrus. Ho-hum is the common name for the genus Buttuglyus - a huge family of boring, nondescript plants which have, for reasons unknown, an overpowering appeal to prior homeowners - the folks who owned the home before you. Our LHC home was no exception, had several varieties of ho-hums.
.
I planted the young citrus tree, a mandarin orange (Algerian clementine), in late spring, 2010. We'll have our first orange harvest this month - only 9 oranges but not bad for a tree that's only 32" tall. It will eventually reach 8-10' in height, and of course, will have larger crops.
.
Take your grocery store tomatoes and deport 'em back to their country of origin; they look great but I suspect that a used Domino's pizza box has more flavor. Come to think of it, the box likely tastes better than the pizza, too. Domino's is lousy. Better yet, have a tomato fight: great exercise, lots of fun and delightfully messy! A word of advice for the novice tomato hurler: wait until they are really ripe. You want maximum mess and minimum bruising (of the people, not the tomatoes). I digress.
.
Now, growing our own veggies doesn't fit our life style. But, citrus does well here so I decided to remove a ho-hum tree and replace it with citrus. Ho-hum is the common name for the genus Buttuglyus - a huge family of boring, nondescript plants which have, for reasons unknown, an overpowering appeal to prior homeowners - the folks who owned the home before you. Our LHC home was no exception, had several varieties of ho-hums.
.
I planted the young citrus tree, a mandarin orange (Algerian clementine), in late spring, 2010. We'll have our first orange harvest this month - only 9 oranges but not bad for a tree that's only 32" tall. It will eventually reach 8-10' in height, and of course, will have larger crops.
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