I Love Hard Work - Could Watch it All Day

Boo hoo. Last full day of having Joann visiting. Today we mostly stayed home. I've long had some handyman work contracted for today. Was so worried about the workman getting all done - poorly, that last night I had rampant anxiety dreams - woe was me.

The end post, that holds up the patio roof has dry rot & the board that holds up the lattice work rotted and fell away. I've whined about it before; the wood got dry rot because a former handyman Paul took down the gutters and refused to put them back again, because, according to the ninny, 'who needs gutters anyway?' Yeah, who needs gutters, unless you don't want the supporting structures of your patio rotting out and collapsing. Gurrr!

Before: pathetic, huh?

These posts survived, but the bottom board is almost rotted away.

The bottom cross beam is rotting away,
and the lattice is all faded, black with dirt

I was so frantic over whether or not the work was going to be done correctly that I actually had anxiety dreams all night long. The usual; my car lost and me trying desperately to find it in a huge unfriendly city. My bad dreams didn't foretell a danged thing because it was a perfect day.

Jorge showed up and I drove us over to Lowe's Hardware for $60 something bucks worth of 4 X 4 wood posts and new lattice work; a few metal stays and some finishing nails. Back at the house, Jorge dug in and...

•           replaced a post, 3 cross bars and two lattice works.
•           repaired the hole in the corner of the yard i.e. Hurrah! The cat-freeway is closed!
•           mortared and bricked up the broken corner of the front yard's southern flower bed

Replaced the dry rotted post and lattice

Replaced the lower three cross bars t hold up the lattice work

I couldn't be more pleased with Jorge's work. He didn't cost an arm and a leg which makes me happy. We already started planing the next assault on the woodwork of my front porch. Hurrah! My home will not fall down around my ears after all.

Joann was self entertaining most of the day, watching a few shows on TV while getting in some good work on her soft, green baby blanket. We did a bird-store run so I could get some treats - i.e., mealworms, for the girls, who spent most of the day roaming around the yard. They are now, thank heavens, large enough, that the few cats that sneak into the yard won't touch them. Poor Rum-kitty, is terrified of the girls.

Meanwhile, the Joann and I got a little more work done on new chicken coop. We decided to treat ourselves to dinner out at Mikuni's the Japanese restaurant. The girls were treated to a new can of mealworms. Life is good.

The girs roamed wild and free most of the day
It is so lovely being to large for cats to mess with

Rompin' Around - Day Three

Another day, another romp - this time Joann and I drove on up to Grass Valley for my quarterly bio-feedback appointment (new age Cali-fornia type stuff).


My new therapy buddy, Kitie rested on my lap
while I relaxed during my appointment

While I was at my therapy appointment, Joann blew some cash at a new age Hippy shop. That was followed by a visit to the historic Holbrooke Hotel a couple of doors down where she worked off a few rows on her baby blanket project. I joined her later in the library at the Holbrooke for a cup of clam chowder and a cheeseburger. Joann enjoyed the basil fettachine - I nicked a taste - Yummy.


Joann enjoyed her visit at Grass Valley's Holbrooke Hotel

Following lunch I stopped in at the local food coop so I could pick up some much needed vitamins - blew more $ than Joann did on jewelry! Then we drove the long way home, along HWY 49 and through Auburn. There were several nice painted murals in town, some on the sides of buildings.
There was a cool mural painted over a gun/pawn/whatever shop. It depicted the giant water canons used by ambitious/lazy miners who washed away entire hills to break out gold ore. Totally the most destructive, albeit interesting method of gold mining - ever.


Nice Mural of Gold Rush Water Canons


Drive-by shot of Auburn Mural

A half hour and miles & miles of twisted mountain roads lead us along HWY 49 and over to Coloma's Gold Discovery State Park. The State Park commemorates where Sutter actually made his 1849 discovery of gold, Gold, GOLD!


Sutter's Gold Mill
Everyone knows, the gold lined a few pockets but tore the crap up out of the local Indian tribes.


And bugger all if the Gold Discovery Museum wasn't closed
forcing me to shoot this through the front doors


Cedar Huts in a Re-created Nisenan Village

We didn't exactly hike at Discovery Park, but we saw loads of interesting knick-nacks in the tiny town.

Warrior on Horseback just outside a gew-gaw shop


My favorite gew-gaw, the rocking horse Connestoga

Totally enjoyed the drive. It rained a bit, but not much. We made it back to Fair Oaks but weren't quite ready to go home yet - so we headed for the American River for a rip-snortin', river rock tearing up visit. Danged if we didn't discover the River is CLOSED! The turkey's were still roaming round, but somehow having access closed to the river was pretty sad. It's all the economics of keeping parks open these days. The river will re-open in the spring though.

Along our usual drive, we saw an adorably tiny Mule Deer buck with pitiful little antlers - barely a double pronger. He kept peering into the shrubbery, stamping a bit and looking timid, but intent.

The low buck on the totem pole

What the small buck was looking at made himself known, as a buck with sizable rack came out of the shrubbery. He was a looker! Quite handsome, the lord of the woods. The movements were all too quick for getting a decent shot, but you can see him below, his antlers were fairly large.


Grand Poo-bah, Lord of the Woods

The bucks shinnied back into the shrubbery and there was a ruckus as we realized what the confrontation was all about - a sweet, gentle doe. She did the doe equivalent of dropping a white hankie on the ground and the large buck chased off the smaller one. I thought things couldn't get any more interesting and then along came a small herd of bicyclists - a man and his children.

"DEER?" shouted the man, as his passel of mini-bicyclists rode past.

"Yes," said I, irritated beyond believe but I guess, live and let live. Off in the distance, Joann and I could see the three deer, led by the doe, who leapt so high she could have easily cleared a 6 foot fence.

As the man and his kids rode off, Joann and I did our classic, 'wise women of the village' head shakes. We know that sometimes you just have to slow down and have a look-see.

A Funny Thing Happened On the Way To...

Photo by J. Bertsch It was up and out this morning, to Starbucks - then HWY 50 to Lake Tahoe; lovely drive. It's really only this past year I got into my head that Tahoe is not that far from my house; hour and a little bit. Along the way we stopped time to time to stare at scenery.


by J. Bertsch

Our first stop was lakeside at some historic log cabins that once housed the rich and fab, but now house the Tallac Museum. Joann walked down to the Lake Tahoe shore to dig her feet into the sand and take photos.


Joann hiked down to the lake for some photos

In their hay day, the Baldwin cabins were private cabins

Joann's lake-side Photo
gorgeous, isn't it? photo by J. Bertsch

The cabins blend in nicely with the Ponderosa Pines that surround them.
Now it was time for a drive north to see Emerald Bay. But first we had this conversation:

Claire: "Want to see where Don and I saw the black bear back in April?"

Joann: "But's the bear's probably gone, don't 'cha think?"

Claire: "Uh... yeah, see your point. Guess we should make our own memories."

So, we drove about a 1/4 mile, and there, dead center of the road, staring at us - a HUMONGOUS Black Bear!

I did what I sometimes do when stunned - I froze. Stopped the car, but could not grab my small digital camera which was right there. Joann turned on her camera. We stared at the Black Bear, The Black Bear stared back at us, then galumphed off into the shrubbery and away into the woods.

We shrieked, whooped, high-fived and spent at least a half hour lamenting our failure to photograph the bruin. Still can't believe how I missed such an easy shot (and the bear couldn't believe it missed out on two succulent women for brunch). Bugger! Oh well. We now had out own Lake Tahoe memory of a Black Bear - incidentally, not a mile from where I saw a brown Black Bear last May. The photo on the left is a Black Bear I 'shot' in Canada.

Still carrying on about 'our' Black Bear, it was north to Emerald Bay. The wind roared through the pines, and it was hang on to your hat or get a shot of it flying over to the Nevada shore.


Emerald Bay

Joann's photo of the tea party castle on the Emerald Bay island (in photo above)
is so cute it doesn't even look real photo by J. Bertsch

Face of "Just-Saw-a-Bear-woman". photo by J. Bertsch
The rest of the day we drove up to Tahoe City for lunch at a Thai Restaurant. Then on to Norstar, where Joann's family spent a wonderful winter holiday a while back. After that I wanted to check out Martis Creek - a well known birding spot in Placer County. Might just get my Great Grey Owl there one of these days.

Joann got an Autumn look the cabin she's
enjoyed during winter vacation with her family

Martis Creek scenery - sagebrush and a little water

I scored the only shot of a Mountain Bluebird I've ever taken

It was a long, long day of driving and sniggering in the car over silly insider jokes. When we got back to my house I cooked up a chicken with some of my garden rosemary (one of the few herbs growing just now). Came out A-OK. Also baked up a yam and totally destroyed several ramakins of creme brule - uh! Every time I want to show off my cooking for anyone, I get excited and forget steps. So the creme brule tastes fine, but the texture is rubbish. Oh well! Oy are we worn out. When you're over 50, even a long day of fun kinda kicks your arse.