Monday,
May 7, 2007 9:58 AM
This is a tiny campground and I planned only to be here
last night, but apparently I'm not ready to go because I
just put an envelope with $10 in the slot for another night.
I'm walking the soft sand of the beach, buffing up my feet.
The sun is hot and out in the wet sand and shallow water
people are digging up razor clams, or at least hunting for
them. Tomorrow I'll head north into Oregon, unless I catch
myself paying for another day. I'm going over to edit a
post on
the blog this morning. The one entitled dividing up
the trophy wives apparently sucks as I had a reader ask
me what it meant.
Clam beach at dawn with bird. California
coast north of Arcata, looking north towards Oregon! |
Pacific Ocean, my feet, ouch, cold!
Birkenstock tan is back. Click on the left big toe
to jump to today's blog.
|
 |
Left:
This was my last day, (yesterday) at Red Bluff. This
whole area was just flooded and geese and ducks are
loving it.
Though
I watched the fish monitor for quite some time on
two different occasions, I never saw any fish. I don't
think they have started upstream yet. |
Sunday, May 6, 2007 9:03 AM
Today is a moving day, headed to, or almost to Arcata, CA
on the Redwood Coast of California. Today I'm putting up
the outside pictures from the Lost Cities Museum in Overton,
NV on the shores of the Muddy River feeding into Lake Mead.
Friday, May 4, 2007 10:19 AM
This is my third day in Red Bluff, along the Sacramento
River and I-5. This is like a transition camp for me.
I'm overwhelmed with green, dark soils, a fecundity
that is remembered but has been unseen for five months.
|
At this park, I'm surrounded by song birds, hawks, robins,
butterflies, dragonflies, and moist soil. I feel like
I've been teleported from one world to another. The
desert is only 85 miles away, over Mount Lassen to Susanville,
but it might as well be a million. And despite the life
abundance, I feel a loss of the austerity of the desert. |
At least quail have followed me here!
Paths wind throughout this park, for bicycling and walking.
I've been getting my exercise here, but I miss Q mountain's
morning hike. |
These are the spinning fish traps that catch the babies
headed downstream. Starting tomorrow the adults are
counted as they come up, and the babies going out to
the sea are counted as they go down. |
 |
I
hiked across this two days ago. During the night before
last they closed the big dam hydraulic walls and the
area was flooded by morning. Immediately the area is
being colonized. |
Above:
In walking through the woods surrounding the park, I found
several plowed and harrowed strips, usually on each side of
a path. They are probably putting in new trails. However I
plunged my hand down into it up to about 12 inches and the
soil is wonderful river bottom soil. So possibly when we are
thinking about garden plots we should look to parks in close
to cities that have not been commercially farmed for a time.
River bottom soils will nearly always be very productive places
to begin our new permaculture future. Don't forget to check
out the Aftershock
blog! Your comments there are always welcome.
Thursday, May 3, 2007 8:12 AM
Hah! I found a cafe with free internet in Red Bluff. Enjoying
a tall latte. Tonight is my last paid (shudder) night here
in Red Bluff. However weather is lousy until Tuesday of
next week north of here. So now I think I will stay two
more night (ouch, more money!!!) here. They flooded the
river basins around me last night and the fish counting
is about to commence and I would like to see that. There
is also a tipping point in my frugality. Moving the trailer
is expensive in it's own right, and not having a warm destination
is always disheartening. The seal on the deal is that I
have been reading a blog that details the year long experience
in converting a Geo Metro to an electric motor. Simple in
concept, but to do it cheaply - a years worth of work. Also,
I've been working to sketch out a series of five story lines
for a future histories set of short stories that I'm just
beginning to outline. All that requires peace, quiet, warmth,
and pleasant surroundings.
So I will stay here in Red Bluff paying through Saturday
night and leaving at 1pm on Sunday for the Illinois River
Valley in Oregon. There has been some action on my story
concept on the
blog, check it out.
Wednesday, May 2, 2007 7:44 AM
I'm just headed out for coffee in Red Bluff, found a non
starbucks place I'm going to check out. I have my laundry
with me. First time I've done laundry in a machine since
I left Oregon five months ago. I have a day in town planned
- coffee, laundry, little bit of grocery shopping.
I'm parked right along the Sacramento river, near the dam
in Red Bluff, at a State campground. The campground has
showers - I've had two, thank you - though a frog crawled
up the wall behind me while I was watching the big spider.
A busy shower stall. This is a pay shower, a quarter for
4 minutes, but I was lonely for company so I let him shower
with me.
Anyway they are starting salmon counting here today and
I'm going to try and get my nose pressed against the glass
to see the salmon. They have these big huge plates of steel
that crank down and force the entire river through the fish
counting side, and I'd like to see them come down. The river
here is a bigger than the Willamette in Eugene by about
4 times.
Monday, April 30, 2007 11:12 AM
Here are pictures of the last few days of travel and notes.
If
you're after the Aftersock blog, click here!
 |
Here
is where I spent last night. Walker Lake along the
west edge of Neveda between Vegas and Reno. Look just
above my handle bar and you see my truck and trailer
in the distance. There was one other Class A RV about
2 miles from me. The moon rose over the lake and was
beautiful until about 11pm when I drifted off. Even
I get lonely in a place like this so right now I'm
going to overnight in a rest stop on route 80. More
about that later.
|
 |
 |
| I
hope this gives you a feeling of the great empty expanse
of Nevada from Vegas to Reno |
That
isn't snow. Salt. |
I'll
be adding more here after I make lunch and watch a movie.
Back soon - alan, outside Reno!
Thursday, April 26, 2007 10:31 PM - DAILY
BLOG has moved HERE
I'm working on the pictures pages for the petroglyphs and
for the Lost Cities museum. I won't be posting here after
I'm sure the Blog is working correctly and will keep the
posts. However I really like getting comments on my posts
and it is really easy. So point your Aftershock link HERE
to read my new posts, and your comments.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007 12:48 PM
Hey chickies, I just put up the first post using the blogger
software. Here
is the new blog in its infancy.
Wednesday, April 25, 2007 6:36 AM
I'm back in Government Wash in order to meet with my nephew
tomorrow for supper in Henderson. I'm thinking Pahrump after
that, as I'd like to drive across Death Valley. Also there
are a few places I've heard about around Pahrump for my
people (free range chickens). Yesterday I received a comment
from a blog reader on Archdruid's view that decreasing oil
would cause waves of high prices and cut backs inter spaced
with times of apparent abundance.
I
have been reading your blog for a short while now and
am enjoying it very much. Some of the links you post
have been appreciated as well. My son-in-law hooked
me up thinking I'd enjoy it and he was right.
1st, I'd like to say isn't it wonderful to live in a
time when people are awakening to their surroundings....
both the challenges that we will need to meet if we
are to survive the coming "dark ages" (with
most of the lights turned out) and the insanity of the
"system" or "systems" that you refer
to as Empire. I like to think of it as the "barefoot
and pregnant" mindset.
I don't share the total doom and gloom attitude that
the global warming crowd wants to shove down our throats
and make us swallow so they can start to tax us on our
carbon footprints. I prefer to think that as we awaken
to the real situation around us we will invest in more
"truth and total disclosure" and simply stop
"buying" or supporting the fantasy that the
media holds out to us as "the american dream",
or "normal" .
Many years ago someone told me "if you can imagine
it... it is possible" meaning anything! Anything
you can imagine..... it IS possible. If you couple that
with the hard-core truth that "necessity is the
mother of invention", as the necessity becomes
more pressing more and more brain power will be exerted
to solve the issues that arise. It matters not if the
environmental perils are used as political ammunition.
People are beginning to awaken! Awaken to new opportunities
and challenges. Every problem is an opportunity. And
all it takes in an attitude adjustment. A few generations
ago the adjustment happened behind the wood shed.
Today the powers that seem to run everything (from the
american medical system to Insurance companies, lawyers,
the auto industry, oil companies,etc) need an attitude
adjustment. It's gonna happen! Thanks to the internet,
and mass communication it is becoming harder to "fool
all the people all the time". I think people are
beginning to step out of the barefoot and pregnant stage,
and into the light of a new day dawning. YOU yourself
are proof of this. Keep up the good work.
Actually what inspired me to write you this morning
was your thinking about the 80's, and the idea that
we stopped consuming enough to make the price of oil
drop. I don't remember that. I remember Ronald Reagan.
And how the Iranians were holding american hostages
right up to the hr. he was put in office. I remember
Jimmy Carter wanting the country to become 20% solar
with-in ten years or so, and putting tax incentives
in place for us to do so. When Ronnie got elected, all
those incentives went away, oil became reasonable again,
and eventually the Berlin wall came down. Do you remember
the inflation rate? The US govt sold 30 year bonds at
13%!!!! Reagan turned everything around... I believe
he was working behind the scenes long before he was
elected. Global politics have historically caused us
unimaginable grief. I think it is time for an "attitude
adjustment" and i think the power is in the hands
of the common man now more than ever.... thanks to the
internet. OK ..... just HAD to say that.... Keep up
the good work. A J (Gary's father in law) |
My
friend Gary has set up a real blog on my website using Google's
blogger and I'll begin switching over to it today or tomorrow.
Why? So that you can comment to any post that tickles or ticks
you off. The big advantage to me is that I can blog from any
computer instead of just this one (that has Dreamweaver installed).
I'll continue the current website and use it more for future
tribal formation and how to articles.
The blogger software has several other advantages over the
way I do it now. All the pictures will be clickable to a larger
size. The most important reason for switching to the blog
software is that I have had my say, you know my position on
may facets of our uncertain future and on expectation's role
in creating a new, sane society, and now I would like to learn
where your thoughts travel when I look at some of these issues.
Look for the new blogger software to replace this page in
the next couple of days. I will ask of you only this, When
you comment, you try and be specific. Comments like "you're
a jerk and an asshole" certainly may be true but don't
furnish me the details to be truly aggrieved. The bedevilment
is in the details, to paraphrase. Previous
Blog >>>
|
