Monthly Archives: August 2003

Whittemore Grove

Whittemore Grove borders the Eel River, and we drive through it daily to go to our land. It is an integral part of our landscape here in Southern Humboldt.

A big thanks to Stable Slopes Forever, for working to keep these trees protected.

Redwoods in Whittemore Grove on Briceland Road

So often in our busy lives and hurry to and fro we forget or neglect to take the time to stop and experience the redwoods. The other day when I was photographing the Road Spam, we took some time there.

I need to do this more often. Living in the wilderness sometimes means that I take it for granted. People come here from all over the world to see the trees and experience the North Coast. Our ‘commutes’ are what other people do on vacation! We live in beauty. I need to see it, instead of the chores that need to be done.

SoHum Happenings

Road Spam

Recently while driving out to our land I spotted about a 25′ long piece of road spam. This is just the top portion of it:

The writing was in reference to a missing person here in Southern Humboldt county who is a very active pot activist, and Prop 215 (medical marijuana) advocate.

He has been missing over 3 weeks now, and is presumed dead. For more info: North Coast Journal

If there is any possible chance you know anything about this case, please contact his brother Clint (707-822-4415) … if only to help alleviate the suffering of the family. (There is a $50,000 reward for information on what happened to Chris and who might be responsible.)

I did not know him, but still I am sadden and puzzled, and want to know where he is.

Last week one of our youth was also killed. This is a small community and things like this don’t happen often. The memorial is today. The killers are at large. Again I am saddened and angry.

Marijuana must be de-criminalized.

Painting Again

I mentioned in this post about some colors we used to paint the shed. Here’s the picture:

The closet became multi-colored, and it is a very bad paint job .. but here are the colors:

I also used the ‘too pink to be mauve’ color on the top of the lid of the closet in the now bedroom… to create a ‘rose-glow’ of reflected light. Worked rather well, will be especially nice when the cream/apricot color is applied to the ceiling.

World of Wonders by Bruce Cockburn

Testing Song Linkage

I was dismayed that I wouldn’t be able to link to Bruce’s song lyrics from the CockburnProject directly from here (and stay in validation) because of odd coding on the Project. But I think I have that worked out, lets see:

World of Wonders — only one of many of my favorite songs.

Stand on a bridge before the cavern of night
Darkness alive with possibility
Nose to this wind full of twinkling lights
Trying to catch the scent of what’s coming to be (in this)
World of wonders…

Somewhere a saxophone slides through changes
Like a wet pipe dripping down my neck
Gives me a chill — sounds like danger
But I can’t stop moving till I cross this sector (of this…)

World of wonders…

There’s a rainbow shining in a bead of spittle
Falling diamonds in rattling rain
Light flexed on moving muscle
I stand here dazzled with my heart in flames (at this…)

World of wonders…

Moment of peace like brief arctic bloom
Red/gold ripple of the sun going down
Line of black hills makes my bed
Sky full of love pulled over my head

World of wonders…

[in the future I will be linking to mp3s or YouTubes! yeah for technology!]

Painting Day

We painted all day yesterday. Russel’s been working on the shed for a few days now. Finally it’s done. You can’t tell it from this picture, but it was a green color in bad need of paint and no trim color at all… now it is yellow with a raspberry color trim..i will have pictures next week and post the before and after here.

I started working inside the house on the water heater closet.. a tight enclosed space with no ventilation and no light. And because I have bought several quarts of paint to test the color for the walls, i had several we were never gonna use anywhere we had to look at them .. *lol* So the closet is at least three of these colors, a pale aqua (too blue for me), a supposed to be medium mauve (that was way too pink), and a color called Olympian Fields, that we may just use on the lid in the living room if we can tone it down one notch. hummm ..photos would help and i will take my camera out the next time and get this shot as well.

The garden is giving us more zucchini (one plant) and yellow squash (one plant) than we can eat. The tomatos, mostly Early Girl’s, are doing well. Friends gave us an unknown yellow tomato plant that just produced it’s first ripe fruit… the next one will get a pic as they are very unusual looking, but quite tasty in a non-acid way.

The eggplant parmesan I made a couple days ago was superb. My neighbor brought over fresh baked apple pie as a surprise dessert. We did eat well that day.

Well gotta go defrost, yes you heard right, the freezer. It’s the small Hotpoint refrigerator in the town house, the freezer builds ice up outside the box! So defrost actually means a total cleaning out, that isn’t that bad really, in that at least this way it gets done several times a year!!

Weather Cool Down Day

Finally a day of cool temps and clouds a good day to run the oven. I started early with baking zucchini breads. Then went to the farmers market and Chautauqua the local organic food store, to get some more progest cream. Came home and made an Italian tomato sauce.. all organic and all from my garden or friends gardens. And that is to be used later today when i put together an Eggplant Parmesan.
Both of these recipes are straight from the Moosewood Cookbook,
which is by far my favorite cookbook. I am not much of a cook, but following her recipes is a breeze and makes me look good 🙂

The cooler weather also reminds us here in the hills that the time is upon us to get the firewood in or covered for the rains.
Harvests are happening and will continue for another month or so, but getting the gardens ready for bed can’t start too soon.
Making sure you have enough rock on the roads/driveways is a good thing.
It seems like we barely had a summer.. although next week we are suppose to have triple digit weather again !

Down Day

Well isn’t this the pits … it’s 100 degrees out again.

I didn’t sleep again last night and to add to it all my sinuses plugged up. Not sure why really, wrong food combinations? Sudden allergy onset? but needless to say this morning they started draining and draining and drianing… you get the picture.

We had to go to Eureka (again) so i took some benedryl and ephedrine… and have been totally out of it all day and still can’t breathe well in between the blowing. Sure hope this goes away as fast as it came in.

I hate losing days this way. It is such a waste of precious time.
I can’t think clearly so trying to work on code implementation is a joke. And it’s too hot to do anything outside.

Ok, sorry, I’ll quit whining now.
🙁

Hot Flashes

Well I always knew this time would come. I did a lot of research in my 40’s around peri-menopause. I added certain supplements to my diet hoping to NOT have to go through an intense menopause.

So far, it is not ..really intense i mean. But I skipped a cycle, 3 weeks and counting, and for those 3 weeks i have been flashing. Not as bad as many have described to me, but enough to keep me from having a full nights sleep..or for that matter, more than 2 hours at a time. I wake up, and watch the clock almost every hour. The tiredness is getting to me, more than the actual sweating and flashing. I feel different… fatigue i guess.

A friend reminded me of progest cream. I started using that again yesterday in the hopes that it would help some.

Any way, i hope the blood has stopped for good, and i will deal with the others changes my body is going through. I started Curves last year, but didn’t keep going. I walk daily and try to swim 3x a week. I need weight training and cardio the most, and hope i get back into Curves this winter or find another method of exercising when the rains hit. I want to drop at least another 20 pounds, 30 would be better still.

On My Beat

Living in the hills of southern Humboldt