Fighting Fires From Three Rivers

A friend with property in the line of the current fire (Coffeepot Fire) called on Tuesday to say that fixed wing aircraft were dipping water out of Lake Kaweah. Trail Guy said, “Do you mean helicopters?”

Friend said, “No, fixed wings”.

Trail Guy told me, and I said, “Do you mean helicopters?”

He said, “No, fixed wings”.

I said, “Let’s go see!”

So, we did.

We weren’t sure where to stop around the lake and tried a few turnouts, eventually picking a road down to the water. Trail Guy felt certain they’d be dipping from closer to the inlet than the dam, and since he was driving, that’s the viewpoint we chose. (He is usually right about those types of things.)

We sat on the tailgate waiting and watching.

Almost immediately, 2 planes arrived. I circled one in red so you can pick it out here.

Almost exactly ten minutes later, they returned.

We sure do know how to have a good time around here.

P.S. This is how the fire looked from LookOut Point yesterday afternoon: 3123 acres with 915 personnel. They could have stopped it at 1 acre!!!

An Odd Job Before Christmas

A friend was remodeling an old house, one I have admired for many years. The porch had pillars, and it would have been a terrible waste to put those 100-year-old handmade wooden objects in a dumpster. So, I remembered a friend’s son who likes architectural pieces for his antique store, and then asked my remodeling friend if I could have the pillars to pass along. He agreed.

We loaded them into the pickup, took them home, and learned that the antique guy didn’t want them.

Oh-oh. A pickup full of pillars, needing to be stored? Nope. 

I made a list of things that they could be used for. Then I gave half of the pillars to my very creative neighbor.

The first item on my list needed to be done before Christmas.

I used a few miles of painter’s blue tape, wrapping in a diagonal pattern. Next I covered the pillars with 2 coats of white paint. When I peeled the tape off, it was a little tricky to see where to put the red paint, because the new white paint wasn’t that different from the old white paint.

Remembering that no one was paying me and no one really cared, I painted the red stripes without taping. There was a great deal of covering red wobbly and hairy lines with white paint, and then recovering white wobbly and hairy lines with red. 

 

Because the pillars are actually tapered, a couple of times they fell over while sitting outside to dry.

Finally, we carried one to the abandoned fire hydrant at the bottom of the driveway and dropped it over the pipe. (Trail Guy sawed off the pieces that were in the way so it would fit.) I’ve been wondering for years what to do with that old thing. You can see that the stripes are a bit wobbly and unevenly spaced; this is the result of pantsing the project.

I carried the second one to another neighbor’s house and dropped it over an abandoned address post that lost its numbers several years ago. (We seem to have abandonment issues in our neighborhood.)

 

Mineral King in January

I didn’t go. Trail Guy and the Farmer went for a day. Here are three photos for you, along with a peculiar sight.

That is the Honeymoon Cabin. (If I painted it this way, no one would buy it in the summer.)

This is the Crowley family cabin with Farewell Gap in the background. The snowy lump to the right is Big Rock.

This is a Trackster. (I think we have outgrown ours and are now willing to sell it. Are you or someone you know interested?)

Finally, here is a peculiar sight. When Trail Guy handed me his camera to put the photos on my computer, I said, “Did you mean to take a photo of a snow doughnut??”

Peculiar Sights

Remember Peculiar Sights? I used to post peculiar sights as a regular feature on the blog, but somewhere along the way, I either stopped noticing or everything became normal. 

The photos from Mineral King were taken in late August and early September, obviously pre-fire; I have been waiting for awhile to gather enough peculiarities to put together a blog post.

  1. This little concrete building is the object of much speculation in Mineral King. One day someone is going to tell us what it was for and then we will know. It is up to the older generations to pass on their knowledge and up to the younger generations to keep track.

2. Yes, that is a cat. I was stunned. After I confessed to a possible Cat Disorder, the cat man graciously allowed me to take this photo. (A trailhead ranger turned them around – pets are not allowed in the National Parks on trails or in the backcountry).

3. This dog was just covering trail as if it had the right to be there. It wasn’t until I looked at my photo that I saw he was wearing socks. (Also turned back by the trailhead ranger).

4. Can you see the cat tail below the sparkly skirt? Is this peculiar, or is it the fact that this little bitty trooper walked 9.5 miles (and then wrestled with her brother and rode her bike when she got home)?

5. I don’t know what this is, which is what makes it peculiar. It is in Orange Cove, photographed in February of last year.

6. This is no longer a peculiar sight; turkeys run amuck daily in our yard (counted 36 on a march last week), but at the time, the scene struck me as something worth photographing.

7. This deer has an additional spike (look closely).

8. Excuse me??

And thus we conclude a look into some of the more strange scenes of my little world as a Central California artist.

More Peculiar Sights, here, here (9 years ago!),and  here (almost 10 years ago!!).

Peculiar and Annoying

My website/blog is being peculiar, and now I am being annoying by bothering you twice in the same day.

Several of my blog subscribers have let me know that the photos aren’t showing up. In addition, many spammers are slamming my email with unwanted solicitations through the contact button. Then, the “platform” that the site is built upon “migrated” everything to a new location in the stratosphere. (I have no idea what all this means). The cherry on top of this mess is that my web designer closed his business to take a regular job; an employee is taking over some of his clients (ME! PICK ME!!) but she is overwhelmed and thus somewhat nonresponsive at this time.

(I’m fine, just fine, thanks, why do you ask??)

If you are a subscriber, how about following the link in this email to the website. If it doesn’t show the photos on the blog post, go to this link and resubscribe: Jana’s Blog  

If you have trouble, please email me. I have disabled the contact form so IF my link above takes you to the correct version of my website, you will not have a form to fill out. (and neither will the Spanner Slammers). But since your Central California artist is trying to navigate this all by her lonesome, it may or may not solve the problem. As with everything, more will be revealed.

Thank you for reading through this annoying information about my peculiar website. You may resume your nap now.

P.S. Sometimes the titles of the blog posts don’t show; other times there are weird spots in the titles because the word “cabinart” is going over the top of the titles in white, which matches the background and further confuses the viewer. (I just work here. Sort of.)

 

Peculiar Sights

Strange and vaguely interesting although peculiar sights have crossed my path lately.  Before I show you these, there is some confusion about “site” versus “sight”. A site is a place; a sight is something to see. I saw these things, so they are sights, at various sites.

Hey Central California artist, will you just land that plane already?

Yeah, no. 

Have you noticed how many people use this absurd expression? Now that I have alerted you, you will hear that the airwaves are filthy with this strange verbal juxtaposition.

Are you going to show us or not??

Just having fun in February, my first favorite month.

Odd Sort of Job

My two favorite ways to spend time with friends are either taking a walk or working on a project. While in Mineral King, my friend had a project and allowed me to help. If it had been a job, I would have called it an “odd job” to be sure.

We used every tool at our disposal. She brought some up the hill, and we both had other supplies to dig into.

What in the world??

We spent about 3-4 hours working on a project that I would have NEVER chosen to do, but was happy to help. She had the ideas and did the prep; I had the skills. We worked together like a well-oiled machine, and these were our results.

I hope the attendees at the bridal shower are impressed. These are Pinterest and Instagram worthy, eh?

P.S. I almost NEVER go to bridal showers, never go to baby showers, and the idea of decorations and tabletop centerpieces does not enter my mind under 99% of my circumstances. Ever ever ever. But working with a friend is always rewarding, and no attendance at a shower was required.

7 Things I Learned in August

These abalone shells have nothing to do with this post, in case you were wondering.
  1. “Anon” means soon, shortly, presently. A friend said to me, “See you anon”, and I said, “What does that mean? Never mind, I can figure it out, but never heard it before. Is it French or Latin?” She didn’t know, so I looked it up in the cabin dictionary (from 1936) and learned it is English. Who knew?? It doesn’t seem to be related to “anonymous” in any way other than appearance.
  2. Techno-wizardry in perfect harmony – listen to this song with your best speakers. I sent the link to an acquaintance who told me he doesn’t feel proud to live in the USA right now. I did not want to hear his answer of why that is. But his response made me sad, and my hope is that if you feel sad, this beautiful song will lift your spirits. God Bless The USA
  3. After 33 years, is it unreasonable to expect my washing machine to keep working? I looked up the problem on DuckDuckGo (rather than asking The Google, I ask the Duck) and found out there is something called a lid switch. A replacement doesn’t exist, but a Q-tip dipped in white vinegar can clean it back to working condition. Phew – avoided having to go shopping and make a decision.
  4. Isn’t it interesting how you can “know” someone for 30+ years but not know them? I made a new friend in August, and it was such a privilege. (Yes, a distant shot, because we respect people’s privacy here, “we” being the Royal We, since it is only me, myself and I.)
  5. Some people believe that wearing masks is helpful, some believe it is harmful. Is anything easy to figure out anymore?? I am doing my best to make drawing lessons happen again for my students, but it is tricky business to be able to group people together in classes where Maskers and Non-maskers can work together. I am thankful for a large workshop room in an accommodating gallery along with understanding and gracious students.
  6. Trail Guy and I got 2 census forms. We filled out one and tossed the other. Now it has become our problem to slog through the bureaucracy, notifying them that we have indeed complied with the census. Maybe we should have just gotten counted twice and avoided all the hassle that THEY created. (And we are supposed to trust THEM to do mail-in balloting? I feel tired.)
  7. On my trip to the Central Coast with a lifelong friend, we drove by the weird house in Cambria called Nitt Witt Ridge. What a mess – a historical landmark that cannot be lived in (no water meter any more) nor turned into a place of revenue (wrong zoning). It is privately owned, and the owner took us on a tour. He calls it the “anti Hearst Castle”. Indeed. Fascinating, and truly a peculiar sight.

Did you learn anything new and interesting in August?

Smoky Weekend

 

While up the hill, I repainted signs for 3 cabins. That counts as work, yes? Here is one of the befores (it was too smoky to care about photographing it afterward – how is that for an excuse?)

I took my baby pumpkin plants up the hill to babysit them. Here they are when we first arrived:

Here they are 4 days later: If they had been left at home, they would have shriveled and croaked, unless a deer ate them first.

We took one short walk. Look – a car with a man-bun.

Parking is at a premium and some people let their car stick out in the already precariously narrow road. People don’t know that by August, the car part eating marmot activity has ceased. Maybe they just feel safer wearing masks.

It was a thrill to be in the green.

Trail Guy said, “Hey Farmer, why are the aspen leaves sticky?” I think the answer was something that meant bug excrement. Trail Guy dropped the leaf and marched onward.

This is a peculiar sight. A smooth boulder is encased in the rough rocks. We didn’t go closer to investigate because this is the time of meat bees/hornets, very aggressively defending their nests in the ground. I do my best to avoid Hornet Holes in the ground.

On Sunday, the air was truly terrible.

It got worse as we headed down the hill.

And in case you are wondering, at the time of these photos, there were no wildfires in Central California. The smoky conditions demonstrate how the pollution travels to the Central Valley. We tend to have terrible air here and get penalized for it, in spite of it being generated by Northern California cities. Those folks love to blame the farmers. Hope they don’t do so with their mouths full.

Three Questions

  1. Why was this shutter on the slope above our cabin?
  2. Where did it come from?
  3. What shall I do with it?