Mineral King Road

This will be a long blog post in two or three parts, because there is much to show and much to tell. The main thing you probably want to know is if you can drive to Mineral King. If you have a cabin at Silver City or Cabin Cove and have a smallish vehicle and are a careful driver, then yes. Otherwise, no.

On Friday, June 9, Trail Guy (currently Road Guy), the Farmer, Hiking Buddy, and I went up the Mineral King Road. Road Guy and the Farmer spent 3 days working on the road, and they invited The Wives to accompany them to see how things were progressing.

The assignment for these two determined and intrepid volunteers was “passable and marked”; this was a little hard on Road Guy who took pride in keeping that road in top shape before he was retired. However, the road. . . sigh. Never mind. “Passable and marked” is a tremendous improvement over washed out, collapsed, piled with boulders, tree messes, mud slides, etc. 

They couldn’t begin until the County had the lower parts passable. Once that was done, the Farmer and Road Guy made their way up to the rented backhoe which had been stranded at Lookout since the February storms.

Lest you forget, Road Guy and former roads supervisor volunteered the first 2 weeks of February working with that backhoe to clean out culverts, establish some berms, and get the road somewhat passable. Then the February and March storms came, and it was a very good thing that they had done that prep work. It saved the road. (DO NOT TELL ME I AM EXAGGERATING—instead, pat those guys on the back!)

Alrighty then, let’s begin our tour.

The County Section

Remember the blowout at mile 4.5? It now has a wall and a bridge of planks.

Here is the second washout at SkyHook. The fill has begun; those are gabion baskets on the left and the road will be filled up to the level of the top of those.

The Park

This is above Lookout: passable and marked.

Road Guy said they had been watching that boulder above the road for many years, speculating that all it needed was a little nudge to drop to the road.

See the notch where it was?

Narrow and scary but passable and marked.

It rained very hard the night before and there were new deep mud slicks across the road. Road Guy had his doubts for a brief moment about whether or not we would be able to cross those messes. The trick was to lock in the hubs, then keep rolling, don’t stop.

Narrow, but passable and marked.

A closer look.

Coming to Redwood Canyon, narrow, passable, marked, and look at the next mess!

A “tree mess” is a tangle of multiple trees and roots, unlike a single tree lying across the road. 

The creek at Redwood is roaring. First time I remember ever actually hearing it.

 

These are redwood cones (not to be confused with pine cones or traffic cones.)


Look how many trees were involved in this tree mess.

The mountains beyond, in case you were wondering how things looked.

It is rare to see what the needles of a sequoia tree look like because they are usually many feet above one’s head. (Sequoia=redwood=Big Tree)

We finally made it to the backhoe where it was parked the day before at Cabin Cove. Fancy!

And I got a little demonstration of all the levers and tricks. Road Guy is skilled, experienced, knowledgeable and capable.

Of course I climbed up and sat in the throne. Intimidating piece of equipment.

This has gone on long enough. Tomorrow I will show you what this impressive machine did under the guidance of the very capable Road Guy, all for no pay, all to serve the needs of the Silver City Store and all the cabin folks, and we hope (but do not know yet), the public.

 

Dangerous and Expensive Gardening

This is a bit incomprehensible to me, but I paid for dirt. PAID. MONEY.

After spending some time with my amazing gardener friend, I learned so much. I have dirt; she has SOIL. We live a mile apart, but our gardening quality is about 1000 miles apart. So, I learned about her SOIL: it is called “nitro mulch” and it costs $50/cubic yard. The nursery delivers for a fee, so I bought some.

She also taught me about something called Milorganite. It is a slow release fertilizer. I bought some of it too.

Finally, she taught me about something called Deer Out, a concentrate that you mix with water and spray on everything that deer might eat. It isn’t poisonous, it is water repellent, and the deer hate it.

I spend a morning pruning, weeding, transplanting, fertilizing, and spreading mulch, because THIS WILL FINALLY BE THE YEAR AT LEAST PART OF MY YARD LOOKS GOOD FOR LONGER THAN THE 15 MINUTES OF SPRINGTIME!

Excuse me for shouting. I am pretty excited about the possibility of keeping flowers blooming.

When I was finished and gathering my tools, I heard a sprinkler. We don’t have sprinklers that sound like that. I followed my ears and found Pippin far too interested in a shrub that sounded as if there was a sprinkler inside of it. 

Trail Guy was off being Road Guy (working on the Mineral King road, more to follow in another blog post when I actually have something to report). I called my neighbor, who has killed many rattlesnakes for me.

This rattlesnake was far far under a compact shrub THAT WAS IN FULL BLOOM. Neighbor had to do a fair amount of hacking to even be able to see the buzzworm. I kept the cats away, and hung around in case my help was needed. At one point I used a pitchfork to pry the shrub up so that Neighbor could reach in with a shovel and drag the beast out where he could finish the job.

A friend texted me a photo of a rattler he encountered on a recent hike. I texted him back that Neighbor had just sent one from my yard to hell. The friend replied that snakes don’t go to hell because they lack souls; instead, they are from hell. 

I’d rather have a hacked up shrub than a living snake. 

Gives me the shivers thinking about it. Let’s just calm our nerves with some photos of the better parts of that dangerous and expensive hobby of gardening, shall we?

Tucker wasn’t around for the snake action. Jackson was, and I had to shout him away from it. The cats are excellent about letting us know when there are snakes, but then we have to be excellent at keeping them away. 

Some day I may have to do my own dispatching of snakes. This one took extraordinary skill, strength and determination, and if it wasn’t for Neighbor, I just don’t know what I would have done.

 

Ten Things Learned in May

This month’s Learned List will be full of irrelevant photos. Not much was photogenic.

  1. Did you know that only 2% of the population takes the stairs when there is an elevator nearby? I learned this from Michael Easter, the author of The Comfort Crisis.
  2. The Mineral King Road repairs are in progress.
  3. I learned (again) that sometimes there are no answers; my viburnum snowball bush is dying for no apparent reason; I also learned that all the websites say the same things, which is a whole lotta nothin’. This is how it looked about 4 years ago (the white flowers on the left).
  4. I read The Comfort Crisis after hearing the author on a presentation called “America’s Labor Shortage”; one day after I finished it, Mike Rowe interviewed the author. I highly recommend this book.
  5. The author I am working with on the book about TB taught me two new words: “grok” and see #6. “Grok” is a verb that means “to understand profoundly through intuition or empathy.” 
  6. “Tyro” is a noun meaning “a beginner in learning something”.
  7. Milorganite is a slow release fertilizer that just might solve many of my gardening woes, along with something called “Nitro Humus”. Can’t wait to try them!
  8. The Frugal Girl mentioned having “titers drawn”: titers are blood draws to test for antibody levels  for immunity to things like measles, mumps, rubella, etc. If antibody levels are high enough, you can avoid unnecessary vaccines.
  9. Sometimes, a person needs to know when to say “When!” I have withdrawn from painting the murals at the big Catholic church until October; they may have to choose another muralist if they don’t want to wait. They contacted me last September, with the idea I would be finished by December of 2022. Perhaps I will be able to finish by December 2023, or perhaps a more hardy soul will be able to tackle this in the heat of summer. (Not this little gray duck.)
  10. I knew this, but you might find it helpful. A gopher snake resembles a rattlesnake. If you can see the head or the tail, you will see a gopher snake’s head isn’t diamond shaped nor does its tail have a rattle. But the patterns and colors on the body are awfully similar. This is a gopher snake. I have no photos of a ratttler. (Nope, don’t want any either). #10’s photo was gross. Here. Wash your eyes out with this.

Six Garden Meanderings

 

Apparently I haven’t gone back to work yet. But I am throughly enjoying late springtime in Three Rivers.

  1. I looked up online why garlic bulbs grow too small and the reasons are legion. Planting too close together, too early, too late, too shallow, too deep, beginning with small cloves, not weeding enough, and the most likely: poor soil.
  2. The roses are getting tired.
  3. The bugs are eating the basil in some places and not in others. Good thing someone taught me about rooting cuttings in water so I haven’t completely wasted my money buying these plants.
  4. I am determined to get these cuttings of myoporum rooted so I can plant this hardy groundcover in a rough area of our church grounds.
  5. You are curious about the porch plants that showed up with the cats last week? They are called “Queen’s Tears”.
  6. This is the pile of rocks that I helped move the other day. Maybe I’ll go back to work soon.

Walking on Memorial Day in Three Rivers

On Memorial Day, Trail Guy suggested we walk to see the river. For those of you outside of Three Rivers, that is the middle fork of the Kaweah River. (There are five forks to the Kaweah River: South, North, Middle, East, and Marble. I know: five forks = Three Rivers. Weird.)

We passed by a neighbor’s stunning penstemon.

Then we cut through the Memorial Building parking lot, an appropriate route for the day’s theme. Our neighbor girl called it the Remorial Building because you go there to remember people, so that’s usually how we pronounce it. (It’s on purpose, just like “prolly” and “liberry”.)

The river was charging, although it wasn’t as hot out the past few days. (A friend told us that there is enough snow in the mountains to fill Kaweah Lake 5 or 6 times this summer!)

Edison has wisely blocked off the parking area where people often leave their cars when trespassing at the river. However, it didn’t stop these stupid honyocks from leaving this mess.

A catalpa tree was at peak bloom.

We decided to see if anyone we knew was around to give us a garbage bag, and made it to our friend Barbara’s house. She provided a large garbage bag AND SOME ARTICHOKES!! I LOVE ARTICHOKES!

Excuse me for shouting. Barbara is a terrific gardener with the best yard in the entire town. It is a privilege and a thrill to hang out there. If you are a long-time reader of this blog, you may recognize the place from my early ignorant and fumbling attempts at plein air painting. (This link, and this one too.)

The sand was thick and abundant at the little trashed beach. Good thing we got a big bag, because there was more than we thought. Some stupid chick is now minus a sandal. Too bad. 

When the beach was restored (yes I put my feet in–you didn’t doubt that, did you?), we continued back through the Remorial Building lot. Had to stop to restore a flag to its clip.

I was going to walk back to Barbara’s to help her garden, but realized it would take too long and I wanted to get to work. So, I drove back, and we worked together for several hours. I learned about Nitro Humus and Milorganite, a nitrogen rich fertilizer that is slow releasing and will not burn the plants. I also learned about Sluggo Plus, which takes care of those horrible little jaws on legs also known as sowbugs, and that there is spray to keep the deer from eating geraniums. Gardening is an expensive hobby if you want to keep things alive and thriving. Maybe there is hope yet for my often discouraging attempts.  

Thus we conclude a walk in Three Rivers on Memorial Day. (So weird to not be in Mineral King!)

 

Six Meanderings

  1. Tulare County roads department is supposed to finish making the lower part of the Mineral King Road passable this week. Whether or not it will be open to the public is not known.
  2. When it is hot, the cats lie on the concrete of the front porch.
  3. Front to back: Pippin, Jackson (whose tail is always up), Tucker.
  4. When the heat backs off a bit, I hope to return to this painting. Yeah, yeah, I could use the swamp cooler, but you may have noticed that I’d rather be gardening. When I actually do work on it, you will get to see some photos.
  5. This place has the most beautiful views of Moro Rock and Alta Peak.
    6. So does this place:

It is good to live in Tulare County this time of year (but remember, you don’t want to move here because often we have terrible air, we are all fat and undereducated, and there is no Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods.)

Why I Almost Fell Asleep

I almost fell asleep at my drawing table one afternoon because:

I got up really early to go walking.

Here is the lower Salt Creek crossing on the BLM land; I turned around here.

It was so beautiful out, not hot yet, and I was moving enough for the mosquitos to not catch me.

There are a few Farewell-to-Spring flowers alongside the road, along with Common Madia, and some Elegant Clarkia. (Just practicing the names so I don’t forget; only the Farewell-to-Spring show in this picture.)

We went to see the river.

Trail Guy and I walked to see the river, which is flowing fast and full.

The March floods took away the measuring stick. Since I didn’t know what those increments actually referred to, I don’t miss it. Yes, feet, but so often the river wasn’t touching the stick at all, and it still had measurable water in it, so go figure. . .

The buckeye are in bloom.

Rocks.

And then we moved a pile of heavy rocks. No photos.

And that’s why I almost fell asleep drawing for fun.

 

 

Drawing For Fun

A friend of mine drives for Sequoia Sightseeing Tours.* He had some passengers from Michigan and learned that one is an artist. So, he told her about me. Because people can’t get to Sequoia through Three Rivers right now (wrecked roads from winter floods), they sometimes don’t know how to spend their time. My friend suggested they visit my studio (not open to the public but open by appointment.) 

He called to ask permission to give them my contact information. I said yes, then I vacuumed the studio, made sure things were put away, and hung out the flag. 

I thought that it might be fun for them to see a piece in progress, so I opened up my flat file drawer labeled “In Progress” (Captain Obvious here) and pulled out a drawing that I started so long ago that I can’t remember when or why. I think it had something to do with drawing for fun.

I began working on it, realizing that I draw for money, not for fun. This is because:(1) if I drew for fun, there wouldn’t be as much time to do other fun things; (2) if I didn’t draw for money, I’d have to get a job; (3) if I drew for fun, those flat files would be so full that they wouldn’t open; (4) if I drew for fun, I wouldn’t have paintings to sell, only drawings; (5) if I drew for fun, I’d end up putting a ton of money into framing, and where would that money come from since I wouldn’t be drawing for money?

This is from a photo taken in 1997 and used to draw the little picture you see next to it. It is the light, shadow and detail that appeal to me. (This drawing was on the back cover of the dust jacket for The Cabins of Mineral King, by me and Jane Coughran, published in 1998, long since sold out.)

I looked up from the drawing and saw this out the window.

Back to the drawing board.

In spite of listening to an interesting podcast, I almost fell asleep at the drawing table. That’s because I got up really early to go walking. I’ll show you tomorrow.

P.S. The people didn’t call. Maybe they fell asleep. 

 

 

 

*If you take a tour with Sequoia Sightseeing, ask for Steven. He is terrific!