Big Water in Three Rivers (with random questions)

The recent storms in Three Rivers have been very exciting. Water can do damage, but it isn’t scary like fires. Fire is capricious and random, but water flows downhill and in obvious channels, so one can simply use caution and enjoy the power. Many friends have called or emailed to ask if we are doing okay, because Three Rivers was in the local news and even made the weather channel (causing my aunt in Arkansas to call to check up on us)! But we couldn’t afford riverfront property 24 years ago, and thus, we are doing just fine in the “rain events”. (When did rain stop being just rain or perhaps a storm and become an “event”?) 

Today I will simply show you a smattering of water photos. I walked to the Dinely Bridge in the rain several times, and we took lots of walks around the neighborhood. Trail Guy, formerly known as Road Guy, usually carried either a shovel or an iron rake, his waterology work a gift to the neighborhood. (When did people stop giving one another things and start “gifting” them?)

The photos are not identified by date, water flow, or location. There will be some redundancy, because after awhile, it became hard to tell when each photo was taken. Yes, I know there are dates on photos, but sometimes I just want to coast a little bit. (Have you ever tried writing a blog 5 days a week for almost 15 years?? If so, you know that sometimes a  blogger just wants to slide a bit.) They are just here for your gawking pleasure, minus the wet feet and shoulders. (When did raincoats and jackets stop being waterproof?)

Maybe next week I will do some work. Maybe next week I’ll learn when I get to start the murals at the big Catholic church in Visalia.  

 

 

Chasing the Water on the Mineral King Road

Yesterday we turned around at Lookout Point after walking up the steepest section of the Mineral King Road, and headed back downhill. 

Trail Guy, formerly known as Road Guy, explained that the old road above sloughed off and caused the disturbance that stopped our forward progress. This spot is ABOVE the gate and BELOW Lookout Point.

While he was puttering in the water and mud, I photographed these bay leaves. Too bad we can’t do scratch-and-sniff here.

This weird boulder with its odd indentations is just below where we stopped driving. AGAIN: Above the gate and below Lookout.

I walked down to White Rock, formerly known as Bird Poop Rock, which I explained at the beginning of this post.

Still ABOVE the gate and BELOW Lookout.

We encountered some folks along the way back, and while the dudes were shooting the breeze, I photographed this tree with peculiar bark clusters. (I have no idea. . .)

Ahead is a typical slump of a saturated bank, and beyond that are “the potholes”. This is BELOW the gate.

This is Squirrel Creek, AKA “The Potholes” in this location; it has big holes in the slippery rock face, normally visible and very enticing to folks driving down the hill. Fantastic water flow!

This section of road could be a bit of a problem for a HumVee or other wide vehicle. The county road department certainly has its work cut out for next few weeks (months?). This is BELOW the potholes.Here is another mess. Also below the potholes.

Look at what is happening along the gutter side of the road. I wanted to get out and play in the water, but we’d been gone long enough. 

All the rest of these photos are below the potholes above the Oak Grove Bridge

These folks will have some difficulty accessing their driveway for awhile. It isn’t a primary residence, the owners live far away, and I doubt if they will be too troubled or even know about it. “Whose drive this is, I think I know; his house is in the city though. He will not see us stopping here to watch his drive slide down the road.” (With apologies to Robert Frost)

What is going on here? That plant is shooting up out of the pavement. And so much for last summer’s pothole patching efforts.

Messy, messy, messy.

Let’s conclude this weird little road trip with a look at my favorite bridge. It has been quite a few years since I have been able to see the water because of all the growth obstructing the view. 

Thank you for joining us on this tour. Maybe next week I’ll get some work done and show it to you.

FOR CLARIFICATION: WE DID THIS LITTLE ROAD TRIP THE DAY BEFORE THE PARK ISSUED THEIR ROAD CLOSED DECREE.

One of the Mineral King webcams is working again: mkwebcam.

Chasing the Water in Three Rivers

We knew that the Mineral King road was closed, because it is always closed in the winter. However, we were curious as to how it fared in last week’s fierce storms. 

There were many places where mud had slumped down off the bank, but nothing photo worthy or a problem to a slow driver on an almost empty road.

Looks as if the flume needs a bit of work, just below the Oak Grove Bridge.

We crossed the bridge, went through the first gate (about 9 miles up the road), and then a mile or two later, decided we didn’t need to go any farther.

I waded across while Trail Guy put on his boots.

We then walked up the road to Lookout Point. Trail Guy was Road Guy before retirement, and he couldn’t resist doing a bit of work along the way. I asked lots of questions, trying to understand how he determined what needed to be done, and what was too much trouble for a shovel and an iron rake.

The view of Sawtooth from Lookout was very reassuring to those of us who prefer winters with a good snowpack.

This little section below Lookout is the steepest stretch of the road. Being somewhat unmotivated and definitely out of shape, walking to Lookout Point felt like enough of a walk, so that’s where we turned back.

Things are so open, so barren after the 2021 fire. It is a treat to be there when it isn’t hot and the air is clear.

A visitor, but he didn’t hang around for an introduction.

That’s enough for today. I will continue our little road trip along the Mineral King road in search of water (damage) tomorrow.

UPDATE FOR CLARIFICATION: These photos are posted in a strange order. The first ones of road collapse are BELOW Lookout Point, but ABOVE the gate. We walked up to Lookout Point, photographed Sawtooth, walked back down. I took a few photos on the way back to the Botmobile, then more photos of Trail/Road Guy doing a bit of shoveling. 

ONE MORE THING: We went the day before the Park issued their ROAD CLOSED decree.

Three Rivers in January

THREE Rivers? It is the Kaweah River, with four forks that flow into the main fork. They are called the Marble Fork, East Fork, Middle Fork (that’s the main one), North Fork, and South Fork. When the area was becoming a town, I think the Marble and East Forks were considered to be out of the area.

We live closest to the Middle Fork, so that is the area you will be seeing in today’s photos, all taken in early January on a rare sunny day. The rain has been abundant and regular. No complaints!

Moro Rock and Alta Peak as seen from our yard

Moss, as seen from our driveway

The Middle Fork of the Kaweah, as seen from a place of trespass

A road, where we trespassed

A water release from a place of trespass

A bridge over the water release

Patriotic chairs, as seen in our yard in the sunshine

Thus we conclude our little tour of Three Rivers on a rare sunny day after many welcome big rainstorms.

 

 

Winter is Confusing in Three Rivers

Three Rivers sort of has four seasons; spring is my favorite, summer seems to dominate, fall stays hot and is sometimes smoky, and winter is sunny and green, so it feels like spring very soon. It is confusing, when you hear and see snow, rain, ice, freezing temps all over the country.

This is what I mean about it being confusing.

I took all of these photos on Christmas Adam, Christmas Eve, and maybe Christmas Day too. 

Sunny Three Rivers

Often in winter when it is cold and gray down the hill, it is sunny in Three Rivers. On a sunny day in mid December, Trail Guy and I took a walk in the foothills of Sequoia National Park.

First, we had to go through a gate.

The whole walk was on a dirt road.

That bump on the left is Moro Rock; next to the right is Alta Peak.

I was going to remember the names of these ridges/peaks, but I already forgot. 

We turned around at Sycamore Creek. It was a short walk.

Those pokey rocks are Castle Rocks. 

If you live down the hill and get tired of the cold and gray, come to Three Rivers in the winter. We don’t have much winter here. Tomorrow I will show you a few more photos of how confusing winter can be here.

Ten Excellent Books I Recently Read

I read a lot. It’s my favorite thing. Always has been. 

The publishing company BookBaby recently posted an interesting (REALLY REALLY INTERESTING TO ME!) article about the different reading habits among 5 generations of Americans. (Turns out that although I am in the Boomers, my fiction preferences match the X-ers and nonfiction match the Silents.)

Salt & Light, or Reading Rabbit, oil on board, 11×14″, Not for sale

I keep track of most of what I’ve been reading on GoodReads, which I joined (it’s free) in 2013 (WHAT??? TEN YEARS AGO??) It is a great place to learn about books, to see what people you follow are reading and what they think about it. (It also has the unthinking quick rude opinions like much of social media, but you can skip that part.)

You can see how other people rate the books and you can also rate them from one to five stars. Because I know how enormously difficult it is to write a book, much less get it published, I have stopped rating books unless I have very strong reasons to give one star or if I really loved it and give it four or five stars. (I am difficult to please, and the fives are few.) 

Here is a list of books that I have rated four or five in the past several months, with links to their descriptions on GoodReads. I don’t think you have to be a member (with yet another dreaded user name and password) in order to see book descriptions.

All of these were library books except for #6.

  1. We are Called to Rise, Laura McBride. This is a novel with complete and believable characters that grabbed me in the heart. It’s one with individual stories of different people who all get tied together at the end.
  2. Kinsey and Me: Stories, Sue Grafton. I loved all the Kinsey books, the alphabetic mystery series with the main character you just wanted to hang out with. Sue died before finishing the alphabet, so I was thrilled to find anything at all that reconnected me with my fictional BFF.
  3. When Your Mother Doesn’t, Jill Kelly. This is another novel that grabbed me in the heart, where you just root for all you are worth for a happy ending. (Read it yourself—I’m not telling!)
  4. Normal Family: On Truth, Love, and How I Met My 35 Siblings, Crysta Bilton. Memoir is my favorite genre of nonfiction, and this is a strange strange story.
  5. How to Think, Alan Jacobs. Well written, thought provoking (duh), little glimpses of humor.
  6. Aging Faithfully, Alice Fryling. This one is deep enough that I had to write notes all throughout and read it twice. I also emailed the author to learn what her number is on the Enneagram (she counsels in this personality typing system) and her age when she wrote it so I could better understand her perspective. She replied! 
  7. The War That Saved My Life, Kimberly Brubaker Bradley. This is a kid’s fiction book (Young Adult?) based during WWII in England. It also has a sequel.
  8. As Bright As Heaven, Susan Meissner. A novel about the flu epidemic of 1918, published in 2018 BEFORE THE CORONA VIRUS! I love Susan Meissner’s novels, almost as much as Maeve Binchy. (Susan is alive and still writing.)
  9. Caroline: Little House Revisited, Sarah Miller. As a kid, I loved and reread Little House books. They were a guaranteed bookish escape when I couldn’t find anything new in the Ivanhoe Library in the kids section. This book shows another side to the Ingalls family adventures and characters, giving a more complete picture of their story. I gave this book 5 stars (but since the hourglass of my life is more empty than full, won’t be rereading it.)
  10. The Happiness Equation: Want Nothing + Do Anything = Have Everything, Neil Pasricha. (This is the man who writes the blog 1000 Awesome Things.) He helps to simplify big thoughts, and the book is full of practical charts that he calls “scribbles” which help you figure out things like how to make fewer decisions. I bought it so that I can write inside.

Do you have any book recommendations for me? Do you want to be “friends” on GoodReads? (Hi Donna. 😎)

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.)

 

A List With Links To Six Great Blogs

The past week has been full of random and varied posts, no particular theme. So, I will keep going on this while I wait for my next mural job to become a reality.

Today’s is a gift to you: a list with links to some of my favorite blogs. I don’t subscribe (because who needs more email?) but I just keep the list on the top menu bar of my internet window and check from time to time. 

I didn’t include anything political or faith-based. None of these uses offensive language; a few have ads, which are easy to scroll past. All write with completely original voices, humor, and wisdom.

  1. Marianne Willburn is a gardener and writer with a great way with words, along with subtle funny remarks that you might not even notice. Because she is on the east coast, many of her plants are unfamiliar or unsuited to Central California. She is very personable and has responded both to emails and comments from me. Since she grew up in the foothills of northern California, and we are very close in age, she feels like a friend I haven’t yet met.
  2. 1000 awesome things is written by Neil Pasricha. In order to cope when his life crumbled, he committed to finding something good in life for 1000 days. He has written a few books since; the only one I have read is called The Happiness Equation. These “awesome things” will often make you smile with recognition.
  3. The Frugal Girl is actually a grown woman, not a girl, in her 40s who has returned to school to become a nurse. She is delightfully honest and surprisingly optimistic, with a simple approach to almost everything. I want to hang out with her too.
  4. Raptitude is new to me. I don’t remember how I found it, and I don’t have a solid sense of who is writing it yet. But so far, I’ve found the short articles to be thought-provoking.
  5. Tim Cotton Writes is by a retired policeman in Maine with a great sense of humor, an excellent way with words, and a superb interviewee on, of course, Mike Rowe’s podcast. He has two books, neither one of which is available through the library so I have one on order at Thriftbooks, which I try to use instead of that big place whenever possible.
  6. Deborah Makarios—Old Fashioned Fruitcake is my newest find. I chased her down based on a comment on an article by the aforementioned Marianne Willburn. She lives in New Zealand and has a terrific sense of reality and humor. I think this one will be a keeper! 

I hope you find something here that rings your bell.

And finally, here is a cartoon I stole from the interwebs to share with you. It was too good to not share.

Eight Things Learned in December

  1. Do you know those little squares of scribbles that can be scanned to take you to a website? They are called QR Codes. Do you know that QR means “quick response”? Simple name for weird techie magic.
  2. Central Valley Holocaust Memorial in Bakersfield now has a wall made of 6 million buttons. Read about it here. A friend’s mother-in-law learned about the project and began collecting buttons. The idea is that upcoming generations don’t know about the holocaust, and the number 6,000,000 is just incomprehensible without a visual aid. This photo was taken by my friend of her mother-in-law. (Hi Carol and Fran!)
  3. Instead of simply burying my kitchen waste, I learned a new way of composting. This one uses a vertically buried 8-10″ diameter PVC pipe (about 1 foot tall), randomly drilled with holes. After an undetermined length of time, you end up with worm castings, which are considered gold for the garden. Time will tell.
  4. I experienced inflation in a live and shocking encounter. An 18-pack of eggs was $5.00 in the summer in Visalia, California, while it was still $2.50 in Salem, Oregon. In December, it was $6.78 at Winco in Visalia. And Trail Guy paid $9.99 for a package of 3 romaine lettuce hearts in Three Rivers. Holy guacamole!
  5. Acta is the name of the yearbook for Exeter Union High School. A friend sent me the photo from the 1957 version to ask if I knew where it was taken. I told him it was Vandever, the peak on the right side of Farewell Gap. But it was bothering me, because something was off. When I showed Trail Guy, we both saw it: the photo was flipped horizontally! When I flipped it over, it became the right version. It puzzles me how I was able to recognize it despite the backward orientation.
  6. I puzzled through why so many of my friends don’t read my blog, coming up with the following reasons, all guesses on my part and many overlapping: too busy, non-techie, overloaded with too many other things on their little machines, accustomed to more exciting things, annoyed that the photos don’t show up on their phones, already hear enough from me in person, not interested in art, not interested in Mineral King, they forget I have a blog, don’t know what a blog is, or find it to be boring. I am touched when people actually read it. THANK YOU!
  7. Some friends in Texas have a house in escrow on about 4 acres of land, in something called an “ag extension“. This means they have to do some paperwork about raising “meat animals”, actually raise some of those animals, and then they get their property taxes greatly reduced. So interesting. . . I cannot picture these friends raising anything except children (currently have 4 while planning for numbers 5 and 6), nor can I understand why Texas has such a program. If it were me, I’d raise chickens for the eggs and never be able to kill a single living creature except for some bugs (which I would not eat).
  8. The day before Christmas Eve (sometimes called Christmas Eve Eve) is called Christmas Adam. This makes me smile every time I think about it.

What did you learn in December?