Mineral King Bridge, Part 14

Before we begin our bridge update, have a look at view as of Saturday, October 15. The fall color is a little slow to appear this year. If you have the patience to follow this posting all the way to the end, you will be rewarded with 2 more scenery views. (or just scroll on ahead if you simply cannot control yourself!)

All four stringers are in place. Here you can see them from either end. It is fun to walk across the creek on the bridge. Not that i would know or would even dream of crawling under the bright pink caution tape. I did witness one knitter walk across the creek on an I-beam. Yes, I said, “knitter”. She is reported to have completed 5 stitches while crossing the creek.

Remember the blog entry about the cracked and drooping abutment? Here it is again, to reinforce the understanding that a new bridge was in order.

Michael, my husband who drives big yellow machines and wears green pants and a marshmallow head hardhat during the work week, is much more comfortable in his regular clothes and straw hat. Nevertheless, he is always ready to explain the work project, regardless of his attire. Here he is with our cabin friend, Glen. (Glen is the one who takes care of the Mineral King webcam.)

Thank you for your attention to the current lesson on bridge building. Here is your reward:

Mineral King Bridge, Part 6

I walked to the bridge with my camera to document the progress and was completely baffled by something. How did  the loader get on the opposite side of the bridge from last week?? There is a mess where the abutment belongs – it isn’t drivable! I scoured the creek for tracks – How did it cross the river??  Some 3-dimensional things are just a bit beyond my 2-dimensional artist mind, too vast and complex for non-big-yellow-machine-drivers such as myself.

See? a big non-drivable gap is between the bridge and the road!

I know the view is distracting, but try to pay attention here. Do you see the ends of the stringers? That is Road-speak for the long pieces that span the river beneath the deck boards, which is Road-speak for the parts that your tires touch when you cross the bridge.

I’ve heard murmurings that the bridge rebuild project was unnecessary. There were times when I too wondered if it was governmental overkill. Let’s have a closer look at the stringers:

Hmmm, sort of crumbly!

See the stringers on the other side? Stop ogling the view – I’m trying to show you something important here!

Not only are the stringers crumbly, look at this sill! That is Road-speak for the concrete wall thingie that isn’t actually an abutment. It was cracked and the bridge was sagging on either side! It is now patched, which will prevent water leakage into the new abutment.

You are probably exhausted from this overwhelming amount of information, mysteries, Road-speak, and shocking realizations that the bridge was indeed in need of replacement. Rest up for tomorrow when our bridge lessons will continue.

My Wild Life

Living in a small rural community in a small rural county gets a little exciting at times. It isn’t as though I battle wildfires (please, God, spare us that), and there have been no rattlesnakes this season.

But, sometimes it rains very very hard. This was about 2 weeks ago:

My wipers were on the highest speed, the defroster fan was on the highest speed, and I finally gave up trying to see and pulled over for a bit.

Then, there is the wildlife. This was on the way down the hill to teach drawing lessons:

There are about 2 dozen in this herd. Herd? Flock? Flock! Wild turkeys are funny, unless they are sitting on one’s car inside the garage or flapping at you as you try to walk past. Gobbling sometimes gets them a little worked up. (It’s not something you want to try if there are normal people within earshot.)

And the deer are plentiful. Cute, but not when they eat my geraniums (technically pelargoniums) and I don’t really like them hanging out on my front porch eating catfood either! But, it is very neat-o to see them in the yard. (Yes, I said “neat-o”!)

Mineral King Bridge, Part 5

Here is a peculiar sight. The fan carries away toxins created by the welding of galvanized metal. Who knew?

Isn’t this a nice photo? These 2 men have worked together for years. Kind of just warms your heart, no?

This one is even better! It is my personal favorite. This man would rather be climbing Vandever than contemplating matters of consequence while wearing a uniform beneath it. Gotta commend him on his work ethic – knows the cabin folks are counting on him to be there for them on this project.

And here is one more peculiar sight for you to puzzle over. Hey Sawtooth Six, you paying attention??

Mineral King Bridge, Part 4

The next day I counted 10 folks at one time working on this project! (Pay no attention to the truck and trailer on the bridge.)

Most of the guys wear hard hats that resemble marshmallows. These aren’t all that helpful, since there isn’t anything crashing on anyone’s heads except harsh sunlight. Michael is wishing for his signature straw hat at this job site.

It was a fantastic day of clear sunlight and great views.

Supervisor Kirk told me it was just a bunch of overgrown boys playing with oversized tinker toys and legos. Maybe, but the project is very extensive and detailed and planned. This bridge will stand for a very long time.

Looks as if they are all working for Caltrans, but they are waiting for the next load of fill. This abutment has many layers of material.

See?

To be continued tomorrow, same time, same place.

Mineral King Bridge, Part 3

The drive up the hill provided one of the best views I’ve ever seen of Sawtooth. This California artist misses no opportunities to record paintable scenes!

I arrived at the end of a work day, which means I met about 6 or 8 giant trucks of Park folks. They were all courteous drivers, and we waved as we passed, each one of us correctly on our own side of the very narrow road.

Michael’s commute is the shortest, so he was still at work sorting things out at the site. (Pay no attention to the giant yellow machine on the opposite of the bridge that used to prohibit 4 tons.)

To be continued in a really long entry with lots of photos tomorrow. . .  stay tuned!

An afternoon in Sequoia National Park

A pair of friends backpacked from Mineral King to Crescent Meadow. Michael (my husband) brought their van down to Three Rivers, and I drove up to Giant Forest to pick them up 6 days later.

Much has changed in Sequoia National Park over the past 10 or 15 years. I followed Clueless Clive from Illinois for the entire trip up. He was clueless about the fact that if someone catches up to you, she is driving faster than you are. He was clueless about the purpose of turnouts to allow the faster follower to pass.

We waited for 15 minutes at this lovely view spot for the light to turn green.

Light? on the road to The Park? Yep, road work is now a regular part of a trip to The Park, and it includes delays, torn up road, single lane stretches, and no view from Amphitheater Point because it is full of construction equipment.

Then, when the downhill traffic has passed, the light turns green and everyone proceeds in a pack for the rest of the drive.

Despite the delays, I arrived early so I thought I’d just drive out to Crescent Meadow to meet the hikers there, instead of in Giant Forest as previously arranged. Nope. The road is closed on weekends unless you are a bus.

Waiting is rarely a problem for me.

There are huge redwood benches where you can wait for a bus or shuttle, breathe exhaust and cigarette smoke, and listen to idling diesel engines and many languages. The many languages part hasn’t changed. I recognized German, Spanish and Chinese. Okay, I figured out those were the languages, but only recognized specific words in Spanish.

“OSO!” Since I had a close encounter with an “oso” last week, I remained on my giant redwood bench while people ran toward him. (When the oso stepped a foot into my cabin last week, I was less than hospitable toward him, and wasn’t interested in meeting his cousin.)

It was 9/11 and there was a flag at half-mast in front of the Sentinel Tree. This is the same place where I met President Bush #43 in May of 2001. Security was looser then. We were all less worried, and younger and more innocent about bad things happening to good people.

Quite a bit of knitting was accomplished before my friends appeared from one of the shuttle buses. I enjoyed the time without demands, phone, computer, or clocks. A good time was had by all.

Isn’t this a precious father-daughter photo?

List of Random Subjects

Not For Sale. Pencil on Paper. Approximately 5×7″. Currently Untitled.

Today is a list of thoughts for my regular readers. Irregular readers may peek too. (Take that any way you wish.)

  1. Congratulations to Sophie, Leslie, and Kim on winning a prize. They were the first 3 folks to subscribe by email via a new gadget installed by my oh-so-capable web designer. It is under the FEED ON thing on the left. “Feed on?” It is more of that computer talk which takes normal words and makes new meanings, leaving literalists such as myself mumbling to ourselves.
  2. I just chased Bambi off the front porch. Speaking of FEED ON, he is developing a taste for and a dependency on cat food. His mom posed for me at a distance.
  3. A blog I subscribe to called Blogging With Amy explained how to use a new gadget called “Press This”. Why do you care? It is the reason you are seeing quotes from other blogs on my blog. There is so much interesting  and inspirational information out there, and this is a great way to share with others.
  4. I love to blog.
  5. Almost as much as drawing.
  6. Definitely as much as painting.
  7. Oh No. I’m picking up horrible grammar habits from reading too many blog.
  8. Tatting is a dying art; so is spelling correctly and using good grammar.

Thank you. I’m glad we had this little talk. Bambi’s Mom eavesdropped too.

Why I Make Art, A Postscript

Wow, the word “postscript” has 5 consonants in a row.

Today’s post is borrowed from Jon Acuff, who borrowed from Steven Pressfield. I’m not sure of the exact etiquette of this borrowing business but think it is okay if credit and links are provided. This was so timely and so in line with my thoughts that I wanted you to read it too.

It’s hard for me to describe what a gift that book was. I’ve underlined most of it, dog eared page upon page and constantly re-read it. Designed with short, powerful essays on the creative process and the threat of what Pressfield calls “Resistance,” the War of Art is easily one of my favorite books of all time. Here’s a section I really liked:

The Artist’s Life

Are you a born writer? Were you put on earth to be a painter, a scientist, an apostle of peace? In the end the question can only be answered by action. Do it or don’t do it. It may help to think of it this way. If you were meant to cure cancer or write a symphony or crack cold fusion and you don’t do it, you not only hurt yourself, even destroy yourself. You hurt your children. You hurt me. You hurt the planet.

You shame the angels who watch over you and you spite the Almighty, who created you and only you with your unique gifts, for the sole purpose of nudging the human race one millimeter farther along its path back to God. – Steven Pressfield

Creative work is not a selfish act or a bid for attention on the part of the actor. It’s a gift to the world and every being in it. Don’t cheat us of your contribution.

Give us what you’ve got. – Jon Acuff

via A book that changed how I look at creativity. | Jon Acuff’s Blog.

Isn’t that powerful and motivating and guilt-relieving (or inducing if you aren’t doing your thing)?

Why I Make Art, #6

This is the final posting of this series, Why I Make Art. READER WARNING: I will talk about God in this so if it bores/irritates/offends you, skip this post.


I am made in the image of the Creator. He, the Ultimate Creator, created me to be like Him, which includes the desire to create. (No, no, no, I don’t think of myself as Godlike!!)

Clearly I do not have the ability to speak things into existence, nor the ability to make something entirely original. “What was will be again, what happened will happen again. There’s nothing new on this earth. Year after year it’s the same old thing.” Ecclesiastes 1:9-10, The Message

I also do not have the unlimited ability to make millions of variations of the same item, nor endless items.

My work is imitative, derivative,  just a way I have of reflecting back a little glory to God. It is my way of expressing the joy I find in light, shadow, shape, color, texture, scenes, and gratitude for ordinary daily gifts.

(Clearly I am missing the cooler temperatures, brighter colors and higher water of Springtime!)