A New Idea

What if 3 people requested reprints of my photos in the last several months? What if I realized that within my photo archives of 15,886 images there are a few really good pictures? What if I contacted my web designer and asked her to add a photo page?

IT IS HERE! Photographs

Autumn in Mineral King 4

A little bit of information about the page:

1. It currently only has fall photos (with one exception).

2. I have to decide how to organize and categorize all the photos.

3. The photos will be ordered for you as you order them from me – they are not “in stock”.

4. They will only be available in 8×10, unframed, and will be $15 each.

5. Thank you Cathy, Melissa and Dianne for inspiring me to do this!

Mineral King Bridge Painting, 3rd Layer

Branches and leaves on the cottonwoods, a pine in the right foreground, and some branches added to the red firs back by the cabins.

Sounds like a lesson in native trees of Mineral King. Might be, if I knew what sort of pine that is. Bet it isn’t a pine but is another red fir.

There is more to be done. There is always more to be done.

Sounds like a life lesson.

(Hey Mr. Google, this post is about a Mineral King oil painting, a commissioned oil painting, and I am a California Artist. Just sayin’.)

Mineral King Bridge Painting, 2nd Layer

Getting better all the time (wasn’t that a song by Chicago?)! Certainly isn’t a Bridge Over Troubled Waters. Long Way There is certainly correct for the road, and Long and Winding Road  is even better. Wait – it was called Getting Stronger Every Day by Chicago!!

Clearly I digress. This is about visual art, not auditory art.  Here, have a look at the painting after round 2:

It will take at least one more layer to get the colors, textures and shapes right, and then I can start the leaves on the cottonwoods. (Those are the trees on the left).

Mineral King Bridge, Final Chapter!

On October 20, there was an all employee meeting for Sequoia and Kings Canyon people. The facility manager for roads and trails (Hi JT!) said this: (no quotes because I wasn’t actually there, being a California artist rather than a federal worker) Of all the numerous Federal Highways projects ongoing in the Park, the Mineral King bridge is the only one completed on  schedule.

In addition, it is the only one done by park employees, which come at a fraction of the cost of an outside contractor. YEA, MARSHMALLOW HEADS! Nice work, gentlemen!

These On Schedule Park Guys are attaching the running boards. This is where the tires will go, not on the beautiful boards shown in the last post. However, I suspect that big yellow machine put its filthy tires on those boards. Hmmmph!

This sweet little red machine can’t reach the running boards! No more little footbridge for you, Red Quad.

Wave to the nice man in the parade, boys and girls! It is always good when the boss is happy.

Sorta weird, no railing yet.

It is very pretty. It is very narrow. It is driveable. It isn’t completely finished. It has to wait until spring and summer for the total totality. Totally. The end.

Mineral King Bridge, Part 16

These fine gentlemen are using our extension ladder and Kirk’s waders and Michael’s waders to secure bolts underneath the bridge. Good thing Michael was around with his stuff to keep our hardworking bridge builders in the tools they needed! And look – those are Ryan’s waderless legs!

This is just cute.

WHOA! This bridge is BEAUTIFUL. Okay, off with your shoes – no tracking dirt onto this gorgeous piece of work.

I mean, come on! Are you really telling me people will be going across this with filthy tires and dirty hiking boots? I can’t bear it. I simply cannot.

Mineral King Bridge, Part 15

You may recall that the estimated date to have the bridge be passable is October 20. That’s today! When we last left our Marshmallow Heads, they had successfully placed all 4 stringers. So, what is going on in this photo??

Give up? The pre-drilled holes on the stringers did not line up with the holes on the horizontal cross pieces. Oh man, I hate it when that happens.

This is just a scenery shot. I am a California artist, and I appreciate the scenery of my mountains. (Just sayin’, in case Mr. Google has started to forget me.)

Lookie! The first deck slab is in place! (See the floating Marshmallow??)

This hardworking Marshmallow Head is using a rock bar to set the carriage bolt into the slab.

Here comes another one. These units weigh “several hundred pounds”, so a Big Yellow Machine places it with the help of a few good men and one who isn’t wearing proper head garb.

More scenery, because it is just so beautiful.

Guess this will have to be continued tomorrow, because I like the power of keeping you all hanging. Sometimes I am just mean like that. Not only am I mean, sometimes I can’t count either. This problem shows up from time to time in my knitting, and occasionally in my checkbook. In this blog, you may have noticed, as Craig did, that there is no Part 10 in this series.

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 13

The telehandler is swinging I-beam #2 into place. The chain is perfectly balanced, so the 3000 pounds move as easily as 3. Maybe not, but you get what I mean, right?

The marshmallow head is there to place it exactly where it belongs.

The lower shelf is the old abutment. The newer abutment is 1 foot higher.

This is the Work Leader, Ned. His marshmallow is toasted so you can distinguish him from the rest of the crew.

Are you ogling the scenery again? I don’t blame you!

2 down, 2 to go! Nice work, Marshmallow Heads!

Mineral King Bridge, Part 12

My favorite marshmallow head arrived just in time to take this beautiful photo of the last third of the bridge. (Lest you think he was lollygagging around, he was hauling up a load of stuff.) These marshmallow heads are rigging the last section to the telehandler (not to be confused with a teleprompter).

See that big yellow machine? It is the telehandler, a forklift on a telescoping arm with a 45′ reach. (Oh yeah, call me Mrs. Marshmallow Head – I get this stuff!)

Cool, hunh?

Those stringers don’t look half bad from this angle. I refer you back to Mineral King Bridge, Part 7. If the really crumbly parts are sawed off, the rest of the stringers will probably find a second life somewhere else in The Park. And, oops, did we drop an I-beam?

The pieces are stacking up. My favorite marshmallow head will haul them down the hill on a trailer. That isn’t really a load I want to meet on the Mineral King Road.

There goes the I-beam. That was just kind of stuffed underneath the bridge when Federal Highways came through in 2009 and had a cow. Those concrete pads are part of that era, and have to be cleaned out. My favorite marshmallow head donned his waders and spent some time in the stream arranging chains around them. Since he was the photographer and it is my camera and I don’t really want it to get wet, you don’t get to see that part. Besides, he is sort of modest and doesn’t want to show off too much.