Before & After - Some Of What We've Accomplished In The Past 9 Days...

Peggy and I have really been enjoying the past nine days of labor intensive outdoor work cleaning up mom's overgrown acreage under these big beautiful Utah skies.

The four photos below are before and after pictures of the orchard and a large fenced area at the back of her property which could be divided up between vegetable gardens and the raising of farm animals such as chickens & goats.

Much of this area was 4 to 6 feet deep in a thick nasty tangle of weeds, brush, & cockleburs, and quite a challenge to deal with, but we're getting there!

I must say here that, if this were my place, I'd have a herd of goats to manage the weed problems, to help fertilize the gardens, and to provide milk for drinking and the making of goat yogurt and cheese, and, that being said, we'll move on to the reality of the present circumstances.

Click on all photos to enlarge - © 2010 jim otterstrom

Weed Management With Infernal Combustion Machines!
Click on photo to enlarge - © 2010 jim otterstrom

Yes, we accomplished a lot in a very short period of time mainly because my mother has this little John Deere tractor mower that rose way beyond the task it was designed for, which is basically to mow big lawns, which is why mom bought it.
We were in dire straits here with too many chores to do and not nearly enough time to address them all in some sort of sustainable way before winter sets in.
So, I'm certainly not proud of the fact that we converted about 7 more gallons of fossil fuel (on top of what we blew through the U-Haul truck) into the C02 which is every day rendering our planet less habitable for humans.
But we came here to help my mother, and, at this point in time, I have to do that partly within the context which she lives, and, as I said above, if this was our place things would be done in a different way.

Weeds Ready For the Chipper/Shredder

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2010 jim otterstrom

Peggy and I brought our electric chipper/shredder with us because we knew there was going to be a mountain of stuff we could use for mulch and compost and we're just getting started with that.

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2010 jim otterstrom

This little pile is just the first trailer full of chipped and shredded weeds headed for the compost heap. The horse manure in the corral will be another essential ingredient.

Note the empty bottle of Negra Modelo in the John Deere's beer holder, sometimes it's so obvious that I'm just a redneck farmer at heart.

The above photos show only a part of the many problems we've had to address in these 9 days, from a huge overgrown lawn to runaway shrubbery and weeds in the flower beds around the house, to broken door latches, lost keys for important locks, automatic sprinkler malfunctions, a broken fitting in the plumbing for the well, and so many other things I've already forgotten.

But the three of us are having a lot of fun together and that's what's important.

Our Home Away From Home Here In The Bear River Valley Of Utah

Mom's House In Farm Country

Click on any photo to enlarge - © 2010 jim otterstrom

Peggy, Dallas, and my shadow coming home from our first 5 mile morning walk in Utah.

We'll be spending at least the next 6 months here helping my 85 year old mother out around the place.

Peggy and mom, still in their jammies, in mom's kitchen this morning.


Peg & Dallas on a morning walk along a crossroad near our new digs. We are headed back to the road mom lives on, which runs perpendicular to this one, about 1/4 mile east (the direction Dallas is facing) where we'll turn right for another 1/2 mile to get home.


Another view of mom's big house which she fell in love with about 5 years ago on a trip from California to visit her sister. She put a deposit on it, sold her house in the San Fernando Valley, and moved out here, lock, stock, & barrel, at 80 years of age.


Looking northwest through part of mom's orchard with our chickens still in their traveling cage. They have since been moved into a large makeshift coop.



A horse named Horse, whom belongs to one my mother's friends, resides on a back corner of the property. The view is to the west.

Looking north across the back 1/2 acre of moms property I can envision a huge vegetable garden at this end with chickens and goats inhabiting the far end.

We've already made the small shelter in the distance into a makeshift coop for our chickens, which we brought with us. This area lies just behind the orchard and large raspberry patch.

Looking northwest from the middle of the orchard which has varieties of apples, pears, peaches, cherries, and apricots. Below are a few pictures of the fruit we are now harvesting.

This pear tree is just loaded!

This apple didn't bear heavily this year but the fruit is sweet, crisp, and delicious.


This apple tree is heavily laden and we're planning on baking some apple pies here in the next few days.

More apples.



Horse with our makeshift chicken coop in the background.

Looking northeast across a view of the Bear River just a few hundred yards south of my mom's place. This is one of the places we go on our morning walks now.

A view to the northeast from the orchard fence. My mom's property ends where the cornfield starts and the raspberry patch is just behind where I was standing when I took the picture.

A view to the southeast with part of mom's raspberry patch in the foreground.

The raspberries were in dire need of water as were parts of the orchard, all the trees need pruning and there's much weeding and outdoor cleanup to be done.

That's why we're here and hopefully we can get much of that done before it snows and the ground freezes., we've already made quite a bit of progress.

~POSTSCRIPT~

To our friends who are trying to e-mail us. I have to contact Charter.net and set things up differently before I can reply or send e-mail, and, at this point, we are no longer receiving e-mail either.

Thirty-One Years Ago Today...

...On The Slopes Of Mauna Loa

Click on photo to enlarge - © 1979-2010 jim otterstrom

Big Brother Raids R-Own-Ranch & Condemns Property!!!

At Home On The Smith Family's

'R-Own-Ranch' in 1980 Click on photo to enlarge - ©1980/2010 jim otterstrom

Photo left to right; Thelma Smith, Edgar Smith (gramps), Karen Smith (Miller), Peggy Otterstrom, Jim Otterstrom, Ed Smith, Debra Smith, Clark Smith, with Boots & Chewbacca in front.

Just before Peggy and I moved to Big Bear this is where we lived, in that army surplus quonset hut, on the Smith family's 60 acre 'R-Own-Ranch', a secluded paradise two miles up a dirt road from Mulholland Drive in the Santa Monica Mountains near Malibu Canyon Road.

We moved here shortly after we were married, and the ranch is also where we started our own family, Jimmy came into the world during our time here.

We were quite happy living alongside this down to earth Old Calabasas family who welcomed us into their lives as if we were born & raised right there with them.

Most of us worked for the Post Office, either in Calabasas, or Woodland Hills, which is how we became friends, and we held many unforgettable postal gatherings up at the ranch---far from the rat-race---where people could relax and let their hair down without bothering the neighbors, because there weren't any.

At these large pot-luck get-togethers there was often live music provided by musician friends---from young rockers, to aging big band era players---the majority of whom were working at the Post Office too. The family also---long before my days there---had rigged up a fenced (with chicken wire), night-lighted (with salvaged flourescent fixtures), volleyball court, Ma & Pa Kettle style, where, old & young alike, would often play into the wee hours of the morning.

On more normal quieter nights, the family always gathered in the living room of the original old home-built house where four generations of Smiths would gregariously indulge themselves in hours of playing Scrabble, Monopoly, or any number of board, dice, or card games, until way into the night, and there was also a game room with a pool table off the living room overlooking the vegetable garden.

I loved sitting in on those games and listening to family tales about things like hiking miles to the old Calabasas School on a trail which led from the ranch, over the mountains, and down to the quaint little town of Calabasas. But, I don't believe I ever once beat my ol' buddy, Ed Smith, or his sister, Karen, at a game of Scrabble. Those two were just too damned sharp, but then again, they played the game almost every night for much of their lives.

That's the kind of thing families used to do when they lived in remote rural areas, far from the nearest neighbor, before cable or satellite TV, or computers.

I was absolutely charmed by this unassuming family of self-reliant old-fashioned folks who still lived---even during the 1970s, '80s, & early '90s---much as they had throughout the 1940s & '50s. I felt like I had come home, and I still think of them as family, and their 'R-Own-Ranch' as the country home I always longed for.

During our few years there most of the activity centered around the main house, which apparently came into existence around 1927---long before there were enforced building codes in those unincorporated areas---with several rooms obviously added on, maybe as late as the early 1950s. Also, of course, was the war surplus quonset where Peggy & I lived---which had been erected in 1956---35 years before the city of Calabasas was incorporated. And there were a couple of small trailers there too, available to family members who sometimes came and went depending upon their situations at any given time.

Living at the ranch was always an adventure, and definitely not for the faint of heart. The day we moved in was during the midst of a wet winter, and the private road leading up to the ranch had just washed out about a 1/2 mile down from the house, so Peggy and I had to trudge back & forth up that last muddy 1/2 mile with all of our belongings. That would've been late 1979, the year I bought my first 4-wheel drive Toyota, for obvious reasons.

The Smiths owned a tiny, ancient, rickety Caterpillar bulldozer which could, periodically, be patched into some semblance of working order to assist with road repair during washouts, which came in handy because the 1.2 mile dirt section of the road was almost completely wiped out twice during our 3 year stay at the ranch. Those are rewarding and memorable experiences in my life, working side by side with the Smiths to rebuild their road, and this is also when Peggy learned how to use a chain saw and I got to know her rugged hard-working side.

Then there were the fires. A couple of years before we moved to Big Bear a fire broke out to the north of us in the middle of the night, near highway 101, and we were awakened by a call from the fire department warning us to be prepared because it was moving in our direction.

There was a fire hydrant on the property near the main house---the cost of which was surely added to the R-Own-Ranch tax assessment, but the fire department would no longer allow their equipment up the narrow road to protect just one old house. They did however offer to provide us with some fire hose, a nozzle, and a bit of safety instruction if we wished to defend the place ourselves, an offer we gladly accepted.

Over that tense ensuing day the fire moved slowly toward us and some of the Smiths decided to drive down and talk with the firefighters stationed by the big fancy houses at the lower paved section of the road near Mulholland Drive, to see if they might change their minds about sending a truck up. What happened instead, was that a sheriff wouldn't allow the guys back up the road, which left me and Peggy, along with Thelma Smith, probably in her late 50s then, and her son Clark, in his early to mid teens, to defend the place.

I suggested to Peggy that she should leave and told her I was going to stay and fight the fire. She said, "I'm not going anywhere without you"! So, Peg and I followed the fire department advice, wrapping our heads & faces in wet towels as the fire advanced over the hill and moved in upon us. We kept the house and everything around it soaking wet, and when the smoke got too thick we'd adjust the nozzle to a fine spray over our heads and breathe, through the wet towels, the oxygen that was emanating from the misting spray of water falling around us. A few times I had to leave Peggy in charge of the hefty fire nozzle so I could run back to the quonset and use the garden hose to extinguish small fires that had ignited in knot-holes of the leafless deciduous 'Trees of Heaven' growing along the side of the metal building, which was otherwise rather impervious to fire. That's when I discovered how strong and courageous Peggy is.

The fire burned around us for a couple of hours but eventually moved on and the Smith homestead was spared for the time being. Then, in March of 1983, just a few days before Peggy & I moved away, another fire headed toward the ranch, and we were prepared to man the hoses again, but the previous fire had cleared most of the underbrush so this one just burned on past us.

Sadly, in 1996, a third fire finally burned the original family home to the ground while the Smiths stood by helplessly at the bottom of the road where the police, once again, wouldn't allow them up to defend their uninsurable property.

The quonset hut and trailers survived though, and members of the family, including Thelma's now 70 year-old brother, Lloyd Smith, and his son Gary, continued living on what was left of their scrappy beloved ranch, until, completely unannounced and unexpected, "on July 8th, 2010, the Calabasas Community Development Department, its building officials, code enforcement officers, other employees, personnel and agents, Los Angeles County Animal Control, and armed Sheriff’s deputies — a total of 14 people, eight of whom still remain unidentified despite requests for the City to identify them — descended en masse on one of Cold Creek’s founding families in the heart of undeveloped upper Stokes Canyon, 1.2 miles off the beaten track"*.

*Excerpted from the Las Virgenes Homeowners Federation August, 2010 newsletter. Read the whole creepy story about the raid here.

In more decent times and places, in an America once striving toward democracy, these human beings---long-time historic pioneering residents of their community---would've been treated with a modicum of courtesy and respect, instead of like common criminals. Their old non code-compliant homestead would've been considered grandfathered, and partially exempt from today's strict regulations, and they would've been officially notified as to whatever health & safety issues required immediate attention and given some time to come into compliance.

But no, 11 days after the raid the Smith family's electricity was cut off, and 7 days after that the water too, leaving 70 year-old Lloyd, and his son Gary, homeless. The bastards even came and capped off the fire hydrant!!!

Because, as you can plainly see, the Calabasas of today is a miracle of modern Capitalism, where destructive profiteering defines progress, and appallingly ugly subdivisions of enormous disgusting "mansions" are smeared all over the once lovely hillsides that the Smith kids wandered on their way to school.

There's no room in Calabasas any more for down home folks like the Smith family, or in the rest of the Santa Monica Mountains for that matter, it's all gone to shit now! And the robber barons who run the world these days don't even have the decency to come in and make the family a fair offer for their land. They just send in a bunch of lackey bureaucrats to do a little dirty work, raiding, condemning, and evicting elderly life-long residents, probably figuring they'll be able to get what they want for almost nothing, while these people are suffering under duress. And I sorely suspect they may well succeed, because ordinary folks just don't have the resources it takes to fight powerful monied interests.

Interestingly, this raid was conducted around the same time an out-of-state owner of 300 acres somewhere in the vicinity of the Smith property, was inquiring about having his land incorporated into the city of Calabasas for development purposes, and would it surprise anybody if the Smith acreage just happens to lie between his land and the rest of what is already contiguous to Calabasas?

Whether this turns out to be the case or not, you can bet your ass that somebody's got an eye on making big bucks off the corpse of R-Own-Ranch, where generations of Smiths, through their labors of love, toiled away for 60 some years on their remote little plot of paradise, enlarging their home, one room at a time, planting gardens, building ponds, repairing roads, paying taxes, and raising their kids, all by themselves, without the need for pre-schools, playdates, or ritalin.

As for the people who live in all those sterile new giant Calabastard enclaves---those anti-coyote, anti-clothesline, anti-cesspool civilized newcomers whose filth & excrement flows through a nasty maze of pipes to some oft malfunctioning sewage treatment plant before being dumped into the Santa Monica Bay; whose countless Hummers, Escalades, and Navigators foul the air above the sacred mountains I once called home---I feel sorry for you and can't even imagine living in one of those oversized crapboxes and calling it a home.

In my eyes R-Own-Ranch is a victim of the same corporate driven oppression which has subverted democracy all across America by buying off the government, rewriting the rules to benefit the rich, and redistributing the wealth of a once thriving middle class---who were the backbone of the country---to a small percentage of the population, which is why the gap between the rich & poor is wider today than ever before, and growing by the hour. Pure raw evidence of the class wars the entire world is in the midst of.

And, for the record, these are my own opinions, and neither my thoughts nor my memories were verified, approved, or authorized by any member of the Smith family.

My anger and indignation over human beings subjected to this kind of treatment is my own, and I'll speak my mind about it anytime I damned well please, especially when it hits this close to home.

Finally, to all the members of the Smith family; to Ed & Cindy, Karen & Dan, and all your kids; to Thelma, Lloyd, & Gary, and all the rest of you. Peggy and I hope you will find a way to get 'R-Own-Ranch' untangled from this nightmare. We will always feel like a part of your family and this is very painful for us too.

Edgar Smith in 1980Click to enlarge - © 1980/2010 jim otterstrom

The late, Edgar Smith, patriarch of R-Own-Ranch who bought the place in the 1940s.

'Smitty' in 1980Click to enlarge - © 1980/2010 jim otterstrom

The, late, 'Smitty', son-in-law of Edgar, husband to Thelma, was the sole rural letter carrier for Calabasas, delivering the mail to every residence for several decades.

Peggy in October of 1981 Click to enlarge - © 1981/2010 jim otterstrom

A very pregnant Peggy, with our goat, in front of the R-Own-Ranch vegetable garden in October of '81.

Peggy on Friday, November 13th, 1981 Click to enlarge - © 1981/2010 jim otterstrom

Peggy, in front of the quonset with Smith family dog, Chewbacca, about 16 hours before our son Jimmy was born, and check out the cat on the tin roof above the door.

Quonset Bathroom - 1981Click to enlarge - © 1981/2010 jim otterstrom

The quonset bathroom during a facelift I was doing on the place while we lived there.


Remodeling Our Bedroom - 1981
Click on photo to enlarge - © 1981/2010 jim otterstrom

Ed Smith, grandson of Edgar, son of Smitty & Thelma, helps me (in the middle) with the drywall in our bedroom while, Debra Smith, looks on from the doorway to the bathroom.

Peggy - 1981 Click to enlarge - © 1981/2010 jim otterstrom

Peggy, just days away from motherhood, poses for me in our newly remodeled bedroom in the quonset hut at R-Own-Ranch.

Postscript

If you think this post simply describes an unfortunate isolated incident please follow this link to see a short audio slideshow about ex-Marine & Viet Nam vet, Joseph Diliberti, a stunningly creative human being who may lose his 4 acre property in San Diego County, as well as his magnificent hand-crafted ceramic home, under somewhat similar circumstances.

This kind of stuff happens every day, to good people all around the world, who are victimized by the thievery of empire builders who are now beginning to run out of resources to steal; and by classism, elitism, racism, and sexism.

If you lived along the Yangtze River in China, they came and took millions of your ancestral homes for a huge dam to power the industrialists factories, an engineering monstrosity which, at best, will silt over in a dozen decades or so. If you live in Tennessee, they may soon come for the coal under your feet---if they haven't already done so---removing the mountian tops around your home, destroying the landscape and displacing the wildlife who live there, while ruining the watershed and poisoning your water and your air. If you live in Sumatra, and survive a tsunami, they will come and confiscate your land, replacing your fishing villages with luxury resorts. If you live in Central America, they will come and confiscate your homeland for banana or coffee plantations and put you to work in sweatshops making designer shoes or T-shirts for a few bucks a week. If you were a Native American, they might have brought you gifts, like blankets intentionally infected with smallpox, to kill off your people and take over your land with much less resistance. If you live in Iraq, they will come and destroy your country to procure the oil you're sitting on.

And the list of victimization goes on forever, from East Timor, to the Tar Sands of Alberta, Canada, to the Gulf Coast of America; from the brutality of the British, Spanish, Japanese, Russian, Chinese, & American empires, to the murderous history of religious fanaticism; from the Crusades, to witch burning in America, and the horrific radical muslim fundamentalism of the Taliban.

I believe, as Dan Quinn wrote in his best-selling novel, Ishmael, that some humans are takers, and some are leavers, and for the past 10,000 years or so, the takers have been winning big, but I think they are running out of time. The planet can't afford them anymore...

Vanishing Landscapes...

Old Mojave Homestead - March 11, 2010

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2010 jim otterstrom

Peggy watches the sun set from a crumbling Mojave Desert homestead along the Palmdale Road near Victorville, California during one of our rare road trips.

The picturesque old stone houses and wide open vistas in this part of the Mojave are disappearing quickly now as huge shopping centers and sprawling residential subdivisions creep across the landscape, burying the living desert, and it's history, beneath an unsightly scourge of human excess.

However, even the profound ugliness of rapacious growth and the grotesque spectacle of modern commerce are only temporary aberrations along the timeless course of life's evolution.

The light of the sun warms us with optimism at each dawn, and provides the opportunity for thoughtful introspection at the end of every rare and precious day, when the fireball of our solar system rolls beyond the horizon, often spreading a blazing display of color across this most beautiful of planets.

Death & destruction are cyclical and constant, yet life is a self-renewing resource, and time is on its side...

...as long as billions of stars continue shining their warm magic into the far corners of the universe.

Brief moments out of the vastness of time and space are all I have to share with you, miniscule observations from a tiny speck of the cosmos, but what a wondrous little speck it is.

No wonder it's currently overpopulated with almost seven billion consumers...

...this too shall pass.

Our 1915 Singer Red Eye Treadle...

Click on arrow in the bar above to watch the video © 2010 jim otterstrom

Peggy treadles away at our 95 year-old Singer Model 66 Red-Eye.

This reliable old machine was purchased something like 20 years ago from a local antique & junk shop for $75. It runs like a top, purrs like a kitten on steroids, and consistently sews a perfect stitch.

We also have a 1917 Singer Model 99 Hand Crank "portable", which also runs perfectly. The 93 year-old hand-cranker was found here at a Big Bear thrift store, where we gave $50 for it maybe 18 years ago. For my money these are two of the best purchases we've ever made, as these Singers seem nearly indestructible, and all you need to run them is a tiny bit of muscle power. I don't think technology gets much more elegant than this, I could wind bobbins all day just to watch the bobbin winder work!

Last summer we downsized our bed from a king size to a queen size (when we found a like-new second-hand mattress set for free) and, in this video, Peg is altering one of our old king size sheets to fit the new mattress.

Peg still has her fancy Viking electric machine but she's really enjoying working with the treadle right now, and getting some practice on it, because she wants to use it for her upcoming sewing project.

This post also seems the right place to share with you this post, at antiquequiltdating.com, about Anne Kusilek, a professional quilter and sewing machine collector who, since 1990, has done all of her sewing on human-powered machines. Did you check out Anne's custom sewing table with five machines mounted above five individual treadle bases? An inspiring post and a beautiful collection of machines too!

Anniversary...

...30 Years TodayClick on photo to enlarge - © 2009 jim otterstrom

Peg and I are celebrating our 30th Anniversary today.

And just how are we celebrating it?

By immersing ourselves in the common everyday beauty of our simple fragile lives, by taking an early morning walk with our beloved Dallas, and, by sharing a delicious home-cooked breakfast together out on the junk-shop patio before we get back to work painting the house and cleaning up the yard in preparation for winter...

To live a life of voluntary simplicity, "Simple in Means, but Rich in Ends", to borrow a phrase from the Deep Ecology movement, has been our goal for many years, and our commitment to that ideal strengthens with each passing day.

Extravagance and consumerism are not habits either of us find attractive, sustainable, or rewarding, but we did purchase a gift for ourselves which is in harmony with what we've accomplished thus far in our lifestyle changes.

Peggy has been researching Haybox Cooking and I've decided to build one for us in the very near future. So we bought ourselves a new Lodge cast iron 5 quart Dutch Oven (regularly $43.99, on sale for $26.99, with free shipping) which will be ideal for use with a Haybox.

Thirty Years...

...and you got Peggy a dutch oven???

Exactlioto Quasimoto, Peggy is the frugal one in our household, and I would've been in hot water had I gone out and squandered a wad of money on some lavish gift. Peggy is extremely down to earth and I really love that about her.

Remember, it was her idea to get rid of the car almost 13 years ago.

Thank goodness, because I wouldn't be the least bit interested in, or compatible with, a 'Material Girl'.

And tonight, after the day's work is finished, we'll be enjoying a nice hot bath together, a little massage, and then, who knows???

;~)

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY PEGGY SUE!!!

AND THANK YOU FOR ALL THE PRECIOUS YEARS YOU'VE SHARED WITH ME...

...another anniversary gift

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2009 jim otterstrom

Shortly before 7 A.M., during our walk this morning, three Great Blue Herons were congregating near the footbridge, two of them sitting on the railing. As we approached I was taking pictures and two of the giant birds flew off before I was close enough for a good shot. But this one here allowed me to get within 12 feet or so, staying there for a good long time while I snapped pictures and Peggy & Dallas looked on.

It's rare for a heron in the wild to allow a human to get this close, let alone two humans with a big black dog.

A gift indeed!!!

Alpine Pedal-Path Morning---Slightly Smoky

~Wildfire Smoke from Upstate~

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2009 jim otterstrom

For the past couple of mornings smoke has been blowing into the valley from the wildfires burning in the more northern parts of the state, near Santa Cruz, and Santa Maria, to name a couple of them.

We started off this morning intending to ride around the lake but breathing the smoke at our end of the lake (east) was already bothering us a bit, and when we saw how thick it was on the west side, over the dam and Fawnskin, we decided to alter our plan and ride the Alpine Pedal-Path along the North shore instead.

So, our near 20 mile planned ride turned out to be somewhere between 10 & 15 miles instead, but still very enjoyable, as you will see.

~Sagebrush Delight~

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2009 jim otterstrom

It seems that everything has it's benefits, the smoke from the fires made for a gently-muted light this morning, almost as if I had a light-diffusing color-saturating filter on my camera.

A Meadow Along The Bike Path
Click on photo to enlarge - © 2009 jim otterstrom

We stopped for awhile by a little stream to contemplate the soft loveliness of a smoke-tinged light falling on this meadow, all the time acutely aware that the sources of this very smoke are causing great anxiety in other parts of California ( and I hope our friends in those parts are out of harms way).

Ancient Juniper - A Veteran Of Many Wildfires
Click on photo to enlarge - © 2009 jim otterstrom

This Western Juniper (Juniperus occidentalis) along the bike path is probably somewhere between 500 to 1,000 years old, and possibly older, which means it has lived through many, many wildfires during its life, and, as raggedy as it looks at the base, it's still very much alive. One tough old tree!

Enjoy your day...

~HAPPY BIRTHDAY PEGGY~

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2003-2009 jim otterstrom

There may be some disagreement over which natural wonders qualify as the Seven Natural Wonders Of The World.

In my personal life, however, there is no question.

You

are

The Wonder Of My World

Thank you for these 30 years you have given me.

I Love You!

The picture was taken in a near empty Yosemite Valley on our way home from the Strawberry Music Festival in September of 2003.

Winter Solstice...

...A Quiet Dinner In The Round

Click on photo to enlarge - ©2008 jim otterstrom

Peggy and I toast each other last evening, over a bayberry candle, in celebration of the Winter Solstice, before enjoying a simple home-cooked 'Dinner In The Round'.

In honor of the shortest day of our four seasons, the official beginning of winter, we prepared three dishes, 'in the round'.

Our spinach bacon quiché with hominy, olives, and salsa, was decorated with the pagan Solar Cross, formed of bacon. The Solar Cross, a cross within a circle, is an ancient design symbolizing the four seasons defined by the solstices and equinoxes.

We made cornbread with jalapeno peppers, corn, cheddar and jack cheese added to the mixture. The cornbread was also decorated with the Solar Cross, this time in thin strips of jalapenos.

The third round-dish was tostadas with refried blackbeans on corn tortillas buried beneath the fresh red and green yuletide colors of lettuce, tomato, avocado and salsa.

We also shared a bottle of Red Bicyclette Pinot Noir (2006) in honor of the human powered bicycles which have been our secondary mode of transportation for nearly 12 years now (our primary mode of transport is our feet).

The dinner was delicious and we very much enjoyed our quiet peaceful evening together.

Peggy is falling asleep...

Click on photo to enlarge - ©2008 jim otterstrom

...goodnight all

A Peggy Picture...

Indian Blanket Flower

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2008 peggy otterstrom

Peggy caught this image of an Indian Blanket Flower (Gaillardia pulchella) yesterday evening as the sun was lowering in the sky over Earth Home Garden. Indian Blanket Flower (also known as Firewheel) is a hardy drought-tolerant perennial wildflower native to the Plains States. It's also the State Flower of Oklahoma.

Ours come from a wildflower seed mixture I planted over 20 years ago about where the giant rock birdbath is now. We've enjoyed their reliable profusion of summer color scattered throughout the garden ever since.

YES, WE CAN!

Click on image to enlarge - Logo © Obama '08

Modifications conceived by Peggy Otterstrom and rendered by Jim Otterstrom on Valentines Day, 2008.

~An Open Letter To Our Friends~

Dear Friends,

Many of you know Peggy and I don't usually get involved in political campaigns, but I believe this election is the most important of our lifetime.

As Americans, we have a clear choice in how we face the next several years. Very difficult years where we must deal creatively and constructively with huge challenges, including climate change, environmental degradation, growing anti-American sentiment, increasing resource scarcity, peak oil and a faltering economy.

We need new ideas, and a sense that America can cooperate with the rest of the world in addressing our very urgent problems, by some means other than unilateral pre-emptive perpetual war.

Right now we have the chance to choose a president who is honest, personable, intelligent, courageous, wise, and hopeful, a man of the people with fresh ideas. Or, we can continue onward with politics as usual and the failed policies of the status quo.

Barack Obama spoke eloquently against the War In Iraq from day one, while Hillary Clinton voted for it.

This is a needless and costly war where nearly 4,000 Americans have already lost their lives, along with countless thousands of innocent civilian Iraqi men, women, and children.

We have squandered nearly a half-trillion dollars of our hard-earned money on this war so far, enough to have rebuilt much of the deteriorating public infrastructure of the United States, our crumbling highways, bridges, levees, power grids, hospitals etc.!

America was once respected around the world as a Beacon Of Freedom, but now we are more often feared as self-serving war-mongers bent on world domination.

We need strong visionary leadership that also understands the struggles of the average person. Someone who believes in Democracy and will work to restore our credibility on the world stage with good will and diplomacy instead of threats and violence.

A lot of people have stopped believing that is even possible, but we support Barack Obama because we believe he can be that leader.

His grassroots funded campaign for the presidency is unparalleled in history and our need for an honest, fresh-thinking leader could not be more urgent.

Americans are hungry for change and Barack Obama will bring that change when he is elected.

If you still believe that ordinary people can make a difference please take a moment now, and click here to visit our Obama '08 fundraising page, to make a donation of any size, $5, $10, $25, whatever you can do.

It all adds up, and this is how Barack Obama has come so far, with support from average people like you and I.

Thank You,

Jim & Peggy Otterstrom

A few days ago Peggy asked me to design a T-shirt for her with the Obama Campaign Logo.

She wanted one created in rainbow colors over a sunburst with her own slogan, "Obama Gives Me Hope".

I took a picture of the sun and then spent a couple of hours playing in Photoshop to turn her idea into reality. The designs above, and on her T-shirt below are the results.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY HONEY,

YOU GIVE ME HOPE!

Click on photo to enlarge

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PEGGY!

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2008 jim otterstrom

Today is Peggy's Birthday and she shares it with two other great human beings who were also ahead of their times with unconventional forward thinking ideas, Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin.

Abe & Charlie were both born on February 12th, 1809. Peggy was born a bit later.

~Happy Birthday Honey~

;~)

Dallas With Snowflakes...

...On The Porch This Very Morning

Click on photo to enlarge - © 2007 jim otterstrom

Dallas, at 9:30 this morning, watching me from the porch with his chin resting on the lower railing.

Snow is falling lightly, Peggy is curled up on the couch downstairs reading Naomi Klein's 'Shock Doctrine', there's a warm glow coming from the woodstove and John Fahey is playing guitar on 'Robinhood Radio'.

I'm upstairs enjoying the peaceful ambiance of home on a Saturday morning while I sit at the computer restoring some ancient family photos in Photoshop and finishing up the Acorn Class post which will be on the blog sometime today!

Now David Lindley and El Rayo X are coming through the old Sansui with 'Tiki Torches At Twilight'.

Our 30 year old Sansui 9090DB receiver, and matching 1977 Sansui 5000A speakers, seem right at home with the nearly 13,000 hand-picked tunes playing through them by way of that new-fangled i-Pod gizmo hooked up to the system.

POSTSCRIPT

The songs below were also heard on our own homegrown Robinhood Radio today as the minutes ticked sweetly away...

Get Up, Stand Up - Bob Marley

Hip-Hugger - Booker T & The MGs

Dragalevska Ruchenitsa - Traicho Sinapov

There's A Moon Out Tonight - The Capris

Run Pete Run - Jimmy Martin

Raunchy - Bill Justis

Two Hearts - Chris Isaak

That Growling Baby Blues - Blind Lemon Jefferson

The Fool On The Hill - The Beatles

Ti-Pi-Tin - The Andrews Sisters

Prairie Lullabye - Jimmie Rodgers

Choo Choo Ch' Boogie - Asleep At The Wheel

Dancing In the Dark - Cannonball Adderly

Saucy Sailor - The Wailin' Jennys

Carry On - Crosby, Stills & Nash

C'est Un Mauvais Garcon - Baguette Quartette

Blue Suede Shoes - Elvis Presley

Blue Motel Room - Joni Mitchell

Ain't Enough - Guthrie Kennard

This Masquerade - George Benson

The Devil's Great Grandson - Sons Of The Pioneers

No Ordinary Love - Sade

In The Rhythms - Nobuko Miyamoto

Swanee River - Oscar Aleman

He's Funny That Way - Billie Holiday

Walk Between Raindrops - Donald Fagen

Spadella - Spade Cooley

Can't Feel At Home - The Carter Family

Come See About Me - The Supremes

Coal Creek March - Pete Seeger

Rock Island Blues - Lewis Black

When You Come Back Down - Nickel Creek

It Had To Be You - Billie Holiday

Mademoiselle Will Decide - Jools Holland's Rhythm & Blues Orchestra with Mark Knopfler

Khar-Shabi - T. Fazylova

I Betcha My Heart I Love You - Bob Wills & The Texas Playboys

Abilene - Dave Alvin & The Guilty Men

That Nasty Swing - Cliff Carlisle

Rollin' & Tumblin' - Canned Heat

Working Class Hero - Beatle Jazz

People Are Strange - The Doors

Opus 57 - David Grisman

Truck Driver's Blues - Cliff Bruner & his Boys

And So It Goes - Graham Nash

Just Like Starting Over - John Lennon

Hobo's Lullaby - Arlo Guthrie

Disgusted - Lucinda Williams

Em Mi Viejo San Juan - Los Panchos & Noel Estrada

I Know That You Know - Lionel Hampton

Mistreated Blues - Jimmy Gordon

Cookie Man - The Jazz Crusaders

Blue Light Boogie - Taj Mahal

El Paso - Marty Robbins

My Uncle - The Flying Burrito Brothers

I'll Be Ready When The Great Day Comes - Teddy Bunn

Driftin' - Eric Clapton

Contemporary Blues - Barney Kessel

The Day You Came Along - Jimmy Rowles

Carmelita - Linda Ronstadt

Viavy Raoxy - Henry Kaiser & David Lindley

I Wish It Would Rain - The Temptations

Beautiful Delilah - The Kinks

Cryin' Shame - Lyle Lovett

Lookin' For A Leader - Neil Young

Chains Of Love - J.J. Cale

Just Waitin' - Hank Williams

Ain't Got No Home - Clarence 'Frogman' Henry

Follow Me Home - Dire Straits

Take A Whiff On Me - Woody Guthrie

One World - Dire Straits

Las Cuatro Milpas (Four Little Cornfields) - Mariachi Coculense de Cirilo Marmolejo

Vaseline Machine Gun - Leo Kottke

4 on 6 - Lee Ritenour

Lucky Thirteen Blues - Brother Yusef

Keep It Clean - Charley Jordan

When The Sun Goes Down - Leroy Carr

Cold Blooded Murder #2 - Bumble Bee Slim

Nocturno - Andrés Segovia

The Roundup In The Spring - Martin Roberts

Slow Walk - Bill Doggett And His Combo

Blue Flame - Elvin Bishop

Almost Cut My Hair - Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young

Man In The Long Black Coat - Bob Dylan

Give Me One Reason - Tracy Chapman

Can't Put A Bridle On That Mule This Morning - Julius Daniels

I Can't Believe You're In Love With Me - Hot Club Of Cowtown

Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavor? - Lonnie Donegan

Mosadi - The Crusaders

With A Little Help From My Friends - The Beatles

Don't Get So Down On Yourself - Chris Isaak

Wrong Man Blues - Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee

What'd I Say - Jerry Lee Lewis

Morning Train - John Prine

Muskadine Blues - Little Walter & Baby Face Leroy

Tralala - Mark Knopfler

Blue In Green - Miles Davis

Gotta Serve Somebody - Bob Dylan

Hattie & Janelle - Joe Craven & Rob Ickes

Love Is A Rose - Neil Young

Oh Carol - Chuck Berry

Creepin' In - Norah Jones

Dance Me To The End Of Love - Madeleine Peyroux

...and, there you have it.

Nearly an entire day of Robinhood Radio (at least what I remembered to write down) as presented by the iPod at Earth Home Garden while Jim caught up on computer stuff, and Peg finished her book.

Goodnight all, it is now 10:03 P.M.