MISTY MORNINGS AND A MUSTANG.

A wild mustang occupies the other side of the fence from my front yard in Oregon, where my son built me a house.

I was lucky to find Susan Scott to work with me, painting and cleaning out my storage building. She also hand-picked designated  weeds for me, since I don’t spray anything poisonous on my property. She was helping me get a picture of this wild horse, who won’t hold still for a picture.

She dropped the carrot, but I caught the tattoo on the horse’s neck from the BLM round-up and sale. She is temporarily pastured here to munch down the weeds and she is doing a good job. Why I didn’t take time to shoot the work we did? My brain doesn’t always function on all four cylinders.

Saturday morning turned out to be cool and I started for home late, after 8 a.m. and dawdled, enjoying the beautiful mists that drape the mountain sides surrounding Evans Valley.

My neighbors get mists like these since they live on the river side of the road.

Beauty that burns off within a couple of hours.

About the time I snapped this photo, the weather report warned of snow over the pass and I had to quit dawdling and press the metal.

Then I had to stop again for this photo. I’ve never seen Mt. Shasta surrounded by a ring of clouds.

Glimpses of Shasta poke through periodically as you drive. The best view is from Weed Airport, on the opposite side of the freeway.

The mist lifted as I got within range. Even from the wrong side of the freeway, with the light shining on my camera’s viewing screen, I took the picture out the window-blind. She is a stunning piece of nature and I have better pictures of her than this. I have to return in a couple, maybe three weeks, to finish the storage building. I need the sheet rock taped and textured and painted before the electric fixtures are installed. I finished the inside because it was so hot in the afternoons and freezing in the mornings. It stored things, but no one could work inside of it. When finished, my building will have a place to rinse brushes and plug-in and use power tools.

The Evans Valley is turning into a very popular place for permanent residences and I keep meeting new neighbors every trip I take. Like Susan.  I also brought home with me a new boyfriend. More, tomorrow.

CATCHING UP WITH FAMILY AND FRIENDS

Being home for a stretch, reconnecting with family and friends takes some adjusting. Going through pounds of mail, remembering where things are in the cupboards and attending to details that are of no consequence on the road is confusing at first. The last five days I met with three old “bay area”  friends, visited my daughter’s “new” cabin in the woods, and worked two days at my favorite volunteer project, the Alameda County Sheriffs Archives.

The cabin sits atop a hill looking over acres of rolling hills and woodlands in every direction. A creek and part of the Eel river run through it. No electricity yet, since the solar has yet to be installed, but the place is comfortable and livable with a flush toilet and running water. Solitude is an endearing feature.

The misty mornings were magical and remind you what life must have been like before people penetrated every inch of the forest primeval.

We hiked, explored the river bed for pretty rocks, (too cold to swim) found a couple of different frogs, watched the birds, especially the raptors floating about the valley below the cabin, and enjoyed a wienie roast and s’mores around the fire.

Visiting a remote cabin requires you to travel over one of those Omigod bridges, since the property sits about five miles off a main road. But, we saved a turtle from extinction by moving him off the roadway and transporting him to the deep canyon under the bridge.

This bridge used to have boards that rose about three feet into the air when the back tires hit the end of the board, requiring a following car to keep its distance. A nice fix this year.
Noticeable to me is the strain on working families to balance work and play. And a getaway such as this helps renew energy and gives something to look forward to in retirement. State and National Parks serve the same function but this is more private.  We live in a marvelous country even if you consider the current disorder we live in and these laws:

A woman can’t dance on a table in a saloon in Helena, MT unless she is wearing at least 3 pounds of clothes.
In Michigan it is illegal to chain an alligator to a fire hydrant.
Eating ice cream in public with a fork is strictly forbidden in Rosemead, CA.

I’ve lived in all three of those states. I hope this made you smile.