We are fast slipping into fall… its cool, maybe cold in the morning… but hot by early afternoon… I lit the heater in my office at work (I turn it off sometime in early May as the weather warms… ) I have to fix the flue for the wood burning stove Friday… and chop wood, and stack wood, and chop more wood.
At the farm the pumpkin patch is open… Our farmer grows all his own pumpkins… its a very sincere pumpkin patch. Elsewhere the corn cribs have been emptied of last years crop. The farmer is plowing the wheat and pumpkin fields, preparing it for a hay crop… First he waters to let the weeds sprout, then plows them in before they can set seed. Its a timing issue… the weeds will still sprout if water is available, the new sprouts easy to kill. The pigs go to market next week.
The moon tonight was wonderful, low, large, dark yellow orange as it rose… It’s a bit past full.
In the kitchen the wine seems to be doing well. The head (a collection of skins and such floating on top) is starting to fall… Its time to move the wine to a more airtight container and press out the skins…
This weekend is the harvest festival at the farm… next week I am off to a history symposium in Carson City… across the Sierras… with luck the Aspen will be turning bright yellow as I top Carson Pass.
The son graduated from US Navy SAR (Search and Rescue Swimmer) school and is back with his ship in Washington… He called today asking how to prepare artichokes… there was feminine laughter in the background… we all move on… our kids grow up.
Last weekend was busy… Saturday I went to Hardly Strictly Bluegrass… a three day free concert in Golden Gate Park… 6 stages… I saw Guy Clark and Vernon Thompson… then the Austin Lounge Lizards, walked about a bit, then Steve Martin and his band… settled in for Ricky Skaggs… followed by Gillian Welch…. Emmylou Harris joined her half way for one song, then rejoined for a finale… Followed by Steve Earle…
The trip home was eventful… first the Muni LRV driver (aka motorman) didn’t want to board the two wheel chairs on the ramp… the passengers revolted and he loaded them… We were packed in like sardines, but everyone was friendly (except the motorman/driver) The fare box was out of order… I couldn’t pay my fare… I expected to pay when I got off… but at Civic Center station it was chaos of the highest order… and all gates were open… and we were being driven out… Payment was not an issue… Bluegrass had met the Love fest…
The Blue grass crowd was older… a little more traditional… Love fest was young, wearing fluorescent wigs, minimal costume, fur and feathers… We were both trying to find a way to escape San Francisco… and Bart and Muni were finding it a challenge… The Bart gates were open… you couldn’t scan a ticket… they had abandoned all effort to exact payment… Police were at the head of the escalator… they needed to hold the crowd back until the platforms below cleared… eventually I and several hundred of my closest fiends made it downstairs to catch our trains… Many of the kids were trying to go south via Caltrain, but had abandoned Muni and were trying to use Bart to get to Millbrae and a transfer station…
We were standing room only on the train when it finally arrived… but it was fun… one guy had a mouth powered keyboard… people were singing… they were rapping… they were polite… We all escaped together…
Sunday was a new event… 100 years before President Taft had visited California and along the way visited the Yosemite… He invited John Muir to guide him… but there must have been tensions between the two men… Muir had frustrations with the direction of the park… Taft would soon approve a dam in the Hetch Hetchy Valley…
A friend has saved a wooden railroad passenger car, an observation car, the car that Taft and Muir rode on their journey to the Yosemite… In celebration we recreated the event… We assembled a train… a steam locomotive, a postal car, a coach, and the Observation car… A friend and his wife assumed the role of Taft and his wife… (Taft’s wife wasn’t there 100 years ago, having suffered a stroke but 100 years allows healing) Eleven of us dressed in period clothing… I assumed the role of John Muir… It was a strange role… he was invited, but in the photos he is in the rear of the group, away from the president… This was very different from 6 years earlier when with President Roosevelt they had been shoulder to shoulder and had gone off together for adventurers and discussions… The administration and with it the climate had changed…
Not a bad weekend.
The picture is from a trip to Chicago in 2007... to see Brian graduate from Boot...
We all have come far...
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