The Porch Skunk

The skunk that comes on our porch

Bat013108

A Bat.

A spectacular sunrise

We've been getting some spectacular sunrises due to the high level of particulates in the air due to the fires this year.Here's one from last week. What artwork, what inspiration to see the Master at work.

Dog Days of Summer

It's so fun seeing people have fun, and we can watch animals and realize they are also enjoying themselves. Dogs like going out with their people, out to do the things that people like in the great outdoors. Don't leave 'Mans Best Friend' at home all the time, you are richly rewarded when you bring your buddy to a place you can both have fun.

Shell Beach California

This is a view of a portion of the cliffs. In this case we can see at the bottom, the clay-based shale rock that was laid down probably some 25 million years ago, like much of the shale in this area. After some time that shale was raised up into that extreme angle we can see in the photo. Then the top was worn off (probably by wave action while that area was submerged). The layer above is a thick layer of the same pebbles we see on the beach. This was probably the beach at that time. And above that is a layer of material that seems a clay-based soil, the upper half of that would be considered the topsoil layer. You can see that the topsoil section is a bit darker in color that the rest of the clay material below it. I'd guess this material was laid down while submerged some millions of years ago. Through the millions of years, the Earth's plates moved and pushed this land up above the sea. Now it sits by the beach, with the waves continually eating away at the cliffs, returning to the sea that which was taken from it millions of years ago. But while it is being eroded, the cliff fills the beach below with this beautiful carpet of small stones, that might someday become trapped yet again in soil held stable for millions of years and raised high above the water for some future creature to look at and wonder about. Or, perhaps more likely, the sea might rise, just as it has risen some 300 feet from it's low some twelve thousand years ago when the earth was warming after the last Ice Age ( when the Mammoths started driving SUVs and increasing their carbon footprint, and Mammoths have big footprints). This rising sea will continue eating into the cliff, causing heartache and monetary loss for the people who own homes on the tops of the cliffs. My guess is that these cliffs lose some ten to twenty feet each century. If you build a home here, you might want it fifty feet or more from the cliff, that way your grandkids can also enjoy the view but still have a patio.

Shell Beach is a pretty nice place.
It is a small community on the Central Coast, some 150 miles north of Los Angeles. In this area, the cliffs run to the sea, and you have many small beaches, some of which are a bit hard to get to as you must walk down narrow trails down gullies to the beaches below. The less accessible the beaches are...the fewer people you see. There are many times you can sit on the beach for some time and not have anyone walk by. Another peculiar feature of this beach in particular is the small brown pebbles that form the bed. They are smooth round pebbles eroded from rocks and worn smooth by the waves motion.

Here's a close-up of the pebbles. They can make walking even harder than in sand, you tend to sink into these loose pebbles as the waves come up.

Santa Maria High School

Santa Maria High School

Santa Maria is the largest town in Santa Barbara County. It's a pretty nice town.This town likes to use the local Spanish designs for architecture. It does make for some nice looking buildings with a lot of color and nice architectural design elements.A good design like this gives lots of interest to a building, even the movement of the sun along the building, shadowing some spots while it reveals others to the light gives levels of interest.The contrast of colors, at once jarring and glaring can also be blended together into a palette of colors- arranged as on canvas to form contrast and textural elements into what would otherwise be a boring box structure, suitable only for shielding the body from the elements, and not instead turning shelter into art.There are many creatures that build nests, line holes dug into the sand with grasses, or otherwise construct devious and clever living shelter... but it seems to be Man alone that sees fit to design the utilitarian into a piece of art to live in.

Tranquilion Peak, California

Tranquility
Tao Teh ChingChapter 64Peace and tranquility are easy to hold onto and keep. It is best to deal with matters before they present themselves. What is brittle shatters easily. What is small is easy to disperse. Deal with troubles before they have arisen. Establish order before disorder has reared itself. A large tree grows from a small twig. A terrace nine levels high starts with a clod of earth. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. If you rush into action heedlessly you will rush to your own failure. If you try to grasp things you will lose your grip. Therefore the sage does not try to rush to completion, and he does not grasp all about for things. In this way he avoids failure and losing. Often people fail in their endeavors on the verge of completion, this is because they exercise care at the beginning, and then slacken near the end. Take as full care of tasks at the end as at the beginning, this will ensure proper completion. Therefore the sage desires nothing so much as to be free from desire. He does not treasure things that are difficult to procure. He learns to not know. He practices a return to the natural origin of all things without a practice to that end.

Tranquilion Peak, in the Lompoc Valley, California.This peak was a very important religious area for the ancient Chumash tribe, and even to this day it functions as an important site for them. It has a small cave near the top through which a shaft of light shines through a crack in the roof on the longest day of the year, as such it served an important astronomical function for the tribe.

An old Surfboard
This is my old surfboard from high school. It was made about 1967 by a shaper in Santa Barbara named John Bradbury. He eventually became a well known shaper, but unfortunately he passed away nearly ten years ago. You can see this board had part of the tail break off before I got it, it was repaired with some fiberglass and resin. There are also a few small dings I (inexpertly) repaired with resin.

You can read an interview with John's son Josh on ESPN, the interview speaks highly of John's shaping skills.

Here's the logo he put on this board. His logos changed through the years as you can see at Stanley's Surfboard Logos (a huge site with a huge number of logos on that one page alone (the 'B' page)so expect it to take some time to get to the Bradbury section)

Here is the side view of this little beauty. The board measures 99 3/4 inches long (8 feet 3 3/4"), 19 inches wide, and three inches thick with a seven and a half inch skeg (tail fin).

Fall Festival

Autumn Celebration
John and Vickie at a local Fall Festival put on by a company John works for.No product endorsement intended here.XXXXXXXXXXXXXXSince we live back in the woods, and have mountain lions around this area, I am always on the lookout for lion encounters. Here is one that happened recently in Deadwood SD.You can read about my own close encounter with a lion at 'My Mountain Lion Encounter'.

The eye in the sky

The Eye in the Sky
~Alan Parsons Project~
'Eye in the Sky'

Don't think sorry's easily said
Don't try turning tables instead
You've taken lots of chances before
But I'm not gonna give anymore
Don't ask me
That's how it goes
Cause part of me knows what you're thinkin'

I am the eye in the sky
Looking at you
I can read your mind
I am the maker of rules
Dealing with fools
I can cheat you blind
And I don't need to see any more
To know that
I can read your mind, I can read your mind



I've been in a couple of 'copters, they are fun to ride in, and marvelous machines.

We get a lot of low-and-slow-flying helicopters buzzing around these hills in the late fall.
They tend to fly a back-and-forth grid pattern, each run a quarter mile distant from the last.
One time we had one hovering over our greenhouse for a minute or so.
One neighbor on the hilltop saw a bunch of fellows with firearms hanging out the open doors of these 'copters. We tend to just see the underbelly of these machines.
I'm glad that in the Land of the Free we have these fellows making sure that the fences are up and the cows aren't running loose, 'cause I suppose that must be what they are checking on.
When I'm out working on the hillside and they come by, I usually wave up to them, and pull my hat off my head to show them my long hair. That's the reason the Mountain Men wore their hair so long... they were daring the Indians to come and try to take it.

'Land of the Wanna Be Free'
~Robby Bee and the Boyz from the Rez~
You tell me,
are we really free,
the way we wanna be?
Or are we living in the land
of the Wanna be Free?
Robbie Bee and The Boyz from the Rez entertain
with a political song called 'Land of the Wanna Be Free'.

The enigma of mankind

The enigma of mankind
~O'Brien to Winston~
'from G Orwell's 1984'
“But in the future there will be no wives and no friends.” O’Brian continued.
“We shall abolish the orgasm. Our neurologists are at work upon it now.
There will be no loyalty, except loyalty towards the Party.
There will be no love, except the love of Big Brother.
There will be no laughter, except the laugh of triumph over a defeated enemy.
There will be no art, no literature, no science.
There will be no curiosity, no enjoyment of the process of life.
All competing pleasures will be destroyed.
But always — do not forget this, Winston — always there will be the intoxication of power,
constantly increasing and constantly growing subtler.
Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory,
the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless.
If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — for ever.’
We sit in our twenty-first century comfort, and look back upon the 'backwards' centuries behind us, before this last millennia when people crossed seas in boats and spread 'civilization'. Yet what makes us so certain that people of this last thousand years are the first ones to spread so far so quickly? Yes, we acknowledge that various peoples were in the Americas for example, but we seem hesitant to believe that others from the 'Old World' came here before Columbus. Only recently has evidence been generally accepted that the Norse peoples spent a short time at least on the Eastern Seaboard. But what of the scant evidence of Chinese anchors found in the waters off the Oregonian and Californian coasts? What of the Japanese style pottery found in ancient gravesites in Peru? There are also carved-stone heads in the Mississippi valley that have distinctly African features found in old burials. And some evidence suggests an overseas trade route between Europe and the Americas during the time of the Romans.
Now, a map has come into the light; pulled from the dark recesses of a castle in Europe where it has been hidden from view for centuries. This map seems to indicate that European cartographers had a fairly good idea of the shape of the South American continent in 1507, a good thirteen years before Magellan crossed under Tierra Del Fuego. Could it be that these people were working under a set of information they had compiled over centuries of exploration?
The arguments against this are many, yet it seems to me that political considerations have always trumped reality and truth. In fact, politics creates it's own reality, such as is evidenced by modern PC being the new 'Newspeak' of the late twentieth century, having evolved from it's fictional start in Orwell's novel, 1984.
At any rate, science and research tends to bow before the boots of authority, and power trumps knowledge century after century.
Speaking of human movement over the earth, what about accents? Linguist.org has a great article on accents, and the way they change over time as populations reform, consolidate and evolve.
It all comes down to realizing that humans are a most energetic species, and our societies change and evolve. Hopefully, overall, we will continue to evolve in an upward direction, and not devolve into an anarchic, archaic society.

At the foot of the Hills

Nipomo California
At the foot of the Hills


Yep, this is the north end of our town. Yeah, it's a bit quiet, but we like it that way.
Nipomo is a quaint town, very rural, slow in a lot of ways. Our high school just opened a few years ago, before that the kids had to be bussed to the next town over, to Arroyo Grande.
Things change through the years, and Nipomo has grown by leaps and bounds. There have been growing pains also; gangs have caused a bit of violence in town, and we also have a bit of traffic congestion. The Post Office moved to the other side of the freeway some eight years ago, before that, we really never crossed the freeway, now to check our mail we have to get caught up in the traffic of downtown Nipomo.
De Mille filmed his epic film The Ten Commandments outside town in the dunes. I know a couple of people who's parents were extras in that film, and a couple who's grandfathers worked on building the set. It is a relic of a bygone era, and sadly most of the set was just pushed over into the sand, it is now being excavated as an archaeological dig for it's film history and significance.
Dorothea Lange took a picture of a woman in Nipomo that became emblematic of the depression, the image titled 'Migrant Mother' has been seen by millions. That photo was taken in a field that I pass nearly daily.
Nipomo is a good town, with mostly good people, and we're happy to be part of the community here.

Dedication, heroism, commitment, heart

Dedication, heroism, commitment, heart
Sea, Air, Land


I was told this sign was posted onto the door of a wounded Navy Seal member, while he is recuperating from his wounds suffered while in combat.
I've known a couple Navy SEALs, and I think they'd not mind me saying that SEALs are not like other people. They are part Chuck Norris, part George Washington. They are a highly trained and highly skilled and exceedingly small group of extraordinary people, and my support goes to all who try to enter into such hallowed ranks. Of all who try for such goals, a very, very select few will ever attain the high degree of commitment and skill and mental tenacity needed for the job.
The mind is the greatest barrier to excellence for most people. Most people do not have what it takes to push themselves to the almost super-human degree needed to become a SEAL.
This young man has what it takes to make this country great, we wish him the best in his recuperation, and the rest of his life...may it be long and grand. God Bless ya' Dude.

Memories of Summer Past

Memories of summer past

Momma always told me not to look into the eyes of the sun...
but Momma, that's where the fun is...
~Bruce Springsteen~
'Blinded by the light'

Madman drummers bummers,
Indians in the summer with a teenage diplomat
In the dumps with the mumps as the adolescent pumps his way into his hat
With a boulder on my shoulder, feelin' kinda older,
I tripped the merry-go-round
With this very unpleasin', sneezin' and wheezin,
the calliope crashed to the ground


Every season has it's delightful aspects. I like winter with it's cool weather and rain that gives the land time to regenerate and rest. But I suppose nothing really beats a warm summer afternoon at the beach. Here's a photo I took this last summer of people walking their dogs on a Santa Barbara beach.
Summer will come again, but we'll have to wait until next summer.
But when in a nostalgic mood, looking over frosty hills on a bleak winter's day, what better memories of summers past than the funky sound of Manfred Mann's Earth Band and their great classic song 'Blinded by the light'.
Some silicone sister with a manager mister told me I go what it takes
She said "I'll turn you on sonny to something strong,
play the song with the funky break"
And go-cart Mozart was checkin' out the weather chart to see if it was safe outside
And little Early-Pearly came by in his curly-wurly and asked me if I needed a ride
Asked me if I needed a ride
But she was...
Blinded by the light,
revved up like a deuce,
another runner in the night
Blinded by the light
She got down but she never got tired
She's gonna make it through the night

A country road

A country road in the morning, the sea-mist rolling in from the Pacific, to blanket the coastal plains with a moist cool shroud, that will dissipate with the strengthening sun.

The other end of the same road in the afternoon.
The main trees in this photo are the Coastal Live Oaks, but you can also see a line of Sycamores running down one hill. This shows a spring active in that local, and the water runs down the creek with the water-loving Sycamores sucking up all they can.
Using know-how like this is how people in wilderness survival situations stay alive.
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Researchers are looking at old paintings to see the sunsets and sunrises portrayed thereon. This might help them analyze old weather patterns, especially volcanic pollution put into the atmosphere.

Ten things you'll never hear a redneck say

Ten Things You'll Never Hear a Redneck Say:
10. You can't feed that to the dog.
9. Honey, did you mail that donation to Greenpeace?
8. We're vegetarians.
7. We don't keep firearms in this house.
6. Honey, we don't need another dog.
5. Too many deer heads detract from the decor.
4. Cappuccino tastes better than espresso.
3. Duct tape won't fix that.
2. I'll take Shakespeare for 1000, Alex.

And, Number ONE is:

1. The tires on that truck are too big.



Driving in Santa Maria I saw this nice looking truck. Now, this is my kinda' ride.
An' yes, if'n ya ax me, the tahrs on that truck make it all the bedder.

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Whether you are concerned with global warming,
or whether it is economic reasons, it makes good sense to conserve....
A recent study shows that simple measures to curb energy use would reduce the total amount of energy required, reduce our nation's 'carbon footprint', and save money in the long run.
I've always thought that the core of 'conservative thinking' is the root word, 'conserve'.
For both the frontiers families of old, and rural families now, to be able to hold onto what you have, and make that oil or propane last a bit longer before the man comes to fill the tank again, it just makes sense to conserve.
The New York Times has an excellent article on this.

You can never go home

Sunset, Lompoc California.
A positive mental attitude brings with it faith, enthusiasm,
personal initiative, self-discipline, imagination and definiteness
of purpose, which attract people and beneficial opportunities.
A negative mental attitude carries with it fear, indecision, doubt,
procrastination, irritability and anger, which repel people and
drive away favorable opportunities.

Knowledge is the only instrument of production that is not subject
to diminishing returns.
~David Brannon~





Lompoc has become well known for space launches, flower fields, and more recently, for it's many fine varietals of wine grown in the area.

The Lompoc area is also well known for it's natural beauty. It's a nice little town.
'The Small Town'
~Virginia (Ginny) Ellis~
The stillness and the quietness,
The boredom, the routine,
Anything and everything,
Either dies or is redeemed.


One can't escape the small town,
Even when one packs and leaves,
It is embedded in one's guts,
Like a lingering disease.


Ah, the small town - the sleepy small town,
A place to love and hate, you know,
People dream one day to leave it,
But it will never let them go.

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From our blog in May 2006:
You can never go home

~Oregon Hill~
~Cowboy Junkies~
The hoods are up on Pine Street,
rear ends lifted too
The great-grandsons of General Robert E. Lee
are making love with a little help from STP
Their women on the porches comparing alibis
Greasy eggs and bacon,
bumper stickers aimed to start a fight,
full gun racks, Confederate caps,
if you want some 'shine
well, you can always find some more,
but what I remember most is the colour of Suzy's door
And Suzy says she's up there
cutting carrots still
And Suzy says she's missing me
so I'm missing Oregon Hill
A river to the south
to wash away all sins
A college to the east of us
to learn where sin begins
A graveyard to the west of it all
which I may soon be lying in
'Cause to the north there is a prison
which I've come to call my home,
but some Monday morning no country song
will sing me home again
And Suzy says she's up there
cutting carrots still
And Suzy says she's missing me
so I'm missing Oregon Hill
Sunday morning, eight A.M.,
sirens fill the air
Sounds like someone made the river
Sounds like someone being born again
Me, I'm just lying here in Suzy's bed
Baptists celebratin' with praises to the Lord,
Rednecks doin' it with gin
Me and Suzy, we're celebratin'
the joy of sleeping in
because tomorrow I'll be home again
But Suzy says she'll wait there
cutting carrots by the window sill
And Suzy says, 'Always think of me
when you think of Oregon Hill'

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My town, Lompoc, the place where I (mostly) grew up has so many of the things mentioned in the song above, a prison, a college, a river, Pine street, Baptists and Rednecks. I thought of this as I walked around the old section of town yesterday while getting new tires put on the truck. The old town is full of little tiny houses tightly packed together, each with a small separate garage, all made of wood. Intricate and lush gardens are in the yards of most of these houses, and as I walked, the scent of sweet peas came to me. As I strolled past an old woman digging grasses out of the sidewalk cracks with an asparagus knife; a cigarette dangling from her mouth I thought of the old adage "you can never go back". And yes, although I like the walk, and the looks of the town, I much prefer our canyon with it's wilderness enfolding us.
I walked into the shop of some old friends I have not seen for a couple of decades, they were the glue that held our little 'Sheriff's Search and Rescue' team together. I was a member for a short time, and went with them on some rescues and recoveries. We talked of old times, walks in the woods, and her work with the 'Hug-a-Tree Foundation', that teaches children lost in the woods to hug a tree and sit and wait to be rescued.
The town is full of the rich tapestry of life; I walked past Florio's Carneceria, the Mexican meat market, decorated with a huge Mexican flag. I had an uncle Florian who died some years ago, he was a special uncle to me, big and strong, a woodsman who lived for a time in a log cabin he built himself in the woods. He'd worked for years in the Canadian woods, and had a build like Jack La Lane back in the old days.
I continued my walk past the VIVA House, the 'Volunteers for Inter-Valley Animals' has a 'Sylvester House', built to accommodate the cats that are abandoned. Many are the women who donate time and money to the cause of local animals. I think you can tell a lot about the values of a people by the way they treat the lowest of themselves, including their animals. In this and so many other respects I have to give Lompoc very high marks indeed.
As I was leaving VIVA a Sheriff drove by slowly, he spent a long time at the stop sign, watching me through his mirrors. To him I am a stranger in this town, regardless of how many times I have walked and driven these streets. He slowly drove away, while I walked on, content in the sights, smells and memories a little trip down 'Memory Lane' gave me.
God bless the small towns, and the people who live in them.
For an interesting perspective on the Minimal level Prison Camp in Lompoc visit Michael Santos's website, he is an inmate serving time at the camp (not to be confused with the Maximum Security Level Penitentiary located next door.

Rivenrock Cactus Gardens

Video of the environs of Rivenrock Cactus Gardens. We are organically certified and raise edible organic cactus leaves for eating.

Rivenrock Treecutting

We had some large Monterey Pine trees that were in the way of our goals to become a large productive organic cactus farm. Allejandro came over and did the cutting, he's a pro tree trimmer, and while I could have cut them down, the power lines were too close to risk a direct cutting. So Allejandro had to climb up and top them and reduce them bit by bit for safety.

Writer's Strike

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November 10, 2007

Writer's Strike

   This little video here, really explains well what the
Writer's Strike is all about. Look for the same in June from the Screen Actors Guild
(SAG). What happens to the writers is going to set much of the tone with what happens to
the actors in the coming summer.

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