Happy Thanksgiving!

It's a beautiful day. A cool breeze whipping up the skirts of the ladies as they walk out of church reminds us all that the rain we were supposed to get early this morning has not forgotten about us. The only church I could find this morning was the Catholic one, so I attended mass in English for the first time that I can remember ever doing so. The music is much less beautiful than what we sang in Botswana. Modimo ke re itsisi sela sa botshelo. Or something like that. At the end of the service they gave out loaves of bread, one per family. They had exactly enough - even for me. Everyone clapped. How perfect the provision of the Lord.

Back home the windows are open to let in the sun and light while we still can. The house smells delicious. Jack has been busy in the kitchen, preparing his parts of the meal. I was busy yesterday baking sourdough rolls and making ice cream; but I will still be throwing a couple small dishes together, like half a sugar dumpling squash worth of parmesan baked squash wedges. Jack reminded me yesterday that if I make anything today I should try to make it small enough that we won't have much for leftovers. I'll do my best.

The freezer is quite full, and the fridge is certainly not lacking. There's a lot to be thankful for on this beautiful day. I think I need to make a conscious effort in the days that follow to use up things that have been in there for awhile - like those two summer and two zucchini squashes that I bought at least a few weeks ago and still haven't used in anything.... I'm thankful that we have such a nice house to live in, and that our landlord and his son are going to put up a fence in the back in the near future so that we can have a more private back yard! I'm thankful that, for the first time in ages, I have a real mailbox from which to send and receive my mail. I'm grateful that my landline and my internet cost more than our cell phone bill did and that at least that's something we'll get to save money on this season. I'm grateful that I've got this amazing guy who is willing to put up with me in all my different moods and who always reminds me to move on and to focus on the good things in life instead of getting hung up on the bad. I'm grateful that the interior of our house is finally starting to feel like a home.

Most of all I'm grateful for love. The love that is all around me and within me, that I see and hear and feel in other people and in nature. We live in a beautiful, love-filled creation, and I am so grateful that I get to be a part of it.

Until next time!

It's raining...

... but my Amazon order came in early, so I had something to keep me busy tonight: a tuning hammer for the symbalei that Jack bought. That is, a zither/lap harp/autoharp... whatever you wanna call it. It says (in Cyrillic) "symbalei" on the box, so that's what I'm gonna call it. I guess cymbala is the more standard Americanization of the word. Anyhow, I tuned it up to the key of G, and two passes on all the strings later it sounded like a veritable musical scale. I played through all the sheet music that came with it - attempting to pronounce the titles before each one. What a fun little instrument!

Today was rather productive. I slept in, yes, but then I spent a couple hours looking for jobs, did a really intense yoga workout, showered, did the dishes, worked on tidying up the place (a never-ending battle, it would seem), went to a fiber crafts group at the Episcopal Church, tuned and practiced my cymbala, and now I updated my blog!

Still, time to make some supper for myself (Jack is going easy on the food while he's getting into the swing of exercising everyday at the gym again), do more dishes, bake granola (I've been meaning to for a couple days now), maybe make some homemade mascara (or at least try), read, start some bread dough with my sourdough starter that's about to overflow out of its container, and who knows what other fun things!

Tomorrow we're going to the Arcata farmers' market, followed by a visit to a friend's house to make them dinner while they recuperate after a surgery, and we'll probably spend the night there and head back the next morning. Should be a nice weekend. However, will probably get in the way of my church shopping... oh well. At least I found a church with an evening service that I might check out on Sunday!

Until next time!

A Bad Haircut

Today was a fairly relaxed day (aren't they all in the off-season?). Slept in a little, continued the church shopping (Pentecostal, Methodist, and Baptist so far!), watched a little internet-tele, and then Jack and I decided, come half past one, that it was time to get to work. Now, yesterday we (mostly Jack, I think) started to hardcore tackle that shack-in-the-back: sweeping, decobwebbing, vacuuming, and the like for a few hours until it looked significantly better and we lost our get-go. So today we decided to get back to it, only I had been in the shack about five minutes when I saw Jack standing at the back porch trying to get the blades to whorl on our reel mower.

That's right: we bought a new reel mower. Now, is a reel mower a real mower? you might ask. The jury is still out on that one. A lot of reviews I read said that the reel mowers don't work very well when the grass is wet. Well, up here we've got about a 1 in 50 chance of being able to mow truly dry grass, so that's out of the question. We had one dry day yesterday and another today, so he figured we may as well give it a go today. He made a few uncertain passes right in front of the back porch before I stole it and wheeled it around to the front yard, fixing to start mowing the lawn from the beginning. The grass was thick and damp, but I managed to get a few short rows mowed. More or less. Jack took over and told me I ought to run to the store real quick and buy us a rake for the clippings. When I came back, he'd switched to long rows and had managed a few passes. We started switching back and forth between the raking and the mowing, and eventually, just as it was getting to be time for the daily sunset, we had the whole thing mowed.

Or did we? Jack made a couple swipes over some rows I had already raked. "Didn't you get those already?" I asked. "I don't know, I think they maybe got missed the first time." Didn't they all? We look around at our pell-mell lawn. Damp clusters of clippings are piled up like little graves over our contoured, mushy lawn. The grass, weeds, and what looks like wild parsley that we plowed through are as unruly as ever. Maybe about 85% of it is shorter than it was. The mower, which was shiny metal and a few plastic do-dads when I put it together out of the box on Friday, looks like some sort of shaggy art piece, plastered from handle to hobnail with smearings of grass. Pelouse mâché. Jack took a hose to it. It'll be my job to remember to stow it in the shack before we go to bed.

Tomorrow, assuming it doesn't rain, we'll finish moving our clippings piles to the back of the lot (I've been chucking them over the prickly vines that are covering the ground back there) and give it another go. Maybe lower the cutting height a notch or two. For now, our lawn is mowed, by the sweat of our brows, but it sure is a bad haircut!

Until next time!

Catching up! part 3 of 3

Alright, I apologize for the little interlude there, but I'm back! I got busy with the growing pains of moving into a new community, but I've settled down once more and have started to put my feelers out, as it were, and am finding ways to occupy my time. The house continues to look a little better every day... or maybe every couple of days... and I am looking forward to the time when we can say it really feels as though we're all settled. Hopefully sooner, rather than later. I have definitely come to the conclusion that Jack has more stuff than I do. It's nice to know there's somebody else with more stuff than me. In fact, he may even have more stuff than I have with my stuff here and my stuff in Michigan combined! For my part, I've managed to find a place for most of my things, and without hogging the storage spaces (that was a trick!). There's only one box that I can think of that I still need to sort through and find places for its contents. Hooray! I completed a few to-do projects around the house today (screwing in hooks and under-cabinet counter lights), and am feeling pretty accomplished. Now if only I could find us a cheap-but-good bed on craigslist and get us up off the floor!

The church shopping has begun in earnest. Last week I made a list of every church in the phone book in Crescent City, then I called each one to ascertain what kind of a church it was. I narrowed it down to a handful, and I started with the Methodist Church. I'd never been to one before, but I discovered it was a quiet, small, liturgical church (very similar to Lutheran, but a little less traditional). The people were nice, and I got compliments on my singing voice and invited to the knitting group on Mondays. I went, too. That was alright, and I think I will go again. Right now they're making things for their craft bazaar booth, but the rest of the year they just do prayer shawls... I don't know how long I could "just do prayer shawls"... we'll see. Through that, though, I was able to find out about a community choir AND a community theater (which, according to their website, will be holding auditions for its spring musical in December), so I think I may try to find out more information about both of those.

I went to the municipal pool and bought a 10-visit pass, then went to swim laps for the first time today. It was a nice pool - some sort of chlorine and salt solution that I think my skin appreciated much better. I definitely smell much better than after some pools I've swum in! It was busy - when I arrived every lane already had two people in it, so I had to "circle swim" with a couple people in one lane. My least favorite thing, to be sure. But eventually I saw someone leave and was able to move over a couple lanes and have a half of a lane to myself. They're having a sale on their passes between Black Friday and Christmas Eve, so I'll be purchasing a 50-visit pass then, and I think that'll probably keep me for the rest of the season.

So, so far, so good. I really like Crescent City. It's beautiful, it's quiet, my home is a short walk away from the ocean, the library is a pretty decent size, and I have reliable phone and internet that I can get in my house (which I have to pay for, but hey!). I'm still waiting to see what my unemployment check is going to look like for the season, once they factor in my summer employment to the equation, but once I have that number I'll be able to calculate how much I need to get paid at a job to make it worthwhile. Otherwise, I think I may find a place to volunteer or just get involved in a bunch of different community things. We'll see!

Until next time!

Catching up! part 2 of 3

After the season wrapped up, we made a brief foray to the sea, and the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in San Fran. It was beautiful, albeit a bit warm, and we definitely got some great ocean views. One secret campsite in particular was full of good sights and we felt really blessed to be done with work and able to enjoy something like that.

San Simeon State Beach Seagulls

Sunset

Our secret campsite - absolutely stunning!

Looking towards a point.

Relaxing in the tent.

The sun starts to set! (Note the bear claw scratches in my tent screen...)

Through the golden sunset leaves...

The knocking bird tree.

Photographer at work.

Beautiful.

Golden evening glow - even in the beard!!!

The table is set... or otherwise covered.

A cider and a sunset.

Cars on the 1.

Kelp!

HSB was pretty chill this year. We didn't really have anyone we were dying to see, so we mostly found shady places to kick back and listen and people watch. Apparently onesie dress things are in style, though my friend Betty (who we got to hang out with for a couple hours the last day of HSB!) informed me that during their last reign in fashion she had one and they were not very comfortable and definitely NOT helpful in performing bodily functions with ease! I have no intention of jumping on this trend. After HSB it was back to the desert and Jack's folks' place to prepare and start looking for a place for the winter...

Catching up! part 1 of 3

Phew! I've fallen into a black hole of business this past month - endless hours and miles on the road, events, visits, house hunting, and now I'm finally settling in for the winter! Yippee! Jack and I got a cute little two-bedroom rental in Crescent City, a town I am fast falling in love with, and between unpacking and church shopping and looking for furniture on the craigslist free section, it's finally setting in that I'm home for the winter. And, oh, I haven't updated my blog in AGES. Sorry, faithful readers, for all the empty space this summer. I'll probably more than make up for it in the months to come! :) For now, I'm going to try to catch up over the next few days so we're all up to pace again...

The end of the season meant lots more buck sightings, and deer sightings in general.

This tiny mother and her two fawns were very interested in Jack's... uh... liquid salt deposit. ;)

Looking into the Mineral King Valley from Timber Gap

Moonrise over Mineral King Valley

I drove 80-year-old SNHA employee and adventurer Maxine up to Mineral King for a day, where she befriended the deer.

I don't think they saw her at all, but from my angle they appeared to be right next to her.

Autumn brought cool, damp clouds.

Those are just a few pictures from my last few weeks in Sequoia. My next post will be pictures from our visit to the ocean after the season wrapped up!