Rum, Nog, & Nutz........

Damn yeah......I have 8-1/2 lbs of freshly picked walnuts destined for holiday greatness.  It's going to be epic; cinnamon walnut chocolate chip cookies, walnut pumpkin Crunch, candied walnuts, brown sugar and walnut baked brie...... Squirrels Hecka Jealous twitching their tails like "what?".

All Christmas baking slang aside, there's a lot of work to be completed before Erin can bake to her hearts delight.  Last year we spent hours upon hours at our kitchen table being merry while cracking walnuts.  This year will be more of the same but we are including some friends for a traditional mondee' or shelling party.  Mondee' literally translates to mean 'walnut cracking party'.  So why form a social gathering around such an event, why not?  We will hold it the night before Thanksgiving, a night when it seems that everybody is looking for something to do, so come on by and bring your nut sack......

Rum, Nog & Nutz is the event. Is there a more festive holiday drink than egg nog mixed with captain morgan spiced rum and a dash of nutmeg on top?  I don't think so, it's the perfect social cocktail to pair with the nutcracking, it's the best damn thing since the starched shirt.

Guests will bring a sack of nuts, and leave happily with cracked nuts and several new holiday recipes involving walnuts.  It should be a fun way to kick off the season although I worry about the mess created by a bunch of inexperienced nutcrackers busting nuts all over my house........hmmmmmm.

Norman Greenbaum

That's right, Norman Greenbaum.  He currently lives in Petaluma, CA on a dairy farm but in 1969 he released "Spirit in the Sky" which, IMHO is a timeless rock anthem.  However, if you've heard any of Norman's other songs, you know why he strums udders and not guitars....

On Friday I drove into the Sierra Nevada mountains on Highway 108 and just east of Mi-Wuk village I turned north onto a dirt road that some dozen or so miles later would lead me to a PG&E Powerhouse deep within the middle fork Stanislaus river canyon.  Shortly after the dissipation of the asphalt my satellite radio followed suit; I swapped audio sources and my iPod playlist kicked off with Greenbaum's classic.  It seemed fitting as I drove deeper into the national forest land and my thoughts drifted to my uncle Tim.  Friday was the two year anniversary of his death.  It's still a tough thing for me to contemplate, I cannot stop myself from mentally reliving what he dealt with alone, the morning of his death.  I spoke with him last at 8:47 am; the conversation was very short, just me checking on him.  After the phone call I went into a 9:00 am meeting that lasted several hours, what happened while I was in that meeting is unknown, but as it replayed repeatedly in my head while I drove, I felt I had a pretty good idea.

The north facing aspect of the river canyon was cold and wet, the road is steep and slippery, it switchbacks along a penstock that dives 2000' into the powerhouse far below.  The grade is so steep that when I pulled through an access gate and stopped to get out and close it; my truck, in park, parking brake engaged began a rapid slide down the road.  I yanked the truck into drive and settled into a flat spot further down the hill but the desolation and ominous mood of the day had me feeling vulnerable, we really have no control, fate is fate, when its your time.....it's just your time.  I proceeded to the powerhouse and took some measurements and made some drawings in a sunny spot near the river, it was 49 degrees out.  As I made the slow climb out of the canyon and back to the highway my playlist looped, Spirit in the Sky filled the cab of my truck once again just as I crested a ridge line to the sun facing southern slope.  I turned east and drove 3 miles to a local lake and stopped for a drink, the lake seemed deserted, I walked out onto the dock and sat at the end in the sun.  My feet broke the cold surface and dangled peacefully.  I thought about Tim for about 10 minutes until my drink was finished, it was a beautiful setting to remember someone whom I was so fond of.  Then I figured he'd frown on me for sitting down on the job and jumped in the truck and hurried down the mountain to civilization.  I miss you Tim.

Chillin' on a dirt road, laid back swervin' like I'm George Jones......

It was a beautiful weekend up at the cabin; up and down our canyon the fall colors are brilliant.  After a week of drying out, the floor damage was minimalized and the roof leak was confirmed to be repaired.  What now??  Drink coffee, enjoy the fall morning because the afternoon was set to be another July-esq one.  And it was, we did a few busy projects and eventually myself, Ric, Kevin, Ken and my father Ron settled onto the deck with the iPod playing, drumsticks on the grill, and a cooler full of Racer 5 IPA.  The thermometer crept above 86 degrees and I steered the conversation to 'lore'  There's so much lore in the history of the property and my families existence in this canyon since the 1930's.  I feel there's a need to document some of the stories and landmarks; they are too good to be forgotten. 

e.g. We spoke of the mines, the various shafts and railcars that can be discovered on our property and on the properties directly to the north of us.  Mining began in the canyon around 1912 by the Sonoma Magnesite Company; you can read about it here on this wiki page for Austin Creek, our drainage is one ridgeline to the east, we sit on East Austin Creek, where most of the mining took place: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austin_Creek

 ......now for the 'lore'.  My family took up residence on SMC's property after the operation had shut down but there were still many buildings and facilities around the property.  Included with this still standing infrastructure was a caretaker, a one-armed man who seemed mostly concerned about keeping people away from the suspended swinging bridge that crossed east austin just below where our cabin sits today.  As the story goes one spring the caretaker was found dead in the river rock beneath the swinging bridge.  Pretty obvious what occured right?  Wrong.  Apparently the one-armed man had learned from his misfortune earlier in his life and valued what he had left, he knew that a swinging bridge was no fit for a one armed man and never crossed over it.  The actual conclusion drawn by the canyon residents was that a long time spat between the one armed man and Old Man Dohr had been settled.  Dohr killed him and threw him off the bridge.  You won't see that on wikipedia. 

That's it.....we have tons of that.  Lore.  We spoke for several more hours, about the history of the canyon and our property.  Very nice visit, more to come on that topic.  Thanks for a good time guys.



 Final Note:  Not all is always gravy up at the cabin, as things often do, our sweet frog bottle opener has dissapeared......

Usually a dissapearance of any cabin item is automatically blamed on one of my grandparents deciding that the item would work better if it was stored down the driveway in their personal cabin; however my grandparents don't drink......

IPA speculation concluded that our sweet frog has tripped out to Utah with my Grandfather's brother whom recently visited and took a liking to the device whilst indulging in a case of two-buck-chuck.  I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree.....

New Tigers

I do not intend for this blog to solely chronicle what I've been working on; however, zoo projects take so much time and thought I feel they are worth documenting.  The Oakland Zoo recently received four additional tigers and we we're contracted with to provide some perimeter security upgrades as well as to design and build some sun decks to keep them busy. 

If you have a sun platform that is 9' x 8' and elevated 9' off the ground how wide is the platform at a diagonal and if a tiger were to run from one corner to another how far could said tiger leap???  Yes this was a real life, deal with it question posed to me on a Monday afternoon at the end of a 12 hour day.

Divide the rectangle in two to visualize the hypotenuse, apply Pythagoras's and determine that the diagonal is just a smidge over 12'; now the tough part.....How much has the tiger eaten?  How strong are its legs?  Has it mentioned that it would like to "Blow this joint"!?

Simple, off a running start the tiger can leap 16' from the platform; construct the platforms a minimum of 16' 1/2' feet from the perimeter fence and you're golden.  Don't you feel safe general public?  After all they are sun decks, not exit platforms.......

Camel Rail

Working with a zoo curator is rewarding; but each project almost always starts off with a mind boggling vision and a meager budget.  It's a challenge to decipher what Dr. Parrott actually wants; so we always maintain flexibility and sometimes things turn out just right.  Here is a picture of a recent project we completed at the camel exhibit, this time everybody is happy and the finished project which combines a functional retaining wall and an ADA handrail is exceptional.  Despite camel spit, Hector, Jugo, Omar, and Manuel did a nice job!

Fall is here.

Alas fall has arrived.  Erin and I discussed this fact last night as we munched on a freshly barbecued pizza in our courtyard.  Ironically the temperature was at least 80 degrees and was the third night in the last five we enjoyed the July-esq temps sitting outside late into the evening.  I had a mediocre glass of cab while Erin, 4 months into her pregnancy sipped non-fat milk from the Clover dairy in Petaluma.  I'm trying to drink our stock of lower quality swill, saving the good stuff for next April when Erin can imbibe with me; it's not going very well, the milk was looking pretty tasty.  I just made a mental note to produce a post about gifting wine.....an 11 year old merlot.....thanks.

Erin will trip to Saskatoon this Thursday; Saskabush, the Potato Patch, where they are already looking forward to next Spring.  The high temp on this trip will be 5 degrees (that's 41 degrees in Americana).  I will venture to the family cabin to check on the damage caused by a roof leak that deemed our 30 day old, $3,000 floor to be the settling point of the water delivered by the recent storms.......

Final note:  New old timey saying I learned today that will knock you so....When speaking of a penny pincher;

"He wouldn't spend a nickel to see a piss ant pull a freight train...."

Damn Straight!