thought provoking

"War ... should only be declared by the authority of the people, whose toils and treasures are to support its burdens, instead of the government which is to reap its fruits."

James Madison (1751-1836)

great time had by all

A great time was had by all at the sixty / solstice party! Noah flew in from L.A. and surprised his Dad, about 40 people showed up

and the band outdid its self.

Seth, the mandolin player works with me. When we hired them last year for the party, a friend was appalled that we hired a band we had never heard, I figured hey we don't know many people in this area and he works with me! They were awesome! And so this year we knew how good they are and how lucky we were to have them play in our yard! We only have this and a bad photo (right like this is a good one) of the party, we were having way too much fun. I did take the video camera out, only to find a dead (of course) battery. Before a party it seems like I have plenty of time and then - time sink, everyone is here!







Emily is here for a few weeks and it is always such a joy to have her. I never thought I would be one of those sappy grandma's - but I am!




She learned to read this year in kindergarten. That is so amazing, I would never want to be a full time kindergarten or first grade teacher, you are responsible for them learning everything!

I think Willi liked the poster we made of his 60 glorious years!

living history

Yesterday I had the rare treat to visit a 156 year old house! The best part was that I was given the tour by Shannon Applegate, a 5th generation descendant of Charles! Shannon is on the non-profit board that I work for, Umpqua Watersheds, and she has offered the historic house to use next week-end for our board/staff retreat. This is so generous of her that she would offer this wonderful place.

Shannon is the trustee and has lived in the old house for 13 years - "cold and drafty". She and her husband just finished remodelling the house nearby that was her great uncles. They did a beautiful job, it's lovely. I unfortunately did not bring my camera but plan to take many photos when we are there for the retreat.

The Applegate house is now the Heritage Arts and Education Center, a non-profit managed by Shannon. http://applegatehouse.com/ I think it must be fascination for her to live among the things of 5 generations of her ancestors. She did not grow up around here either, she came here in the 70's with young children, having moved many times as a child in a military family.

Shannon is a accomplished author and that makes knowing her especially awesome for me, a want to be writer. She has written "Skookum" a book about the 3 Applegate brothers and their wives who came across the Oregon trail from the east to the Willamette Valley. A great deal of the book is about the wives imagined perspective. It is a good read, she does not make the men out to be saints, and history has made them out to be heroes.
Her next book, "Living Among Headstones, Life in a Country Cemetery." is about her taking on the responsibility of the pioneer graveyard near the old homestead. She is the "sexton", no sex and a ton of work she says jokingly. It is a fascinating book, wondering out loud about things we think about but don't usually say.

This is the back of the house, the garden you can see has the same herbs grown in 1850 that the woman used as medicine.

One of the more interesting things about the house when it was built, was that it had a woman's side and a men's side. No doors between that were inside and 2 stairways to the 2nd floor! I guess a few generations later someone put a door in between the sides and one big stairway. Also I think where the back kitchen was added on later and where it connects to the house was a porch.

I am so looking forward to the retreat! We get to camp in this shady yard Friday night. There are of course documented sightings of "ghosts" over the years - I hope to meet one!

sixty!

This handsome man on his sixtieth birthday yesterday, june 13, 2008!!

We celebrated by going to the coast, about 75 miles west of us.

We saw an island offshore just full of 2 kinds of sea lions and 2 kinds of seals: Harbor seal, Northern Elephant seal, Stellar Sea lion and the California sea lion. They were so loud! We were sitting on the bluff in front of the ocean when we saw a huge Harbor seal swimming in front of us. It dove down and came up with a huge something in it's mouth, a octopus! It had huge tentacles with big suctions cup looking things. The seal was ripping huge pieces of tentacle and wolfing it down. The rest of the octopus would sink and he would dive for it again, always find it and when above the water, rip, it looked tough, huge pieces and gobble them down. This went on for at least 20 minutes. The water was rushing in against a solid rock plateau, and he stayed right off the edge, in huge surf right behind the breakers.

That pile of brown on the sand in front of the large rock, are the seals and sea lions. The volunteers who were there said that they spend 11 months in the ocean and come here to rest. They were very playful and tossed each other around in the surf. Also, the 4 kinds of fin footed mammals all get along together and co-exist together in that mound and stay together in the sea.

Just down the road from the campground was the Simpson (read timber baron) estate, now owned by the state. The main house is gone but there are huge amazing gardens, sheltered from the ocean by a row of huge juniper trees.

We had the cake last night, but we are celebrating the birthday next week-end with a solstice party -

We wish all of you could come!

the art of Dylan

Did you know that Bob Dylan was a visual artist too? I didn't until today. I read that Bob Dylan has been painting for years - and a tiny gallery in eastern Germany is staging his first exhibition. Read about it here, then peruse this gallery to see some of his art at the Chemnitz Art Gallery.

I would have to say that the songs and poetry of Bob Dylan changed my life. I can remember driving to California when I was 23, everything I had pursued in my life to that point had been a dead end. I remember rolling through the green hills of Kentucky heading west, windows wide open, Bob loud on the cassette player, smoking a joint and being happier than I had ever been in my life. Bob got me through.



PS Thanks Susan for showing me the link thing.