Free Range Ramblings

We finally had the palm tree pruned. This is a massive 100-yr old palm in the front yard next to the electrical, cable, and phone wires. It likes to drop 20-lb fronds onto the sidewalk. So far no small life forms have been harmed. Last year a family of owls lived in it. Every storm knocked some fronds out, but we didn’t want to bother the owls so we didn’t have it pruned.

This year, it started dropping hundreds of pounds of fronds in one go (dry weather? squirrel nests?). When the big fronds fall it sounds like a bomb going off. One of the falls took out our telephone line and pulled a gutter off the side of the house. It is getting dangerous and with school, the huge flea market (where the sidewalk is occupied by shoppers for two days straight), and storm season approaching, we decided to get it pruned.

I don’t particularly like the tree. It shades the garden and is costly to maintain. It messes up our fence line. But it is a historic tree and our neighbors like it. And we like happy neighbors. So.

We tried PG&E (but they said NO – the fronds were interfering with LOW volatage lines and they don’t care about that). We tried the city, but they said no – even though it is on city property, it is 10′ or more from the curb and therefore (by law) our problem.

We got three quotes that ranged from $2800 to $1100. We decided to go with the $1600 bid. They guys came this morning and took out a huge quantity of fronds. Huge. A monstrous pile.

At one point a very frightened squirrel literally FLEW out of the tree and landed with a loud thump on the front porch. It scampered up all the walls and finally fell over the railing and fled toward the street. The girls didn’t think that was funny, but I did.

The girls had a great time watching the men at work. They brought in a 60′ lift inside the yard past the walnut trees, cracked up a bunch of concrete, busted a water line, and dug up a bunch of dirt. The fence was broken in two places. I don’t think we’ll have the lift brought in the yard again (hopefully by the time this big tree needs a trim we’ll have landscaped the yard). We shut off the water main and fixed the broken fitting. We kludged a fix to the fence. The guys removed the broken concrete. There are still trenches in the yard I thought they’d smooth out. But they didn’t put the lift through a window or hit the house with it so that’s good.

I wish the above could have been more humorous, but it’s not. Still packing for the hike. I think we’re in good shape. We’ll pick up Ch.t at the station at 8am tomorrow morning & then head for the hills.

Well, we’re really packing in the trips here in August. We returned from the mountains. Ch.t worked a pile of days, then we decided to head to the beach for some beach camping. Ch.t was working a 72 hr shift in the days preceding our planned trip, and then got nabbed again, extending it to a 96 hr shift and shortening our trip from 3 days to 2. Fortunately, another guy phoned in and offered to take the fourth shift so Ch.t could come home and leave with us. At 2 days the trip would have been hardly worth it. Getting that 3rd day back made a big difference. Thanks other engineer guy!

So I procrastinated my way through packing (one of my least favorite things to do, right next to shopping and cleaning) for the trip. We brought a full car camping set up. It is amazing that we can llama pack with much less gear than we can car camp. We have to put the box on top of the car to car camp and it just seems like so much stuff! Having just come off a backcountry trip, the girls were a little confused… “So mom, we’re going to sleep here? Next to the car? Like in this parking lot?” They thought it was ugly and boring and I must say I don’t blame them. Once we hit the beaches and got to play with rocks they enjoyed it more.

We headed north and explored the Sonoma Coast, mostly Sonoma Coast State park, Stillwater Cove Regional Park, Salt Point State Park, and Goat Rock Beach. We were very impressed with the Sonoma county regional parks – hot showers, flush toilets, small campgrounds with trails and reasonable space between sites. We were also interested in the state parks, which, while they had fewer facilities, were linked to miles of cool trails.

It was a foggy, cool trip. I brought cozy clothes for the girls but for some unknown reason (early onset senility, perhaps), brought a sun dress and tank tops and shorts for me. I threw in a cozy top at the last minute and then wore it for three days straight – night and day. We had a campfire both nights and roasted MOONMALLOWS. I fear that the girls have lost any sense of decorum regarding the “M” word. They think it is hilarious to yell it right out loud.

So we visited the beaches in the vicinity and hiked a beautiful redwood grove trail near our camp. The fog was relentless and we only saw the sun for a couple of hours in the late afternoon. We tried not to think of Jan Ten beach in Paa Mul. Sigh. We saw lots of touring bikes along Highway 1 – which got Ch.t all excited for a Pacific coast ride.

All in all a nice trip. Next time, we might head for Wright’s Beach Campground or Bodega Dunes – or maybe even southward where we might see more SUN.

Next week we’re heading to Desolation Wilderness for five days of hiking sans llamas. We’ve got tiny backpacks for Catie & Becky and they might carry a pound or two. Chet and I have stuffed our lightweight packs full to 30-40 lbs. Yikes. Rather over the weight limit for those packs, but not quite enough to move to our old heavy duty packs. After a couple of days on the trail, the weight will come down into a better range for the (largely nonexistent) suspension system. We’re looking forward to being more independent and hope Beck will agree to hike the itsy bitsy mileage we’ve planned. You’ll be the first to know!

Hey! We’re back from our hiking trip. Very sad that Michelle & family and Maud & family couldn’t come with us, but we figured out a different trip and went anyway. We found a great area for large family groups and will be all ready with a plan if the stars align and Michelle &/or Maud are able to join us in a future year.

We went into Emigrant Wilderness via the Burst Rock / Gianelli Cabin trailhead. Camped near Powell Lake on night 1, Whitesides Meadow on night 2, wonderful Upper Relief Valley on night 3, Y Meadow Lake on night 4, and Chewing Gum lake on night 5.

The llamas were fine (if a little bored by our tiny itinerary). Catey was a star and hiked every mile beautifully. About 75% of the time I wouldn’t have wanted to go any faster. I wore a pack with emergency stuff in it – so that allowed me a better workout.

We came off the trail wanting more and felt really pleased and happy as a little family which (if you know anything about our parenting journey to date) is a really, really good thing.