Home is Where we Hook-up

I’m sorry to say, in the only chicken update I’ve written – there is some bad news. To anyone reading this who might not know, we transferred our adoption rights of the wonderfully wild Key West gypsy chickens to some good friends of ours when we moved last May. I am kept apprised of current chicken happenings, and Kathryn and I have laughed and gossiped for hours about the goings on in chickendom. So, it is very unfortunate that I am to report that for no apparent reason Simon failed to return from the woods with his hens – that was about two weeks ago.

by heligypsy

The search for him turned up no evidence what so ever, not so much as a feather, he just disappeared. I am sorry that he is no longer with us, he was such a fun rooster to watch and listen to. I made recordings on the last day these chickens owned us, I had to preserve Simon’s “IMA rooSTER” crow that has always put a smile on my face. (unfortunately wordpress does not support sound files, I fully intended to link his crow on this blog) Poor little dog brain, Zoester really freaks if I playback the recordings ….her head cocks sideways, dog-ear pointed as straight as it goes. This morning she pawed up on the window to look out, she is so confused by where her chickens are!

I could post a hundred pictures of Simon and his lovely flock of gypsy chickens – but if you want to see them, just check out our webshots – I think if you click the pics here it will take you directly to the page.

I started a blog about the gypsy chickens – there are only a couple stories left on here, but if you are unaware of our life with these wonderful birds, it might catch you up. I am always grateful for all the time I got to spend with these creatures – I will raise chickens again, I do know that 🙂

Well, I have been working up content in my head for another installment on this blog regarding the efforts Keith and I have made to learn to speak Spanish. “Speak in a week” the series is called – and yes we are making some progress. “Donde estas los llaves?” is a favorite of mine, “Where are the keys?”. Around here there is a lot of practice on that one.

But then this morning I am reading one of my favorite blogs – the one linked on the right under blogroll, the Quirky Kitsch Girl and I am reminded of the new sort of language that we are all supposed to be practicing – for tomorrow is International Talk like a Pirate Day

I know it’s last minute, but I can’t help but think how much fun this could be. Count on it, I’ll be talking like a pirate for sure (can you do pirate with a spanish accent?) Here’s a bit of a clip with lessons for us all. Thanks for the reminder Jen!

Check out this video clip of Las Vegas’s ABC affiliate covering the catastrophe at the Hoover Dam when 100 mph winds knocked down five construction cranes on Friday. The cameraman/reporter was circling the parking lot yesterday when I showed up to pick Keith up from work. Seeing the Washington plates on the truck he was interested in hearing my story – hoping I was frustrated by the road closure…..as that’s what his bosses wanted, a story about irritated and frustrated travellers. He was amused that I was the helicopter pilots girlfriend and we had a good laugh about the “lack of frustration” out on the highway. He scored with his interview of the biker, and later told me “disappointed” was about all he could hope for, that was a wrap for him.

So, there’s a glimpse of Keith’s helicopter flying tourists – they did record-breaking business yesterday…..on a day that everyone thought would be dead, dead, dead. Apparantly people can’t read – there are at LEAST four signs about the road closure, ha ha, no accounting for people’s travel habits.

If you were to run mapquest to get mileage on a trip from Fresno California to Independence California, the results would yield a driving trip just a hair under 295 miles – at least a 6 hour drive (click the link and scroll down to see the map). Not surprisingly, putting in coordinates on a GPS from the Fresno airport to the Independence airport results in a completely different set of numbers – try a 72 mile trip, less than a 40 minute flight. Though it’s not neccessarily news this makes Keith and I smile. Just a couple glimpse’s of what it looks like at 11,000 ft. over the mid-section of the Kings Canyon Sequoia National Forest.

And I do mean glimpses…just as I was oooohhhing and awwwing at the scenery in the above photos, straight ahead was a view that was somehow so very familiar – just something I had never seen aerially and from this direction. Before me lay my beloved Owens Valley – the deepest valley in North America.

Our time in the valley was cut short – we’d ended up overnighting Thursday night in Fresno to give the mechanics a bit of extra time to complete the required maintenance…..such as a new engine and rotor blades….all pretty important stuff, no need to rush ’em! Keith was set to start flying tours later that Friday afternoon, so no setting down for any visits. This next picture, where the X marks the spot is where the Manzanar Relocation Camp once stood (each link has different information) and if you look closely – the white spot in the upper left hand corner is the Owens Dry Lake (I’m getting pretty lazy letting Wikipedia tell all my stories, ha ha ha) My brother recently transferred from Los Angeles working power for the LADWP up to Lone Pine, territory being the Owens Lake. Happy to be home, bro?

From this vantage, if you were to turn your head to the right would be the magnificent view of Mt. Whitney, the tallest mountain in the contiguous United States measuring 14,491′.

Which completes our sightseeing of my old stomping grounds. In the time it takes me to snap a few photos, we begin our climb into the Saline Valley and then over Death Valley. An hour earlier, we’d pushed closed the vents and windows, as it was just so dang cold that high up in the mountains – ahhhh how quickly things warm up in the desert!

On our United flight to fresno, the Captain welcomed us, advised that we would be reaching cruising altitude of 24,000′ and that unfortunately there was not going to be many landmarks to point out, other than we would fly over Death Valley National park. Well, he was not wrong, but at 8,000′ this landscape keeps the ole’ eyeballs busy. My pictures don’t do any justice to the stark contrasts of the barren volcanic landscape shaped by techtonics, alluvial fans and mysterious sand dunes. Morning sun burns the ground, but today there is slight reprieve with mottled harmless puffs of cloud.

Keith tells me I’m spoiled to fly over this part of the country and not have to suffer the normal rough riding turbulence. I smile, yes, yes, I am a pretty lucky girl, no doubt about that 🙂

My photo’s of our approach into Vegas really did not turn out – though I can spot which casino is which on the panorama, it’s probably not worth posting here. I snapped a few of the urban sprawl as well, but the one I will post is a close up of just one of the hundreds of zero lot line developments…..pretty much couldn’t pay Keith or I to inhabit one of these places…puhleaze!!!

No disrespect intended to anyone reading this who lives in one of these, no doubt, beautifully decorated homes – but there’s not even room to raise chickens …….no thanks, ha ha ha. Here is the space Keith and I have – crazy that it’s more than the people living here full time. We are in the space with the big tree….shading our driveway?! We were hoping for a space with a view of Lake Mead, but ya know, sometimes you just can’t have everything -we are happy here (now that we have 2 a/c’s to keep things cooled down!)

That about wraps up our 2.5 hour flight, it was a really nice morning 🙂

There are thousands of things I have learned about life in the last few year’s – one of the more frequently occuring lessons is the one about “don’t put off until tomorrow what you can do today”. Yes, this one becomes especially hightened on the heels of loosing my dad, (and I am missing him terribly these days) but that’s not where this lesson comes from, particularly.

Here’s just a tiny glimpse (and lots of you already know where I am going with this) of how the days go for Keith and I. With our list of assorted errands to take care of in Las Vegas, we headed into the city relatively early this morning – to beat the heat, the traffic, and to make it to an appointment on time. Having successfully checkmarked nearly everything on the list, we headed back to the RV in Boulder City right around lunch time. By 2 p.m. we decided to take zoey to the lake for a bit of a swim. (Keith insists it’s zoe doing her vulcan mind-meld on us….if we were in our right minds we would never agree to head out into the desert at 110 degrees…..lake or no) As we drove the ole’ Boulder Hwy, Keith remarks about finishing his BBQ modification project, but adds “well, at least I have tomorrow off too” Yes, yes, I agree, that is a good thing.

His phone rings, oh I don’t know, couldn’t have been more than 5 minutes later from his last comment, “This is Keith,” he answers, and greets the caller who just happens to be his boss………and within the next 2 minutes not only does he NOT have the next day off, but he and I are talking about all the arrangements to be made post dog swim, so that he and I can fly commercially to Fresno in the a.m. and return later in tomorrow afternoon with the helicopter to begin the tours of the Dam.

It’s nearing 8:30 p.m. (and is still in the very high 90’s…I can’t help but add) Zoey is comfortably checked into “paws and claws” for her little overnighter, we have flights booked for 8:40 a.m, and Keith’s BBQ is just gonna have to wait….and that’s how it goes…..

Last spring on a message board I visit, there was a discussion about blogs – who was writing, who was reading, what was being written. There was a good piece of advice posted about regular blogging in regards to keeping in touch with family and friends,

“Just don’t talk about what you ate for breakfast too much.” There were a few of us who smarted off, replying with what was for breakfast that day 🙂

But, you know, the longer we full time in our 5th wheel, the more that sort of information seems to become completely relevant. Thinking back to how we came to be living this lifestyle, of all the reasons there were three that really set us on the path. The first was, of course, the dog. Keith was, at the time, flying skycranes on fires – I followed him across the country in our Jeep with the Zoester. Increasingly it became a hassle to have to call ahead to these sometimes very small towns, and ask the front desk of a motel (under already stressed situations) “do you take pets?”, There were a few times we had to stay at separate motels from the rest of the crew, and only one time (in Hailey, Idaho) that we had to “sneak” her in….uuuggghh.

Secondly, being “on the road” for more than 200+ days a year, it never made much sense to be shelling out for a home base – we were never there (wherever there is). The remaining 1/3 of a year would usually have us travelling for pleasure’s sake, visiting family and friends.

The third factor in our decision was, well, maybe not breakfast per se – but certainly meals in general. Does eating out every single day, at least twice a day for weeks and months at a time really sound that good to anyone reading this? If it does, you’ve probably never done it. Not long into our road warrior summer, I gathered a few essential kitchen supplies (one large, pink plastic bowl, a can opener, one sharp cutting knife, plastic eating utensils…oh, and you can bet there was a wine opener or two as well) and began trying to make a meal here or there in our motel room – it was a challenge I rose to and sought out the most creative healthy meals I could, (a favorite being crab salad stuffed in avocado halves). By the end of that first summer we began looking at alternative modes of living on the road.

For the past three year’s we have been living in a small travel trailer – with a very recent upgrade to our fancy schmancy Hitchiker 5th wheel. We fell in love with the rear kitchen floor plan, and are now enjoying a sizeable kitchen, in which we spend a good deal of time. Nothing against crab salad, but it’s got nothing on grilled wild salmon with rosemary and garlic…..leftovers finding their way into a salmon and sun-dried tomato frittata the next morning. There’s no way around it, here on this blog, you are gonna hear about what we’re eating…..at least occasionally.

Breakfast anyone?

The cliches that come to mind with this first entry of our new blog are endless…and I refuse to use any of them! Our plan has long been to replace those mass emails of our travels with a blog – hallelujah, it looks like we’re getting there!

Keith returned 10 days ago from Ensenada, Mexico – where he spent the last 2.5 months on a fire contract. Though it will be out of chronological order, we are working on retrieving some of his stories to publish here, they are great adventures. I missed him terribly, it’s uncommon for us not to travel together, but, I stayed in California to help take care of my terminally ill father. He passed away at the end of July. Keith lost his father a week before Christmas – the two of us have been great support to one another during the really strange acceptance of such losses.

So, together again and back on the road, our gypsy ways creep back to life. We headed out of Bishop last Sunday – destination Boulder City, Nevada home of the Hoover Dam. This is not our first time living in the Las Vegas area. It is, however, the first time we’ve settled in during this time of year. I am constantly astonished to note the temperatures at any given time of day. Example, last night at 7:30 p.m. the temp was 100 degrees. This morning at 7 a.m. – already it was 90 degrees. Amazing how quickly a person’s body adapts to it’s environment – late in the evening when the sun is no longer blazing down, I actually find the 90 degree temps quite pleasant, ha ha. We treated ourselves to a trip to Camping World, with the hopes they would have an air conditioning unit in stock, our single A/C in the living room has no hope in hell of keeping up with the rising temps – no matter what tricks we try. We were in luck, there was a unit in stock, we bought in on the spot – Keith says he will install it in the evening as it cools down, I smirk at his sarcasm.

Things in Vegas are as we expected – zero lot line housing is spreading like a disease with seemingly very little concern for the water issues. Lake Mead is probably down a good 80 ft since we first stayed in the area 5 years ago. We have been taking Zoey for a swim every morning – the shoreline is disqusting littered with trash and debris – thankfully the dog doesn’t care, it’s the only excercise she’s getting in these temps, all I know is I will save the swimming for the pool here at the RV Park.

Until next time………