THE WEEKENDER-ROCKIN' THE WORK PLACE

ROCKIN' THE OFFICE

     As a reporter, correspondent and news anchor, my work space was always in a large newsroom setting.  It wasn't until I began work as a ceo that I got a corner office and one even had a view of a lake and green space. Going back into journalism I had a great large office walled by windows-one side viewing the street and the other looking down onto a huge working news operation. 

     Where do you work?  What do you think of this work space?

    The outcropping on a wide bench overlooking the Pacific
is where Salinan Indians spent hours, grinding grasses or 
nuts into a food paste.

   Modern Californians have discovered these grinding mortars or holes, that centuries ago were part of tribal food prep.

  Tucked conveniently into rocks, the native people could sit, work the mortars and take in the view from the office window.

   Hard to top an office with this view?

THE VIDEO

     It would have been fun to sit in the office when the pitch for this spot was done.  Here's a smile or two for your weekend.  Enjoy.

     See you down the trail.

A COMBUSTIBLE DEBATE

WHAT ABOUT THE FOREST?

Cambria and this area of the Central Coast
has been recently treated to a sometimes loud and
an animated debate about the clearing of a
a firebreak.  There are differing ideas about
how best to do that.  This post
raises the issue only as a point of context.
I wonder why some of our Monterey Pine forest
is allowed to become a kind of tinder box?

A recent hike across the Fiscalini Ranch Preserve

and into a portion of the forest

revealed what, to this blogger, looked like a dangerous situation.

There are plenty more situations like those captured in these few frames.  A lot of downed branches, limbs and even trees-

simply left to age, dry and become potential kindling.

I know experts who argue that it is best

to leave the forests untouched and natural.  A strain of

naturalist or environmentalist will agree but others differ.

It seems common sense alone would lead to know that

less debris like this, kindling, makes for a reduced fire hazard.  Chumash and Salinan tribes practiced controlled

burns to preen the wilderness and eliminate the potential for greater danger.  It also allowed for healthy soil and native

plant growth.

As I hike the area, I need to suppress the urge to 
clean up the forest floor.
Maybe some of the local hobbits will carry away
the debris and use it in their fireplaces!
In the meantime I wonder why there is such a 
difference of opinion.
See you down the trail.