WATCHING THE COWBOYS & THE WEEKENDER :)

COWBOYS, ADVENTURE, GRAPES,

MACHINES & SCENES

      Today we go "behind the scenes" of this far and still

some what wild west area of San Luis Obispo County California.  Cowboys to Wine makers with stunning beauty and a few things that go round in between.

      This is the 50th year for the Paso Robles Agri Business tour, which takes you far from the tourist track.

  WARNING

THIS IS THE REAL DEAL

As we used to say on television

these scenes may not be suitable for all viewers

ROPING AND BRANDING 

AT THE CRESTON RODEO GROUNDS

A two minute primer on a classic skill

FOR THE MORE GENTEEL,

WINE IS A BIG BUSINESS

      The seventh generation is working the Ernst Steinbeck vineyards, home of the Steinbeck Winery.

      The first grapes were planted here by the Ernst brothers in the 1880's.  This shows the rare 4 stem arrangement of the vine.

 Cindy Steinbeck tells how her son Ryan always wanted to 
work with his Grandfather, and now he does.  This is a family face to Agri Business.

 HIGH DRAMA

THE CAMBRIA BUS CATCHES FIRE

     The lavender color at Union Road and Highway 46 is 
courtesy of the fire repellent used to douse the engine fire that temporary halted the Cambria Bus on the tour.

    Just outside the Tobin James winery, there was much discussion that perhaps here is where our leg of the journey would end.

    Undaunted we transferred to a temporary bus that included 3 surprised riders, two of whom had been napping and another who was in the restroom when the bus was rapidly diverted from the stop ahead, back to pick up the waylaid Cambrians.  Consequently, a few of us "aisle surfed" on the way to the next stop.

 The ranch, vineyard and farmland was spectacular.

    There was a stop at the White Ranch. This family has been raising barley and cattle since the mid 1800's. 

   I learned that much of this area was planted in Almonds, and was known as the Almond capitol until WWII when barley was planted as part of the war food effort.  Later of course some of the area was converted to Vineyards or grazing land.

     The message at the Avenales ranch was sustainability,
in all aspects of water use, crop rotation and grazing

    Then it was on to one of the most beautiful settings I've seen.  The Vaquero Water Ranch is a 40 thousand acre spread
that used to be part of the historic Sacramento Ranch.  

  Historically the Vaquero cattle drives would cross this land because of the presence of water.  Running streams made this a place where the cattle would be "watered up" before 
they headed south or over toward the coast.

    It's a long drive from a public road, over rolling mountains back into a spectacular valley.  The home also dates from the 1840's and commands a magnificent view of some of 
California's most beautiful cattle country.

 Because of the grazing patterns used here, native grasses
are making a return. I thought the shot below captured the
the modes of cowboy transport.  Horses are still preferred.

 THEN THERE IS THE LAZY ARROW ADVENTURE

AT THE CAMMATTA RANCH

The historic 32 thousand acre ranch is now a 

kind of dude ranch, camp ground, exotic animal

collection and well, a collection of lots of things

that go round.  

This 1935 Lincoln V-12, is still in running condition.

 The lazy Arrow could be the only ranch with a genuine 
circus wagon.

 Everywhere you look there are old machines, parts and those things that go around they talk about.

      Mark is a collector of old treadle devices, often rebuilding or converting once electrical applications, back to the old 
foot powered way.

   The ranch is also a place for hunters and there a full
field dressing kitchen.

 AND THERE WERE MACHINES AS WELL

What is an Agri Business tour without the technology?

This is one of the harvesters at the White Ranch.

  And this is a mechanical Grape picker used by the Steinbecks.

 FOR THOSE OF YOU WITH REAL CURIOSITY

HERE'S A QUICK VIDEO OF THE PICKER

AND WE ARE BACK TO THE COWBOYS

These are guys who were probably the first

"agri businessmen" in the area.  Fascinating

that despite all the changes in farming, grape growing 

and wine making, some skills remain timeless. 

A "by-product" of the roping, branding and cutting

are Rocky Mountain Oysters

I'd never had them before.  I figured these would be about as fresh as they can get. 

See you down the trail.

A SPRING MOMENT IN WINE COUNTRY

AN ABSOLUTELY DELIGHTFUL AFTERNOON

     Friends Bob and Jan were up in the Paso Robles Wine region and staying at the guest house at Bianchi Winery where the tender new growth is out.

    It became a good reason for a visit and dinner in the guest house.  

     The weather also provided marvelous hospitality. Dry, mid 80's, cooling breeze.

  On the east side, that portion of the Paso appellation east of the 101, the greening and budding is on.

     Jan does business with Bianchi and knows the product well
which added to the charm of the evening's menu.

     The Paso region was in its spring glory.

  As the sun began its descent, Bob went to work with the beef and mushrooms while the roast chicken I had been minding, was ready for viewing.

 Diane from Bianchi and a friend of Jan's and Chuck joined us. Sadly we were having such great time I failed to get pictures of Bob's superb rendering of Hearst Steaks, or the salad, or Lana's homemade bread and Thai Noodles. Suffice it to say
it was a splendid spring afternoon and evening in Wine Country. 

Cheers.

See you down the trail.

EARTHY MATTERS

WHEN LOOKING DOWN COUNTS

     They are comparing it to the California Gold Rush-the search for meteor pieces and ironically near the original California gold fields.

      $1000 a gram is apparently the going price and according to a great LA Times article the mood and vibe up around Lotus Park and El Dorado County is reminiscent of the Gold Rush indeed.  Prospectors, hunters, investors, hustlers are all scouring over the countryside and jamming bars and motels. The 4-5 Billion year old meteor pieces are obviously rare and thus highly in demand.  The plot thickens.

DAY BOOK

HILL SIDE GARDENING

      Our home on a ridge doesn't afford much flat space for the kind of Indiana gardening we used to enjoy.  So, we borrowed a page from those who do hill side terrace gardening and have created a bit of flat space.

     Lana is doing remarkable work in replacing ice plant with other succulent plantings on the slope.  

     With the loan of a good old Midwestern Roto Tiller from our Indiana ex pat friend Mike Griffin, we've "flattened" a bit of the hilltop. We tilled the slope until we had enough plowed soil to smooth out and level.

We have named this bit of newly flat ground

"Indiana."

Stay tuned for "garden updates."

See you down the trail.

THE KILL IS TOO WIDE

MOST AMERICANS HAVE NO IDEA

     Tom Knudson's investigative series in The Sacramento Bee this week is highly recommended reading.

      Link here to the read the 3 series.

     Knudson writes about the little known Wildlife Services

branch of the Department of Agriculture.  The Wildlife Services branch is a killing service funded with an annual budget of $72.5 Million.

      As Knudson writes

"Sometimes wild animals must be destroyed-from bears that ransack mountain cabins to geese swirling over an airport runway. But because lethal control stirs strong emotions, Wildlife services prefers to operate in the shadows."

       In my view, it is the information about the manner in which they "operate in the shadows" that is, in the least, troubling if not damning.  Animals that should not be destroyed, are.  Policies and operating procedures are violated, information is hidden or often covered up and humans have been injured as well.  Link above for an eye opening and well done journalistic effort. As one of the sources in the piece is quoted "99% of Americans don't have a clue about this agency."

     Those of you who have followed this blog may recall one of our areas of interest since moving to the far west is watching this area of human and wildlife interaction.

      Link here for a June 2011 post about the killing of mountain lions and the balance of big horn sheep in the Sierra.

DAY BOOK

CAPTURED MOMENTS

 

See you down the trail.  

THE WEEKENDER :) COOL

GETTING FAMILIAR WITH MOTHER NATURE

Grinding the Crack

    There are a lot of ways to get it done, but we offer up a 

WEEKENDER :) video sent to me by my eldest who has been

a wilderness guide, canoeist and helicopter/rafting leader.

This is something I hope Kristin is not thinking about doing,

but it does offer some thrills. Hang on for this one.

     Now we'll offer up a less harrowing way to interact with the elements.  Here's a taste of what many of us Central Coasters have been doing, watching for whales.

IT'S A NEW TRACK RECORD

     It was always exciting when the late Tom Carnegie, track announcer at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, boomed those words.  The phrase was so famous in Indianapolis it became a kind of buzz word cliche for any manner of "record setting" activity.  Today the Friday Lunch Flash Mob set 

a "new track record."  We had FIVE picnic tables.

    Kind of amazing when we recall it started with about five or six sitting up on the deck.  Big kids like to have fun too!

     Have a great weekend.  See you down the trail.

A CLOSE ENCOUNTER

AN ENCOUNTER OF
THE EXPLOSIVE KIND

     Scientists and meteorite hunters are scouring over Lotus Park California in El Dorado County. They are looking for debris of a minivan sized meteorite that exploded Sunday night over the Sierra foothills.  

     The blast had what is said to be one-third the force of the Atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. Recovered pieces are reported to be 4-5 billion years old.  It is a trove for scientists and maybe writers too.

     Remember all of those B grade Sci Fi movies of our Boomer youth?  They always seemed to play out some place in California.  (Of course we grew to understand that is because it was close to the studios and cheaper to film)

      Still, there may be a plot brewing as the search for 

meteorite pieces continue.

DAY BOOK

SPRING BOUQUET

Iris grew well in Indiana, but this is the 
first year we've had an Iris bloom here.

See you down the trail.

A FEDERAL CASE & AFTER THE CATCH

YOUR TEXTS AND TWEETS COULD BE EVIDENCE

     The federal charges against a former BP engineer, alleging he deleted 300 text messages which seemed to indicate the leak of the Deepwater Horizon was worse than the company was saying is important for many reasons.

       The impact on the case is obvious. What is says about personal responsibility in a corporate crisis is another subtext and so too is the disposition of all those texts and tweets that millions send through the ether every day. When is a message yours, and when does it belong to others, your employer or a federal prosecutor?

        When I was an investigative reporter all our work got a legal review before broadcast.  One of our attorneys advised that once we cleared legal and broadcast the program, all our notes relevant to the investigation should be destroyed, putting them beyond the reach of a subpoena, should litigation result, as it would occasionally.  It made you think.  Some times I dumped notes, other times I kept critical files. Later of course those files became debris for later staff people to discard, though many of my files are in curated collection at an historical society.  I'm sure the statute of limitations has run on all of that work by now.

SPEAKING OF WORK

       Here are a few seconds of watching a fisherman work,

after the catch of the day has been hauled off the boat.

See you down the trail.