Blast from the past

(In a strange twist, I managed to turn the settings on my camera so it took only B&W. I didn't realize this until I got home and uploaded them. I find this curious...)


It's a funny thing when you read a book, then you find yourself in the place. The real place.
It's like in a cartoon when the human opens a book and steps into the pages and the places and characters are there and interacting with them.

When I read "In The Land Of The Grasshopper Song", the day after I finished it a friend and I drove up to Hoopa and the Klamath River and Weitchepec for the first time, and I saw the places and the land, it makes it all come so alive and so real ( well, I know it was all real, but a book isn't)

When we lived back in the hills I was reading every homesteading book I could get my hands on.
Late in our time there I found "Hard Times In Paradise", and I was surprised I hadn't ever seen it before, as it was so very close to home.
I already had a few goats by then, and I was becoming familiar with some bloodlines, breeders, etc. It struck me, looking at the cover with the family and a goat, that the goat they were holding was not only a nice Alpine, but a really pretty nice goat, not what one usually sees in a "homesteading" type of story.

So it was a real OOBE to drive the road from the story (hacked out by hand...ack!) and come upon the little home of Shining Moon and the Colfax's.

The day couldn't have been more lovely, after the winter and the rain we have had for months. The sun was out and I drove with the window open and good rock n roll on the radio.
I took the highway west from Ukiah and heading into uncharted territory, over the mountains into the Anderson Valley and the little town of Booneville. I had budgeted 4 hours for the trip, and I managed it in under 3, which was lovely as I was very late leaving home.

Back up the west side of the valley and into the redwoods I went. On looking at the map I see that the road eventually hits the ocean at another literary mecca, Albion, the home of my "Back To The Land Bible".."Country Women; A Handbook For The New Farmer"

I wound through redwoods and on to dirt roads until I found Shining Moon Farm, and the Alpine does I had driven down to pick up. I met Micki Colfax, co author of "the book" and we had a lovely time in the sun talking about goats and stuff. We went to the house to get the registration papers, and I got to see the inside, and the beautiful sweeping view of the redwoods as far as you could see.



It was a lovely day, the goats are beautiful and more than I could have hoped for, and my host was great fun to meet. She probably talked me in to returning for their county fair and show in September.

I made it back home long before sunset and settled my new does in to the herd. After 3 + hours in the truck on a warm afternoon and windy road, they settled right in, met my girls, drank some water, and stuck their heads in the feeder and started eating alfalfa. They're going to be just fine.
One of the new does milked over 6 lbs of milk last night, which is more than many of my does do for the whole day (2 milkings).

I wish I were a better writer, because it was really a great day . I felt warm outside air for the first time in a LONG time. The drive was so easy and pleasant, I was satisfied. It was a dreamlike day. The weather was so unusually clear and warm and sunny, the drive was smooth and fast, this newly discovered part of our Northern California territory was spectacular, yet quaint, and maybe I met a new friend.
I might just have to go back and read that book again.