Bubba's Birthday !

Today is Seth's 32nd birthday.......What !......how is that possible !!! Time passes so quickly.....he was just my baby boy not so long ago. This photo was taken when Seth was about 11 or 12 and the bike is one that he built from scratch.....an awesome accomplishment and a labor of love for him. He rode it in many mountain bike races in Idaho until it was unfortunately stolen off our front porch. All grown up now.......a wonderful man who makes me proud every day. Of course, he's off climbing somewhere today so I won't be seeing him , but maybe later this week. I sure can't blame him for enjoying the most out of this beautiful Fall weather.......it is a gorgeous day outside. Anyway......Happy Birthday, Seth..we love you.

This is the Life !

So this is how the "other half" lives ! Days spent at beautiful vineyards ......days spent with good friends, great food and awesome music ! One could definitely get used to this ! Even though we're back up here today .......oh ,yes, we have it so tough......days like we spent yesterday are good for the spirit ! Ross' band ....The Dry Creek Rounders...played all day yesterday at a gorgeous winery outside of Auburn and my mom and I headed over there to join in the fun. Jim was there when we arrived and had already joined in the band. Molly and a bunch of her friends were there ......along with grapes, brie and crackers and, as I recall ,several bottles of wine were purchased and consumed !
A sharp change in the weather today.......cloudy and cold.......perhaps Fall has arrived. Fitting weather for football viewing.....and there's plenty of that to be had today......but days like yesterday.......I vow to make more time for .

Bye, Bye Boots.....

Sad news to report ......one of our cats, Boots, disappeared a few days ago. We held out hope for a couple of days that he would resurface, but must conclude now that he's gone. He wasn't sick and had a great appetite so he must have fallen prey to one of the many predators that walk across our property every day. We had Boots for about 14 years and he did his job well as an "outside" cat. He and his sister, Guppie, have kept Lupine Hill free of rodents and snakes ......and all for a little occasional scratch behind the ears.......except when Anders is here......Anders is the family "cat-whisperer" and when he's here the cats bask in his attention. So.......goodbye Mr. Boots....we'll never forget you.

The Second Coming !

The raspberries are back !! We had a brief showing early this summer while Jill was here.......barely enough for a hand full each, but the, always awesome, second batch is here now !! I wish we had some restraint so that we could go out and harvest a whole big basket full , but , no , we're kind of eat- them- as- they- show -up kind of people ............and they are delicious warm from the sun and oh so sweet !
The whole garden got a really late start , but everything is pouring in now. In the last couple of days I've been on a canning frenzy.........pickles, pickles and more pickles.......relishes and tomato sauce. I also have several large bags of sliced and frozen peppers in the freezer to use this winter. The apples are starting to trickle in, so soon the freezer will also be stacked with pies and we have almost 4 gallons of dried plums.....otherwise known as prunes.......and that's a whole lot of prunes !!!
The hottest weather of the entire summer continues....highs up here in the nineties. The nights really cool off , making it all bearable. Thunder and lightening predicted for the weekend......scary this time of year when everything is tender dry......we'll hope for wet storms with no dry lightening.

Bad Timing !

Yesterday Jim and I decided it was a good day for a little exploring......these Sierras are full of little roads leading to much of nowhere ! Perfect for us since we seem to prefer nowhere places. We headed up our beloved Hwy. 49......a small two lane road that meanders North to South along the base of the high mountains. We even brought along Jenny .....such was our anticipation of a day of adventure ! Well, we really hadn't expected the Labor Day weekend to have had such a busy consequence.......although the road wasn't busy ...... everywhere we planned on stopping was jammed packed with people ! We finally found a decent spot for a little picnic and a place at least for Jenny to run around. Back in the car to look for a day of excitement! After a while we realized that we had worked our way to being somewhat near Tess and Boyce's place......Stoney Ranch !! Now to get to Stoney Ranch you need to find and follow some pretty obscure gravel roads and I really didn't have much hope for us ! I, of course, really underestimated Jim's navigational skills.....because after only a few wrong turns ..... there we were , parked at the gate of the ranch !! Yaaaa.....let's get out of the car !!!!! We hiked up the beautiful road/driveway to the temporary homestead.....I was sensing on the way up the drive that Tess and Boyce might actually be there......a long shot, but I was wishing. Nope, no one there, but it was a beautiful afternoon and we enjoying exploring around a little ........spent a lot of time being excited for them and a bit of time regretting that we weren't young enough anymore to strike out on such an adventurous way of life.
Before long we were back in the car ......deciding that there were still chores to do back home....so we turned toward Lupine Hill. About that time my phone did it's little text sound.......it was Tess and they had just left Stoney Ranch and were eating in Oroville !! Turns out we had missed them by about a half hour ! Bummer !! They were headed back up to Humboldt.......and we were headed for Chinese food in Auburn ! Sure would have loved to see them.......next time for sure.
Oh ya.......this picture ! I left this twig sticking up between two rocks that they had laid on an outdoor table....a sign we'd been there and that we love and miss them.