PrimeTime Plumas, continued.

        In my previous entry I referred to Prime Time Plumas...let me expand on that theme. Autumn is almost here. This has, without a doubt, been the hottest Summer that I've experienced during my 32 years in Chester, California. Yet, I am inspired...this green lush water oasis is the place to be. A healthy, wet Winter helped accentuate the upside of life in Plumas county.
        We are physically working extremely hard on the Wagon Rd homestead, as I mentioned last week. Lisa will say, "Let's go do the Juni-jump or... let's bring chairs and a Torpedo to Silver Lake or...let's put our butts in Butt Lake." It doesn't take much to get me to drop the chainsaw or big rock lever and change to my sporting clothes. Also, when we hit one of the area's pristine bodies of water, it doesn't take me long to shuck the sporting clothes and swim like a fish....underwater with swift, cleansing movements, well, maybe more like a frog.
        How much longer can this go on? Lisa asked me yesterday, "What kind of Winter do you think we'll get?" I am thinking...drought-like. Five out of the last six were warmer than usual and I'm seeing us riding our bicycles up the paved portion of Juniper Rd. during most of the season...which was freaky and unusual but,  possible during most of the last handful of years.
        If I am wrong we can always drop down a thousand feet in elevation and ride in the American Valley or the Indian Valley. A little extra snow higher up however, will make the American Valley... Great Again! Battered by fires in 2017, we are looking forward to this regeneration of the "good life" in Quincy.

Reasons Not To Travel Far

        Unusual Summer snowstorms in the Pyrenees, hurricanes popping up out of the Atlantic, financial systems teetering on the brink, airline pilots and passengers getting goofier by the week, a pall of dense smoke covering Oregon, uninformed lemming-like people racing into the smoke (therefore adding to the ridiculous lack of air quality) so that they can watch the sun blink through the smoke. Europeans questioning the sanity of all New World cowboys who are shooting to Make America Great Again. It's complicated.
        We have decided to "focus local" for the next several months. Swim local, ride local and work our butts off on projects that scream for attention...and, go to work at least five days a week. I am even plotting a couple of overnight bicycle tours. The motorized tourists and second-homers have headed home leaving us with space and time to twiddle our thumbs and chunky dunk most anywhere we like. This really is primetime in Plumas. I have rock retaining walls to build, a dangerously rotted deck to replace, wood to split and stack and an eroded driveway to repair....focus local because you can't do anything about the big picture.