7:47 This Morning.
Labels: alternative transportation, bicycles, Big Bear, car-free, exercise
a place to be
Labels: alternative transportation, bicycles, Big Bear, car-free, exercise
Freshly home from a bicycle/train trip to Santa Barbara, Peggy and I are sporting our new to us Goleta thrift store shirts as pine pollen dusts our Sunday dinner on the patio.
We visited our friends, Alver & Judyl, for four days, and my old pal, Janet, too, who lives on a tiny but lovely little boat in the Santa Barbara Marina.
Thank you Alver & Judyl for your warmth and hospitality, we felt so at ease with you guys and came home relaxed and thoroughly inspired by your talent and ceaseless creativity.
I'll be posting pictures of our trip in the next few days.
Our daughter, Jamie, made us the delicious green salad, with black beans & corn, which we spread over brown rice and quinoa then topped with salmon and Peggy's home-made mustard vinagrette.
PEACE & LOVE
Labels: alternative transportation, bicycles, friends, travel, vacation
Click on photo to enlarge - ©2009 jim otterstromLabels: native plant garden, photography, wildflowers
Click on photo to enlarge - ©2009 jim otterstromLabels: drought tolerant, native plant garden, wildflowers
Labels: Big Bear, native plant garden, wildflowers
Labels: art, food production, garden, garden art, native plant garden, organic gardening
Labels: Big Bear, native plant garden
Click on image to enlarge - © 2009 jim otterstromHow George W. Bush Celebrates Earth Day In His Retirement!
Click on artwork to enlarge - © 2007 by Mark Fredrickson/MAD Magazine
Mad cover from April, 2007
How utterly mad the civilIzation we've created looks now, at the end of the Petroleum Age, as we motor our gas-guzzlers around in climate-changing circles looking for more crap to consume at bargain prices from the crumbling icons of a corporate world model.
Click on comic to enlarge - © 2000 Tom Tomorrow ~HAPPY EARTH DAY~
Labels: climate change, earth, rants
I've had such a good case of Spring Fever that I haven't felt like sitting at the computer but I figured I should at least put up a picture so people will know I'm still alive!
This Robin was in the same tree as the Flicker from the previous post. I took the picture about 10 days ago and used the same Photoshop technique on it.
Labels: birds, habitat, native plant garden, wildlife
Red-Shafted Flickers are the most common woodpecker in our area, and, to me, one of the most gracefully formed & beautifully marked birds of all. They are year 'round residents here.
I took the photo this image is made from back in mid-December, re-discovering it last night while Peggy and I were going through some photo files.
I played with it in Photoshop a bit to come up with this etching-like image.
This male Flicker is on a branch in a small Jeffrey Pine just above the naturally formed bird-bath in our giant boulder.
Peggy and I encountered this gorgeous bird perched at the east end of Stanfield Marsh last Saturday at the beginning of our 10 mile walk. I moved in as close as I dared for a decent full-zoom shot (560mm) and then backed away when the eagle gave me 'the look', not wanting to further disturb its morning fishing expedition. The bird was still perched there when we came back through several hours later.
Labels: Big Bear, birds, foot travel, photography, wildlife
Labels: moon, photography
Ice on the lake cracked, buckled, and melted this year, like always, even as world credit markets remained frozen solid.
The lone Bald Eagle circles intently above the marsh, fishing, unconcerned with the global financial meltdown.
A pair of finches cheerfully weave their nest into the first 'a' of the pharmacy sign, as if Rite-Aid was expected to survive another quarter.
Tilted toward the vernal equinox, the frosted earth warms slightly; wild onions dispatch eager shoots skyward, heedless of greenhouse gases or climate change.
I imagine myself standing in a bread line, during the first Great Depression, finding cheer in tufts of grass growing from broken concrete.
I envision a Final Great Depression, and eventually, masses of lovely wildflowers blooming among the skeletal remains of Wall Street, and the Pentagon.
Spring is on the wind, General Motors is bankrupt, and Peak Oil is upon us.
Take heart, friends of the earth.
Change is in the air…
Labels: birds, ecology, global warming, native plant garden, nature-writing, observations, philosophy, progress?, rants, spring
The snow is a bit deep & slushy on the footbridges and down by the lake so we walked along the boulevard this morning, which is OK when there's no traffic, but that's rarely the case anymore. There was plenty of stinky noisy traffic today but I managed to sneak in a peaceful looking photo between groups of the speeding junk-heaps.
We were heading west here under a sky mostly open and blue, but we knew rain was on the way. A half hour later, eastbound, on the return trip, the sky had turned a dark gray and it started raining just about here. We made it home without getting too wet, as we only live about 3/4 of a mile east of this spot.
Labels: automobiles, Big Bear, foot travel, weather
Click on photo to enlarge - © 2009 jim otterstromLabels: Peggy, special occasions
We received over a foot of much-needed new snow today and Dallas couldn't be more content.
He really loves the snow, rooting around and frolicking in it like a kid. Then he'll pick a spot he likes and go 'round & 'round in circles, until he has the snow all packed down, before plopping himself down in his comfy new den.
He sat here like this today for well over an hour, under a steady snowfall, refusing to come in the house and leave all this fun white stuff behind. At one point I could hardly see him because he was so covered with snow.
~A Wider View Of The Dallas Den~
Click on photo to enlarge - © 2009 jim otterstrom
The View From Our Porch At Noon Today
Click on photo to enlarge - © 2009 jim otterstrom
Today, Peggy and I celebrate 12 years of automobile non-ownership.
12 years of reducing our personal carbon footprints by almost 13,000 pounds of CO2 each year, for a total of over 150,000 pounds.
12 years of not blowing the putrid stench of our exhaust into the faces and lungs of pedestrians and bicyclists.
12 years of not buying expensive gasoline refined from oil which innocent people are killed over.
12 years of not paying gasoline taxes for habitat destroying road construction.
12 years of not wasting money on tires and car maintenance
12 years of not paying for car insurance.
12 years of not contributing to gridlock.
12 years of healthful exercise derived from walking and bicycling instead of sitting in cars.
12 years of withholding financial support for the destructive biosphere-polluting automobile and oil industries.
12 years of a greatly reduced responsibility for the substantial numbers of living creatures being sacrificed along our highways as roadkill; squirrels, rabbits, deer, birds, honeybees, butterflies, and all the rest.
12 years of conserving what's left of our dwindling oil supplies as the world reaches peak-oil production and economic decline.
12 years of practical experience getting ourselves around on foot, and, with bicycles fitted with utility trailers.
The above are only twelve of countless reasons we celebrate our decision to live without an automobile. To read more about our commitment to being car-free, read our 10th Anniversary post here.
The Chevrolet pictured above appears to be a 1941 Special DeLuxe Sport Sedan fitted with a 1940 Master Deluxe hood that has no way of ever closing properly because of the '41 grille re-design. This was a "wildly popular" best selling car in America in 1941. I especially like the improvised 2x4 wood bumper brackets on this one, with plumbers tape holding the bumper on. The car is a prop out in front of a roadside-Americana auto-themed restaurant in old-town Victorville, along a ragged stretch of what's left of the fabled Route 66, The Mother Road.
I know a lot about cars, the older ones that is. Like most boys of my era, I grew up infatuated with them, totally immersed in the stylish, sexy, hot-rod auto-culture of the 1950s. I could name just about every make, year, and model up through the 1960s. I rebuilt my own engines, repaired transmissions, did my own brake jobs, carburetor rebuilds, and tune-ups. I did auto-body work, and, for awhile, made my living taking apart wrecks and putting them back together, but that was a long time ago. My love affair with automobiles, except as post-industrial artifacts, has been over for many years.
That old Chevy is the style of car that populated the world I was born into. A giddy post-war world of about 2.25 billion people. A world full of promise with a bright shiny future being created for us by the folks at GM ("See The USA, In Your Chevrolet"), General Electric ("Live Better, Electrically"), and DuPont ("Better Living Through Chemistry").
Yeah, the old slogans still echo fresh in my mind, 60 years later, as our gridlocked auto-infrastructure devours more & more tax dollars while it crumbles into disrepair, as our antiquated overburdened coal-fired, gas-powered, uranium fed, hydro-electric charged (as in dammed rivers, or should I say ruined rivers?) electricity grid crashes on a regular basis, leaving millions without power for weeks on end, and our water, air, and food become evermore contaminated with the wonders of modern chemistry.
But, not to worry, the same folks are bringing us new technologies to remedy the incredible destruction caused by the previous ones, and some of them are already on the market, if we'll only start buying into them.
Soon, much of America's remaining open land will be slathered over with whirring aluminum & plastic windmills generating "clean" electricity, while killing birds along their migratory flyways, and destroying expansive scenic vistas (been to Palm Springs lately?).
We'll have mile upon mile of photovoltaic panels glaring in the sun from the surface of former Southwest desert wildlife habitat, all fenced in by chain-link and barbed wire to protect the crap from vandals and terrorists, all of it strip-mined & manufactured from the dwindling resources the world is now at war over, so we humans can continue to power our empire of destruction.
Yes, clean energy is coming folks, and zero emissions electric cars, so we can all have a clear conscience as we sit in the midst of our oppressive mind-numbing gridlocked bureaucratic crime-ridden war-ravaged nightmarish consumer-driven industrial civilization steeped in bankrupt ideology, failed technologies, and moral irresponsibility.
I've been listening to the salesmen of Capitalism and growth for 63 years now and the only thing that changes is the label on the cure-all snake oil bottle.
It's too late to patch all the monstrous holes in this Titanic and there's 5 billion too many of us to fit in the lifeboats.
It's way past time that we face the gravity of our predicament with the appropriate humility and show compassion for one another as the world we know disintegrates around us. We're all in this together, there's no one to blame but ourselves.
It's not the Muslims, the Jews, or the Palestinians, not the Christians, or the Pagans, the Gays, Lesbians, or Homophobes, and it's not the Democrats, Republicans, Commies, or Anarchists.
It's not even God, or Satan!
It's Us
And, it's just the way things happened, we're the victims of our own success.
We achieved too much too fast without soon enough gaining sufficient insight into the destructive consequences of our extraordinary power to alter and overpopulate the natural world we depend upon.
A world of 6.5 billion people, all scrambling for precious resources, is now reaching Peak Everything and we're not at all prepared for the downside of the curve.
So, hang on friends, and hold each other close in your hearts, because our great super-highway is fast becoming a very difficult and bumpy little trail to an extremely different future.
I played with my photo of the '41 Chevy in Photoshop, feathering the image with an oval mask, adding poster edge effects from the Artistic menu in the filters tools, and then slightly increasing the color saturation with the Image, Adjustments tool.
Labels: automobiles, car-free, conservation, environmentalism, rants
During our brisk morning walk yesterday, Peggy, Dallas, and I left these fresh tracks in the 4 inches of new snow that fell Sunday night. Today is sunny and colder, 0° F when we woke up at 5:30, and only 28° at half past noon.
A nice day to be at home.
Labels: foot travel, snow, winter
Fog and clouds hung gracefully over the valley this morning as Peggy, Dallas, and I, made our way along the footbridge by Stanfield Marsh.
A few light sprinkles fell during our wanderings but not enough to soak through our layers of clothing.
We enjoyed intermittent drizzles throughout the day yesterday which continued overnight and seem to be moving on out this morning.
Our walk left me relaxed and appreciative of the warm fire that welcomed us home as I checked in on a couple of blog friends, Madcap, and Deb, who have both responded to the below meme of 37 questions.
I've decided to join them...
37 Random Things About Me
1. Do you like blue cheese? Yes, in fact I love it when the cheese in the fridge gets old and starts turning blue. First dibs on the mold!
2. Have you ever smoked? Yes, for 22 years, from ages 11 to 33, I picked it up from my mom. I've been a non-smoker for the past 30 years.
3. Do you own a gun? Yes, a 30/30 rifle.
4. What flavor Kool Aid is your favorite? I haven't tasted Kool-Aid in decades, but, when I was a kid I liked the lime flavored junk.
5. Do you get nervous before doctor appointments? I try not to visit doctors, I wish to die a natural death, nowhere near a hospital.
6. What do you think of hot dogs? I think they're absolutely disgusting, but, when I do eat one, it has mustard, onions, and sometimes, chili con carne.
7. Favorite Christmas movie? 'Miracle Down Under' with Dee Wallace and John Waters (1987).
8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? Coffee.
9. Can you do push-ups? A few.
10. What's your favorite piece of jewelry? A cast brass sun-pendant my stepfather made for me. It's the only piece of jewelry I own, aside from my wedding ring.
11. Favorite hobby? Whichever one, of dozens, I'm currently involved with.
12. Do you have A.D.D? If you mean Anti-establishment Dissidence Disorder, then most definitely!
13. Do you wear glasses/contacts? Two or three pair!
14. Middle name? Steven.
15. Name thoughts at this moment? Is it beer-thirty yet?
16. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink? Coffee, beer, and tequila.
17. Current worry? Oh nothing major, except maybe the collapse of Western Civilization, and how that might affect my kids.
18. Current hate right now? Elitism, classism, and self-righteous judgement.
19. Favorite place to be? Home, in the garden.
20. How did you bring in the New Year? Celebrating with my wife and son until 12:01, when I promptly passed out.
21. Where would you like to go? Home, where I grew up, but it's not there anymore.
22. Name three people who will complete this? Madcap, Deb, and Jim (I consulted my crystal ball).
23. Do you own slippers? Yes, but I can never find them.
24 What color shirt are you wearing? A black long-sleeved t-shirt.
25. Do you like sleeping on satin sheets? Nope, too slippery, always sliding off the bed. Good old high-thread-count cotton for me.
26. Can you whistle? Yes, but nothing to brag about. I can't carry a tune.
27. Favorite Color? Blue & Green, equally.
28. What songs do you sing in the shower? Old hillbilly songs. Clementine, She'll Be Comin' 'Round The Mountain, On Top Of Old Smokey, etc.
29. Would you be a pirate? Only in the sense that RobinHood was a pirate, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor. I've got no taste for rape, pillage, and plunder, our species has done more than enough of that crap!
30. Favorite Girl's Name? The one attached to my favorite girl, Peggy Sue, who, by the way, was named several years before the famous Buddy Holly song was written.
31. Favorite boy's name? Jim, handed down through generations of my family, to my father, to me, and to my son. Even my 100% Cherokee, great, great, great, grandfather was named James, James Drury (It was common practice for Native Americans of that time to adopt the names of European settlers and Drury is a French surname). James Drury was born of the Keetoowah Cherokee in Tennessee, in 1798, and died in Bradley County, Arkansas, in 1859, when the well he was digging caved in on him. His daughter, Nancy Jane Drury, also 100% Cherokee, was the mother of my tobacco-chewing great-grandma Garrison, whom I remember very well.
32. What's in your pocket right now? Reach in there and find out! ;~)
33. Last thing that made you laugh? My answer to question #32.
34. What vehicle do you drive? A 15 year-old DiamondBack Topanga Mountain Bike (as in bicycle).
35. Worst injury you've ever had? A shattered right leg from a 1978 motorcycle accident which required bone grafts and 14 months to heal.
36. Do you love where you live? I love the nature of the place, but I'm saddened by the ongoing overdevelopment and destruction of it.
37. How many TVs do you have in your house? None!
Labels: autobiographical, Big Bear
Labels: alternative transportation, art, automobiles, bicycles
Click on arrow to play the 'one-minute times millions' video © 2009 jim otterstrom
Time is running out for the Petroleum Age...
...and none too soon if you ask me!
Every day I walk past dozens of trucks, big, bigger, and biggerer, as they just sit there idling, blowing what's left of the worlds oil from their exhaust pipes into my face, my lungs, and the biosphere of our planet.
As you read these words, millions of huge trucks, this very minute, are idling away precious fuel in every corner of the world (Fuel from oil that people are killing each other over). And it goes on 24 hours a day, while billions of other stench-spewing vehicles speed past in an exponentially spiraling pattern of blind destruction.
A stunning thing to witness as the world reaches peak everything, and descends into cataclysmic resource wars, in the waning days of the short-lived Age Of Petroleum.
In a not too distant future the rusted hulks of shiny behemoths like the one above will be weathering away among the ruins of our civilization much like the statues of Easter Island, and, for any survivors, will be a stark reminder of our supreme foolishness.
Mark My Words...
Labels: automobiles, climate change, pollution, video
Labels: activism, art, autobiographical, community involvement, drawing, home, Jim
Click on photo to enlarge - ©2008 jim otterstromTo match the old junk that I built my new shed from, I decided to transform the new door into old junk!
Really a quite simple process, if a bit time consuming, but art takes time...
Sanding The Brand New Door
Click on photo to enlarge - ©2008 jim otterstrom
The first step in transforming the door into something I could live with was sanding off most of the white paint. This took less than an hour to accomplish. I left a little paint in the crevices of the stamped panels for character (or, out of laziness, whichever you'd prefer).
My plan was then to spray the unpainted metal door with a mixture of sea salt (from our condiments cupboard) and water, until it rusted to a nice reddish brown patina.
Click on photo to enlarge - ©2008 jim otterstrom
Click on photo to enlarge - ©2008 jim otterstromLabels: art, beer, crafts, fun, garden art, home, projects, renovations
I cut the front off a 1 gallon can of Star Olive Oil to use as a rain shield over the porchlight.
It worked perfectly during our big snowstorm keeping moisture away from the fixture, and the little 6.5 watt night-light.
A Locally Historic Fence Sign
Click on photo to enlarge - ©2008 jim otterstrom
I clipped this sign, some 25 years ago, from a chain link fence around an abandoned industrial building near the old San Bernardino rail yards just before the place was demolished.
The address where this iron works business was located, 368 Third Street, is about 1/2 block east of the present San Bernardino County courthouse.
I don't know exactly how old this sign is (check out that phone number) but I did a search of Allen & Sons Iron works and found records of their existence in San Bernardino from the early 1880s through at least 1913.
Allen Iron Works built Hose Wagon Number 1 for the fledgling San Bernardino Fire Department back in 1890. The fire wagon has been restored and is now owned by the San Bernardino Historical And Pioneer Society (scroll down to the 6th image at this link to see hose Wagon #1). The beautifully restored wagon has participated in Pasadena's Rose Parade several times in recent years.
Allen Iron Works, an old blacksmithing outfit, is also listed as buying the first car ever sold by Carey's Fine Automobiles in 1913, a 1911 Buick.
Carey's Fine Automobiles is still in business today, in San Bernardino.
My guess is that this sign is from the very early years of the 20th Century.
A wonderful find.
Hula Girl Beer Tap
Click on photo to enlarge - ©2008 jim otterstrom
My friend Craig, who also cast the Ford script under the porchlight, is setting me up with the equipment I'll need so we can have craft beers on tap at the very local Earth Home Garden pub.
I found the Hula Girl Tap Handle on eBay.
One of these days you are likely to hear a chorus of off-key voices singing the words of John Prine right here at EHG.
Let's Talk Dirty In Hawaiian - ©1988 John Prine
Well I packed my bags and bought myself a ticket
For the land of the tall palm tree
chorus
Hey! Let's talk dirty in Hawaiian
Whisper in my ear
Kicka pooka mocka wa-wahini
Are the words I long to hear
Lay your coco-nutta on my tiki
What the hecka mooka mooka dear?
Let's talk dirty in Hawaiian
Say the words I long to hear
If anyone knows the approximate time in postal history that this type of twin dial alphabetical combination box was made, I'd love to know.
My guess is that they are from the 1920s or '30s at the latest.
Labels: art, crafts, historic, home, renovations, stained glass
This fleeting moment was captured at 6:52 this morning along Highway 18 between Big Bear and Lucerne Valley.
A couple of minutes later the sun disappeared behind the clouds leaving us with this golden memory to warm a gray and drizzly day.
A perfect beginning for winter.
Labels: Big Bear, earth, photography, sunrise, winter
Peggy and I toast each other last evening, over a bayberry candle, in celebration of the Winter Solstice, before enjoying a simple home-cooked 'Dinner In The Round'.
In honor of the shortest day of our four seasons, the official beginning of winter, we prepared three dishes, 'in the round'.
Our spinach bacon quiché with hominy, olives, and salsa, was decorated with the pagan Solar Cross, formed of bacon. The Solar Cross, a cross within a circle, is an ancient design symbolizing the four seasons defined by the solstices and equinoxes.
We made cornbread with jalapeno peppers, corn, cheddar and jack cheese added to the mixture. The cornbread was also decorated with the Solar Cross, this time in thin strips of jalapenos.
The third round-dish was tostadas with refried blackbeans on corn tortillas buried beneath the fresh red and green yuletide colors of lettuce, tomato, avocado and salsa.
We also shared a bottle of Red Bicyclette Pinot Noir (2006) in honor of the human powered bicycles which have been our secondary mode of transportation for nearly 12 years now (our primary mode of transport is our feet).
The dinner was delicious and we very much enjoyed our quiet peaceful evening together.
Labels: earth, holidays, home, home-cooked meals, Jim, Peggy, ritual
Labels: art, crafts, earth, holidays, nature, peace, ritual, stained glass
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