Mud, Muck and Mire

The rain is still falling, but at not at the same rate it was a few days ago. Now it's time to start the recovery process. 

FEMA is at the lake assessing damage as are the Rangers and other park personnel. As a camper at the lake, I get to take pictures. 

This is Harvey's Cove, an area of the lake that has not had water in it for  over 3 years. Today it has muddy water, tree trunks and lots of muck.

This is where I took the picture of a Great Blue Heron yesterday. There was no muck in the water then, but now it is a different story. 

This muck is what is closing the lake to fishermen.

A New "Critter"

I'm experimenting with a new critter.

 

An SUV

With eyes for headlights, it can see where it's going

I named him Putt-Putt and the other DrC thinks he's a winner! 

Next project will be a pickup truck, a sedan, and maybe a conventional (aka bumper-pull) trailer.

Watch this space... ... ...

A Great Blue Heron

The Lake is full; there is water splashing down the spillway and a lone great blue heron watches.

Notice the beautiful green grass. When we arrived, the grasses were brownish green; 

now the fields look like they are covered with a layer of plush green felt. 

It's Not Just the Lake

Many things suffered in the drought. The ancient oak trees have had a difficult time. The California Valley Oak is a hearty tree. It can withstand many adverse conditions for many years, but this drought has lasted several years, and has taken a toll on these mighty trees. 

This tree was alive not too long ago as you can see tiny leaves on the branches but alas, the rain soaked soil could not support the weight of this giant. It sprawls over the terrain, a reminder that it tried to survive.

This tree has not fallen yet, but it has lost leaves and branches. An oak tree will shed branches that are weak in an effort to survive. The problem with this defense is "stuff" can attack the massive breach in the trunk where the branch was which makes the tree even weaker, especially if the draught continues. This tree lost the battle.

Sadly, this oak lost the battle too. Branches are broken, the tree is shedding protective bark, yet the Spanish Moss clings to the tree. 

It looks like it's weeping.

Not all die. Some form shady oaken tunnels over the roadway.

After the Rain (I Hope)

On December 24, I posted some pictures of the Lake. At that time, it was 31% of full. The old road was seen sloping into the water; a feed lot from 80 years ago was exposed, and there was at least a 30 foot drop from the boat ramp to the lake. What a difference between then and now. Since then, we've had an "atmospheric river" inundate most of California with rain and more rain. The Lake we are camped beside, is about 86% full and they are letting water out so make room for the next rainfall scheduled for tomorrow. What follows are some of the pictures I've taken to help explain the aftermath of that storm.

Boat ramp sitting high and dry on December 24

Boat ramp (albeit from another angle) with mud, muck and lake debris making it unusable...but there is water where there was none.

The debris on the main boat ramp

Lake level on January 5

 

Same location...Lake level today. A noted difference between the two.

Blue Boy

I completed another elephant this afternoon. Most of the morning, there was NO RAIN...so we went for a ride. Right after we arrived home, the rain started again. A perfect to time to finish this little guy. His temporary name is Blue Boy but that's subject to change. He will be going to his forever home later in the week.

A Purple Piglet for Miki

My friend Miki likes purple and she likes pigs...so this purple piglet is for her.

Yes, I do read the news. Yes I get upset by the news. NO I don't write about the news. That's the purview of the other DrC. You can see his blog here...

My blog is about things that make me happy. I'm going to write about upbeat things like critters and baby blankets. 

Grace

Meet Grace...isn't she Be-ewe-it-ful? 

(I named her after Grace Kelly who was beautiful)

Royal

Royal needed wings...who said pigs can't fly?

Sparkle and Royal

Sparkle the Turtle and Royal the Piggy joined the group tonight. 

They will be going to their forever home on Tuesday. We will miss them.

Popcorn

Meet Popcorn the Colorful Lamb. 

The first time we went to Ireland we were told to look out for colorful sheep. The farmers were experimenting with different ways to identify sheep. That summer we saw lambs and sheep frolicking about with coats of blue or green or red or yellow wool. The green hills of Ireland were covered with colorful sheep. It was quite a sight to see. The next time we went to Ireland, several years later, there were no colorful lambs jumping about the countryside. We guessed that the experiment did not work. Popcorn is dedicated to that distant memory.

Two More Piggies

Reggie and Lollipop joined the menagerie tonight. I wonder how many I'll have when we head home? 

PS...I have as much fun naming the critters as I do making the critters.

A New Critter

 Meet Victoria, my latest teddy bear critter. She's bright and RED and definitely a winner. She joins several piggies and an elephant. Since a HUGE rainstorm is predicted for the tomorrow, and I brought lots of yarn, you can guess what I'll be doing to stay out of the rain.

A New Year

The new year began a whole day ago and somehow I forgot to welcome it in on my blog...so with the idea of "better late than never" here it is

Hello 2023.

I don't want to say say happy as that's asking for a lot. The times are not happy (that is why I make a lot of critters) so it's hard for me to wish happiness. I can wish for good health. With good health, a lot of other problems seem small. So this year I'm wishing everyone a 

Healthy New Year.

...and the Critters Keep Coming...

Critters come and go...I gave 4 away and made some more

Meet, Neon the Elephant and Sunshine the Piggy. 

Neon is the brightest critter I've ever made and he's just super dazzling!

Lake Cachuma 2019 and 2022

\

December 2019

December 2022
We need some rain.

Goodbye 2022

Lots of things went wrong in 2022, but I'm not going to delve on them. 

I'm counting my blessings by looking at the things I want to remember that were good for me (just me) in 2022. 

I'm being selfish and I can as this is MY blog.

1) I have a wonderful, loving husband

2) I have great friends and family whom I love

3) I can walk without a wheelchair, walker or cane

4) My left hip is pain free

5) I love the freedom to live where I chose to live

It's been a challenging year and I'm ready to welcome 2023!

Happy, Healthy New Year.

Where is the Rain?

I stole this weather map from AccuWeather...there's rain in northern CA (which is good) but there's not a lot of rain in southern CA or southern NV. 

We need to tell the weather-gods to send us some water.

Where's the Normal Piggy?

Another piggy showed up in the menagerie. She's cute and loud and while her shape is "normal" she is unusual. So that might make you think the normal piggy is the pink one until you see her eyelashes. She's definitely channeling Ms. Piggy.

So, which piggy is normal? The loud piggy or the Ms. Piggy wannabe? 

BTW I don't know the answer. In the world of crocheted piggies, anything can be normal.

Meet Ella the Elephant...Eli is her brother. They are "circus elephants" or they started out as decorated Easter eggs gone awry.

Sometimes I Need to Make Toys

I love making critters. You've already seen the recent batch of piggies. Today I finished a blue elephant. I asked my friend Karen to name him and she said he looked like Eli the Elephant." Of course I asked him if he liked that name and he said "YES! Eli's a very handsome elephant. 

Like I said, I needed to make some toys....and more are in the works.

Merry Christmas

It's Christmas Eve. When I was a kid, this was the big Christmas celebration. We had a huge dinner with lots of family and then we opened presents. We even got Christmas presents from Santa. When I asked my mom why they came early she said that Santa was a busy man and he left early presents to kids who were good. My sister and I were pleased with that answer and never questioned it again. We were good kids and good kids got all their presents on Christmas Eve. We kind of felt sorry for the kids who had to wait for Christmas as they were not as good as we were. 

To that end, I hope you get your presents from Santa early. Merry Christmas everyone!

Flying Piggies

Sometimes I need to do something different...so I'm making flying piggies

. 

Of course flying piggies have unusual aerodynamics as their wings are small in relation to their bodies...

but theoretically bees are not supposed to be able to fly...so why worry about it.

Normal piggies

A quartet of piggies waiting for new homes.

Lake Reflections

This morning the water mirrored the mountains. 

I think it is magical to see a large body of water so still.

You can tell the water is low as the old road has surfaced. 

If you look very carefully, there's a fellow fishing on that old road. 

Morning at Lake Cachuma

It's morning at the lake. The fog is lacing the sky with tendrils of light 

Soon the sun will melt the fog

And the view will be clear.

Solvang

The tiny Danish town, Solvang, in the Santa Ynez Valley, celebrates Christmas with style. Not only are the streets decorated, so is the town park Last night was a community song fest of Christmas carols. The park has several real Christmas trees covered with lights and ornaments. The spirit of the season is happy and bright.

Main Street is lined with trees decked with strings of white lights. Solvang a perfect place to get last minute Christmas gifts with a Danish flair. 

Christmastime in the RV

We are winter camping in the fifth wheel in the beautiful Santa Ynez Valley in CA. It's about 60 degrees warmer than our home in the Rocky Mountains and that's why we are here. We have a little Christmas tree on the coffee bar and sparkly garlands hung on the slide outs...it a cozy cabin for Christmas.

Outside in the campground there are wild turkeys strutting around and woodpeckers are tapping acorns into the oak trees. We've seen deer and even a coyote crossing the street. It's good to be back at Lake Cachuma after a 2 year absence. BTW, the lake is at 31% of full. I'll show you pictures tomorrow.

On the Road, Again

We're on the road again...first time since October. The October trip was from summer house to winter house and was not very long. This one is much longer and will actually include winter camping. The plan is to spend Christmas with our family in northern CA then spend some time at our favorite lake in southern CA. Two days out and we're still following the plan.

We've been on the road many times in the fifty years we've been camping. Our first adventure was in July, 1972, which was a shake down trip to Crater Lake in an 18 foot mini-motorhome. We discovered the water pump did not work but that did not hamper the adventure. Since that first shaky trip, we've had many more adventures including driving to 49 states; 9 provinces and 1 territory in Canada. We've also rented motorhomes when we did not have ours. We've lived full time in our RV when we've built or sold houses too. We would not be who we are without the wonderful stuff we've learned while being on the road. The memories are many and we hope to make more. As the seniors in the campground, we take our time while enjoying what we can do and it's still a great adventure!

Christmas Lights

For the last few days our neighborhood has been texting about Christmas lights. The messages have been flying and we all decided to use the same set of lights and we decided on how we were going to display them. We ordered the lights (thank you Amazon) and they arrived on Monday. Yesterday we all installed lights along our common back fence and they went "live" last night. What a sight to see our lights all across the villages. Talk about a great neighborhood! Talk about cooperation! 

A little bit of light to get us in the Christmas Spirit. 

Merry Christmas everyone!

Sunset in the Desert

We've lived in the desert for several months now and we've discovered this desert does not have colorful sunsets. 

We were used to sunsets at our last home so we miss them. Then, last night we had a sunset!

As with any sunset, they are illusive. By the time we drove out of the parking lot, it was gone. What a sight to behold if even for a minute.