There hasn't been much happening around here the last few days. I tested some paint on the ceiling of my cabin, and yesterday Jeff, Wendy, and I all went on a short trek with the horses. I guess the main news is that Jeff has gone home.
I came up to the house from my cabin today to be greeted by Jeff on the front step. He was just about to come down to the cabin to say goodbye. I'm not going to broadcast his business on the Internet, so suffice to say that it wasn't entirely unexpected but it was quite sudden. It is a shame because Jeff is a really good guy, and despite the impression I might give out, I really do hate it when bad things happen to genuinely good people. I don't feel like I got to know Jeff well enough, he always seemed very interested in where I'm from and what I'm doing and I feel bad that I didn't have time to find out more about him. I did have enough time to get an impression of Jeff's character though and I know he is a good friend so even if we didn't get to hang out all that much I'll still think of him as a mate. Plus we saw James Bond together and that has to count for something. I've given Jeff my blog address so if you're reading this dude, I hope you have a better Christmas and New year, and I will be back to do that road trip one day.
As a side note. Wendy, Peter, and I will be going over to lake Tahoe on the California-Nevada border for a few days to go and see Wendy's brother, so I might be out of contact until the middle of next week. Until then you can look forward to hearing of my adventures in Tahoe as well as the excitement of THANKSGIVING, which will be next Thursday. Those turkeys better watch out because I'm not having Thanksgiving without one of them on the table, and I'm not talking about having one of them as a guest. Although I'm not saying they aren't welcome to join us in the spirit of the holiday. But they will have to eat one of their own. And that's just wrong.
Well I guess I should start of today by explaining I cut my hair this week. I was getting far too scruffy and had decided to trim my beard. I felt it only made sense to go the whole way, so I enlisted Jeff as my spotter and took the clippers to my scalp. I got Jeff to grade and neaten up the back for me, and I did the rest myself. Check it out.
I'm just covering the patch of bloody scalp
As you can see in the picture, I’m quite happy with it. All I can say is that I’m damn glad that my hair grows fast.
This week’s big news is Bond. Jeff and I decided to get all excited for the new James Bond movie, Quantum of Solace. Not for any particular reason other than to irritate Wendy by mentioning it as much as possible. We even managed to get Wendy to learn to play the theme on the bagpipes (coming soon to YouTube, probably) under the guise of making our own Bond trailer but then totally dropped it when she had stayed up all night figuring it out. Bless. So anyway, Jeff and I decided to make a day of it and visit the coast while we were at it. We drove over to Fort Bragg and headed straight for the cinema to check out the times. It was too early to get tickets because the box office hadn’t opened yet, so we decided to have our picture taken with the poster instead.
Oddly enough it didn't feel stupid at the time
The best part of this picture is where you can see the reflection of the woman we asked to take it. You can just about make out the look of utter bemusement on her face. Excellent. With the photo taken we decided to have a look around for music shops because Jeff is learning piano and guitar while he is here, and I’m trying to keep up my practice. We managed to stumble into a guitar shop that didn’t sell any music but the guy there talked to us for ages. It was pretty interesting and he told us that he played golf with the old bassist from Van Morrison, which was nice. Then he showed us the bass guitar that the guy had given him. It was pretty cool and had a rotating pickup on it. He told us it had been used on stage and only two of them were ever made (the other one was stolen). Then he let me hold it so I could tell everyone but as I forgot to take a picture, can’t remember the name of the bassist, or find anything on the internet about it, it was ultimately pointless. The guy did tell us to go check out the coast for the great view though. Jeff insisted on getting lots of great pictures of me walking as well as this fantastic shot of me looking completely confounded by the concept of a forked path.
'Two paths! Now what am I going to do?'
I opted for the more voyeuristic approach and took an arty shot of this couple smooching.
They jumped moments later
We looked around a few shops and finally after being sent up and down the main street by various people giving directions, we found some sheet music. Find-of-The-Day was the sheet music for Vangelis’ Hymn, so I was pretty chuffed. We had sushi with waaaay too much wasabi on it, I thought my eyes were going to start bleeding at one point, and then on to the cinema for the main event.
I’ve seen some pretty bad reviews for Quantum of Solace but I liked it. The thing that really struck me though was the difference between an American audience and a British one. I always thought it was ridiculous when you see those little PSAs about piracy in the cinema and the audience are all like ‘oooh...ahhhhh...wow!’ and then cheering at the end. I thought ‘What kind of moron gets that excited at the cinema that they actually applaud the screen at the end?’. Well, to be fair, I don’t think anyone applauded the screen (if they had, they may not have made it out alive) but the rest of the movie was like sitting in a crowd of 5 year olds. I could actually hear grown men repeating lines from the film that had just happened. Without wanting to ruin it for anyone who may be intending to see the film, here is an example.
Bond: When is the next flight back to London?
Female spy: Tomorrow morning.
Bond (in a rather suggestive tone): Then we have all night!
Man behind me (like an excitable idiot): ‘Then we have all night’! oh man... ‘Then we ha...’ huhuh jeez. I like eating candles duhuhuhuh.
Ok so I added that last sentence for effect but hopefully you’ve got the picture. Now I understand why big movies have so many action scenes, they were the only time where the constant idiotic droning was reduced to simple cooing and drooling. If there is one thing, however, which I have learned since being here, it is that America is pretty big and to use one small town cinema as a basis of comparison is quite unfair (as anyone who frequented the Chester Odeon, before it was justly shut down, will tell you).
Wendy had a concert this week. She is the newest member in a singing group who performed at Lauren’s, a local restaurant. They did renditions of all sorts of songs, the only one I recognised was Georgia on My Mind, but it was all very good. Having discovered what a great soprano Wendy is and also knowing it doesn’t take much to force her to do stuff (like learning to play the Bond theme on the bagpipes) I’ve tasked her with learning Schubert’s version of Ave Maria which I’ve been learning on the guitar and piano. She certainly takes these challenges to heart.
The final bit of news for now would be that Peter has been so eager to put the new floor into the apple shed that I did a quick mock-up last night so we could see what kind of headroom to expect. It’s pretty basic and I’m adding details today to make it more accurate but I think it’ll be a cool project for my portfolio.
Obviously the apple shed doesn't look exactly
like this, though that would be pretty cool
That’s all for now. I leave you with the greatest Christmas card I’ve ever seen.
Reading the comments, it sounds like I missed a doozy in life drawing class but the last few days have been positively action packed here. Peter and I went to do some target practice with the air rifle on a Saturday morning. Wendy drew a nice little picture of a squirrel for me to aim at. It seems I'm a pretty terrible shot. It doesn't matter too much though as all the walnuts have been collected in now and anything that is left will be rotting. The Squirrels are safe for another winter. I did manage to get a shot at a turkey the other day though.
Turkey is the cheapest meat out here because it is free. You just need to shoot one of the little buggers. Me and Wendy took our time creeping around the outside of one of the pastures to get in position for a good shot on a turkey. Wendy didn't want to use the .22 because she only had hollow point ammunition and didn't want to shed the thing. I rested my air rifle on the fence and took my time aiming. I waited until I could see a turkey head-on because there is supposed to be a better chance of killing it with a shot to the front. I took a breath, exhaled, pulled the trigger, and the pellet hit the turkey right in the front. And bounced off. So no turkey for dinner that night. Thanksgiving isn't too far off though and I intend to get some target practice with the .22 so next time...
We also made apple juice the other day. Chelsea, who had been working here before I arrived, came over to help us make juice. I'd heard her referred to a lot since I got here and was under the distinct impression I was going to be meeting a 'character'. I don't know what constitutes a 'character' here but she seemed pretty normal to me. Although considering that's coming from a guy who likes to stop around pretending he is a giant every night, probably doesn't mean much. So anyway, we made juice. I was hoping this would make for an interesting blog segment but aside from 'we made juice' I can't really think of anything else to write, so that's that.
Juice
On a side note, I queried whether or not the juicer could make use of all the squirrels shot here but apparently, whilst it may work, the appeal of squirrel juice is not as wide as I had initially thought.
We did try this one squirrel
We celebrated Peter's birthday yesterday. I haven't asked how old he is but who really cares? He obviously doesn't. Wendy spent the day rushing around making a cake and most of that time was just waiting for the chickens to lay another egg for the mix. The cake got made and Wendy changed the rota so she cooked Peter's birthday dinner and we were spared Jeff's terrible cooking for another evening.
Celebratory baked goods
I spent the morning working on the apple shed and after finding out that Peter had been holding out on me with a band saw stashed away in the house, I was able to get on with the work much faster. I've almost finished on the front of the shed now and then we'll able to look at putting another floor in and fixing the roof.
I can't really think of anything else to write about now so this is it for now. It looks like there could be lots to do this weekend though, it's time we get out of Boonville and see some of the surrounding towns. I'll leave you with this picture of and alien I saw in the kitchen. At least think it was an alien, it could have been a hornet but it's a bit too blurred to tell.
Considering that there is a dirth of particularly exciting news to report I will be answering fan mail today. This is an e-mail from Mum, it doesn't state a location. Mum writes (among other things)...
Hello chick ...We would really like to know what you are up to. eg
1 what exactly are you doing day to day?
2 how do you feed yourself?
3 are you alone in the cabin or do you share?
4 are your hosts going away or not?
5 how is your money lasting?
6 are you keeping warm/cool enough?
7 are you happy?
... Love you to bits
Mum
XXX
Well Mum, first of all, thanks for reading. In answer to your questions;
1. My day to day activities vary depending on what needs doing. There are certain chores that need doing everyday and we all do them in rotation. This includes things like feeding the animals and making the dinner. Beyond that Peter and Wendy ask for 4 hours work a day in exchange for full room and board. This can be just about anything from gardening to general carpentry. I have been spending most of my time on the apple shed.
The apple shed
The apple shed is a pretty big job and I've been trying to finish off the outside so its nice and cosy inside. I think I've done a pretty good job so far except for when I almost cut off my left index finger with a rusty saw. That would have been a bit shit for my guitar playing.
2. Mostly I feed myself with foodstuffs. As I said before we get free room and board in exchange for 4 hours work a day, so as long as I'm working I can feel free to just get myself some food whenever I want. If I don't manage to do 4 hours work I have to forage for whatever I can find in the woods. Kidding. I can just pay a little money towards food if I want and still feel free to help myself. Dinner is cooked by a different person each day and we rotate it, so we only have to eat Jeff's crappy food every 4 days. Thank God. Everyone hates cooking here so the meals tend to be as simple as we can make them but with so much fresh stuff to eat here the meals are never as crap as Rustlers burgers or McCain's Microchips.
3. I am all alone in the cabin, which is ace. I live in the middle of the woods in a little cabin on my own. It has a sweet wood stove, running water, and a never ending bathroom. I was sleeping in the fold away camping bed until a few days ago but I have moved up into the loft where there is a foam mattress and it is much cosier. With the camping bed gone there is loads of room for me to stomp around downstairs, which I do for around 3 hours every night, usually shouting 'FEE FIE FOE FUM' and pretending the various insects on the floor are people who have wronged me in the past.
4. I don't think Wendy and Peter are going away now. I think that money issues may have stopped them, or something has just changed. I think Wendy would still like to go, and is staying hopeful but it looks unlikely.
5. My money is lasting fine. I spent quite a bit in the first week while I was in San Francisco, but there isn't anything to spend it on here. I tried to pay one of the chickens a dollar to pose for a photo but it just looked at me indignantly. I upped the offer to five but it lost interest and walked away.
6. I am keeping warm. There is a stove in the cabin and it doesn't get all that cold here anyway. I am also keeping cool, I bought sun glasses in SF (see earlier post).
7. Am I happy? What kind of question is that? I'm not in a deep dark hole of despair if that is what you're wondering. As for happy, I'm fine. I'm not bouncing around grinning like a fool the whole time though. That would be stupid. I'm having fun and I'm enjoying being here. Every now and then I stop and look across the mountains and think I would rather be here doing this than sitting in front of a computer all day.
We're into rainy season here and it has pissed down the last couple of days. The good news is that I can use the little wood stove in my sweet cabin now. I didn't think to get a shot of it in action though so you'll just have to imagine it.
Draw some smoke coming
out of the chimney here
I went into Ukiah the other day with Peter to do some shopping. Then we went to see W. because Peter really wanted to see it and I'll watch pretty much any movie going. It was good, both funny and a little scary but mostly funny. We stopped in Boonville on the way so I decided to get some pictures.
Here is one
The cinema in Ukiah looked so awesome. It's such a cliche small town theatre. I really wanted to get a picture but I couldn't do it without looking stupid so I'll have to get it on another day.
Me and Jeff went into Boonville to experience an all American Halloween at the local drinking establishment. They had Karaoke and I decided it would be a good idea to sing Hey Jude. I rocked it. The locals were confused as hell. I considered singing something by Hank Williams or Johnny Cash, and then thought better of it. Plenty of pictures from that night but the problem was that they had a smoke machine which whited out all my pictures where I used a flash, and withoutthe flash they just blurred.
As you can see, I was quite taken by what I have now named the Frumple Bee. Bless her. It was a fun Halloween but I suspect it was a little unusual even by American standards.Anyway I'm using up power here so I should go, but not before I leave you with this headline from the Wall Street Journal.
I'm here on the farm now and I've left San Francisco behind. It was sad to go but it looks like I left at the right time. I had saved the Golden Gate Bridge or last as I knew it was free and that seeing it was just a simple case of getting there and walking across myself. Check out my awesome pictures.
Breathtaking
So that was a little disappointing, but as the fog rolled in through the Golden Gate I moved on up north. It is still dry season here and it goes from really hot in the day to pretty cold in the night. Check out where I'm staying though.
I'm so freakin' Grizzly Addams. Wendy and Peter are great and there is another guy here about the same age as me called Jeff. Jeff seems pretty eager to get me to drive his car which is cool. Personally I'd rather help keep squirrels of the walnut trees though. Peter has an air rifle with a sniper scope so I really want to try that out. An idea for mum and dad maybe?
I haven't seen much in the way of wild animals but I'm told that there are wild deer and turkey here. We're going to have to shoot a turkey soon as well. Wendy says she doesn't like having to prepare them though so I've offered to help. I should at least have a strong stomach from working in the butchers all those years.
The only wildlife I have seen so far is this light spot in the middle of the photo
I have pictures of all the cats but I don't remember their names yet. There is one cat who looks really cool, the shape of his face is nothing like the usual house cat. I think he is a baby jaguar so I like him, but he drools when you stroke him so I don't like him that much.
We pulled the farm stallion out of his holiday for a riding lesson yesterday. We trotted him around a bit and me, Wendy, and Jeff took turns riding on him. He tried to buck Wendy at one point but he is a pretty relaxed horse and he just needs to get back into feeling comfortable with people on his back again.
Jeff and Wendy playing horsey
That will have to do for now because I have stuff to do. Until next time here is a picture of Dave from the hostel on our last night there. We had a few drinks.
The problem with having so much to is that you have so little time left to write about it at the end of the day. That is why I am writing about Alcatraz now instead of yesterday as intended. I had somehow managed to completely miss the fact that there was a pub crawl planned for last night by the lovely people here at the hostel, so not wanting to let the team down, I went along. In the past two days I have been to Alcatraz island and Coit Tower, as well as walking a whole load more. I even have the blisters to prove it.
I think I found a solution to the problem though. I bought a pair of Crocs today and its like walking on air, they're ace.
see?
So anyway, Alcatraz, It was pretty cool. You get free range of the island although some areas are fenced off, you can look around at your own pace, which is good because there is loads to see. I think I was on the island for about 3 hours, the first hour of which was spent walking around humming the music from The Rock movie. I was really hoping that when the boat pulled up they would say 'Welcome to The Rock' in a really dramatic movie sounding way. They didn't. Pricks. Without wanting to spoil the tour for anyone interested in going (or bore anyone who doesn't care) I'll skip the full commentary. Here is me doing the tourist thing instead.
I even bought the authentic replica Alcatraz tin cup.
As I mentioned before, I went to Coit Tower today. It has the best views of the city and on a clear day like today you can see for miles. So I was kinda pissed off to find I left my camera battery charging in the hostel. Gaaay.
In other news my longest running room mate, Riccardo, has left today. He is a really friendly 26 year old farmer from Italy. He looks like Sacha Baron Cohen, wears really thin underpants that look like nappies, and puts an 'h' before any word beginning with a vowel. He is hace. He was a great room mate and I'll miss him but he has his adventure to finish too. He has spent the last couple of months going from city to city all over the US, impressive for a country boy who can barely speak English. Godspeed Riccardo.
As a final note I know you are dying to see the view from my window, so here is a pic I took earlier. I have gone on long enough so I'll say goodbye for now. Until next time, may this guy watch over you while you sleep...
