Pair o' Parasols

One of my favorite parts of working the Calaveras County Fair was meeting all the other vendors, and having a new set of neighbors for a day. It reminded me of when I was a shopkeeper and greeted all the other shopkeepers each morning as we swept our sidewalks, opened our doors, and hoped the customers would stream in.

So when I went to work the Frogjump (as the Calaveras County Fair is fondly known) each day I brought coffee and got to know people. I was not in that mode with any gain in mind, but people got to like it, and returned little favors...free fudge was popular with the kids for instance.

And there was Mr. Lee. He sold massagers and imported stuff from China. Amongst his other goodies was a popular line of pretty nice parasols. Since the fair is REALLY hot, the parasols were a huge hit. I got a white one for Elizabeth.

I've been telling her since the fair concluded that she couldn't play with it until I managed to get a picture of her with it. She's got to the end of her patience and today made me take the picture.

Actually we took a few. She had a good time. Elizabeth is quite the ham.

Thanks Mr. Lee for making my daughter smile so much. I hope I see you at the Frogjump next year.

Load of Crap

Calaveras County is truck country. Most everyone here has a pickup, even if it's not their primary vehicle. For those of us who will admit to being curious, or even a bit nosy, this gives us an opportunity to look into those truck beds and get to know our neighbors just a little better.

You can tell a lot about somebody by what they haul around. First of course is what they think's worth loading. Sometimes the more subtle and telling point is what they don't think is worth unloading.

If you were to look into the back of my truck, you'd find a mixed bag...fertilizer for the gardens, feed for the animals, sometimes you find the animals themselves, there is usually some kind of photo equipment of course, and sometimes you'll find me sleeping back there. I carry a nice old wool blanket just for napping emergencies.

These two shots were notable for the simplicity of the loads...just one item in abundance in each truck. This is a single-mindedness about loading and hauling I don't often find in my own life.

Simplicity is nice, and makes nice pictures.

Perhaps the changing and mixed nature of my truck's bed reflects the changing and mixed nature of my life...or maybe that's just a load of crap.

Dry me up, Tie you down

It's a bit hard being away from home. I'm off to shoot an out-of-town wedding, so I miss the kids.

And Robin too.

So I look alot at the pictures I have here of home.

Two things come to mind, and since you're here with me, to your eye;

Food...Robin and the kids decided to dry mushrooms and strawberries. I don't know if there's a dish planned for both together, but now that I think of it...that could be really good. Sweet and savory is quite something.

Family...Ellie decided to make her own shoes, so we got slippers from potato sacks.

And pictures of both make sweet and savory memories to carry me until I can get back home.

I love you kids. I love you Robin. I'll be home soon. Save some dried fruit and 'shrooms for me.

Patrick

I AM Martha Stewart

Elizabeth, our youngest, is rather proud of her squash. I don't particularly like to eat squash but find them beautiful. Ellie kept at me to get a photograph of her harvest amidst all the other wedding and portrait projects I've been busy with.

So here's your Calaveras food photography pinup of the month. Squash with daisies.

Calaveras County has had a really odd few weeks of colder than normal weather, including some really strange summer rains. Angels Camp and the surrounding area usually don't see much but sun and very hot days through June, July, and August. 100 is not unusual. 110 happens every year a few times.

So 60 and raining is odd. Up in Arnold, just a few miles up the hill past Murphys Ca, they've even had some snow...at least that's the report; Snow in June in California. Strange.

All this makes us wonder about the crops this year, and makes all my Calaveras farm friends a bit anxious as well. There's a lot of talk in town about weather. Such is rural life.

So while we do have a magnificent pile of food here, some things may have already decided to stop growing or got off on the wrong foot. Potatoes are doing fine, leafy greens are great. We're probably going to lose our corn. So up and down with farm life...but the key really is that a couple of days ago I had lunch and the whole plate was from home. I get this at least once a week.

That's pretty cool.

Show me the FUNNY!

A long time ago working a cafe job in SF I had the rather odd but regular chance to serve Robin Williams. He'd been performing irregularly (does he ever perform any other way?) at a place called the Holy City Zoo on Clement St. and I was working a pizza joint a few blocks away. He was always pretty nice, made a couple of the same jokes, and once broke up a fight in the bathroom using pure force of character, a very loud voice, and much humor.

Having moved to the boonies, I don't expect these kinds of celebrity sightings/encounters to happen any longer. But then some days are odder than others.

The other morning I started on the way to shoot a couple in San Andreas, when I had to pull over. The road was blocked...by a cattle drive. So I did what I do...pulled over and shot the cows and the cowboys. As I usually limit this sort of thing to a camera, the cowboys did not shoot back. Neither did the cows. I was late to my location, but had a good story, good pictures, and a new lesson on how to budget time in cattle country.

Having thought that would be the most surreal part of my weekend, imagine my surprise when less than 24 hours later I ran into Will Durst at Starbucks. He was very nice. Just like the cows, I stepped aside and shot him as he went by. That's what you get for being nice to me.

For the record he left far less manure in the road than the cattle, and though he seemed to be accompanied by his agent/manager/handler/whatever, he required no herding. Well not much.

Mr. Durst's recent blog entry on sfgate.com on the subject of 'staycations' brought about many suggestions in response from his readers to which I should add my own:

Sit in cafes in little tiny mountain towns and wait for celebrities to walk by.

Shoot them.

(just cameras of course...I don't want to read about you in the papers)

This shot of Mr. Durst was posed, though it looks like a grab-shot a paparazzi might do. Like I said he was really nice. Life is more than a little surreal. Thank god for that.

Fair Play

Four days of crowds, heat, and endless pitching of the business, and I am DONE IN.

Our fair, fondly known up here as the 'Frogjump' (registered trademark) was a moderate success as these things go for the county, rather a flat to loser event for many of the gypsy vendors who make this kind of thing into a full time living, and a GREAT success for our family business.

I even got to take the kids on a few rides.

This event is really three or four fairs going on parallel to each other. There's the livestock competitions...very serious and a lot of fun if you like kids and animals. And we have the rodeo events...sheep-riding children, bull-riding older children and adults, branding teams, and though I almost hit the floor when I first heard the sound, a rather fun horseback six-gun shooting competition. It sounded like murder, but it was just balloons... 

Later as a show closer we have the demolition derby; local team grudge matches all in great neighborly spirit...the WHOLE town shows up for the derby, even folks who want nothing to do with the rest of the fair. And of course throughout we have the frog-jumping competitions and a little carnival.

Being a reformed city-boy I was expecting the usual gangster mayhem and nonsense, and thankfully we had none of that, though in years past it seems there were some biker vs. cowboy incidents. This year at least we had a low-key event, that was safe for everyone.

Unless you happened to be a yellow balloon within sight of a gun-totin' cowboy or an old station wagon on Sunday night.

I love the smell of oil on a hot spring night...curly fries or 30 weight...they both burn good.

My wife is a basket case.

I've not been able to get a new posting up here in a few weeks, as we've been really busy around the home. New spring projects are all around and it seems time escapes.

Baseball is in full swing, we've had testing (yuk) at the homeschool campus with the oldest daughter (that was no fun) and I've been busy with business.

Part of business is the fair, which is primarily a livestock market and show, with competitions, and far less of a carnival than in places I've lived previously. Calaveras is really a ranching community, with a lot of miscellaneous agricultural stuff thrown into the mix. So the old flavor of the county fair here is still quite substantial. The whole county really shuts down for the four days of the fair.

So I'm building a booth. I won't be showing pigs, but pictures.

All this reminds me of course that timing is everything, and while the animals may be fat, the fields are just getting started. So far Elizabeth is winning our own home competition for biggest and most beautiful plants. Her chard is looking fabulous, her sunflowers (the really fun red ones) are coming up wonderfully, and she even got a marigold in the ground.

Meanwhile Robin, our real farmer in the family, is preparing for serious planting. This means more than the nice huge boxes, but the actual crop rows must be planted. And that means gopher-proof wire baskets so they don't eat all my peppers. I love Robin and clearly she knows that I love my peppers.

Ever the frugal farmer, Robin decided to just get some wire and make her own gopher baskets. This reminded me a little of our latest favorite media indulgence, the show "River Cottage" from BBC when Hugh the host had some eel traps made. We won't be catching gophers, but keeping them out. I hope.

Now if we could just find a creek with some nice juicy eels...