Pardon Me

Well, it's now Thanksgiving time. Truly, we are thankful year round for what we have. But we get together once a year around the table to feast and really feel the gratitude. 

We've been grateful to have all the farmy experiences at this house since moving in seven years ago. We've had an orchard, garden, sheep, goats, chickens, turkeys and even bees. And none of it is as easy as I had imagined in my mind's eye before actually experiencing it.

Last weekend Michael and I harvested several chickens and turkeys to fill our freezer for the year. After finishing that task, we decided to hang up our plucker and pardon the rest of the poultry in the yard. Also, we know some farmers who lost it all in the recent fire (including their plucker) so we are donating ours to getting their livelihood rebooted. It feels good on multiple counts to make this decision.

We have 4 turkeys elevated to "pet status" as well as the balance of our laying hens (plus Colonel Sanders). 

Hooray for a (hopefully) more restful experience in the yard.

Meanwhile, our other pets are soaking up pet status. Michael always says that if there is one thing Mr. Whiskers can do well, it's look comfortable.

Buster is looking forward to Rex coming home for the weekend. Also she says she would like someone to scratch her head and give her lots of treats.

Valerie continues to succeed on her livestock judging team events. Wahoo! She and her team will be headed of to Denver in January to represent the state of California for 4-H livestock judging.

And, now this (I credit my friend Elizabeth for sending me jokes to keep our spirits up!):

Safe

November greetings from a smoke filled Northern California town.

First, the good news is that we are all safe. We did not have to evacuate during the terrifying Camp Fire that devastated the town of Paradise just up the hill from Chico. It was dicey for a while and we were packed and prepared to leave just in case. But, thankfully, we were able to stay.

Thank you to all of you who checked in on us and offered places to stay. You are all so appreciated.

Here are a few photos that I snapped that sort of show what it looked like from down here in Chico.

Thursday morning, about 7:30 am I drove to the end of my street to head to the gym and saw this over the foothills. I didn't know what it was, but I knew it wasn't good.

As I drove South on Hwy 99 I could see the smoke across the skies in front of me. Again, had no idea what was going on but knew it was a pretty big deal.

Suddenly traffic backed up and turned into a dead stop. I had a very bad feeling as I took the next exit off the freeway. I called the girls to make sure they were okay as they had left the house for school a few minutes ahead of me. I had this terror in my gut that something was terribly wrong. Fortunately Amira answered her phone and told me they were fine. She was wondering what was going on with the sky and the traffic too. I could hear emergency vehicles all around.

An hour later I had to drive out to a client's office. You can see the patch of blue up to the left of the photo with the black billowing smoke and part of the sun beneath. I called my friend Grace who lives in Paradise and told her that if she had to evacuate to come down to my place. 15 minutes later I got a text that she was on her way. I had no idea what she had to go through to get out of Paradise until way later.

The photos may look like an overcast day, but I assure you, these are not clouds of moisture. This is all smoke. It was so high up in the air that we were not choking on the smoke down low yet.

This is the view from our front yard looking south on Thursday afternoon.

View from our front yard looking west.

Thursday night we were packed and ready to go. This is the view from the end of our street that night. Needless to say, it was not easy to sleep.

Friday morning the smoke was all low. The below photo was not taken using any filters. There was just an orange brown haze all over the town. And then it got dark like night. I couldn't get good photos of that. But believe me, it was creepy.

Saturday morning it was shockingly cold and raining ash. I didn't have the N95 mask yet, so I tied a bandanna around my face to go out and feed the poultry.

The rest of Saturday the girls and I went out and got donations together for people and our neighbor gave us face masks. 

Now we are living the "new normal" life. So many of our friends and a few people that I work with lost everything. My friend Grace was able to take her dog and her cockatiels but couldn't get her little birds or the cats before they had to leave. She is devasted and checking shelters daily in case they were rescued. Their home was actually on fire when they left driving through the burning hellish black morning soot with the rest of their entire town. Their cars filled with smoke and their door handles melted as they slowly crept through the flames and soot. They were lucky enough to get out. It's confirmed they no longer have a home. 

So, we are grateful to have the wonderful safe home here in Chico. And we are grateful to have our family and friends safe. We are grateful to all those who reached out to us to check on our safety. And we are especially grateful to those who offered to open their homes to us if it came to that.

The fire is still burning (away from Chico). Our air is still filled wish smoke and ash. Now we pray for rain.

Autumn All at Once

Holy smokes! Suddenly it's November and I haven't written a lick since August. Well, I'll start sort of where I left off. I believe on our last episode of Tifftown that Rex was headed down to Long Beach to begin his post-high school student adventures and trials of independence as a young adult.

He met a woman named Yarina who helps place international students attending CSU Long Beach in off-campus housing. So, she is the one who hooked Rex up with his new digs down there. She has also kept him in the social loop with all her students. Pictured below is Yarina at the beach party she had for the international students (and Rex). Rex is the 4th from left on the below photo. 

Here is another snapshot of the group at the beach. This time Rex can be found in his red shirt more to the right of the photo.

Dylan is attending school in SoCal also. Rex and Dylan have managed to keep in touch. I begged him to send me a photo. Here they are with that beachy glow. 

September brought opportunity for Michael and I to hook up with some of our "Washington Place" friends from San Francisco. They have a home in Murphys which is a cute little town in the foothills of the Sierras known for its own little wine country. We started by having some German wine with Joerg & Outi on the deck of their mountain home. 

Whenever we cruised into the main town of Murphys we had to stop and feed Molly (the horse) some carrots. Also, Molly has a pet bunny that lives in the blackberry bushes in her field. The bunny (yet to be named, but looks like it had been someone's pet. It's not a wild one) also enjoys the carrots. Sweet of Molly to share.

The big event at the local winery was to see Boy George & Culture Club play with the B-52's and Tom Bailey from Thompson Twins. It was a total 1980s flashback. Boy George puts on an amazing show. And I'm always a fan of the B-52's. I had higher hopes for Tom Bailey.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Valerie is fully immersed in her senior year. She is taking a floral class at school to fulfill an art requirement. She seems to be enjoying it. Also, we are enjoying the trappings of her arrangements that make their way home.

Valerie and her friend, Sarah, nailed it at a livestock judging competition this year. They are super into it.

Michael took Valerie and some team members down to the Cow Palace in San Francisco this year for another livestock judging practice. Here are Valerie and her friends enjoying some down time between classes.

Before we knew it, October was upon us. Amira and I headed out to the local high school pumpkin patch run by a rival FFA group. Amira picked out some awesome pumpkins for the porch, including this gigantic one. 

Amira's troop crossed over the bridge from Cadettes to Seniors in October. They also added some new members to the troop. Amira is still taking part in some of the leadership activities in Girl Scouts. 

In other news, although Amira is not in the band, she has a number of friends who are in the band and the color guard. Apparently the girl who was the letter "H" in C-H-I-C-O had to leave so Amira stepped in. Here are some photos of her appearing with the band in the Parade of Lights downtown Chico. She also got to do this for all the home football games too. Big fun!

I've been putting a ton of hours at work. But, to make up for the hard work on the weekdays, Michael and I have been enjoying some nature on the weekends. I got a sweet wholesale deal on a couple of kayaks from one of my clients. Nature is the best remedy for just about anything. And we are so grateful to live in Northern California where we can still enjoy these activities in late October.

Michael had to leave for Spain on Halloween day. Valerie announced that she would not be participating in the annual Wilhelm Pot-Luck as this was her senior year and she was invoking senior privilege. So, it was the "Tiff & Amira" show. Amira had a bunch of friends over all dressed as tourists. My friend (and hair dresser extradinaire) Grace came with her husband who was also dressed as a tourist. So, we put him and some of the teens together for a photo.

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Here are Miles and Grace together. They are a hoot! Both artists to be sure. In fact, Miles is the lead guitarist for the Aqua Velvets. If you dig surf music and the tiki scene, you'll dig his music.

Other attendees to the party each year are some of my neighbors. We have our little one from next door, Charlotte, as Wonder Woman. She was adorable. She spent the evening playing with turkey feathers, feeding the gold fish and entertaining everyone with her shining smile.

Most of the teen scene was in Amira's room. 

How adorable is this? 

Grace and I on the front step photo studio. 

Thanksgiving is just around the corner, literally. It's also on the roof, in the neighbor's yard, the treetops ... We have a loud yard ... for now. I expect a quiet winter.

New Beginnings

August brought a little more bounty from the yard. I've been figging and pearing out. Our poor orchard got a monster pruning before spring, so most of our stone fruits didn't produce this year. But figs and pears!! They came through. I'm hoping for persimmons and a few pomegranates later this fall.

August also means Butte County Fair and back to school. Valerie showed a goat this year at the fair.

She also had her officer retreat prior to school starting. Here are some photos of her and her team. She is president of her chapter this year. What a great way to wrap up senior year.

Valerie and Amira had some quality friend time with Ruth before school started. Valerie met Ruth as a 3rd grader so many years ago. 

Our big change this year is that Rex is moving down to Long Beach to start a program at UTI. We got the family together one last time before his big adventure.

Not long after this, the girls headed back to school. Michael started traveling for work again. And I followed Rex down I-5 headed to Long Beach to get him settled into his new place. He is renting a private room/bath in a house. The woman who owns the house, Ms. Garcia, rents out rooms to international students and professionals. She lives there and often looks after her grand children. I think it will be a good space for him.

We ran into a bit of traffic even at 8pm as we headed through L.A. on the 405 on Friday night. The slowdown added about an hour to our commute. We left Chico at 12:30pm and checked into our hotel in Long Beach by 10pm. Now, traffic was not the highlight of the trip down here. We stopped for food at the base of the Grapevine around sunset. As we climbed up the pass, the full moon with a strip of smoke rose up like a huge lantern in the dusty sky. That was quite a show. No photos of that as I had to have both hands on the wheel.

On Saturday morning we drove over to his new neighborhood and packed him in.

The room is pretty small and sparse. There is a bed and desk and hard tile floor. We made a stop out at Target and Ikea in Carson to get a few things to make it his.

Once we got his bedding washed, added a rug and hung up the wall art he brought from home, it felt like his space. We picked up some succulants to add a little vitality to his living space. (He even has a venus fly trap plant now).

After a full day of nesting, we went out to Long Beach Thai (just a short walk from his house). It was very good! I'm sure he'll be back.

As we had our evening walk back to his new digs, he discovered a flock of feral parrots living in the neighborhood. There is a brown squirrel that lives in the trees in the front of his house. A house around the corner has a cage full of parakeets set outside their front door. The merry chirping and singing of those birds has a familiar ring to it. Maybe he'll think of Wasabi when he hears them.

Sunday morning I took him grocery shopping before pointing the minivan back north to Chico. I left around 11am and got home by 7pm. Fortunately I had lots of podcasts and an audio book for the trip. 

Today Rex will have orientation at UTI. The girls are back to school. Michael is working in Las Vegas. And I have a ton of work to catch up on since I stepped out for most of last Friday.

This autumn will feel different from the years gone by with only four of us in the house. I hope that Rex sends us some photos of his adventures. But I know how difficult it can be to capture all those moments when you're busy living them.