Trip to the Pumpkin Patch

10/13/2019 Davis, CA

For the last, I don’t know, five years or so we have taken the grandkids to a local pumpkin patch to get a few more pumpkins and for them to have the experience of walking out into the field to pick the ones that “call out to them”.  Each year the operation at the patch has gotten a little bigger.  When we started going there they had the field of pumpkins, a small corral of farm animals that you could get close to and pet, a small maze, and a tractor that pulled a train of little cars designed to look like cows.

This year the show was bigger than ever, covering three or four times as much ground, with everything you would expect to see at a county fair.  Refreshment stands, face painting, big mazes, little mazes, long lines to get on the tractor train, and lots and lots of folks bringing out the kids, just like us.  It is no longer what Linus in the Peanuts comic strip would have called a “sincere pumpkin patch” the kind the Great Pumpkin would visit to deliver goodies to all the true believers.

Call me old and stodgy who is still a kid at heart but that’s what I would prefer too.  Don’t get me wrong, the owners try hard to take care of the crowd, there’s lots of very polite help when you need it and generally the operation is well staffed but it’s big.

Here’s part of the back end of the parking lot,

I guess you need a return for your effort and investment and it looks like they’re getting it,

The quonset tent, which, I think, is for reservations only, birthdays, etc.

An old hearse driven, of course, by skeletons,

Here’s the white pumpkin and gourd section,

And the orange one,

I think we’ll look for something more sincere next year.

And that’s what’s new today.

Carving Pumkins

10/12/2019 Davis, CA

We have the grandkids for the weekend and one of our planned events was to carve pumpkins or draw on pumpkins or both, we’ll see how it works out.  First we have to go into town and buy the pumpkins.

So we went in to the Co-op where they had a convenient selection.

We did not have to go out into the field and pick our own, they’re right there.  Of course, the girls patted the tomato for good luck.

Back at the ranch, we got everything ready for the event.

I made the initial incision and turned it over to the kids to take the seeds out of the pumpkins.  The unanimous verdict was “too slimy” and they deserted me and went inside to make cupcakes.  The best takeaway from that would be for them to learn to stick around and clean up after the work is done.

The slimy job ahead.

I cleaned the seeds out by myself.  They’ll do better next year and I am kind of looking forward to doing, at least, one elaborate carving.  So here are the results.  We’ll see how they look after dark when we can light the candles.

Along the way, they both got their hair trimmed.  It was a beautiful day.

And here’s how the pumpkins look at night.

That’s what’s new today.

Adding some tile to improve appearance at electric panel

10/9/2019 Davis, CA

I got tired of looking at the raw brick at the bottom of the electric panel.  We added more solar panels about eighteen months ago.  Doing that required that we install a new electric panel.  It had to be bigger to accommodate the additional inverter which takes the DC energy created by the solar panels and changes it into AC energy which can be fed back into the grid.  To enable the electricians to install the new panel I had to break out a larger opening in our brick siding.  When they were done I bricked up to the new panel and done…almost.

Here’s what was bugging me.

Come on, we can do better than this.  I have many tiles from two tiled gates that were at the river house when we bought it.  I will use some of them to cover these hollow core bricks.

Like these, for instance,

Of course, they will have to be cut to fit the proposed area,

I thought I could do it with a dremel tool but it was not up to the job.  The tiles are harder than I expected.  I bought the masonry blades for a skil saw that you see in the picture.  Even they cut very slowly and required quite a lot of pressure.

Finally though we get what we want,

Now we glue them down and add some mortar in place of grout,

Then clean up the job and voila, beautifying America.

I’ll put this in my resume.

Woodland Stroll Through History Tour

posted 10/6/19 Davis, CA

Saturday I took two bike tours in Woodland on the City’s Stroll Through History event.  The city has a remarkable diversity of building styles from Victorian to mid-century modern.  I won’t include any history here but only say that we rode through some gorgeous small town neighborhoods and I’ll show some of the pictures I took.  The second ride was a tour of the trees of Woodland which was equally remarkable.  More about that another day.

First house is the famous Gable Mansion, built by two brothers in 1880s, doesn’t say if they and their families both lived there.  I was in the house once in the late seventies.  A friend of a friend was caretaking the house with his girlfriend and we played poker up in the room at the very top.  I can’t remember if that was the third or the fourth floor.  It was interesting.

The next is the first private hospital in Woodland.  Obviously living space today.

This next was the tour’s poster home for 2019.  The style of this house is Tudor Revival.  It is located in the Beamer Park area.  Built in 1934 by a noted Woodland developer, Joseph Motroni.

This is a home that was not featured on the tour but is a good example of craftsman bungalow.

This next house was not on the tour either but was pointed out by our guide on the bike tour as a style meant to mimic the first Californa government buildings in Monterey.

I’ll have some trees and more houses next time.

More scenes from the bike, my favorite stops

posted October, 4 2019, Davis, CA

Tomorrow I am going on a historic Woodland bike tour and a trees of Woodland bike tour.  They are both part of Woodland’s Stroll Through History program.  There looks like a lot to see.  The bike tour is listed at one hour and the tree tour is after that, 9 AM and then the tree tour at 10:30.  I will get as many pictures as I can so I can get a bit of variety.  Today I took pictures at my favorite stops as I run my errands and get coffee.  Here’s favorite stop to get current events reading material.

This is Davis’ local news dealer.  I hope they never go out of business.  I like being able to buy what I want without having to subscribe to anything.

This was the best wine shop in Davis.  I think the owner was trying to sell the business but his building was condemned.  You can see in the pictures that there are some serious sags in the roof and as the roof sags the walls get pushed out.  Bad deal.

If you went into the store looking for French or Italian wines the owner could tell you about the region the wine came from and even knew some the vineyards.  His knowledge went down to the slopes of the hills, the neighboring vineyards, the age of the vines, and on and on.  Too bad he’s gone.

My most favorite stop of all.

I have loved libraries since the first time I walked into Petaluma’s Carnegie library.  Here’s some information about it.

In 1906, the new Petaluma Library opened at Fourth and B Streets. This Library was one of the 2,509 library buildings constructed with the aid of Carnegie funds. The Carnegie Library was designed by local architect Brainerd Jones and built from locally quarried stone. The building features the largest freestanding leaded glass dome in Northern California. With few changes through the decades, the building served as a Carnegie Free Library until 1976. In 1988, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is now the Petaluma Museum, a historical museum with research library.

I do not have any pictures but it is magnificent.  You could google it.

Last stop on my route home is one of Davis’ little free lending libraries.  What a great idea.  I have gotten and given a lot of reading material here.

That’s it for today.  Tomorrow, a stroll through history.

Random stuff and danger on the bike path

posted October 2, 2019, Davis, CA

On my morning ride it was garbage pick up day in the route I was on.  Playing leapfrog with the garbage trucks (and Unitrans buses) is something one encounters from time to time.  The garbage trucks are easier because they are working their way down the street slowly.  The drivers are mostly attentive but exercise caution because you just never know.  Best is to pass quick when they stop to pick up a row of cans.  The drivers have a route to complete and they are concentrating on their work and they usually hug the right side of the road.  Here’s one now…

This next one had me sawed off in a parking lot and he was not looking, up to me to avoid him.

Leapfrogging the buses is an entirely different matter.  They stop briefly and then get back into traffic to get to the next bus stop, which is every couple blocks or so.  That can be much more difficult because they’re bigger and covering distance at about the same rate as a cyclist.  Best to speed up for five or six blocks or slow down and let them get way ahead.  Or change streets.  We used to have a saying, “danger lurks where a hay buck works”.  It’s about the same mixing it up with the buses.

I’ll throw in a couple of scenery shots to make it look like I’m doing lots of stuff.  This is from a stair walk in the City by the Bay.  Not Coos Bay.

And here’s one from the deck of the apartment above the garage in Paia.  Looking towards Kahului.

The weather is nice in town today, the north wind quit blowing and it is a nice warm fall day.  This time of year we have that fall sunlight when the sun isn’t directly overhead but lower to the southern horizon.  Really pleasant.

That’s it for today.

Trying to get the right look

Posted October 1, 2019, Davis, CA

Not too much to see today, spent most of the day at my desk.  It was supposed to be in the mid seventies today which I thought would be nice, and comfortable outside, but there’s a cold north wind so it’s not warm at all.  Made the usual ride into town for coffee and the paper and stopped here at the Davis Co-op.

Drove up to Foy’s Bike Shop in Woodland yesterday and sold this bike to the owner of the shop.

It’s an Italian made bike from the 70s by a company, as you can see on the decal, Ciocc.  It’s pronounced “cho ch” with the ch like in check.  It means poker faced and their insignia is four aces in a cross pattern.  A nice riding bike but I have too many nice rides.