Sean & I took a road trip to N Calif. I drove the hour and a half to Sean's ranchette at oh dark thirty and he drove from there on down.
The lack of snow on Mt Shasta was troubling. When you have lived where water is such a precious commodity, you know how important snow pack is to replenishing the aquifer.
Lake Shasta was very low as well. It's looking to be another tough year for farmers and ranchers.
As we were pulling into the compound at Marymine's there were a million snow geese busy destroying an alfalfa field.
I told Sean that I felt sorry for that farmer, and was thankful it wasn't one of Clarke's alfalfa fields. Come to find out it was a new field of his. Dang.
Finally, I got to meet and hold great grand baby, Zoey.
She's such a good baby. Goes everywhere with Ali and never fuses. I picked her up, and she took one look at me, cocked her head, pooped her diaper, and smiled. We bonded! Marymine and I only locked horns once on who's turn it was to hold her. Guess who won that one. Ali is in her element as a mom.
We went out to dinner that night, only people wearing masks were the servers. The place was busy and no one was worrying about social distancing. The push back to unconstitutional mandates is happening. Yay!
Sean took off the next morning to a friend's further south, with the promise that he would stop & pick me up on his way back North.
Ali, Zoey, and I ran farmer errands most of the day. That evening after Marymine got home from work we caught up, and she showed Ali & I how to make chocolate bombs...
Anyone who thinks the country is quiet, hasn't lived there long. All those geese (see above) make a lot of noise, add in the coyotes at night, and you have sound effects galore.
Thought I would walk the fields just at day break, til I realized it would be better to stay close to the compound. There are a couple of blinds not that far from the houses, and buckshot stings.
That evening Colt said we all needed to go have a beer at Farmer's Brewing in Princeton,
and that we would take "the party bus". What party bus, I asked. Oh, they laughed, the boys bought a bus at an auction in Oregon, and it's "the perfect party bus". Got a little remodeling to finish inside, but other than that... What a hoot!
Loved getting to spend time with my wild, crazy, hard work'n crew.
Sean and I are now back in the rainy, cold North country.