Wow, It Has Been Awhile...
I just checked and my previous Random Musings was back in mid-February...sorry about that!
Starting with the last weekend of February I've done a show each weekend through last weekend.
There were two exceptions and both those weekends I did a rockhounding field trip to Ant Hill either on a Saturday or a Sunday in lieu of a show but I still traveled to Bakersfield nonetheless.
That works out to seven shows in nine weekends plus two field trips...whew!
Here's what the schedule looks like:
February 28-March 1 ~ Northridge Show
March 7-March 8 ~ Arcadia Show
March 14-March 15 ~ Spreckles Show
March 21 ~ CFMS Field Trip to Ant Hill
March 28-March 29 ~ Roseville Show
April 3-April 5 ~ Bakersfield Show
April 11 ~ Private Field Trip to Ant Hill
April 18-April 19 ~ Lancaster Show
April 25-April 26 ~ Santa Cruz Show
This weekend I was going to do the Snyder PowWow which would have made it eight shows in ten weekends but that will not happen now which brings us to the next item...
2009 Snyder PowWow (And Why I Won't Be There)
I was planning on doing the Snyder PowWow near Valley Springs in Calaveras County this weekend but a couple of nights ago intuitively determined I should not do it this year.
The reasons are manifold and I shall share them with you.
First off, don't know why but I just knew it in my gut; call it intuition, call it discernment, call it whatever you like. All I know is I had a growing sense of a lack of peace about doing it and once I determined/discerned not to do it I had great peace and even joy (imagine that!).
Secondly, I am getting rather noticeably fatigued from week to week with this schedule the past couple of months. In addition to what I previously mentioned about this grueling schedule, I have traveled to pick my girlfriend up and drive her down to Atascadero (earlier this month right before my second field trip to Ant Hill) and then had to drive her home early last week the day after the Lancaster Show.
Thirdly, I am getting behind on my eBay business (K&K Earthwerks Store) and need to get caught up on that as that keeps me going between shows and of late that has suffered as my focus has been quite justifiably on said shows.
Fourthly, this blog has suffered from neglect as my girlfriend continues to suffer from her prolonged illness which saps her of strength and motivation and I am either gone or busy or too tired to work on it and provide worthwhile content.
Fifthly, I am being offered some odd-job work over the next week or so which will pay well while allowing me to stay home so why not?
Sixthly, I have never done this event and it is by its very nature not an easy show to do given the primitive conditions in which it is conducted. My business partner Mike Lyons (who has done this show before) was going to get us into it and make all the arrangements and kinda walk me through it the first year I did it. Unfortunately, he had to bow out due to a recent injury incurred while jade hunting up on the Big Sur Coast.
Seventh, and last but not least (and maybe second most important following listening to that little voice inside which maybe even was alluding to this item), the weather appears to be on track to royally screw up the Snyder PowWow and maybe even turn the venue into a muddy morass and keep customers inside.
This is due to a very warm and wet late-season storm with a sub-tropical element poised to smack the Northern San Joaquin Valley starting tomorrow (Friday) where the event is held. Then a second storm is supposed to hit right afterwords on Sunday. Thank God I won't be there.
Show Additions For K&K Earthwerks
In recent weeks we've added three news shows to our schedule.
Next year in lieu of the Roseville show the last weekend of March we will be in the Lemoore Show which was extremely successful this year in its maiden voyage.
We will be in the Techachipi Show held during their huge Mountain Festival Saturday and Sunday, August 15-16, 2009. This year it will be held at the Catholic Church downtown instead of out on the periphery of town as in the past.
We will also be in the Ferndale Show held September 11-13, 2009, at the Humboldt County Fairgrounds in Ferndale, CA. We really like three day shows, especially if we are traveling that far.
Picture of the Day
As some of you have noticed I started contributing to our Picture of the Day feature earlier this month although I have slacked off in recent weeks for which I apologize. Tonight I shall queue some of them in for the coming days. Typically, we will only post this feature if we are not posting any other content on a given day although we may make exceptions to that on occasion.
Schwein Flu
Being the intuitive person I am I felt from fairly early on that this was a tempest in a teapot and was not the Big One they have been fearing and will undoubtedly hit Mankind again like it did in 1918 with the Spanish Flu.
Of course, this is not to say this current outbreak of H1-N1 Swine Flu won't mutate further into something else over the course of the year and become the Big One later this year.
However, what I have been feeling (and observing from afar) is now being validated for the first time today in an Los Angeles Times article HERE.
Okay now, everybody; take a deep breath and B..R..E..A..T..H..!!!
Drought & Fire Season
The latest news on California drought came out today in this article HERE.
In it, we learn that much of the good that the late February/early March rains did was undid by the heat waves and winds of April leaving our all-important snowpack at 66% of normal and it left us in deeper doodoo than we were year ago at this time.
Not unexpectedly, the fire season is firing up with a 200 acre fire down in the Winchester area of Riverside Co. earlier this week and other fires up in NorCal earlier this month at high elevations caused by lightening which is way too early in the year to be happening.
I've even seen a number of blackened areas along US101 between Paso Robles and Salinas of late which is kind of early to be happening it seems.
Already fire season is adversely impacting the Southwest area and even further east as Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, and even Florida, South Carolina, and New Jersey have had serious wildfire problems this month.
California looks to have another bad fire season in 2009 with plenty of rain just in time and just enough to get the flash fuels growing luxuriantly but not long enough, late enough, and heavy enough to put off the onset of fire season, but in fact it will start early this year.
We advise folks to be prepared this year and use due diligence when working with fire or while doing things that could start a fire or while located in high fire hazard areas.
We also invite you all to join California Disasters Group on Yahoo for the latest information as well as for history and preparedness information even when things are relatively quiet like now.
Late Breaking News...
Word just came in from Lew Helfrich of the San Joaquin Valley Lapidary Society in a post on LA-Rocks Group on Yahoo that somebody got hurt by a falling boulder in a dig at Hangglider Hill adjacent to the east of Ant Hill in the Bakersfield area.
This is where we were hunting for shark teeth earlier this month and late last month.
Late word is that this person was pulled from beneath the boulder by people at the scene by the time the Kern Co. F.D. showed up and this person had incurred a broken leg and some broken ribs.
I am extremely concerned this incident will lead to Ant Hill being closed to the public to limit exposure to litigation to the developer/owners of the site. Time will tell...
Kimmer
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