more pics

Before i get started i want to say that we lost a very special and dear friend Friday. Jane Hattenbach passed away in her sleep. She was 87 years old. She will be missed by many friends, children ,and grandchildren.Ok, Last week we stumbled onto a Eden hidden in plain sight. Less than 50 feet from a hiway is a old dam built by Chinese miners sometime during the 1850's. The dam has long since filled in with debris,sand, and rocks but the creek found a way around it and now there are two beautiful waterfalls on each side of the old dam. At the bottom of the dam is a sunny place covered in ferns, moss and massive old toppled trees. I  made it half way down and by then i was sweating like a fat man jumping rope in a attic in August! I stopped at that point and started wondering how am i going to get back up. My better half made it down with no problems and even helped me get back to the top! Gotta love that! We walked down the road a piece and found a way to walk right out on top of the dam. Its probably 60 ft long 30 ft high and about 3 feet thick. Its amazing to think of the labor that went into building this thing out in the middle of nowhere. We panned for several hours but didn't find any gold :(  This morning  we got up and drove to Reno, Its like Vegas only better in my opinion.We had 3 things on our minds, Gambling (of course) Mexican food, and a good scalding hot bath. So far ive had the Mexican food and in a few minutes comes the bath. One thing before i go, we talked to Big Ed and beautiful Jena today. Two of the nicest people ive ever met. hope to see them soon...

old age

Got a story we need to share with everybody. We went to Wal-mart today to get a pair of rubber boots. We need them to walk down the middle of the creeks while we are gold panning. Its way too cold to just step  into the water. The water temp is just above freezing. And sometimes the banks are so steep its almost impossible to scramble down the bank and totally impossible to drag my butt back up it. Ok,back to the boots. We drove 40 miles one way to get these and when we got to Walmart we bought lettuce, tomatoes,wine (lots of wine),chips, and walked out without even thinking about those damn boots!  Can you believe! Im getting in the truck when Susan starts laughing her head off. I cant imagine whats causing the hysterical laughter until she stops and says " What did we come here for?" Of course, ive got  a blank stare i still dont have a clue..At this point she says "boots?" D'ooh! So we go back in and find out that Wal-mart is out of boots anyway. Are we dealing with senility,old age,too much wine or what? someone give me the answer quickly, before i forget the question.

Another day in paradise

After a fruitless day of gold panning its time for pizza and beer. Beer, proof God loves us! We went to K-mart this morning to buy some rubber boots. It would be easier to walk in the water while panning instead of trying to walk down the creek banks. Well, the boots were $25 a pair!  No-way, that's highway robbery.So we blew off the boots and did it the way we had been doing it. Earlier i said a "fruitless day". That's not true, we had fun. It was a warm sunny day and it was good to get out and enjoy the scenery. No big plans for tomorrow. Did i mention that our neighbors had left and went to Brazil? This is the French-Canadians  who  lived right across the road from us. We miss them. They left their cat (Macha) here. She's staying up in the office  until April.  That's when they will  be back. Can you imagine, backpacking in Brazil  for 3 months with 2 small kids? I will attach a photo of Macha on my next blog. Oh yeah, pizza's here!!

Finally a warm day

I guess the title says it all. A warm day. Its hard to express how good it feels. Sunny and warm is good. The term "warm"  is probably relative. Is 55 degrees warm? After days and days in the 30's 20's and even teens, 55 feels great. Its Saturday  and we are back in town. Lunch was, as always, In-out burger. If  you ever get the chance get  the double-double burger. OMG! Double meat, double cheese and afterwards a double heart by-pass. Somethings are worth the price. We are at Starbucks using the internet. Im too full to order anything. But that will wear off soon im sure. It always does. The internet situation at the park has improved a little. We were allowed  to move the  wireless router a little so we now get a signal at home. A weak ragged signal. But at least we can now use our computer at home but only when the manager decides to turn the internet on. Only took 3 months to move it 10 feet. Maybe by the end of our 6 month contract we can move it 10 more. Yep, we are outta here in April! It wont be directly home, we will be making a stop in Denver for awhile and then home. After that we have some plans in the works that will blow your mind, if they come to fruition. all i can say is: E probabile che noi stiamo muovendoic.

More Golden Stories

Instead of sitting in front of the television and watching football games all day Sunday(which is what  i wanted to do) we went to Oregon Creek  and panned for gold.(Actually i was dragged kicking and screaming like a 10 year old girl) There is a state park there but its closed for the winter. We had the place to ourselves except for one other couple. And they were in a mild state of panic trying to find a restroom that wasn't locked. Another reason we had the place to ourselves is the temp. It was 33 degrees. and the water was even colder! The sun was shining very brightly and that made it very easy to see the gold in the sand. We got down on all fours(not a pretty sight) and picked up around 100 pieces of gold! Man, this is easy. We will be rich in no time.. i thought..Well, im sure you can guess the outcome of this story. I know that big Ed already guessed.  99 out of the 100 pieces was fools gold. And the one piece of real gold we found was about the size of this period . ok,maybe a little bigger. Fools gold shines like the real stuff but its flakey. And if you place a piece in your hand and mash down on it with your thumb it will smear as you move your thumb. Even though we froze our noo-nooies off and didn't find much it was still fun. In fact, im getting gold fever right now... gotta go...

There's Gold in them thar hills....i mean river

Finally a sunny day.. We got out and went to the longest single span bridge in America or maybe even the world.It was built in 1862 and is still very sound. Even my fat ass couldn't make it bounce when i jumped up and down...Yeah, like i can still jump up and down..The park is only open thurs, fri, sat, and sunday probably due  to budget cuts.Being, today is tuesday we had the entire place to ourselves.Thats the good side, the bad side is since the park is closed so were the bathrooms! Nough said about that.The next pic is of a flake of gold we found in the river. All of this area is gold country and they says the majority of gold  is still un-discovered. We saw hundreds of flakes in the sand but most were no bigger than a pinhead so it was next to impossible to pick them up. This one was large enough pickup and hold. We have found us a new passtime. Panning. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday we will be at work so its going to be hard to blog. Will write more soon

Hanging out

As i promised yesterday here is the painting our neighbor did for us. I think its really cool. She also does carvings. She will take a hickory nut and carve all kinds of stuff in it.. We finally got the chance to see True Grit. Its almost a word for word remake of the Duke's classic, except for the ending. I would recommend it to all of you. Also got the oil change in Marge and a transmission servicing.. Cost a fortune.. Little Roxanne got a grooming and bath at Petsmart today. As you can see we have been busy.. Need to head back to the hills. Oh,one more thing. How many Bowl games were on t.v.? We only had one game on New Years Day! Is that right? And it wasn't the Rose bowl, which i  would have bet money would be on.No, it was the Outback Bowl! How messed up is that!

Buying in Italy

Buying in Italy

Its 2011

Hope all you had a Happy  New Year.. We sure did. We woke up new years day to about 3 inches of snow on the ground. It was really pretty. No one had plowed the roads or even drive over the road in the park yet.  Nothing is as beautiful as pristine un-spoiled snow, Especially if your inside looking out.It snowed on and off all day. We visited with our French-Canadian neighbors for a long time and she gave us a hand-painted picture.  Is about the harmony of life on earth  or some crap like that. Im kidding its a real cool picture and i will show it to yall the next time i blog. Im having a tough time writing this, first my computer battery came unplugged and i lost my witty and extremely funny first blog. I finally figured out what happened and plugged it back in but by then i had forgotten and of the witty things i had said the first time.. Just as its all coming back to me the coffee shop im at  closes! So we packed up and headed all the way across town (2-3 miles) to another place we like. Tomorrow is a trip into the big city of Yuba City to get the oil changed in Marge. Marge is our 2011 chevy pickup. And just maybe, if there is time we will go see True Grit. wish us luck.. 

Its 2011

Hey, Happy New Year to everybody. Hope all of y'all ate some greens and black eyed peas new years day. supposed to bring you good luck and lots of money, well ive had the good luck now im ready for the money! show me the money. We had our white new years day. When i woke up the snow was about 2 inches deep. It snowed on and off all day. A  total of around 4-5 inches. We went out and played in it some. Visited with  the neighbors and just had a great time. It was 35 when we left home at 2pm to come down  to the coffee shop in the valley and it must  be 50 here.. And sunshine