I misled you yesterday when saying we’d visit my short wussy walks in Mineral King. Instead today’s topic is Cabin Life: what in the world does one do in a place with no electricity, internet, or phones? These are the photographical items on the agenda: 2. Help people hold down their porches. 3. Go exploring […]
Trail Guy Went to Timber Gap (in Mineral King)
Where is Timber Gap? It’s on the north side of the Mineral King Valley. A “gap” is a low spot on a ridge or between peaks where it is natural to cross over to the other side. I suppose it is synonymous with “pass”, but in Mineral King we call them “gaps”: Tar Gap, Timber […]
Hey Jeff, Am I Finished With Your Garden Painting?
I don’t think Jeff reads my blog. Marketing and sales people would tell me that I don’t push it hard enough, that I should be linking posts to my Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook accounts. That would be difficult, since I don’t participate in any of those. This may be why I only have tens of […]
FOURTEEN Things Learned in the first 1/2 of June
Last month I had my head in the sand or something. This month I did so much learning that I’m publishing this post 1/2-way through the month, with the (always reckless) assumption that there will be more to learn in the second half of the month. TECH 2. The new solve-all-your-problems iphone goes straight to […]
Another Someone Else’s Book | Visalia Electric Railroad
In 2018, Louise Jackson and I worked together on a second edition of her book, The Visalia Electric Railroad: Stories of the Early Years. We published it with a printer that may or may not still be in business. You can read about it on this old blog post: The Visalia Electric Railroad Book. Very […]
Trail Guy Went to White Chief
Trail Guy, being retired, spends more time in The Land of No Electricity, Internet, or Phones (unless one has StarLink, which your Central Calif. Artist does not—surprised by this?) than I do. He actually had time to hike, working around all his obligations/helpfulness to neighbors. You can tell he took these photos by the spots […]
Drawing Jeff’s Garden With a Paintbrush
I thought this would be very difficult and take “forever”. Instead, I am thoroughly enjoying the process because now that the sizes and locations and base coat are down, I can simply begin drawing with my paintbrush. Step by Step by Step. . .or Way Leads on to Way Let’s just have a series of […]
This is Fun
I started detailing Jeff’s Garden, the commissioned oil painting, and it is fun! We left it looking like this: Then it began evolving. . . (oops, finger partially over the lens in the first photo)
About Other People’s Books
A decade or so ago, I began pursuing a “side hustle” in editing. This came to fruition in a conversation with my dear friend Louise, a historian and writer. We began with the second edition of The Visalia Electric Railroad, then moved into Trail of Promises. Since then we have worked together on two novels. […]
Planting an Oil Garden
What’s an “oil garden”? Glad you asked! Remember this colored pencil sketch for a commissioned oil painting of someone’s garden? (Let’s call him Jeff, because that is his name.) Jeff approved of the design for his painting and chose 12×24” for the canvas size. Having realized the benefits of starting with a sketch on an […]