Nine Things I Learned in June

If you subscribe to the blog and read the email on your phone, the photos might not show up. (Some people get them, some do not; it isn’t a problem I know how to solve.) You can see them by going to the blog on the internet. It is called cabinart.net/blog, and the latest post is always on top.

1. There is a new(ish?) company that makes an alternative to soda (“pop”, “soda pop”, or my favorite “sodie”). Olipop is very expensive, and after the sample pack arrives (not free samples but six each of 2 flavors for a total of $31.03 including shipping when I used the promocode POUROVER for 15% off), then I will tell you what I think. This sodie has 2 grams of sugar, fiber, probiotics, carbonation (that’s the “pop” part of the name), all made from good-for-you stuff. As a highly frugal person, this will be consumed as a treat, and water will continue to be my beverage of choice. And black coffee (with 70% chocolate dunked in it). And Dr. Pepper, which I probably will never consume again. Sigh. (If it tastes good, spit it out.)
2. The grass in our one small remaining lawn might be Korean Lawn Grass, or Zoysia japonica. This is the third summer of not letting Trail Guy mow in case it will spread by seed, transplanting new clumps as I find them behind the house (23 years ago it was back there but got wrecked during our remodel), hand weeding, and using Miracle Grow to get it to thicken. 
3. No matter how many wonderful visits I make to Hume Lake, it never ceases to amaze me that most of the guests there are more tuned in to relationships than the natural world around them. They love the location but give me the side-eye when I go all nuts about a flower or a tree. Lovely people, lovely place, so different from Mineral King, except that cabin communities do share many common cultural practices. (Here are three posts from 2018 about cabin communities: Cabin Thoughts, Cabin Thoughts Part 2, Cabin Thoughts Part 3.)
4. I discovered a redwood tree (Sequoia gigantea) at Hume Lake for the first time! How did I never notice this before? The elevation there is 5200′; I think most sequoias grow at around 6000′. Wait, The Duck just told me they grow from 4600′ to 6600′ in elevation. This tree was such a surprise to me that it took me awhile to decide that it actually is a redwood. It is so hard to tell when the needles are too far away to see, and when one is confused about the trees’ preferred elevations—those are my excuses. After I took this photo, I KNEW it was a redwood, because I have drawn and painted that kind of bark so many times. Alas, why did I have to see it on a screen to know? I need to get out more.

5. 

   I read a fabulous book called The Ride of Her Life, by Elizabeth Letts. I read a tremendous amount of books and rarely post about them. This one is exceptional, so you get to look it up. Annie Wilkins rode her horse from Maine to California in 1954. She stayed in Tulare for awhile! (The name of my county, but not the county seat, oddly enough.)
6. Many subscribers to my blog cannot see the photos in the email with the day’s post. Lots of thought has gone into (not) solving the problem, so I finally decided to add this paragraph to the beginning of each post: “If you subscribe to the blog and read the email on your phone, the photos might not show up. (Some people get them, some do not; it isn’t a problem I know how to solve.) You can see them by going to the blog on the internet. It is called cabinart.net/blog, and the latest post is always on top.” I wonder if anyone will click through to the internet.
7. Slowly, slowly, I am learning to stand up for my work. If a customer wants an addition after the job is bid, it is called a “change order”, and it is fine to state it as such. If a customer wants something that goes against my better judgement, it is fine to state that and present the reasons. I don’t know why this is so difficult; in most parts of my life I am not a shrinking violet, so why am I like that in my business? (Prolly need counseling.)
8. There is an excellent art museum in Fresno, appropriately named the Fresno Art Museum. It has multiple exhibits, an auditorium, and a gift shop, along with other things. How did I not know of this place, built the year after I was born?? I went to a “musical memoir” there, the entire presentation created by a dear friend from childhood. She wrote the music, the lyrics, all the dialogue, figured out the whole thing, and performed it, along with 4 others who had some parts too. It was simply amazing (an overused word that actually fits here)!
9. This lesson was a reinforcement rather than something new: it is great fun to do little enhancements to my neighborhood. It is my hope that reading all the words on this sign will cause people to slow down and think.* Good, but not good enough to spend that much money on something so unnecessary.