99. Misc photos '08...More to come...

Miscellaneous photos from El Big Valley, 2008. Please stay tuned for more!

Welcome to the Propane Gas tank!

El Big is a city in Onion County.
It is the county seat.
The community was named for the river valley.
The latitude of El Big is 45.324N. The longitude is -118.086W. It is in the Pacific Standard time zone. Elevation is 2,772 feet. Add 10 feet for those who drive these things.

93. First Folk

A few historical photos from the El Big region's history books...
Their leader, Chief Joseph, famous for promoting peace.

Local Tribesman Rattlin' Pete

First folk NW regional cuisine side dish

A first bungalow




The man assigned to control the unruly warriors

Chief Lookinglass, the man who led the fight for the lands.
A local tribeman warrior
Meeting for the land allottment, 1889
Famous face
The beautiful cultural center/ museum/ art center/cafe 1 hr north of El Big

***
I am honored to be an invited artist for a fundraiser event in November.
Stay tuned for event photos.
***

92. A Happy Halloween

A good mix of El Bigians meet at the local pub for dancing and fun. For the first time in years I don't wear a costume, but just have a great time taking photos.

Halloween at El Big U comes early with threats of layoffs and department closures. Rumors fly, and morph from positive to negative, back to positive and back again. Socializing becomes more trying as the days lead up to the announcement. One sharp coworker muses, "I don't know what's more annoying---those who are overly positive or those who are completely doomsday."

Statewide issues, deep-seeded management problems, unfortunate pr, and cancellations of programs causes the school to find itself millions of dollars short. The interim leader announces the cuts to the public on Halloween. Science, Math and Language take the hits. Que calls me at home the moment he hears about his job status. I am relieved to hear that Que's department is merely reorganized and reshuffled, but doesn't lose a single tenured instructor.
The one truly shocking costume was a truck driver in red white and blue hotpants.

Later that night we meet up with the survivors at the pub for a bit of sober reflection. The pub is having a small but fairly rowdy costume party. The bartender delivers us round of drinks from a former student seated at the bar. "See you in twenty years!" he says. He raises his glass to us as we leave the party.

***

91. VSOPD.2

An onion truck on our Sunday drive.

90. VSPD

"Reputations are everything"

91. Art

Art inspired by the SFSU Grad student art opening food table, 2004

90. Public Safety Report

Drawing in the dark is hard.
Please click on image

89. VSPD 2 fer Bonus Posting!!

This week is a 2 fer Bonus photo, simply because while we toodled around the block for me to take this VSPD, I spotted the below image as well.

"Honey, I'm ho-ome!"
"I kno-ow!"

Race percentages from county website
Students are not counted.

White (91.8%)
Hspnc (2.8%)
2 or more races (2.1%)
Am Indn (1.5%)
Other (1.4%)
Ntive HA and Other Pac Is (0.9%)
African Am (0.7%)

Yet county is above average for foreign born in the state.
***

88. VSHD

Just about every day is a special headline day.

87. Some Favorite Things

One of the greatest things about participating in a local race in a small town is that it greatly increases your chances of winning.

Que and I tie for first place in our division. Nevermind that there were about 75 participants tops, and maybe 15 participants in what Que called "the senior division"...

Dancing lady orchid plant gift from the nice neighbor lady
Another great thing about living in a small town is knowing your neighbors by name. For the 6 years I rented a flat in the Castro neighborhood in SF, I didn't meet a single neighbor until I knew I had to move and have a garage sale.
Ok, so I'm not a hot, gay male gym rat, but it still seems strange to me that I didn't meet anyone until I had to leave.


The mayor is an accessable human being---not a celebrity in glossy magazines. (No offense R.) Last month the mayor, who is also a prof, held a potluck and cocktails at her house. That reminds me--I still need to return her spoon...


Another favorite --- Strange signage. This sign almost sounds demanding.


Organic local produce. This farmer was selling about a half dozen small baskets of seasonal vegetables. I plucked up the last of these odd baby eggplants. When I asked him about them, he said he planted them because they're beautiful.

Could I move back to the big city? Sure, I could if we had to. But as of today, I don't think I want to.

xo,
Ms. JD

***

86. Entry #003 "Deli meat with Pickles"

Ugly Building Contest Entry #003
Front
If you've been following The Tank for any amount of time, you've probably noticed that EB fully embraced the mauve trend in the 1980's. Maybe it's just me, but mauve has always reminded me of the color of headcheese, or bologne, or any sort of block of nitrate deli meat you might find chillin' behind the counter of any corner convienent store in Oaktown.

Side view

Aerial view

Long Shot
The PGT agrees, "Deli Meat with Pickles" is best viewed while squinting from a distance.

***

85.

84. Saturday Morning Rant

Seeing all these cute solar panels on everything from path lights to oven mits takes me back to the year Jimmy Carter was elected president. When my gradeschool teacher Mr. Johnson did a poll in our class asking whose parents voted D or R, I was the only kid in my Northern CA 5th grade class who raised my hand for D. I knew little about Carter, except that he had really big teeth and my dad and all his friends seemed really excited about his ideas and the prospect of him becoming president. In the late 70's, solar energy was something that was considered outsider and radical and something crazy hippies and arty types tinkered with.

Carter, "...We must not be selfish or timid if we hope to have a decent world for our children and grandchildren. We simply must balance our demand for energy with our rapidly shrinking resources."


In his campaign against Reagan in 1980:

"The year 2000 is just less than 20 years away, just four Presidential elections after this one. Children born this year will come of age in the 21st century. The time to shape the world of the year 2000 is now. The decisions of the next few years will set our course, perhaps an irreversible course, and the most important of all choices will be made by the American people at the polls less than 3 months from tonight..."

"The choice could not be more clear nor the consequences more crucial. In one of the futures we can choose, the future that you and I have been building together, I see security and justice and peace. I see a future of economic security-security that will come from tapping our own great resources of oil and gas, coal and sunlight... I see a future of justice--the justice of good jobs, decent health care, quality education, a full opportunity for all people regardless of color or language or religion; the simple human justice of equal rights for all men and for all women, guaranteed equal rights at last under the Constitution of the United States of America. And I see a future of peace--a peace born of wisdom and based on a fairness toward all countries of the world, a peace guaranteed both by American military strength and by American moral strength as well.

But there is another possible future. In that other future I see despair--despair of millions who would struggle for equal opportunity and a better life and struggle alone. And I see surrender--the surrender of our energy future to the merchants of oil, the surrender of our economic future to a bizarre program of massive tax cuts for the rich, service cuts for the poor, and massive inflation for everyone."




As ever, Ms. Jane D


*** *** ***

83. EBUBC Entry #002

Front
Side

The El Big Ugly Building Contest Entry #002:
Yabba Dabba Do-Do
Who needs fire insurance if your building is made entirely of stone?
The Propane Gas tank group agrees. This building may be small, but it stands tall!

Stay tuned--Don't worry, we have more entries!
***

82. I Am Merely a Mirror...

Typical gorgeous EB Autumnal weather. Mid 80's and sunny.


The outdoors beckons...


I drop everything and seek out Que, my pardner in crime...


Que needs a break from his project, too. He tells me that something's going on in the downtown square.


We walk downtown... pausing briefly at the latest store window display....


5 min later...Yes! A street festival!


Yes! Free hotdogs!


This year Que notes his friends at the RC booth; pauses a beat; then jumps in line to sign up for the raffle.






The free hotdog line snakes across the street and never seems to slow down. They seem well prepared.


Que steps away for a visit with the municipal tree guy, while I enjoy a couple of performances...(Interestingly enough, I was the only person with a camera. People here don't seem to take pictures of anything other than mountains, trees, fish, childrens and farm animals. If one is taking photos at something like this, they're likely journalists from the paper.)


Que teases me about being next up to dance. A older man within earshot gently askes me why we wear "those dresses".

Que later observes that a couple of the dancers look about his age; yet how different their lives seem to be.


U pick-U keep half! The other half goes to el local food banco.


Live music from the middle school


All volunteer hot dog cooking army


Token progressives booth, run by the most tenacious soul in town.


Every organization has a booth, including this very visible organization. I leap for the free swag. Afterall, who doesn't love free sticky notes?

81. EB Wildlife Report

"How far away do you think the highschool is from our home?"
"I'm not sure..maybe three blocks? Why?"

***

El Big Wildlife Report for 9/9/07

An 18 month-old male black bear was found hiding in the row of junipers at the highschool that evening at about 8:30 am. The bear appeared to be the one that had been spotted in the nearby area about a week earlier. PD officers and the Dept of Wildlife were notified and bear was transported to bear heaven.

80. Announcing The EBUBC

Hiya Folks!

In celebration of EB's announcement of an official EB Downtown Revitalization Project--noted last week by the mayor in the town daily--- we here at The Propane Gas Tank would like to announce the EB Ugly Building Contest! Although we agree that downtown is long overdue for a facelift, we fear that some of the...true character of downtown may be lost in the process of trying to give it character.

Having been an official resident of EB for 2 summers now; just long enough for some of the homeliness of downtown to become ALMOST endearing; we'd like to award these special structures before the EB Historical Society gets out their sledgehammers.

Soon, we fear, the 50's-70's stucco and lava rock fascades shall be ripped down--exposing ornate, geometric brick patterns, with shiny brass "historically accurate" number plates smothering their entryways, and French style flower boxes will magically appear, with garish, water-hogging annuals, and those Englishy fake antique glass lamposts will be erected every two feet. Sidewalks will widen. Next thing you know, there will be open- air cafes with couples sucking down carmel lattes, and dining on regional cuisines...And God forbid, shoe repair shops will close and become restaurants with wine lists! Shoot, next thing you know--we'll have an airport! And don't get us started on the choice of font for the municpal signage. Oy...

Perhaps we here at The PGT are guilty of being overly sentimental for an architectural time period that should be erased from the books. Change is inevitable.

Tune in every week for a new posting, or until we run out of buildings. We will do our best to bring you the ugliest of the ugly, and then let you, our beloved audience, decide their fate.
So which is it? Mid century madness, or Office park berm filler?

As ever,
Ms. Jane D'oh and The PGT Team

See is Believing
Our first entry, "Mauve Steel" Photo taken by an overtaken Que.
Click image to see breath-taking mottled brick facade.

The team agrees, this building is damned ugly.

79. Promises In the Dark

Promises, promises.
And now, a few of those Nev/ID photos I promised you...

Soundtrack for the desert:
Bowie Space Oddity
Galaxy 500
Lots of Looper
Tokyo Space Cowboys


We pass through Ca's mountain region and into Nevada. This shiny, new camp is tucked neatly into a valley on the Ca/Nev border. Judging on the proud signage, I'd guess it was constructed in the past 5 years. Hmm...


We pass through a very remote area of North Nev desert---not too far from the infamous Ignited Person Festival. We spot signs of the festival's visitors along the highway's intersection. Hundreds of names and messages are spelled with collected lava rocks. Most of them are too small or illegible to read from our passing car. I imagine that there are a few peace signs and maybe a couple of hearts...



Que and I have noted this unique structure a few times now, calling it, 'the crazy artist thing'. We finally have time to stop and inspect it up close...




I don't normally like found object art, but in this case, it seems very appropriate.




The son of the artist is still living, and apparently looks after the grounds.






No problem!




The structures are constructed from bags of cement with found man-made discarded objects embedded into them....as well as some beautiful natural found materials such as wood and stone.



Que and I both agree that the artist's message is successful.





I leave with a new found respect for 'the crazy artist thing', which upon closer inspection, doesn't seem all that crazy anymore.

We plough into Idaho....

Fun Nev/Idaho cloudplay


McMansions divide the endless stretches of corn and potato fields. Judging by the style of the structures, they look like they're all built in the past 2-5 years.


This is the first tank of this stuff we've seen in the area.


The only non-whites in ID seem to be seasonal workers working in the ethanol corn fields.


!

...Which makes for good eatin' if you're traveling through the rural areas during the picking season. The closest authentic taqueria to El Big is located in a migrant town near the border of Oregone and Boyzie. Occasionally one may see a tacky Disneyland-type Chinese restaurant, but even they are rare.

A new drive-through coffee business located across from our hotel in Boyzie. What year is it, 1987? Just another bizarre example of Idaho's strange social contrasts. Que makes a u-turn so I can get a photo of it. (Click photo to read signage) And no, I have no idea if their double lattes are any good.




A favorite stretch on the Idaho desert. Yes, even Idaho has a magic hour.


Adios Idaho. Take me home, Country roads.
***

77. Fire

Last night we had a fire on the mountain. The papers said it was approximately 150 to 200 acres in size. This is not surprising as we've had warm weather in the mid 90's with dramatic and sudden thunderstorms in the evenings. Most of the burning is in heavy timber and dense sub-alpine fir stands with a lot of dead trees. All the campers had evacuated.
***

76. VSOPD

Very Special Onion Photo Day. Thanks to guest photographer, Que. Bossy art direction by yours truly.

Yes, that's a world-famous Wolla Wolla from the El Big Farmer's Market, grown right here in the big valley. Apparently the onion originally came from Italy. Someone brought it to the area in the late 1800's. Impressed by the new onion's winter hardiness, they harvested the seed. Located just 2 and a half hrs directly north of El Big, and just on the opposite side of the border and the Azul Mountains, Wolla Wolla is a rural college community much like El Big, with an abundance of trees in this generally arid region. The annual temperatures range from 32.4 to 88.9 degrees, just perfect temperatures for growing lots of really big onions.

Happy Labor Day, friends. Hope you get some time to relax a bit on the long weekend.

xo,
Ms. Jane d'oH

***

75. The Long Drive Home

The Long Drive Home
Ca-Nevada-Idaho-El Big

Soundtrack from California to Nevada:
Newly purchased The Format
The Beatles
Seemingly endless Glen Gould mp3's
The Smiths imitators, Silent Gray
Guilty pleasure ELO
Tidbits of NPR around the cities
and Name That Tune to various statiic-filled Classic Rock radio stations.


Once again, goodbye California. Well, for now.


Artichoke fields, Salinas



Good bye behemoth ads on everything. I won't miss that part of you at all. No, not even...

...the ones I'm partially responsible for.


Goodbye insanely beautiful beaches with crazy looking Dr. Suess-like succulents growing wild everywhere...


Goodbye strange, California contradictions---Such as this car in front of us on our way out of the Bay Area. Yes, that's an anti AYE-SEE-EL-U (sic) sticker on a Preeus. Reminds me of an old boss of mine in SF. Anyway...!

The caricature artist, Juan Hijo de Sostenido.
Goodbye to all the gradeschool pals who you happen to run into while visiting the family. Nice seeing you after 100 years. Stay in touch, Juan!


Goodbye to all those fleshy pink brick soundwalls that snake along just about every highway in California...


...

...

Why, hello Nevada...


First things first. Some online research leads us to a perfect meal at Vietnamese restaurant that's tucked away just on the outskirts of town.


What the...? Hello eye candy.
With our good fortune, we roll into town the same night as the famous annual car show. Que scores an online discount room at one of the casinos...

We drop off our bags off and bolt out of the casino with cameras in hands...

Insert gurgled announcers voices blaring over the rumbling mufflers...





50's music...


...and the smell of car exhaust from the hundreds of old cars chugging by...












Wish I could stay longer, but we have to go. Goodbye Reno...

Hello Idaho!

...to be continued.

74. VSPD

Photo shot at the civic art gallery in Bakery Town, a small city south of El Big, pop. 9,000.

73. Wildlife Viewing Report

Onion County Wildlife Viewing Report

Morning Doves can be seen around El Big until the first frost, when they head south to the vollyball courts on the Florida beaches. Bambi can be seen in Farmer Doug's fields and near cover in the am and at dusk. Teenage Red-tailed Hawks are visable, bumming around out on power poles and irrigation structures. Young Osprey are seen in Onion County too.

Most of the teeny bopper Tanhill Cranes of the wildlife area are beginning to hang in large groups of 10 and 20. Watch out for them from the road near Football Road and Warm Lake Avenue and Nectarine Road. They can be intimidating.



Elsewhere, totally immature bald eagles can be seen from the boat pier at Poolchair Reservoir, about 10 miles south of El Big. Visitors to the valley can see both adult and youngster elk calves too, basically up to no good; downing J&B berry winecoolers and playing target practice with empty sixpacks of Pabst Azul Ribbon Beer.

Adult professors, usually noted for their broad brimmed, non-cowboy hats, prescription sun glasses, and summer plummage, can still be spotted wandering aimlessly around the undeveloped areas of the valley for approximately one month or so. Most species are considered fairly harmless unless provoked while uncaffienated and/ or discussing World politics.

72. UPDATE: Culture Shock Level Check

So, Que and I had two bees pass us up on the drive down to the pizza parlor yesterday.
I think El Big's suiting us just fine.

As ever,
Ms. Jane D'oh

***

71. VSPD

Once again, VSPD is "Very Special Photo Day!" An oldie but a goodie. Photo taken at Arbie's in 2005, The Daluz, an extraordinary rural community 2 hours east of El Big
***

70. Home Sweet Home

Classes I won't be signing up for this term...
>ANS216-Pregnacy Testin/ Bovine
Credits-1 Lab-1
This course is a "hands-in" course requiring
students to pregancy check a minimum of
fifty cows to become proficient. This class has
an open lab to accomodate students and give
all adequate time to develop a high level
of profiency.
Recommended preparation: AGM121, ANS122,
and instructor approval.

>ANS217-Artificial Insemination
Credits-3, Lecture-2, Lab-1
Basic consideration of reproductive physiology
and artificial inseminatin of livestock.
Emphasis in the lab is places on the application
of lecture material and developing proficiency in
the artificial insemination of cattle.
Recommended preparation: ANS121 and ANS122

69. Hello Pacific contin'

A surfer at Jules Fiepher (sic) private beach, Grande Monsieur.



This area was made famous by many a movie filming...
Two above photos by Que


... including the Brand'oh film, Una-Ojo Jacks, (1961)


More pictures of the 94 year old National Landmark, The Julie Morgan (sic) State Park Retreat, where Que and I stay for one week---


...where my mother spent her summers as a young girl of the Y-Dubya-CA in the 1940's, and where my father spent his summers in the 1970's training as president of *his* union.


The central meeting area in the Friendship Hall--complete with grande piano, pool tables, and ping pong. I cream Que in ping pong, btw. (I can't help it, it's in my DNA.)


It's also the one room in the entire retreat that provides wi-fi. Rooms include wood burning fireplaces...gorgeous balconies overlooking the grounds...

...but have no televisions and absolutely no telephones.

People watching is primo for my roving eye. Besides the interesting cross section of Que's good union folk, the retreat attracts family reunions, upper crust history buffs, middle aged ludites, and the lot of new agey California stereotypes.




The architect's signiature style has strong influences on the surrounding homes in the area, not to mention every new strip mall across the NorthWestern United States. (Stay tuned for my post on this very subject alone!)

***

While Que fights for health benefits along side the West Coast's finest 2007 teachers at the role playing bargaining sessions at the training conference...











... I gleefully sneak away for a dream drawing and painting date at the stunning coastal St Park reserve, Whale Bay, Pacifico G Reserve- dry ink brush pen on paper


(Things such as this sign remind me why I still love California.)

I want capture it all before returning to El Big, so I find myself taking more pictures than I expected...

Native yellow lupin on the dunes.
Wooden signs and literature pamphlets near the sand dunes notify beach combers of complex native plant restoration projects. Every time we go out, we see groups of deer grazing on the plantings.

Boardwalks gracefully snake around the new plantings and dunes, creating protective walkways to the beach.



The usual patches of barren sand with pretty but invasive iceplant have been replaced with pre-european native plant species. Each plant was grown in the resort's nursery and planted by hand.

Enormous progressive projects such as this remind me what a very special area it is.





















Sun drenched, celadon beaches at the famous Grande Monsieur.

68. Hello Pacific

Repeat x100

67. Punta de los Lobos Marinos, Point of the Sea Wolves

Que gets invited to the Julian Morgan retreat in beautiful Central Ca coast for a week at the teacher's union conference--- which just so happens to be the same town where we honeymooned two years ago. Incidentally, we had tried to get a room at the very same hotel at the time of our honeymoon, but it was all booked up from summer conferences. His one afternoon off from classes just happens to land on our anniversary---exactly 2 years ago to the day.
Sometimes life is too cute... like a Hallmark card. No complaints, here.

I look forward to spending a week on the shore with the sea wolves.

66. Culture Shock Level Check: East(er) meets Western

I am startled to see resin Buddha Heads for 50% off at the El Big local drug store. Have they always been here and if so, why haven't I noticed them? Is it part of the same bizarre influx of imported resin pan asian decor in the big cities? Who buys them?

***


***
Another prof's wife sends me an invite to a Zen retreat that's now being held every other Saturdays at a Qkr buidling down the street from our house. I'm intrigued, but realize I'm not going to go when my curiosity about who attends overrides my actual interest in practice. Besides, sometimes an hour of 'Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me!" over a mug of Peet's and a flaxseed waffle can be kind of meditative too.

***

More than anything, the artist had proportion issues.

***
Que and I hardly flinch anymore by the smallness of the town. The fellow in front of us at the supermarket deli today was the sax player in the band from Sat night's visit to the pub, as well as the wine purveyor who reccomended the fine Argentian red for our friends' Friday night dinner party.

***

A car in the school's parking lot

***

65. Sketch Day Hooray

My friend and I go out on a regular basis to sketch the local scene. In celebration for the upcoming big four-ah-oh, I am focusing on mainly folk over forty. The fellas near us may have known we were sketching them, but they didn't seem to mind. I'm pleasantly surprised to find that the locals seem intrigued by the idea.
Yes, that is a teeny, little braid suspended from his greaser 'do.

64.VSPD!

Late Breaking Story! Wildlife on El Big University Campus!


This doesn't happen too often. Occasionally we see deer bounding by our home, but we never see these guys.


Kids from the local hs were trying to figure out how they could go home to get their hunting rifles and come back for the elk before the wildlife rescue...


Safe and sound...Well, until Fall!
Photos courtesy of El Big U

63. First Camping Trip in the Wilderness

Some of Que's colleagues invite us to join them on a three day camping trip in the highest nearby mountain range. Que goes up a day early with the guys to scout out a good site, and scare off the bears...


As soon as we get into the high alpine elevations, we see piles of square and perfectly round, white granite rocks.


Wild lilies, Indian paintbrush and groupings of Aspens dot the trail. We run across this exceptional avalanche of granite on our hike on Giant Rock Park trail. In many ways it reminds me of Yosemight National Forest--but without a single soul for miles...


Our camping companions are avid fly fishermen. Photo by Que


Delicious rainbows on the hibache...


Que checks out the campsite riverbank.


Yours truly at one of many devastatingly beautiful (and people free) crystal clear swimming holes on the trail.


After we return from our hike, I sneak away for an hour of sketch time at the campsite riverbank. I could've sat out there for three hours---except it was my turn to cook. Ink with bamboo pen, brush, and creek water on hardware store paper

61. My parents' artwork

"African Amercian Girl" Violet Y. Chew-MacLean 1931-2006

One of my mother's watercolors of an Oakland art student was chosen to be exhibited at the reopening of the de Young museum. She was on a plateau with her health at the time, so she was able to attend the festivities at the reception. This painting was originally part of a series of 50 large watercolor portraits she painted for a fundraiser for the 1990 UNICEF World Summit for Children. (Typically, my dear ma never wrote down the name of her student subjects, so unfortunately, we weren't able to contact the student to tell her of the exhibit.)



Robert Paul MacLean
A rare framed work of my father's from the early 1960's.

My parents met in the late 1950's at Oakland's California College of Arts and Crafts, aka CCAC (Now called CCA). My mother was working on her MFA in painting and my father was a student of printmaking. In the 1960's they married against my mother's family's wishes--said the hell with Chinese conventions--and moved to the burbs of SF, and raised three kids. To give it some perspective--when they married, it hadn't yet been 10 years that interracial marriage with whites and Chinese was legal.

My parents' art skills set a high bar for my sisters and me. When my mother wasn't tending to us, she painted and sculpted non-stop in the family room turned studio. In the early 1970's she created surrealistic and figurative ceramics that were both sculptural and utilitarian. By the late 70's she was experimenting in pushing the bounderies of China painting. She freaked out all the conservative suburban retirees with her feminist subject matter. In the late 80's she returned to painting on paper, where she produced hundreds of large scale water colors portraits. Again, she did not keep good records of her subjects, so I would love to get in contact with anyone who has one of her portraits. (see contact email above) By the 90's she was experimenting in what she called abstract paper "sound" sculpture.
(More art images to come)

One of my favorite things to do as a kid was to watch over my dad's shoulder as he drew grotesque caricatures of politicians in the text of the newspaper columns. My father hasn't practiced printmaking since college, despite his deft drawing skills, and being chosen to exhibit at the 1961 S.F.A.I. 25th Annual Drawing, Print and Sculpture Exhibition at the SFMOMA. As far as I know, he's still doodling caricatures in the columns of the Times and stashing them away.

My mother was very driven and continued to exhibit into the year before she died of cancer in May 2006. Between the two of them, they worked hard for the public school for a collective 60 odd years; teaching generations of Northern California's children on how to pick up their frakken pencils.

60. VSPD! 20 yr spell broken...

Today Que and I rode our bicyles around the neighborhood. It had been about 8 years for Que, and 20 years for me. It was just a short 20 minute ride. We saw one car the whole time.

I look forward to running errands this way, and riding down to the Tuesday and Sunday Farmer's market with Que. A few of you probably remember my freak bike accident in '87, which caused me to stop riding altogether. I was lucky, I guess, and recovered fine, despite my psychological barrier from speedy sports. A small, quiet town like El Big is the perfect place to finally get over it.

59. Fresh off the press...

My design for the silk screen tshirt for the town hospital's relay race fundraiser. Since I've been here, I've designed three tshirts for local event fundraisers. It was hard to say no to this one. The money raised from the run will go to the community rehabilitation program. I'm being paid with coffee, a small stipend, and over-the-top small town publicity.

I sketched the drawing in brush pen and then cleaned it up in Photoshop. I really wanted to go for realism---draw a guy in cammoflouge, rifle and chasing our jogging bear, but my idea was nixed in the early stage. Oh well. As I learned in my 15 odd years in commercial art/ animation, creative control is often a compromise.

Colors are yet to be determined. "Just so long as you DON'T use our logo colors, we'll be happy", their PR person tells me. I thought she was kidding. Geez, that's a switch.

58. Katherine Crick

When you have only two pennies left in the world, buy a loaf of bread with one, and a lily with the other.
-Chinese Proverb

57. VSPD; Very Special Photos Day continued...

Silhouette art is very popular in El Big. Here's an example of some very special homemade ones I spotted on a neighbor's window while I was on a walk around the ol' hood. (Click image to see detail)

56. VSPD!

Photo courtesy of dear visiting friend from Oaktown, Ca, PWB (Click on image to enlarge)

55. VSPD

I, along with the entire town, including the farm equipment, joined in honoring El Big University grads on their very special day.
(Click on image to enlarge)

54. Public Safety Report for 6/14/07

Traffic hazard: An officer responded Wednesday to a report of three teenagers throwing a stuffed animal into traffic when cars go by on Willer Avenue. The officer made contact with the teens and counseled them.
*
Safety hazard: The dispatch center received a report Wednesday of beehives on the county right of way on Alice Lane near Amblur Lane. The county road department was notified.
*
BREAKING NEWS ALERT: A man on the 1100 block of 27th Street Friday morning reported a baby elk in a field next to his yard. The reporting party was advised to leave the animal alone and that the mother would probably come for it. A message was left for the El Big Department of Fish and WildLIfe.

I'm not making these up.

*** *** *** *

53. Public Safety Report for 6/9/07

A resident of Dove Avenue, El Big, reported Friday at 6:47pm that a truck with a horse trailer was blocking her driveway. A deputy responded and situation was resolved.

*** *** ***


Big Sagebrush. Fueled by Mexican Chocolate, Everything bagel, and impending project deadline.

***

Postcard

Yesterday's sunrise from my favorite outlook.
Fueled by golden hour sun light, double latte, and sesame bagel.

52. Local Paper's Public Safety Report Excerpts for 6/5/07

June 5, 2007

A man on Antlers Lane reported finding a male golden retriever Monday. The animal enforcement
officer responded and impounded the dog.


Diner folks
***
A woman in the 1200 block of X Avenue requested officer contact regarding a stolen bike.

Teen boys at colleague's daughter's hs graduation party
***
A pair of glasses found at Settler's Park Monday were placed in Lost and Found.

Teen girl at airport 3 hrs north in suburban Pasco, WA
***

51. We interrupt this program--

...for a Sunday hike up Mt. Frankie.

The weather hits 95 in the valley, so we decide it's a good weekend to hike upwards. We borrow our friends' map and head to the closest, highest mountain. We find little surprises such as patches of snow and plants we've never seen before. When I spot a snow patch from a distance, my first impression is that it's a man made piece of discarded junk. When we get out to hike, Que throws a snowball at me. Stunned, I wipe my brow of sweat, shake my head, and keep hiking...




These white wild flowers are thick in the shaded areas.


I don't know.


This rock is about 5' wide. No doubt El Big's answer to Andy Goldsworthy.


Our friends tell us to look for the shocking pink wild slipper orchids. We find two.


Beautiful cup funghi. Photo by Que


We soon realize there's a good reason why they call it Mossy Fountains. Photo by Que

Photo by Que


Wild asparagras?? Photo by Que


We have no idea what it is, but it's healthy and thriving in this particular elevation.






"Oregon Bounty" Our friends tell us to keep our eyes open for morels. Photo by Que


Yes, morels! Despite the blazing heat, we find a couple stray ones hidden along the shady trees. Photo by Que


By the time we descend, the skies turn grey and threatening to the little storybook clouds. This doesn't stop Que from stopping at the Dove Drive-In for a rootbeer float to go.



We return home exhausted and keyed up from our hike. Que and I sit on the front stoop in the garden and enjoy the light humidity and rain sprinkles, while sharing the season's first watermelon with some neighborhood kids.

51. Next week: Berm, baby, berm

50. More Spring plant pics...

Today's Forecast
El Big Valley:
Mon: Sunny
High: 77°Low: 46°



Native Columbones!


A visit to the local quarry.


That's enough!


The first path is in!


We widen the driveway by pulling out some more turf. We replace it with pavers and "stepable" wooly thyme. We lay in the wood retaining wall, which acts both as a step and wall for new gravel pathway.



Baby cold hardy bamboo from Bamboo Gardens in Portland.




The plants are growing about 2" a day.


Que built the planter with treated wood and then lined it with gravel and a very thick plastic sheet barrier. This will keep them contained.


Deep shade garden--rows of Coral bells. This particular cultivar has unusual black and white leaves and yes, red coral blooms.


Japanese maples do well here. They seem to the El Big liberal flag. We brought this one in from the big city.


This plant is not deer resistant, but somehow it's survived anyway. I put this in last year when I was pretty clueless about the severity of the deer grazing. Most of the plants in this garden were chosen not only for their cold hardiness and low water needs, but for their deer grazing resistance too.


Deep shade Scot moss and Daylilies from our neighbor Em.


Arts and crafts looking shade groundcover. I lost the tag, so don't remember what it's called. Anyone?


Sweet Woodruff groundcover. Thrives under pines in dry shade.


Sagebrush for the full sun xericape BERM. Once these xeric plants get established, they won't need any supplemental watering.


Wooly thyme! We've planted this inbetween the pavers.


Hens and chickens--cold hardy and drought tolerant succulents!


Lambs ears!


Thyme...One of three varieties in the garden.


Seafoam sagebrush for the front borders.


Salvia -- a drought tolerant ornamental sage planted in mass along the dwarf alpine garden on the parking strip


Que thinks this a Chia pet. He finally admitted that he likes it.


Unusual dry shade plant called Euphorbia. Brilliant chartreuse bloom really lights up the deep shade. Related to succulents.




Returning hostas in the shade garden.


"Thyyyyme is on my side. Yes it is. "


"Thyme after thyme..."

49. First Big Spring

Even though there's still snow on the far mountain, it's finally warm enough to dig around in the garden. Que and I, along with the rest of the town go into a landscaping and gardening frenzy. I draw out the ''s" shaped paths and new garden beds with wheat flour, then cut them into pie wedges. Que digs the turf out with a shovel and makes a berm. I look up a really interesting Xericscape co-op in Boise where I pick up low water and native plants such as lamb's ears, fescues, a mock orange, seafoam sagebrush, hardy lavenders, and flats of wooly thyme.

















Click image to read mural. Do you think the muralist was stoned? Que and I plan to sneak over there at night with a bucket of paint and shorten it to it's correct porportion, as well as change it to "the Gods'" to represent the multitude of faiths. Maybe not.






Our friend of the family, KT comes for a visit for the weekend. On Mother's day, we celebrate 'positive female role model day' with brunch at our friends and their parents at a house overlooking the valley. The following are pics from KT's visit to the El Big, as well as a few from Boise after dropping her off at the airport.


Boise's Basque Museum giftshop



A few shots of the nearby art colony town of Josephine and their obsessive bronze wildlife street art collection...


Yes, that's a real bristle cone pine. I think it resembles one of those fake trees used for disguising cell phone antennas.
This one's not even worth rotating.


This one's for Hillside!



















Ladies and gentlemen—the valley's first straw bale constructed house!


























Ultra unbelievable. Occasionally a site like this sends me back into a temporary state of culture shock. I make Que turn the car around so I can get a closer look. The last time I saw a one was in a small, middle class primarilly Caucasian, conservative neighborhood in California in about 1972. I can remember driving around with my father in his stationwagon and listening carefully to him explain why they're considered offensive.








Unagi in Boise?!


Resin Buddha says, "Bathroom is through the hall and to your left."

48. I Love My Truck contin'

It's only fair that after years of objectifying women, fat truck drivers are now seeing what it's like.
The same day we decide to buy an old beater truck for our landscaping needs, my sister B coincidentally sends me this sticker in the mail---a play on the ever-popular truck driver mudflap design of the silhouette of a reclining woman. I slap it on Que's new ride. Two days later, Que moves it over to my car.

Bewhiskered, cap wearing, and a beer gut that could pass as seven months pregnant. He's got great legs, though.

47. "One Less Lawn Mower!"

A rough sketch drawn for a workshop I took at the community college on Xeriscape gardening. The class consisted of 12; mostly over 50 women and one man. It was kind of fun to meet some locals outside of the school. Drawn on paper and painted in Photoshop. (click image for details)

Xeriscaping refers to landscaping in ways that do not require supplemental irrigation. It is promoted in areas that do not have easily accessible supplies of fresh water. The word Xeriscaping was coined by combining xeros (Greek for "dry") with landscape. Plants whose natural requirements are appropriate to the local climate are emphasized, and care is taken to avoid losing water to evaporation and run-off. They heavily promote getting rid of your front lawns. Considering our lawn is a haze of yellow dandilions right now, Que and I are all for getting rid of it.

As far as garden design goes, Xeriscaping is almost always informal. Their philosophy is against severely shorn shrubbery. I've always liked English formal gardens for the 'winter interest', so this design is an attempt to create some sort of hybrid. Besides the lot of native xeric plants I've used, I've snuck in a wedge of boxwood or two. Rules are meant to be broken, right?

46. I Love My Truck

Artist: Glen Campbell Album: Song: I Love My Truck

It don't matter who lived
It don't matter who lied
I got my truck right by my side
You got Sally and you got Sue
And I got a... FORD
She takes me home after work
Don't ever miss a day
She don't care what I am
She don't care what I ain't
But she ain't no cheap pick-up
She just needs a couple coats of paint
(Chorus)
Yeah
She don't care if I don't work a lick
She'll start every time if the choke don't stick
I know that she will never doubt me
'Cause she never leaves home without me
(Chorus)
I got my truck right by my side, yeah
I got my truck right by my side

Text Issues

Hi all,
Please excuse the text issues. When the website was redesigned, the text was jostled. Fixing them will take hours. Just so you know, all the new postings from here on out will be okay. Cheerios, MJD

45. Culture Shock Level Check: DONE

It's official. I'm certain of it. It's happened somehow, and I think I'm okay with it. How do I know for sure? Well, today I bought my first drug store clothing. You know the kind--it's in the seasonal clothing rack between the pharmacy and the canned food section; starched like your grandmother's tablecloth, and cheap, cheap, cheap. You run your had over it several times to make sure it isn't too scratchy or creepy feeling. It's classic, you think. Better than anything you've seen in Walmart or JCPenny's windows? Maybe. Any worse? No. Certainly not Anthropology, but it's okay.

I'm certain of it, and I'm okay with it, I think. Maybe it's the change of the season, you say. Maybe, but probably not, since it snowed a bit this afternoon while shopping at the Natural Food store run by Christian Scientists. It's more than that, though. Other signals that it's happening...Eating at Nell's Drive-On-Thru for two days in a row. Then...just this week-- listening to the wince-heavy college radio programs for more than four hours without changing the station to the I-pod.

"Are you okay?", you ask.
Just fine! Why?

xo, Ms. Jane D'oh


Flowering plums in our hood, El Big Spring 07






***

44. ***

In case you're wondering, the neighbor's Winnebago is still for sell.

43. Before/ After: Kitchen

From everything I've read, original Craftsman style bungalow kitchens were often just a nook in a house— nothing special, just a space big enough for an icebox and a sink and a small prep table. Our original kitchen's no exception.
The week we move in, Que casually asks, "So... Do you hate these knotty pine cupboards as much as I do?"
"Yes." I answer.
Ka-Blam!


















Without hesitation, Que takes a sledge hammer to the knotty pine...
























We replace it with Ickyah's finest, and spiff them up a bit with some 1920's art deco nickle nobs, which match nicely with some existing 1940's deco action around the sink...







































Que also wrecks out an awkward protruding wall and adds room for a refrigerator...























The office acoustic ceiling tile is merely covered up with a layer of sheetrock and then painted a cream white; which really brightens up the room. I attack the faded country floral wallpaper with a vengeance. The walls are skimcoated smooth. Lastly, we brighten the walls with a three layers of Lander's Apt Yellow and a bright glossy white for the trim...







Before Kitchen: Ceilings are covered with "Downtown Office Chic" grey acoustic ceiling tile and this charming "Interrogation Room" style bare lightbulb...























The bare bulb is replaced with a deco pendant light from Portland. The Muddy 80's Mauve colored trim is updated with a bright white gloss...
























































Before: The former owner of our house raised rabbits, so we find rabbit-themed kitsch everything throughout the house.






















After: Switches and plates are promptly updated with durable and classic nickle plates.
























Mauve No More!
***

Brief side note: Possible future menaces?







































Our window guy J is accepted to graduate school for sculpture. He invites us to dinner to celebrate and to meet his cats Mary and April for a "playdate". Do we have two mature pet cats in our near future? J shares El Big cat ownership rule #1: Cats must stay indoors at all times or risk becoming tasty cougar snacks!
***

42. El Big's Chinese History contin'

On a recent jaunt south, I spot a pointy asian-looking structure from afar and ask Que to pull around so I can get a better look. It is a fairly recent memorial to the Chinese emigrants of the El Big area. The hills behind the temple are dotted with Cantonese miner and railroad worker's names on granite markers. Some are dated from 1880 to as late as 1940.

40. "All we are saying, is give peace (and Mercedes Benz while you're at it) a cha-ance--"

***

I wake to hear a very sad piece on the radio about the town's first Iraq casualty. Que and I agree that the local Peace march is a no brainer. I count 35 people in our small crowd--a nice cross section of folks from the local hs, local los Verdes organization, and a local Christian church...

From the newspaper...

March 22, 2007
Governor Orders Flags at Half-Staff in Memory of El Big Soldier

Flags to be lowered Monday in honor of Sgt. 1st Class Jon Stevens

Today Governor Ned ordered all flags at public institutions be flown at half-staff on Monday, in memory of Sgt. 1st Class Jon Stevens of El Big.

Stevens, 41, died Thursday, March 15 in Iraq. He was assigned to the First Battalion, 16th Infantry, First Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, Fort Wiley, Kansas...





































































"Stevens spent most of his life serving our country and making the world a more peaceful place," said Governor Ned. "As an outstanding father, husband, El Bigian and soldier - he will be missed by all in his community."

***






















































































"Unclear of the concept." A not so peaceful passerby in a large truck, and a not so peaceful response...
























The hilight of the march was when a Vietnam veterean stopped his car and joined us in song with his original anti war country song called, "I Still Like the Dixie Chicks."
















































Coming from SF where the peace sign is an iconic cliche from the 60's Haight Ashbury baggage, I find it kind of funny and charming that this local peace activist accidentally made several handmade signs with the Mercedes Benz logo.

Peace out, yo
Ms. Jane D'oh

Next Week: The Bungalow Continued!





















Before: The former walls were Pasty Pink, Gas guzzler Chevy Blue, Musty Strawbale Yellow, and Filthy Eggshell White.
Stay tuned for more before and after updates from the El Big bungalow project.
***

39. Signs of Spring

My walking buddy Kit calls me and invites me for an afternoon walk at one of her favorite spots, a designated "bird walk" out in the State park. I enthusiatically accept. I fill my thermos with coffee, grab my sunglasses and we're off. I am pleasantly surprised that we drive for a mere 20 minutes and we're already in pristine underutilized park preserve. I often forget how the valley town of El Big is basically a huge plateau surrounded by several State park camping areas.







































The weather is sunny and 65 degrees; a very welcoming temperature after an El Big winter. Kit reminds me that I shouldn't get too used to it since they've had small snow showers as late as April. I'm impressed with the brand new boardwalks and hand hewned benches placed strategically throughout the path. Stone markers set along the path stating "P1-P-10" denote poems from a book published by poets who're inspired by the walk.

We don't see very many birds yet— a bald eagle, a single robin, and a few thrushes. On our way back we spot a few signs of activity, such as this gnawed tree trunk by the river. Apparently El Big has beavers!





This tree appears to be alive.


























Kit and I are not discouraged. After our walk, we decide to drop in to visit "the bird man of El Big", a friendly, owl-like 30ish man named Tarrence, who owns and operates a charming birding/ artisan beer shop in downtown. Tarrence gives us detailed directions to crane nesting spots as well as sells me an updated Siblie Field Guide of Western North America. "Oh yeah, it's too early for much variety. Come May-June it'll be like La Guardia." Apparently, El Big is one of the prime migrating paths for several North America species. "5th in the nation!" Tarrence boasts.

I am able to gather a partial list of common and uncommon species that migrate and often breed in the El Big Valley's unique Gadd Marsh:

pelicans
herons
cranes
geese
ducks
swans
grebes
vultures
hawks
grouse
quail
pheasants
partridge
coots
gulls
terns
owls
hummingbirds
kingfishers
swallows
jays
thrushes
nuthatches
wrens
tanagers
finigers
sparrows
woodpeckers
flycatchers
larks
and shorebirds of all kinds including long billed curlew, sandpipers, killdeers...
whew...

***

I come home to receive an email that my anti war scroll painting in an upcoming book on Asian Americans and war. The editor had seen it when I had it exhibited it in SF in 2003. It's a shame that the politics of my work are still very relevant four years later.

38. First art opening

Two of my most recent paintings debuted at the school's Int Wmn's Day art exhibit. It felt really satisying to be involved in a community event. About one hundred people came to the opening. Granted, they had a chocolate fondue cascade fountain at the catering table, but it still seemed liked a very good showing. There are about 30 women artists in the show; mostly students and a few from the community...























A study in color and design (and good eatin')--"Chinese Broccoli"; Acrylic on canvas, 9"x12" (Click on image to enlarge)

Since I inherited a life time supply of acrylic paint from my dear ma, I have been inspired to work on canvas again. Before I became engulfed in animation twelve odd years ago, I painted a bit with oil, but was turned off by the fumes. That's when went back to the pencil. I've always prefered the look of oil, so it's been a challenge to try to make the acrylic appear luminous, and not dull and flat—as it often can be if it's not handled correctly. So far I've been encouraged with the Liquitex acrylic gloss mixing medium. I am happy to say that the school's painting prof looked at this painting for a bit and then asked me if it was oil!

37. Culture Shock Level Check: Mining the past

It's been a combination of things. Partly from losing my ma this year, and partly moving to ye olde wild, wild west has inspired me to unearth my heritage. Just before I moved here, the Kawm Wa Cheung campaign of EO benefited from two grants that will help preserve some old buildings in the El Big area: $10,000 from O Cultural Trust and $80,000 of a $100,000 grant from the Nat Park Service's Save America's Treasures fund. The school has been directly involved in the preservation and education of the Chinese mining history in the area. One of the school's English professors even helped translate personal letters they found in the buildings.


















After just a bit of searching on the Or Historical page, I found this doozy from the Shawsta Courier...

as ever,
Jane D' Halfbreed


---

Reprint from the Shawsta Courier
Saturday, December 03, 1853

What Is To Be Done With The Chinamen?

Three years ago it was a matter of no little curiosity to the American miner, to see a real live representative of the Celestial Empire, with his wooden shoes, his prodigious hat of fantastical proportions, his shaven head, his long black cue dangling at his feet, his light springy pole poised upon his shoulder, and freighted with provisions and mining tools, as he wended his way, half walking, half pacing, on his road to the mines. But the time has now arrived when the Chinaman begins to be regarded with other feelings than those of mere idle curiosity. Stimulated by the brilliant reports carried back to China by these first adventurers, and allured by the vast fields of wealth that seemed to open before them, as well as encouraged by the invitation of many of our own people, thousands and tens of thousands of these sable sons of Asia have crossed the Pacific - poured into our towns, and are now swarming in quest of gold through every part of the mines. It is a notable fact that already, in many of the mining districts in this vicinity, the number of Chinamen is more than double that of all the other miners put together. And yet this stream of trans-Pacific immigration still continues to pour in upon us. Its tide is daily swollen by a perpetual influx from all the dark and dingy tribes of the Chinese Empire - a country which boasts a population nearly equal to that of all the world besides. A very necessary and natural result of this rapid accumulation of Chinese in our midst, is a clashing of interests, and consequent bickering and difficulties between them and our own citizens.

After the American miner with that spirit of courageous enterprise so peculiarly his own, at the cost of the thousands of dollars, has explored wild mountainous and savage regions where a Chinaman dare not set his foot - after he has toiled, prospected and found gold - after he has encountered and overcome numberless difficulties and dangers, in the shape of Indian pillage and Indian barbarity - after his stock has been stolen, his camp robbed, and his life periled a thousand times - and finally, after he has settled down to work with a partial feeling of security, in the hope of realizing at least some reward for years of suffering and privation - what must be his feelings to find himself suddenly surrounded and hemmed in on every side, by a motley swarm of semi-barbarians, eagers to grasp the spoils, though they dare not share the fight? In view of all these facts, is it any wonder that we occasionally hear the deep toned murmuring of discontent, and even threats of violence on the part of our own citizens, towards a race of foreigners who, having no feelings or sympaties in common with us, are rapidly overrunning our country, and appropriating to themselves these golden fields and fertile vallies which have been bought with American blood, and rendered productive for all our surplus population of Asia, it is high time for us to enquire what position our Celestial bretherine are destined to hold in our body politic.

Is our golden State to be peopled, through all future time, by two separate and distinct races, having no more affinity for each other than oil and water, and occupying the relative position of master and servant? Or like two fountains from different sources, and converging in their onward course finally commingle their waters in one common stream, are the American and Chinese races destined ultimately to unite, forming one people, retaining all the leading original features of both? If the Chinese are to live amongst us as our equals, exercising the same political rights as American citizens, it may be well for us to pause and consider whether we are willing that they should enact our laws, fill our judicial tribunals, set upon our fortunes, and our liberties. And finally, are we willing that they should marry with our sons and daughters, and people our country with a motley race of half breeds, resembling more the native Digger than the Anglo American?

___

36. Culture Shock Level Check: "Getting to know you-"

Getting to know the neighbors...




























































Actually, these are more likely, photos of the neighbor's next MEAL. About 150 elk are kept here in the winter time so that they don't cross over into Farmer Elmer's alfalfa fields. These furry friends are then released into the wild for prime pickins during hunting season. The native American woman seated next to me enthusiastically told me that they're "Just delicioius!". I doubt I'll be taking up hunting any time soon, but I wouldn't refuse a nibble if it was served to me.

35. Portland sketches

From my sketchbook. Portland Sketchcrawl 2006

Welcome to The Propane Gas Tank

El Big is a city in Onion County.
It is the county seat.
The community was named for the river valley.
The latitude of El Big is 45.324N. The longitude is -118.086W. It is in the Pacific Standard time zone. Elevation is 2,772 feet. Add 10 feet for those who drive these things.

34. Bath Remodel, continued

Psst! Have you fallen asleep yet?!
...Before we put down the new bath tiles, we lay in a sheet of radiant floor heating coils. Que attaches a programmer to it so that it's always warm for a bit of time in the mornings and evenings. It's pretty labor intensive, but proves to be well worth the time and sweat...








































































































The original bathroom fan was broken, which explains the dank mold problem. To insure that it doesn't return, we install a light tube which has a built in SOLAR powered bath fan. Just for eye candy ambiance, we install a glass overhead light fixture that we found on our last visit to the big city.








































What? Yes, that IS a double-ended cast iron clawfoot tub and latest copy of 'The New Yorker!' Just the answer for a summer of very hard work. Ahhhhhhhhh... Life is good.
********************STAY TUNED for more EXciting BEFORE/AFTER PICS of the REST of El Big little bungalow! *******************************

33. The Homestead "diamond in the rough"

Guess it’s about time I mentioned the homestead. Had it not been for the economic crash in the city a few years ago, I'd still be in there plugging away on another cereal commercial, or starting up some ragtag animation school. (A median-priced home in San Francisco, the most expensive in the U.S. market, is $759,000) Que and I were looking for ways to live with the economy when I mentioned that I'd be happy to support Que's search for work out of state. “Really? You're kidding? Okay!”, was the reply I received. Soon enough, we married, and started our own excursion to the Great NW, not unlike that one on The O Trail some 200 years ago...







Well, to make a long story short, Que settled into his new dream job, and soon enough, we purchased the diamond in the rough. Life is good...(Our only wish is that the railroads were offering passenger service to Stumptown once again. Good ol' President Shrub hacked services just after 9/11.)

SEE BELOW FOR EXCITING BEFORE AND AFTER REMODEL PICS!
~UPLOADED AT THE PACE OF A SNAIL~

BEFORE-BATHROOM: Dusty pink bath tile with matching grout, of course.




Dank and dark with knotty pine cabinets and seersucker-esque textured wallpaper peeling at the seams...




>
























































































































































Need I say more?


Okay, here's one more. (Click on image to see details of black moldy growth, crud build up between the tiles.)

BATH AFTER PICS: Stay tuned!

Oh what fun we've had! Now that we are out of the pricey city, we can engage in such things as house remodeling. Never thought we'd wind up this far into the back country, though. I guess it might have been inevitable, as my dear friend E told me in an email exchange, “Why, Jane D'oh, you have been fortunate enough to meet a man who isn't afraid to get his hands dirty.”

BEFORE "knotty pine anomally" formal entrway:
























scrape, scrape, (@!#) scrape...























AFTER:


















After making a list of the affordable homes in our new town, the diamond in the rough was the last house on our list. I really was not interested in the ugliest house on the block. It appeared to be a cross between some sort of Swiss Chalet Alpine fantasy and Steve Martin's rustic house in 'The Jerk'. It wasn't until I saw a glimpse of the insides from the online real estate web site, that the diamond struck my imagination. A classic, unpainted craftman bungalow in El Big? Who would've known from the outside!









Tearing apart walls, patching up awkward doors, peeling down 4 layers of nasty wallpaper, drywalling, replacing hideous chandeliers, patching lath and plaster, ripping out musty old carpets and mold-encrusted walls, building a walk in closet, sanding and refinishing fur wood floors, installing in floor heated bath tiles...and all the while listening to the local olde timey obnoxious classic rock n' roll station, and all in 100 degree heat.

And that's just the inside of the house. The list goes on and on, and won't be completed for awhile. The good new is, the rugs finally arrived and are installed, (after a very long 3 month delivery wait ) and the heat is working quite nicely.

As a result of a lot of sweat, patience, and hard work, we’ve found a good life in this remote little corner of the North West.

32. Meltykiss

Culture Shock Level Check: missing Japanese candy stores
















The snow has melted in our front yard. It's a relief to be able to see the earth again— if only for a brief time. I feel like I've survived my first real North West snow storm, which, oddly enough, parallels nicely with the frantic completion of my first final at the school.


It is a balmy 42 degrees outside. The school is out for the winter holiday, so the town seems abandoned. It sort of feels like we have the whole place to ourselves. The students and faculty have gone home to where ever they're from, or have just gone away. ( ie: Oaxaca, Paris, Sacramento Valley...)











Empty hallway at the school. A common sight in El Big: Mountain seeds are often seen propagating in common areas like hallways, service areas, and landscaping. They are just everywhere!
( Tip o' the hat to my brother-in-law, Que Si')

Not experiencing the usual onslaught of the Bay Area's crass Christmas commercialism is odd. El Big's Christmas commercialism comes in the form of really elaborate Home Depott style decorations on the neighbor's front lawns. I also recieve an onslaught of East Coast junk mail order catalogs addressed to the former homeowner's former wife.

There isn't the usual 10 minute wait behind 8 students per vehicle at the drive through coffee hut, either. I spot only one acquaintance as I do my weekly shopping at the Safestway. The checkers are chatty and seem relaxed and starved for conversation...


Que and I meet friends for the Friday night El Big movie premiere of Mel Gibson's 'Debaclelypto' at our one movie theater. We arrive 10 minutes early and have no one in front of us or in back of us while we're in line for tickets... And what used to be a 3 sec wait at the busiest intersection in town, is now my former, "California stop" 1 sec pause. I am starting to get a better feel for just how small this town really is without the student and faculty population from the school...


Unappetizing muffins at the grocery store. I hope it's butterscotch.















I have a lot of nervous artistic energy again. I feel it kick in on my final assignment at school. Taking care of the family last year really took it out of me. It's good to have it back...

























Last night I paint a portrait of Que. acrylic on canvas 12/15/06
Adding MeltyKiss "Precious Cocoa" to my growing list of items to remember to bring back from Christmas in SF...

31. Thanksgiving Cartoon

Culture Shock Level Check: I'm missing my SF friends at times, but I'm liking the isolation... I have to admit, having access to the art school makes it bearable. The school attracts some creative, driven people, and that's a nice contrast to the monoculture and maple syrup pace of the town. I've wanted to get away from the city for awhile now, so this is a welcoming pace. Living in the middle of everything hip and cool was invigorating for the first 37 years, but it was often a distraction from the focus of creating my own art. The intro to intaglio was a kick in the pants. I didn't create anything I'm exceedingly proud of, but that wasn't a big surprise, being that it was technically heavy. I'm looking forward to delving deeper into an independent study so I can focus less on technical aspects, and more on content... Last night i dug out my satirical print art books and was able to decifer the techniques made by my printmaking heroes Hogarth, Duemier, and Goya. "Sweet.", as the fellow students like to say.

30. Low res laptop sketches

These thumbnail designs were created on an online drawing program with my Mac and Wacom pen.
From L-R: har gow; Michael Moore; The mentor; French water glass; self portrait during an earthquake; after Rembrandt. (Click on photo for larger image.)

29. Summer and Fall Highlights 2006

SUMMER'S CULTURE SHOCK LEVEL: Too Busy to Notice
FALL'S CULTURE SHOCK LEVEL: Three Steps Forward, Two Steps Back...



Que and I frequently remind each other of the Bay Area West bound morning traffic in the Berkeley Tunnel to help us keep our move to podunk in perspective...


Images of bumper to bumper Bmw's and bloated Cadillac Suv's are soon replaced by images such as this. (Someone's private Covered Wagon collection in the remote town of Jimmy Day, Oregon)
















And this—


















And this...



Irrestistably bizarre decorative "Native" style bathroom tiles in the women's bathroom on a reservation!


A dry resevoir bed! The atv tracks appear to be made by one vehicle.


Very good-sized pinecones!




















Very small but sincere, peace rally in the town square! (triangle)

















Highlights from our brief summer break at the great volcano, Lassen St. Park in CA... The inn in the 2-building town surprises us with outdoor wi-fii. (This is CA, isn't it?) I am able to send email to Karinalin. Note babbling brook in background. I'm in paradise...



Snow in the mountains in June. We are wearing summer shorts and tshirts and enjoy a stunning afternoon hike up to the snow covered peaks.













The Burger King's alienated son? A "family" owned business, no doubt!










An alarming set of table cards in a diner across the valley. Click image to read strange text...












Another dinky church in a spooky, remote mountain town south of El Big. Some of Que's more socially conservative students hail from this town.

















A blown glass moosehead at the Jupiter Art Hotel, Portland, Oregon.

Bar

Bathroom

Chandelier made of deer antlers

Fall rolls in quickly. Once more, Que's work sends him and his students out on a field trip for an urban experience.



It's a 5 hour drive to the medium sized city of Portland, but I never turn down a chance to get out there to enjoy some Thai food, new art, strong coffee and very large bookstores.


We stay two nights at the trendy Jupiter Art Hotel. It's hit or miss. I like the ironic wildlife art and playful architecture, but I am turned off by the techno "muzak" pumping 24 hours in the halls and parking lot...












"I think it's raining bacon again, honey."

We meet old friend Towad for dinner in the Jupiter's restaurant. They serve stylish comfort food. (Side Note:I don't know if it's a trend or what, but North Westerners put bacon and/or cheese in EVERYthing. They'd probably put bacon on a Pastrami sandwich, if you let them! What gives? ) Later, I draw a NW stereotype on the hotel room chalkboard door. NW hipsters are invariably white, 30-ish women, chainsmoking, and wear flipflops no matter the weather. (And finally, here's a draw for Jamie-Gomer B, who has harranged me for not posting more drawings on this site. Tell me I still have my mojo?!? )


Photo taken at the Salmon Nation Eco festival in Portland. Que and I find eco friendly all natural rugs to take back to our new home in El Big...


The house, being from 1925, has non standard sized doorways. Que finds he has to remove the front window sash in order to bring our couch inside. (Stay tuned for special post on The N house remodel)

The audience at the Salmon Nation eco festival. It's been so long, why, I've almost forgotten what a hippie looks like...


"Three steps forward-"
Girl's volleyball games. For fun, El Bigians watch local sports teams. If you don't, WHO WILL? Que's colleague's daughter plays volleyball in the itty bitty town of Onion, so we attend our first game. The whole town shows up. It's great fun hollering and stomping for the team. If we don't, who will? (Click image to basically see the whole town of Onion.)


"Two steps back." Que has to point out this sign to me, so we stop and take a picture. I wonder to myself if not noticing these things right away is a sign of my adjusting to El Big...



The view of El Big valley from Mt. E, the highest mountain in the valley. The sun is shining, but the air is crisp.

On our descent, Que pulls over and takes note of this site-- somebody's idea of heaven!


Wild turkeys running for their lives. Happy Thanksgiving, all.




Saturday, November 25, 7:30 am: I wake to the first snow!



And alas, this morning Que finds solid PROOF that it is indeed, deer chowing down on the front yard


NEXT WEEK: The N House Remodel! How to Remodel an Old House in a Really Remote Area.

28. Daddy, I want a pygmy owl!

And now..
The Creatures of the El Big Valley
Some of them, anyway. I still haven't seen a moose. And no, stuffed animals or an elk slung over a 4 wheeler certainly do not count.

Culture Shock Level is presently: fuzzy and hoofed

It's nice to live somewhere with so many wild animals other than just the SF regulars such as seagulls, steller jays, sewer rats and 20-something hipsters. It all adds to the charm of this surreal, little big town.

Here are a few recent bird photos from my visit to the Blue Plateau Wildlife Sanctuary. It's about 1 hr north of El Big. If there wasn't a large mountain pass between us, I'd volunteer for them.
This is the amazing pygmy owl. It's body and head are about the size of a baseball.







I couldn't get enough of the birds. I must've taken a hundred photos of this one. It's all head, really.( Click on this pic to get a life size image)












Besides it's diminutive size, it has a calm, lacsidazical nature and hilarious slow blinking eyes...











This eagle is blind in one eye. Unfortunately it will never be released back into the wild.








We saw many hawks, but this one is my favorite— the photogenic Kressel hawk. Note the blue racing stripes around the crown.















Show off!















I haven't seen so many butterflies until my move to El Big.... and spiders, and ants, and cougar tracks...











and the gregarious marmut...

















and lots of sheep!


















And we have a few donkeys, like these two that are huddling together for warmth under the protective evergreens. (Three cheers for Nancy! Pass the wine, please!) Anyway...







Lots of horses, of course. We have wild horses in the surrounding mountains. I haven't seen them yet. The town graphic artist has offered to take us out sometime. He has connections.






El Big creatures can't be mentioned without noting the approximate 50 odd deer that reside in town. Occasionally I see them hanging out in people's yards along the crest of the hills. We haven't seen them in our yard yet, but we know they pass through in the middle of the night due to the magical disapearance of some tender chrysanthemum blossoms.



The El Big area is famous for it's progressive organic farming. It's not all wheat. The area proudly provides Angus beef, lamb, chicken, cherries, pears, and gorgeous blankets of verdent spearmint fields.
This picture was taken last winter on a drive out to the colder, southern desert side of the valley. The black Angus cattle against the white snow covered hills are a stunning sight.
(Click on image to enlarge)




















Poser cows...




























"Gourmet Pets"?! This local pet store logo catches my eye. Oh, why yes, we do have domesticated animals too... and they're delicious sauteed with fresh shiitakes, paired with a delicate Syrah. Bon appetit!

NEXT WEEK: SUMMER AND FALL HILIGHTS IN THE VALLEY and BEYOND!

27. "So, I saw that you raked up your leaves this weekend--"

"Oh. Why, yes. I did rake my leaves this weekend." I looked up from my etching plate to see a classmate had joined me in the printmaking studio.
"Yeah, I saw you raking. It was good that you raked them up before the rain." she said.
"Yeah, I mulched them. Do you get many leaves?"

********************

Dearest Propane Gas Tank friends,

So it's been a little over a year, and I promised you that I'd check in to let you know how I've adjusted to small town living. Though I find myself adjusting a tad, I'm still taken aback by what one friend calls, "the fishbowl effect". As most of you know, I had been taking care of my dear M in Ca in the past year, so I really haven't had a chance to get a feel for El Big in the way my partner Que has. So I've decided to credit that time to my blog. That being said, stay tuned for more Propane Gas Tank!
Blogs away!

xo,
Ms. Jane D'oh


My dear M holding up one of her earlier ceramic pieces; Concord, CA, circa 1971


California, early 60's

26. Intermission (aka On the Road Again)

This week's post is postponed due to another unplanned jot out of town. When I am able to post again, I'll send out an email to all of you who've shown an interest. Take care everyone.

xo, Ms. Jane D'oh

25. Architecture of greater EL BIG; from the Historical to the Hysterical

El Big architecture is fairly conservative.


But I find it really interesting coming from N California, otherwise known as Geodesic Dome Central.


This building looks vacant, but it's not.


A turn of the century hot spring hotel that is being rennovated by an inspired group of Christian artists.


Drive through espresso huts! One can hit the Taco Now and the EX-presso drive through hut all within the same block. I think we need a drive-thru gastroenterologist hut on the next block.
























I recognize the store's logo, but I don't recognize anything else.



















El Big is big on brick. Earthquakes are small and infrequent. Knock on wood (panelling)...









A highrise on the main avenue...


with wonderful original fixtures.


How small can you go without calling it a well-insulated tool shed?


A highschool on the northside.


Living and dead wood for decorative and practical uses...




Que is normally a very agreeable sort, but knotty pine panelling will send him into a rage.












Lanoleum flooring with "braided rug" design.











Hand painted "brick" on the front porch of a home on our house hunt. The home owner is fond of toll painting, so every surface inside and outside, is covered with hand painted texture or floral decoration.







One of El Big's greatest growth period was in the 1970's. It becomes obvious when we begin house hunting...











Another recognizable corporate logo on a small, rural stucture. Cell phone service is available just about in every town, but I rarely see people mashing phones to their ears while driving, or screaming into them at the grocery stores—as they often do in SF.


An art deco period piece. Much of the deco in the area was destroyed and rebuilt in the 1950's or 1970's.


A turn off to the Oregon Trail. Turn right at the delapidated shed with the odd hand painted signage...


Just one of many vacant buildings in the area—just ripe for some artist with a vision to come along and open an art gallery or a cafe. Don't look at me.


Constrasting architecture


An example of many fine, old, handpainted advertising murals on the side of an old brick building. Note encroaching windowless 70's nightmare just below it. Photo by Que


Delapidated structure #042432157


Quonset hut!


This architectural wonder is far, far from the El Big valley, but close enough for my discomfort.








































El Bigians are very fond of the color blue...


and white...

and sometimes pink.

Some rare rustic funk in a town across the valley.
The architecture is one of my favorite things about this area. This posting is just the tip of the iceberg.
***
Next Week: The ART of El Big!...or The Animals of El Big! I haven't decided.

24. My Cousin J

This week's post is dedicated to my dear cousin J who we lost in Deciembre. J suffered quietly from an ongoing illness that eventually did him in. Today would've been his 42nd b-day.

















Que took this picture of J the morning after his wedding day in 2003. (Note: Someone who was close to J claims to have shot this photo. I was seated next to Que when this session was shot. Que has the whole roll of film to prove it. Stranger things have happened, I suppose...-Editor)













J worked on his Master's dissertation in Geo in SE Oregone—not too far from the El Big area. I looked up to him all my life. How could I not? He was a punk rock geologist.


J was really creative and well-rounded, and had a strong DIY philosophy about everything in life. He was a very funny cartoonist, so naturally, he designed his own labels for all his projects. (pre Photoshop era) This is a label he designed and hand colored for his homemade Christmas porter. "Brewed crude—Tastes rude" Notice the way the fins overlap on the label...
Photo by David Hayes




Cousin J's pointed, smart and often political songwriting was greatly influential to many East Bay punk bands in the 80's and 90's, such as the hugely popular Green Day (as recently noted in Rolling Stone Magazine Issue 12/05).

Band photos from The D'oh family archives












J goofing off for the new fangled 3-d camera.























J loved animals and was always seen toting at least one dog at this side. I took this picture of him at Greek easter dinner, 2004.













This photo was taken about 6 months ago by an artist in Portland named Pasha.
Where ever you are, have a PBR. ***

23. Bullets in the Candy isle & Other Items of note

TODAY'S CULTURE SHOCK LEVEL:
25°F;
Feels Like
14°F
UV Index: 0 Low
Wind: From S at 12 mph
Humidity:83%
Pressure: 30.66 in
Dew Point: 21°F
Visibility: 10.0 mile
*****************************
Note: Some of the following images may not be suitable for small children, or sensitive adults who are active members in organizations such as P*E*T*A*.
I suspect this is only Part 1 of many posts of a similar nature.

I feel my heart stop when I spot the rifle ammunition right next to the salt water taffy and bbq peanuts.


A bumper sticker on a pickup truck.


A vast array of work gloves.


Rodeo supplies


Deer licks


Gold panning supplies!


Ear tags in a variety of colors and sizes.


Rubber nipples for sale.


How bad a meal can be...


How delicious a meal can be!


A lowered ceiling with florescent lighting in the master bedroom of a 1925 Craftsmen bungalow.


The vehicle ahead of us on a Sunday drive across the Gorge. El Bigians have interesting ways of showing reverence of certain game animals while simultaneously not...


Stuffed animal pics while house hunting. I find this is in the basement of a vacant house.


Our real estate agent tells us that "Ralph" is too big to fit over the bed so they hang him over the entryway.

***
NEXT...ARCHITECTURE OF EL BIG: FROM THE HISTORICAL TO THE HYSTERICAL

22. Boise; The closest big city is out of state

On our 2nd weekend in town, we decide to trek to Boise, Idaho, the next biggest city to El Big. It's basically down hill all the way...

We pass through rolling hills and bucolic loveliness, until we are hit face first by serious suburban sprawl. Even though it's familiar to Bay Area sprawl, it's different enough to be interesting. It's like El Big on steroids.

Craftsmen style architectural detail on our otherwise 70's luxury hotel. The biggest exports are wheat and potatoes, so you see iconic images of them everywhere...


There is a fairly large and active Basque population. The brick buildings and quaint signage really stand out against the suburban sprawl.
***
That afternoon just happened to be a sketching marathon for my dear ex colleague Dan who passed away from cancer last year. He was an avid cafe sketcher so friends planned a special sketching day as a tribute to him. It isn't easy, but we eventually find a hipster artist cafe near the downtown area. We have fine espressso while I sketch the Boise artist scene. They all seem to know I'm sketching them, but I don't care and enjoy my temporary big city anonymity...



A few visual treats from our Boise Costko experience...





Richard in SF refers to this as a diggereeDON'T.

Boisie is a pillow-positive community.

21. The New Year in El Big

Today's Culture Shock Level is: PLODDING AND STEADY


Warmest Wishes to you and your loved ones this Holiday season.
-Ms. Jane D'oh


El Big's unofficial fireworks show

20. Back in California

Que and I pack up the car again and drive 15 hours south for Christmas break in California...

As soon as we cross the border into my beloved treehugger state, we spot a herd of protected elk. This herd wouldn't last 2 minutes in El Big. They have fluffy, shaggy faces and weak chins, and seem almost dog-like in appearance. A female takes notice of Que and starts doing a sideways "girlfriend" neck-bob mating dance.

19. Candles in Portland

For Jimmy

18. First Snow

I love the dry snow. The flakes are fluffy and the size of quarters. It's nothing like the slush I am used to seeing in California.I spend a half an hour taking photos just in the parking lot...






Later that morning, I drive out to the north side of town and sketch the highest mountain...

17. Stunning October

Today's Culture Shock Level is: TEMPORARILY SHROUDED BY THE BEAUTY OF AUTUMN







Cumulonimbus virga in the sky on an early morning drive.

This pine is not sick-it's supposed to be this way. It turns yellow and sheds it's needles in Autumn. It's a deciduous conifer, called the Western Larch (Larix occidentalis)

16. Culture Shock in Cali

Today's Culture Shock Level is: 180 DEGREES

After only one month in El Big, I return to California to check in with my mother. I experience a strange phenomena of reverse culture shock. The California traffic already seems too fast. People in the suburbs, in particular, seem really stressed out.

I spend all my time helping my mother move the entire contents of her house into a storage center and throwing out 40 odd years of acculmative junk. My two week visit stretches into entire month of September...
(Incidentally, if you look up "pack rat" in the dictionary, you'll see a picture of my dear mum.)

In between the moving, I take photos of the vanishing Oak trees in the foothills surrounding my mother's home...

Que emails me daily photographic updates of the changing Autumn leaves...

15. Summer in El Big

Patriotic egg farmers at the itty-bitty farmer's market...

Archaic patriarchal religious groups that sell voluptuous cinnamon rolls...



The cabbage table...

Honey sold from the neighbor's front porch.

Hal's 24 Flavors attracts visitors from every little town east of the mountains...

Drive-In movie theater!

Bison ranges! Fresh ground bison burger now available at the El Big Safestway meat section...

This is the kind of town that recruits a lot of young men for the military. I am surprised by the sheer number of yellow ribbons on every tree, lightpost and standing structure in town. Every car has at least two of them on their bumpers...








Pristine mountain lakes...

...and naughty fishermen.

A 5 minute drive to DQ. Life is good!

14. Our First Big Month in Town

Today's Culture Shock Level is: DANGEROUSLY HIGH

My jaw drops every time I leave our apartment. Every day regular activities of my fellow El Bigians stop me in my tracks. I can't sketch or take photos fast enough, and I'm self conscious about doing so. The loss of the anonymity that I had in SF is disconcerting. I've been in town for a few weeks and my culture shock hasn't died down at all. At this point I can't imagine how it ever will. I ask Que to take special note of this time and ask me how I'm doing in a year...



The locals continue to stare at us like we have three heads. The hardest part is trying not to stare back at them.

Que's photographic highlights from the Summer festival...

The man in the large rigg is trying to ride over the wheels of the small rigg. The woman driving the smaller rigg darts ahead 20 feet, and they repeat it all over again.

Click on photo to see the grin on the cowboy's face.


Where's Waldo?

Mennenights at the Quilt Show

Quiltin' cowboy
***

Pretty detail on the street lights on the main avenue.

A recently rennovated apartment on the south side of town.

"20 tans for 36.00 dollars!"
A window sticker on an apartment window...

Unlike California ruralites who enjoy wearing military styles, El Bigians wear an attractive cammoflouge created from Photoshop images of leaves and sticks. You often see people wearing cammo out at dinner, shopping, or hanging out with friends at the cafe...

There is a big bronze scene in the El Big valley. One nearby town boasts of international fame for it's artist foundries. We walk down the main street and spot huge bronze sculptures--all with varying degrees of skill and talent--placed in every open space available. There's no escaping them. Here is a snapshot of an enormous painted bronze bald eagle on the outskirts of town...

Wide selections of fancy Western belt buckles...


Thank God.

13. The Apartment with a View

While Que is busy getting settled into his new job, I spend time setting up our apartment.

I wake early every morning, make coffee, enter a few notes into a diary, and watch the sunrise to hit the hillsides outside our 7th floor apartment.


The summer cloud shows are exceptional. "Cumulous mediocres" keeps me entertained throughout the day. I am excited about the prospect of plein air painting and suddenly wonder if this is where [sic]Thomas Cinkaide gets his inspiration.

12. How small is very small?

Today's Culture Shock Level is: RAPIDLY BUILDING

I can't get over the smallness of this place...
The locals like it that way. Since 1900, the population has fluctuated between 12,000 to 12,500, depending on whether the small college is in session.


In example...Que and I are seated in a window of the High Road Cafe, a cafe on the main avenue. The coffee is weak by San Francisco standards, but they serve homemade sesame bagels. Our conversation drifts to errands. Que needs to pick up some work clothes and I need to find some curtain ties. I mention that I saw a grass green Pandolton look-a-like shirt in the window of the department store across the street from our apartment. (the only dept store in town). Just as I'm describing it, a lone, middle aged man walks by our window. He is wearing a grass green Pandolton-like shirt. The shirt is so new that I can see the original creases in the arm.

11. 97 degrees Indoors

It's 97 degrees in our apartment. Que is now working full time. I'm afraid I'll get heat stroke so I decide to venture out and see the air conditioned parts of town.

I go shopping at the local [sic]Safestway food market. Besides the lack of produce varieties and the endlesss throngs of tan, gay men in bicycle shorts chatting each other up in the aisles, the store is almost identical to my old neighborhood S'way food market in San Francisco. Even the layout for the natural food section is in the exact same spot. I practically jump for joy when I see that they sell lemongrass. (The closet big town with aThai restaurant is a two hour drive into another state)

Most of the grocery shoppers seem to be truckdrivers or dudes on their lunch break from the lumber mill. I feel a bit uncomfortable from the unsolicited attention in the bread isle. I look down at my casual California style summer clothes--a brightly colored bare shouldered t-shirt, clam diggers and sandals. In retrospect I realize that I am probably showing a lot more than they are used to seeing from the average local woman in El Big.

Click on above image to see lack of anything green.
***
Later that night, Que and I try to decide to try Mountain Bear's Pizza for dinner.The mushrooms are canned but the pizza is delicious. The place fills up with lumber mill workers with their enormous families. The men wear filthy overalls and caps and the women wear toe-to-ankle tent dresses. Que comments on how young they seem. We play a guessing game and try to figure out which families belongs to which church...

After dinner, we drive 10 minutes north to the sprawling part of town. I have my first mega superstore Val*mart shopping experience. It's much trashier than I expect. We shop for curtains, clothes hangers and an air conditioner. Everything is shockingly inexpensive. I beg Que to buy me the Val*mart emerald...

Again, I take note on how the local folk seem to enjoy staring at us...

A talking/ singing deer head.

Decorations on the wall above the Hunting/ Fishing License counter. This deer cannot sing "I Heard It Through The Grape Vine".
I feel my culture shock taking root.

10. Weedwhackers n' gingham

Que and I make plans so I can see the grounds of his new place of employment. I am surpised that it takes less than 5 minutes to drive there from downtown. I pass by several churches and old charming suburban homes...


Out of the corner of my eye I spot a young woman standing on the garden slope of a 50's era row house. She is dressed in a prairie style gingham gown and bonnet and wielding garden machinery. I look closer and see that she is whirring away with what looks like a Weedwhacker. I almost crash....

That afternoon I go home and do a search for "Mennenights". [sic]

9. "It'll get hectic-"

That evening Que and I walk one block down to the main avenue to buy some cables at the Radio Shak (which doubles as a 99 cent store. Most businesses seem to have a 2nd business within.) Que strikes up a conversation with the young, toothless salesman in a bad suit. "So, you're not from around here, are ya? Welcome. Well, just you wait..." His has an omninous tone in his gentle drawl. "...it'll change here in town..." He gives us a knowing nod. "It'll 'get hectic-you know, once the students return in a month or so."
Hectic? It's hard to imagine. This town seems to move as if it's encased in molasses.

8. Our Arrival

Only 56 miles to my new home!

We pass through many small road bump towns. I start to get an overwhelming feeling I haven't had before. I experience my first big whallop of culture shock about 30 minutes from our valley. What in the hell are we doing?!

The terrain is beautiful and strange and full of road signs for fossil beds.


After driving through miles of desert, we start climbing up again.. I'm pleasantly surprised by the sight of pines and snaking, clear rivers. El Big is a basically located on a huge, pine covered plateau--a valley completely surrounded by high mountain desert.



We pull into town around noon. The Farmer's market in the town square is still buzzing, so we stop and grab a couple of surprisingly authentic tamales; drag our tired selves up to our empty apartment and toast to El Big.

7. The Dry Side

Dry, dryer, driest... Our new state is big and sprawling with contrasting values. It's evenly divided at the Kaskade Mountains-- not only geographically, but socially and politically. The eastern portion of is mainly desert and socially conservative. The very liberal Western side often refers to the eastern side with sweet nicknames like No Man's Land, The Armpit, or as I like to call it, The Dry Side...

My first Northwest painting. This is a rare, old style wood chip burner left over from the days when air polution and clear cutting just weren't discussed.

I understand that the locals call them hay turds.

At one point I notice that all the lumber trucks are now delivery trucks for the small town-destroying mega superstore giant, Val*mart. We must be getting closer...

6. The Long Drive North

The drive is long, but we're a day ahead of the moving truck so Que and I try to relax and enjoy the trip. I am easily amused by road side attractions such as this...


We are often flanked by speeding logging trucks...


Sign says, "Please yield to bears crossing." Okay, no problem...



On our way out of Bend I notice the radio station is playing obscure follk music. I'm starting to feel like I'm in a different state...

Wheat, alfalfa, wheat, alfalfa, mystery crop, corn, wheat, wheat, and some more corn...


Since we planned a day ahead of our moving truck, we have time to stop for the night at the gorgeously austere Crater Lake...


A closer look at some beautiful black basalt on the rim of the crater...


...and breakfast with the boys before we get back on the road again...

5. "bOregon or Ust!"

...consolidate our junk piles, throw it all in the back of an eighteen wheeler, say good bye to the friends and loved ones, and drive off to start a new life in a secluded town in the eastern portion of the NorthWest simply known as EL BIG; population 12,000. Well, population 12,002...

4. The Decision

So, when my partner Que recieves the call for a full time dream job in the Northwest, it's a fairly quick decision to pack up and leave California, my residence of 37 years. On August 1, 2005 10:00am we marry in a private ceremony in the rotunda in San Francisco City hall...

...drive down the coast for three relaxing days in one of my favorite Central California spots, Pt. Lobos...

3. Flowers for Jacque

With love

2. Overseas and underpaid

Since the dotcom bust, I find it hard to make a decent living wage in SF. The studio that gainfully employed me for over 10 years eliminates my department without warning and sends our jobs overseas to sweatshops in Asia... By 2002, most of my colleagues scatter to affordable areas, like back home with their folks, back to school to retrain, or overseas to the studios that now contract out our projects. I manage to continue to find bits of part time work and stay busy with my personal work. My personal work flourishes...Unfortunately, most of the freelance jobs I run across are either small or grossly underpaid. What is left of the industry I had adored has morphed into a big, shiny, bouncy overseas commodity...

1. Good ol' SF

We held it out for as long as we could, but my hometown SF has been outpricing us for awhile. Two bedroom flats go for 900 k. One single bedroom in a dumpy, 4 room shared flat rents for $800. The beau and I begin discussing moving out of the Bay Area to find an affordable place to live.

I think a lot about how much I will miss the coast if we leave the area.