The Mini's

Dustin has 3 Miniture Horses. 1st is Lucky, a black and white pinto, next is Lucky's brother Cloudy who is solid black and then there is his newest mini Tank.



















Dustin's newest mini, a little stallion named Mini Tank because he is so small and built more like a draft horse. I am with him in first photo of him and Dustin in the last one.

Antoine !

He's funny. I think. I'm nevercompletely sure.

He carries monumental loads of gear up to the crag, a huge BD pig full of bolting gear, music, stove, hammock, ropes and croissants.

He elegant, he's strong, he's ever so stylish.Don't hate him cause he's beautiful.







Antoine clips the first of a dense cluster of quickdraws.









That is a whole lotta muscle coming up that cliff underneath me. Twin chalk bags, big guns, odd shoes.

















We talk and talk, then Antoine will say "enough philosophy, let's climb"









Belayers beware. The Big Frenchman likes skinny ropes and roller biners. When he comes off it's like a bison comingatcha.













What are the odds hey.jjobrienclimbing had the lens open at the exact moment Antoine released his energy burst.Lucky I was at a safe distance.









Antoine wears: soft shell by Mountain HardwearAgriculturalists cap by John Deer

The annual Coolum "Sendfest" is the biggest event on The Cave calender and isthe brainchild of Antoine Moussette. Antoine keeps the score.

Points are assigned to the each climber on the basis of.... or maybe get added to the crag score or....... or something about acumulative something...



I really don't get it, but jeez it's fun. We climb, and Antoine and I drink a lot of chai and coffee.





He claims to be from Quebec. But he sounds French to me.

Montaña De Oro

Wednesday, May 29th - - I have been back in Indiana for two weeks and am staying with some friends. I've found an apartment but it won't be available until the end of July and I'm still waiting for the final approval. However, it will be worth waiting for - it has a garage! And I'm looking forward to "settling down" again. Thankfully my friends are very good ones and are willing to put me up and put up with me for a while.



Tuesday, April 30th - - In early afternoon I left Yosemite National Park and continued on to the coast arriving at Montaña De Oro State Park, a few miles southwest of Morro Bay. I fell in love with that area when I was stationed at Point Mugu (near Oxnard) in the mid-1970s.





The website for the park states that Montaña De Oro is one of the largest state parks in California and features over 8,000 acres of rugged cliffs, secluded sandy beaches, coastal plains, streams, canyons, and hills. I've stayed here before and enjoyed it very much. As you can see in the photos, it was rather cloudy and overcast - it was rather chilly too!






One of many flowers in the Ice Plant that was growing alongside the road.





A close-up view of the inside of the flower.





Looking toward the south.




Details that were hidden in the dark original photograph show up a little better after it was converted to a pencil sketch.






Looking toward the north.

Flower in Old Town

These flowers were scattered all over Old Town and were in full bloom. The blossoms were huge being as much as 10 to 12 inches across and with big leaves. I was told they were a perennial hibiscus.

Spanky & Tuffee

Spanky is Julie's dog. He and Tuffee are friends and like to run up and down along the wire fence between our places.

Back in Summer

Back in Summer, originally uploaded by ParsecTraveller.

Anyone else missing summer? These morning glories are all but shriveled up now...but there are plenty of seeds for next year!

Cycling Fever?

I had this question when I first began doing strenuous rides and recently someone asked me the same thing: Is it normal to run a fever after cycling?



The short answer is: Yes. It happens to some people. Not to all, but to some. I am one of them, and I now know a few others who experience this with regularity - always have. The evening after a strenuous ride, I will often run a fever and might even develop a sore throat. While it's happening it can feel very much like the flu. But the next morning all symptoms will be gone, so it is not a case of actually getting sick.



My understanding is that this is a normal reaction that some people simply have to certain types of exertion. It may have to do with how our bodies engage in muscle repair. Or it may have to do with circulation issues. No one seems certain, but it does happen.



Regardless of how or why it happens, I have noticed there are things I can do to alleviate it. For instance: takinga hot shower or bath after a ride, takingan NSAID oracetaminophen concoction, eatingwarm "comfort food" such as soup or scrambled eggs, drinking lots of fluids, and tryingto get as much physical rest as possible.Basically treating it like the flu works for me. It dulls the symptoms while they are happening, so that I can still be productive with the rest of my evening. And the next day I feel good as new - only the muscle soreness remains.



If you experience fever or flu-like symptoms after strenuous cycling, how do you deal with it?

Ice Climbing at the Asbestos Wall

I am really feeling like I’d like to get more into ice climbing.



Perhaps I should have said this before my last post about ice, but better to say it late than never: I know very little about ice climbing. The last thing I want is for someone who actually knows a lot about ice climbing to stumble upon these ramblings and come away thinking that I regard myself as some kind of real ice climber because I’ve toproped short, picked-out beginner walls on four occasions in my life. Obviously, I know I am a beginner. In offering my thoughts I hope to offer a beginner’s perspective on ice, and not much more.



With that out of the way, let me tell you about my day with V at the Asbestos Wall in the Catskills.



As the day approached, I watched the weather, hoping it would stay below freezing this time. On my last ice climbing day the temperature had spiked up into the mid-forties, leading to very wet and potentially worrisome conditions. This time around there appeared to be no problems in that regard. The high for the day was projected to be just 14 degrees, which is less than the ideal temperature, since when it is so far below freezing the ice can be brittle and chip off in plates when you stick your axe in it. But at least I could expect that this time it wouldn’t be so difficult to stay dry, and I wouldn’t have to worry about melting chunks falling on our heads.



I proposed to V that we check out the Asbestos Wall, mostly because I believed it would be easy for us to set up topropes. Neither of us was planning on leading. I of course have never led on ice, and while V has the screws and used to do it, our trip was going to be his first time on the ice in at least three years. So he just wanted to get a feel for it again and told me he’d prefer it if he didn’t have to lead.



I had never been to the Asbestos Wall, and in fact had never really considered trying it before because it has a reputation as an overcrowded nightmare, full of loud, inconsiderate gumbies hogging routes and hacking the ice into oblivion. It is also a very sunny wall and the ice tends to bake and get that milky/cloudy appearance that can signal poor conditions (hence the wall’s name). But since we were heading up on MLK Day, which is a Monday and a workday for many, I hoped it wouldn’t be too crowded. And with a forecasted high temperature well below freezing, this sunny area seemed like just the ticket.



When V and I arrived we immediately saw why the wall gets so crowded. The approach is incredibly easy. The ice is visible from the parking lot and the slope beneath the climbs is neither steep nor unpleasant. And although the sections of the wall aren’t terribly high—the tallest ones are maybe 40 feet, tops—they are generally vertical, with very few ledges or broken-up sections. Add to these virtues the ease of access to the trees atop the cliff and the place becomes a beginner ice climber’s dream come true.



All of this is provided, of course, that you have enough room to climb without fear of getting a rope dropped on your head. We met a woman at the wall who had tried to come the previous day (i.e., Sunday). She said her party had given up after being at the wall for less than an hour because they found the crowded conditions so miserable.



But on this holiday Monday we had no such issues. The woman I just mentioned was part of a group of three. There was a guided party and I think two other pairs at the wall all day. We found plenty of ice to share with this small group of climbers and had ourselves a great time. We set up ropes on three different sections of the wall over the course of the day, and at each section we were able to pick out three or four different lines to climb. We had no trouble getting a section of the wall to ourselves any time we wanted it. There were ample signs of the wall’s popularity; most of the climbs we chose had obvious pick markings, and some would have benefitted from some time alone to recover. In the most extreme cases there was evidence that fragile lower sections of the wall had been kicked out by clumsy, rough climbers who came before us. But there were some fat columns we climbed on which there was no evidence of prior climbers, most likely because these particular sections have so much water flowing through them that holes fill in and freeze over very quickly. We tried to find the least hacked-up lines we could, and took care not to cause further damage to any of the more fragile features we found. We had a fun day, one I’d repeat without hesitation. Even though the temperature was quite low we were in the sun until the late afternoon, and had no trouble staying warm, which of course presents another issue with this wall on warmer days, when it must be difficult to evaluate whether the ice is in good condition.



So I would recommend the Asbestos Wall highly, but only to beginners, and only on a weekday, and only when it is quite cold. It really is a sign of how popular ice climbing has become that you can find five parties at this wall on a weekday. I would guess that a decade ago you might not have found so many parties at this wall over an entire weekend. Now, it seems the weekend crowding is so bad that this wall becomes unbearable. Even during the week, I can’t imagine what this wallwouldoffer a solid leader on ice. There are better, longer, less-crowded climbs within a very short distance of this wall. But for easy access to steep toprope climbs, it’s pretty hard to beat.

Fashion Friday

At the request of Lotus, over at Red Phoenix Style, I've included some shots of what's hot at the crag right now.Here's Sister Matt bringing vinyl snake skin to the sport. Surely a first, and so practical, windproof, dust resistant and looks so good.Here's Oli channelinga Caribbean Pirate

And his fabulous shabby, pirate, rasta details.

Massive lats never go out of style, don't you think?Antoine sported his and twin chalk bagsas he crushed "Separation Anxiety" 28Always the corporate whore, I wore the Red Chili logo shirt in sky blue.

Shutter Snapping, Spraying & Shopping

Does anyone out there know what caused these bumps on clematis buds? I've never noticed them before this year. Vertie is taking an entomology course - maybe she'll know the answer.
After that bud opened the flower still looked pretty against the white wall, but the bumps showed through the reddish-purple petals as white spots.
Root Beer Plant/Piper auritum has huge leaves that are used in Central Mexican cuisine. It's more common name is Hoja Santa and its odd white flowers were so hard to photograph that I just listed them for bloom day instead of showing them. I hope this photo can finally give you an idea of what they're like. I also hope the photo will enlarge if you click on it.
Although the Hoja Santa planted in a border is struggling, this plant is in a container and had enough water to bloom. Mine are interesting novelties but the Hoja Santa at EastSide Patch is a major player in the landscape!

Last October Pam/Digging took us along when she visited the Chicago Botanical Gardens. and showed us Salvia madrensis. I found a pot of this tall yellow-blooming salvia at the Natural Gardener last spring and watched it grow slowly from a small plant to its present seven-foot height. Can you see it peeking out behind the plumeria? No wonder its common name is Forsythia Sage! But it's so tall that any photos of the blossoms are either lost in green foliage or washed out against the unrelenting blue sky.
So many things that I want to photograph are way over my head! This mockingbird has been singing non-stop. I watched the bird for half-an-hour as it flitted from one branch to another within the canopy of a large yaupon. I'd previously noticed mockingbird feathers scattered in several places around the front garden and wonder if one of the wandering neighborhood cats caught this bird's mate.
Is he disappointed in love or just dismayed that the gardener was too busy taking pictures to brush out and refill the birdbath?


Philo and I had a great time at the Sunset Valley Farmers Market yesterday - a friendly, lively place with live music, wonderful food and many cool plants.

I'm still browsing through recipes for the White Patty Pan squash but these incredibly delicious tomatoes, the wonderful whole wheat pita from the Mediterranean Chef and delicious Rosemary-Spinach pesto from Sgt Pepper's Sauces didn't need any recipes!
This small Kaffir lime tree was only $6! The leaves are used as flavoring, especially in Thai cooking. (This is something I learned from the movies - not from real life.) It's a tender tree so I'll grow it in a container and bring it inside during cold weather.

We scooped the last gallon of compost tea from the Ladybug Products booth. Fresh compost tea is perishable - buying it meant we had to use it in the garden within a few hours. We sprayed it everywhere and hope it helps the plants deal with the stresses of this year.
Last night I took the camera out to play with the night flash again, snapping one of the geckos that hang out under the roof overhang.
Because the intense yellow of the Forsythia Sage/Salvia madrensis didn't show up against the sky in daylight, I got the idea to see how it looked with the night flash. Pretty dramatic, isn't it?
I then turned the lens to the Moonflower vine/Ipomoea alba once again, using the night flash to see its heart, glowing like a star in the night.

Today is the last day of the Austin City Limits Fest - and as a loyal Austinite, I'm glad the crowd stayed dry. But once the fest is over, I sure wish we could sing along with the Beatles to September In The Rain.

Waiting for Treats

All Eggs Great and Small

My blog friend Shannon over at the Not So Virtual Homestead was writing recently about a huge egg that one of her chickens surprised her with.

We got a surprise too, but it was in the opposite direction.

One of the Dominique chickens must have gotten tired of laying normal eggs, and left us this tiny one.

A normal Dominique egg is on the left for comparison.

I didn't realize until I uploaded the pictures, that the depth of field on the macro setting was so shallow that to have the little egg in sharp focus meant that the normal one was a little fuzzy. Oops.

By that time my curiosity had gotten the best of me and I'd already cracked open the lilliputian egg to see what it looked like inside. So, no do-overs.

The inside looked pretty much like a normal egg in miniature.

(My sister recently made a comment about my liberal use of 50-cent words, so I had to work in "lilliputian" just for her.)

Sky Fire

Sunset clouds in Grand Portage, MN on August 8, .

Muir Snowfield and the Disappointment Cleaver Route

Check out this 2x6 style of crevasse crossing. The image was snapped over the weekend (thankfully the board didn't)... The lumber has since been pulled, so now climbers must find another way around the crevasse. Here's more on the DC...

I received a few comments about the ice mass on the Muir Snowfield. Avid Rainier skier Ron Jarvis had this to say,

"When I started playing on Rainier in 1991 there were no dismounts required while skiing from Muir to Pebble in late summer/fall and as I recall that seemed to be the case right up until the last 2 or 3 years (dementia notwithstanding :-) ).

I would also add that similar conditions (volume/snow-ice depth) also seem to be the case on the contiguous neighbor to the east, the Paradise Glacier."

Why Wye?

As I was getting ready to leave Springfield Wednesday morning (September 9th) I discussed my travel plans with my hosts. My intention at that time was to head north to Lawrence, Kansas to see what I could find on Samuel Fisher, the brother of my 2nd Great Grandmother, Louisa Fisher Phend.

However, I made a stop to purchase a few things before leaving and “something” jogged my memory – a small town in Arkansas was calling my name.

In 1985, I corresponded with Arba Phend Showalter, a daughter of Marion Ora Phend and granddaughter of Christian Phend. Her uncle, Clarence D. Phend was the fellow who wrote the early version of the history of the Phend Family.

Though undocumented and rife with errors, his version of the family history nevertheless provided invaluable information and clues for further research. I will forever be grateful to Clarence for putting it all in writing and to Arba for sending me a copy of it!

Clarence was first married on May 18, 1901 in Elkhart County, Indiana to Myrtle Clyde. It is not known whether Myrtle was deceased or if they were divorced, but, according to Arba, Clarence was married a second time to Lora West on September 22, 1908.

I haven't found Clarence in the 1910 Federal Census but in 1920 he was a 43 year old preacher living in River Town, Mayes County, Oklahoma along with his wife, Lora. She was also 43 years old and a school teacher. In the 1930 census, Clarence and Lora were found in Wye, Perry County, Arkansas. His occupation was given as farmer and she was a public school teacher. In both 1920 and 1930, he was listed as having been born in Indiana and she in Missouri.

It seems that Clarence may have been an itinerant preacher for a time. In an article found online in .. (the url is no longer valid) about the Branson, Missouri Presbyterian Church by Townsend Godsey in the White River Valley Historical Quarterly (v 9, Winter 1987) there was this brief sentence “... Revivalists, identified by the Branson Echo as Reverends Ross and Phend, began asking for subscriptions to build a church...”

Of her uncle Clarence, Arba wrote “My information is that his second wife's name was Lola Gray. I wrote to Alice Selby, pastor of the Wye and Bigelow, Arkansas United Methodist church in 1981. She wrote that the church records show that Clarence and Lora Gray Phend became members of the Wye United Brethren Church on August 22, 1943. Lora taught school in the community and Clarence did some preaching. I quote 'They lived in a little cabin about 6 miles south of Bigelow, Arkansas on Highway 113' and 'Lora was raised in Graysville, Missouri and I know that in early days, Rev. Phend was the pastor of a U. B. Church in northern Missouri which may be where he met Lora.' Clarence died on either the 11th or 22nd of March 1945. Lora died November 30, 1951 and both are buried in the Wye, Arkansas cemetery. My mother's information is that Clarence died on the 11th of March 1945 but Alice Selby writes it was March 22nd 1943 which can't be right.”

So it was to find Clarence's burial place that I headed south from Springfield instead of going north. Though I knew “about” where it was, I couldn't find the town of Wye on the road atlas that I had and, luckily, as I entered Arkansas on US Rte 65 there was a welcome center. The nice man gave me a more detailed map and even helped me find Wye, which is about 30 miles northwest of Little Rock.

Even though it was raining and overcast, I opted to get off the main highway and take Scenic Route 7 from Harrison. Route 7 winds and wends its way through the hills and valleys - it wasn't quite so scenic as it would have been on a nice sunny day, but it was still quite pretty. And it didn't rain the whole way. After turning off onto several other back-country roads and traversing their ups and downs, I eventually found myself in the small community of Wye. You can't really call it a town since there are no open stores but there are some houses. And a church. And some vacant buildings.

The half-mile road back to the cemetery is really a one lane gravel path, barely wide enough for one vehicle, with trees bordering both sides of the lane. And it was raining, again. Pouring down. But as I arrived at the cemetery, it let up some and after a few minutes slowed to a drizzle. It was about 4 o'clock. Trees surrounded the cemetery and their darkness contributed to the gloomy day.

Wye Cemetery covers a fairly large area but there aren't that many stones there. It only took half an hour or so to walk the entire cemetery. Clarence and Lora were alongside the front of a fenced in area and I had somehow overlooked them on the first pass through from front to back.




It surprised me that they were buried next to the Rev. Alice Selby. The very same Alice Selby who had provided Arba Showalter with information about Clarence!

Clarence D. Phend, son of Christian and Mary (McConnell) Phend, was born September 18, 1876 in Kosciusko County, Indiana and passed away on March 11, 1945 in Bigelow, Perry County, Arkansas. Lora (West) Phend was born about 1877 and died November 30, 1951. They are buried in Wye Cemetery, Pulaski County, Arkansas.

Note: The 1930 census shows Wye Township in Perry County, Arkansas. The GNIS database and Find-a-Grave both show that it is in Pulaski County. I haven't yet found when the change was made.