DAY 54 - Wheels and Deals
Every morning at the farm meant a delicious and hearty breakfast. With the electric skillet and toaster at hand we made fried eggs and put cheese on toasted bagels, as a side dish we would eat canned peaches and/or homemade applesauce, or perhaps a fruit salad!
Our breakfasts were large but not enormous. Still, it made me think back to when I was a preteen laying miserably on the couch one summer with some sort of stomach ailment. I began reading the Little House on the Prarie series. Farmerboy, is the book that tells the true story of Laura ingels wilder's husband before they met, when he lived and worked on the farm. The only thing I can remember about that book today is that she went into great detail concerning all the meals they ate on the farm, the quantity of flapjacks one ate and the number of sausages polished off, etc. As a little girl I couldn't fathom that kind of eating...now I can!
(rally making breakfast in Terry the trailer. We all took turns rotating through the job of chef)
Once the breakfast spread was all gobbled up, we went to work pulling more weeds, and after another four hour work day (with a "snack attack" for a break) we hoped in the van with Sheree for a trip into town, the main objectives being thrift store shopping and winco shopping.
On the way to Lancaster we hit a snag on the road, figuratively, which left us with a flat and ruined tire. But all of us were on hand and Furniture immediately slid under the van to start jacking it up.
(progression of tire changing shots)
Once fixed we headed to the thrift. Since Rally hadn't thrifted for farm clothes we all decided we needed to thrift it up, too much time in civilzation had made us greedy again. The prices weren't as low as Mojave's, but a two dollar denim jacket was nothing to scoff at. The boys found deals as well, including but not limited to, a 80's looking sweater for Rally, and a new pearlsnap for Furniture.
After the errands were over we went back to the farm for a little headbutting with the goats!
(furniture and the goats)
DAY 55 - Goldmine
The weather wasn't supposed to be stellar that day, so instead of working, Bill planned a field trip for us. On the first night at the farm Bill had told us of an old abandoned goldmine he used to explore. One day while he was poking his nose around shafts and tunnels, his flashlight went dead. So he crawled on his hands and knees through the dense darkness over treacherous beams and dusty tunnles, for over 3 miles, until he reached light and the outside world. That mine was our field trip destination.
By eight we were all in the van, buckled up and rolling along the highway.
First stop, red rock.
(furniture and bill at red rock)
(Ishmael in one of the crevases of red rock)
(red rock)
We piled back into the car and went further down the road past the creepy nearly abandoned town of Trona, the home of Charles Manson and a town only kept away from complete ghostdom by a borax plant.
(we stopped by the market for some batteries for bill's flashlight)
Then we rolled out of town and just off the highway we slipped onto a seemingly unkempt sand road. There was trash spewed everywhere, even old cars were left for dead in this valley not from death valley.
(sold dead car)
The trash became more and more sparse as we drove further down the bumpy road in a 4WD Astro van. Finally we were at the mine.
We tried entrance number one but it was unenterable beyond perhaps 100 ft., most likely purposely blasted in.
(outside entrance #1)
So Bill took us up a little pathway in the rocks, past a spot in which he had carved his name 35 years ago, up the side of the loose and rocky mountain to an air vent of the mine about 3 feet wide and 2 feet tall. We all shimmied in on our backs or bellies.
(Furniture slides on in)
Musty smelling, temperate, dusty, and dark were the main characteristics of the abyss within the mountain. I was having a nice little adventure with everyone, but I decided that mining would never be a job I would apply for.
We went up and down through various tunnels and rooms, past shafts that seemed to be bottomless. We crossed over huge drops by means of sketchy looking beams haphazardly laced across the engulfments. I would slowly inch across as my nails dug into some bit of rock on the tunnel wall nearest. The boys didn't seem to have as much of a problem striding over the squeaky beams. I decided this was perhaps more dangerous than hiking the PCT, but I wasn't about to be the only one who didn't cross over the beams, I wanted to see what was on the other side and as the only female representative I didn't want to harm the image of my gender by being a wuss.
(in the mine)
It was a strange place but an epic field trip. A curious and dark world of mazes with a feeling of creepy nostalgia lingering in the stale air. Upon reaching the vent my eyes couldn't believe how bright it was. More drastic then coming out of the movies on a hot afternoon or having the lights flipped on in the middle of a goodnight's sleep, it was a flood of bright matter...I had never remembered the outside to be so toxically white.
After a lunch on the bumper of the van, as Bill told us more wild stories, we headed back to the farm.
(me at the farm in my lavish thrift outfit)
(goats)
An adventure every day, such is life!
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3 comments:
I'm glad Bill stopped for batteries before you all went. Less obviously learned on his part!
I love your thrifty wear!
The goat farm was def a good choice.
Your description of exploring the mine was very vivid. I'm sure I wouldn't have gone in. Praise God for protecting you on all your adventures. When you get to heaven, you may be amazed to learn all the times He rescued you from disaster.
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