Behind the Redwood Curtain

Thunderbird Mountain Trading Company

2011-11-03T13:27:00.000-07:00

On highway 101 in northern California, about 300 or so miles past San Francisco, there's a little piece of Peru nestled in the redwoods. Thunderbird Mountain Trading Company's gallery is an eclectic and exotic collection of gourmet foods (such as smoked salmon and California Mission Farms jams, jellies, preserves, and marmalades) southwestern Native American art (sand paintings, kachinas, and Chimayo weavings) and Peruvian Textiles such as pouches and backpacks.

Captain Shon and Lee Nickel are the proprietors, and are two of the most interesting people you will ever meet. Learn more about their gallery and their past adventures by visiting Thunderbird Mountain Trading Company on Squidoo.

Then visit their new online gallery and be amazed at what they've collected.

Christmas is coming ... give something unique and unusual this year! Thunderbird Mountain Trading Company has an abundant supply of interesting and useful items. Captain Shon uses eBay to liquidate some of their icelandic sheep skins and goat hides.

Whether you visit virtually or actually drive up the coast and drive through a redwood tree, Thunderbird Mountain Trading Company is a must see.

Drive Thru Trees lens won a Purple Star AND was a Lens of the Day Selection. Nice!

2010-09-23T21:24:00.001-07:00

Drive THROUGH a Giant Redwood

A Google Gotcha

2009-12-14T21:39:00.000-08:00

I had a slightly disturbing encounter with a tweeter using the name CriticWatch recently. He made a snide remark about using Google alerts to see what ppl were saying, and I set up an alert on his name as a lark. Well, long story short, the account got terminated almost as quickly as it was created. I don't blame him for that - damage control by erasing tweets is a logical next step, I suppose.

But ... it's Christmas, God has a sense of humor, and Google is really fast sometimes. Like now. (more in a minute on that.)

Sure, you can go and erase blog posts you're now ashamed of, tweets that you would never have tweeted had you been sober, and comments from readers who take you to task for something you ought not to have done, but that doesn't erase hurt once you've inflicted it. Forget Santa, it's Google who knows if you've been naughty or nice. Sing it with me!

"It sees you when you're angry,
it knows when you're insane.
It knows when you've been being mean,
and it shows the world your shame.

So, ... ya better watch out, ya better not flame,
ya better be kind and ya better sound sane,
Google Bot is Crawling The Web."

Don't let Google getcha with a GOTCHA.

My advice? Be NICE!

To See the Google Gotcha, Click Here. Try not to laugh too hard.

PS - I didn't reveal the identity of the mysterious madman because I don't want to give him any publicity. He might accuse me of more dishonest blogging and tweeting.

Rank 9 is good, right?

2008-10-12T08:29:00.001-07:00

Ouch! My top ranked Squidoo lens has fallen to rank 9. Yikes! What can I do to promote it today?

Heritage Heirloom Cutting Boards

Beautiful, just Beautiful!

Heritage Heirloom Cutting Boards

2008-09-24T21:08:00.001-07:00

Heritage Heirloom Cutting Boards

Now has a new featured lens on Jatoba, one of the Top 10 hardwoods used in Bob's Boards.

Just for Fun

2008-09-24T18:04:00.000-07:00

This is an amazing video ...
you may need to watch it twice!

This is an awesome example of viral marketing, by the way ... something so cool, people feel they HAVE to share it! Just like this! We can learn a lot from this.

100 Things to do Before You Die - Creating a Bucket List

2008-09-21T18:52:00.001-07:00

100 Things to do Before You Die - Creating a Bucket List

An amazing Squidoo lens about bucket lists -- gotta share this one!

LewRockwell.com Blog: Environmental Hysteria Exemplified

2008-09-21T11:56:00.001-07:00

LewRockwell.com Blog: Environmental Hysteria Exemplified

You Tube video of Penn & Teller getting people to sign a petition to ban water.

Makes a person think.

Words invented for Squidoo

2008-09-20T12:26:00.001-07:00

Words invented for Squidoo

New idea, just published ... a work in progress, but I wanted to get the url I wanted before some other Squidventive person Squidded in and Squidsurped my spot.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

2020unleashed.com ›

2008-09-20T11:13:00.001-07:00

2020unleashed.com ›

man that scout camp sounds cool.

Wish I could get him to do one out here in the redwoods. Wouldn't THAT be an awesome experience?

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Cloverdale Icons

2008-09-14T17:25:00.000-07:00

On the way to San Francisco last week, we stopped in Cloverdale, a small pacific northwest community north of Santa Rosa and south of Ukiah.

Highway 101 used to run right down main street, but some years back the bypass was built, and Cloverdale's congestion was eliminated. I haven't had a reason to visit Cloverdale for many years, but I had a hankerin' for some ice cream, and so we took the offramp to see what we could see. Wow, I hardly recognized the town.

Thank goodness Pick's was still there!

Bob and I had a burger and fries and got some great photos and some video footage. Met the owner on visit #3, and was going to just blog about it. Then I changed my mind and decided Pick's deserved its own Squidoo Page, so here it it: PICK'S SQUIDOO PAGE

While in Cloverdale, I had the time to bop on out to the southern end where I had noticed a relic sitting hidden behind a tree. If you are under 30 or if you never visited (or lived near) a lumber mill, you may not recognize this relic from days gone by, but there was a time when they were all over the place.

What you are seeing here is an old, out of use burner. There must have been a lumber mill on this acreage at one time -- although you'd be hard pressed to see where it stood, as there is little to identify other than this lone sentinel.

Before pressboard and before recycling, the end blocks from milled lumber and a LOT of sawdust was routinely sent to burners like this one to be consumed by flame. Now these items are used in the manufacture of other products, and these old burners have all but disappeared from the landscape. As a matter of fact, this is the only one that I've been able to see from the highway to get a snap shot of between the Oregon/California and San Francisco. Given that in my childhood I could count dozens of them, that's quite a change.
I'm not sure why this one is still standing -- so many have been dismantled and the metal sent off to be recycled -- but then again, I also don't know why nothing has been rebuilt on the old mill site either.

In the right light, it's almost beautiful.

It was a day of discovery for us, for sure. I parked off the road near a clearing in order to get closer to the burner, and found, not the homeless camp I thought I was seeing, but a home built (and apparently unwatered for some time) shrine of trees and rocks dedicated to murdered children. It was a bit on the spooky side, and yet I couldn't NOT take pictures. I had questions with no answers:

what happened to the person who started it?
Why was it in such disrepair?
Does anybody realize it's there?

I may never know the answers, but at least I have the photographs. Perhaps one day I'll write a novel and use these memories to flesh out the story. (It could happen!)

See what I mean? Creepy and poignant. Gave me the heebeejeebees.

On the other hand, we found another familiar place -- the old "OWL CAFE"

Next time I'm near Cloverdale, I really ought to stop in and try the food here, too. It was delicious in 1963, and since the outside really hasn't changed all that much in the past 45 years, maybe the food is just as good. Hey, a gal can hope, right? It could happen!

If you happen to pop in to either the Owl or Pick's, I hope you'll let them know you heard about them from me. Happy Trails!

Red Fox Casino, Laytonville, California

2008-09-07T23:10:00.001-07:00

On the way to San Francisco, we stopped for a break at the Red Fox in Laytonville, California, home of the $10 match play. To get there you turn at the first road to the right entering town from the north, or last road to the left if you're coming from the south, and then follow it around the curve where it changes to Branscomb road. Go 2 miles and follow the signs. It's about 3 miles off the road, I guess. The building is small ... another site I looked up on the web said it has 100 machines ... I guess that's about right, give or take 10 or so.

They are very friendly there. You show your ID at the cashier's cage and hand over a $10, and she fills out a little ticket with your name and then gives the security guard a $20. You choose your machine, and he puts the $20 in it, and you're all set. He brought us a beverage, too. This was the second time I've been here, and both times I was impressed with how nice everybody who works there was to us. Not all the North Coast Casinos are as nice.

Anyway, we had a very lovely time, and enjoyed the rest from driving. Last time the parking lot was full of dirt and gravel and holes, very rustic. This time we were pleasantly surprised by the new garden and bear carving. Very nice addition.

I lived in Laytonville for a short time in the late 60's, attending Laytonville Jr. High for part of my 7th grade year, 1 of the 3 schools I attended that year. There was no casino back then.

Driving through Laytonville is really weird now, because so many things I remember are no longer there, but that's nothing compared to how different Cloverdale is! Stopping there today to go to the Foster's Freeze, I discovered it's been torn down and something new built where it used to be! So we went to Pick's, instead:

The chocolate ice cream was delightful. Picks, open since 1923, is darned near the ONLY thing left in Cloverdale that I recognize.

2008 Del Norte County Fair Photos

2008-08-02T16:26:00.000-07:00

A few of my favorites from the fair. Click on any photo to see the enlarged version -- click your "BACK" button to return here. (Or right click and open photo in a new window.)

And my personal favorites, because they were all made by my husband, Bob:

Brother Jonathan Cemetery

2008-02-12T15:08:00.000-08:00

Roosevelt Elk

2008-02-12T15:02:00.000-08:00

These were taken on Highway 101 just south of Del Norte County in late 2007.

Battery Point Lighthouse

2008-02-12T14:48:00.000-08:00

Battery Point Lighthouse is one of our most photographed local icons.