Monthly Archives: June 2020
A Lavender Farm, sans Lavender . . .
Last Saturday I signed us up for the two week trial of YouTube TV, and it didn’t take long to get our recordings set up on the DVR software. Though we can set all this up on the TV, it’s quicker and easier to do it on the computer.
A couple of odd quirks, however. You cannot record just a single episode of a TV show, it will only record every episode. And if you stop the recording a series, you lose all the episodes that you’ve recorded so far. Strange, but not hard to work around. Otherwise, as I said before, all recordings are saved for 9 months, and you can record and save an unlimited number of shows.
In the back of my mind, I was wondering what kind of server capacity they must to record and save all these shows for their 2 million subscribers. But I think I’ve figured it out.
They only record ONE copy of every show on every channel, not 2 million copies. Then your account info just holds pointers and bookmarks linking to each show you’ve set to record and how much you’ve watched of it for the Resume function.
That’s about 1680 hours of video per day, so not that bad.
And we are really enjoying the fact that all the shows are in HD, rather than the SD video we have with DirecTV. Looks like YouTube TV will be our new streaming service.
Another in our Where We Were 9 Years Ago Today series.
June 10, 2011
Cha . . . Cha . . . Cha . . . Changes . . .
Today is our last full day in the Mt. Shasta area. Tomorrow we’ll head about 190 miles north to the Bend / Sunriver Thousand Trails Park about 20 miles south of Bend, OR.
As far as the changes, originally we were going to stay here in Weed for three nights, Bend, OR for seven nights, and then La Pine, OR for seven nights. Then it was Weed for seven nights, Bend for seven nights, and La Pine for three nights.
And now it’s going to be Bend for ten nights, period.
About 1 we headed out on a roundabout trip to the Wal-Mart in Yreka by way of the Mt. Shasta Lavender Farm about 20 miles out in the country.
Sue, a camp host here at the Friendly RV Park told us about the Lavender Festival that starts tomorrow. But since we won’t be here, we decided to detour out that way anyway just to see what we could see.
We turned off the main road,
on to this dirt/rock road and started a slow three mile, 600 foot high climb up the side of the hill.
If it hadn’t been for the sign at the road we’d have wondered if we were going the right way. Even the lizard seemed lost.
When we finally got there, we found . . . no lavender. Or, we found lavender plants and a beautiful view, but it was more green in color than lavender.
It looked like this today.
This photo from their website shows how it should have looked. After talking to one of the owners we found out that due to this year’s cold, wet weather, the season is running about a month behind.
This is what blooming lavender looks like.
This is what our lavender looked like.
Bummer!
We didn’t get to see the lavender in bloom, but it was a fun trip with a beautiful view, so it was worth it.
This is a better view of what the farm looks like from the road about 4 miles away.
Leaving the lavender we headed on up to Yreka and the Wal-Mart to pick up our prescriptions and a few other things. Our daughter Brandi called to check in while we were there and it’s always good to talk and get the latest Landon update.
Coming home we saw this Adopt-A-Highway sign listing ‘Just Bill’ as the adopter. Now, is ‘Just Bill’ really his name, or is he just very shy?
By the time we got back to Weed it was time for dinner so we decided to have one last hurrah at Dos Amigos.
This time I had the Tres Amigos, a combination of Chile Verde, Chile Colorado, and a Chile Relleno. Very good.
Jan once again had what she says is the best Shrimp Enchilada she’s ever had. Just look at the size of those shrimp.
Getting back to the rig after a great meal, I took care of some jobs outside. I put a new charge wire connector on both the rig and the toad because the old ones were getting worn out. Then I tried to do everything I could to prepare for our departure tomorrow.
See you tomorrow in Bend.
Thought for the Day:
When you find a turtle on top of a fence post, you can be damn sure it didn’t get there on its own.
Poison Frogs and Time-Traveling Dinosaurs . . .
For the last week or so Jan and I have been binge-streaming 4 old TV show series, all in the sci-fi/fantasy genre, and all on the CWSeed streaming app.
Forever is a show about a New York Medical Examiner who is also a 200+ year old immortal. And he doesn’t know why. He was killed onboard a ship in the early 1800’s and thrown overboard. And then he woke up.
Moonlight is about a vampire who works as a P.I. in Los Angeles. He’s 85 year old but looks 30, and uses his vampire powers to solve crimes. There’s a girl TV reporter who knows his secret, and no, he can’t fly or turn into a bat.
Both of these only lasted one season, as it seems like a lot of shows we like. They don’t last long.
Next up is a two season series, Pushing Daises, a quirky show about a pie maker who can touch something dead and it will come back to life. But if he ever touches it again, it will die again, permanently. Which creates a problem when he brings his dead girl friend back to life. And then can never touch her again. Bummer!
Last up is a British series that went 5 seasons. Primeval has a group of scientists battling dinosaurs that escape into the present through ‘Anomalies’, basically holes in time that appear at random around Britain. The dinosaur effects are really good, and were done by the Walking with Dinosaurs people who did all the Science Channel shows. At least we’ve got a bunch of episodes to watch.
Another in our Where We Were 3 Years Ago Today series.
June 9, 2017
Wrapping Up in Rapid City . .
Today was a stay-at-home day, so I could finish up with the generator. I needed to finish wiring up the new remote switch and then put all the covers back on.
Then I checked all the rig’s fluids, adding some oil and some coolant. Tomorrow I check the tire pressures, since the last time I checked them in Bend, OR it was in the 40’s.
Since we’re wrapping here, I thought I’d finish up with one of our touristy things that we did last Thursday, the 1st, when we did the Reptile Gardens.
We got there a little before 1pm, just in time to take in the Snake Show, with these Albino Python as an example. Unfortunately due to the glass surrounding the stage I didn’t get many good photos.
Right next door was one of Jan’s favorites, the Prairie Dog Habitat. They also have a prairie dog on sentry duty.
Jan has been known to ignore signs like the one below, but not this time. Too many witnesses.
In addition, there were a lot of babies running around, some even smaller than this one.
This is Derek . . . the guy, not the gator. Derek showed us how to catch and restrain one.
Gators can bite down with over 2,000 psi of force, but the saltware crocodile can chomp down at over 3,700 psi. Ouch!
In contrast, lions and tiger top out at about 1,000 psi, while you can tear into a steak with 100 to 200 psi.
But as strong as they are biting down, the muscles that open their jaws are pretty weak. In fact almost anyone, even a child, can hold their mouths shut.
One thing kind of funny was that as Derek was doing this, all the other 20 odd gators and crocs came out and were lined up along the bank, just watching.
Next up was the Bird Show.
Then it was into the dome to check out all the snakes, bugs, and critters, including Jan’s favorite, Tarantulas.
Some of them are actually kind of pretty.
This one will fling its stinging hairs at you.
Waxy Monkey Frogs
A Gold Poison Frog, supposedly the most poisonous of the bunch. Even the natives are very careful with it.
The Blue Poison Frog.
This is a Chameleon. Note the pattern on his side. He’s recreated the green leaves, the black background, and even the vertical branches. Amazing.
An Iguana
Here’s Jan with a slightly smaller one and a slightly larger one when we were in Puerto Vallarta in 1997.
A Desert Horned Viper
And one from my neck of the woods, a Copperhead.
The Fierce Snake, or Inland Taipan, is reputed to be the most poisonous snake in the world, although I’ve seen other snakes listed that way.
The Fierce Snake
The centerpiece of the entire place is the dome, with birds, insects and other animals roaming free, and populated with many exotic plants and flowers.
We both really enjoyed Reptile Gardens, one of our favorite places here. A Must See if you’re in the area.
Tomorrow morning we’ll head out about 10am, with our first stop the Mobil station right by our I-90 entrance to get diesel. At $2.43 a gallon it’s the cheapest place around, especially compared to the Pilot a few miles down the road where it’s $2.85. So that would be a $42 difference on a 100 gallons. Yikes!
Our first real stop will be Wall Drugs about 65 miles along I-90E where we’ll have lunch before going another 60 miles, stopping at the Belvidere KOA for the night.
A nice short day.
Thought for the Day:
“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it, misdiagnosing it, and then misapplying the wrong remedies.” – Groucho Marx
