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This past Saturday the two youngest boys, Eric – 17 and Jacob – 14 went to the mall to see a movie with friends. After being at the mall for a few hours they called for a ride because they were ready to come home. A few minutes later they called to say they were going to stay a little longer.
Why? One of Jacob’s friends – a girl – arrived at the mall. As Jacob and the young lady made their way through Sears with the young lady’s family they arrived in the tool section. The father picked up a 20″ chainsaw, looked over to Eric as he held the chainsaw and said, “Which would be better to be holding on the front porch, this chainsaw or a shotgun.” Eric responded quickly, “The shotgun has a better range.”
Today was a day of transition. Eric, my youngest brother and I moved things that belonged to our father who passed away this past year. It was strange. There were also many things that belonged to our grandfather, Cecil Palmer that we moved as well. It was a day of remembering for me. I contemplated the first time I sharpened a nail on a bench grinder. It was at Grandpa Palmer shop in Utah. The bench grinder has now transitioned into my garage some forty years from the time when I sharpened that first nail and watched the sparks fly. Tonight when Eric, my son saw the bench grinder, he wanted to grind something. I handed him a 16 penny nail that he proceeded to grind to a sharp point. He then went out and tested it by pounding it into a block of wood. Time moves on, but boys and the desire to sharpen something and make sparks does not seem to change.
As the transition takes place, there are some things that can cause one to step back and scratch their head. My father liked to golf and volunteered at a golf course so he could play some free golf. There is a fringe benefit to driving around a golf course making sure people are moving along and doing what they should. You tend to learn where people lose their golf balls. I would tend to believe that dad was good at his job. So in this time of transition, there are other things that need attention. What are me and my brothers going to do with more golf balls than we could possibly lose in our lifetimes? Then again, one of them volunteered to construct a cannon that shoots golf balls. That could be fun.
 Golf balls and more golf balls
We decided this year to be a little more budget conscious with our Christmas. One of the first steps was to get the artificial tree out of the top of the garage. We have never used it. The tree was given to us about 9 years ago by a family member who many years previous to that received it from Janet’s parents.
I climbed to the top of the garage and wrestled the tree into the house. Opened the box and found lots of branches. I then had to figure out how it went together. I started the process of sorting everything out and mapping how to put the branches on the tree when the instructions appeared in the bottom of the box. I was close on how the branches went in the tree. However, I did not fully understand how the process worked.
I paid close attention to the instructions. I gathered several of the branches and explained to Janet that she needed to bend the little branches out and give the branches a full look. She let me know that I was putting the tree together. I let her know that I was going to put the tree together; however, she had an important role in making sure the tree looked good. She let me know that she did not know how to bend the branches out and make them look full. I kindly showed her how and I showed her the instructions. I said that they were explicit – woman bends and fluffs the branches to look full. Man places them on the tree. As a side, I bent and fluffed several branches and Janet is by far the better branch bender and fluffer. Perhaps that is why the instructions were written the way there are.
 How to build a better tree
Today was the begining of the clearing after the stom that started early Monday morning. The mountains had snow on them. The sun has come out and the sky is a brilliant blue. I took the picture below as I was driving to work this morning. We will have more rain in a couple of days. It is good to have the rain because we need it. The land id very dry after several years of lower than normal rain levels.
 Mt. San Antonio after first big storm
I awoke this morning to thunder, lightning and the sound of rain. It was a nice change. When I left to do a quick service project at the church house it was cloudy. When I left the building, the sun was out and I could see that the mountain around had a light dusting of snow.
When I arrived home, I cooked up some applewood smoked bacon and sourdough pancakes. Some real maple syrup and it was a yummy treat. It looks like it is going to be a beautiful day.
 A dusting of snow mixed with sunshine after the storm
The Festival of Lights is a yearly occurrence. The street in front of the house fills with cars and all the parking is gobbled up. Throngs of people march to the downtown area around the Mission Inn. The RCC band was playing music this year. There were vendors hawking kettle corn and the likes. We went down and stood among the masses in a darkened state waiting for the countdown to bring light.
 The Darkens before Words were spoken, dignitaries recognized, the Mayor then spoke and finally, the Keeper of the Inn – Duane Roberts. If I heard right, a jolly old fellow was to flip the switch. We all started counting down from ten. And then there was light and fireworks. The fireworks seemed to be synchronized with he music of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and the other tunes that were played.
 Lights, Music and Fireworks Emily made it to the celebration shortly after it started. We enjoined the lights and soon left the crowd behind. We made it home to enjoy some ice cream and other treats.
Every year for the past several years a geocacher by the name of HaZzMaTt places a trail of caches by the bike trail next to the Santa Ana River. This yearly event is known as the Trail of Terror. Jacob and I try to get out and grab some of the caches via bicycles. We were also, or at least I was, trying to wear off some of those calories from thanksgiving. We grabbed several caches today. We started with “Bamboozled 6 HaZzMaTt’s Revenge.” Needless to say, we left bamboozled. This cache is located somewhere in a cut down grove of bamboo. There were too many places to look.
Next it was off to the cache named “Suppository (Home of But Crack Rock).” This rock structure actually looks like someone’s backside protruding out of the surface of the earth. This one was a fairly quick find. The next cache was “Aberrations.” A few more calories just burned off for this one. It seems that burning calories via exercise is more of an aberration for me in the past few years. As for the cache “Carbon Footprint” it really would have been easier to drive the car to this cache. Then again, no cars on the bike trail.
A ways off the bike trail we came to “Godzilla Unleashed.” We looked at Ground Zero (GZ) and could not find anything. He had been on the move towards the North. It is the wrong time of the year for exothermic beings to be headed in a northerly direction. However, hiding in the rocks was a foot tall Godzilla monster, 30 feet to the North of GZ. The next cache threw Jacob. It was not near where it was last year. The cache was named “The Curse of the Tiki.” It was hiding in a tall pole next to the bike trail. Jacob had to use me as a “Tool of The Trade” or TOTT to make the grab. The cache was at about 9 feet above ground level. As for the name of the cache – I do not know about “The Curse of the Tiki.” Cursed may come tomorrow if the Motrin does not work well.
 On the Trail of Terror We were than off to “Scary Monsters.” We had to get off the trail and back into the brush. If you get to far back in the brush after sundown it may get scary. As for the monsters this afternoon, they were fairly tame. From here we rode back to the truck to take a rest. IT was then off in the other direction to “13 Mocking Bird Lane.” This was a quick find. The cache was hidden in a door knob. One could say, we had a handle on the cache without any problems. From there it was off to “In the Hand of Death” which was a gloved hand that looked like it was cut off. When the glove was raised up off the hand, in the palm was a cache container. I surmised that I s where the name, “in the Hand of Death” came from.
We then rode off to “Mark of the Beast.” They have these yellow poles to mark where monitoring wells are along the trail. One of the poles is a fake and is actually a cache container. Why it is the “Mark of the Beast” it is not known to me. Then next cache was “Dying for a Smiley.” If you geocache, you log your finds at Geocaching.com. When you log them, the cache mark becomes a smiley face. As for this cache, I knew I wore a bike helmet for something. I needed the protection form danger and I went in to the middle of a bush for the grab.
The next cache was in some good camouflage. It was called “Serial Killers” and was off the path. Jacob found this one as I was looking around. We were then off to the cache known as “Chopping wood while intoxicated.” The area is full of cut up wood. I was thinking that this cache should have been bloody or have a body part. There was nothing like that. It was just hanging in a tree. Not on the ground where it was last year.
We were then off to the cache named “Sticking your hand down a dark hole” which is aptly named for an old oak tree that has fallen down and has large holes in it. Why does there always have to be a dark hole? This was not as bad as I thought, I brought a flashlight. After a minute or two, Jacob found the cache. As for the cache “The face of fear” it was a funny find. I was within a couple of feet of this cache looking in the wrong place, the ground. Jacob looked at me and laughed at how close I was to the cache and did not even know it. Directly above my head was the cache hanging in the tree. Good thing it could not bite.
We headed off to the next cache, “In Plane View.” I know where the “plane” was because there has been this plane fuselage in the river bottom area for years. Someone actually lived in the plane fuselage for years. They may still live in it, or at least in the trailer next to it. As for the cache, we went to GZ and had to do a little looking. We found it in a cut off telephone pole. There is nothing like those small cache containers hiding in dark places. Jacob raced off to the next cache, “Dead Horse.” He remembered where the sign for “no horses” was. By the time I got there, he had grabbed the cache. I was tired of pedaling my bike. The last find of the day was “Swamp Thing.” It was a fairly quick and easy find for both of us.
 Survived the Trail of Terror
Every day just before lunch break the microwave starts going to work. It takes about 6 minutes to heat up that frozen meal so business must be conducted during the thaw. Why the rush to get to lunch? Once the physical nourishment is complete, psychological nourishment needs to take place. Relax . . . Breathe . . . Obtain proper sight picture . . . pull trigger. Reload, Relax . . . Breathe . . . Sight picture . . . squeeze trigger. To be successful, you need to practice relaxing and proper breathing. A good dose of 30 plus minutes of relaxing and breathing is great. Better than yoga and you get to watch pop cans dance. Our shooting distance is 40 yards.
Today there were four of us practicing breathing and relaxing techniques. In addition to the pop cans there is Mr. Squirrel by Gamo. Mr. Squirrel has occasionally been left standing in honor of his ability to avoid any calamity. However, today, Mr. Squirrel did not even stand a chance.
 The Squirrel I was shooting the Gamo CSX in .177 with a BSA Mil-Dot 3-9 x 40mm scope today. The scope is mounted with the Gamo one piece mount. I have liked the way the Gamo CSX has performed. It has been consistent and has been accurate at 40 yard. Occasionally we place a target at 20 yards, but it does not provide the same excitement at the pop cans at 40 yards.
The cocking lever works well and is easy to use. It is a little more difficult to load than the some other air guns. Once loaded, the trigger is fairly well mannered and of course, the gun is consistent. I have had the best luck with the Gamo pellets as far as ease of loading. To add to the ambiance today, I chose my shooting position on a farm implement. What more could you want for a lunch time activity than sitting on a farm implement, shooting an air rifle at Mr. Squirrel and knocking him down from 40 yards, again and again.
 Lunch Time Fun
Tonight Scott stopped by for his birthday dinner. He turned 19 yesterday. It was nice to see him. He did not receive any bright colored t-shirts. He did get a pair of black work paints so he does not have to wash the one pair he has every night. I guess two pair of black paints would have been better. It has been another year and all the family birthdays are done for the year.
It has been about five months from the day that my father passed away. There are some things that defined my father and were just who he was. He was frugal and did not indulge himself unnecessarily. To what extent was he like this? Today I stopped by to visit Natalie. We talked about dad. We looked at his sock drawer and all the socks he had. I think he had socks in his drawer from 20 years ago and then there were several pairs that did not look worn. He must have had his favorites.
Next we looked in his closet as we talked. There was box wrapped in newspaper sitting on the shelf. Dad always seemed to wrap presents in newspaper. This particular box had writing on it indicating that it was a Christmas present for himself for the Christmas of 2010.
 The mysterey gift We opened the box and found a pair of new golf shoes. We looked at the tag on the box, $49.99. A quick glance at the receipt and we discovered that he had purchased them on sale of $27.00 and change in July of 2008, almost a year before he passed away. I can see it now, the golf shoes that he liked were on sale and he purchased a pair. He wrapped them up and tucked them away knowing that he would not need a new pair until Christmas of 2010. It is unfortunate he had to pass so soon in his life and never got to unwrap those new golf shoes.
 The gift for Christmas 2010
It was Eric’s birthday on the 12th of November and he turned 17. We can hardly believe that all the children are growing up so fast. Emily and Scott were over for dinner, cake and ice cream. Eric had a great birthday. He received a t-shirts among other things and he has a new favorite. He had Janet take a perfectly good pocket off the t shirt because Eric is planning on wearing it to school. The color is fine, it was just the pocket. Can you guess the color of Eric’s new favorite t-shirt?
Today Janet and I planned to visit Oak Glen and go to lunch. This trip was also a Geocaching adventure. The first cache was “Nothing to do with Websters Adams Apple,” GCP2T7. This was the first cache of several. We passed it twice while Janet honed her navigation skills. After a couple of caches, she was doing great.
The second find of the day on the Oak Glen trip was “Not Granny Smith Apples,” GCP2WX. We passed the side road where the cache was. Janet had acquired the distance to the cache and it never got lower than 100 feet. It went down and then back up. I walked back to the cache. I learned that Janet had acquired the distance to the cache and did not observe the orange arrow pointing to the right. With that information, she was extremely accurate as a navigator the rest of the day.
The next cache was “Apple Cider,” GCPVQM. It was a quick and easy find. The next one was “Scenic Apple Loop,” GCP72E. It was another quick grab for us. Well, for me. Janet stayed in the car for all the geocaching. For the next one, we actually made it to a parking lot. Janet had navigated us as close as possible. She stayed in the vehicle and I went and retrieved “Eat an Apple a Day or Parrish,” GCPPMY. This one was in a large heart shaped tin and was put out my Highway Hikers for their 25th anniversary. Once I found it I had to show Janet the tin so I held it up so that she could see it.
We parked in the Law’s parking lot right in front of some shops. It was shopping time, not geocaching time. After all, It was time to indulge Janet. We wandered around the store for a few minutes. Janet commented on the men sitting in the benches while the women shopped. I let her know that I would be right back. I walked quickly uphill the 500 feet to “Fishing for an Apple a Day in Oak Glen,” GCP36Z. At the cache location I walked around GZ trying to blend in. I finally decided to go in for the grab. I made it back and we purchased a cookbook and a kitchen item. Moved further from the cache and purchased some Apple Butter. Then further from the cache and purchased a gallon of cold cider. Geocaching is beginning to get expensive.
It was off to “Apple Country,” GCG7BX. This cache was 500 feet up a dirt road. I noted the fall colors or what could also be called a try at fall colors. I quickly found the cache and started back to the car and had another cup of cold cider.
 Geocaching in Oak Glen After a couple more swigs of cider we made our way to “Guarding Apple Country,” GCP2TD. It was the traditional guard rail magnetic cache. It was easier than “Pilgrim’s Treasure,” GC19HR2. This cache took a few more minutes to find than it should have due to the distance from where the cords read and the actual cache. It was around 50 feet.
It was betting time for lunch so we headed to Los Rios Ranchos and had a tri tip sandwich. We did some more shopping and a little more geocaching. On our way back we grabbed “U Pick Apples & Raspberries too,” GCPVQJ and then off to “Good Apples,” GCPPN4. We pulled up within 20 feet of GZ and my BlackBerry was telling me to go here and there, back and forth across the street and around the car a couple of times. Janet rolled her window down and pointed while she uttered the words, “look there.” Behold, there was a benchmark just behind the direction she told me to look. I took a picture of the benchmark and proceeded to look “there.” Well look at that, Janet is getting the hang of this. Silly me.
As for the cost of Geocaching today, the tri-tip at Los Rio Ranchos was good. Add in some Pink Lady apples, honey, a box of hard candy, apple butter, cookbook and a gallon of apple cider and it was a day.
As the month of November starts, we are having cooler weather. One thing I like about cooler weather is that I can get yard work done without baking in the heat and sun. Another thing I like is to do is do a little baking inside the house. Last night I pulled my sourdough starter out of the refrigerator and augmented it to prepare for Saturday morning pancakes.
It turned out to be a crisp morning in the kitchen. I got the 14 inch cast iron skillet out to start cooking bacon when the idea came to mind that I might try my hand at some sourdough biscuits. I have made regular biscuits many times, but melding the regular recipe with some sourdough would provide a challenge.
I started with the following ingredients:
2 cups low-protein flour
4 tsp baking power
0.3 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2.75 tsp sugar
7 tbs shortening
0.25 cups sour cream
1 cup milk or cream
2 cups sourdough sponge
Non stick spray
A couple of tablespoons of butter – melted
The steps are as follows:
Preheat the oven to 475 degrees Fahrenheit
Spray your cast iron biscuit pans with the non stick spray
Combine the dry ingredients and then work in the shortening. I use a food processor or Kitchen Aid mixer with a whisk so that any shortening lumps are small.
Mix in the sour cream, milk or cream and the sourdough sponge. You want something the consistency of sticky mushy goo that is close to an unshapeable mass. Depending on the moisture in your sponge, you may need to make some adjustments. Let the dough rest for a minute or two.
Spoon the dough into the compartments in the pan until they are about level with the top. Once that is done, sprinkle a little flour on top and carefully flatten the tops. Then brush the tops with the melted butter. If you do not have cast iron biscuit pan, you can try and shape biscuits carefully using flour so that the dough does not stick to your hands.
It is then off into the oven for 15 to 20 minutes. Once the biscuits are lightly browned, bring them on out.
 Sourdough biscuits in the cast iron biscuit pan Let them cool for a few minutes, and dump them out. Grab the butter, honey and all those jellies, jams and other eclectic preserves, split a biscuit open and properly decorate it for consumption.
 Sourdough biscuits ready to be split, decorated and eaten Add some just cooked bacon with a couple to over easy eggs cooked in the bacon grease and you have yourself a wonderful Saturday morning breakfast. To create enough grease to do a good job, two pound of bacon works well.
As a side, I have been on a diet for the past few months and have lost about 20 pounds. One or two day a week I am free to eat what I want and there is nothing like bacon and fried eggs over easy. As for the effects, in October Total Cholesterol was 142, Triglycerides were at 70, HDL was 43 and LDL was 85. For the important number, 7 slices of bacon, two biscuits and two fried eggs. It was good.
Eric survived the Inland Empire Fire Explorer Academy’s 18th Annual Academy. The graduation was close to two hours as many people were recognized for their dedication and service that makes this event a great one. There were close to 300 cadets that participated in the 5 day training. The Inland Empire Fire Explorer Academy President, Art Bishop talked about how the cadets were getting to bed at close to midnight and then getting awakened at 5:30 AM every morning. At 6:00 AM the were in the classroom learning for two hours and then they went to breakfast. One of the first things the cadets did in the morning was make their beds. Art just wanted to let the parents know that their son and/or daughter could make their own bed. If they did not, I get the feeling a drill instructor may have given them a little encouragement. When asked if they had fun, the cadets replied, “Sir, yes sir.”
 The official group photo. Eric is out there on about the back row in the middle. See if you can find him. The cadets filed in for graduation is single file as the bagpipes played. They came in and sat at attention.
 Eric is on the left side marching towards the cadet seating area The all had their turn at crossing the stage and receiving their Certificate of Achievement and for the 76 percent that passed the two tests that were administered at about 10 o’clock the night before graduation, a Certificate of Wildland Firefighter Training. We are proud of Eric as he passed the tests adn was one of the 76 percent.
 Eric crossing the stage Eric smiled and was happy the training was over. Once we were home and Eric had showed and put on his pajamas did he really smile. He was clean and comfortable. He did mention that it may take a month to get the dust out of his lungs. As the cadets were marching away from the stage after graduation, some cadets were inadvertently kicking up a little dist with their feet. On a couple of occasions, the Drill Instructor (DI) would say, “you are not cows, pick up your feet.”
My day started out as usual this Wednesday, I went to work. The first thing on my agenda was to return home to take Eric to the 18th Annual Inland Empire Fire Explorer Association Fire Explorer Academy. He had just out of the shower and said, “I need to get my hair cut.” I got the equipment together and started. Janet came and did the majority of the work. Why might one ask? Apparently, if you hair is on your collar or your ears, you get a very short buzz cut and you also have the opportunity to do push-ups. I guess at the last minute Eric decided he better get that taken care of. He did ask for a buzz cut. However, it was more expedient to just trim the edges.
He will be gone until Sunday when we go up for his Graduation. Rumor has it they work or are in a classroom learning 18 hours a day. What will he look like or how tired will he be after 5 days and four night? Stay tuned. As for today, he has a big smile.
 Eric at the start of Fire Explorer Academy
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