23: greenery stands

Dear Friend,

How has today been going for you?

Last night was a full moon. What a beauty!

On Thursday, we said goodbye to our friend, Maia, the yellow lab for whom we were house/dog sitting. That very morning, we ran three errands. First, we went grocery shopping, preparing to be on the road, possibly away from reasonably priced supplies, for a few weeks. Then, we went across town to meet a very important cat and his people, a family for whom we will house/cat sit in the next couple of months. The last errand of the morning was to visit our Storage space.

“Oh!” you exclaim, “I forgot you had one of those! Do you even know what you have in there?”

It’s coming up on three years… we do know that we’re grateful to have a place to store things that would otherwise be too difficult and costly to replace. You’re right, it would be a good idea for us to spend a day (with plenty of water and snacks) organizing, possibly even continuing an already radical downsizing that began several years ago. We have continued to prove to ourselves that we don’t need much, mostly, just our tools and a place to work.

Open space is a bonus.

We’re happy to have found a new BLM campsite, at least it has been a perfect stopping place for the past three days. We haven’t had cell reception, (we’re very sorry if you’ve been trying to contact us). I was able to work on a publishing job for a client and Frank was able to make good headway on a book that he is writing.

It is quiet here, and if we were staying longer, it would, no doubt, be a great place to see the Perseids meteor shower which peaks very early in the morning on August 11^th and 12^th, along with the conjunction of Venus and Jupiter. We’re looking forward to being somewhere to see this celestial show.

This is burn scarred land at 5600’ in the eastern sierras, the site of the Tamarac fire in 2021.

All sorts of grasses are growing across the landscape. Wild flowers are in bloom. People have been here, thinning the dead and burned trees, and slowly but surely, vegetation is returning to a new normal.

The randomness of fire’s direction and destruction are evident as greenery stands side by side with blackened dead. Trees are precious to wildlife and to the land, it always makes us sad to see such devastation and yet we know that the surviving trees will usually be healthier for the thinning of the forest.

When we are camping on BLM land or any open space during fire season, we keep the truck and trailer connected, nose pointing in the direction of the best exit, to enable us to drive out at a moment’s notice. It is, unfortunately, not a given that we’d be able to take the trailer with us in the event of a fire. 

We have a recent glitch in our truck’s solar battery system. (Frank expected the drop in performance, but didn’t know that when the system began to slow, it would just stop charging all together. But, fear not! He has a plan to re-configure the trailer’s storage capacity and output, asap).

When we are working with laptops or have to charge camera batteries, we have been using the battery storage in the truck because the trailer’s solar battery is limited to what the trailer needs. For anything else, we’ve used other sources. So, for this leg of our trip, we will be using our trusty Jackery Explorer 240, a small, solar charged ‘power station’ for charging batteries. It will be fine. Thank you, sunshine and Jackery!

Anyway, we’ll be driving out of this campsite soon and I will post this letter when we have signal.  

Do you recall how many months it took us to decide to get a trailer? The pros and cons kept swirling around until, finally, last year, we made our decision to go for it, we purchased our Nash four season pull behind trailer.

Whoa, I can’t even begin to tell you… what a serendipitous purchase! We are immeasurably grateful that we found this little home when we did. And it is coming up on a year ago when we began to actualize the pros and cons that we had stewed about for so long.

One of the plusses of a pull behind trailer is its shelter. It is much easier to stay in places longer than when we were living out of our truck. The longer we stay somewhere, the better we get to know about the environment and residents, finned, furry, scaled, feathered or plain old human.  

Just yesterday morning I took my notebook outside and sat on my chair in the shade of the truck to write. I hadn’t been there long when a young bobcat walked out from under the truck and paused right in front of me.

I might have been able to convince it to wait a moment while I went to get a Frank and a camera…  but alas, no photo. As always, it is just nice to know that such friends are here, and out there, living their lives in open spaces.

And it is always good to know that you are here, reading Tracks by the Post. We are grateful to you for any and all kind thoughts and caring prayers that you gift the world, and we appreciate hearing from you whenever you have a chance to Write to Us!

Sending you loving wishes for a peaceful week ahead, abundant in joy,

Gently Be,

Leslie and Frank