The Moon of Love.............

Friday for you, Thursday for me, its that easy. The full moon is really big and calling. Lets plan something shall we? It lites up the whole yard with its luminescence. We used to love climbing in the full moon, its just so surrealistic
Spent the day in Mineral King yesterday. It was cool and the skies were very blue. After I did what I came to do, I went on a little walk, off trail, just to try and really get in touch with the place. Sage was growing all around and I got caught up in the smell, which takes me to many places. I roamed around an area with old rusty stoves and metal strewn about, maybe from the old mine days which gave it the Mineral King name. The place has lots of history, which I love to read about. I meet up with some new friends and headed back to the heat of the valley.
We are really hoping that all of you will come to our drumming Sunday night, which we are going to honor a past member and founder of the Drum Circle. Tom Rose, passed away now a year ago Sunday and we still suffer from his loss and all that he brought to the tribe. We will be drumming in his honor and please come on up..

Looking good there!

Thursday over here. A nice moon is brewing, anyone got any ideas on how to celebrate its fullness? Going out and getting a moon tan maybe. The moon effects moods too, it pulls at you and gets you moving with determination to some battle invented inside your head. And, I was just reading that 80% of all big earthquakes occur during the full moon.
I’m heading to Mineral King today for work. I’m driving and that’s always fun, cranking the radio up, having the park radio on too and then thinking………That’s a lot of miles of thinking and I’m sure I’ll come up with something to tell you when I get back. Your going to have a great day looking as good as you do today! Hope to see you……………

Take me to that other place..............

Jam night at Crawdaddys tonite. We got there just before they closed and hung out with Sage and Paul. Saw Nadine cruise by the place. It was a good time and a hot time on the town, meaning temperature.
I get in trouble with putting my little blurps on the blog about my ambitions of love. Yes, I guess I’m fishing, with several lines in the water, but its all catch and release. I’m a catch and you can hook me into a net with a good meal, perfume and long hair and wearing those long dresses gets me too. The eyes get me going and the smile is golden!
I guess you can guess who you are. Its an amazing imagination…But who am I to say really……………………
We’re gearing up for our Memorial for Tom this Sunday. Please plan on coming up to celebrate our lives together as drummers and friends.
Yes, the last picture was from a helicopter and this one is from a cow trough………..

Tuesdays surprises.........

Alrighty, I’m pretty much all caught up and and ready to head back to work today. My days off are Sunday, Monday, in case your wondering. It goes fast, those days off, but I’m usually ready by today to face the facts ahead.
We took a nice ride up Yokohl yesterday evening, a 26 miler. Its been a couple of weeks for me so I needed to check it out and see how much I’d lost. Its hard to keep it up at a certain place. Just staying in shape is one thing, but if you want to really get fit, it takes a intense diet, lots of rest, and a lot of saddle time. Oh well, that pretty much blows me out of the water! I’m on it though and am feeling good today, ready for whats next.
Whats next, now that’s exciting, who knows what the week will bring, if its like the past ones, well, then I can’t wait to envision the surprises that come.
We’re heading into Visalia tonite for our usual time on the town. Join us if you dare……….
Thats the Middle Fork of the Kaweah in the picture above, the place where the river that goes by the drumming grounds comes from.............

Catching up with our lives..................

I’ve just been gone lately. Mr.Gone. Everyday there’s something that leads me away and now I’m catching up. I was down to wearing my purple socks with the holes in them! I would never wear white socks, as everyone knows for an older guy, it’s a sign of immaturity. So, all the white socks stay in the drawer.
I was bummed to hear about poor Sarahspoty who already had her arm in a cast from a fall. She was walking her dog over by the school and bent over to pick something up with her good arm, and got bit by a baby rattler!! She spent some time in the hospital, but was back at work in the Riverview by Monday. She’s a pioneer woman for her age of 23.

We had a grooving drumming last night. It was tight as it gets, as we locked eyeballs to keep it that way. We had dancers all night to bond with, cause we are one with dancers to groove to the groovens. Lizzy B danced the whole time! That takes some kind of physical shaping that has to take place way before. We debuted our alcohol fire and with alittle work it’ll be just perfect for the lite we need in our drumming lives.


Went flying into the north end of the park on Saturday. It was very windy so we were knocked around quite a bit, but I love that feeling. We landed in a really small spot on a big hilltop with trees close by. It took swinging around a couple of times to get it and I was glad the pilot was on his game that day! What a cool thing to look at the airship sitting there inbetween the trees and bushes and know that its taking us back when we’re ready!


And me?? Well, I got invited to a very nice dinner Friday night, Thanks for that! And I’m forever waiting for signals, a wink and a smile will do……………….

Its Friday to you..............

Paul and I went to Brewbakers last night and caught up on all the goings on. He brought back the majority of his driftwood collection from LA and it’s a wonder to see. He also brought us a nice pile of wood for the sweat fire when the time comes to do it, which now won’t be till after the fire season ends around end of September. Thanks for all that Paul!
The Summer Solstice was yesterday, the longest day of the year. Linda said she helped deliver 12 solstice babies at Kaweah Delta, and as I took 2 firefighters to Visalia, we were stopped in traffic on 198 at a bad car wreck and we all looked at a dead guy in a smashed car. This turned our day into a reality check and afterwards we just wanted to walk in a big green meadow and smell flowers for the rest of the day.
Its just that way this life as the pendulum swings its path.
Flying today again to the Kings Canyon backcountry for a full day out. That should be fun. I’m bringing my little camera so watch for some shots.
I’m hoping for another stunningly great weekend and things are looking up for it to be that way so far. May try to do a big hike on Sunday and going to a get together tonite so there you go. I’ll catch you up on things you know and so my friends………Be Careful out there…………………..

Summer is coming tommorow..........

Tomorrow is the Summer Solstice. We could be getting together and celebrating this if any of you are interested in getting together. Do let me know if so.
We are planning a Memorial for Tom Rose the Sunday of July first, the day of his passing last year. Its Drumming night and we will play in his honor and I hope you all will be there for this special event! I’ll keep you posted in this…………..
The picture above is of the Monarch Lakes in Mineral King from the sky. Let me know bout Thursday night okay…………Brewbakers maybe??

The latest from here...............

It was a great weekend. We camped in the Dome Rock area of the Southern Sierra and attended our climbing clubs annual event, and when we pulled up there were quiet a few folks that had showed up. Its always nice to see old friends, some of whom I only see at this event. Many of you have been here and we used to drum afterwards, back in camp around the big fire when the slide show was over. The presenter was a medium sized lady who I could put my arms around easily when I hugged her, but was really a super human of an adventurer! She has the woman’s speed ascent record for El Cap, what takes a strong party several days, she did in a 12 hour push in Yosemite, and this is just the tip of the berg in her list of achievements. But, her smile and personality were golden!
After we got back to camp, we did a night time ascent of Dome Rock, which required being roped up for that 800’ of vertical rock, and wearing a headlamp. It was really dark and the stars were splattered across the blackness. We had the speed thing going too and did the complete climb in around 20 minutes………all 7 of us.
Drumming Sunday night was big and had a surprise visit from our friends of the Mescal band. We played with them for several vollies of drumming and percussive entries and we were all smiling in the end. We did afterhours music too and I left the grounds at around 1 am.
Took a great flight into the backcountry yesterday. We flew way over to the south end of the park and landed on a mountain top at around 8000’. We did the job we came for and had about 10 minutes to check things out. The view was fabulous though it’s very dry back there and no snow really anywhere. The smell in the air the whole time was Sage and it reminded me of many good times. We picked some in a reverent way. We flew over Mineral King on the way back between the passes. I’m going again Friday, this time to the Kings backcountry. I can’t wait!

Tuesday to you.............

I’m back with some new life experiences and a new way of thinking, I’m thinking. It’s going to take me the week to tell you about it all and I hope you’ll stay tuned. Also, as soon as I do a couple of techno items on my list, we’ll have some video with SOUND of the drum circle. Now, won’t that be interesting!
We walked up skyline last nite looking for that big mountain lion friends have seen the last couple of evenings, but no luck. There were some mystery moments where it’s probably looking at us and our extra sensory picked up on it, but we just looked around and never saw anything out of the ordinary other than each other.
Well, I might fly out to the backcountry today so that’ll be more to tell, I better get it together and head to work. Its gonna be a hot one!

Nature Lover.........

Yea dude, if you’re looking for love, get a puppy. I hate playing the dating game and all the competition from all the other bloodhounds in the arena and that kinda stuff.. I’d rather just find someone who shares my love of the outdoors, someone who I can have a great conversation with. It sounds simple minded but it’s a chore. Then, if you do find someone who is very beautiful you have to be very vigilant too. I guess its worth it or maybe I’m jaded to finding just my simple thing…….Good Luck………Yeah, hey Thanks!
It was a hot one today………108 in Ash Mountain. The summers here, right on time too. There’s been steady crowds going down to slickee. Lines of people with chairs and towels and food and Ice chests and cases of beer and more cases of beer. The cops are parked by the entrance now pretty often, something that happens at this time and I heard they are surfing slickee right now and that sure signals the rites of summer. Then there’s all the litter, I’m glad that the locals who frequent the place are patrolling for us. They are the best defense when it gets this bad.
I’m thinking about heading up to the high country of the Kern for our big climbers event this weekend. It’ll be cool and the views are great! Hope to see some old friends and new ones too. Let me know if your interested in going, you won’t regret it!

Smitten not...............

But seriously, I have this illusion about things and tend to go with that. How crazy is that really?? It’s not always a reality, but its fun to believe that that’s how it’s going to be. Does that make sense? The rest of the time it would be just floating along, not really paying much to responsibilities at hand cept for work. It’s the way of the life I’m going along with right now. Love and a music man ain’t what’s it’s supposed to be.
I have been tending to my mantra I mentioned earlier though. Keeping a smile on is the funniest cuz it throws people off mid week. I smile all the way home and people in cars look at me and wonder I guess, but I do get smiles back, because it’s as contagious as yawning in the public eye.
One bright and cheery note………I had one of my pictures used for the COVER of a yearbook in the Visalia Schools. It’s out right now and I get credit inside…That’s cool huh!! It’s a sunset picture.
Up in the Park today it hit 106 at the weather station in Ash Mountain where I work. I’m starting to think about doing a night time swim and will probably do so soon, and I hope you will join me! We’ll talk more bout this.
I ran into Wadaba broke down on the road as I was going through Three Rivers on my way home from work today. It’s always good to see him; He’s got such a keen way on life that I dig about him. I helped him out and headed on down the hill to my other life that is soon moving on up to Three Rivers……………………

Did you feel those quakes??

Had to go to our big Park safety standoff in Grant Grove today. Had lunch with friends from Cedar Grove who had to come up for the meetings and caught up with more news, most of which was about the swarm of earthquakes that happened up there last night. Actually the real epicenters were in Mammoth Lakes where the magma is close to the surface and the place has lots of old cinder cones already. One actually got into the 4 point range. I didn’t feel anything here, but I probably could have if I was awake. It’s a scary thing at nite to wake up too. We used to have a hanging lamp with a chain at my parents house and I vividly remember several times, waking at nite and hearing that chain hitting the lite as it swung and getting that feeling of doom.. That was L.A. where the ground shakes a lot. So, up in the pine trees again and it was nice and cool too. A change from here where the hot is coming up fast.
Thanks Kim for the nice comments about the blog!! Your dad is in our thoughts a lot and we sing his songs on Sundays. I am keeping my life on this blog kind of translucent for you to read and there’s stuff inbetween the lines too…..kind of like a crossword puzzle to figure out, but you know who you are when I say what I say……………..Its all good folks and I’m glad you don’t mind a slice of my life to compare with. Thanks to you for all the inspirations…………..We’ll talk…………

This week for sure............

Bluesy Monday………….Well it could be if we let it, but its just too exciting to think about what’s in store next to dwell on that negative stuff. I’m focusing on my mantra of the week. To do good at work and have fun doing so. To keep the smile on. To have an outdoor adventure sometime this week. And to try to stimulate my brain. Now, that should about stretch the imagination. The future is now, so we better get on it!
The weekend was good for all of us. Several folks went up to the big Auberry drumming at Jim and Sheila’s and good reports came back. I missed going but duty calls now and my nose is on the grindstone for it. I’m glad that the drummings up there go so good, as they are great people to hang out with, and they helped us a lot at the Soul Food Cookout jam! I ended up going to the bar Saturday night to see music that ended up not happening. I do like going and having a couple of beers and running into old friends, but it was 2 Saturdays of going there in a row now and that’s pretty unusual for me. I’m not one to frequent public places that much. I left the place with a really good feeling though and there were several highlights that evening for sure. I don’t remember every curve around the lake that night and that’s kinda scary, but getting home and laying down on my single air mattress, with a slow leak, that’s hard to sleep on wasn’t too bad and I crashed hard………only to get up a few hours later and do the dreaded Woodlake triangle ride. Lemon cove to Woodlake to Badger and back to Lemon cove. I debated just calling and canceling as the floor was feeling pretty good, but I went anyways and rode that 50 miles with the energy I got from the bar meetings and life in general and I feel goooooooood!!
Great Core crowd drumming last night! All the old crew showed up and made for a great jamming time. Buddy got there early and started us out. Asta had been grooming the drumming ground and made another nice altarish center piece with lots of candles. We had our usual lookie lou’s but as more old friends showed, like Summer and Ren and Keio and Orlando and Ernie and ………well you know the rest……..It was a really starry night and in the end I was looking to the milky way and knowing it’s a good life we live….Let get together this week…………..

A trip to a wild place............

Went to Kings Canyon today for work, Cedar Grove to be specific. I picked up a trail crew guy and took him to “Hole in the wall”, a place with lots of mules getting ready to head to the back country of Kings Canyon, a wild place. All around were high rock faces, it reminded me of Yosemite, being at that trails camp where staging is done for the trail crews who spend the whole summer in the 80 percent of Sequoia Kings backcountry. The guy told me some stories of times out there and how things go. He was getting ready to take the long walk out. I don’t know if I could commit that much, but the thoughts were in my head as we talked. I bid him fair well and headed to the Cedar Grove Fire Station where I had a nice chat with the Head Bear Management lady. She told me of all the bears that were miss behaving and that this year there are two mother bears with triplets causing quite a spectacle with the tourists. One of the sows can be seen pretty often in Crescent Meadow, over by Moro Rock. I love talking to the people of Cedar Grove. The place really is quiet an outpost in the park and they do things just alittle different there. For instance, they have a big Thanksgiving Party sometime in September, because most are gone by the time its really here. And they do early Halloween in August. I think thats just the coolest way to live your life, at an outpost such as Cedar Grove. I was hoping to talk to my good friend Phil, but he was way up on North Dome spending a few nights out on the rock.
It was pretty windy and the pine trees had that familiar smell. The skies were as blue as your eyes are when you flash me that smile! I thought about that as I left my friends and headed back.
And, I found out who left me that “Guess Who”” comment on a recent entry……….it was Paris Hilton, emailing me from the pokey! Imagine that! You better stay tuned to this channel……………….Thanks……..

Head up in the Skyline................

Sorry for the delay! My schedule has changed at work and I’m just starting to get around getting used to it. So, feeding this hungry blog is my first priority. Lots to tell you, like about drumming Sunday nite and other stuff too, gemmie just a minute and I’ll give it all to you. Sunday night was another pleasure driven night of frolic and whim. We had visitors, Chuck, Jeremiah and Summer all showed and made it a great performance of energy and dance. We had a pretty big crowd too, mainly rubberneckers checking things out, and seeing that our altarish center piece which usually holds a smoking hot fire was lots of candles and decoration. A great time had by all for sure, and if you missed it, well there’s always next Sunday right………
The temps have been like October around here. Up in the Park, Grant Grove to be specific, it was 29 degrees this morning! In Ash Mountain, where I work, it stayed in the 60s all day and the wind came and went. Last night, we watched a magical light show from way high up above Three Rivers that was a photo mans dream moment. A wild sunset with clouds of color. The kind of light that people pay money to see and luckily I had my camera. It rained just alittle and it has been sweater weather ever since, my favorite!
I’ve been out of touch with the rest of the drummies since Sunday, but I do know their doing music right now. In the most incipient way things are changing and that makes life exciting. Stay tuned I’ll be right back……………..

Drum Circle history story...............

Way back in elementary school I wanted to be a trapper. A friend’s dad was a janitor at a school and brought us crows he had shoot and we would skin and stuff them. As time went on I kept up on my skills learned back then, so you figure I would be the natural to put a hide on our new BIG drum from the log we had gotten as a gift. I remember Gary calling a local butcher shop and asking about cow hides. As it turned out they were just getting ready to take the skin off of one and we could buy it now. So, Gary and I headed to Woodlake, to but a “green” cowhide for 35 bucks. When we got the skin, it was so big and heavy it took a forklift to put it in the truck, so far so good, we hadn’t even touched it yet. As we headed back up to Three Rivers, it lay in the back of the truck, still steaming and warm from the cow! We had rounded up several of the drum circle gents to help and we were going to prepare the hide to sing again on our drum body. When we got there it took several of us just to lay it out with the flesh side up, it was as big as someone’s living room floor. It looked like a murder scene, the skin all red and covered in blood. It just so happened we had the OJ trial going on the radio at the same time! All the volunteers opted out after this gruesome experience and it got down to Tom, Gary and me to do the grim task at hand, scrape the flesh off of the hide. What I really remember is the overwhelming smell…….It stunk really bad! We wore surgical gloves and held our breath during the several hour hits we took to clean the flesh and fat off of that hide. Finally, after mounting it on a big iron hoop we had it dried and we were able to put it on and it became the Biggest Drum in Tulare County!! That’s the story of the first head, the one in the picture now on its second head we need to put another on, as many of you know that the one currently on is cut up. Anyone have a cow hide we can have????

Sundays mystical wonderings.........

This photo was taken at a drumming this winter where we were burning furniture. We do that sometimes when its cold out and someones moving or has stuff to burn. We took the moment to do stupid drum tricks like seeing who could drum standing on a chair the longest. Here Jose wins the prize!
Yea, just got back from a real nice ride from Lemon cove to Badger again. We left early this time………….way early, I’m glad Bruce and I left the bar around 12 and didn’t stick around to drink and be merrier. Next thing I remember was having to get up and go ride my bike around 7am.. It was nice to smell the morning going up dry creek, the oaks the chemise and all the birds flying around. We cruised for quite awhile and just took it all in, plus we had to go slow due to our general, got home late after drinking a couple of beers and yes, smoking a couple of cigarettes feeling…………ergh!!
Well, we’ll see who comes to drumming tonite, it might be one to remember so come on up and join us for a starry night in Three Rivers………..we do have the BEST stars around!
I was going to tell you about the rattler I almost got bit by yesterday, and our prescribed fire in Ash Mountain, but I left my pack and camera at work…….bummer! I’m trying to find a way to get it without me going up………we’ll see??

Thanks for the comments by the way!! I’m curious who “guess who” is now????

Friday thoughts.............

Its kinda muggy over here. Looks like it might even rain a few drops, and yes, its hot! Oh well. It is the fire season, so any thing could happen, anytime. We’re supposed to do a prescribed burn tomorrow around the buildings in Ash Mountain. That should be exciting. We just finished what they call “Hell Week” yesterday so it should get real busy for me.
The moon was really amazing last night! A blue one too, it lit up the whole area. I love seeing that mystical lite glowing all around.
I better post my email address again just in case you want to find out more………….looking forward………………. rardesch@aol.com