Peru

Pine Mountain News

Hello again from Pine Mountain. This week we have been harvesting vegetables from our hydroponics garden. Juicy tomatoes, bell peppers, lettuce, beets, and onions.
We have been making more wood chips for mulch. The weather has cooled off a little from what it was last week.

Local News

Saturday August 8 is the annual "Run to the Pines" car show beginning at 9:00 AM at Pine Mountain Village center.


Poem of the Week

Sonnets in San Francisco

by emily d stine

I awake in a sleepy corner of frisco

flip.flopping myself to the door. meander

my mind down to the neighborhood flea market.

I find vintage women and porcelain men pawing

at treasure.trinkets. I tiptoe through the crowd,

leaving them in a quiet walk, my footsteps soft

like daffodils in the morn. I circle upwards,

stopping to dance with each house, whisper stories,

we kiss, and part with a curtsy and a bow.

My feet find their way to the top and a cloudy ocean

smiles at me, to the left the golden gate sprawls out.

ward toward fog and nothing. an hour later, we find

ourselves footsteps from the base, raindrops brushing

our shoulders and the smell of san francisco in our hair.


Our Feature story

Peru

Train in the Peruvian Mountains

by Jordan Williams

Rich and I got to Peru in the middle of the night, which is

not generally how I like to start trips. Night landings leave

me feeling out of synch with the rest of the world for days

to come, which is no state to be in. Of course, we were

there to see Machu Picchu, a place where thousands of

years were peeled back, so maybe being out of synch is

appropriate.

Central Lima

We were staying in Lima, the country’s capital and, as is

often the case, it’s largest city. This is not especially near

Machu Picchu, but Lima has a lot to recommend it. Like

most South American cities, it has an incredible depth of

churches and religious architecture, to say nothing of the

food.

I am a great huge man, so I always like to check out the

local cuisine. Rich is not a great huge man, but he’s

willing to eat things that I’m not, like ceviche, which is

citrus infused seafood, which assures me is delicious.

Me, I stuck with anticuchos, which is marinated and

skewered meat, and is a meal that is definitely more

my speed.

In Lima, most of what you’ll really want to see is in the

Historic Center, which is two districts in the city

dedicated to the preservation of history and culture.It’s

filled with churches, museums, and the work is flamboyant

and colorful, well worth the tour. One thing to look at is

the Balconies of Lima, hundreds of ornate balconies

constructed for royalty.

After enjoying the sites and sounds, it was off to

Machu Picchu. Machu Picchu is known as the lost

city of the Incas, constructed in the early 1400’s, a

scant century or so before the Incan empire was wiped

out by the Spanish.

Machu Picchu

The stone city basically clings to the side of a mountain,

and being there really is like being returned to the past.

It’s also easy to imagine falling off the side of the mountain.

It’s not entirely clear why the Incas would choose to build

in such a precarious spot, but the place is spectacular.

They call Machu Picchu ruins, but they’re barely ruined.

The Incas constructed them using a mortarless technique,

and most of the stone works looks as if they might have

been built last year and not six hundred years ago.

The city seems to have served as a kind of astrological

observatory; it’s hidden heights giving perfect access to

the stars. You can still see that in The Intihuatana stone,

which predicts the equinoxes. Supposedly, touching your

forehead to the stone will infer a mystic vision, but I wasn’t

going over the ropes to find out.

Ultimately, what I was left with was a tremendous sense

of time and place. There’s an awe inspiring aspect to the

ancient city, nestled and largely hidden from the world by

the mountains. You get the sense of a time and a people

long past, and that alone would be well worth the trip to

Peru.

Pine Mountain Evening

It is evening once again at Pine Mountain ranch. We have

just finished dinner of pot roast and mash potatoes and

are now gathered in the family room.Tonight I am relaxing

with this weeks sample coffee Tropical Vanilla from

http://www.coffeefool.com

This is a smooth American roast coffee.It is a blend of

Pacific coast coffees and vanilla beans. It goes just right

with a plate of fresh sugar cookies.

My cookies and coffee are finished now and it is time for

bed. Good night all see you next week.

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Honduras

Pine Mountain News

June is just about over. Next week will be July already. Here on the mountain summer seems to finally be arriving. We just passed the longest day of the year, the days get shorter and the nights longer from here on out.

Area News

CAL Trans is working on interstate 5 again. They are on the northbound side from the Los Angeles county line to the Grapevine. Most of the work will be at night so look out for cones and construction workers if you are traveling Interstate 5 northbound in the evening for the next few weeks.

Poem of the Week






I sip with Dionysus

by emily d stine

I'm dining on a gyro in Greece sunning myself

at a private beach and loving everything about

clear blue seas except for pesky sea urchin

stuck in my foot. We journey back into

Athens to see the ancient Acropolis at dusk.

The sun is setting and the tourists are scattering

and it's as if we have the monument to ourselves.

We breathe in the dust staring downward to Athens

imagining ourselves goddesses in the setting sun.

As the last rays die out from the horizon, we take

a quick stroll down the hill from the Agora to the

ancient street of Tripods, which once connected

to the Theatre Dionysos. Now it is a flea market for

tourists, how time distorts things. Dirt enclosed by a

fence, a landmark. We wallow a bit in history,

sip wine in the dark at a sidewalk cafe, eventually

playing the role of tourist ourselves under the

watchful eyes of Parthenon.

-- emily d stine a poet of sorts


Travel Story of the Week

Honduras

by Jordan Williams

I arrived in the Honduras by boat, which is sort of a novelty these days. I was coming in via the Caribbean, and there were, fortunately no pirates. Not that I wouldn’t want to meet Johnny Depp, but still. Why I was on a tiny boat headed to the Honduras in the first place in another story entirely, but the trip was without incident.

The Honduras is one of those little gems of travel. A small country of about seven million wedged between Guatemala and Nicaragua, bordering the Pacific and the Caribbean, and it doesn’t get a lot of tourist trade. There’s no good reason for this, since the weather is nice, the scenery is beautiful and the people extremely cool.

The boat took me to Roatan, an island about thirty miles or so north of the mainland. The Caribbean is beautiful, but I was glad to sink my feet into the white sand beaches and kiss the dry land. Roatan has a plethora of natural life to see, and the scuba and snorkeling there is some of the best, with ship wrecks and sea turtles to keep you company.

I did indulge in some snorkeling the second day I was there, but I spent my first day there eating the great native food, and looking at iguanas. There’s an iguana refuge on the island and what can I say, lizards are cool.

The next day, I spent the morning snorkeling and went for an afternoon fishing trip on a chartered boat since, apparently, I couldn’t get enough of boats this trip. I didn’t catch a thing, but then, I was mostly there to drink beer and look at the sea. My companions did catch a mess of Bonefish, and the guides seemed to know what they were doing, despite having the world’s most incompetent fisherman (namely, me) onboard.

After that, I headed for Tegucigalpa, the capital and largest city in the Honduras, and no, I still can’t pronounce the name. The city is to the southwestern side of the country, so I traveled by truck. If you can manage a trip like this, I recommend it. The ecology in the Honduras is like nothing you can imagine in the states, and there are forests there that have existed for thousands of years.

The Museo para la Identidad Nacional was one of the first places I went to when I hit the cities, after I dropped off my bags and, of course, sampled the local cuisine. The museum, as you might guess from the name, is dedicated to the country’s history and has exhibits of Honduran art. For about a dollar fifty to get in, you could do a lot worse.

Like many Central American cities, Tegucigalpa is a couple of hundred years old, so there’s lots of historic architecture to see, like the Our Lady of Suyapa Shrine or the Cathedral. There’s also a zoo at Picacho Hill, which features a lot of the native wildlife of the country. I wouldn’t miss it if I were you.

Despite a few bumps getting there, I enjoyed my time in the Honduras. If you’re looking for a more typical kind of trip, I recommend Roatan and the other islands. For the more adventurous, backpacking around the country would be a lot of fun. Either way, there’s more than enough to keep any eager traveler occupied


Pine Mountain Evening

It is evening once more at the Pine Mountain ranch. We have just finished dinner. We had mashed potatoes, steak, fresh peas from the garden, and fresh baked dinner rolls. We are now moving to the family room for cookies and our coffee of the day. Tonight we are trying Organic Rain Forest. This medium body, Vienna roast coffee from http://www.coffeefool.com is rich and fruity. It makes you want to swing through the jungle on a vine. Laurel and Grace are playing scrabble again and grace is winning. I am at my desk working on some writing projects. There is a warm fire in the fireplace. My cookies and coffee are finished now. Grace beat Laurel at scrabble so everyone is ready to get some sleep. Good night all see you next week.

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A Far East Vacation

Section 1 ----- Pine Mountain News

Hello everyone. It is mid June. The weather is starting to warm up. Here on the ranch it is the usual ranch chores. The barn is full of new hay for the winter. The vegetables are growing well in our new hydroponic system and we have fish swimming in the tank as well.

Local News

We had a bit of excitement at the Econo lodge motel in Gorman. Police and Swat teams caught up with a murder suspect from Oklahoma. After a several hour standoff the suspect was taken into custody alive but unconscious from drugs he had taken.

Well enough about Pine Mountain, now it is time for this weeks poem of the week


Section 2 ----- Poem of the Week



Rain in Amsterdam

poetry by emily d stine

It's raining in Amsterdam as it often does.

We're culture-shocked and cold wondering

around Dam Square thirsty for a pub.

We jaunt over to the flea market

chatting over mayo & fries, a snack

that only tastes good in Amsterdam.

The market is lovely even under gray skies.

We browse through memories and take

a bit of our own swapping scarves and

old records for a handful of euros.

The market borders the canals

that criss-cross the city and we lose ourselves

a little on the way back to our tourist class

hotel, Dutch words possessing one too many

syllables for our liking. The hotel is minimal,

European in style, with tourists from all over

the world included for no extra charge.

We swap stories of our wanderlust

finish our bottle of wine and end day one

of our European adventure.

--
emily d stine
a poet of sorts

Section 3 ----- A Far East Vacation

by Roxana

The beautiful, noisy, port city of Vladivostok is my home. The city is on the east coast of the continent and is washed by the sea of Japan. Last summer, longing to get away from the noisy city to more peaceful surrounding I traveled to the city of Nakhodka.


Vladivostok at night

Nakhodka is the second largest city on the east coast of Russia. Approximately 225,000 people live there. It has a large fishing fleet, a sheltered bay, a ferry to Yokahoma, Japan, and a large shipbuilding and repair facility. It is also a favorite tourist destination. It has a large mountain called Sister that overlooks the city.













When I first arrived in Nakhodka, I went to the quay to admire the lovely dolphins. There were surfers holding contests. They tried to get everyone to try and surf at least once. I started on a surfboard called a wakeboard. I was able to stand up on the wakeboard, and did it almost right away. It is an inexpressible sensation riding the waves. Now I enjoy wakeboarding and practised it all summer. I also tried regular surfing and wind surfing and my professional friends helped me.




















During the summer we also traveled to the islands where we enjoyed clean water and tasty fish. We also had comb and crab and spent the night on a yacht anchored between the islands. The gentle slapping of the waves lulled me to sleep like a mother rocking her baby and I had unusual dreams.



We visited the island Petrova and saw an ancient Yew grove and a most beautiful waterfall. We visited lake Khanka which is by the chinese border.



Welcome to the Far East corner of the world with changeable weather, cheerful people, and surprising nature. It is a trip you will always remember.

Section 4 ----- Pine Mountain Evening

It is evening once more on Pine Mountain ranch. We have finished dinner and are relaxing in the family room. Laurel and Grace are playing Scrabble. I am enjoying chocolate chip cookies with my sample coffee flavor of the day from http://www.coffeefool.com. Tonight I am enjoying Australian. This American roast coffee is a flavorful brew that makes you want to go to Australia and back again.

Well my cookies and coffee are done now. It is getting late and it is time for bed. Good night all see you next week with another adventure.








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Costa Rica

Section 1 -----Pine Mountain News

Hello again from Pine Mountain. It has been a week of making hay and bringing it into the barn. This is our second cutting and it has the barn filled. Our third and fourth cutting we will sell to the local feed and grain.

The weather has been cool most of the week. Maybe next month summer will arrive full force.

In other news if you go to Frazier Park watch where you park. Those yellow dimpled plates on the side walk are not utility covers. They are wheel chair access points. If you park in front of them you will get a $255 ticket.

In other news Saturday June 13 is an event called" Wine in the Pines" at Pine Mountain Village. The event begins at noon with wine tasting and 2 bands. The House Red Band and Lanny Lay and the Reels.

Well enough about Pine Mountain. Tonight we have a new poem and a travel adventure in Costa Rica.

Section 2 -----Poem of the Week
Desert Dreams

Pausing to write on the side of the road

anthro.poetry by emma.lee dee

My thoughts speed by me as we slow

to a crawl on Northbound I-15, making

our exit from Las Vegas in the crisp

January sun. Around me are red

cliffs and dry mountains and

I have such delicate footprints,

A ballerina in the desert sand.

I'll be quiet because the world

sleeps while I flutter. The car

moves again, and my eyes blur

to the sky. The sun droops behind

the red cliffs, I sigh & I smile,

"I love my tangerine skies,"

I tell Connor. He smiles and

I add, "Pretend it's all a dream,

because it is." And we drive on,

snow-covered mountains taunting

us in the distance, for eventually

we will reach our destination,

but for a time I can swim safely

tucked inside my desert dreams.

Section 3 ----- Costa Rica

by Jordan Williams

Costa Rica is one of those countries that come up in celebrity news a lot, which was one of the reasons I wanted to head down that way. Woody Harrelson apparently lives there full time, but I didn’t let that get in the way. But Rich’s family wanted to go along this time, and Costa Rica seemed like a nice fit.

Costa Rica is one of the longest running democracies in Central America, and having had a stable government for more than one hundred years. Now, this may not seem relevant, but when you’re traveling in Central America you want to try and stay out of harm’s way, and having a stable government is part of that.

Of course, if all you wanted was a stable government, you could stay home.

Costa Rica also has a lot of really incredible beaches, natural wonders, and volcanoes. Lots of volcanoes, for a relatively small country. Rich’s family wanted to spend some quality beach time where as I, with skin that bursts into flame at the mere mention of the word sun, was more interested in the volcanoes and nature.

We’re better organized than usual for this trip, as Rich’s wife is even more in love with organization than he is, and the two of them together are an unstoppable hurricane of planning. So we came into San Jose, the capitol city, with a fully realized itinerary, which was pretty much unprecedented.

San Jose is pretty much centrally located, making it a good base of operations for our mini mob of travelers. San Jose itself was the mixture of old and new that I’d come to expect from South and Central American cities, and we were lucky enough to have a hotel near El Pueblo, which is a mix of more than 50 bars, clubs, restaurants, art galleries and shops.

The Poas Volcano National Park was only an hour or so away, so we all made a day of it. The park is still mildly active with volcanic activity, which is definitely something worth seeing at least once. You can also get right up to the edge of the craters, and the crater lake at the Botos crater has to be seen to be believed.

We also took the kid’s on a coffee tour, which is one of the more unique things that Costa Rica offers. Being a committed coffee addict, I was all for it. Coffee used to be one of the country’s biggest industries, and you can take tours of the plantations and processing facilities to see how it was all done.

After that, we split up, with Rich and his family heading to one of the sandy white beaches an hour or so from the city, while I wanted to move a little further out and check out Cocos Island. I’m not much of a beach person, but Rich apparently learned to surf, or at least stand up briefly on a surfboard before being hurled faced first into the water and being mocked by his children.

Cocos Island is a national park, and has a wet climate that’s fairly different from Costa Rica.

Imagine the island from Jurassic Park without the dinosaurs, and you’ll have the general idea. I was there mainly for the scuba diving, where I got to see Hammerhead sharks, rays, and dolphins, none of which tried to eat me or mate with me, which was a plus.

Ultimately, I was once again left feeling like I needed more time there, an all too common occurrence in my life. Rich and his family loved it was much as I did, so I recommend the country as the place to vacation for just about anybody.


Section 4 -----Pine Mountain Evening

It is evening once again. We have just finished dinner and are relaxing in the family room by a warm fire in the fireplace. Grace and Laurel are playing a game of scrabble and I am reading my Discover magazine. Tonight I am enjoying Pumpkin spice coffee from
Http:// www.coffeefool.com
It is an interesting blend of American roast coffee and pumpkin. It goes great with fresh sugar cookies. Well my coffee is gone now and it looks like Grace beat Laurel at a game of scrabble so now it is time for bed. Good night all see you next week.







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Kuala Lumpur

Section 1-----Pine Mountain News

May is here and with it the first fire of the
summer is burning over in Santa Barbara.
The fire started on Tuesday

then the high winds on Wednesday
turned it into a raging inferno.
Many homes have burned at last count
over 75. Many of them were multi-million dollar mansions.

The blaze has grown from 120 acres to over 3500 acres.
More than 30,000 people have been evacuated.

The smoke plume from the Santa Barbara fire can be viewed
from the top of Mount Abel here in the Pine Mountain area.
The fire is about 45 miles southwest of us.
A fire this early in the year shows how dry a winter we had.
It is going to be a long scary summer and fall.

Here at the ranch things are about normal for this time of
year.We spend a few days a month fixing fences so the beef
cattle do not get loose. The hay is growing and it will
soon be time to cut and bale it.

Well enough about the local news. It is time for section
2 and our poem of the week.

Section 2 -----Poem of the Week


Jesus & the moneylenders

anthro.poetry by emily d written 6.21.8

I'm sitting outside the Vatican
in the papal state of Rome.
It's funny, didn't Jesus up.turn the

tables of the markets & money.lenders?
well, this being the Catholic equivalent of the
Jewish temple Jesus once worshiped at,
there is PLENTY of wheeling & dealing to be had.

Outside the Vatican Museum, I bargain

an illegal street vendor down from 15 euros

to 10 euros on a pair of Aviators & buy a "Ciao

bella" t-shirt from 4 instead of 5 euros. Amy

bought a purse for 40 instead of 65 euros.
Pope, the church is crumbling &
who is turning a profit from the sale of relics & debris?
You are Vaticano, the most holy place.

en el nombre de Padre, y del Hijo, y del Espirito Santo, Amen.

--
emily d stine
a poet of sorts

Section 3 -----Kuala Lumpur

by Roxana



The city of Kuala Lumpur began in the 19 century when the tin
mines opened.It was jungle before that therefor it has no
ancient history.
Unlike Bangkok or Djakartas there are no rickshaws,
took-tooks, bicycles,bemo, etc. - only modern types of
transport - buses,  taxis, the metro,
and the monorail. Cost depends on the length of a trip.



The old city is china town constructions of the first half
of the 20th century. Next to China town is the interurban
service station and the Central market (more souvenirs).
The main foot street of China town(with a canopy on all
length)is named (Pettaling) has turned into the market.



At the beginning of this street there is a final stop for
buses 99 and 12 with which it is possible to reach up to
KL Central (new train station of the city), and hardly
further behind a corner near Bangkok Bank, the bus
11D goes up to the most interesting place -Batoo caves.








This unique beautiful natural formation is more like
a greater grotto, instead of a cave. Inside the cave
is an Indian temple.It is almost like city in the
mountain made in freakish form. There is an entrance
free-of-charge. To enter it is necessary to not go
down, but to rise on 260 steps up!





The most well known building in Kuala Lumpur, is
certainly the skyscrapers Petronas. The two twin
towers of beautiful, nonconventional form for
skyscrapers, connected in the middle with glass
transition which is a viewing platform. To go to
the viewing platform you need a ticket from the
KLCC ticket window. The tickets are free but
they are distributed in advance and
are in high demand.





Another way to look at the city from above is
from a television tower.Tickets are paid
therefor reservation problems with them are
not present.




Other interesting place are the parks of Kuala Lumpur.
They are located behind a building of the old station
(the station name" Kuala-Lumpur"),
it is necessary to wait upwards of 10 - 15 minutes
in a green line by a national museum to enter the park.


There is a park of butterflies, around of you butterflies
of tropical Asia fly. The butterfly exhibit is only open
when it is sunny. The butterflies do not fly in wet weather
or at night time.
Other parks include birds, orchids, etc.


Rich people live in prestigious and modern suburbs. One of
the cores is the city-satelliteof Pentalling-Dzhaya consisting
of modern cottages located next to industrial regions hi-tech
manufactures that employ them.
Adjoining this area is Sunway where there is an aquapark.
there is the expensive smart hotel, and it is a most pleasant
place of residing since area Sunway has huge shopping center,
beautiful modern streets and absolutely near to
Kuala Lumpur. Though Kuala Lumpur is capital, the real capital
is transferred to the city of Putra-Dzhaya.

Usually tour agencies offer  4-5 stars hotels (nearby $100 -
$500 per night ),  in the city full and inexpensive (there
will be no pool,restaurant and a smart input, but the room
can be very decent).One of the cheapest variants is the
bed-place in the general room in Golden Plaza in the end
of foot street of China town(Pentalling, 106). But it
suits only spending the night. Inexpensive hotels are
available in different areas, but I would advise the
beginning of street Bukit Bintang. There is a station of
a monorail with such name. This part is closer to Chinatown
and is filled with inexpensive hotels, round-the-clock the
Internet-cafe, nearby $1 for an hour massage rooms,and
various shops. The parallel street is entirely filled by
the open Chinese cafes where it is necessary to
try the food(it is tasty and it is inexpensive,
unlike old" Tourist Chinatown").

In general Kuala Lumpur is a very strange and confused city.
Without a guide-book you will not understand the city.
The roads were not made for pedestrians - often there are no
sidewalks,or even a roadside,There are not enough transitions
through but go to the middle of highway and pass all do so.
Here in the same areas the
luxury of the suburbs and the poverty of the inner city.

Section 4 ----- Pine Mountain Evening

It is another spring evening on Pine Mountain. We are gathered around the fireplace in the family room. I am enjoying another sample coffee from http://www.coffeefool.com. Tonight I am trying Columbian Supremo. This American roast coffee is a mild full flavor brew. It is a perfect coffee to relax around the fire.

My coffee is done now and it is time to get some sleep. Everyone have a good week and we will
see you next week with a new adventure.





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