St Augustine Florida

Pine Mountain News

December is half over and with it 2009 is fast drawing to a close. Here at the ranch things are on a normal schedule for this time of year. The Christmas lights are up and we have had a couple of small snows.
The vegetables are doing well in the greenhouse and the wind and water turbines and solar panels are performing well.

The wood shop is busy again after a slow year and the people and animals are well fed. What more could anyone want.


Poem of the week

Wine.taste in McMinnville

by emily d stine

The cool Pacific air ruffles through my hair
as we race out of Portland & into Oregon wine
country.  Windows cracked and music blaring,
the little black Audi climbs through bridges and
interstate exchanges & shuffles out of the mini.city.

The landscape grows quiet, dead as we drive,
gnarled knots in thin trees sprouting from the sides.
Onward to McMinnville, enter vineyard at the back.
Tour underside of a wine glass, fermenting wine vats.

Forward to the front, after the wine work is done,
and into the tasting room, where all the tourists run.
Step outside, alongside an oaky-tasting Chardonnay,
& I’m delightfully disheveled in the setting sun’s rays.

One more sip, the flavors swirling inside my mouth,
and I swirl myself inside, set my glass by the fire for warmth.

Travel Story of the Week

St Augustine Florida

After roaming around Mexico for about a week we decided to head east once more.We kept going until we reached Florida. Our first stop was the town of Milton we bought gas then went to Santa Rosa island on the Gulf of Mexico.




We saw a couple of shrimp boats heading out. We spent a couple hours on Santa Rosa then we were back on the road. We kept going until we reached the Atlantic ocean.

One of the first things you notice about Florida is the interstate is a lighter shade of gray. This is from the crushed shell in the concrete. We checked out the beach and the Atlantic ocean then headed south on I - 95 and stopped at St Augustine.

St Augustine was founded in 1565 and is the oldest seaport in the continental United States. Originally founded by the Spanish, St Augustine became a British possession along with the rest of Florida in 1763. In 1821 Florida became part of the United States. Florida became a state in 1845.
One of the cities famous landmarks is the fortress Castillo de San Marcos and it is now a national monument run by the park service.




Other old landmarks include the Ponce de Leone Hotel,



the Saint Augustine lighthouse, and parts of Flagler college. The city celebrated it's 400th birthday in 1965. The city was a leader in the civil rights movement of the 1960's.

St Augustine is served by one major highway I - 95 and has an airport with 5 runways. The airport became a private airport in 2008 when Skybus ceased operations.

Visiting the historical section of St Augustine is like a journey back in time to colonial America. the Spanish architecture gives it an old world European feel.


Pine Mountain Evening

It is evening once more at the Pine Mountain ranch. Dinner is over and we are relaxing in the family room by a warm fire. Laurel and Grace are playing scrabble and I am reading my Discover magazine. Tonight I am enjoying Irish Cream from http://www.coffeefool.com. This American roast coffee with the Irish Cream taste goes well with the chocolate cream pie that we had for desert.
Grace won the scrabble game once more and now my coffee and pie are finished. It is time for bed. See you all next week.


resources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Augustine,_Florida

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Santiago Chile

Section 1-----Pine Mountain Ranch

Hello again from Pine Mountain Ranch. It is spring at the ranch and things are more lazy and laid back now that John is in charge.
The weather is slowly warming up. John is still making a few mistakes. He put Pete the mule in the wrong pasture and Pete promptly leaped over the 4 ft fence and took off down the road. I think that mule has springs in his feet. He can leap a 5 ft fence from a standstill. It took a couple of hours to catch up with Pete and bring him back to the ranch.

John takes care of the ranch and his wife and daughter look after the greenhouse and do the cooking and the household chores.

Jeff and Squeekers are at the Desert Outpost. They will be there until late fall working out in the desert on maintenance projects. The old desert cabin is getting a makeover and has electricity for the first time ever. Since it is so far off the power grid it has a stand alone system of solar panels and a small wind generator. Well enough about the ranch. Here is our poet with the poem of the week.

Section 2-----Poetry of the week

an.thro.poet.ry by Emma.Lee D

Tail End of Mexico book 2

written six.eight.eight

It's now 12:30 & estoy bebiendo the fullest glass of wine

I've ever seen. My flight leaves in just over an hour &

i had left.over pesos so i figured why not? It was cloudy

yes.ta.day&rainy today so i'm glad to be al aeropuerto.

I've taken 100 pictures here, about 13.5 a day. That's

a lot of pictures. I'm sure Europe will be 3 times worse.

It will be an interesting 36 hours home in Boulder, CO.

I want to save my wristband...la memoria de mexico at

a 5 star hotel. Futbol plays in the background & I stare

out into a gray runway refracting a gray highway where

the DULL cars drive by. In here it is NEON. ceiling orange

&green &the bar looks like a neon cup of guacamole.

Section 3-----Santiago Chile

Santiago Chile

Rich and I decided to hit Santiago, Chile on the next leg of our South American mini tour. We really didn’t want to leave Rio, truth be told, but we’d committed to seeing a few different countries and cultures and so we had to say goodbye to Brazil and head south.

There was no particular reason we chose Chile. I had worked with a guy who lived in Santiago and a friend of Rich’s had passed through there on his jaunt around the world a few years ago and said it was a great city to hit and that was good enough for me. Rich, my sometimes traveling buddy and all the time best friend, would have preferred a more structured approach, but planning is not and has never been my strong suit.

Which is why we rolled into Chile without a goal, a hotel reservation or the ability to speak Spanish, in spite of the fact that both Rich and I had years of Spanish classes. Rich wanted to consult the tourist bureau, if there was such a thing. I wanted to find something to eat and, frankly, I’m a lot bigger than Rich so we went to find some food.

I always try to eat the local cuisine, if it doesn’t include insects or things that look at me while I’m eating them – neither of which was a problem in Santiago. The capitol city is located in central Chile, and has some of the best food in South America.

If you’re a seafood fan, you definitely need to try the Sopa de Mariscos, a kind of seafood soup. I also recommend you try the Chirimoya Ice Cream, too. No seafood there, just a delicious indigenous fruit.

After Rich found us a decent place to stay at a good price (another benefit of being in Santiago) we dumped our luggage and lit out for Plaza de Armas, the main pedestrian area in the city. Think of an outdoor permanent fair, and you won’t be far off.

There are street performers ranging from dancers to jugglers, a bunch of surprisingly good artists hawking their wares, and a generally good cross section of the people of the city. It was just about too much to take in, and I again wished that we had more time to spend here. Another trip.

Rich wanted to head over to Bandera, which is a collection of outdoor used clothes stores a block or so off of Plaza de Armas. About two dozen of them, and frankly, I couldn’t tell the difference between these and new clothes, except they were about a quarter the price you’d pay in the states. I’m not a big shopper, but Rich has a wife and kids and if we expected them to let him go on these trips, we’d need to do some bribing by coming back bearing gifts.

After that, we turned in for the night. We were tired and I was slightly sunburned and tomorrow we were going to head to what is probably the number one tourist destination in Santiago, Cerro San Cristobal. We’d have to deal with a lot of people, but there’s no better way to see Santiago. But that, unfortunately, will have to wait until part two of this travelogue in two weeks.

Section 4-----Pine Mountain Evening

It is evening once again and we are all gathered around the gas fireplace.Tonight I am trying Dutch Chocolate. This American roast coffee goes well with cake. The chocolate and coffee taste is great for dessert. This coffee comes to us from http://www.coffeefool.com Well it is getting late and it is time for bed. good night all see you next week.

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A Trip to Julian, California

Pine Mountain

Hello again from Pine Mountain. I just returned from working on irrigation pumps in the desert. It was hot out there. 43 C that is 109 F for those of you on the Fahrenheit scale. The hottest part of the day was from 1000 to 1400 or 10 AM to 2 PM. I put up my umbrella and drank my rehydration mix, a super Gatorade mix called H3O, by the gallon. At first I tried to wear a t shirt but in 5 minutes it looked like I had been swimming in it from the sweat so I put some sun tan lotion on and went shirtless. The umbrella helped too so that I did not get too sun burnt. I spent 4 days out there and finished my work. At night I tried to catch up on my internet work, but my internet connection would come and go so I did not get a lot done.

Sunrise was nice out there. But then as soon as the sun came up the temperature would start rising rapidly. I was glad when I was able to head home to Pine Mountain. Traveling back to Pine Mountain, I stopped in the small mountain town of Julian California. I had lunch and toured the town for a little while. My adventures are this week’s feature story.

First for those of you that have just joined us, here at the ranch power is supplied by 2 wind turbines and a water turbine. We also have a few solar panels that charge up a battery bank. Our horizontal turbine looks like a small wingless airplane on top of it’s 80 foot tower. We purchased that one from http://www.bergey.com/. Our vertical turbine we purchased from http://www.pacwind.net/, it spins away on a 30 foot or 10 meter pole out by the barn. Our water turbine in the dam of our pond came from an Alaskan alternative energy company http://www.absak.com/. There have been more windy days than calm days this week. Even on a calm day we have been able to produce more energy with our wind turbines than we use.


Next we have our usual sections on Alternative Energy, Easy Cash, Nutrition, Traveling and Adventure and this weeks adventure A Visit to Julian , California.

Alternative Energy

Is your electric bill going through the roof? Are you paying $200 or even more per month for electricity? Do you want to cut costs or even learn how you can sell electricity back to the power company so they pay you instead of you paying them? Learn how you can supplement you electricity and reduce your electric bill for only a small investment of less than $200 in alternative energy. Go to http://deserthab.offgrid07.hop.clickbank.net/ and learn easy ways you can cut your electric bill.

The price of fuel keeps going up in price. Gasoline is now over $4.73 a gallon. Everyone is looking for anything that will increase fuel economy even a little. Most Alternative energy fuels are still years away but there is a way to improve your mileage, increase your horsepower, and reduce your emissions all at the same time. You will be able to turn your vehicle into a fuel efficient one with only a few readily available items from your local hardware. The instructions are easy to follow and there are many diagrams so you can see how to do it too. It does not matter if you have a gasoline or diesel engine vehicle it will work with either one. Go to http://deserthab.water4gas.hop.clickbank.net/ to learn more while supplies last.

Do you want to increase your fuel economy and create 30% less pollution? How about increase your gas mileage and increase your power too. An environmentally safe non toxic product called Ethos will do just that. It improves gas economy by reformulating your gasoline to allow more air to be mixed with the fuel vapor. This causes cleaner combustion and increases power. Your fuel burns more completely and thus produces less emissions. All you have to do is add a couple ounces per tank of gasoline or diesel. Go to http://www.thegassecret.net/ and learn more about this alternative energy supplement.

Easy Cash

Is the cost of living getting you down? Do you need to make some quick money to cover expenses? Go to http://www.pinemountainranch.ws/ watch a free short movie and start making the money that you have dreamed about.

Nutrition and Health

These days everyone is concerned about nutrition and health. Most of our food is over processed and has very little nutrient value. Our food looks great but not much more. If we want to stay healthy in today’s world we are forced to take supplements. The question is: What supplements will provide what you need for the least amount of time and money? I believe one of the best supplements out there is called acaiplus. It is a blend of vitamins and minerals plus acai to promote health and long life. They also have vitamins to help improve your long term and short term memory. They also have an energy drink that gives you steady long term energy. To learn more about these products go to
http://www.acaiplus.com/desertstarproducts. Check out Acaiplus, Feed My Brain, and White Lightning.


Travel for Less

Are you tired of paying high airfares only to be crammed into a tight seat when you travel? Find out how you can save hundreds of dollars on your next flight. You may even be able to fly first class for the cost of coach if you know the secret. Learn how you can save enough money to take that once in a lifetime vacation. Go to
http://deserthab.airtravel.hop.clickbank.net/ and find out now while supplies last.

Discover how you can fly around the world on a shoestring budget. There are ways to travel for free. These ways are easy to learn if you know the secrets.. Go to
http://deserthab.fly4free.hop.clickbank.net/ to find out. You will be glad you did.


Have you ever wished that you could travel for a living. Does the call of far off places thrill you? Would you like to travel the world on your own schedule and see the places that you want to see? Would you like to enjoy your vacation and get paid for it too? Long to travel on your own schedule and enjoy your vacation? Would you like to travel for a living and see new and interesting places every day? Do you like to write letters to your relatives telling them about your recent vacation? Then you have what it takes to become a travel writer. All you need is a little instruction and you can have a dream job too. Go to http://deserthab.wp3033773.hop.clickbank.net/ and learn how you to can become a travel writer.


Adventure and Treasure Hunting

Do you watch movies like Indiana Jones and wish you could do that in real life? Do you like a good mystery and a good adventure? Would you like to use modern methods and tools to find long lost treasure?
All this is possible if you learn from the best. Stan Grist world renown adventurer and treasure hunter has written a course complete with step by step instruction on how to become successful. Go to http://deserthab.infoshare2.hop.clickbank.net/
And check out his course “Creating Wealth Through Adventure”



And now our feature story.

A Trip to Julian, California.

When I left the desert, I took the scenic route instead of traveling the interstate. I drove through Ocotillo Wells and Shelter Valley. I turned West on state route 78 and went through Banner. I was at the 800 foot level or 244 meter level. I continued up the winding twisting mountain road until I reached the top at 4200 feet or 1280 meters.
Approaching Julian from the east, the first thing you see on the right side of the road is the new high school. Julian is an old mining town from the California gold rush days. The town was originally founded by 2 cousins from Georgia, Drue Bailey and Mike Julian right after the civil war. The first gold was found in 1869 by Fred Coleman. The town population was never more than about 600 people even in the gold rush days. Today the population is less than 500 full time residents.

Julian is considered to be Southern California’s Bed and Breakfast capital with many fine places to spend the night. All the buildings in town have been turned into shops and restaurants and are well kept up. Julian is the central location for all the activities in the area. It is a great place to bring the family and spend a day or two. There are over a dozen places to eat and many more gift and novelty shops.

There is never a lack of activities to do in and around Julian. The adventurous can tour the maize of tunnels in the Eagle and High Peak mine. Guides lead you through the tunnels and tell you about the history of the area. A few miles down State route 79 is Cuyamaca Lake. Here you can camp, boat, fish, picnic, and nature walk.

If you like fine wines, The Overland Back Country Wine Tour is a favorite. Explore the many fine wineries from the back of a converted army troop carrier. After exploring the many fine wineries the tour ends with a barbeque at the Menghini winery. Among the many fine wineries in the area are Eagles Nest, J. Jenkins, Menghini, Orfila, Pama Valley, Shadow Mountain, Twin Oaks, and Witch Creek.

Julian with its high 4200 foot elevation has 4 seasons. It is famous for the many apple orchards that surround the town. In September the town is always crowded with visitors arriving to sample the fresh apple pies and fresh pressed cider.
If you are looking for a taste of western living, there are three stables where you can experience mountain and back country trail riding. Integrity stables, Julian stables, and Kenner Horse Ranch, all provide riding adventures and lessons from beginner to expert.

Do you like watching the night sky? Then observer’s Inn is for you. You can view the planets, star clusters, and moon every night except Thursday through research grade telescopes weather permitting of course. An experienced astronomer leads you through an hour of interstellar exploration.

Food sampling is another fun thing to do in Julian. There are over a dozen places to eat in a two block area. If you go hungry in Julian it is your own fault. It is always a challenge to figure which place to try first.

One of my favorite places for lunch is the little restaurant called Soups & Such Café. Lani the owner also owns the local flower shop. The restaurant has two dining rooms.

The first dining room has a beautiful brightly colored hand painted flower garden wall that always makes lunch a cheery event.

The second dining room has nice wooden tables and a window view of the main town street. The food is great and low priced too. You can have soup, salad, and bread for only $7. I highly recommend the farmer’s soup. The soup is filled with fresh vegetables and is cooked and seasoned just right. The soup combined with a house salad and slice of bread is just the ticket for a nice lunch before exploring the rest of Julian. For those of you that like a little kick in your food, Lani also serves a spicy authentic Thai soup.

Another delight in Julian is touring the gift and souvenir shops. Whether you are looking for handcrafted gold and silver jewelry, leather goods, minerals and gems, Indian handicrafts, or just that one of a kind souvenir, you are sure to find it in Julian.

The biggest problem with Julian is there is never enough time to explore everything that you want to see. I spent the afternoon in Julian, the sun was warm but the temperature was only in the mid 70’s F a definite improvement from the 109 F in the desert the day before. I enjoyed the scenic drive through the back country of San Diego county. Every turn in the road was another enjoyable view. I arrived home at Pine Mountain just before dark. My sister and brother in law and the animals were all glad to see me. Roxana is still touring Norway, so next week we will see what interesting things she has found there.

Pine Mountain Evening

It is evening once more. I am relaxing in my easy chair. Squeekers my African grey parrot is sitting on his perch eating peanuts. Tonight our sample coffee from http://www.coffeefool.com/ is Columbian Supremo. This is a mild full bodied coffee just right for relaxing . My sister and her husband just left to return home. They took very good care of things while I was in the desert. Squeekers and I have just finished watching an episode of “ Lost”. It is an Australian sci fi series about a group of survivors of a plane crash that end up on this mysterious island that is able to move through time. Well it is getting late and I am ready to get some sleep. I put squeekers in his cage and head off upstairs to bed. Good night all see you next week.