White Fence Series

I finished the last 2 studies, the beginning of the white fence series:



Then I packed up the art supplies and cleaned up after myself.

I walked out from the main house to the studio late yesterday morning and Sophie was sleeping in the shade by my car and right above her on the hill was Cruiser. He appears to have pushed the screen door open and wandered out. As soon as he saw me, he skulked down like he knew he was doing something he should not. He was lucky Sophie was too busy sleeping in the dirt to notice him, but now that he learned how to escape from the stdio, it is definitely time to go.

I gave Sophie the last bath she is going to get from me and then Dad and I took her on a long walk so she could dry before laying in the dirt again. We walked up to Nick's ranch to the West, saw many cows and Nick's horse retirement home. Nick makes some side money housing people's old horses. The pig barn was empty of pigs and I think we may have eaten them on the 4th of July, since they served an incredible barbecued pork loin.

Later today, when the light is better, I am going to go on a picture taking trip before I leave. Right now it is hot for a change and I am going to try to even out my driver's tan, which means I am tan only on my left arm and thigh. It's not a great look, maybe I can get in an hour or two at the beach on the way to or from Simi to meet the movers.

Sophie is barking, Sophie rarely barks, and turns out she's barking at people who stopped on the road in front of Dad's and got out to look at the creek or the bridge or whatever. There is a space to park just east of the bridge over the creek and people stop there and get out and look like they are trying to find a creek walk. I like to let Sophie bark at them, and there was a group once that looked like they were looking for a break in the fence and I almost went and asked if they needed help (really meaning to remind them they were on private property.) There seem to be too many people who do not understand this is not a public park.

San Luis Obisbo County bought a small piece of land at the bridge to fix the road, which they appear to plan on doing differently than all the engineers recommend and The Land Conservancy of San Luis Obisbo County is involved. I'm guessing The Land Conservancy of San Luis Obisbo County convinced someone that digging up the road and reinforcing underneath it was less destructive to the environment than cutting out the hill and widening the road that way. Cutting out the hill is what the engineers recommended. Dad's the one that power-washed the bridge for Memorial Day and repainted the completion date, 1926.

These jerks call themselves environmentalists, dedicated to preserving natural beauty for future generations, but sound like communists to me. The land they want to protect is never their own. Why are they involved in road building? Why should someone's land, that they own and pay taxes on, be open to everyone? How would you like it if I parked in your driveway and took a look around? At least Dad's not a rancher and they are not interfering with his ability to make a living. Dad gets pretty fired up on the topic, and is hoping to be gone before they start work on the road and devise some new plan to take some of his land. Who knows what bug lurks in the creek that needs protecting. I don't know if the communists have anything to do with the trespassers, but for now, I just like to let Sophie bark at them.