Winnemucca Pink House

 

 

This inactivity must come to an end.

This little gas station building, converted into a home, sits on the edge of the golf course.

Sun Down again

The view down the street this afternoon.


















We've been having some strong wind storms. This afternoon, about sundown, the wind was taking the dust northeast. The wind blows huge amounts of soil, very fine dust mostly, into the air, and then carries it away in huge choking clouds.

The lands producing most of this dust are the vast acres burned by wildfire. The oceans of sage and clump grass having been burning away over these lands in what has become a annual ritual. The burned lands may never recover. There are now invasive species of grass weed that are propagating so quickly that the same lands can burn year after year. Mostly cheatgrass. There are a lot of different strategies, and tactics, much discussion, and some execution, on how to best address this problem.

I don't think there is a local solution. It appears to me that a different climate, one that provided more rain and snowfall, might be required. That may not come anytime soon.....

I wonder if 500 years from now this area will be the north reaches of the Mojave Desert?

ICE

Used to be that ice was a real valuable commodity around these parts. Still is I guess, but not like the days when you had to cross Nevada on Highway 40.

104 degrees, dry hot wind blowing, driving the narrow blacktop with all the windows rolled down. The Mayor, he used to sell ice cream cones, said people would stop for a while just to let their tires cool down. The big swimming pool, right downtown under a canopy of huge trees, was a real popular stop on a family trip.

Finding a gas station with a good supply of ice to keep things cool to the next stop was a near necessity. That and a couple of canvas bags of water strapped on the front, catching bugs, and the odd jackrabbit or deer.

Outpost

Up on the corner.

This is where one goes in these parts for provisions. You can clean your duds, get right with Jesus, by imported Mexican goods, and get convenience items of all sorts. I like the atmosphere in this photo.

It's not dark yet, but it's getting there.

Aftermath-Thomas Fire

All the news here is about the fire. It started like this last Thursday afternoon, the day after the Fourth of July. The first edges of the weather front that caused all the trouble was just starting arrive. The leading edges carried enought moisture to cause these squalls. This is looking southwest, down the Humboldt River Valley, toward Lovelock and the Humboldt Sinks. The rain was falling out of these clouds but you can see it vaporizing just under the clouds. Virga

Then came the real thunderstorms on Friday night, still little or mostly no rain, but this time with lightning. By Saturday night it was fire and brimstone all around. I didn't get a decent photo of the fires, but this will give you some idea. This was about 10:30 Saturday night after the fire had burned all the way from Thomas Canyon, past Water Canyon and on towards the east. This is the edge that looked to be headed for the Kluncy Canyon part of town.


























Last night, just before sunset, this is what the after effects look like.



















This is a closer look at the Grass Valley Area. It is truly amazing that no homes were lost in the fire.


Water Canyon:




















There is lots of discussion around town about the tactics used to fight the fire.

From what I hear, the local fire fighters, the Winnemucca Boys, were responsible for holding the lines Saturday night, and saved many, many homes from destruction.

Local folks are not at all pleased with the work of the BLM, especially the experts that arrived late on the scene, took control, and just let it burn. That's what I hear. I was trying to stay out of the way, so I don't have any first hand knowledge of the situation. The people that live up in the Water Canyon Estates have lots to say.





Some other folks came up on the mountain for a look while I was there. It had cooled down to 97F by this afternoon.

Hungry?

If you get that feeling in your stomach, and make a drive up for a number 2, you might see this. Blue Mountain. Taken from the drive-through at Burger King.

Been absent for some time, but there is news. JA is blogging! Check out the first post at Mind-Over-Matters. Be the second visitor to view his extensive profile. I just added it to the neighborhood. Wheeeeee Isn't this fun!

Spring Again

It seems like we just did this last year. The wheels keep on turning.

Inspired by the great photos I saw this weekend at Shooting the West, I went up the slope of the Sonoma Range and took this picture across the Humboldt Valley. Winnemucca Mountain just after sun up.

Shooting the West




















Shutter bugs will invade Winnemucca this weekend, and take home thousands of photos of the town and surrounding area. (this is a great, yet apparently unrecognized marketing tactic)

Many come with a collection of their own best and favorite images and books .

About 250 photographers will meet for Shooting the West XIX - The Nevada Photography Experience. A weekend of hanging out with a crowd of people who all share the same passion. A chance to view hundreds of great photos. Most are printed in large formats, or projected to huge images. During the presentations the photographers discuss their works; this is the first one:

Travels with Robert Holmes

Robert Holmes is widely acknowledged as one of the world's finest travel photographers with his work appearing in virtually every major travel magazine. With more than 30 books in print, Holmes is willing to share with us his tips on travel photography.

So far I have missed it 18 times, but this year I'll be there.

If I were entering two photos in the "Give It You're Best Shot" it might be this one and this one.

One thing they could really use is a new website. You might think it would be full of examples of the works of past presenters and contest winners, but think again. (any of you site designers I know listening?)

Hoods in Muccabull Springs!

The town filled up with hoods.
JD's.
They were all over town, showing their colors and strutting their stuff.

FABULOUS

Near sundown on Saturday, OLD GLORY waving in the breeze, and the big car show was in town. The Fifties Fever. So we went downtown to see what was happening.

It was empty.

The streets and sidewalks were all deserted. The whole party had moved to the west side of town, either at the street drags behind Arby's or the street dance at the Model T. So we decided to go into the big tent America's Car Museum at the Flying A Garage had set up in the west Winner's parking lot. The tent contains about a dozen or so cars from the collection. The entire collection is said to be over 160 vintage one-of-a-kind automobiles. Every one we saw that night was cool.












This is the famous Winnemucca Propane Car. This car held some sort of land speed record, I should have take a photo of the story that was posted over it.

This small glimpse of the car collection going into the new museum is really amazing. Take a look a just one small item now in the collection.















This one was Miss Patti's favorite, the desert dusty rose CADDY.
It's about 27 feet long.

After that we went home, we had missed the party completely.

Butch headin' out, from the Sundance in Muccabull Springs.

Forty-Four Hours















It's time for the local desert and surrounds to experience the heat of deep summer. And of course along with that comes the famous forty-four hour tournament, which is the biggest event around these parts every year. Small children in Muccabull Springs can't wait to reach the age that they can wander into the swarm and witness how exciting life will be when they finally become of age.

Cowboy




















I went downtown at lunch today to find a picture to post, and this is what I came across out front of the Hole in the Wall.

Winnemucca Clones














We went to the mule races and the anticipation hanging in the air prior to post time was so thick you could cut it with a knife. The cloned mules both won their heats on Saturday, and will run against each other this afternoon in the last race of the day. It's big news.












Scott Sady AP Photo

Bridge Street Bridge








I had something to say about this when I first posted it, and then I didn't. Now I can't remember what it was.

Nice photo; just below the high water mark.

This is before.

Lower photo is cropped from an image in the collection of the Humboldt Museum. Thank You.

The Black Cats Run for Cover










This all started the other day, when I had to go to the big city for a meeting.

I had dropped my camera out of my backpack, and didn't know when it happened. So I get up in the morning, back in Muccabull Springs, and it was raining very hard, and it had been raining for hours. So I went into my backpack for the camera, cause I was going to go outside and take some pictures. But it wasn't there, cause it was laying under a table in a dark room in the corner of a big important looking building over 150 miles away. Of course I didn't know that, so I had to go on the hunt for about 60 hours, or until it was found four days later.

So anyway, I was going to miss this great photo op because I had lost my camera. So I borrowed one, and took this during the storm. It's Akien.

Spring

Spring

-Bah Humbug- Bleak and Gray














This has been the view out the front window. You'll see it is so soggy and wet that the Big "M" up on the hill, the one that stands prowdly for Muccabull Springs, has slid down the hill and turned itself over into a W. It's green and looks like the mold has begun to take over.

Sun Down Moon Up

Here is the moon.

Frozen in the West

This thin but very dense and cold layer of clouds is covering up the entire Humboldt River Valley. Up on the mountian the sun is shining, it's a beautiful day. That's the Humboldt Range in the distance. Down along the river and in town it's a bit frozen.


Doesn't look like high noon, but that's about the time this photo was taken.