Traveling Central California

I am sitting in a hotel room in the Central Valley of California. I hate to even tell you how long it has been since I made this trek and I have never been in the city of Folsom. It is a beautiful place. Filled with rolling hills and oak trees. Off in the distance, I can see the smoke from the fires. The sky is still blue over head. I can see every so often the airplanes refueling with fire retardant.

Driving up yesterday, along the freeway, there was fields of pumpkins. They were piled up at the end of rows and people were loading them onto trailers. On the other side of the freeway was a field of  nothing but white pumpkins.
When you hear that the central valley grows the food for the nation, I know I never noticed until our drive. We drove for 6 hours yesterday and we saw almonds, strawberries, pomegranate, walnut trees.
There were dairies with thousands of cows. Then there would be acres and acres of silage just starting to tassel.  We drove by fields of tomatoes, and peppers and lettuce. There were miles and miles of grapes. Table grapes and wine grapes.  Miles and miles of crops that grow food. Every where though, you could see the effects of the drought. I realize that I love living in Central valley. I get tired of the dirt, and the heat and all of that, but deep in my heart is the love for the ground and for farming and the work that has gone on in the great San Joaquin valley to feed the nation.

On this first day of fall. The weather is finally starting to change. I could feel it when I went out for a walk. It will come here first and then it will follow me home. I feel very thankful to be here.
It is nice to have a break from normal. It is nice to see and feel a different place. Of all of the places that I could have been born, I am so thankful that I live in the Central Valley of California. I know why when my family left the places they did to come here, I know why. It is because of the land.

Back at home, my sister in law said today that the school her kids go to in town had to be cancelled because of bears. It is so dry, the bears are leaving the mountains and coming to town to get water. Isn't that sad?

I hope you have a lovely day,

~Kim~

" Jenny looked at the little flint arrowhead lying in her palm. She had always longed for a elf bolt. Many hundreds of years ago had a fairy loosed this from his bow?  Elf bolts were the most precious of precious things."

---The White Witch, Elisabeth Goudge 1958