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Watts Up With That?
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RL “Bob” Crabb
Barry Pruett Blog
[The belatedly refreshed sandbox is again open for business. We start this new load of sand with an excellent graphic commentary (filched from the 9sep14 issue of The Union) from our brother Bob that goes a long way to explaining how these beautiful foothills got that smelly purple tinge. gjr]
Now wait one damned minute!! That may have been the case back in 69, But with all the free “everything” down there, just what pray tell is “driving” the “second waive”?
It sure can’t be that LIB outfit call Google or Facebook,,?
The exodus should be the other direction. ” Head for the BAY!! Free weed!”..Or maybe El Norte’.. It’s already legal. What about points East? Same game…
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Walt, maybe they foolishly think they would have more freedoms here and flee the recycling police who root through your trash cans looking for that empty bottle of boutique olive oil with citation book in hand. Maybe they all got into fender benders and just a bill from the local authorities charging them for the cost to clean up the highway of broken glass. Maybe they are doing….gasp!…..white flight! Maybe the hoards are descending upon our quaint burgs and villages to vote for that guy who learned everything he needed to know about politics from his Bagdad by the Bay gun running boss. Maybe they got tired of living in a city where they are exempt for the Clean Air Act, which is so unfair and they want to make it right.
Maybe they are future or past Tesla employees. The most likely scenario and plausible explanation is they looking for ammo or are Raider fans.
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Or they are trimmers
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” that smelly purple tinge” — George, you need to recognize that if the hippies hadn’t moved up here people would still be marrying their cousins. Compared to that, wouldn’t what we have now be considered progress?
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Maybe our dear RL. can splain this short graphic novel. I would like to know what I have been to blind to see. What happened on one of those news nights when you could have blindfolded me with dental floss? Or did the Birkenstock stampede happen because I set fire to my excess stash of MMJ when the wind come out of the North? ( There be a POT fire in them thar hills!) YYaaaa. That was some gooood stuff,,, mannn….
How did that song go? Oh, no no no,, I no tokey no moore….”
They are sure not stumbling up here for the jobs… ( then again,, it’s pick’n season soon)
Cleared up minds want to know!!
Now Bill. About those Nixon pins….
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Sorry Joe,, This was never part of Tennessee.
You miss the news? “that” kind of marriage, along with bigamy laws have been shot down by a “progressive” judge. All thanks to the “re-defining” of marriage.
There is your “progress”..
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Joe.. The only place that resembles the place where “Deliverance” was shot, is North San Juan. What demographic resides there?
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Better tune in O’Reilly on FOX,, he will be talking about pot and taxes.
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In Grass Valley there is a small battle that has made the Union about a house that is being sold to a local non profit that is going turn the house into a transitional housing for mentally ill homeless people, maybe with substance abuse problems to boot. It is a 4 bedroom house that will house 4 long term patients with 2 hour supervision a day. This being funded by Prop 63 tax on the rich passed 2004. In 2008 the state passed SB2 that stops cities from passing zoning laws to stop this happening in single family home areas. In Grass Valley the city council has gone along with it like most cities. The people in the neighborhood have been fighting it and you have probably read about in the paper about how awful we in the neighborhood for not embracing the mentally ill people moving next door. My biggest problem is there is no supervision for these patients and we can do little to change it. This is being rammed down our throat by the state and our city is doing nothing to regulate this. There are no permits or anything, they buy a house and move patients in and no regulation. In fairness there are already 3 house like this in Grass valley and this will be #4, this is not the first one. The nanny state at it’s finest in my view. I hate our state government.
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JoeK 424pm – That’s a pretty strong statement which reeks of some considerable flatland hubris and elitism. I would love to have some response to such sentiments from long time Nevada County families.
But what we do know is that the free lovers who did come up here have a culture that is open to coitus with partners ranging from a door knob to three goats, and everything in between. The “smelly purple tinge” stands, and can even be strengthened when we look at what you refer to as “progress” since the first tranche of hippies showed up.
In any event, the claim of “people marrying their cousins” will endure as your elitist assessment of the pre-progressive colonization of these foothills.
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Groovy, man! This cartoon is getting a lot of circulation. Even Mr.P. hisself has been outraged enough by my magnum opie to let it soil his bloggy bog. How dare I make light of the exodus of the masses from the city of progress?
Well, ’cause it’s really happening, that’s why. Not a day goes by that I don’t hear about another familiar corner of the Mission that has been gobbled up by Google. Jeez, does he think I make this stuff up?
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Thanks Mr. C for clarifying. That was a guess on my part, but I did hear grumblings about that vary thing in the past. That’s why I took that shot just slightly in the dark.
I guess some need to already be BAY transplants to understand your take on it. ( or one who is an information junky like myself)
So what does the BAY’S unwashed what us to do about their plight? More free stuff out of us?
Well they can beg from the dope growers, since they are the ones bragging about being the ones keeping GV/NC in business. ( their cash only underground economy)
Someone needs to remind them they can’t scour the creeks and streams for saleable goods ( gold that is, shiny metal, things dreams are made of..) Their political kin put a stop to that a long time ago.
So MORE deadbeatniks to roam out streets to chase off any tourists that may still actually show up.
I’m just waiting to see the same “street performers” from Fisherman’s wharf on the streets of NC. From the dude painted silver ( well gold in this case) to the George Washington’s handing out roses, then demanding 10 bucks.
My gates will be closed, the shotgun loaded, and the new German Shepard on duty.
Thanks for the crime rate going up warning…
What would we do without you RL.??
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Looks like I need to leave my hard hat at home.. The last thing I need is to have someone asking me for my autograph,, believing I’m one of the “Village People”.
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Mr. Walt, Mr. Walt, where do we begin? First, I would like your autograph. My daughters and her friends want your autograph. However, the Village Person is demand is the cowboy in the chaps. Your hard hat rates up there, but only second best. Sorry.
I don’t know why everybody is so sensitive to this blue blood “keep it the family, roll your own” labels. Heck, half those flatlanders come up here to attend family reunions and pick up dates. Then they find that special one they have something in common with, settle down, and raise a few goats. It’s not like something to be ashamed of, now is it. Like who am I to tell them what to put in their body. We ain’t control freaks like the ones that migrate here from down in The Sanctuary City by the Bay. Heck, I am darn proud that my great grandpa ate up their great grandpa up on Donner Summit. He was organic before being organic was hip.
Now, about the Nixon bumper sticker. I really want the “Nixon’s The One” sticker in any shape. However, I misled you about the button. I am holding it right now in my currently nicotine stained fingers. It’s the real McCoy, but it’s not Bobby. It’s red, white, and blue like your brain bucket, says KENNEDY and a smiling face of Jack, or known as JFK. Them Kennedy brothers all look alike to me, except Drunk Teddy was easier to differentiate with that shining Rudolf red nose. Reminds me of W. C. Fields for some odd reason I can’t put my finger on.
The flatlanders are here for white flight, plain and simple. They want to get their kids enrolled in a very non PC group like 4H and eat a Job’s Daughters corn dog at the fair without being excommunicated from their community. Us blue blood hillbillies like corn dogs at the fair, but not just any ole corndog, a Job’s Daughter corndog. See, we have taste, style, and our illegals get hauled off to the pokey. Only thing were lack is a good hanging judge. No place is perfect.
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Joek@04:34PM
I was born in Nevada City to a family that has been in Nevada County since the 1862s, and I take some offense to your crass comment about “if the hippies hadn’t moved up here people would still be marrying their cousins.” This was not the mountains of Appalachia, it was a mining town of hard working folks that weathered the first Depression quite well, and sent many young men off to fight WWII. When the men left to fight the Great War the women in the Community stepped up to the challenge and kept things running smoothly.
The region has had good times and bad times. When the mines were operating and the lumber was being harvest times were good. When the mines closed in the 1950s, and the lumber industry collapsed in the 1960s and 1970s there were some hard times. I was not here during the great hippy invasion from the Haight, having joined the Air Force and was making my own life, however my family was here for a year in 1974 when I was in South East Asia. The family chose to come to Grass Valley and Nevada City as I had a grandmother, aunts, uncles, great aunts, great uncles and plethora of cousins living and working in the community. One Uncle served as the Mayor of Nevada City and he also served as the Fire Chief for a time. One aunt was a school teacher.
There was a solid functioning community in the 1970s and the hippies were viewed with some interest, as they were living in caves and tents along the Yuba River, but they were never the driving force in the community. However, some the aging hippies are solid business people in Nevada City today.
Many of the San Francisco arrivals were committed gay couples that made great contributions to the preservation of Nevada City, before AIDs became a serious health issue for them. They brought money and culture to the community.
There has always been a strong core in the community, the “good old boys and gals” that the lefty bloggers like to denigrate today. Many of those families are still with us today, silent leaders in the community. The ones that get things done without a lot of public posturing.
One of my favorite memories of the 1940s was the Summer Ball Games. Each town had a team and they came each Saturday to play in Pioneer Park. My Aunt Dode was the life guard at the pool in Pioneer Park, we swam every day in the summer, arriving when the pool opened and went home when it closed. Life could not have been better.
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Bobs cartoon is right on. What I remember of the first migrations from the Bay Area was the hippy culture revolt against traditional moral values and the introduction to illegal and harmful drugs. Many young people were angry about it, and others succumbed to it. It would be interesting to know how many died. San Francisco was relatively close to us, but it was a national trend. I think we accepted the newbys as decent human beings seeking a better life than what they’d created and wished to leave behind. But they became aggressive and insisted they knew what was best for us. Our lands where we earned our livings from forests, mines and agriculture was for their pleasure. But again it was a national trend. The government had an ad in a San Francisco newspaper offering a paid vacation in the Sierra for those who would demonstrate against loggers. It was the beginning of the destruction of former rural livelihoods. These were replaced with tourism. The entire transition reminds me of the song “One Tin Soldier” because those from the lowlands coveted what they thought we didn’t deserve. Then dug up where they thought the treasure was buried. On the surface of the stone were the words “Peace on Earth.” Very symbolic. Our present economic condition has been accomplished by those addicted to Federal and State grants fulfilling their role remaking America. Unfortunately, human nature is susceptible to greed and corruption if there is no higher moral compass.
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Good one, Russ. Despite the rants from Big P, Nevada County has always been open to new people and new ideas. I was always amazed how tolerant the old rednecks were for the gay community here. I worked at the Jacks’ Cracked Pot for several years, a place where politicians and visitors from all walks of life, straight and gay, mingled freely, without fear of being called out as “different.” And I was here when the hippies arrived in the late sixties. There were tensions, and even some violence, but eventually the locals realized that many of these “bums” had money, and spent it in their businesses.
I haven’t seen Nevada City in such poor straights since the seventies, when most of Commercial St. was boarded up. Even then, the town could afford to run their own police and fire departments. Alpha Hardware was busy and there were no vacancies on Broad St.
It’s going to take some time to adjust to the new reality, and much of it depends on the availability of water. A prolonged drought could devastate this area, along with the rest of the state.
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Bill. “MY” John hennery??? On just what legal papers?? ( I can’t think of any other logical reason.) I’ll dig through those pins and see if anything good turns up.
Russ. We has some great values here before the “free love” crowd stumbled up here in their drug induced stupor. Berkeley got into the ” Mother Earth” garbage with the help of LSD.
” The trees scream when they are cut down” ETC… These idiots forget that a logger put the roofs over their head. ( Those that didn’t live in broken down, mosquito duster, buses.)
It only got worse from there.
Even my roots run deep here. Logging and mining, working from before sun up, and not getting home before sunset. I join in your sorrow of what this place has become.
I’m only the 4th generation from the covered wagon treck here.
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It’s hard to believe that any conceivable drought would “devastate this area” unless all precipitation stops in the Sierra. We are the first consumers of the water that runs downhill because we live here. To stop us from using that water (which we immediately return to the ground) would require the state to mobilize a compliant National Guard to come into the mountains and stick their guns to our necks. And I’m not sure that they’d be up to the ruckus that that would cause on these ridges, in our forests, and valleys.
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@ JoKe.. We had many a saw mill before “your kind” showed up. Now we have NONE…
Nevada City was a place heritage. Now you can’t tell the men from the women.
And this is what you call an “improvement”?
let us know how you can eat or drink “pretty”.
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Time to dredge up some “good ol’ boy” old time local hospitality. We like to give nick names to the green horns that came up from the flat lands.
Upon discussion one came to mind from a Cornish descendant friend that really fits.
” Goat shagger” Joe. Now wear it with pride. Welcome to the hills.
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Now, Mr. Walt, that was not very Nevada County friendly. And to think you were under consideration to drive the welcome wagon.
This neck of the woods has a lot going for it, which explains why it attracts so many urban sewer rats. For instance, most locals really do know who their Daddy is. We don’t ask “Whose your Daddy?
Another thing is we don’t have to tell Aunt Mildred that she is really Uncle Fred. And most of the locals know full well than tuna does not come from a can and tofu does not grown in a market, neither does that gawd awful thing called beef. Also, the locals know you don’t buy a Hummer if you live on a narrow street downtown or drive a Beamer or Porches if you live out on some teeth chattering rut filled road. Sure is fun seeing you drive those shiny vehicles around bottoming out on a bump or backing up on a narrow street cause your Hummer is too wide to let the other drivers by. Yep, them flatlanders are sure are a bunch of fartsmellars. And no, I don’t know where the nearest electric car charging station is. Try Nevada City or ask at the post office, if you can make it that far.
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George 9:44pm – I’m talking a prolonged drought, not just a two or three year event like the ones we experienced in the seventies and nineties. It’s a real possibility, and yeah, it would be devastating.
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….and still more complaining from the “Chief Scold of Nevada County”.
It’s a reminder that keeping your retail local has a real upside. You often have more control. Otherwise, stores open and close in your community at the whim of out-of-state, corporate owners.
Yeah it sure helped with that burrito place of which you were so fond!
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RL Crabb@9:44PM
According to the The West With Out Water author Dr. B. Lynn Ingram in an interview:
LI: A team of researchers have analyzed past and present climate change and shown that there is a 50 to 60 percent chance of a 35-year drought occurring in the West.
There is a link to the full interview at Sierra Foothill Commentary
I highly recommend the book. California has had 35 year droughts, 200 year droughts over the last 10,000 years. It also has had catastrophic floods. In 1861-62 the valley flooded 20 feet deep from end to end.
I also worry about a mega-flood hitting the region, as we’ve seen every one to two centuries. The last one was in 1861-62, and filled the entire Central Valley (350 miles long and 20 miles wide) with water 20 feet deep. This was caused by 43 days of rain from atmospheric river storms.
The history of California climate is chaotic, with droughts and floods. We are living in a 200 year period of relative calm that will not last. The sun, the ocean currents and the Jet Stream control the climate. These cyclical chaotic processes often over lap and cause long term climate changes. Sun Spots are in decline and could vanish for 20-30 years, Pacific PDO is cold for 20-30 years, Atlantic AMO is turning cold, Arctic and Antarctic ice is growing and this combination has not happend for 200 years. Things are going to change, we just do not know how, more drought, huge floods, all are possibilities.
Our political leaders in Sacramento are preparing the state for anthropogenic global warming, that is not happening and has a very high probability of not happening over the next 20-30 years given the emerging solar and ocean current activities. The probability if for a cooler and dryer earth for the next 20-30 years.
Are you prepared?
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Opps Should read: “The probability is for a. . .”
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California Water Resources Board has the charts at this link for the current levels of all the dams and reservoirs in California. Nevada County seems to be in the best shape of all. Explore its links for interesting info.
http://cdec.water.ca.gov/cgi-progs/reservoirs/STORAGE
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Jeff P writes
This is funny, listening to RL Crabb and Russ Steele reminisce about their tolerance for the out-of-towners, including the “gays.” They wear their ignorance on their sleeves. But here’s the real issue for our western county: How is it going to grow when the local media ridicules the newcomers?
I do not remember making any recordings? It hard to listened when there are no recordings. More professionalism from the former editor of The Union.
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Dr. Rebane @ 9:44
I fish on the Lower Yuba River below Engelbright Dam for 20+ years and this summer including my last trip in the middle of August was hard fishing due to the high water. In the middle of our drought the water was up into the willow bushes on the bank and fishing was difficult. No, it is not just an excuse for my skill set. Somebody was selling a lot of water, my guess is NID as they are the major player upstream. Your point about us being “the first consumer of water” is my thought also. We still have excess water to sell apparently. The old Mark Twain saying “Whiskey is for drinking and water is for fighting” is going to really apply if we have another low rain year.
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How things could have been a whole lot different today if the “first hippy” had had the attitude and “insults” of the likes of Joe, if he abused the hospitality of those who had allowed them in, and shared what they had.
If John Muar had pulled that with Grand Dad, he would have been pulled out of the house and drowned in the river. Gramps had the “tolerance” of the differing views that Muar had, and was one of the few miners that took him in from the cold. (They were good friends, but with different opinions )
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While California was enjoying a period of uncharacteristic moisture levels, it would have been a perfect time to build dams to store water for the dry future. However, since 1970, California’s population increased 87 percent to nearly 38 million. The state’s water reservoir capacity increased only 26 percent. It appears the agriculture industry will be made to pay the price for declining water supplies, so California’s liberal cities don’t have to.
The last new dam of significant size built in California was the New Melones Dam, on the Stanislaus River near Jamestown, in 1978, more than 35 years ago.
– See more at: http://www.flashreport.org/blog/2014/09/09/part-ll-state-government-corruption-groundwater-and-gun-control/#sthash.e4TZMqcn.dpuf
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RLCrabb 543am – Yes, we are both talking about the same kind of droughts (see RussS 741am). To my knowledge there is no record of the Sierra going dry and killing the forests even in the worst periods of drought. So it still comes down to who down there will come up here and take our remaining water by force. I repeat the important point that we don’t make water disappear; all that we use goes back into the ground or into the waterways to the central valley.
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Looks like there is trouble in Nevada City of the Pacific.
http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2014/09/10/plans-aim-to-move-hawaii-homeless-population-out-tourist-meccas/
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Even during the long term droughts, there were individual years that exceed the average flow in the Sacramento River. However, those years are fewer and farther apart. You can see the historic flow of the Sacramento river here:
http://sierrafoothillcommentary.com/2014/01/23/long-term-river-flow-droughts/
While you are there look at the huge flood years including 1330, which far exceeds that of the 1861-62.
We need to develop the storage capacity to capture the flood years and save the water for the dry years.
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RussS 959am – Agreed. People from biblical times have recognized that you prepare for the inevitable lean years by storing up stuff during the ample years. One of the many areas of progressives’ ignorance is not recognizing the value of such obvious policies. (These are the same nut jobs who in times past, when there were natural or government induced shortages, criminalized ‘hoarding’ – i.e. prudent acquisition, storage, and allocation of the scarce resource. People who live hand-to-mouth are much easier to control.)
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Well water storage has never been a big priority to our LIBS.
All we got out of them was “wild and scenic”. Pretty” is more important.
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I wonder how many millions of gallons of water is stored in the flooded mines under Grass Valley? According to this article in The Union the water can be effectively processed:
The City has been successfully treating Drew Tunnel flows and has been working with Regional Water Quality Control Board, amongst other agencies, to resolve this issue for many years … Public health is not endangered from the Drew Tunnel flows, because the contaminants in the flows are aesthetic issues (i.e. taste, color, and odor), and the City’s WWTP (waste water treatment plant) is effectively removing these aesthetic issues during the treatment process and prior to discharge of treated effluent to Wolf Creek.
Grass Valley maybe sitting on a great reserve supply of water in dry years, even if the libs will not let us dam the rivers.
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Bill T. I found a button in that mess that applies today.
” Raise your expectations…Dump Brown” ( and don’t forget to flush….)
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Was just informed that leftwing bloggers are celebrating the victory of a “slow growth” politician in another county. Given that we have already ensconced both a slow/no growth legislature and governor in Sacramento, that seems like a staid ‘dog bites man’ story. A joyous event would be to find pro-growth (better yet ‘balls out growth’) candidates who win elections in California – now that would be news.
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Which county?
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Found it. El Dorado County. Her is her vote percentage. A plurality not a mandate.
“Frentzen, a member of the Cameron Park Community Services District, won with 31 percent of the vote with all 14 precincts reporting.”
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2014/09/09/6694089/frenzten-holds-large-lead-in-special.html#storylink=cpy
For those that don’t remember. El Dorado County was the target after Nevada County back in the 90’s by the eco freaks. They started a General Plan after ours and they took a record setting time to finish after ours was hijacked by the eco freaks. A river raft guy got elected there and his deal was to save the American River so his business would not by impacted by a dam or something. Also, they placed caps on the number of homes and like Nevada County, the eco’s ran out the businesses and all that was left was construction. The woman who won apparently already has a house in Cameron Park and she wants to put a gate up.
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Here’s another academic finally coming to the belated conclusion that income inequality is really talent based, and things will get worse if the govt doesn’t step in to stifle the unfair uses of talent. You RR readers are so far ahead of the game 😉 (H/T to correspondent for link)
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/the–talent-based–economy-is-to-blame-for-increasing-income-inequality–university-of-toronto-professor-183339728.html?soc_src=mediacontentstory
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Is this pre-emptive butt covering if “something” goes wrong tomorrow? ( Uhh,, blame it on the Sun)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Scientists say an extreme solar flare is blasting its way to Earth and could mess up some power grids, satellites and radio transmissions.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_SCI_SOLAR_STORM?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-09-10-17-56-39
I trust NOTHING out of this government. Not even a defiant, possible, maybe of a natural event on World ” let’s slam America” day.
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Walt@03:58 It is only an X-1 flare. An X-6 and above and one needs to worry about your electronic devices and the power grid. I got a warning on my cellphone at 10:56AM this morning.
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Russ. I just find the timing a little convenient. That’s all.
There has been more than a little chatter about the “possibility” of an EMP device
being employed against us. ( The results are about the same)
I put nothing past our enemies. Especially in our weakened defensive abilities. Even Russia
has been playing some dangerous games along our boarders.
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Them flatlanders are after our water. Just look at recent events. Flatlanders move up here and their first stop is NSJ to shag their cousins. Then water is stolen from the fire department and where young childrun go to get book learned.
Coincidence? I think not! Lord BubbaBubba is peeved when there is even the slightest whiff of opposition to Friscoizing Nevada County. Purple my nice round firm buttocks! He grips the farting post and dreams of blue. Must be homesick. This is the same bunch of urban sewer rats that wanted to tear down the little dam on the creek that flows through Yosemite that supplies Bagdad by the Bay’s with drinking agua They are loco, plum crazier than a screen door on a submarine..more loco than…well, more local than a sewer rat.
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Yes Bill. Hetch Hetchy dam … tear it down to restore “little” Yosemite valley to it’s former pristine glory, then “preserve” it.( keep everyone out)
The S.F. LIB mind is too complex to comprehend. Tear down an asset to create a liability. All at taxpayer expense.
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looks like Nev. Co. wasn’t the only one to score a military buggy.
Even schools can get one.
http://dailycaller.com/2014/09/10/san-diego-school-district-gets-its-own-mine-resistant-army-vehicle/
Just what they need to stuff those detention brats in.
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I admit that this surprised me a bit……
http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFKBN0H52IX20140911
Roses are red,
Violets are glorious
You don’t want to piss off,
….Oscar Pistorius!
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