Celebrating Local Heritage

It's late summer so we have foil on the windows to cut the heat and glare from the sun. We sleep in a tent in the backyard because our little house is just too hot. As I write this, a feisty yellow jacket is trying to gain entrance through a torn screen. The "snake proof' fence my father engineered some forty years ago is now falling down in places. Needless to say, it is no longer snake proof. And it looks like someone, at one time, tried to drive through our gate without first opening it. When winter comes, so do the rains. Then it's time to worry about the leaky flashing around the lopsided chimney my great uncle built or the cold invading the house through a damper-free fireplace. Home is a contractor's paradise and a "city-dweller's" nightmare. The need for repairs seems endless and sometimes even insurmountable.

  Wagner Family Cemetery, Friant, CA

Like bits of obsidian, there are memories here in abundance. I love this place and now, too, so do my children. So we withstand the
small discomforts because we take comfort in what we have gained from living up here in these untamed foothills. A sense of pride
in being able to say we are the 4th and 5th generations living here; an understanding of what it takes to actually endure and, more
importantly, conquer one hardship after another; and, finally, a greater appreciation for each other, individually and as family.