Sunny California

OK, we aren't in Southern CA where it is really sunny, (and sadly smoky) but we are still in Pine Grove and the weather is pretty darn nice. Had to have the furnace on the other night, but the days are nice. It is supposed to rain tomorrow so we will catch up on our reading. I tell ya, this retired life is busy, busy! The last two days we have worked in our friends' yard. They are 86 and 84 and their son lives with them but he is very busy with work, etc. Barry was in Nam with him. So anyway, we have been acting like homeowners and being damn glad that we don't have a yard to maintain! It is kinda fun when you know you don't have to do it all the time. And the most amazing thing, the wind doesn't blow here much so the leaves fall and stay put. Something we sure aren't used to!

A few days ago we went to a State Park here called the Indian Grinding Rock. It was very cool. The Miwok Indians, ( as in me don't run, me walk) (no racial slur intended just a pronunciation explanation) lived here for many many years. Their prime source of food was the acorns. They found large flat slabs of stone and pounded the acorns and other seeds into a meal. If you have ever tasted the meat in an acorn you know it is very bitter. (I know, as a kid I tried it once. Blaaa! Really bitter and horrid. ) Anyway the Miwoks pounded them into a meal and then washed them and washed them over and over to get the tannic acid out of them that made them bitter. The big flat rocks are in the park, and from the years of grinding acorns there are cup like indentions, and some of the more creative Indians (The women, as the men were out killin' stuff,...somethings don't change huh?) carved petroglyphs in the rocks. It is believed that some of these carvings are 2 or 3 thousand years old. It is said that the Miwok women ground the acorns and socialized on this large slab. The indentions are pretty close together, so you can visualize women sitting there grinding away. (I had to wonder if the sand from the rock wore their teeth out??..perhaps the sand washed away in the rinsing process.) There is a smaller grinding rock near the big one with only one indention. Guess nobody liked that lady. Anyway it was very cool. Their meat source was deer, so they had no large hides to build teepees so they made conical shaped homes, like teepees but out of wood. The Miwoks still use the state park for cerimonial and cultural stuff. There is a huge round house that is used for cerimonial stuff. Today the Miwoks own a huge casino here in Pine Grove so they are very very wealthy little Miwoks. The casino is Las Vegas style, very large and very busy. John works in the water treatment department of the casino. We went there last Friday night for their seafood buffet and it was really good.
OK, well enough for this time. Talk with you later.