Month: December 2009

Let there be peace on Earth …



bigsurkate Xmas Card, originally uploaded by wind_dancer.

… and let it begin with me. These are all objects in my cottage, put together for this year’s web-based Christmas Card.

And yesterday, Christmas Eve., in gorgeous sunshine, I finally planted the Tulips that were beginning to sprout, and tossed handfuls of wildflower seeds in the raised bed I had prepared. My gift to myself this season is the planting, the sprouting, and the flowering of nature outside my cottage door. That, and the Makita driller & driver set I found on sale at that Orange Store! A gal’s gotta have her own driller & driver! (my other one was eaten by the dogs, a few years back.)

Today, Christmas Day, I will be attending a Christmas Open House, one mountain south of me — a chance to see neighbors and friends I only get to see a couple of times a year. Merry Christmas, everyone!

Christmas Eve



Xmas Decoration, 2009, originally uploaded by wind_dancer.

May your holidays be joyful, filled with laughter, family, and friends.
And may peace fill our days in 2010.

Xmas Flowers



Xmas Flowers, originally uploaded by wind_dancer.

A few Holiday shots for the next few days, so that I can wish everyone a very happy holiday season!

I am still keeping an eye on the weather, but nothing predicted until Saturday evening. If that changes, I will note the change in my blog.

Weather Report, 12/22/09

As of 6 pm last night, we received .25 inches of rain during the day. Gentle drizzle, but the wind kicked up in the evening, and this morning we woke to another .25 inches, and frost everywhere. At 11 am this morning, it is a whopping 38 degrees!

The great Pacific is absolutely covered with white caps. As is often the case, when it is windy down there, the ridges are quiet.


This was taken Sunday night, and you can see Monday’s storm organizing on the horizon. I love when one can see the currents on the water, as depicted in this photograph!

Exquisite Attention: a true story

It is the longest day of the year. Dark comes early, and tonight, it came with rain, low clouds and fog. The road to my house is five-miles of sheer torture – for me, and my Jeep. It is the worst road in Big Sur. Ask anyone who has driven it, they will agree.

The USFS had a consultant come evaluate the needs for wildfire community protection. This included the existing roads. He rated my road as the 4th worst road in the WORLD that he had been on, right behind Cambodia. That’s my road, on a bright, sunny day.

On a dark, stormy night, with clouds sitting ON the road for 4 and ½ of the five-miles, the nightmare turns into a Stephen King novel, but the only characters are me, my dogs, and THE ROAD. That was tonight.

It is a novel I have read before, and swore I would not re-read, if at all possible. One night, it took me a full hour to traverse the 5 miles. I had to stop the car, get out with a flashlight, and find the edges. Edges here are very unforgiving – straight down for thousands of feet.

Another time, under the same conditions, I came across a very big, downed Coulter Pine, completely blocking the road. It was on the steepest, windiest portion of the road – pouring rain, and thick clouds that create an almost white-out effect. I had to back down this mud-slick, steep road only ¼ mile for a turn-around, but that ¼ mile took me the rest of the night. Once I got to the turn-around (an hour later), I could not drive. I was shaking so badly, and the weather was so bad, I climbed into the back of the Jeep and opened the bottle of champagne I had in the groceries, pulled out my emergency blanket and pillow, and slept amid the groceries and two of my four dogs for the rest of the night.

Tonight, the longest night of the year, I did not want to get home after dark, with the conditions what they were, but I had no choice. I had to overnight something to the Court of Appeal I had just finished at noon, and had three hours of driving plus groceries, and gas to pick up. I had two dogs at home, the door open for them, two dogs with me, and a warm bed and good book waiting for me at home. So, I made the drive up the mountain on this dark, stormy night, seeing monsters and goblins every time my headlights bounced off a bush in the fog.

I took my time, drove carefully, and paid exquisite attention to the details of the road, weather, and conditions. But when I finally reached my home, my tension was palatable. Now, my warm bed, a book – NOT Stephen King — and a glass of eggnog with brandy await me. Because once more, I Sur-vived THE ROAD, which tonight was malevolent.

Cal-Trans notes

Another set of closures, beginning January 3rd, check out the CT Projects page. Also, more photos of the Rain Rocks/Pitkin’s Curve project posted on that page. Cal-Trans is certainly keeping me busy!

Winter Solstice

Tomorrow, at 7:47 am, Big Sur time, the Winter Solstice occurs.

“The Winter Solstice occurs exactly when the earth’s axial tilt is farthest away from the sun at its maximum of 23° 26′. Though the Winter Solstice lasts an instant in time, the term is also colloquially used like Midwinter to refer to the day on which it occurs. For most people in the high latitudes this is commonly known as the shortest day and the sun’s daily maximum position in the sky is the lowest.” (Wikipedia)

There are as many different types of celebrations of this astrological event as there are cultures and religions, past and present. It is the “official” day of winter, here in the northern hemisphere, and it is when the days begin to lengthen again.

For me, rooted in a northern clime, the significance is both the beginning of winter, and the lengthening of the days. I am a person of the sun, who rises with it, and slows my rhythms when its time with me is also slowed. Long before we had a name to go along with these most natural of nature’s patterns (seasonal affective disorder), our bodies simply increased the secretion of melatonin in the body, causing longer sleep. Now, we know that special lights, plants, and negative ions can diminish the effect of the lesser sunlight.

It is a seasonal lull that many of nature’s plants and animals observe. It is a time for us to be focused inward rather than outward. Rather than fight the natural patterns, I choose to follow them, and become quiet, solitary, and introspective. Tomorrow, that time lessens, and my outward focus will begin its return, just as the sun increases its time in our northern skies.

I will celebrate the holidays with friends, as we all do, but for me, the true holiday is tomorrow, the Winter Solstice, when I begin my outward focus, once again, and leave the inner world I have come to inhabit.

(Note on photo: After Cal-Trans cut down some of our trees here in a turnout, one of local gentlemen went out and carved the stumps into lovely places to sit in solitude, admiring the great Pacific.)

Random Big Sur Photo #9



Faces in the night …, originally uploaded by wind_dancer.

It has been 3 months since I have done one of these. This one should be another easy one. I call this, “Faces in the Night.”

On a personal note …

I try to keep this blog pretty well focused on the issues and events of our coast, rather than personal matters, although peeks occasionally slip through, I admit. I also try to post every day. However, my work schedule was thrown off by the death of our friend Lee Buzzard. There is much to be done on both fronts, and it is the holiday season on top of it. I hope to get some photographs tomorrow suitable for posting over the weekend, but in the meantime, enjoy your Friday! And remember how precious your family and friends are in your life. Lee reminded me of that. Let him remind you, too.

December Spotlight – Post Ranch Inn

Post Ranch Inn began with a handshake in 1984, but the history of the ranch goes back to 1848, when 18 year old William Brainard Post stepped off a ship in Monterey.


W.B. Post (there were so many Bill Posts, that the original Bill Post is always referred to as W.B.)

A spirited explorer and entrepreneur, W.B. Post spent his early years on the California coast where he hunted grizzly bear and deer. Later he became a businessman, starting the first grain warehouse in Moss Landing and the first butcher shop in Castroville. In 1850 William Brainard Post married Anselma Onesimo, of Costanoan descent, with whom he had five children.


This is probably the only photograph ever taken of Anselma Onesimo, a tintype found in a family bible.

When he took out a claim on 160 acres of land in Big Sur, he became one of the region’s first homesteaders. With the help of his sons, he built a cabin. The red New England-style house, a registered historical landmark, still stands on Highway 1 across from the entrance to Post Ranch Inn.

The Post family raised cattle and hogs, and exported apples from a thriving orchard. W.B. and Anselma’s youngest son, Joe, married a neighbor, Elizabeth Gilkey. Joe eventually bought up claims from both of their families, accumulating nearly 1,500 acres, including the area of Post Ranch Inn. Together the adventurous couple ran the ranch and took hunters and fishermen on pack trips into the wilderness around Big Sur.


Joe Post, youngest son of WB and Anselma, Billy Post’s Grandfather. Though he was the youngest child, he seems to have been a natural leader


Joe and Lizzie Post


Lizzy and son, Bill, Billy Post’s dad.

Their son Bill continued the family tradition of leading trips and working as a cowboy and rancher. While employed as the mail carrier from Monterey to Big Sur, Bill gave a ride to Irene Fredricks, a city girl whose romance with Bill turned her summer visit to Big Sur into a lifelong stay. The couple opened Rancho Sierra Mar, a small resort and café near the Post Family home, which they ran with their two children, Billy and Mary.


Billy’s parents, Irene and Bill Post in front of the Rancho Sierra Mar Café, which is now the maintenance building for Ventana Inn. It was in honor of this first family restaurant that the Post Ranch Inn’s Sierra Mar Restaurant was named.

Born in 1920, Bill Post lived in Big Sur most of his life, and there were many chores on the self-sufficient homestead. After serving in the Marine Corps in World War II, Bill came home to run the ranch. He was raising two daughters on his own when he met and married Luci, the love of his life.


Joe branding a steer, Bill’s dad on the horse.


Bill leading a trail ride


Billy and Mary Post at a cowboy dress party at the old barn, which was where the parking lot to Ventana Restaurant is now.

Over the years, it grew difficult to hold on to the old style of ranching. In the early 1980s, a close friend and neighbor approached Bill and Luci with the idea of turning the land into an inn that would preserve the integrity and history of the Post family’s property. After shaking hands on the deal, they sealed the Post partnership with a shot of Jack Daniel’s, which has since become the Inn’s unofficial drink.

When an agreement was signed years later, the partnership bought Bill a tractor which he used to do nearly all the excavation and grading to build the Inn. The Inn has been
a Post family project in more ways than one. It was Luci’s idea to honor the early history of Big Sur by using the ranch’s cattle brand as the Inn’s logo, and she put together the library. Bill named each guest room in honor of the Post family and Big Sur pioneers.


Bill and Luci Post at the entrance road to the ranch after it first opened as an inn.

Bill’s sister, the late Mary Post Fleenor, ran the Rancho Sierra Mar Café until it closed in 1972. On its opening night in 1992, the Sierra Mar Restaurant was dedicated to Mary’s memory.

Bill Post, a loyal steward of this land for almost 90 years, was an exceptional and irreplaceable host for thousands of inn guests for seventeen years. We have the privilege of enjoying this soulful and historical property because of his generosity and foresight to make it available to guests. Bill’s gentle and genial hospitality remains an inspiration to all of us at Post Ranch Inn.

Article written by Soaring Starkey, Post Ranch Inn Historian. Historical photographs from the collection of Joseph William Post III.