Raymond, California—The day before Super Bowl Sunday

We had a rare opportunity to be in Raymond on Saturday, the day before the big day. We were heading to Fresno to pick up a barbecue grill and would be passing through. I had been curious about what the town does in preparation for America’s biggest sports spectacular. As we drove through town toward the west, we noticed several pickup trucks parked by the combination grocery store and bar. The store is located about a block away and down the street from the Frontier Inn, another bar with a lot of pickup trucks parked nearby. We saw a man entering the post office by himself. Since we didn’t see any other people out on the streets, we figured everyone must be at home cooking up a bunch of hot wings and nachos. And getting the beer nice and cold. Down the road a piece I spotted a large yellow dog which seemed to be guarding the entrance to a place where you can get your name and a brief synopsis of your life’s accomplishments carved onto a polished granite slab. If you’re not “all that good with words,” they have a list of suggested phrases, like “He was a good husband,” “She was a good wife,” and “R.I.P.” For a town that depends on the production of granite, I thought that little business was a brilliant piece of entrepreneurship. Too bad Raymond doesn’t have a cemetery; I’ll bet sales would really pick up and the big yellow guard dog wouldn’t be so scrawny.

More on new barns

Today we put up the first half of the rafters for the roof that will cover the new trailer bodies and extend up the hill for a boat shelter. The trailers are far enough apart that we can park the 22-foot aluminum ferry boat between. Up the hill we will extend the roof to shelter the smaller “luggage boat” to protect it from sun and rain. The all-steel 29-foot boat stays up at the lake (thankfully!) since it would now be impossible to get it out from there, what with the Forest Service road having deteriorated so badly since the boat was first taken up over forty years ago. Even back then it was difficult, requiring anchoring parts of the trailer to large boulders along the road with winches in order to get it around tight corners.

We dug four holes for piers to support the overhanging roof for the luggage boat.

One of the holes was dug through almost pure red clay. The others were dug through mostly rock with red clay as binder to make it difficult.

Karla and I handled rearranging lots of the rocks that were unearthed during the making of the “flat place” (ha!). Without the addition of nine yards (12,700 pounds) of gravel, we would have ended up with an unworkable gooey red clay place for the trailer bodies. The gravel was of local origin, known as Sierra White from the Raymond Granite quarry about 15 miles from here. It is so much better than the crushed river rock that has been the standard for gravel around here for decades. Besides it’s the same rock used for the steps to the US Mint in San Francisco, most of SF’s old-town curbstones, the ancient city of Atlantis and 30% of the Moon. Kinda makes you feel good to walk on such hallowed rock.