Learning New Things...

I did it! I learned to French braid my hair!

I've wanted to learn to French braid for years...but it was always something I thought I'd never be able to do. With this new job I've been learning all kinds of new things...including welding, riding a quad, using a chainsaw and even running a backhoe (I should mention most of these were just an introdution...except the quad, which I'm getting better at).

Yes, it's me using the backhoe! A volunteer and I were knocking down stacks of adobe bricks that no one ever did anything with. The were once wrapped in plastic...but in this sun and wind, the plastic disintigrated and the bricks were left exposed...so they're pretty much on their way back to the sand and clay they started as.

I decided one morning that if I could learn all these new things, why shouldn't I be able to French braid? I understood the idea, but could never get it to work. That morning I was determined to make it work! I washed my hair and then braided it into two French braids! I didn't get a picture of the double braid but here is the single, which I also got to work.

It usually ends up being really loose and comes out before the end of the day, but I figure it's a start!

It's the part at the end I have the most trouble with...but it still works for hiking and working!

I was a little too excited about this!

Solar Flares, or Crazy Guy?

Yesterday I was at work in my office at Buckland Station. Sometimes Buckland brings in some "interesting" people because a lot of locals think it's haunted. (I'm in there alone all the time and haven't been bothered yet...) A couple from Yerington came in and the wife said her husband had a gift that he could see orbs and spirits, and he could also witch for water.

Later, Dave told me everyone could witch for water--you take two metal rods and when they cross there is water under you. I thought that was something my "Grammy" taught my sister and I to do to get us outside and get us out of her hair. He said he did it at work when he worked for AT&T, looking for water pipes and buried electrical wires.

Anyway the husband didn't find anything inside, but said there were spirits all over outside and he could see them a lot when he drove by at night. He also got out his St. Christopher medallion necklace and hung it from his hand. It started swinging around, pulling towards me, then pulling towards his wife. That was the coolest thing I saw all day.

He also asked me if he had a broom. I went and got one and he explained that it would stand up straight because of the solar flares that have been hitting the earth in the last day or so. It was a "corn broom" so the bristles are really uneven and it's kind of rounded. It only stood up for a second or so, but I really wanted to see it stand up on its own. No such luck, so I called Dave and told him to try it. It stood up for about 5 minutes before falling down and I tried it myself tonight:

It's been standing up for about 10 minutes now on its own.



Dave thinks it's because the bristles are holding it up. I think the real test will be trying this when there are not solar flares hitting the earth. Verna, my volunteer at Buckland Station, and I tried standing the broom up for a long time after that guy left...we really wanted to test it out, but the other volunteer, Richard, was the only one of us to get it to work.

Has anyone heard of this phenomenon before? Do brooms really stand on end when solar flares hit us? Hmmmm...........