My writing business, snow, and my son's visit

Sometimes it is better to write a little than not to write at all. I like this blog because I feel like I can write tiny posts without it harming anything.

Some of my other blogs are there for more important purposes, and so I write articles with a minimum of 500 words, and sometimes much, much longer. The pressure to write long articles is enormous because they do better in search engine results.

Today I've set before myself the task of writing 2 articles. One is a revision of an unpublished old article on what to do if your home business gets more business than you can handle. The other - I think will be on parental rights for disabled people.

And now, a prayer:

Heavenly Father, please help me with my writing. You alone know how hard this is for me. You are the only one who watches as I stumble and fall, and you know how much failure has become the norm for me. Please help me today and every day to get my work done and to write articles that are truly useful to those who need to read them. Let me do it all for You. In the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ, Amen.

It snowed all night on Thursday/Friday this week and we're expecting a lot more snow before Christmas. In the two years since I moved to Idaho, I've never seen deep snow. I saw deeper snow when I lived in Happy Camp, in California.

It gets a lot colder here, though, and the snow freezes to the pavement, whereas in Happy Camp the roads were usually cleared right away. People here drive on frozen, icy packed snow like it was just nothing.

This is what I saw when I woke up Friday morning. This is what Northern Idaho is supposed to look like in the winter... though too often I see no snow at all. The snow here is only four inches.

When I went into my office (a bedroom in my apartment) I saw that my window was iced over. I'm trying to train myself to take photos whenever I see something awesome... because I know it won't last long. Something will change. The ice melts, or light patterns change. So I snapped a few photos right away.

Once I settled into my office chair, which is a chaise lounge with a card-table desk that goes over it, I saw this sight out that window. The roofs, covered by white, and the icy window slowly warming.

That table is for filing. The little green-topped Truvia jars are what I keep little things in - like rubber bands, buttons, paper clips, etc..

Last week I decided to sponsor a poverty-stricken child in Mexico. I wrote about it on my Prayer-Power blog: Prayer for Children Living in Poverty. I love this little girl and want so much to be a blessing to her and her family, and her town. Her name is Brisia and she's eight years old, of Mayan descent.

A few weeks ago my youngest son came by to visit. I hadn't seen him in over a year so this was a wonderful event for me. I had to walk down to the truck stop on the corner, and he came rolling in with an 18-wheeler.

We ate dinner together at the Subway in the truck stop. This is how he gets his vegetables... something only a mom would spend time thinking about, I guess.

Okay, I'm ready for another visitor. Who wants to be next?

I'd better go do some serious writing now.

I Spent the Morning Reading About Bigfoot

I've been a Bigfoot blogger for ten years now. Go ahead and laugh if you want to. It is weird how these things happen.

There's always been curiosity about the big elusive creature. Does anyone forget the first time they saw the Patterson-Gimlin Bigfoot video?



When my 2 youngest children were about ages 6 through 10 we took a lot of "home school field trips" and several times were in Trinity County, CA - to visit Weaverville, the Joss House, the museum there, and the area around Clair Engle Lake, aka. Trinity Lake. As we approached Trinity Center, CA - there was a Bigfoot statue, and I was immediately drawn to it. "This is what I've been looking for," my heart told me. "They're here."

Ever since I first heard about the town of Happy Camp, I wanted to be there. Happy Camp, CA is a very remote small town in the center of the Klamath National Forest in Northern California. On January 11, 2000 I moved into a cabin-like house there, surrounded by the forest. The house was just outside of the town, in a semi-secluded area. There were other houses nearby.

The town of Happy Camp is full of Bigfoot statues now, but when I moved there, the only Bigfoot statue was the one in front of the post office.

There were also "Bigfoot footprints" painted on the sidewalk in front of the liquor store, and many of the businesses in the town were named after Bigfoot. There was the Bigfoot Trailer Park, Bigfoot Towing, and the Bigfoot Car Wash. That was in 2000 - several years before JavaBob opened his restaurant, JavaBob's Bigfoot Deli. Now that is closed but there's a place called the Bigfoot Store that has a deli in it, across the street from where JavaBob's restaurant was.

Brandon Tennant of Idaho, and JavaBob Schmalzback in JavaBob's Bigfoot Deli late in 2005, in Happy Camp, CA. At the time we met Brandon Tennant, he was doing research while organizing a Bigfoot conference held in Pocatello, Idaho in 2006.

Bigfoot Lives in Idaho
Brandon Tennant illustrated this.
Buy at Amazon.

I was always curious about Bigfoot, and wondered why so few of the Happy Camp local old-timers had anything to say about it. They acted like it was a joke, but they loved the annual Bigfoot Jamboree, a three day annual festival over Labor Day weekend.

By 2005 JavaBob was president of the Chamber of Commerce and I worked in a small office across the street from his deli. The chamber needed a focus for marketing Happy Camp and chose to market it as an artist's retreat town. I told JavaBob that we already had a theme in the town - and it was (and still is) Bigfoot.

Monsters, Myths, and Me
By Robert (JavaBob) Schmalzbach
Buy at Amazon

Anyhow, I got serious about wanting to find the truth about Bigfoot. I wanted to know why this town claimed a theme of Bigfoot but then denied any knowledge of Bigfoot sightings in the area. So I bought the domain name for my blog, Bigfoot Sightings, and started doing research.

I've never seen one, but many credible people have, and I know they're real. I collected no less than five Bigfoot sighting reports about sightings that happened within a mile of the cabin I lived in, there in Happy Camp.

When I moved to Idaho in 2013 I wanted to be able to continue Bigfoot research in the forests around where I live, in Northern Idaho. I live in Post Falls, which is on a prairie. No Bigfoot here! And I have no car anymore... so I can't do field research. But I do intend to continue working on my blog, which has been silent for many months now. I spent this morning "cleaning it up" - ie: making format improvements - and reading the amazing comments people leave there about their Bigfoot sightings.

I do believe I'll be blogging more there, soon. It is time for me to compile the rest of what I know about Bigfoot sightings in the Klamath River Valley.

... I said yesterday that I might write more about Keith today, but I'm just not ready. Maybe soon, but not today.

Update 8/23 - I decided to write about Keith on my other blog: How Comforting it is to Know He Takes Care of Us

Frustration

I run a small town news website - Happy Camp News - where I'm managing editor, publisher, head reporter, photographer, cook, bottle-washer, and everything else.

I've been trying to get the local sheriff's department to send me news releases since I started back in 2001. However I wasn't a real business until 2003, so at first I didn't press it. Here it is 2005 and I'm still having trouble with this.

What IRKS me is that the daily newspaper in our county seat gets news releases from the sheriff's department constantly. And I'm not asking for any extra consideration - I just want the same exact news they're giving to the daily newspaper. I pay a county business license fee and feel I'm as entitled to county sheriff department news as any other news agency in our county.

I've written to their PR Rep three or four times since January and went to see her once in person - she claimed she was in the process of getting used to a new computer system. bleah... how long does it take?

Our Sheriff will be here in town soon... and you KNOW what I'm going to be asking him about!

This week I finally got the first news release - check out my front page. "Evans Promoted to Sergeant". And this would be oh so great to hear except that it happened back in DECEMBER. I got the news release on March 18.

Working outside my home

I've been working at home for a few years now. I do webdesign and maintenance and write novels. But when I heard some of my friends were renting an office downtown I decided to ask if I could participate in the venture. Now I'll be sharing the office three ways, and it is a tiny little office... but I think if we all have different hours we won't get in each others' way too much. I'll be spending about four hours there, five or six days each week.

Ta-Done! Lots of Things . . .

It is 4 and here's what I've done today:

woke up at 10 due to having a long bout of insomnia last night;

journaled less than a page;

cleared a multitude of spam emails out and downloaded email;

contacted 2 clients;

referred a grieving parent to an activist near him;

contacted an online shopping service that let me down after taking my money (first time that ever happened!);

contacted the county assessor's office about business property;

did financial paperwork (always so much fun... not);

went on errands to the post office, pharmacy and grocery store;

phoned the tribe and got told to phone back on Monday;

approved messages for a mailing list I manage;

ate lunch;

updated three pages on this website (Linda's Life).

Now I have to get to work on a client's site.

Learning More About Webdesign

I've been busy working on my webdesign site. Tonight I'm studying CGI/PERL to use with the request form. I know there's other ways to do forms, but this is the only book I've got on it and besides, my current server doesn't offer PHP or ASP... at least not to lowly people like me who don't pay much.

Anyhow, I'm so glad to have the site nearly done. You can look at it now - but don't laugh - if you want to make constructive, polite suggestions, that would be welcome. :) Sorry you can't use the form for that since it isn't ready yet.... but there's always email. If you have Netscape Navigator 4.7 for a browser - don't bother looking at the site because the inline frames won't work for you and I haven't set up any other options. I would suggest an upgrade... try http://www.mozilla.com for a change... for example.

So... I plan to go to Yreka on Monday for my business license. I'm taking my son ... Aaron wants a video game and I want to buy him clothes. My daughter needs school clothes. Her friend predicts she'll last two weeks in school before quitting. We'll just have to see about that. I remember in third grade she lasted just one week before all hell broke loose ...but she wants to try this so in the interests of her having the kind of educational experience she wants, she's going back to public school this September.

Shopping, Restaurants, Water, and the Webdesign Business

Tonight my daughter and I drove to Oregon to go shopping. Well, on my birthday, which is already passed, I wanted to go out for dinner in Cave Junction (Oregon) and everyone I mentioned this to was telling me there were no restaurants there except a pizza place and a Chinese food place. So today we went through the town looking around and saw a lot of restaurants, both large and small, cheap looking and expensive looking... really a variety - and I wonder why those other people don't realize how cool it is to have all those places to eat out just over the hill... accessible in the summer when the road's not closed, anyhow. There were actually at least two pizza places and two Chinese food places. Anyhow, should we ever be able to afford it, we will go out to dinner there. Right now we barely have enough money to buy groceries until the end of the month.

When I got home, there was an email waiting from a guy who wants to talk to me about redesigning his website. I know I should be excited but for right now I'm having a panic attack. I don't know if I'm ready to start earning money! I don't even have my own webdesign site done, my business plan is only about half written... and I'm just plain scared. I'll go ahead and check out his project anyhow.

I love good bottled spring water. Now, if you happen to be in Mt. Shasta City or Dunsmuir, you can take your bottle and get your own fresh spring water at the source... filted through miles of lava within Mt. Shasta... I just love that. Here in town I'm at the mercy of the local grocery store, but usually there's some kind of good water. However....... over the hill in Oregon, there's some really interesting water. Right now I'm drinking Mountain Mist - premium artesian spring water - from Washington. It is so good! I also brought home four large jugs of Earth2O water from Opal Springs in Oregon - one of my favorite waters... and I don't know why it isn't sold in California... but every time I go north of the border, I get some of this.

My favorite water of all is Castle Rock spring water from Dunsmuir, CA... but the company changed hands and it is hard to find. I can only find little 16.9 oz. bottles here in town now. Castle Rock was my constant water source when I lived in the SF Bay Area - and when I moved north I found their bottling company in Dunsmuir - where I stayed for two months while looking for a home. The Dunsmuir site tells the story of The Best Water In The World... well, I believe it!... their "water supply" is piped into fountains all over town that run constantly (no on/off valve) so to get some, all we had to do was take our gallon jug to the nearest fountain and fill up.

Now if you look at a photo of Mossbrae Falls in Dunsmuir - you'll see where Keith and I went on our first "date" if you want to call it that..... the Falls are about 1/2 mile down the railroad tracks in northwest Dunsmuir and if a train comes you have to step aside... or else. Well, two trains passed us when we went to the Falls that day. It was fun and Mossbrae Falls is one of the most beautiful places in the world... just very hard to get to... so it is not crowded. :)

Fires continue and he air is smoke filled ... and fire crews were coming into Cave Junction to spend the night - at about the time we were leaving. There was so much smoke in the air tonight that on the way home the nearly-full moon looked like it was behind a cloud... barely visible. So far it hasn't been enough to make my eyes sting.

Classes: Weather Spotting and It's Your Business

Wednesday night I went to a Weather Spotting Class and now I'm a trained weather spotter for the National Weather Service office in Medford, Oregon! About eight of us were trained and signed up for the job. It was fun and I learned a lot about summer thunder storms.

On Thurday night we had the last "It's Your Business" class ... it was a lot of fun listening to and giving presentations about what we learned and what our next steps are in forming our businesses. I've decided to start a webdesign business believe it or not. It will be Klamath Design and the website won't be up for another month but I'm already busy making websites for the Chamber of Commerce here. In exchange they gave me the software I've been needing to start this business. I'm also doing other things besides webdesign but that is what I like doing best.

Of course I'm still writing my novels and I'm also putting up an author website that will hopefully help me sell my stuff.

In other news - my daughter's birthday is tomorrow! We got her a karaoke machine and are paying for her to have a pizza party downtown with a few friends.

St. Patrick's Day in Happy Camp, 2002

Tonight we're having a St.Patrick's Day dinner and dance here in town. The Chamber of Commerce does this every year. I'm so excited.. I'm taking my daughter and a couple of her friends. Meanwhile I'm making a new website for the Chamber of Commerce. I'm excited about that too because I just finished phase one of that project and now am ready to get feedback on the designs from the Chamber members.

Thursday night I got to meet Chris, who teaches the business class I've been taking through College of the Siskiyous. The class has been via video-conferencing... so this is the first time I've actually met her. It was fun. I'll be meeting with her later (probably online) for an individual consultation on the business plan I'm writing. After meeting her, I got more enthusiastic about searching the web for business support, and I found a lot out there! Now this has revolutionized my life. I'm planning to start a virtual assistant business and to keep writing children's novels. After the class ends, I'll be writing a business plan for a pet store business - for the rest of the family to work in. We'll see how that goes!

Okay, on to other things. I'm going to run down to the Family Resource Center to see how the St. Patrick's Day festivities are progressing.

LATER...

The dance tonight was wonderful. My daughter and her friends had a great time. There were about 30 people there. I had to get tough with some of the kids who walked through the doors without paying. It is so hard for me to be tough on anyone... but I bounced them anyway. There were a lot of little kids there, and towards the end there were lots of teenagers. My daughter got a nice pair of sunglasses for a door prize. I got a nice wooden recipe box to hang on my kitchen wall - from the silent auction.

*we should do this more often*

Classes, Webdesign, Writing, and a Truck

I have suddenly become so busy! It all started about ten days ago. My friend, Judy, mentioned she was going to a business class and was worried that there might not be enough students for the class to continue. I thought about that... and realized that I too would benefit from taking a class on small business setup and management... so I volunteered to go with her. It turned out to be a class through the college extension program. Walking into the room I met Tracey for the first time and found out we would be televised for video confrencing. I found that very shocking, but adjusted soon enough.

Tracey mentioned that she was taking an EMT class that I could still get into, though I'd missed at least one class... so I decided to sign up for that too. I don't know if I'd ever get a job with an ambulance service (okay, maybe...) but it will help a lot to have some medical knowledge in case my family or neighbors need emergency help. This class is on Tuesday nights and the other class in on Thursday nights. The EMT class has a lot of required reading. The business class has less reading but homework that is aimed at setting up a small business plan.

Besides all that, I took on two web design projects this week. I'm very excited about both - they are professional level jobs that I'll be able to use as references for other customers I may have in the future. One is for the Chamber of Commerce here in Happy Camp and the other is for the 411 "Information Day" Rally - a nationwide initiative planned by a friend in Sacramento. I have the framework for that one set up already - we're now just working on adding content. The Chamber of Commerce website will feature a page for each event and a page or link for each member business.

---

Next... I'm trying to keep up with the writing prompts in A Writers Book of Days and have a group of writers I'm doing this with - via a mailing list.

I'm coming up with some fantastic writing... in my opinion... I'm improving my skills as a writer quite a bit by doing these daily writing practice sessions. That brings me to where I am today - I just wrote a seven-page entry for writing practice and like it well enough that I'll be using it as the start for a novel about CPS. A few weeks ago I set up a mailing list for writers who want to do work on CPS related works. I'm planning to do fact-based fiction and philosophy for my first CPS related writing project.

---

We bought a used truck a few days ago. A very very used truck - I think it is a '71... but... it is a nice big 3/4 ton pickup... good for hauling and camping trips, pulling utility trailers.. things like that. Since we live so far from the stores, it really helps to have a big truck of our own. For example - recently our washing machine went out. We had to pay someone else to haul it to the nearest repairman. Another example - if we ever want to buy new furniture, we'll have to truck it in here from the nearest furniture store, which is either 70 or 100 miles away. Anyhow, the truck won't win a beauty contest but it is strong and should last a while. The man who sold it to us said it will probably still be running long after we're all gone. I agree with that... they don't make them like they used to!