November 28- December1, 2025 Shoshone to Death Valley, California

 67 and sunny.

Helping my sister lay drip lines for the palm trees. U sunset clouds. 

Sunset and moon . Eagle Mountain on the way to Death Valley.

We are down to Death Valley for the week. Grackles roosting in the campground with the moon. 

We are used to camping at Sunset Campground which is  higher up and has no pesky trees in the view. Sunset is closed till January, so we are in the lower Furnace Creek Campground. Nice enough campground, but I miss the view. Blooming desert gold. These don't usually bloom until end of Feb or March. Perhaps we will have a wonderful bloom this year if they are already starting. 

Sunset at Furnace Creek. 

Freeze warning in Death Valley tonight. The low will be 47. . . We loaded up our boats and went to Badwater ( 282 feet below sea level) to boat on Lake Manly. Lake Manly is usually a dry salt pan. But with the atmospheric river it turned into a lake with water. That's me out there. 

John on Lake Manly, paddling away from the shore. The colors and reflections are beautiful. Looking north from my boat. 

Looking south at John. We paddled out about a mile. This is as deep as it got, maybe 12 inches. 

John with a colorful sundog. The wind came up a bit and there were some waves, they cast cool shadows on the bottom. 

Bigger waves. Paddling back was more work. We had to drag the boats about  3 10ths of a mile on the salt to get back to the car. 

Sunset was this kind of weird sundog. Sunset with birds. 

We walked over to the golf course, 214 feet BELOW sea level and had dinner at the Wild Rose saloon. 

November 24-27, 2025 Shoshone, California

 68 and sunny.

The latest masterpiece. It is made from dyed pine needles, polyester thread, glass beads and the center is a painted Mexican tile.  It is 8 x 8 x2 inches. This cool Nano Nest is parked in Shoshone right now. It was on it's way from Vegas on an advertising tour, when the wheel bearing s caught on fire on the trailer. So it spent the night here. You can order them to be put on property, or keep them on the flatbed and use is a mobile home. It is cute, but seems impractical. There is no insulation and the sides are windows, so it would be hot when it is hot and cold when it is cold, the only storage is a wardrobe in the bedroom. I could see it put somewhere where there is a lot of foliage, then it would feel like living outside. Looks like they have been using them for disaster relief as well. 

The bedroom is at one end and the bathroom at the other end. There is shower, but it has a plant in it here. Looking from the bathroom door to the bedroom door, and visa versa. 

About 100 ravens roost in the garages in the county buildings at night. We could hear them as we walked up, and they took off flying in circles when we got there. Pretty cool, but a bit like that movie the birds. I have a handful of rainbow.

James and John on the white trail ahead of Judy and I. We are back at my sister's house, among the palm trees. The road base that got wet in the rain dried enough for us to drive on it. 

Sunset had this cool light pillar in it tonight. 

They are going to blow insulation into the attic tomorrow. Judy can't be in the house for a bit afterwards, so she set up her camper to hang out in. It's like being in a campground!

The Aspen insulation guys blowing 10 inches foam insulation into Judy's attic. Took them about 4 hours. Toni and I walked on the Blue trail. It was not too muddy, but we tried to continue on the Aqua and the Celery trails, they were both impassable with mud and standing water. Nice day to be out though. 

This oleander stump seems to be morphing into some kind of octopus monster. It will be drilled out, it is too monstrous to dig out. Judy with John , who is smoking turkey dinner.

I helped Judy lay some dripline for the new palm trees. Sunset and moon.

Sunset west. John prepared and scrumptious Thanks Giving dinner. Thanks Darling. 

John and Judy preparing to eat their thanksgiving dinner, but wait, I want a photo first!

November 21-23, 2025 Shoshone Caiifornia

 High of 66 and partly sunny.

Sunset last night aft er the end of the rain. We went to China Ranch Date Farm. To get to the date farm you go across barren desert, then down a dirt road in a narrow slot canyon, into a valley full of palm trees. Very dramatic and magical. 

 The palm trees Judy just had planted in her yard came from China Ranch date farm. She bought 9 palm trees, this says that each one produces 100-300 dates per year!! 

At China Ranch. Judy treated us to date shakes. mmmmm.

 Rock formations leaving China Ranch. Chalk butte east of town seen on my bike ride today. 

Sunset starting.  Sunset has this cool crepuscular ray going straight up. 

Sunset with the crepuscular ray goin up. 

Sunset south. Sunset north.

 Sunset east over beautiful down town Shoshone. More cool rays in the sunset. 

Sliver moon setting. I will have to try again with a tripod tomorrow so the moon won't be blurry. The power is out, so I took a few photos of the Milky Way. I could even see it with my naked eye, but not this well. 

The power is out, so I took a few photos of the Milky Way. This one has an airplane flying by.

This is the other end of the milky way. The lights from Vegas wash it out.