Chico winter

It hasn’t started yet, but everyone refers to a time in the {near?!} future “when it starts raining.” The way people talk around here, I’m a little worried that our imagined winter in northern California might have needed a reality check… I think sunshine and coolish figured more prominently than days of cold rain in our winter scene. Maggie is certainly water tight, BUT we tend toward crazy in extended periods cooped up indoors, especially when our only mode of transportation is by bicycle. http://www.pinkwater.com/pzone/

We’ve been settling in at Riparia – the name of the land and its community of people who have kindly offered space for us to encamp. Lev appears to be having success at discovering Chico’s more Pinkwateresque nooks and crannies. (If you haven’t heard of Daniel Pinkwater, check out one of his many books including The Hoboken Chicken Emergency. If you read The Snarkout Boys and the Avocado of Death, you too will be looking for weird all-night diners that serve baked potatoes!)

The fog has been thick many days and nights – what I would call “pea soup fog” if I were in Vermont. Chico is very near the Sacramento River, a lush and reportedly fertile valley. Certainly there are lush fields growing happy-looking green vegetables all around us. But there hasn’t been rain in months the neighborhood farmers tell us. They’ve been hoping to get a cover crop in without having to irrigate. This morning it was clear and cool. I was making tea wearing a long sleeved t-shirt, flannel shirt, wool sweater and fleece and watching a crew of young “grubbers” (growing resourcefully uniting bellies) digging asparagus trenches stripped down to their skin!

We adjusted the solar panel in an attempt to catch a little more of that increasingly low lying sunshine. Not only are the days getting shorter, the sun’s route across the sky is lower. It’s now appropriately angled atop Magnolia’s roof. Reduced solar generation is another one of those realities that we might have left out of the winter story we’ve been reciting to ourselves. The days getting shorter translate to less electricity generated in solar terms. No doubt we’ll need to adjust our electricity wasting lifestyle too!