Hollyhock Farms

Chippewa Ferguson and his friends

Who are some of my friends?  Glad you asked.  Try Warren Thompson in Kotzebue, Alaska.  When I was flying bush in northern Alaska, Thompson had been doing it for years.  Soon, he will be 80 (December) and will have logged about 44,000 hours in the air...and still flying.  Then there was John Ball (deceased), author of "In the Heat of the Night") who was also a friend of the LA County Sheriff's Dept. who took an interest in my writing and gave me the kind of enthusiasm that could lead to something. Of course, there is my wife, Kim, who has been the source of my being for decades...life would be so empty if she were not part of it.  I would hope that I could somehow put something together to give one the immense scope of how important this kind of friend can be.  Then there was Frankie, Terrible Ivan, Hamiltion...we ruled the woods in Whiskey Point in Brookline, Mass.  He died a few years back, but the elixir of wild, rebellious youth, the tonic that gave some substance to our lives then still remains within the old guy.  We could kick ass and take names back then.  Still comes in handy.  Chippewa says, "eat your veggies".

Anna of the Ukraine

Every now and then we are fortunate enough to meet someone who makes memorable impacts on our lives.  I have experienced such a event in the person of Anna Kaarishnakovishi (I'm joking...I forgot her last name) and her husband's name is Alexsi (I think)...anyway, she is robust, honest...brutally honest and everyone's mom.  She is also gluten free.  You may recall, I'm into soap and Alexsi and Anna think I should market the stuff as gluten free...why?  I'll tell you why...that way, when you wash the little twerps mouth out for saying things like f**k, he will not lapse into a catatonic something or other.  Also, the very fact it is gluten free will cause many to just buy the stuff...just like a "greenie" will buy anything organic.  Anna is into train travel as well.  She wants to accompany me on the Trans Siberian train trip.  She will tell you there is much to see in Russia.  Babuskas (common spelling), drunk people lying down, ultra modern rail coaches with very symetrical holes in floor to pop into.  She could be a travel agent for Russian travel...could be...maybe not.  Anna, you brighten our day...you too, Alexsi...or is it Bob?

San Luis Obispo Males Need Help

Now, why am I saying this...well, now that you asked...a few weeks ago, a fifteen-year-old girl was savagely assaulted on the main street of San Luis Obispo (Higuera Street).  This was not some pushy, shovey kind of thing...she was smashed with a closed fist, decked on the sidewalk and her jaw was broken in two places.  Her mother was with her...the man was a total stranger to them and to the hundreds of other people who were on the street at 1:00 pm on a Saturday...yup, it seems everyone saw enough of this guy and were privy to the action to give police a very detailed description.  Why am I so wrought up over this?  I'm presuming that there were a good number of males who witnessed this...and the best they could do was to gasp and wring their hands?  Well, San Luis Obispo is noted for a number of things...the college, bubble-gum alley and gonads free men who don't know the meaning of manhood.  I can imagine this happening in Paso Robles...the red brangus and barley crowd...they would have nabbed this moron and had him hog-tied before the police ever arrived. 

Paso Robles versus Napa