Welcome to the California Outback
It’s still quiet and not so bright out here. There are no spats between neighbors over drifting leaves, no glaring city lights, no screaming domestic arguments, no 3:00 a.m. party next door. I don’t know whether listening to birds rather than people is healthier or not, but I feel a lot better writing while watching a Cooper’s hawk build a nest in my redwood tree than listening to Stanford students during the week talk next to me at the campus coffee shops (“you know, like, uh, hello, whatever, cool, etc.”)
I can still monitor the day by the direction of the wind, the speed by which the clouds pass, the dew in the morning, the frost or absence of it in the early evening. I note spring by plum blossom time, gopher mounds popping up everywhere, doves breaking into the sheds to build nests, and the sprouting of weeds in the vineyard. All that might sound a bit artificial, given that my livelihood no longer rests, as it once did, on whether the frost takes the grape crop, but one does what one can in this age.
I like the human dinosaurs I still occasionally bump into. They are mostly gone from the scene, but every once in a while you cross paths with the caterpillar mechanic, the orchard topper, and the pipeline installer who never quite got on the modern bus and took a “different”path so to speak. They also talk differently and look at the world as if they expect it to run like it did in 1961. They are independent sorts, these in their late sixties and beyond. The only other time I see them is on visits to the cemetery when I walk among the graves and usually am startled into muttering to myself something like: “My god, I had no idea that old Clarence Anderson is in here,” as I see a familiar name from my childhood on the headstone at my feet.
Hiding out is not to be despised. Even when strangers drive in you can be out in the shed or barn or on an alleyway. It’s certainly not like being in the living room in a suburb when someone knocks on the front door. That safety valve eliminates all sorts of sales people, proselytizers, and strangers who just want “to talk.” (And rural salesmen in general are a weirder, more interesting sort, and their wares likewise occasionally odd, from snap-on tools to a year’s supply of frozen steaks.) Rural life is close enough to town for convenience and the avoidance of hermitage, but not so close as to be easily accessed.
I like dogs. And they are much more easily raised, fed, and their waste taken care of out in the country, and outside the house. Ditto cats. I think I have three, but don’t really know, since two, three, four or more turn up at feeding time in the morning. The dogs take care of themselves, and to the degree they chew on birds, cottontails, and gophers as relish to their dog food, I’m fine with it. I suppose the raw, uncooked meat, ears and all, is better for them than the processed dry and canned supplements.
Out here is also a refuge for a few hours per week from the nonsense of the modern age, the lectures to buy a Volt from the non-car owning Steven Chu, the calls for civility from “punish our enemies” Barack Obama, the warning about carbon footprints from private-jetting Al Gore, our “downright mean country” bookended with Costa del Sol, Aspen, and Vail, the “two Americas” paralleled with “John’s Room,” the New York Times editorials berating the 1% coupled with a $24 million payout to its own departing CEO. How pleasant to be far distant from that bunch, and their nonstop scolding, whining, and lecturing that serves as a pathetic projection of their own elite tastes and guilty desires.
One final thought. As we age (I’m 58), the conventional wisdom is to “downsize.” Sell the large house. Move into a condo. Travel more. Give up the lawn mower and chainsaw. Relax.
I prefer the opposite. Keep busier — more limbs to prune, add some more lawn, expect to spend three weeks hauling out leaves, and each spring to cut up a huge fallen oak or liquid amber limb. I saw that with my grandfather. At 80, his tasks multiplied while his ability to meet them diminished. If farming 120 acres was a challenge at 50 for him, mowing just a fifth of his lawn was even more so at 86. If the house I live in seemed from pictures in pristine condition at 60 (1930), when he was 40, it aged into the house on the hill in Psycho at 100 (1970) when he was 80. Still, he got up every day to do what he could, until he finally just ran out of gas, and one morning did not wake up. Living in the country ensures that the need to work keeps expanding as you diminish.
All this helps to adopt a similar outlook about America, not to tolerate the acceptance of a shrinking world commensurate with your own decline. I’d prefer America to take on ever more — pay down the debt, run surpluses in five — not fifty — years, build more dams and freeways, drill anywhere there is recoverable oil, beef up the military, require citizens to do more, not less for themselves, even as the bowing, apologizing, qualifying, sermonizing, editorializing, and nearly nonstop whining president seems to welcome our senility and wishes to retire the U.S. into a sort of permanent European condo with lounges on the tiny sixth-floor balcony.
Non hic porcus.
Re your:
….”The Roman lyric poet Horace wrote a fantasy satire about the urban mouse (urbanus mus) and his rural counterpart (rusticus mus), a morality tale about clearing your head from the flotsam and jetsam that ultimately don’t matter. Junvenal’s 3rd Satire too is a rant about the urban disease, the noise, and the crowds. In fact, the entire genre of pastoralism, from Theocritus onward, is a sort of romance of what was lost by moving to town, however contrived and artificial becomes the metered poetry.”
…..nothing new under the sun, right?
Lucky you, reading these in the original.
A lifestyle avoiding and/or making sense of Microsoft/Windows cryptic “Error” messages is too prominent right now, and not objected to enough.
We moved recently from south central Idaho to Logan, Utah. One of my favorite spots to take a break from a long drive had been a rest area along the Interstate near Massacre Rocks in Idaho. It is just a short 10 minute walk to a spot where one can see the wagon wheel ruts on the Oregon Trail.
ATK (previously Morton Thiokol) maintains a Rocket Garden west of here not far from Promontory Point. There one finds a plaque which chronicles the development of modern America–early settlement of the west coast via the Oregon / California Trails, accelerated settlement of the west via the Transcontinental railroad (notwithstanding the fact that our President has mis-labeled it Intercontinental on numerous occasions!), and exploration of “the final frontier” of space via ATK rocket technology.
Thank you, Mr. Hanson, for this fine essay–depressing, though, were it not for your concluding paragraphs! I hope and pray that many great men and women such as your grandfather will rise up again and help make America great once more–as the great men and women among the Pioneer trails travelers, Transcontinental RR drivers/track layers, and Morton-Thiokol engineers.
Dr. Hanson,
You need to be careful about the dogs and cats spending so much time out of doors. They tend to eat and drink the wrong things, get parasites and infections, etc….to the point where it statistically reduces their lifespan by 50%. Also, the dogs can get a little too feral without a regular human presence and some structured activity, like walks on a leash and such.
Regarding your security/theft problems – something to consider: there must be a few other folks within 10 miles of you who are also suffering from this. Why not get together with them and discuss ways of dealing with the problem? Perhaps if, as a group, you contacted the Highway Patrol or hired your own security service, it would help ease the pressure from these roving brigands.
I am thinking the thieves need a little lead poisoning.
The acute kind.
“STALLION”, you worry entirely too much about the wrong things. One of the fixtures on the farm where I grew up was a cat, “Bum Bum”, who was found abandoned by the side of a busy city street and brought out to fulfill the role of farm cat. I cannot remember when she arrived, as far as I know she was there before I was born; I was 14 or 15 when she passed, of an infection caught while she gave birth to one of her biannual litters. If her life had been reduced by 50%, well, it was certainly a well-lived life.
Mebbe, but I can’t help it. I’ve owned both cats and dogs, and I’ve got a real soft spot in my heart for the little critters. :-)
No Stallion, you’ve got it wrong. Dogs thrive on a natural diet, supplemented with dog food for any nutrient they may not get and when prey is scarce. Raw is wonderful if you are a carnivore with sharp teeth meant for tearing raw meat from bones. My male German Shepherd eats raw and he’s lean, healthy and muscular. My cat eats raw too. Their teeth have little to no tartar with absolutely no dental care on my part or the vet’s. And no worms, either. Dogs don’t need to be on a leash either. Farm dogs do great without leashes. VDH’s dogs and cats are very likely doing just fine.
Stallion, that’s a good way to get La Raza, Mecha, or other excusemakers for criminality siccing their attorneys on you, in California.
Things sort of are that far gone, in truth.
“The dogs take care of themselves…”
And they do. As Jack London described, farm and ranch dogs in central California have good, rewarding lives. Not an easy or idyllic existence but canines really seem to enjoy freedom, hard work and responsibility. (Insert “Dogs Must Be Republican” joke here)
And if Doctor Hanson sprung them from a local shelter, he likely saved them from lethal injections and they are way ahead of the game.
Around here, the pet-adoption nannies rejected my son’s application to adopt a dog, because his background check was his father’s/my Vet records, which, when they revealed that all the animals did not get annual check-ups, just their rabies shots, got him REJECTED. The fact that the dogs got to go for off-leash walks on the woods, several times a week, appeared to be irrelevant, or for all I know, maybe not even a positive attribute.
On the second try, he listed “no experience with pets” and they got their dog.
They tend to eat and drink the wrong things, get parasites and infections, etc….to the point where it statistically reduces their lifespan by 50%. Also, the dogs can get a little too feral without a regular human presence and some structured activity, like walks on a leash and such.
If THAT doesn’t attempt to apply an inappropriate – and patronizing – urban attitude onto a rural situation, nothing does. Country dogs walking on a LEASH? Sheesh. Their job is to patrol the premises at all hours for intruders animal and human, and they like to get around. They also appreciate the boss appearing at the door holding a .22, and hope for excitement and maybe a treat.
In my family we were always deeply appreciative of the unrestricted and unreserved love, loyalty and affection we received from our dogs and cats. If you think stepping out on the front porch and shooting a squirrel for your dogs is sufficient, you don’t understand the depth of their loyalty.
Stallion, you must be a city boy.
I am now, but haven’t always been.
I just worry about the little critters. :-)
Your well meant statement shows the profound difference of urban and rural ideas of animals as pets. My view of animasl as pets is informed by rural life and the utility of pet animals over the urban view of animals as small people who can’t talk or pick stuff up. Farm animals have farm jobs, usually. Urban animals are “kept”, like a Sugar Daddy keeps his honey.
I prefer my animals to be free and enjoy their lives and not be locked up to please the sensibilities of the SPCA. I still love my animals, but I do not get overly sentimental about them.
It would seem that bigger fences make better neighbors. Long before the first shots fired in the american revolution, colonies formed militia to defend their way of life against intimidation from outside. That’s why they are legal. That’s why there is still a Texas Rangers. It’s tradition, and that’s why the Left wants to do away with that legality. For the same reason that they want to do away the second amendment and the right to bear arms as self defense. When order breaks down, (not to mention where there was none to begin with) militia are formed out of pure common sense. People would come from all over the U.S. to volunteer for this defense as the military is in such a mess too and infiltrated by the Left. Defense of farms in California would likely be perceived (and promoted by media) as breaking along ethnic lines, but the Davis administration has tacitly declared non-black and non-hispanic to be second class citizens, if citizens at all, anyway. If he can get the private property of a particularly demonized and anathematic group, he can get private property from everybody else. That’s the goal of the race industry game. The U.N. begins usurping remaining control by then. The only way a non-black or non-hispanic can be absolved of any anglo-guilt is to renounce affiliation to anything non-black and non-hispanic, and take a place at a tv news organization loyally playing the race bait and race hustle [industry] game. It’s a rainbow strategy. Anyone can be a sanctified racist. As long as you play by the rules.
Davis administration has played such a negative game that if the so called “transformation” of the U.S. hits a snag, the purpose is to leave the system in such turmoil that it’s goals will happen in the long run rather than the short run. Or so they think. And so they’ve planned. For such contingencies.
Davis will have gone on to be U.N. general secretary by then.
“Most of us cannot rely much on the “sheriff” (I wish the “Constable” Iver Johannson from the 1950s was still alive, who kept things quiet out here), and assume the degree to which we will survive a rare break-in hinges on the degree to which we have sharp-toothed dogs and access (as in quick access) to firearms.”
“Hiding out is not to be despised. Even when strangers drive in you can be out in shed or barn or on an alleyway. It’s certainly not like being in the living room in a suburb when someone knocks on the front door. That safety valve eliminates all sorts of sales people, proselytizers, and strangers who just want “to talk”. ”
I like these two quotes. By combining them, can we infer that while hiding out in a shed, barn or alleyway you are armed, just in case? I realize you would prefer to have Iver Johannson back on the job so that it would not be necessary to take these sorts of precautions.
Exercising the precaution of self-defense through bearing arms is self-evidently rational and moral; not to do so is self-evidently irrational and immoral. I say it is immoral not to exercise self-defense because life is the gift of God; the value of human life (including your own) is infinite, and therefore must be defended against the evil of aggression.
“Americans have the right and advantage of being armed – unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms. “ James Madison
“Arms in the hands of citizens may be used at individual discretion… in private self-defense.” John Adams
“The Constitution shall never be construed… to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms. Samuel Adams
“The Constitution of most of our states (and of the United States) assert that all power is inherent in the people; that they may exercise it by themselves;… that it is their right and duty to be at all times armed and that they are entitled to freedom of person, freedom of religion, freedom of property, and freedom of press.” Thomas Jefferson
Amen Dr. Hanson.
I too am 58. I’m a design engineer in Mountain View, but raised in Texas. I’ve almost got the wife talked into a weekend place around Paso Robles. We’ve got our motor home parked there. The wife has begun to notice just how nice it is.
My wife and I moved out of Columbus, Ohio to the exurbs – 65 acres of land, half of it woods, but still a reasonable commute to the university in Columbus. We’ve never regretted it – it has been a wonderful place for our son to grow up a lot more free and more curious than his city friends. And we’re far enough off the road that really nobody arrives unexpectedly other than the UPS driver.
As someone who was born and raised in the desert parts of the outback of California (SoCal, Needles, Barstow/Victorville to be precise) I always enjoy the images and views of California VDH always provides. It reminds me what was lost and what I gave up to leave the failing state while at the same time reinforces why I left.
Here in Las Cruces, NM I have pretty much the same stark beauty I left behind. The same high desert and clear skies with the same folk who can’t drive. (though most can’t drive fast enough (I.e. 10 MPH BELOW the speed limit even in town!) While I don’t have the benefit of acres of land to take care of I do enjoy knowing that I can do most everything described in this piece as needed. :)
I agree with the central idea of making one’s stand in the country, not the city, and appreciate the family lore, but I can’t help but noticing that there is no reference to a significant other, children, or grandchildren. Granted that our lives all go in their own distinctive directions for so many different reasons, but having some youth around to supply muscle, security, or just a presence, helps my semi-rural life go better. If I did not have one son, four stepchildren and many stepgrandchildren fairly close by, the latter to hire for some of the gardening and wood-cutting tasks, I would spend too high a percentage of my life on such things. Also conspicuous by their absence are references to firearms. Maybe the good doctor needs a community of armed fellow monks to chant anti-Obama dirges and man the battle stations as needed.
Dwight;
I don’t know what your experience with small arms is, or is not, but one standing rule is that those who (a) have them and (b) know how to use them (c) don’t talk about it much.
It isn’t just “political correctness”, either. The fellow who is constantly bragging about his gun collection is apt to come home some afternoon to find that it has migrated into somebody else’s possession while he was out.
Ideally, the only time somebody you don’t know and who may not be trustworthy should even know you possess a firearm is when they are somewhere they should not be on your property, and you are looking at them from behind said implement. With a round up the spout.
cheers
eon
Hey Victor!!! Thank you for talking about the more interesting parts of California that the LA Times and SF Chronicle rarely mention. California just keeps on changing.
You do a good job discussing the demographic changes in a realistic way.
The older part of South LA is now 90% latino. You might need to bring your bicycle down there and check it out. I would be interested in what you have to say.
I’m sure you mean well, but you shouldn’t encourage the good doctor to bring his bicycle to LA. LA already has too many unlicensed drivers and now that the LAPD won’t be impounding their cars it will only exacerbate already dangerous conditions for bicyclists and pedestrians (not to mention other drivers). It’s bad enough he has to deal with this on country lanes, but it would be much worse on the mean streets of LA.
Lovely post by the doctor. He’s my weekly must-read.
I have ridden through South LA many times. It is not as bad as you might think. Those country roads in Fresno County do not leave much room for a bicycle and their is often broken glass by the side of the road. On a bicycle you get a good idea of what is going on in a neighborhood and for some reason it makes you blend in with the scenery.
I think Dr. Vic is tougher than you give him credit for.
His insights on immigration and the underclass are invaluable because he rubs elbows with the bad boys.
“At fifty, I gave up fixing my own clogged lines and tried calling the septic service.”
The one job is just wouldn’t do – having done it one time – was fixing a non-working or clogged head on my boat; didn’t care what it cost, I’d pay the marine mechanic to do it. I had the requisite sign on the wall, “If it hasn’t been in your mouth and through your body, don’t put it in here,” and yet about every other time I took some party of flatlanders out, I had to have something extricated from the head, usually a “feminine product.” Marine heads cause charter boat owners and operators to drink a lot.
And, Dr. Hanson, they don’t call the Ruger Mini-14 and Mini-30 “Ranch Rifles” for nothing; if you don’t have one or something similar, you really should.
Have you ever thought about publishing old and new pictures of your property as a comparison of the days gone by and today? We’d all like to see them. Don’t publish anything that would identify the property for potential thieves.
First, I love reading all of your essays. I have been especially touched by your writings about what has changed around hour home place, because the truth is those changes reflect how our world has changed.
My husband and myself live in Central Texas, just recently moving from a small town to a smaller town, with a house in what we call “the country”. It is our retirement home, and yes has more land to “work”. [only 2+ acres!!] I know you have lived in your home much longer, but I can identify with you a little….I love the bird watching, the wildflowers, deer sightings, coyotes howling, owls hooting, and so on. Most of all we love the quiet and slow living. And yes, we have a dog, and we have cats who adopt us too! I have a beautiful garden that I love weeding and planting. There is always something to do around the house, like you said, pruning, mowing or whatever, but we see it as “paradise” so to speak. I only hope we can all live the way your Grandpa and mine did, busy until the day we leave the earth. There are a few interesting things to note where we live:
1. So far, we haven’t suffered the theft and property destruction you have suffered, but we have noticed that beginning to happen in some areas. So far, the people in our area are watchful of each other. For instance, a cow or horse gets lose, we call the owners to tell them. If we see anyone driving around that looks abnormal, people will talk and ask questions to make sure all is well. That is about as exciting as it gets thank goodness!
2. That said, we do have security in our house, and firearms for protection, because we figure even though we have a Sheriff and deputies that can come to us, it would not be in time if there was an emergency. As a native Texan you might guess we have this attitude of self defense!
3. “Old people” like us [I am 61] aren’t the only ones moving to “the country”. In our small little neighborhood, most of the people building around us are young couples with children. The common theme is that they are moving away from the big city for their children’s sakes. [We are about 50 miles from Austin, and 10 miles from a large hospital in Temple.] Everyone of these young couples are professionals, like doctors, lawyers, salesmen. Many of the wives are stay at home moms who home school their children. They are all wonderful hard working families and they give me hope. I conclude that for those that can, have escaped from the cities to the suburbs, and are now moving farther out, searching for that place to live more independent lives, away from all the “controls” government has put on them. They want that “simple life” you and we are enjoying, despite the changes in the world.
This is disgusting. Especially the part about your dogs chewing on the bird. Mmmm, thems eats. Sorry, but didn’t we build up a nation so that we would not have to live as if it were 1880? And to a guy who lives in your much despised suburbs, I’ll take that any day over a little house on the prairie. But from the sounds of your crime problems, I do think you’ll need a Bat Masterson or a Wyatt Earp to keep the peace there. Forget about solving crimes in your neck of the woods. You actually need a peace officer, someone who can literally keep the peace.
As for us poor folk who live in your much maligned suburbs, I guess it all depends where you live. There are cookie-cutter suburbs where all the houses look the same and are right next to each other, but there are others with some more space and where people actually try to make their houses look a little different than the houses right next to them. It’s a form of individuality and independence, and we take that gleefully since there is so very little left for us to take. We take our kids to football and softball and soccer practice, we go to the local A & P and gipe about the rising prices, and we still pay way to much for a plumber or an electrician. It’s the place in our fair land where pizza is considered haute cuisine, all kids seem to have braces, you wouldn’t dare send your kid out without a cell phone (let alone an IPhone), and if you plant one or two plants in your backyard you call it “gardening.” It’s life in most of America, sir, and for some reason more and more Americans want to live this sort of life.
So knock off the insults on suburbia. We may not let our dogs eat birds here, but at least we have a good sewage and electrical system. But I will grant you one thing. If we ever were attacked by nuclear weapons or an Electro Magnetic Pulse (EMP) bomb, it would be people like you, in the “outback,” that would survive. Of course, you would have some really strange people you’d have to live with (think “Mad Max” and you’ll know what I’m talking about), but hey, it’s survival, right? Um, waiter, can I have my check now please?
I think you’re being a little oversensitive.
I don’t think VDH would begrudge you the choice to live in the ‘burbs; he just doesn’t care for it. I know people who love living in cities; I’d go postal trying to live in one.
Huh? I re-read the whole thing looking for the “insults” about suburbia. Didn’t find one. That fact that one expresses a preference for their lifestyle does not mean they are insulting another.
I smiled when I read the bit about having a good sewage and electrical system. Perhaps you do. But many suburban areas don’t Water and sewage costs are rising rapidly in many areas as the systems break down. In the Northeast, it is often the suburbs that are hit hardest with power outages in bad weather. Lots of attractive leafy streets = lots of trees pulling down wires. By contrast, here out in the country, my electric is reliable, as there are few trees in cornfields.
I didn’t detect any reference to suburbs, but to little towns in the farming areas of the San Joaquin Valley, which are a whole different kind of creature. But thanks for reminding everybody that my beloved Golden State has a reputation for harboring a bunch of unlikable twits who really think highly of themselves. For a minute there, I thought no one would step up to do that.
Now go and change your pull-ups.
What is this, city slicker versus country boy time? You surprise me with this post, LS So not like youto come across with a chip on your shoulder. Obviously VDH hit a nerve here, but don’t know why. Everyone knows the country isn’t for all of us, so what gives?
It isn’t the place that brings honor to the person. It’s the person who brings honor to the place.
“If we ever were attacked by nuclear weapons or an Electro Magnetic Pulse (EMP) bomb, it would be people like you, in the “outback,” that would survive.”
Ummmmmm…*thinking* *thinking*…somebody’s isolated property having food, water, clothing, shelter, maybe some medical supplies. It’s residents few; elderly and/or children long beaten down by political correctness, white guilt and bunny-eating dogs and cats…
Add: roving mobs of desperate, starving, impolite legal/illegal immigrants and others fleeing what was once the liberal free-for-all utopia to end them all; now a smoldering heap of reparation/white guilt ashes…
Oh, well…enough of that. Time for “America’s Next Idol Singing With The Dancing Stars Who Are Bachelors and Bachelorettes Now Needing Contraception From Anybody Else And Heaven’s Sake Before The Weekend Booze & Bash.
Ah, yes, and that old sense of entitlement sure makes my food, water, and shelter look mighty appealing to those kind of folks.
That’s why some of us keep good neighbors, like Mr. Colt, and Mr. Browning, and old Smith and his buddy Wesson.
No.
We built a nation so that we could live as if it were 1880 or 1980 or 2012, as we choose.
When it comes to country life, I’m sorry you don’t get it, but then, if more people did, our rural areas would be ruined, so maybe I’m glad you don’t.
Meanwhile, I’ve got to get some water stored in the basement in case we get a power outage during the summer. The winter ones are easy – we just melt snow on the woodstove for washing and flushing. (I say “easy” in a country sense that might not make sense to you city boys. It’s hard work.) We haven’t had a prolonged outage in the warmer months, but it really is almost as likely.
Enjoyed the essay.
First, I love reading all of your essays. I have been especially touched by your writings about what has changed around hour home place, because the truth is those changes reflect how our world has changed.
My husband and myself live in Central Texas, just recently moving from a small town to a smaller town, with a house in what we call “the country”. It is our retirement home, and yes has more land to “work”. [only 2+ acres!!] I know you have lived in your home much longer, but I can identify with you a little….I love the bird watching, the wildflowers, deer sightings, coyotes howling, owls hooting, and so on. Most of all we love the quiet and slow living. And yes, we have a dog, and we have cats who adopt us too! I have a beautiful garden that I love weeding and planting. There is always something to do around the house, like you said, pruning, mowing or whatever, but we see it as “paradise” so to speak. I only hope we can all live the way your Grandpa and mine did, busy until the day we leave the earth.
There are a few interesting things to note where we live:
1. So far, we haven’t suffered the theft and property destruction you have suffered, but we have noticed that beginning to happen in some areas. So far, the people in our area are watchful of each other. Even though our neighbors are farther apart here, we already know more of them than we did in the city. Our big day is if a cow or horse gets loose, we call the owners to tell them. If we see anyone driving around that looks abnormal, people will talk and ask questions to make sure all is well. That is about as exciting as it gets thank goodness!
2. That said, we do have security in our house, and firearms for protection, because we figure even though we have a Sheriff and deputies that can come to us, it would not be in time if there was an emergency. As a native Texan you might guess we have this attitude of self defense!
3. “Old people” like us [I am 61] aren’t the only ones moving to “the country”. In our small little neighborhood, most of the people building around us are young couples with children. The common theme is that they are moving away from the big city for their children’s sakes. [We are about 50 miles from Austin, and 10 miles from a large hospital in Temple.] Everyone of these young couples are professionals, like doctors, lawyers, salesmen. Many of the wives are stay at home moms who home school their children. They are all wonderful hard working families and they give me hope. I conclude that for those that can, they have escaped from the cities to the suburbs, and are now moving farther out, searching for that place to live more independent lives, away from all the “controls” government has put on them. They want that “simple life” you and we are enjoying, despite the changes in the world.
Dr. Hanson paints a stark picture of the fate for my area. Central Washington State is slowly becoming overran with illegals. Farmers hire them for peanuts – the state picks up the tab for their offspring and girlfriend – supplying medical dental and financial aid. Too bad they won’t do this for legal residents. Anything locked up – or not – is free for the taking where they come from – and they bring that attitude with them from wherever that was. They drive 5-10mph under any posted speed limits so they don’t draw attention to themselves – which seems to do just the opposite.
While I don’t like to lump groups into classifications one keep coming to mind – cockroaches.
Hmmm. No, I don’t think that’s why. It’s cultural.
I grew up in southern California. It was just a given that the local Hispanics drove slowly. No question here of “not attracting attention”. It was just the culture.
I also spent time working in the Rio Grande Large Flat Area Mistakenly Called A Valley. It’s common there to see bumper stickers that say, in English, “Stay Alive! Drive 45!”. The drivers are never Caucasian. The first time I saw one was on a highway posted at 70, and yes, the car was doing 45.
Dunno why, but it’s cultural, not just an attempt at avoiding attention.
Yup, it’s cultural alright. Sometimes, when one would like to get through an intersection before some large oncoming piece of equipment arrives there, it’s inconsiderate, dimwitted and hazardous.
It’s called “flow of traffic”, ese.
Dr Hanson;
I love your essays and must admit that I bring up PJ Media every day looking for your weekly submission. Keep up the good work! BTW, instead of spending my declining years living in the outbacks of California, I have settled on the water and in the jungle of Key Largo Florida, where nature is represented by every manner of beast and bird. Despite the idyllic pleasures of this paradise I do have to live without the pleasures of stray cats (the government has killed them all because they were guilty of devouring the “Florida rat” which is an endangered species) and have to share my swimming pool with a 14 foot crocodile (which the government has raised and protects as an endangered species). Also when I call the Wildlife Department of the state government I am told that I shouldn’t worry about the croc because they don’t eat meat!
In other words, it is all coming to an end in the world that we have known. It is changing, and not in any better way!
Best regards and keep up the great work.
Can’t you sic the pythons on the alligators?
Dr. Hanson, I must say that my I enjoy a feeling of joy each time I see that you have posted a new column. Thank you very much for what your good works!
Each time I read about your problems in rural California I remind myself how blessed I am to have lived my entire life in rural small-town Midwestern America. It seems that there are really two Americas. And I don’t refer to the political baloney of the failed John Edwards. For example, we have a constantly re-elected sheriff in our rural county that would have been driven from office long ago by the liberal PC weenies in many other states for some of the public statements that he has made. In my rural county these statements are just considered common sense and a display of attitude that makes him an unbeatable office holder. The liberal PC types have crime in their America whereas we have reasonable civility in ours.
Here are some examples that I personally have heard our sheriff (and friend) make….
“(1). Never take the law into your own hands. But don’t allow yourself to become a victim either. (2). Never shoot an intruder in the back. (3). If an intruder’s body falls out the door then drag it back into the house. (4). I object to the electric chair. I wish it were a bench.”
A culture that would allow for that kind of public expression coming from a local sheriff to be accepted as ordinary intelligence would be one in which you didn’t have to be beset by near anarchy on the part of the criminal class. Best wishes to you and your ever alert dogs. I hope you don’t get sued if they bite a thief in the butt. Unfortunately, I am sure you will.
VDH: “I like the human dinosaurs I still occasionally bump into. They are mostly gone from the scene, but every once in a while you cross paths with the caterpillar mechanic, the orchard topper, and the pipeline installer who never quite got on the modern bus and took a “different” path so to speak… They are independent sorts, these in their late sixties and beyond.”
You are describing the all-American man – a happy man – happy because he is alive and free – happy because he survives off the fruit of his own creative labor. Marxists don’t like these men – because they won’t take their place in the collective – they refuse to become an identical and controlled member of their Borg. Marxists are never happy when ordinary people are mentally unique, happy, creative and free – Marxists are happy when men are mentally identical, monotonous, unhappy and controlled.
“The individual is only a cell… power is collective. The individual only has power in so far that he ceases to be an individual… If he can make complete utter submission; if he can escape from his identity; if he can merge himself in the Party so that he is the Party, then he is all powerful and immortal… Can you not understand that the death of the individual is not death; the Party is immortal… You are imagining that there is something called human nature which will be outraged by what we do, and will turn against us; but we create human nature.” George Orwell – 1984
– he stays. This can only end in tears.
A very inspiring piece. Thank you, Mr. Hanson.
A handful of states (CA, IL, MA, WA, CT, parts of NY)are being mismanaged into the ground by stupid liberals. But that leaves most of the country rocking along with varying degrees of common sense. I see the US doing OK with a new Prez and a conservative Congress, and most of the states doing just fine. (Sorry, CA).
Dr. Hanson, I only take exception to one thing in your article… you leaked the secret of happiness in our surroundings. Simplicity. I too live in rural America, 2 miles out of a town with two stop signs. After living in cities and suburbs, I wouldn’t trade the rural mid-western life for anything any government might have to offer. And thanks for being you, bringing a little sanity to this world.
Great entry today, Doc. Your observations about how you live your life in rural California are so descriptive that I can almost see, hear and smell everything you describe.
By the way, I assume a lot of your loyal readers are concerned you will someday fall prey to some criminal act, and this column today does nothing to reassure us. You do have a firearm, don’t you? If so, have you ever had to use it? If you would rather not incriminate yourself in writing, we understand!
Eduardo:
I have three theories as to the “continued longevity” of VDH.
1. He’s a white guy and still lives there – must not have much toys to steal.
2. The neighbors need some pale faces around to keep the rents up (see Logan Square, East Pilsen in Chicago).
3. People DO know who VDH is and they dont want to make a martyr of him.
I always appreciate the good Doctors thoughts having grown up on farm/ranch in Nebraska in the 50s and 60s. Lord the fondness I have for the memories. No running water, a pump jack sufficed, no indoor toilets, a one room country school house with 32 kids and lots and lots of friends who are still my friends. A hard life but a grand life.
As I always say “The further removed from nature humans are the less they understand it”, and most of our eco friends grew up and/or live far from nature in great big cities but seem to think they know a lot about nature from great big books written by great big tenured elite academics who also live in the city and mostly return there after brief sojourns in nature to gather info amongst the primitives that inhabit the locales they are researching whether in the Amazon or Nebraska. That doesn’t make them experts on nature only elite academics and their useful student progeny living in the city and pontificating about what they see as best for the rest of us, if we would only listen.
I always appreciate the good Doctors thoughts having grown up on a farm/ranch in Nebraska in the 50s and 60s. Lord the fondness I have for the memories. No running water, a pump jack sufficed, no indoor toilets, a one room country school house with 32 kids and lots and lots of friends who are still my friends. A hard life but a grand life.
As I always say “The further removed from nature humans are the less they understand it”, while most of our eco friends grew up and/or live far from nature in great big cities but seem to think they know a lot about nature from great big books written by great big tenured elite academics who also live in the city and mostly return there after brief sojourns in nature to gather info amongst the primitives that inhabit the locales they are researching whether in the Amazon or Nebraska. That doesn’t make them experts on nature only elite academics and their useful student progeny living in the city and pontificating about what they see as best for the rest of us, if we would only listen, and most likely we will be forced to listen and ‘do as told’ if we don’t wake up.
And that is just plain old human nature. Power and control of others has ruled the world since the beginning. Nothing changes much in nature whether human or otherwise.
P.S. I sounded anti-science. I’m not. I was an anthropology-archaeology/business major. I spent time in the field (U.S.A. & Central America, Bulgaria and have traveled extensively) and generally respected all the people I worked with. FYI there is no money in Archaeology, unlike climate change, psychology, social justice, sociology, micro-socio-indeferation-philosophy, Political Alinskyite Permology, MSM Elitology Progamtiy and others we all know, but not so much money in ‘women activist studies’ (unless your name is Fluke), art history (I love art history, seriously I do) and ‘Islamic appreciation now and then again in Amerika’ (somebody has to do it)and of course ‘Multi-cultural influences in Kansas and the Western World in the Post Modern World after 1990 and Before’ and my personal favorite ‘Comparative Religions in an Atheistic Multi-Cultural World and How Islam Reacts’. I could name more, but then I would look silly.
Thanks
You didn’t sound anti-science to me. IMHO,you correctly described many city-dwelling “eco friends” such as Al “Big Carbon” Gore. There are still field biologists around – biology academics who really like being out in the bush. I recommend that you read Bernd Heinrich’s The Snoring Bird: My Family’s Journey Through a Century of Biology. He is a retired academic biologist whose father, while not an academic, spent a lifetime in collecting and classifying insects and other animals all over the world.
Anthropology is not a science.
It’s a taxonomy.
Perhaps that’s why you’re confused about sounding “anti-science”.
Did you study gender science as well?
Hey Pe, really scrounging around down in the muck there, I’m pretty sure I’ve met you many times in my life and I still don’t like sniveling little jerks like you. But all the same I you enjoy it if that is what brings you happiness in your tawdry little world.
Taxonomy? Taxonomy, as in a science of classification? Is that what you mean? Do you seriously trumpet this meaningless distinction with any sort of feeling of triumph? You certainly don’t deserve to do so with a feeling of mastery.
Go back and do some more reading, and hush. Grownups are talking.
This is the best blog.
Dr. Hanson, if the decline of central California finally becomes too much for you, I would like to invite you to Appalachia, much maligned and misunderstood. The Dukes of Hazard don’t live here (well, maybe in the imaginations of some junior high schoolers) We all have firearms here, but we don’t need them for defense, just deer hunting. If you arn’t looking for trouble you won’t find it, but if you are, you will. We are all dinosaurs here, a Mesozoic personality is highly prized. Be who you are, and if you don’t bother anybody they won’t bother you. Also, the music is good. I always enjoy your posts. If you become a refugee, I will help you get settled here.
Made me think of Jane Kirkpatrick’s “Homestead: Modern Pioneers Pursuing the Edge of Possibility,” non-fiction about a couple who decide to really really get away from it all by building a home in the wilds of eastern Oregon. If I remember correctly, they had to drive twenty miles to get to their mailbox.
If you are worried about security and safety there is a time tested and proven method ; the farm Mule or donkey.
A mule for those that never had one or lived on farm is essentially a 900 pound German Shepard. It will protect family and property against any and all trespassers with a vengeance, no one encountering fury of protective Mule returns to test courage or bravery…its not worth it.
so if you want to ensure safety and security in your outback…get a Mule.
That reminds me…in pursuit of my hobby of license plate collecting I encountered a wrecking yard in rural Nevada that was guarded by several large hens and a rooster that had three-inch spurs. The folks who owned the yard told me that was all the security they needed at that remote location.
Sounds like you are living in Mexico
Dude, we keep telling you there is life outside California.
‘You’ve been told many times before
Messiahs pointed at the door
No one had the guts to leave the temple.’
Get out before it kills you. There’s beautiful country in lots of other states, and I’d miss your wonderful essays.
VDH
We 58 year olds (59 this summer), have seen a change in our surrounding world.
We elected traitors to lead us. Cowards to Command those brave enough to defend us. Liars to bring us our information. Gun runners to protect our borders. Communists to advance our free market economy. Thieves to protect our social security.
I envy your rural quiet, being a suburban Chicagoan for 50 years and living in Orange County for the last 8, our lifestyles have differed substantially.
What was once thought of as permissive and tolerant, is simply anomie. We are a nation handcuffed by too many laws, in a lawless society. Rulers making rules, because a necrotic society dies not from the self-enforcement of a few good guideposts, but through the choking off of common sense and common decency and iron-fisted totalitarianism trying to control the decay of that moral and ethical breakdown.
I have lived in suburbia much of my life.
But, we both are in the wilderness now.
What a beautifully written essay! Thanks.
I’m stunned by the casual acceptance of crime (real crime that hurts people like theft, not made up stuff like speeding). How long before local posses are formed and criminals are hanging from utility poles?
Jeez, victor, I grew up in new Hampshire and I’m lucky enough to spend summers in new Brunswick canada. You can see the stars in both places without worrying about meth labs. Sounds like you need to sell the family ranch and move to someplace more civilized. Can I recommend st. George, NB?
the local authorities there seem to be ignoring the “broken windows” theory eh?
VDH – it sounds like the real reason for staying put is that you have a base for going to work at Stanford. There are a million locations in the U.S. and Canada that are better to live at than the awful place that you keep describing.
placere colligunt unum as the Google translator says and that I hope is correct.
Better to find a decent place to live where you can preserve and honour your family memories instead of seeing them trampled upon every single day.
Sometimes a small incident reveals a much larger story. A couple of years ago and elderly neighbor lady told me that the lockset on her front door had broken. I told her that I could fix it and proceeded to do so. After making the repair I asked her for the key so that I could check to see if it was working properly. She rummaged around in a drawer for a minute or two and then admitted she had long since misplaced it. “I never lock the door”, she said, “it’s such a nuisance”. Thankfully there are places in America where you can feel comfortable leaving your home unlocked. It is sad that Dr. Hanson can no longer enjoy that sense of secure comfort in the otherwise wonderful rural area where he lives. Liberal stupidity has destroyed his magnificent part of America. I pray that it won’t one day destroy it all.
The ranch journals are always my favorite, do keep them up.
I think the Professor is smart not to discuss guns. That could come up in a court case resulting from an ‘incident.’ And there appear to be a few individuals who would want that to happen.
VDH: My fears of high speed rail (the first rail leg to Charles Manson’s home in Corcoran is routed about eight miles from here) are not just the waste, the destruction of farmland, spiraling costs, and probable low ridership, but the specter of text-messaging unionized drivers at the helm (cf. the light rail wreck in Los Angeles).
“Text messaging union drivers”? The Metrolink wreck was heavy rail, not light rail and would not have happened had there been two “drivers” in the locomotive cab. Instead of two older experienced Engineers you had a single poorly trained, overworked, underpaid, inexperienced (you get what you pay for) individual working for a cheap gypo contract company with absolutely no backup system (formerly a second pair if eyes) to check his wanton disregard for the people he was charged with transporting. Highly unlikely a similarly inexperienced poorly paid non-union “driver” would have acted with greater care. Same with all modes of transportation. You get what you pay for whether in flight or on the bus. Take care of the Financial economy first and the hell with the people who do the work. Or so the Kool-aid goes.
Otherwise the concerns about HSR are on the mark. No need to worry about union labor though. There will be a human in the cab overseeing HAL 9000 merely for show only.
I doubt VDH could ever leave his part of California where his family has been for generations.
California in general isn’t easily left for so called greener pastures. It is still my home when I get back there a few times a year, still an exquisitely beautiful place with a huge diversity of land forms. The idiots in Sacramento and the politically correct morons can’t ruin everything, just like in Hawaii where the sea breezes still prevail despite the megaliths crowding the shoreline.
I’ve lived rural for more than a decade and am glad not to be involved in water disputes or neighbor disputes or new rules and regulations going on in the nearest town, 10 miles away. But “they” are always working at extending their area of control and regulation, trying to subsume your freedom and independence, subject you, make you a subject, just like the Obama administration, well maligned in VDH’s essay.
A point made in Angelo Cordevilla’s essay on the ruling class versus the country class, that no one really needs to read all the monstrously lengthy legislation coming out of DC these days (poster child Obamacare) since the only relevant point of any legislation, regardless of subject, is who gets the control.
The real goal of Obama and his cronies is compulsion. It seems to be the essence of liberalism to resent your freedom, your liberty, your self-sufficiency & independence.
If they’ve made you a slave, the goal is met, and the society at large can go to hell in a handbasket.
Notes to a young Dr VDH. I thought you were writing about me. At age 72 I am still working my own small farm with increasing tasks and decreasing energy. I hope to die on a ditchbank in the greening springtime with shovel in hand and a faithful dog beside me. But not just yet. I escaped the city years ago and returned to the life of my youth. My neighbors and remaining local family are farmers – I am blessed. We all keep our guns nearby for protecting our livestock, our pets and famlies. As they say don’t mess with an old guy as he doesn’t have much to lose. Running out of energy and time are just another blessing . The world I loved is quickly passing with the only regret being the world you described being the fate of our children and grandchildren. Thanks for the thoughtful but sad article fellow traveller. Daylight is breaking and must get busy with chores after a cold Idaho winter. I still love spring and have a sense of hope even with all the work ahead. I would only suggest Dr VDH your problem isn’t the farm but rather leaving it for the “benefits” of the city from time to time. Good luck to us all.
If I bang on the gate before 10:00 pm, can I stay?
If the thievery and collapse in rural California is awful, try living in an older California suburb, like Hayward, between Oakland and San Jose. Good Lord, talk about graffitti, petty theft, deadly crime, random gunshots from Friday through Sunday evening, maniac gangbanger drivers passing on the right (and that includes the sidewalk and narrow bike lanes) at 80 mph on major city streets, etc. All the while the cops target old white ladies and passive looking middle class people for minor traffic infractions as they pay their fines quikcly (filling the public coffers) and don’t put up a fight. I am surrounded by empty homes that Democrats and banks financed for illegal alien home flippers, thus ruining my own finances in the process, the schools are in absolute collapse, and I can go for hours in public without hearing English…A nightmare…
middle of Maine, small town approx 1k or so.
2 acres or so, can see 8 houses from here due to fields allowing visibility.
thinking of moving, too many people.
I reside part-time in Edmonton, Alberta in Canada (the rest of the time in my blessed Israel in a village east of the Green Line). A few years ago, I had a shortlived job selling educational material for children which required travel outside the metropolitan area of Edmonton (capitol of Alberta). In pursuit of sales, I frequently visited farm families whose spreads were sometimes at least 100 kilometres from cities and thirty kilometres from the nearest town. Nonetheless, I found out to my surprise, that theft of farm goods as large as bulldozers and tractors as well as trucks and household items was very common, all too common. There isn’t much of an immigrant or foreign population in the Alberta countryside either. Alberta tends to be a very wealthy province. As noted, theft has become quite common. The farmers all have training and the wherewithal to use rifles but it appears that the thieves are quite (too) clever. Could be that the problems stem (in part)from ubiquitous illicit drug use. It’s sad!
When Dr. VDH writes about the central valley of California, I feel like I’m in a Steinbeck novel. Tell about the rabbits, Dr. Hanson, tell about the rabbits!
Brilliant! I’ve got the professor by one year yet the duties keep piling up and I keep knocking them down, one-by-one. I can’t imagine a 150 acre farm along with all the other ‘chores’ one must perform outside the city. Water, sewer, gas, these have a way of not being ignored. You can get older, but they’ll still be there.
I recycled some metal the other day. An electric motor (1-1/2hp) fetched $6.40. The cutting head of a paper shredder (Fellows) at 12 lbs. of steel, $1.11. Two pieces of copper pipe (2″) weighing in at 7 lbs. netted $19.60. They paid me $2.80/lb. for the copper and I had to wait 3 days to collect (took a copy my driver’s license with photos of things recycled). Point is: copper is king at the recycling center and explains why VDH’s pump wiring keeps disappearing.
The greater problem is that there’s too much stealing going on. One guy steals your copper, another steals your car. Another steals your property by dumping his garbage on it. While another sits in the White House stealing your children’s futures to fund his crony friends in unions and alternative energy upstarts to raise the campaign cash necessary to keep the stealing going on.
I don’t know if theft is the root of all evil but a lot is taking place. Too much for a civil society to tolerate. Therein lies the answer: fight incivility with incivility. Dogs, guns, and attorneys general to combat the capital management crooks like the Jon Corzines among us. $1.2 billion is a lot of copper. Divided by $2.8= 60,000 tons or maybe a train load or two passing through your town. Time will tell whether it’s the Wabash Cannonball or the Wreck of the ole ’97. This election, it is certainly time for the engineer to reach-up and pull the whistle.
If you’re not moving to the country because of your spouse, he/she might surprise you. My wife was born and raised in the big city, but couldn’t be forced back to one now after having lived the country life for 15 years.
Sounds like you’re talking about the Antelope Valley.
Again thoughtful, amusing, wistful and also bittersweet. I always regret reading your articles because I have to wait for the next one. From small town Mississippi (pop:7,000) and a beautiful life.
VDH continues to lose his copper wire to thieves and his semi-feral dogs haven’t latched onto a miscreants calf or thigh yet….the good Prof needs to revisit his canine protection non-strategy.
I don’t like the great outdoors myself. However I do enjoy reading about it. The one thing that I’m really envious though about living out of town on sufficient lan is having a back hoe and a place to bury mistakes. SSS.
It truly sounds like you live in Injun country, Doc.
I don’t know how you ever relax if it is as bad as you describe, nor do I see how you can sleep well at night.
But, as a full time farmer (1955 model), I understand the attachment to ancestral ground.
I wish you well.
I am a 4th generation Californian. My greats came to Oregon on covered wagons and homesteaded in Oregon and then their children moved down to somewhere around where you are now. Their children drove a model T down the coast to LA when it was a beautiful place of small farms and orange groves, and sparkling clean suburbs. After the war, my parents settled even further south in San Diego and grew up in a suburban paradise of bicycles and long boards. Calif. was a beautiful, happy place when I grew up. In keeping with family tradition, all but one of the members of our family have moved on – some further west, some have moved back to the midwest – all in search of greener pastures. I always thought I’d return back to Calfornia when I got old and my world got small enough not to care about the over-growth, but now I doubt that will happen. The decline is far too dramatic to be fixable in the next half-century.
The world goes on. What made America great has been slowly rotted by the good intentions of well-meaning do-gooders, who by sheer luck of circumstance and real estate prices came to believe that they were better than and smarter than that caterpillar mechanic of who you spoke. They wag their fingers at anyone who tries to point out that they gave it all away in exchange for some beads and pot pipes and beautiful lies. Their hearts have hardend and so have the cities in which they live.
I loved this article. You are living it as California started out, and how it will finish. What a bittersweet article – thanks.