Why

May, 2002

These images, or the stories that they lead to, serve many purposes:

One:

To entertain you. To obtain this effect, start at the top of each page and slowly scroll down to the bottom-most image where you may find the one that makes you chuckle (or sigh). I mention this because some visitors simply do not know that there are more images below the top ones. To scroll down, click inside the vertical gray bar at the right of the window (screen), below the rectangular button in that bar (or above it to go up).

Two:

To tell the story of a young seniorish Massachusetts couple's six month camp on a small corner of a ten acre spread of Joshua Tree rock in the high desert of the San Bernardino mountains in the great state of Southern California. Some of that story is day-to-day tedious; some is fascinating.

Three:

A small number of projects were undertaken to physically rejuvenate the injured property and the desecrated trailer thereon, a classic old Branstrator, and to provide water storage so that all that was done could be done in good health. The projects are sometimes depicted in considerable detail so that one day the author who forgets things, or his descendants, can review precisely how one small task or another was accomplished, should the need arise.

Four:

If one wishes to deduce that the author is also seeking some sort of personal rejuvenation, one may do so. He makes little or no reference to the reasons for this powerful need because this is intended to be a light-hearted tome of observation, story-telling and record keeping. The author does not want the reader to go away crying, so the “Why are you really doing this?” shall remain basically unanswered. However, that light-hearted but observant outlook on life is the Zen that he wishes to obtain, so referring to personal encounters with “man's (generic) inhumanity to man” simply is not conducive to obtaining that elusive goal. He needed to throw some rocks around. Enough said.

Five:

To provide a place, a foundation, a home, to which he and his, throughout the generations, can escape when all else in life falls short; or simply as a nice place to visit now and then to experience a reality of relaxation, nature, quiet, and spiritual replenishment, when a whim or a need leads in that direction. (Just don't forget to pay the taxes and call the water man).

Six:

As a base of operations, so the author and his descendants can lay inconspicuous roads up into the ten (or more) acres of scenic and private arroyos upon which future dreams can be based.

One might wish to begin with the Journal which tells the story in words, and then proceed to the others which essentially tell the same story in pictures.