Beltane Ranch

Our new porch furniture, which we ordered months ago, finally arrived in three enormous boxes. They wouldn't fit through the door and the fellow who delivered them was quite happy to say, 'Oh well' and scarper off down the driveway before we could suggest alternatives. Took us an hour to remove all the cardboard and tape and maneuver two chairs and a loveseat  through the door. 

The furniture is a bit big for the porch, especially the round table we bought last year, so we dumped it all out there to contemplate the possibilities while we nipped out to Beltane Ranch to pick up our wine club selections...three whites, two reds and two insulated stemless plastic wine glasses with lids...sippy cups for grown-ups!  We're always  welcome to wander around the property and visit the vegetable garden and the burros and chickens, but we had Spike in the back of the car so I dashed up to take a picture of the old depot turned barn in extras and we headed back home.

I don't think Spike would have minded if we had taken the tour...he loves the car.

Parts of the Sonoma Valley between Beltane Ranch and our house were very hard hit by the Glass fire, especially a very large and, I think, totally undistinguished retirement community called Oakmont, a development that empties onto Highway 12 as does our street and many others that go up into the hills. We all evacuated safely as the flames were coming over the hill, but it was a tense and scary drive. It was apparently our turn to burn  this year because we are in a section of the Mayacamas Mountains between the Nun's and Tubbs fires of 2017  that hasn't burned in 80 years....(although the Nun's came pretty close.)

Back home again I made some bean soup with help from Spike  who snatched the sausage off the counter. We can tell he has learned a lot of commands and hand signals. We're just not sure what they are yet. Most of what he knows doesn't have anything to do with indoor living.

I wonder if there is a command for 'don't put your nose on the touch pad of my computer when it is on my lap'?