CALIFORNIA: Waag Bros. to give presentation Tues. March 18, 2014

Welcome to the life of 

Pioneer Photographer A. A. Forbes! 

Visit our website on the life of A. A. Forbes by clicking here. We will be giving a presentation on the life and times of Pioneer Photographer A. A. Forbes at the Historical Society of the Upper Mojave Desert (HSUMD) in Ridgecrest, Calif. on Tues March 18, 2014, starting at 7pm.

Historical Society of the Upper Mojave Desert (HSUMD)
Post Office Box 2001
230 W Ridgecrest Blvd. Ridgecrest, CA 93555
(760) 375-8456

Who was A. A. Forbes, and Why Should You Care? Andrew Alexander Forbes was born April 21, 1862, in Ottowa Township, Waukesha County, Wisconsin - son of James McLaren Forbes (from Scotland) and Lucinda Parmelia Sanders (from New York); he was the 5th of 8 children. Forbes grew up in the midwest, and moved frequently with his family.  In the 1870's through the early 1890's, he became a stockman on his family's range, building his horsemanship and cowpunching skills, and developing a ruggedness which became a key to his early success as an itinerant photographer.

SLO: HHH - Hunger, Homelessness and Housing (First Post 2/28/2014, Most Recent Post 4/30/2014)

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Update 4/30/2014: Thanks to SLO City Council member John Ashbaugh, I am now officially on the HSOC Housing Committee, and attended (and contributed) at the April meeting. I will give it a year to see if I can make a difference. I come from the perspective that the problem is political and not economic. In our relatively affluent society, we should be able to provide a clean, dry, warm bed for everyone, as well as a simple, basic healthy meal - period. That is my goal. Affordable housing is a key component of that goal.

Below: posts are boring without a photo. From a recent trip - while exploring a native American shelter in Johnson Canyon, Panamint Mountains, Death Valley, a small group of
Bighorn Sheep appeared about 30 to 40 feet above my head at the top of the cliff! It was getting dark, and the photos weren't great, but this was my best one; following that is the Indian pictograph cave that I was exploring. Click to enlarge - Enjoy!

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Update 3/5/2014: I attended the monthly Homeless Services Oversight Committee (HSOC) meeting today. HSOC is a SLO county advisory board that you can read more about by clicking here. Its about a 2 hour meeting, and I left a little more than an hour into the meeting. My main purpose in attending was to meet Laurel Weir, who is the coordinator of this committee. I enjoyed interacting with her while I was applying for the HSOC committee myself (I was NOT appointed - no surprise). I was hoping to also meet Jerry Rioux, who is executive director of the San Luis Obispo County Housing Trust Fund. I have spoken with Mr. Rioux about homelessness housing issues over the phone, but we had never met before. We didn't meet this time either, because although he was in attendance, nobody could identify who he was before the meeting started.

Although I applied to be on HSOC recently, I was skipped over in favor of others who appeared to have far less experience in dealing with homelessness than I have had. How do I know? I read their applications. Note, however, that no experience with Homeless Issues is required for you to apply, but I would think they application committee would find the experience helpful - apparently not. Also, they interviewed some of the applicants over the phone, but declined to interview me. How do I know? Because I was told by people "in the know" that the other applicants were interviewed, so I didn't even come close to getting on this board. I'm trying to be happy about not being picked, but my ego has gotten in the way a little bit (read below for an explanation). When I was younger, I always got picked for this stuff, but no more. No longer politically connected - no surprise. I'm not trying to be.

JUST FOR FUN! Lee Flat in Death Valley National Park

According to "matmiss" on DeathValley.com talk forum, Panamint Valley Road is now open, but according to the Death Valley Morning Report, the Wildrose Road in lower canyon CLOSED to through traffic. No mention of the status of the Trona-Wildrose Road either:

[The Panamint Valley Road] is in amazingly good shape considering how many places the water crossed the pavement. The part that suffered a bunch from undercutting is actually uphill by Indian Ranch Road and the T intersection - so they removed the broken pavement and lowered the road "to grade" so that next time the water can cross over the road instead of undercutting it. 1.7 mi. of graded (smooth!) gravel, and a detour to use when they pave it - so that road should not be closed again for a while. Some serious equipment parked there. Yeah!!

Some fun photos from the Lee Flat area of Death Valley:

Below: Lee Flat Joshua Tree Forrest in Death Valley National Park at sunset. On the horizon: French Madam Peak and Maturango Peak. Click to enlarge.

Below: Look carefully - very carefully!  Click to enlarge.

Below: Click to enlarge.

Below: Click to enlarge.

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