A Kiting We Will Go!!

In between Ancestry.com and making the 3-2-1 cake, I received a message from a fellow photographer/reporter of a local newspaper business, the Merced County Times.  It consists of five small papers printed weekly around the county.

Apparently there was a kite festival last week in Livingston.  How did I miss that?  I suppose because I don't want to pay the outrageous price for the Merced Sun Star ... we call it the Merced Sunstroke ... just to see what's going on in Georgia or Wisconsin.  Rarely is there any local news.

At any rate, John wanted to do a story on kites.  Unfortunately, there hasn't been even a breath of wind around here in weeks.  Undaunted, I told him to meet me at our little Lake Yosemite outside of town.  Rumors have it that gang members hang out there now, but when you have a chance to go fly a kite, you'll go up against anything.

Usually the cold water hits the warm air and breezes blow nicely, but today it was barely moving the grass.  I figured to set up anyway, just for practice ... he could get photos of the kite on the ground.  As we talked ... and he recorded (yikes!) ... I set up and flew for a few minutes.  The only wind was at about the 80 foot level and barely enough to keep it in the air.  CRASH!!  The scenery made up for it though ... it was a gorgeous 70 degree day!!

Finally the breeze picked up to about 5mph, so I handed the lines to John and told him what to do.  The first attempt landed in the canal we were next to.  No worries, these kites are really well made and hard to break.  Three more tries and he actually had it in the air for about 10 seconds ... enough to get him hooked!!  YES!!  Another convert!!

He and his lovely wife Chloe took lots of pictures of the kites, me, the lake and many geese wandering here and there (watch where you step).  The best part is that I found a great place to fly on windy days as long as I keep an eye on my back!! 

The level of the lake is up quite a bit with the latest rains.  It was just a mud puddle when I left in January.  That's good news for the farmers since this water is used for irrigation!

Just as we were leaving, a large herd of cattle wandered down the fence line.  The University of California is just next door.  They own hundreds of acres of open land and have come to an agreement with the locals to allow cattle grazing free of charge this time of year.  These were all holstein steers, which I imagine will end up on your dinner table.  

At any rate, in spite of no wind, it was a great afternoon!  I came home and recreated the 3-2-1 cake with only 45 seconds this time .... it was YUMMY!!  Butterscotch chips made it even better!!