Our little piece of paradise is in a high desert area of the West Coast of the U.S. of A. The altitude is around 1700 feet above sea level and the rainfall is low. Summers are hot and winters are can be cold.

Not a lot grows out here and water scarce. Fire has always been a bain of the area. The vegetation has adapted to all of those conditions. Our hills are covered in chamise. The occasional pine survives as do some oak that cluster close to the watershed areas. The chamise holds the ground together and shelters the deer, raccoons, and mountain lions that inhabit the hills. In the early morning frost it glistens.

Water is king here. A good well is worth its weight in gold. (You may ask how you weigh a well but I leave that answer to the great philosophers!) Our well served us during the last 5 year drought with little maintenance. Just the weekly walk up the hill to the water tank.

The longer we lived here, the older we got and the harder that little walk became. The road is sandy and losing your footing coming back down was an issue.

How do you solve a problem like the walk to the water tank?

You find Glynis.

Today was Glynis’ second trip to the water tank. The view from there is spectacular. But we had never gone to the top of the ridge and looked east. We had recently been hearing loud tractor noise for that area so we left Glynis at the water tank and climbed to the top of the hill.

For the first time, we could clearly see the valley behind us. And the large fire break that a tractor can create. That is what we had been hearing.

The views from the top of our mountain, on the cold, clear day were spectacular.

This is our piece of paradise. And thanks to Glynis, we can see all of it more often.