Welcome (back)

My previous Website was "Sustainable Use and Restoration of California's Natural Environment," found at www.ecomafia.com from about 1998 to 2008. Ecomafia was a novel I never had time to write. In 2008 I changed it to www.reisvalleyandmudville.com (a new book I wanted to write about my dad, who passed away that year). And in 2010 I canceled the site, and the new domain name, saving a few bucks, and keeping an eye out for a free place to host it. It was time for a change.

Well, ever since I discontinued my site I've been thinking about how to find an outlet for my essays. My ideas are too good (or at least thought provoking!) to keep to myself. Plus I had a few good essays on the old site that would be nice to put back up somewhere. The old site had five sections: Inspiration (quotes, lyrics, humor), The Realist Idealist (sustainable solutions), Glimpses of the Golden State (California geography and history), The Other Side of the Batholith (essays from the Eastern Sierra), and Resources and Links.

So here's the plan. I'll start off by posting the "best of" ecomafia.com and reisvalleyandmudville.com, revised, updated, and edited. I've changed since then, and so has the world. A lot of my resources and links are no longer relevant, surpassed by far better resources--and better compilations of them! When I started a Website about sustainability, it was easy to keep track of good resources, but the Internet has grown far too large for me to keep track of.

After I post "the best of," and maybe intermingled with it if I can't wait, I'll post my new essays and ideas... the ones that are worth sharing. And in the midst of all that, there is the book...

Bilderain Adobe in L.A., 1880s

I really really want to write this book already. But the research is daunting. And I don't have lots of time to do it. The general plan of the book is to write about my dad's fascinating life, but to include all his ancestors that I can find. Since my dad kept lots of journals, there is a lot of material to use, but the genealogical research is what is going to take the most time. And since I want to start writing at the beginning, and researching ancestors the farthest back takes the most time, I'm feeling like I'm not going to start writing for a few years. So this blog will be an outlet for that writing energy, and maybe you'll get some interesting updates on the book and the research once in a while. Like Encar. Bilderain, my great-great grandmother who lived here (see photo above right) in Los Angeles, but was born in 1824 in California (according to the 1880 census). The mystery is--where was she born? My dad's papers indicated that she and her husband were from Spain. But the censuses of 1870 and 1880 show California and Mexico as her birthplace. Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821, so if she was born 3 years earlier she could have been born in Spanish California. And what of her husband, Ignacio? By the time of the U.S. censuses, she was widowed, so those aren't too helpful for his information.

My cousin Brian did a family history of my mom's side of the family, and his effort is inspirational for my attempts to delve into my dad's side. What an interesting journey this will continue to be.