Strange weather here in strange California. Malibu suffered a highly publicised fire from high winds and dry conditions hardly a week ago.Yyesterday brought a thunderstorm and cold front that dumped snow on the ashes and made the canyon to that beach, and my horses impassable due to iced roads. And all through my county heroic efforts were underway to save crops from lemons to the green onions wrongly suspected of poisoning fastfood patrons not long ago. Giant fans were on to warm the air, old fashioned kerosene heater pots, burlap sacking and mulch. And generating concerned phonecalls was this scarlet red steerman biplane darting like a crazed woodpecker at low level. It turns out he was risking his own safety to keep a friend's startup crop of a new south american fruit warm until tired mixtec indians could hand cover the yearling trees. I got to thinking about the crazy improvisations I've seen, tasks completed with very little. We benefit from some pretty amazing gear, sometimes letting it override common sense. But at the other extreme we dismiss, with justified cause a lot of 'junk' I was watching that red aeroplane twirling a folded book of paper matches. What if I only had that book, a roller pinned hollow handled survival knife ( make it a spanish Muela at least) or a lousy space blanket ( make that two space blankets so I can be doubly frustrated.) It may be a fun thread for us to 'make some lemonade' with these lemons and see what we learn?