California Dreamin

My dream of California is leading me to a great thinker. To someone who has already greatly influenced me in my youth with his stories and intriguing characters in novels like ...
Burning Daylight
Call of the Wild
Martin Eden
Michael, Brother of Jerry
Smoke Bellew
The Iron Heel
The Little Lady of the Big House
The Valley of the Moon
White Fang

My greatest inspiration for visiting California has been and will always be the Valley of the Moon. London is great at describing the beauty of nature and the joys of simple life into the wild!

"I am the sailor on horseback! Watch my dust! Oh, I shall make mistakes a-many; but watch my dreams come true...Try to dream with me my dreams of fruitful acres. Do not be a slave to an old conception. Try to realize what I am after."
– Jack London
circa 1913

Jack London the Visionary

London once said, "I believe the soil is our greatest asset." These words are truer, in our current world, than ever before! On his ranch he pioneered in soil conservation, using tillage and terracing to make fruitful again the worn-out hillside lands. He raised vegetables, grains, alphalfa, grapes, fruit trees, prunes, potatoes, spineless cactus, eucalyptus trees, horses, goats, chickens, hogs, beef, dairy cattle, prize-winning livestock and cut the biggest and best hay crops in Sonoma County. Whatever London attempted, he attempted in an all-or-nothing way, and his experimental farming methods were no different.

This actually - extremely interesting and I shall research it further but on my Ultimately eco Blog - His stepsister and Ranch Superintendent, Eliza Shepard, said it best:

. . . ."Jack's ambition was to develop a model farm; one of the best all-round ranches in the state, combining a stock ranch, fruit, grain, vegetables, vineyard and the like. He would have accomplished his plan had he lived, for his enthusiasm was unquenchable. His intense energy simply rioted in work. Success seemed only to stimulate him to greater and wider efforts."

– Eliza Shepard, 1917

I am so much going to California next year.... And I will go to find Jack London, my 100 older soul brother, my Napa valley, my pinot noir, to check my Brain, my heart and expand my mind and may be my Moon valley too, but may be I need to find someone who would fight for me, you know....! aaaand my Jack London Museum