Welcome to Beautiful Lake County, California.

For the many folks who have asked me where I live, here's a quick view. The County of Lake, as it is officially known, is located in Northern California, about 130 miles north of the San Francisco bay area. We live south of the County seat; Lakeport.

This is the view from my front yard:

The orchards in the background are pears and walnuts, and the open field in the foreground is a pasture for cattle. For many years, pears and walnuts constituted the bulk of Lake County's agricultural produce, but within the last 20 years, wine grapes have been taking an increasing portion of the total. If expansion continues, it won't be too many years until the production of wine grapes achieves the same level that it was at in 1918, when Prohibition closed the winerys.  Unfortunately, real estate prices have risen, causing land to be worth more than can be realized by farming.  Sad, as it's a beautiful and verdant area.

The mountain in the background is Mt. Konocti (pronounced: Kon-OK-tie), a volcano which last erupted approximately 10,000 years ago, and which figures prominently in local Native American legends. Listed as 'dormant' by the US Geological Survey, Mt. Konocti is, (according to my college geology instructor) the third most likely place in California to have a volcanic eruption, right after Mt. Lassen (listed as active, but dormant), and Mammoth (listed as dormant, but giving some signs of activity). The Geysers Geothermal Power Generation plant is within this view but not quite visible in the photo, being behind and under the cloud bank at the right end of the mountain. This entire area is dotted with hot springs and geysers. There is a hot spring which issues from the bottom of the lake behind my house, giving an added incentive to swim in the lake: if you're in the right spot, it's like sitting in a hot tub.

This is the view in my back yard, looking north toward Clear Lake, the largest natural lake in the state of California, which is hidden by the trees. Last night's (03-30-99) snow is visible on the tops of the hills, an unusually late snow for this area. Fortunately, it was just a light dusting.

Here's another, closer view of Mt. Konocti, showing the cleared vinyard, made more visible by its dusting of snow. The peak, which is hidden by clouds in these photos, is over 3000 feet high. Our house, just slightly above lake level, sits at about 1331 feet.