Mountain Dweller’s Paradise

I’m Linda Jo Martin, a empty-nest mother of five, born in 1952. I like photography and am learning to make videos for YouTube and for video blogging. Wish me luck!

Since my kids moved out (the last one left in July 2008) I’ve had a goal of getting back into art work. I’m not a great artist but I’m having fun with it anyhow. I may post my creations here from time to time. I used one to start a Zazzle gallery and I’m heading toward doing more of that kind of thing. Here’s a sample of my work, a mousepad!

Did I mention I’m unemployed? I lost my job last September and the only income I’ve got is what I can generate online, so I’m an avid web worker with a network of blogs and Squidoo lenses. I don’t make enough to live on yet, but since I have no job to go to, I’m working on it. My significant other is also unemployed. We’re scraping by, for now.

I live in a little town in the Klamath National Forest in Northern California. I feel for you if you’re in a city wishing to get out. I was in one back in the 1990’s, only a mile from the Concord Naval Weapons Station which was once called Port Chicago - site of a huge explosion in 1944 that killed 320 sailors, 2/3 of them were black. I decided I wanted out of the target-area and started praying to be able to leave at the right time and to find a perfect home for myself and my two children who were ages 9 and 10 at the time - I was a single mother. In November 1999 I left. I moved all my belongings north to Redding, California, where I put them in storage. The kids and I started driving around and finally found the perfect home to settle in, near the little town of Happy Camp, California. Those children are now 19 and 20, and I’m living with a wonderful man I met here four years ago.