Born and raised in California, I joined the United States Air Force right out of high school. I was 18 at the time and living on the north fork of the Feather River at the Pulga maintenance station. My 11 year Air Force career was all mainframe systems, operations, maintenance, and programming. Returning to California, I spent the next 14 years in Santa Barbara working for a publishing house writing and deploying software, building and maintaining computers, networks, and internet resources. This period was all DOS, Windows, and Android. After a short sabbatical, I moved my family into the mountains of Goleta, California, living fully off grid with Ananda and my four teenage daughters. While at the same time writing and deploying cloud based software solutions for a startup publishing fitness apps on Google Play and the AppStore. This is where I made the switch to the Apple ecosystem, iOS and MacOS. For 7 years I was the lead developer for all backend applications, this is also when I began visiting family here in Surprise Valley.

That's when everything changed. All four teenage daughters launched into the world, Ananda, Ruth (our youngest), and I moved to Tucson, Arizona, both our fathers passed away in the same year, and COVID19 hit. It was quite the season, and still we continued to visit the valley.

By early 2020 we made the move to Cedarville where I put down my keyboard and started working as a hand at Curds and Whey on CR18, and later turning water for Blake Merbs just down the road, growing orchard grass, learning the "valley way." Ananda and I love engaging the community and frequently volunteer our time, from tapping beer at the Eagleville Barbecue to the powwow organizing committee on the Fort Bidwell Reservation. Several family members have joined us here and we now comprise four generations in Cedarville and Alturas, with property and a passion for the valley as a whole.

Perhaps we'll be fortunate enough to be buried here.

Today, as we continue to lean into valley life, I hope to share my professional experience with the community as a side-hustle. Across the valley and from Alturas to Lakeview,  perhaps even as far as Vya to Gerlach, if you need technical support with your home or office computing systems, I'm willing to travel to your location and provide it.

It's something I have a particular talent for, having had a support role (often 24x7x365) throughout my professional career.

I've had a few opportunities to do this...

Becky Hall had a pair of professional grade printers go haywire on her Windows based system. She was about to throw up her hands and buy a replacement printer. Ultimately, I helped straighten both printers out in about 90 minutes, saving her the cost and confusion of yet another device. A second visit, just 15 minutes, sorted out a corner case, and her system has remained stable since.

Ann Young, another client, engaged my services for a new computer setup and some training. Later I helped her with login issues and mobile app services. It's the small things where where experience really helps.

The decade before coming to the valley, we lived on Bjorklund Ranch, a remote mountainous location above Goleta. To this day, even earlier this year, Robby Bjorklund will contact me when his computing environment gets jammed. Most recently, working remotely from the valley, I untangled the issue and got him up and running in short order.

It's a good bet, if you have a technology problem, I can help you too.