Bakersfield Knap-in Jan 2008

A fierce arctic storm lashed California on Friday, toppling trees, soaking a coastal landscape already charred by wildfires and threatening to paralyze the mountains with deep snow. Rain Pelted the landscapes of the farms and hills around Bakersfield Saturday and Sunday, but a "rain shadow" kept most of the precipitation out Bakersfield itself long enough for Gary Picket to put on his monthly knap-in at Hart Park on the Kern River.. The Bakersfield knap-in is the longest running monthly knap in in the world thus far.

# Bakersfield's Free Press Newspaper | The Blackboard
With more rodents available, birds of prey have thrived. A list of some ofthe endangered or threatened species living at CALM follows Desert Tortoise
http://www.theblackboardfreepress.com/200306/articles5.html

Extractions: By RAY HARWOOD, THE BLACKBOARD I sit down under the cool shade of pine, the mountain air clean and cleansing. My thoughts go back to a time and place where humans and nature were one, when humans made tools and a living from simple survival skills related closely to the earth. To be one with nature is to be fulfilled. Some local artisans have a hobby along these lines, bringing us back to that stone age time. The group meets on the southeast corner of Hart Part on the first Sunday of each month. The hobby, known as "flintknapping,” is the ancient art of chipping flint type stones into arrowheads, tomahawks and other ancient artifact replicas. As an art form, the image of flakes on stone has a strange attraction, a fascination perhaps, held over from our stone age ancestors. The arrowhead group sets up a barbecue, complete with a banjo player or occasionally a native drum, and commences to chip rocks at about 9:30 am until lunch, then again until the park closes at dusk. They chip glassy rocks to create fantastic stone knives and arrowheads. The group’s leader, Gary Picket, learned the stone age craft while living in Missouri, where flint Indian artifacts are common in the creeks and hollers. Picket experimented for many years before he mastered the craft. Picket says that modern flintknappers sign their work to keep it from being misrepresented as ancient. He invites all interested to the park to learn more about this strange but growing hobby. Gary often does demonstrations for events, schools and museums. For more information, call (661) 392-7729.