Rusty Bucket Ranch Blog

One of the best things about living at the Rusty Bucket Ranch was that there were so many places to go hiking.  Marty wanted his leg to get better quickly, so he went on a lot of hikes.  That was his physical and mental therapy all rolled into one.  When…

Both Mike and Marty worked more during the summer, but the lack of a mandatory sentence to serve at school left them plenty of time to get into mischief.  They were tossing a football in the driveway one day when Mike overthrew it and the ball went bouncing down behind…

Memorial Day weekend was getting close, which meant Mike and Marty’s junior year would soon be done and they would officially be seniors.  The two were looking forward to being the “unofficial caretakers” of the Inkwells.  Unfortunately, Annie didn’t want to go there anymore, after the biker incident the last…

During the last few weeks of school, Marty began writing features for the Jolly Roger, in addition to his regular column and comic strip.  The modest 8-page newspaper was now nearly 25% composed of his creative output, and he wasn’t even a senior yet!  He wrote a silly Dragnet satire…

Molly the rat died in early spring, just about the time the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor nearly melted down and ruined the only planet known to support life.  Marty had seen the movie China Syndrome about a week before, and it was chilling in its prescience.  He hoped that…

Marty immersed himself immodestly in art, and especially cartooning.  He was hooked on visual interpretation of the world.  He shuttled the Apollo to different branches of the Marin County Library to check out every cartoon book he could find.  With a heat lamp to ward off the moist air, he…

January was even more squishy and miserable than usual in that deep redwood canyon.  The White tribe glumly referred to their little hamlet as “Soggynitas,” because the quagmire in the driveway wasn’t going to dry out till June.  Their spirits were dampened even more when Jimbo took off again –…

Marge encouraged them to have a big party at the end of the year, and so the inaugural Rockin’ New Year’s Eve Bash at the Rusty Bucket Ranch was hastily planned, brought to you by a large keg of Miller Beer, with Bobby Brew doing a very disturbing Dick Clark…

Right after Thanksgiving, the news was all about the shooting of Harvey Milk, a gay San Francisco supervisor.  He was killed by some dweeb named Dan White, a severely disturbed colleague.  Marty had never heard of Milk before he died, but the news was full of his back story.  Watching…

The first rains of November released the scintillating scent of wet redwood needles.  Once again the dust was rinsed off all the trees around the driveway, and everything smelled spicy and fresh.  The cinnamon duff covered their little cabin as icing frosts a gingerbread house.  Autumn meant falling needles instead…

The lifestyle in “mellow” Marin was typical of the liberal times: it was okay to indulge in anything you wanted at any time, as long as you didn’t hassle anybody.  The wealthy county where Marty lived was becoming a national joke, and the ludicrous lifestyles of the rich and aimless…

Marty began to notice a trend in his love life.  Great amounts of energy were being expended in the buildup to an emotional climax that never came, leaving him burnt out like a wasted flare.  To say he felt lonely would be to say that the Pope felt religious.  He…

Hooray!  Dale finally called Marty to say he was finished repairing the Apollo’s engine, and declared the operation to be a success.  The patient not only survived, but was better than ever!  “Hear that?” he yelled into the phone, over the sound of a revving motor.  Marty was so excited,…

The Apollo was never the same after the long drive to Trinity.  Its frame and body had been built for work on a farm, not interstellar travel.  The metal was old and tired, and rust had been working on it for over 20 years.  The clutch went out just before…

Late summer was a time for swimming holes, and the Inkwells was becoming more popular than ever.  There were lots of young people mixing in with the usual crowd of hippies from the China House; sunning themselves on rocks and jumping from the outcroppings into the pools.  Some wore clothes,…

The summer progressed long and shaggy like Marty’s hair, now that his new starship provided a wider range of activities.  He and Mike often drove into Fairfax in the Stanger, the Apollo, or the entire star fleet, depending on the plans.  Bart became an official Federation member, too, and hung…