Winter Reprieve

I started this blog a four days ago. First I lost first my ability to upload pictures to blogger. Then I lost my internet connection. Besides the inability to blog, I was not able to get the ghoulish recipes I needed for the yacht club Halloween potluck. It still takes up to 15 minutes to upload a picture. I am not sure if these are worth the effort but I am not going to give up on this project. Besides, I am getting quality time with the stack of papers and bills on my desk while I wait.

Thursday morning I awoke not to rain pounding on the metal roof but to a ruckus. The local flock of wild turkeys was digging outside my window in search of sunflower seeds under the bird feeder. A bang on the window got them to scatter. That is when I noticed that the white tom had moved from the neighbor's flock to woo my hens and that it was a beautiful morning. The sun was breaking through the fog and illuminating the fall leaves.

the white tom

Wild turkeys have huge feet with long claws. The uprooted rhody does not show up too well but it was a causality of turkey rooting.

The flock moved away when I came out with the camera.Blogger has once again become blocker.

This is the only backyard, fall-color picture I can upload.

Winter is Here

The most recent storm cell has gone by and the lightening looks to be in the mountains. The rain is still thundering down on our metal roof but I can finally turn on the computer. A La Nino weather pattern is expected for the PNW this winter. In case no one heard the predictions, Ma Nature gave us a wake-up call this weekend. One day it was beautiful, sunny and warm. The next day winter arrived. The coast is seeing winds to 75 mph; 30 foot waves and torrential rains. The valley is getting torrential rains, lightening and milder, 40mph winds. The mountains have howling winds and are being buried in white. The dogs a snuggled down on their beds by the fire.

Along the back of our yard we have a line of rock that is a natural spring. Most of the time only the spring house and root cellar have moving water. The current 5+ inches of rain has produced mole fountains throughout the yard. Excess spring water finds mole holes an easy escape route to the surface.
A few minutes ago I went into the garage to see if everything was all right. The springs also flood our garage. We put in a French drain but it is over whelmed tonight. As I looked around to see if anything needed to be moved, I looked at my sailboat and laughed. I sure hope the water does not get that high but if it does, Sweet Spot is sitting right side up with life jackets at the ready.

Oregon 60 - UCLA 13

Today was the last day of the dry season. Tomorrow the winter rains are expected with downpours and high wind. I have been working hard finishing up landscaping projects and putting the vegetable garden to bed before the rains do hit and I can't drive the tractor over the yard without making ruts and a general mess.

Tonight Dave and I went to the Oregon/UCLA game with 49,998 other yellow Ducks and a tiny wedge of Bruins in blue.

incoming rain clouds over the low side of Autzen

blue Bruins above the "U" flag

Dave's seat is 1st row/ 50 yard line/right behind the Oregon bench

I don't really like football but there was an empty seat next to Dave and we haven't been on a date in quite a while. Autzen is renowned for the fan noise which funnels right down to the field. I was so glad Dave brought an extra pair of ear plugs. My ears are still ringing even though I used them. It was fun being part of the sea of yellow. The game wasn't barbarian. The plays were fast, well executed and actually exciting to watch. With my two lifetime games, I can now say that have seen OJ and the #1 team in the U.S. play at Autzen stadium.

Takotna/Muku Update

I definately need to clean out my in box more often. Brad sent this update on Muku on 10/6.
Hi Kay Lee,

I hope all is well.

Muku is doing great. She is in her third week of puppy/obedience school. She has graduated the puppy class, so I guess this is the next one up. We have started running with her in the trails, and she seems to love them. Jumping over logs, crossing bridges etc. She definitely seems to have a homing device as the pace greatly accelerates once she knows we are heading home. She still can be a bit mischievous at times, but as long as we keep up the training all is fine. Brad

Elim/River Update

Leila sent me this post on September 19. River is the spitting image of her mom Cedar - eyelines, ears and all.

Hi Kay Lee,

Last weekend Danny and I took River on her first backpacking trip. We've mostly stayed away from backpacking this summer, as she hasn't been big enough to do the longer distances, but we decided she was just about ready for the 3 mile hike into Drift Creek, a beautiful old growth canyon in Suislaw National Forest near the coast. She was a great companion and had a wonderful time catching crawdads and running surveillance on our creek-side campsite for two nights. She also enjoyed burying and then exhuming her beef-flavored rawhide in various spots around our camp. At night she slept at the foot of our little two-person tent, taking up about a third of my sleeping pad, and in the mornings she crawled up to snuggle in between us. Next summer I reckon I'll have to buy her her own pad to sleep on.

At the end of the backpacking trip, we enjoyed a beautiful, sunny day at the beach and a night on my family's little sailboat, which was docked at the Embarcadero in Newport. Despite some initial doubts, she soon found her sea legs and was quite well-behaved--we'll have her out on the water in no time, I hope.

She flew through her obedience class, and on the last day her trainer pulled me aside to tell me that she would be a great candidate for rally obedience. I think we're going to give it a try when she's a bit older.

I've attached a few pictures from the beach and our backpacking trip. River looks quite a bit like her mom in a few of them!

Thanks, and best wishes, Leila

Creek Reclaimed

Several years ago I uncovered our spring outflow creek. At the time, I lined the creek walls with stone and planted Joe-pie weed in place of blackberries, nettles and horsetail rush. All my hard work once again became impenetrable and the rock work long buried. Last spring Debi, a very generous friend, gave me 18 rhododendrons. Needing a place to plant them, I again tackled the area along the creek and rebuilt the waterfall. Because this area is our source of water, I had to hand pull all of the weeds. I brought in and placed some very large boulders. Twelve ferns and the 18 rhodys were then planted. Our soil is thick clay. To plant the ferns and rhodys, I first had to dig the hole and fill it with sandy loam. The plants were placed on the loam and several inches of loam put on and around them. Yesterday, I spread 30 tractor buckets of chip and bark over the entire area. I still have several more loads of mulch to spread and need to find a few hundred rocks to rebuild the creek walls but that work may have to wait for summer. The ground is now too soft to use the tractor in the woods to dig for rocks or drive across the now muddy lawn with more loads of chip.

waterfall rhodys, ferns and boulders

The blackberry brambles across the creek will also have to wait until next summer - after I deal with all of the brambles that will inevitably come up in this garden.

Homemade Bread

Dave is on a very restrictive low salt/low sugar diet. Last week I decided to bake bread. Our search for low salt bread proved futile. I have not used my bread maker in a number of years so it took a bit of cabinet searching to even find it. My first loaf was a basic white bread made without salt and only enough sugar to activate the yeast. I am a lover of all things (non-rye) bread but this bland loaf was not worth the calories. Even the dogs thought so. While we slept, they snatched the loaf off the counter and left a good 3" uneaten - which was immediately thrown into the composter when discovered in the morning.

Last night I again tried to make bread and after an exhaustive search found a recipe that just might have flavor if the salt was left out. I put all the room temperature ingredients and perfectly warmed milk into the bread maker. Something was strange when I turned it on. The noise was there but nothing was moving about. That was when it dawned on me that I must have also thrown the mixing blade into the compost bin. It has been so long since we last had bread maker bread that I completely spaced that the blade gets cooked into the loaf and must be removed. A precursory search of the composter was hopeless. In an effort to put up salt and sugar free fruits and vegtables and because the garden is finally producing, I have been canning tomatoes, apples and green beans fast and furious recently. There was no sign of bread under several inches of processing waste.

I must not be the first to make this mistake. There are about 50 blades for my bread maker to be had on E-bay.

A Perfect 10 on 10/10/10

Our wonderful friend Sarah (a perfect 10) turned 50 today. She celebrated occasion at the incredible cabin she and her husband built. Until now, Dave has kept me from the cabin knowing I would want one exactly like it. (He was right. I could move there in a minute and not change a thing). Sarah did all of the woodwork including the intricately carved cabinet doors and beds.

Sarah made the BrownStone Chinooks whelping box. Wood working is a hobby. She is a nurse practitioner and has been instrumental in Dave's recovery - he listens to her.

front porch bears taking in the mountain and lake views Cedar not sure about a bear in the yard

The invitation said to bring something that would remind Sarah of you. Party goers helped build a cement chair and table which were then festooned with the memorabilia. Sarah is going to need another party to help move the chair. It took 10 people to get the table top into the garage.

Dave has been diligently working on his exercise and diet. He is getting stronger every day. Thursday's cardiac echo showed a marked improvement. Sarah's cabin is at 5000' - an altitude we were afraid he would never be able to go to again. When he had his heart attacks, being at the altitude of our house was hard on his heart. Today he spent the day at 5000' and drove both ways. He even passed on the homemade, fudge-covered Oreo, ice cream cake. I would never have that willpower - probably why I am not getting as skinny as him.

Canine DNA

Chinook owners have been asked by the Van Andel Institute to submit samples for DNA temperament, ear carriage and ear shape studies. The Linds and Ludwigs agreed to let Willow and Lupin participate in the studies. Today we collected saliva samples from McKenzie, Willy, Cedar, Lupin and Willow. Between them, two have helicopter ears; two have up ears; and Willow has one helicopter and one up ear.

The instructions said "you'll need a little patience for the collection. A calm dog helps too." To this end, we let the very excited dogs play Chinook tag in the rain for several minutes before attempting to "collect saliva from both sides of the mouth for about 15-30 seconds without touching teeth or lips during the sampling process" - yea right.

How many humans does it take to get a canine DNA sample?

Jon held the dog being sampled. Jeremy did the swabbing. Anna supervised. Kerstin attempted to keep the curious dogs at bay. Except for Willy, who was determined to eat the swabs, the process actually went pretty smoothly.

Anna is her cougar costume. After the sampling was done, Jon and Jeremy stayed to help us tackle the pile of unlimbed trees from the back yard. By the time they left, the burn pile doubled in size and the actual trunks of the trees were visible. Thank you so much guys. You are the best!

Catch-up

The morning after returning from the mountains, I washed the stinky, wet towels, dog mats and packs. The combined weight actually tore my retractable clothesline off the wall, terminally breaking it in the process. The remainder of the week has been spent reclaiming a small pond by the house. The dogs watched patiently as I tackled the overgrown cattails.

Some of the cattails were dug up with the backhoe but this mess required hand pulling.

Unable to stand in the boot eating, suck mud, my only other option was a 25' x 1" x 5" board laid across the narrow part of the pond. Balancing on the slick, slack board, I reached down and pulled up the long, fibrous, firmly planted, roots. It took a couple of days but I filled the tractor bucket 5 times and only fell into the water once. An added benefit was that my thighs and back got a bit of a workout toward getting in shape for skiing.

The dogs were convinced that I was doing the work just for them. Cattail roots are a delicacy they could not get enough of. Raiding my pile involved dodging my shore tosses. Occasionally a dog would suffer a muddy thwack if they became distracted while selecting their wad of root. The feast was held out of my throw range.

The work was worth it. I only have a couple more rhodys and ferns to plant and I have my pond garden back.

Search for Camper Lake

continued from last night's post.

An icy wind had been blowing hard all morning; smacking into the Sisters and forming summit hiding lenticular clouds before funnelling down the pass. On the drive up, the spectacular fall color was showered with billows of fir, pine, hemlock and tamarack needles. The needles falling looked like amber snow. After leaving Huckleberry lake, I drove up to the top of the pass to see if the mountains had finally been released from their cloudy shroud.

North and Middle Sister The dogs were not pleased about sitting on sharp lava and left me no time to focus this picture.

For years Camper lake has intrigued me as I dreamt of adventures old and new while reading the Three Sisters Wilderness maps. I have never seen a trail head and wasn't sure the lake had not just evolved into a meadow. I decided to give Google Earth a try and sure enough there was a water filled lake just where the map said it should be. (Google Earth takes map dreaming to a whole new level.)

I searched a mile of the roadside for a trail into the lake. Finding none, I parked at a pullout, set my compass and bushwhacked. Not 50' into our trek we came upon a butchered deer carcass abandoned by hunters. The smell was unmistakable and extremely enticing to the dogs. What dog could resist rolling in the stench?

The bushwhack was exactly that along with climbing over numerous downed trees. The new growth of hemlocks was so dense that I headed up and over the ridge rather then follow a narrow valley to the lake. Thousands Lodgepole pine killed during the bark beetle infestation had fallen like tiddlywinks. The dogs and I found our individual way up, over, around and through the piles of trees and thick underbrush.

Our arduous excursion was more than worth it. We broke out of the woods to this view and a pristine lake. The only footprints were wildlife and ours.While the dogs played in the water, I searched the shoreline for a trail back to the road. I did not even find evidence of an old campsite. I am not the only one to have overlooked this gem. Not wanting to clamber over the ridge again, I took the longer, bushier, lower route along the lake outlet back to the road. No compass needed. The dogs headed right for the discarded carcass. Fortunately I always carry "dog towels" in the van. I used the water they had carried on the hike and gave each dog a quick bath before loading up.

Mountain Adventures

Today the dogs and I made another attempt at the annual, fall, mountain retreat. Since the lakes I wanted to camp at are still closed to all but fire crews and it is hunting season, I decided to go only for a day. (I did regret not throwing in my backpacking gear as soon as the mountains were in sight).

The dogs became restless as we climbed Dead Horse Grade - a very steep and windy stretch over the old McKenzie pass. I pulled off onto an old, partially overgrown, logging road which ended at a beautiful stream. What was to be a potty stop, turned into a half hour of running over log bridges and splashing in the water to the delight of both the dogs and myself.

The wet dogs and I loaded back up and headed toward my goal of finding Huckleberry and Camper lakes. I had never been to either one. My map from the 1950's shows a road into Huckleberry Lake campground. My more recent map shows only a trail into an unnamed lake. Both started at the same place.

The dogs too were convinced this was the trail head since obviously someone had been here before.We hiked up and over a ridge. Only to come out at the wrong lake.

Willy, forgetting he had a pack on, rolled to dry off after his swim.

This lake had a large hunter's camp. After a quick swim, it was back to the van for another search. You would think it would be easy to find the trail head since it once was a road but the Forest Service and Ma Nature have wiped it out. Using the lava field as one border, I drove to the closest pullout. We climbed down the lava bank and started hiking. Soon we were on the trail.

"are you sure there is a trail here?"

The trail was very old. Willy and McKenzie rushing down to the lake. All that is left of Huckleberry campground:

The lake was nice but did not have the view I was expecting.
The first lake down and only a mile back to the van.

To the right of the tree you can barely see the top of Mt. Washington. To the left is Belnap Crater, source of this lava flow.
McKenzie, Willy and Cedar finally sufficiently tired enough to sit still for a shot.

Wet packs at the trial's end.

Each dog carried a quart of water, bowl, flexie and treats.

Tomorrow the saga of the search for Camper lake.