John Day "Walk About"

Once a year my friend Jim Hay goes on a week long exploration of the forest back roads. This year it was to see the wild flowers in the high mountain meadows around John Day. I tagged along as the camera man. I was more interested in the trees than the flowers.

We took an extremely rutted road to an abandoned fire lookout tower.
On the way back down the mountain I was afraid the vehicle would high center so I encouraged Jim to cut across the hill. After studying the situation Jim said "No, we are going to do the right thing and stay on the road." We didn't high center and I was proud of him for obeying the rules of staying on the road.

I got sunburned on day one, so thereafter I wore a red bandana in foreign legion style. This worked great except for the tip of my long nose.The weather was great and the sky was magnificent at the mile high altitude. It was easy to get GPS fixes at that altitude with 5 or more satellites overhead. I love the bark patterns of the ponderosa pine which often has a reddish tinge.

Jim enjoyed fishing.

Surplus chests

Filipino-mahogany chest 23" wide 17" deep and 19" tall made from cabinet doors

Hardwood box 17" wide 13"deep and 13" high.  The top is a shade lighter than the sides

Beautiful 44" wide 12"deep and 24" high linen storage chest.  Formerly at the foot of mom's bed.  Ideal for storing sheets or pillows.  Would almost match Sheryl's bedroom furniture.

If any of you kids want one of these I'll deliver it. I'm now out of the business.

Drift Creek: beautiful spring day at the coast

The trail is 1.5 miles long.  Most of the trail is in the shade of the conifer trees. Amazing growth rings on this conifer, 2 to 3 rings per inch. The stump was in the middle of the trail.   My boot toe is sticking in the corner to give a size comparison.  

The suspension bridge is in the middle of nowhere and goes nowhere.  It is 100 feet above the river below.  The water fall is in the background.    

The trillium blossom is often found on the coast range forest floor under the trees.

This is a huge old stump which the loggers used as an anchor.  The notches are to wrap the steel cable around. The other end of the cable is attached to a tower (or spar tree).  The cable would be suspended in the air and logs hung from it as they were being moved to the trucks on the road.

My traveling companion, Jim, is looking out over the coastal landscape.  He almost always has a slight bulge under his shirt on his right side.  He claims it is necessary in bear country (and every where else except church). We've never seen a bear so it must work.  He claims hollow point bullets don't work well when shooting a bear because the hide is so tough.  As you can tell we don't talk about deep subjects when we are out enjoying nature.

AAA to the Rescue

Just 2 days ago I signed up for triple A roadside service.  We are going to Alaska on the Alaska/Canadian Highway in July-August 2009.  I thought having a dead battery, run out of gas, flat tire, and tow service might be nice.  

Well, Saturday we finished our shift at the Portland Temple and found that our hybrid had a dead battery.  There had been a buzz alarm when I left it earlier, but I ignored it.  It often does that and most of the time I can't figure out what it is trying to warn me about.  This time it was that I had left the headlights on.  Our Avalon has an automatic headlight turn off and I thought that the gadget-laden Camry had the same.  It doesn't!

Janeil got the owners manual out and we figured a jump start was needed.  We called AAA which happened to be just down the street.  They said the service vehicle would be there within 40 minutes.  They were there in about 10 minutes.  The driver hadn't ever jump started a hybrid so he looked for the battery under the hood. As shown in the attached picture, it is in the trunk. So he hooked up the jumper cables according to the owner's manual diagram.  He said it was a strange way to hook it up.  It worked and we were on our way.

Is there something to be learned from this experience?  Well yes, old dogs can be taught new tricks.

Michael's Craft Store Treasures

When the Grandkids visit they have been building creations from the Lego sets.  Now the possibilities have been expanded with projects that cost one dollar each.  My favorites are the model vehicles.  There are 15 different ones that include trains, planes, boats, trucks, dozers, buses  and cars.  The kids can customize the paint jobs with some tempura paints. 

Then there are 5 different doll house cabinets.  Brenda's girls painted theirs with flower accents.  

There are 16 different bird house  designs to be painted.   The church (school?) and the windmill are my favorites.  

There are 14 different kits that can be glued and painted.  In memory of our pioneer ancestors there is a Mormon Trail covered wagon (the oxen and family were sold separately).  The only Olsen girl died crossing the plains.  

There is also a tall sailing ship named the Emerald Isle in which both the Olsens and Fugals sailed across the Atlantic Ocean aboard.  Two of the three Olsen boys died and were buried at Sea. 

 The last set are 13 wooden 3-D puzzles.  This assortment includes a spider, a frog, a swan, 3 dinosaurs, a helicopter, a koala bear, a squirrel, a skeleton, an antique auto, a penguin pair, a seahorse pair,and  a dolphin (shown in photo).

It has been fun trying these out myself.  We will have a craft table at the 2009 Camp Alpine family reunion and the kids can take home whatever they build.

Our little corner of Heaven

If you go for a walk over to the pond you might see wedges of a thousand geese at a time which fly overhead each day.  They roost overnight 15 miles to the south at Finley Wildlife Refuge and then fly out midmorning en mass to eat the tender shoots of rye grass in the fields surrounding Corvallis. Plus you'll see Mallard ducks swimming on the pond and further on the beavers are busy cutting down trees. (But we've never seen one, just the results.)




The original owners of our home were of oriental ancestry and had a great talent for landscaping. There is a tree in the front yard they had pruned to look like an umbrella. We are trying to retain that shape.

The backyard has a succession of flowers which bloom during the spring. The daffodils have just ended and the tulips are in full splendor, and next come the lilacs and iris.  

We had a birch stump which rotted and has some cool fungal conks so I added it to the landscaping.

Our bird feeders have been very popular with the birds.  The lawn in the backyard consists of islands of grass surrounded by a sea of pebbles (round river rock).  I hide polished rocks among the pebbles and the grandkids treasure hunt to find them. They can take 3 home with them.

Where is Jonathan when I need him?

My son-in-law Jonathan is in my opinion, a slow to anger, kind sort of person. He is also qualified in several of the martial arts.  I was trying this morning to remember the brief training he gave me about a year ago on how to disarm an antagonist.

In fast and testimony meeting we had a man in casual clothes walk in and take a seat near the front after the sacrament.  He was carrying a day pack and a gallon container half full of an amber liquid.  The counselor in the bishopric left the stand and sat in the seat behind the visitor.  I know I've been watching too much CSI (Crime Scene Investigation) because I thought the liquid might be gasoline.  I leaned over and whispered to Janeil that I was going after the guy if he tried anything harmful.  It turns out the counselor determined from the label on the jug that it was iced tea.  This was verified during sunday school when the visitor took a swig from the jug during the lesson.

About 5 minutes into the testimonies the visitor goes to the microphone without the jug and the backpack.  (We've had incidents in past months in other wards in the stake where a gay rights advocate had been crashing testimony meetings and complaining about the LDS involvement in California politics.  This person has a restraining order on him to not disrupt our meetings.)  

Our visitor was not the same guy.  It seems our friend had been prompted this morning by a spirit to come to our meeting and instruct us on Christ. (And to bad mouth the Catholic church for changing the Sabbath from Saturday to Sunday.) After several uncomfortable minutes of his preaching, I marched up the aisle toward the stand.  My intention was to ask him to yield the mike so that I could bear my testimony.  As I walked up the steps to the pulpit he finished and I smiled at him as we passed. (Whew!)

I told the congregation about listening to the CD from last October conference by Elder Robert D Hales, "Answering our Accusers in the Savior's Way".  We had been playing it on the way to Portland  yesterday to get in the proper frame of mind for the temple.  Elder Hales urges us to respond to antagonizers in a Christ-like way. He said, "...true disciples of Christ see opportunity in the midst of opposition." After the visitor's tirade many members bore strong testimonies about the Savior and modern day prophets who testify of him.  So it was a very spiritual meeting after all.

Near the end of the meeting the visitor went up to the pulpit again, but the Bishop stepped up and said whatever was needed to get him to return to his seat.  After the meeting the Bishop told me he felt relieved that he hadn't needed to bounce the visitor because the guy could tell I wanted to speak.  To quote Elder Hales again: "True disciples avoid being unduly judgmental of others' views." But we don't need to let them go on and on about it!