The Monkey at GoLiNiel

We  found this nice field of clover one cool summer day during a weekend bicycle ride through the farmlands west of Mt. Angel.  It was during the Petal Pedal starting at the Oregon Gardens. Fifty miles on the bikes in the country is a pleasant day.  This is a good use of clover, and it looks nice.

We found this patch  of clover on a very hot summer afternoon. We were coming home from work. A day at work is not as pleasant as a day on the bike.  This clover is not good clover. It does not look as good in my yard and it does not have a good use.

Honey argues that this clover does have a good use, and perhaps it should be left alone for the bees to enjoy.
She does have a good point, but I think we will have to do something to keep it under control.

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On Super Bowl Sunday we spent the day wandering in the Gorge.

First stop, the Starvation Creek rest area. Nice place to stretch the legs and wander on the paths along the creek.

We went into Hood River and out into the Parkdale area, stopping at Foothills Yarn and Fiber, where they raise Alpacas, and have a nice store for yarn supplies.

Along the way we spotted this old building. I assume, since it is in the heart of the fruit orchard area, that it is the remnants of a fruit growing operation.

Then making one last stop at the Hatfield Trailhead to walk out along the paved bike/pedestrian path that goes through the Mosier Twin Tunnels. Didn’t make it to the tunnels as its a fair walk on foot. Much easier on bikes.

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We snowshoed out from Bennett Pass rest area, along the ridge to one of our favorite viewpoints.
The rains and warmer weather has turned this weeks now into a crunchy walk, hard enough that our poles rarely penetrated the surface. And no snows on the trees at all. We were walking in the low laying clouds, but the temperatures were quite comfortable.

This is an out and back walk, simple to follow, with no significant elevation changes.
Here we encountered a downed tree on the trail that was no real obstacle while on foot.

It is at this point we like to stop for lunch and enjoy the view of the mountain.
Today there was no such mountain view.

Stopping at Timberline lodge, we were afforded a pretty good view through the clouds, of Mt. Jefferson.

Timberline has installed a new walkway to keep the snow drifts from the entrance.
Aesthetically speaking, it isn’t much of an improvement over the old Quonset hut style walkway it has replaced.
It really doesn’t seem to fit into the style of the Lodge, but I suppose its more about function than form.

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Victorhill Farm.

This is where we have cut our Christmas tree for the last 4 years.  We found it because it opened earlier than most, which allowed us to prepare for a Christmas party. Once there, Honey has discovered that her taste matches that of Blenda the artist/owner. She loves the stuff they sell in their barn, and we spend as much time looking at the wreaths and decorations as we do the tree.
And they have a lot of very good u-cut trees.

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We have installed hummingbird feeders in front and back.  The feeders have been pretty busy in the dawn and dusk hours.  Honey makes new nectar every week in order to keep it fresh and our little hummers seem to appreciate it.  We have begun to study their habits, and note which birds seem to make the best effort to claim the feeders as theirs.  We have even started to name some of the regulars which help us track their usage.  Tippy seems the most dominant, though Ducky makes frequent visits.  Just the last few two weeks we have begun to see this red headed hummingbird quite every day as well. No name for him yet.

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Earlier this year we renovated Honeys office space and bathroom.
So………

Before:

After:

Tired:

Feeling Better:

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Charlie the beloved patriarch of the Oregon Zoo chimpanzee family passed away suddenly Thursday afternoon.

Senior primate keeper Dave Thomas said the 39-year-old, 160 pound chimp was expected to live another 20 years. Charlie survived the African bushmeat trade to become a pet donated to the zoo in May of 1972.

Slideshow: Charlie the chimp

“It’s the end of an era, and the zoo will never be the same,” Thomas said. “We have to go on though, to provide care and support for our remaining females: Delilah, Leah, Coco and Chloe.”

The four female chimps were surrounding Charlie as a volunteer saw him down. Thomas was the first staff person to respond and initiated an emeregency response system. Vets and other staff rushed to the chimp exhibit.

Several minutes passed before the female chimps could be moved safely away and by that time, Charlie was dead, Thomas said.

The females have since been placed together. Leah and Delilah went straight to where Charlied died, Thomas said. He thinks they will continue to look for him for several weeks, believing he might be alive.

Thomas said the primate staff will try and keep as regular a schedule as possible to help comfort them.

“The girls need to know that we are still here for them,” Thomas said.

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We love riding our bikes along the Springwater trail as it follows the Willamette, between Portland and Oaks park, below the heavy traffic of McLoughlin Blvd. I took this picture in December of 2006, shortly after this power pole was put up. It was pretty cool, since it was some simple bike graphics. It made a small statement about Portland and what this trail was about.

Now, in June of 2009 it is just ugly.

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Honey wants to hike. And for this day, the hike is to be up Dog Mountain, since the wild flowers are in bloom. Dog Mountain lies about 14 miles east of The Bridge of the Gods, on the Washington side of the gorge.  There is a pretty good parking area, directly off highway 14.  Its Sunday, and there’s a forest service guy directing people to park.  We got there pretty early in the morning and it seemed a little odd to have a someone telling all 12 of us where to park. But ok, he was pretty cool and had a lot of good information for us.  From the lot the trail head, with bathrooms are only about 300 feet away.  So up we go. And it doesn’t take long for the trail to start to get steep.  From there on, in alternated between steep and substantially uphill.

It wasn’t long before we came to a fork in the trail and had to make a decision about which way to go. Hmmm, didn’t seem like a tough choice to us.

So, after hiking for a bit and getting to a point where, it seemed to me, that we were probably getting close, the trail opens up from the cover of the trees and you can see up the mountain.  Uh, is that where we are going? Kinda. Honey says.  Ok, great.

We had a great view from the top. We brought a lunch and sat quietly on the slopes at the top, along with 30 or so other hikers, ate our lunch,  and enjoyed the view.

From the top, you can look down at Windy Mountain and Skamania.

Off to the North you can catch a view of Mt. St. Helens.

And, just the tip of the peak of Mt. Hood.

The trail up to the top, on the exposed side, on this day was very windy.  On the way down, we hike down this trail to the point it dissappears the then switchback to the right.  The views on this portion are great, but the wind and loose rock made for a bit of a challenge.  On the way up, at the point the trail disappears, we headed off around the lee side of the mountain.  No view, but no wind either.

Various sources clock the round trip  from 6.5 to 7.1 miles, with about 1850 feet in elevation gain, taking about 4-5 hours. The trail is nice, though much of it isnt wide, requiring someone to pull to the side with others are coming from the other way. But, making the hike rewards you with a collection of wildflowers, views of Mt. Hood, Mt. St Helens, and the knowledge you just made it atop the 2,984 ft. Dog Mountain. Watch for poison oak along the trail. Oh, and when we returned I saw the need for the parking instructions, the lot was packed and there was a string of cars 1/2 down the road.

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Up to a dozen waterfront homes were damaged on Whidbey Island, some seriously, after a 6-foot wall of mud and logs came barreling down a hillside and Friday morning.

News Video of the Flood Damage.

Wait, is that my sister-in-laws sister being carried through the mud?

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We came across this zapcar in the lot of Safeway.
I try to make my trips to the store on the bikes. We have some great Banjo Brothers grocery panniers that are square and reinforced and can carry a lot of groceries.  Of course if theres more than two bags worth, the trailer can handle the load.The point is, to not take the car for the short trips.

This is someone else’s attempt at making those short trips economically and ecologically sound.

They call it a zap car.  Honey calls it a truck like vehicle.

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Here in Oregon, for the most part, we are truly blessed as far as weather goes. Our summers are generally mild and our winters are not too cold. I have seen summers where we did not even get 95° temperatures and winters that never reached 32°.
However, the winter of 1969 was a different story. It all started just afternoon when a warm front moved in over Oregon only to be met by a cold front coming down from Canada, creating a massive snow storm. I was working that day driving lumber carrier and the snow kept piling up deeper and deeper. By quitting time at five o’clock, driving on the highway was next to impossible. The night watchman that was scheduled to come at five called the office and said there was no way he was coming to work. The boss then asked me if I would stay and be the night watchman. I guess he thought I would be the likely one to work as I lived just five blocks from the mill. What could I say? With much sliding and slipping around I managed to make it to all the clock punch stations. At midnight when I was to be relieved no one came, so I was stuck on the job until 8:00 the next morning. I managed to stick it out without falling to sleep.
I was concerned about how things were going at home but I did not need to be. When I did get home I saw that my son Don had taking care of things. We had a flat roof carport then and Don had shoveled the snow off of it during the night. During the middle of the next morning Don and I had to shovel it off again. I am sure if Don had not cleared the roof of snow, I would have found a caved in carport on my arrival home. Sometime during the afternoon, we decided to measure the depth of the snow in the back yard. With the aid of a yard stick, we found that it was 35 inches deep if I remember right; we were off work for ten or twelve days.
On a slightly different note, we also had a lot of floods during the winter. Situated as Junction City is, between the Long Tom river and the Willamette river and the valley being flat, it was a natural place for high water when we got a lot of rain. Being young kids at the time, we thoroughly enjoyed the floods as we were let out of school and had all day to play in the water. We built rafts and floated all around and enjoyed going around town and seeing all the water. These floods stopped when Fern Ridge dam was built on the Long Tom and the Willamette and McKenzie Rivers and their tributaries were dammed.
We have had years when we had lots of rain together with freezing temperatures which resulted in silver thaws. A silver thaw occurs when the ground level is below freezing and then it rains and the rain all turns to ice, making for treachures driving. My folks had a weeping willow tree in their yard which was really pretty with all the ice laden branches. However, that was not a good time for the electric power people as it caused them a lot of extra work repairing downed lines.
All in all, I am very glad to call the Willamette Valley my home.

  By Carl Nielsen
  Written Dec. 2008

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