Monthly Archives: November 2007

Raindrops on the Magnolia

Here is a photo of a Magnolia in bloom, on a cool Louisville morning. This tree is in the yard where Honey grew up. I took a series of photos to give to her aunt who thought she might like to paint the blooms. It is really a stunning tree. Anyway, I’m posting the picture today, since she is back home in Louisville for the week visiting her family and friends. Have a good time Honey.

Our large willow tree is coming down

Our friend who lives next door to Honeys old house has rented a huge lift to trim some of his trees.
After finishing off everything tall on his property, and on the street, he started in on our huge willow tree that grows between our houses. The tree is 65 feet tall and grows up and over both homes. It was a pretty tree, but it is dying. Much of the main branches were hollow inside, and with the strong gorge winds, the danger of it falling through either home is very real. We arrived after he had done most of the tricky stuff, in felling all large limbs that hung over the houses.
All that remained were the main structure, and that should be done once the afternoon winds subside enough to extend the lift again.

Compost bin/potting bench from reused materials

Earlier this year, we replaced our old fence with a new 6 foot good neighbor cedar fence. At the same time, we added a solid face segment to act as a visual barrier to screen the compost bins, wood pile and storage area in the far corner of our property. While we love our compost bins, we don’t want to stare at them during dinner. In order to put up the new fence we actually took down the older, simpler compost bins and made plans to build new ones. The old syserm was two bins, made from 6 – 4×4 posts and welded wire fencing. We wanted our new ones to be larger, and a little more visually consistent. But since we wanted a unit to recycle/reuse, it would be inconsistent not to incorporate that same recycle/reuse philosophy into the construction. We reused materials from a number of different sources to make put this all together.

See the entire page with more photos and construction comments.

Portland State requires records from 20 years ago.

My son is trying to enroll at Portland State. So they say…. we see that you have gone to Oregon schools your entire life. And, while we recognize that Oregon requires all students to have measles/mumps/rubella shots, and we also know that they require proof that you have had said shots before you graduate, and further we see that you have graduated. But……we want to see those records also. Seriously? OK, I have some copies, but PSU doesn’t feel they are official or complete and suggest I call to the doctor to get official copies. Sure I can to that. Three calls to his current doctor gets me to the right person in their records warehouse, who can fax a record in like a week. No, PSU says, this isn’t enough proof, it just doesnt look complete.  Ok, a call to their pediatricians office, who had since closed, and changed names reveals they don’t keep records after 10 years. Really? That doesn’t sound good. Guess maybe I need to keep better records at home, before all that proof of existence is lost. Anyway, this is  no problem they say, there is this organization that gathers all those records for the schools and apparently gives them the OK that the requirements are met, so call them. Two more calls there to learn that no, they don’t seem to have the records either. The best thing for me is to call the school district. Not the school they say, but the district. They are supposed keep them. I call the district. Just one call and two transfers gets me the person who can tell me, the district doesn’t keep student records, you need to call the school. Well alright then. Call the school, transfer twice, then call another number to leave a message for the school nurse, who isn’t there. I appreciate that the nurse called back the next day, even though it was to say, we don’t keep those records that far back. What you should do is call your doctor.
Ohhhhhhhhh. Um Thanks.

Holiday Bazaar, Luncheon,Bake Sale & Quilt Raffle

Clackamas United Church of Christ is having a Holiday Bazaar on Saturday, Nov. 17th from 10:00 am – 4:00pm
15303 S.E. Webster Rd., Milwaukie, Oregon
Luncheon Served from 11:30am – 1:30pm
A large portion of the church budget income is earned from fundraisers.
The Bazaar/Bake Sale/Luncheon and Quilt Raffle is the biggie for this fall. Mark your calendars for Saturday, November 17th from 10:00 – 4:00. How can you help? Contribute items for the Bazaar or bring Baked Goods. The ladies at the church hand stitch quilts throughout the year, and then raffle them off to raise funds for outreach programs. Buy raffle tickets AND be sure to have lunch at church that Saturday. Do your Christmas shopping at our Bazaar. Give gifts that give twice – to our church and to your loved ones.

Digital Photography & Memory Cards

I had used traditional film photography for many years, reluctant to switch to digital; arguing that snapping/deleting hundreds of digital images and using photo shop to cover up all your mistakes in exposure and composition, removes the care and planning required in capturing one correctly exposed image on film.

While I have made the transition to digital nearly completely, in order to switch to a simpler photographic solution, the digital life is not without its own set of complexities.

Today’s subject is the use, and care of media cards.
We get our media cards from one of the many discount on-line sources.
Prices of memory space continue to drop due to improving technology and the laws of supply and demand, so a little shopping around can make for substantial savings.

Currently I am using three 1 gig cards, numbered with a permanent marker, rotating them as needed. Later I will discuss the management of cards and images.
I’m closing this post by pointing to a pretty good list on ‘Digital Photography School’ on 13 Tips for Using and Caring for Memory Cards


Hiking around waterfalls of Silver Creek Falls Park

For last weekends hike, we headed south to Silver Creek Falls State Park, taking advantage of yet another clear October day. Here, we could get in a long walk, enjoy the fall colors and see a whole lot of waterfalls.

Silver Creek State Park is on Highway 214, South of Silverton, and East of Salem. It is a full service park, and at about 9,000 acres, it is one of the largest in the state. The CCC built the South Falls Lodge in the 1930’s. The construction of the lodge is first class, and the all the original dining furniture, made from two myrtlewood trees are impressive.

On our hike, we took one of our hiking books by William Sullivan. This one, ‘Oregon Trips & Trails’ , is one of my favorites, though most all of his books are really great. With Williams’ help, we were able to pick out the a good route, which turned out to be little more than 5 miles. Though the trails are all very well cared for and there are large maps along the way, so it is easy to navigate the trails of the park. The trails take you up close to all the falls. You can even walk behind a couple of them.

Our route took us by 9 of the 10 waterfalls, and by bringing along our well worn copy of Romance of Waterfalls, we could look up each waterfall along the way, talk a bit about each one, and then mark them off in the book, as a way to track all the falls that we have seen. (ya, I know how that sounds)

Slides from our hike are at goliniel.coms Silver Creek Falls Slideshow