Santiam River, Oregon

Yesterday we made the return trip from Bend. There was much more smoke in the air, there were a couple of fires outside of Bend that were contributing to the haze that was already there from the California fires. It wasn't as bad after we crested the Cascades and started down the west side. We made a couple stops at places I had seen on the way over, but on Monday there was too much haze too make for good pictures. It was a beautiful day and the forest was lush, mossy and green. This river is the Santiam.

Two nights ago there was a lot of lightning here in Oregon...over 3,000 strikes and the fire services are keeping their eyes peeled for smokes...hopefully Oregon is spared what California is experiencing right now.

Now for my editorial. I think the Environmentalists had swung the pendulum too far in their zeal to "save" our forests. I believe that with responsible logging/forestry management so much of this damage could have been avoided. Now the lumber is totally lost to all, even the animals that lived there and if it returns at all with the changes in our weather patterns it will take until my Grandson's children are grown before it looks as it did before the fires. "People" are so concerned with "saving" the Earth, but even if all humanity perished, the Earth would still be here. She has survived the many changes that are part of Its existence...if we are honest it is our own survival that we are most concerned with...change is inevitable and Mother Earth knows how to heal and carry on. We just need to learn to work with those changes...even those created by our own hand because we are part of the whole.

Trip to Bend

On Monday we went to Bend in Central Oregon to visit a couple of days with Larry's Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Gene. They are renting a few months while their home in Mesquite is sweltering away. We were only almost three hours from there here in Albany and they have an extra bedroom, so we threw our stuff in a duffle and trucked over without the trailer.

This first picture is how the forests look a few years after a forest fire...this was along highway 20 over the Santiam Pass.

The duplex that A&U found in Bend was really nice, big front porch that we spent a lot of time on enjoy the breezes (when they happened along), fully furnished with all the "stuff" you need to get by with, beautifully built with attention to detail and had the two bedrooms upstairs which meant we got our workout going up and down them.

It was in a great location, we could walk to the downtown area...which was only a few blocks away...restaurants, coffee, stores, library, post office and to the beautiful, large park on the Deschutes River which winds through Bend. A few blocks the other direction was to the Mill which was another area with shopping. Bend has grown, its population is over 75,000 people now, but everyone is friendly and has the most considerate drivers (over all) we have ever seen. The lifestyle there is very active, and people are very tan and fit looking. We enjoyed our visit a lot.

Auntie fed us well as always and Uncle walked us all over the place...Thanks you guys!

The Peonies were in one of the gorgeous yards that we saw on our daily walk.

Seth Catch-up

I don't know where the time goes or what the heck I find to do every day, but before I know it days have gone by before I blog again. I think I am on vacation here or something! I am playing catch up here and will just add posts until I get caught up.

These pictures are of Seth, 4 year old dynamo. We've been to his place to watch him play in his pool and he spent the night with us last weekend. He and Grandpa Larry went swimming at the park's pool, we all played soccer, did jigsaw puzzles, colored and went for walks.

Today he had to see the doctor...he has an ear infection...Seth not the doctor...and did a pull-up to see out the window. The doctor told Michelle that he was the strongest little boy he has seen, then Seth commenced to show the doctor where his heart was, how to feel his pulse and pulled up his shorts leg to show the doctor some more of his muscles. The doctor told Michelle he was also very bright....well, we knew that...but I guess it was all pretty cute.

Seth will be spending this weekend with us, we have been increasing our daily workouts so we can keep up....don't think I'm kidding!

Happy Day 6-20-08

Today we had Seth, he was feeling under the weather and Michelle didn't want him in daycare so he spent the day with us. Doesn't slow him down much, and he ended up taking a 3 hour nap which was good...for everybody...smile!

Hope you all have a sunny weekend!

Oregon Roses 6-19-08

Not much going on here. The weather has been nice the last couple of days. When we first got here they were calling it Junuary because it was unseasonably cold, windy and rainy...even for Oregon.

Yesterday we went to the Avery Gardens in Corvallis, the roses aren't all open yet, so lucky for you I didn't take hundreds of pictures, merely less than 50! After my family, flowers are my favorite things and then rocks!

Happy 4th Birthday to Seth! 6-14-08

Seems just like yesterday that Seth was born; four years already! I hope I get these pictures to line up in succession, from when he was just born until today!

These last two are today's...Four Years Old!

Michelle Did It!!! Woo Hoo! 6-12-08

It's been a long two years for Michelle, but she has done it! It is official, she graduated tonight and has two Associate of Applied Science degrees: Administrative Assistant and Legal Administrative Assistant! YAY MICHELLE!!!! We are really proud of her.

She just started her new job on Monday as the Legal Assistant to an Attorney at a large law firm in Albany, Oregon and is looking forward to a real pay check and benefits. It has been tough being a Mom to an active boy, a wife, going to school AND working, but now the hardest part is over...well maybe not, I guess the HARDEST part will be actually saving some of that paycheck!

Albany, OR 6-8-08

Yesterday I didn’t blog because Larry was backing up a bunch of stuff from the computer onto our external hard drive and that took until bedtime.

This first picture was the view from my window and the following pastoral views were all taken on our morning walk up Stateline Road. The lavender colored flower is a close-up of a Lilac….shame you can’t smell them…heavenly! The white ones…I don’t know what they are but they grow all over the place around this part of Oregon.

This morning…another lovely day….we hit the road at 8:30 after dumping the tanks. We headed north on 395 and then caught 31 at Valley Falls. It is lusciously green through this area right now. We stopped in Paisley and had our toast. Just before we hit highway 97 at noon I saw a Bald Eagle in the top of a pine tree being Secret Squirrel or something…all you could see was his huge white head…his body was down in the boughs. We also saw Pronghorn Antelope again today. We headed south on 97 caught county 61 at Crescent which took us to 58 west.

We have never been on highway 58…it is gorgeous. A couple of snow covered peaks and rivers and lakes and tall, tall trees…this last picture I took through our very dirty windshield so you could see how heavy the vegetation is along the highway. We stopped along Lookout Pt. Lake around 2 and had our dinner (which we do at lunch time now) and when we got back into the truck we had a message on our phone from someone who was in Bend…if they had just called a couple hours earlier we could have turned up that way and seen them!

Highway 58 hits I-5 south of Eugene at Goshen and from there we headed north to Albany. We arrived at Blue Ox RV at 3:20. We traveled 308 miles today. This is home for the next month.

Goose Lake SP, Oregon 6-6-08

I’m back! I just can’t seem to get up any enthusiasm for telling you about our daily walk, our trip to the library, my watercolor painting or Larry and I sitting and reading. We spend a lot of time talking and fixing the world but who listens to us?

The last few days we were preparing to hit the road again, so it was load stuff back into the trailer, cut the lawn, set the sprinklers, return books to the library and clean the house. I think it is nice that I clean the house before we leave so the spiders can enjoy it!

We pulled away from the house in Fallon at 8:40. We stopped in Fernley to fuel up, it was five cents cheaper then in Fallon. Then we headed up highway 447 past Pyramid Lake through Gerlach up to Cedarville where we headed west on 299 and then north on 395 to New Pine Creek, Oregon right on the border of California. Then just a mile west down the road to Goose Lake State Park.

The drive is one of my all time favorites. There just isn’t much in the way of civilization. Once we get out of Fernley we went through less than a dozen little dinky towns, I think Cedarville was probably the biggest. There are ranches and lots of open range land on the Nevada side. More irrigated farming going on once we hit California. The Surprise Valley is gorgeous and very green except for the very large dry alkali lake and is rimmed by mountains.

Larry flushed out a Horned Lizard, he almost stepped on it; we were walking around checking out the vegetation several miles east of California. I don’t know what this scrubby bush is but they appeared to be blooming in colors from yellow to red, up close it looked like the new growth was various colors, but after looking at my close-up photo of one it looks more like some kind of strange flower.

There was one area where for miles the wildflowers were stunning. Reds, oranges, different shades of yellow and a deep blue/purple…we never found a safe place to pull out to get pictures. It was the east side of a summit and after we started descending the vegetation started changing so less flowers.

I read very little when we are traveling since we started Full-timing. Any time we traveled in the past I always had my nose in a book…now, a lot of that was on the highways in California…boring, for the most part and we went back and forth over the same roads a lot. Today I would have missed the wildflowers, the Golden Eagle, the Bald Eagle and numerous other raptors, creeks and views.

This is our first time back to Goose Lake since we hosted here three years ago. We LOVE it here. It is very well kept, nice trees, birds and wildlife and QUIET! Even more relaxing this time because we aren’t working. It is very green right now and the lilacs are in bloom. We will probably stay a couple of nights. We even lucked out and hit Oregon’s State Park day and tomorrow we can “camp” for free. We have water and 20 amp power here, there is a dump station, the sites and roads are paved and it is $16 a night. No pull-throughs but quite a few sites are long enough for us to stay hooked up in if we want to.

We arrived here around 2:10 and we traveled 243 miles. It felt good to be back in the trailer and on the road again. It has only been a month since we returned from New Mexico but that feels like a life time ago already!

We will be in Albany, Oregon for a month. Michelle graduates from College on Thursday and then Seth’s 4th birthday is on Saturday. After the July 4th weekend we will head to Sutherlin, Oregon and hang there for a month until after my Family’s annual reunion and then who knows? We plan on heading back to Fallon unless something else comes up. With fuel prices being what they are hanging out longer is cheaper than going back and forth.