More Fall Photos

 We had this Amanita muscaria pop up on one of our trails. 

 We've had several alders fall this fall - enough firewood already!

 We had Thanksgiving up at Lorie's and Brian's in Newport.  The next day they all came down here to show Logan, Aaron, and Allison our place and go for a hike.

 They all liked Daisy.  Aaron, on left, is going to vet technician school in Minnesota.

 Strawberry Hill Beach has become one of my favorites.

 In the basaltic lava at Neptune beach we found bone fossils

Daisy sleeping with her squirrel.

 We found several patches of chanterelle mushrooms on our property for the first time.  This is the biggest one we've ever found anywhere!  Daisy lost her collar and in the hours we spent looking for it we went deep into our jungle.  It was the tags on the collar that we wanted to find.

 Super chant!

Slime molds are creeping around the woods, too!

I thought I had a couple chipmunks nibbling our tomatoes in the greenhouse, so I bought a Have a Heart trap to relocate them.  It turned out everyday I set the trap, I caught a chipmunk.  I caught 19 in about 3 weeks. I took most of them about a quarter mile down the road.  I finally stopped bothering.

Fall Photos

It's been awhile since I posted, but here are some shots from the past few weeks. 

 After all the September rain, things were looking rain foresty again.

 The fungi were popping and we were collecting all the chanterelle mushrooms we wanted (not these).

 The vine maples gave us our autumn color.

 "Driving Miss Daisy".  Daisy has been a real delight.  She continues to figure out what pleases us and does her best.

 The view from the living room.  We love the big leaf maple on the left with and without leaves.

 We have so much wood!  The alders keep falling, and we keep cutting and splitting.  Daisy finds this area exciting due to the rodents that take shelter here. We also have bats sleeping in our stacks of wood.

 This is what happened when I tried taking a selfie with Daisy.

We saw a number of coral mushrooms in September.

 We had very little rain after the first week of October which made for bike rides, hikes, and romps at the beach.  This is the elk forage area about 2 miles down the road.

The tidal bay in Yachats is our go to dog beach.  This is low tide and that is the town.

 For Halloween, we dressed up and went to a poetry reading in Florence. 

The venue was this little art center and gallery.

 Gail and Daisy spotted this female pileated woodpecker below the house. It stayed long enough for me to grab my camera and head on down.

The Great Blue Heron that has been a fixture on the river here has lost its charm.  In a matter of a few hours at night, it ate up most of our goldfish.  We saw a couple fish left out of the roughly 20 we had, but now its been days since I've seen any.  We have watched those fish grow since we moved here and in a flash, they're gone.  I've added some hides for any fish that might be left.

 We have had a flock of 4 hooded mergansers patrolling our stretch of the river, lately,  and Gail and Daisy spotted them again this morning.  I took these shots from the living room deck in rather dark light.  Hood up!

 Hood down.  A male and 2 females here.

The lovely foursome.

Road Trip With Daisy

Last week, we did an overnight road trip with Daisy, her first with us.  We headed south about 65 miles to Tugman State Park where we had reserved a yurt.  We made several stops along the way to let Daisy stretch, and to make some unexpected purchases.

 First stop was the beach in Yachats to let Daisy blow off a little steam.

 Then it was off down the coast, passing the mist shrouded Haceta Head Lighthouse.


Before coming to Reedsport, we stopped at the Tsunami Gallery in tiny Gardiner.  Gail fell in love with sculptures made of kelp that an artist makes. She bought a smaller one.  Then we happened to notice a myrtlewood gallery that listed slabs as one of its offerings. We have been wanting a rustic slab of wood for a River Song sign we'll place near our driveway entrance.  We found just what we were looking for.

Turned horizontally and with letters burned in, I think it will be what we are looking for.

 In Reedsport,  there is a 7 acre dog park we took advantage of.

 It even had a doggy obstacle course.  Daisy nailed the teeter-totter.

 She saw no need to jump over the high-jump, however, and skirted the obstacle.

 Our very own yurt!  It came with heating and lighting, but no plumbing.

 It was cozy for the 3 of us, the only drawback being the noisy trucks on the 101 that seem to run more at night than the daytime.

 In the morning, we hiked along the lake that is part of the park.

 Daisy drinking from the lake.

 Then, it was a short drive to the Umpqua Lighthouse and its nearby beach.

 Daisy is getting very reliable about retrieving a tennis ball.

 Daisy's side trot tracks.

 This surfer was the only other person we could see on the whole beach.

 Another wide-open Oregon beach - dog heaven!

 A rare rest by the the 3 year old.

Daisy got an "A" for her first road trip with us.  Hmmm, where will we go next?

August Flashback

Here are a few photos I forgot were in my camera since  August 24.

I believe this dragonfly is a red-veined meadowhawk. He was very cooperative for close-ups!

 I still don't know what the plant is that he is resting on, but it is one of our most spectacular bloomers in the front yard.

 Another kind of "meadow hawk" is this Allen's hummingbird, also in the front yard.

The promising apple crop turned out to be an apple bonanza with enough apples for the bear and us.