The Past Week or So

We had more than a week of sunny mild weather, with one afternoon reaching 82 degrees here at the house. This enabled me to do some woodworking and gardening.  Now the trees are starting to blossom, migrant birds are coming back, the grass is growing, and a very large frog we named Brutus has been taking up his post at the edge of the goldfish pond.  Starting Friday, however, rain showers have resumed, which is a good thing, as our rainfall total is below average at 66.4 inches. Normal should be around eighty.  Our neighbor says that instead of the normal constant drizzle, the rain has been more sporadic with some intense downpours.  Sounds like climate change behavior to me.

I made this box for Gail to store her art pads and paper in.

 I tried my hand at woodburning with a soldering iron.  This is a Belted Kingfisher, one of our favorite birds along the river.

 I made the handles from a dried hemlock branch.  The box is now in Gail's "she shed".

We had a little excitement last Thursday.  Around 7:00 PM, I glanced out the front window and saw a herd of 14 cows in our yard!

We tried to herd them back across the river, but they stopped at the lush grass below the house and wouldn't budge. I drove down the road to the ranch that owns the cattle and notified a person living in a cottage there.  When I drove back up the road, I was amazed to see Gail chasing all but two down the road towards me - quite a sight!  I stayed with the other two until one of the ranch hands with his four little kids drove up and herded them back with his truck.

 Their hooves punched big holes in the "lawn", but fortunately they didn't go through the flower beds.

 The hmmm, what do we do now moment.

Saturday, I bought a new car, my first actual new car since 1993.  It is a Toyota Highlander, with all wheel drive and capable of towing up to 5,000 pounds. Despite it being much bigger than my old Honda CRV, it gets better gas mileage.  The CRV, unfortunately, was developing torque converter problems that would have been more expensive to repair than the car was worth. 

Well, that's the news update from Yachats River Road.