Bo and Ginger

 

Bo and Ginger

Happy fall, everyone!  We had several hours of fun creating these greeters for our driveway entrance.  

Napa Trip

 I drove to Napa on August 24 to stay with Nick, as Andria was visiting for several days, also.  The three of us, unfortunately, all came down with COVID after 3-4 days.  Andria recovered pretty fast, but Nick and I were hit harder and longer.  I don't recommend getting this disease.  In spite of feeling like we had bad colds, the flu, and strep throat rolled into one, we had some good times visiting and taking care of family business.   On my 11th day of COVID, I finally tested negative.  As they say, we all have a date with COVID, and I had mine.

Can you believe this 11 ft. long vivarium that Nick and Charlotte built for their Savanah Monitor Lizard named Kronos?  Although Nick and Charlotte no longer live together, they remain friends and share in the care of Kronos.

Andria with Nick's two rescue cats, Theodore and Meowgic.

Andria and I felt good enough one day to walk over to our old house about a half mile away.  She lived in this house until about the age of eight.   We talked about our memories living here, including the performance of a play she wrote from the book, Charlotte's Web.  The play was on this little front lawn and was attended by neighbors and even the mayor of Napa, who happened to be the father of one of Andria's friends.  Nick was about two when we moved, so doesn't remember much about living here.  We bought the house in 1978 for $66,000, and thought we made a killing when we sold it ten years later for $145,000.

One evening, we picked hops from Nick's hop vine.  Nick said it would be about enough for one batch of beer.

Nick has an amazing variety of plants in his vegetable garden, mainly because he has to rescue any inferior plants from where he works at a family run garden center.  His home is also a refuge for deer, hence the deer fencing.

Nick's home was his aunt's and uncle's home for many years, and Freda's yard art still remains.

This little creek, not far from Nick's, is home to several beavers.  Right between two hotels, and next to a major thoroughfare, the beavers are fighting global warming.  The rest of this creek is bone dry, but here, the beavers have backed up a pond at least 100 yards long that provides habitat for otters, herons, egrets, kingfishers, and other species.  We came back the next day and did a trash pickup of the area.

Nick has an amazing room of tropical plants, mostly rescues.  Nick's success with often difficult to grow plants is due to his caring and attention to detail.

Look at this beautiful pitcher plant!

This is a vining pitcher plant.

Nick arranged for this memorial bench to be placed in the neighborhood park that Freda used to walk through daily.  She would strike up conversations with anyone, whether they spoke English or not, and often bring them home to meet Marven.  Nick's Uncle Alfred donated the money for the bench.

Nick uses feeding time as a way of getting Kronos to exercise and stimulate his natural predatory skills.

Friends From Way Back When

 Gabriel, from Vallejo, and Bob and Mary from Salem came to stay with us from August 20 - 22.  It was a good time relaxing, feasting, and catching up.  We look forward to this summer ritual every year.

Gabriel, Mary, Daisy, Me, Bob, and Gail

We did a beach hike to Big Stump.

Beaver Creek Tour

 On August 19th, Oregon Coastal Region Manager Dennis Comfort, gave us SWIFTY members at kayak tour of Beaver Creek.  His office is at Beaver Creek, and he has been working with us to finance and advise our nest box installations there.  Even though I've paddled this creek numerous times, Dennis shared his wealth of knowledge about the plants, animals, and history of this ecologically important wetland.

That's Wally on the left and Dennis up ahead. Jim was behind me, and Marty met us back at the launch area. 

Wally, Jim, and Dennis.  We learned about beaver signs, and extermination efforts to get rid of invasive and destructive nutria.  We hope to get support in the coming year from Dennis and Oregon State Parks to establish a nesting colony of purple martins at Beaver Creek.

August Randoms

 The following are some random shots taken in the first 3 weeks of August.

While we were starting the cleanup of a mess left by long term campers, I noticed this hunter's perch up in a tree.

This was some of the mess left in the woods about a mile above our house.  We had seen a couple coming and going for several months last fall and winter, but didn't check out their camp until after we were sure they were gone.  There were items like briefcases, a tennis racket, and a cell phone that made us think they had been stealing from cars.  There were also syringe wrappers.  It is legal to camp in the National Forest for up to two weeks, but we've noticed some folks camping at one spot for over a year.  We and others have reported these camps to the USFS, but there is no enforcement being done.

We plan to take out a bag or two a week of trash from this site.  It could take awhile!  Gail wears her medal, awarded to her by Jim and Ursula Adler, while doing cleanup work.

Cinnabar caterpillars eating up the invasive plant tansy ragwort.

I finally tried out the rotisserie on our giant BBQ that came with our house.  It worked well!

Jim Welch and I visited Ann Jensens's Wind River Farm about a half mile up the road.  She has a beautiful farm on the river.  

A carving marks the pathway down to the river.  Behind it is the grave of one of her relatives.

Gladiola

Gladiolas and crocosmia