Father's Day

I have to share/brag about the two wonderful cards I received for Father's Day.

From Andria and her family is this poster with past pictures that made my day. 

And Nick made me this beautiful card. What an artist!

the backside

Thank you so much!

River and Rhodies

A week ago, we had a heat wave where it reached 100.8 degrees at our house. We cooled off in the river, floating in a two person raft one day, but on Tuesday, we needed our rear ends in the water. I even did a little underwater swimming.  The river is shallow in some areas, but we have several pools where the water is still 4-5 feet deep. And cold!

 Whee - this is nice!

 We spent about two hours floating around and chillin'.

Of course their is always the ocean, 20 minutes away.  Gail rock hunting a couple weeks ago. She found three large agates in her first 10 minutes, and then nothing after that.  I found one.  This morning had a minus 1.6 foot low tide - really low!

Last month, the rhododendruns were stunning. Gail took photos of some of ours, seen below.

Thanks, Gail!

Spring Updates

Below are a few snapshots from the past couple weeks.  We have been alternating between yard work, and goofing off, for the most part.

The river looking pretty. I have a camera set up at the left end of that big log and have captured bobcats and raccoons crossing it at night.

The cam also captured this Bald Eagle.

We took our canoe out on Beaver Creek for our first paddle of the year. What we previously thought were beavers turn out to be mostly nutria, giant rodents from South America.

 Yummy follows us around the yard, and enjoys climbing up things, hoping to be "rescued".

She enjoys a warm fire as much as we do.

We met the llama, alpaca, peacock lady down the road, and chatted with her for over an hour. 

 We bicycled into town on Sunday the 30th, passing this elk herd at mile 5.

Our other favorite herd is the Belted Galloway cattle from Scotland at mile 3.


Last Monday, we climbed Mary's Peak, the highest peak of the Pacific Range in Oregon. We started at 1,800 feet and reached the peak at 4,097 feet.  The flowers at the top were in their glory.

 This weird plant is Bear Grass.

Fungus never sleep in the forest.

On the drive home, we took a side road to see this covered bridge.

Well, those were some of the recent highlights for us on the Oregon Coast.

Peafowl Tuesday!

While at the kitchen sink this morning getting my breakfast together I saw what at first looked like a flock of turkeys down by the cabana.  I quickly realized, however, that they were peafowl who must have been on an outing from StarShine Ranch, about a third of a mile down the road.  They came up to our deck to take shelter from the rain showers, and then hung out for an hour or so.

They came up the steps, about 12 to 15 in number.

Yummy didn't know what to think.  Her attitude evolved from alarm to eventual boredom.

Gail called the ranch and spoke with their owner, Elaine, who assured us they would be fine and find their way back. She said they don't like the rain, which may explain why they were standing under the eaves and deck canopy.

 We enjoyed watching them. We were told that this group is mostly young males.

 We marvel at the surprises we encounter here on the Yachats River.

The young male on the rail shook his tail.  It takes 3 years for them to get their long tail feathers with the eye spots.

Eventually, they went around to the front yard and began picking at our flowers.  At that point, we decided to send them home, so Gail herded them down the road back to the ranch the same way she herded the cattle earlier this year.  Fun encounter!

Animal Rescue! A Story from Gail

Wow, what a morning I had!  I started out by simply getting on my bike for a quick exercise ride into town before the afternoon rain was supposed to come and I ended up rescuing a sweet, little baby lamb.  Literally!  This poor thing would definitely have died if I hadn't somehow miraculously been there just at the exact moment to see what was happening and to do something about it.  What a moment for both of us!

This fuzzy love thang is named Chocolate Drop and today was her unlucky, yet very lucky day.  So the story goes, as I was riding my bike west to town I slowed down at the iconic farm at Mile 2 where I hoped to take a picture if the sun was right.  They have cows, and sheep and goats in the large field and it is always so beautiful.  Well, as I looked down I noticed that all the animals were together as a group and heading west towards the pasture behind the barn, but there was one little black lamb left far behind in a field surrounded by a stream and dense bog on one side, blackberry vines and a fence on the other, and the forest behind.  She was trapped and didn't know what to do.

She was crying and crying, and sometimes the sheep would call back for her, but no one was waiting for her or trying to guide her to the safe path to them.  So in frightened desperation she plunged forward into the reeds and water and cattails surrounding the stream and dropped out of sight.  I could hear her calling in a panic and several times I saw her head pop up as she tried to jump through the thicket, but at some point all motion and sound stopped.  I knew she was in trouble.

With amazing fortune there was a little self-serve produce stand (Seeds of Oregon) right across the street from the farm building, and more fortunate than that when I rode up the owner (Judy) was actually in there restocking for goods for sale.  I told her about the lamb in distress and she said she would call the owner of the ranch.  So I rode back to the place where I first saw everything and waited...and waited.  I thought the owners would come quickly, but it turned out they didn't even live on the property - they just rent the land and live about 25 minutes away in Waldport north of us.  Judy had driven up to me by then and was chatting about the history of the area, but I could barely concentrate on her as the lamb was silent and that seemed bad news.  I asked her it there was water in the cattails, and Judy said yes...and I asked her if it was deep enough for the lamb to drown and he said yes.  So I went into action.

I asked if there was any way to get down to the blackberries and she told me where the fence was so I went for it.  I lifted my bike over the fence gate and ran down to the stream and just plunged in.  At that point it was like looking for a needle in a haystack - all the growth was so thick and tall, plus I thought I might get stuck myself!  I searched and searched for a long time, then unbelievably I heard a tiny splash next to my leg and I looked down and there she was! - her head barely above water!

I shouted and waved, "I found her!  I found her!", but it turned out no one even heard me as Judy had left.  I waited for a long time again and then realized I had to get this lamb out myself.  So I struggled to stand and get a strong foot hold and I reached down and managed to pull her out of the main stream and onto my lap sitting in the reeds.

The poor animal was shivering intensely with hypothermia and fear and I held her and rubbed her coat for what seemed like over 20 minutes, waving occasionally at a passing car for help, but I think no one saw me.  To hold her, and smell her, and try to comfort her was an intense experience and in my mind later I went back to moment working with oiled birds at the International Bird Rescue, or Sarah's stories about cuddling premature babies at the NICU wing of her hospital.

Again I realized I had to get her out myself so I pushed to get myself standing, and knowing that I would never probably cross the stream with her in my arms I carried her back to where she started.  I spent some more time there warming her and looking for a place where I might try crossing.  Quite a ways down to the east it seemed like there were less reeds and cattails and so I thought the bog would be less challenging.  So I carried her there and went in, and made it!  I was so relieved!

From there I just had to carry here back to her herd, resting every couple hundred feet or so to catch my breath.  She was a big baby!  When I finally got close I met another obstacle.  The cows!

They were intent on me and upset by my presence and twice came loping and rushing towards me.  I worried they might want to trample me in defense, so I got as close as I dared and put the lamb down and backed off to the side.  Still the cows came at me so I climbed through the barbed wire fence.  The cows then all surrounded the little lamb and gave her a good sniffing over and I wondered about her safety, but it turns out they were just curious, and with great relief finally I saw two women arrive onto the field and head to my shaking lamb.

The owner's name was Tiffany and though in the mayhem I didn't get introduced I think the young girl was her daughter.  They tethered up Chocolate Drop's mom, named Tootsie Roll, and pulled her and Chocolate's sister, Brownie, together to bring to the barn for warming and nurturing.  It looked like Chocolate may have even suckled for a moment which was a good sign.

I got a warm thank you from Tiffany, curious goats nibbling at my jacket, and an opportunity to shoot a few photographs which made my day.  Ironically, she asked me in gratitude if she could give me any lamb or goat meat to take home, but oh my goodness, after this personal experience how could I ever think of that!  She laughed and waved good-bye. 

Good luck little Chocolate Drop - 

it was a delight to have met you!