River Song Sign

Last summer, while having a little happy hour from the back deck, we tossed around some ideas for a fitting name for this property.  Down the road there's Happy Hideaway, Forks Farm, and Starshine Ranch. Up the road there's Wind River Farm and Yachats Forest Farm.  There are others, I'm sure. Anyway, we came up with the name "River Song" as we listened to the burbling river accompanied by birds and the breeze in the trees.

Well, about eight months later, we have a sign.  Last fall, we bought a slab of myrtlewood from a shop in Reedsport. Then in the winter, we printed up some letters off of the computer to trace onto the wood, then I burned the letters into the wood with a little soldering pencil.  Last month, I varnished the the whole thing and made a frame to hang the sign from using old copper pipe that was left lying around the yard.  We thought the copper would tie in with the copper pipe railings that grace some of our trails.  On Sunday, I planted the structure in concrete, and Monday, we hung the sign.  It is subtle, and if the wood should darken, we'll probably have to paint the letters for a little more pop. Now we have to do something about that mailbox.

Daisy doing  a "balk" as Gail tried to walk her past the sign.

A Beautiful Week

The past few days have been sunny with temps reaching into the seventies.  I  have been busy tending seedlings in the greenhouse and repairing trails and steps that were damaged by our string of cow invasions. I also removed 7 chipmunks in 5 days from the greenhouse.  Well, actually 6 because Daisy nailed one and crunched it.  The others I took down the road and let loose. The Have A Heart Trap and peanut butter are a great combination! 

Gail, Daisy, and I usually do a 4 mile hike up the hill and back and we did do a beach walk on Wednesday.  I did a major food shopping journey to the Fred Meyer in Newport on Tuesday.  I was disheartened to see most of the checkers and stockers not wearing masks.  There were no plexiglass partitions separating the checkers from the customers, and no disinfecting going on. After leaving, I felt like I probably have about 2 weeks to live.  On the plus side, they had plenty of toilet paper!

 Well, we never saw another goldfish in our pond for months after the heron cleaned them out. Then last month while I was suctioning excess sediment from the bottom, I was surprised to see a small dark brown fish zoom by.  Then the past week we have noticed 3 swimming together.

 After doing some reading, I learned that goldfish can take a year or two to change from a silvery brown to gold.  They also need light, preferably 12 hours a day, to attain their bright colors, although some never do, or change to black.  I also learned that goldfish have acute vision and can see 4 primary colors, ultraviolet being the 4th.  They can distinguish between humans.  I suspect that these fish were small fry that the heron didn't eat last summer due to their then tiny size and drab color, and now they are larger and beginning the process of changing color. They take a year or two to become adults.

Also sharing the pond are a whole bunch of small bullfrogs.

 The swallows are circling around our yard grabbing insects.  This Violet-green Swallow is starting a nest in one of our birdhouses.  Good thing I recently cleaned out all the bird boxes.

 Goin' in.

Northern Flickers are beautiful birds, but I have terrible luck getting close enough to them for a good picture.  We've had one or two drilling on the side of our house early in the morning, lately.  It sounds like a machine gun.

This was from down by the river this morning from under our big spruce tree.

USS Theodore Roosevelt

It was Christmas Eve, 2006, and Dave took us on a tour of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, which he had been assigned to. It was undergoing maintenance in Norfolk, VA at the time.

I feel bad about the treatment of Captain Crozier and the resulting low morale of the crew.  The captain seems like a decent man.  Maybe he'll be reinstated?  I hope all of the stricken crew make full recoveries.

 Dave and Nora

 On the deck where the anchor chains are stored.

 Nick checking the size of those links.  Can you imagine the total weight of the chain and anchor?

On the flight deck.

We got to go up in the tower to the bridge. We also saw the berth areas, hangars, dining hall, and Dave's office.  We were struck by what a maze the ship is and how one could easily get lost.

Another Week of Isolation

 Something ate a opossum on our property this week.  Bobcat?

 While moving logs I saw several Oregon Ensatinas.  They can live 10-15 years in the wild, and if grabbed by the tail, will separate it from their body to escape, like a lizard.

 Another day at an isolated beach on Thursday.  This time, Strawberry Hill.

 Low tide allows for a lot of exploration.

 You can barely see Gail and Daisy.  We lazily sifted through little gravel patches to add a few agates to our collection.

The day was perfect, but the clouds on the horizon spelled rain for the days since. This coming week looks to be good weather for yard work and hikes in the area.

New Link!

Under the "Links" heading in the right hand column of this page, I have added "Nick's Time-Travel Tributaries".  This allows you to enjoy the fascinating world of my son, Nick.  You will see examples of his discoveries in nature, which are often the little amazing things that are overlooked by most.  You will also relish his trips to iconic sites in California and meeting his eclectic group of friends. Enjoy!

October, 2018

Pre and Post Isolation - the Past 25 Days

On February 26, we met up with Bob and Mary from Salem for a hike and picnic at Beaver Creek State Park.  It was a fine sunny day as we hiked the trails along the creek and up the adjoining hillside.

 This Common Garter Snake, sub-species Red-spotted Garter Snake, was on the trail.  This is an uncommonly beautiful garter snake, I think!

 We saw a couple Bald Eagles and this Red-tailed Hawk.

 At the top of the hill are these striking dead trees.

Happy birthday, Mary! Bob and Mary are friends of mine going back to the seventies when we worked at Napa State Hospital.


On to some more recent random shots from around the area.

 We saw these bird tracks next to some bloody patches on the sand at the beach next to Yachats.  I think they are Bald Eagle, but could possibly be Great Blue Heron, also.

 I lied, this is an older shot from February 22.  Our front yard is coming to life, and now the swallows have returned, as well as bumblebees and Rufus Hummingbirds.

Yummy, thermoregulating in a new favorite spot.

For several weeks we have had several Bald Eagles hanging out around the property as they feed on a cow or elk carcass across the river.  This juvenile is probably about 3 years old.

The following pictures are from the past 8 days.  We have been taking precautions to isolate ourselves for the past 2 weeks.  We have had to go to the grocery store and to Yachats restaurants for take out food a couple times.  We are fortunate to have deserted beaches to go to, and our own resort setting at home - not a bad place to self-isolate.

 I put the hummingbird feeder up, and presto, we had hummers within minutes.

 A male Rufous Hummingbird.

 Flashing his red gorget.

 We have had Dark-eyed Juncos on our seed feeder.

 Yummy Delicous in the midst of one of her "crazies" on a post above the hot tub.

 Raucous Steller's Jays were the first birds to arrive at the seed feeders.  We discovered that they do an excellent mimic of a Bald Eagle call to scare away other birds.  We were both fooled by a jay for a few days until we saw it making the call.  These are smart corvids!

 I love those eyebrows!

We are so lucky to have expansive, unpopulated beaches during these times. Daisy gets to run free, and we have an ever changing environment to explore.

 Gail found this agate formed in a pocket of a basaltic rock.  This is where they form before eventually being freed when the surrounding rock breaks apart.

 This area of the coast is a marine reserve.

Break time!

Cougar!

When I checked our trail cams this morning, I saw that we had a cougar stroll by the house early last Wednesday morning.  It was caught on one of our two trail cams about 100 feet from the house by the bocce ball deck, at 1:32 A.M.  This was our first "sighting" since moving to Oregon.  Wow, what a feeling to have a cougar on your very own property!