FOUR YEAR ANNIVERSARY

It is four years today when Celia left this word, something I think about every day.    It is not all sorrow as I think back on her humor, wit and that smile.    She had her own way of doing things, such as working in the yard in her bathrobe before eating her breakfast, playing on her violin, cutting scotch broom in the afternoons or off to town for groceries or check out the thrift stores.   At times she would call me before coming home to tell me not to worry about dinner as she was bringing home pizza and beer.   We were very compatible house mates.   We both had our own space for clutter, be it books, magazines, junk mail, etc.   When it started falling on the floor we both worked together attempting to put order to the clutter.  After an hour or more Celia would say lets go out and get something to eat and we can do this later.   It was common for us to go out to eat two or three times a week.   She would say that she only wanted a lite meal, but after looking at the menu she would order a big plate of food, be it Mexican, Chinese or her favorite salad at the Lighthouse Cafe, one of her favorites eating establishments.   Her love of the environment, animals and plants were very important to her.   There were times while looking at plants at Bi Mart she would buy the  poor looking ones with the intent of nursing them back to health.   This was true of the many cats she took care of.    It was common while we would work on our property, for all our cats to follow us into the woods and hang out with us as we planted trees, removed invasive species or just sat down to admire our surroundings and a share a kiss or two.    She is immensely missed!

THE BROKEN TRACTOR BRAKE

About five or six months ago I received a recall notice from John Deere (JD) that a piece in the brake linkage, called the brake bell crank on my JD tractor was suspectable to braking and advising me to no longer operate it.   The recall involved three tractor models going back to 2018.   After inquiring with the local JD dealership where I purchased the tractor, they informed me there are an estimated 500 tractors they had sold since 2018 that needed to come into their shop for replacement of the defective part starting with those models sold in 2018.   I purchased my tractor in 2019.  Being mindful of the potential brake problem I continued to operate my tractor as needed.  I shared this information with my neighbor as he has borrowed the tractor at times and lives just down the road from my place.   A month ago I went to the JD dealership for an oil filter and oil, and asked what the status was with replacement of the defective part.  They told me they were taking in 4 or 5 tractors a week and the hang up was not receiving enough of the replacement parts from the manufacturer.  This last week my neighbor was using the tractor and the brake bell crank broke while he was operating it.   Luckily he was able to reverse the tractor using the hydrostatic transmission reverse pedal avoiding a disaster.   I called the JD dealership and informed them of the breakage.   They told me they would call other JD dealerships in hopes of finding a new part and get back to me on scheduling the repair.    I did receive a message from the dealer and called back without connecting to that individual, who I believe was the manager.   The person that did answer the phone said he would put a note on the callers desk to call me back and informed me they were short of people to do all the work in the shop.   I never received a call back. The next day I decided to look under the tractor and saw the broken piece and proceeded to remove it myself with little difficulty.   The broken part was made out of a cheap alloy, called pot metal by us common folks.  Then I drove into the dealership and approached the parts counter where four employees were busy talking.   I put the broken part on the counter saying, "have you see this before?"   Immediately I got everybody's attention, including the manger, who was among the four.    Without any introductions they knew I was the guy who called the day before.  The manger told me he had a new replacement part that they received from the JD dealer in Tangent and handed it to me.  He offered to send somebody out to my place to help put it on the tractor, but I told him I could do it.   He then told me I was the first customer to report a breakage out of all the tractors under the recall in their dealership.   The new part was made out of real steel and much heavier.   

THE STELLAR JAYS

These birds are a nuisance and in many ways they know my routine.   Whenever I put sun flower seeds in the bird feeders they start screaming to each other from the nearby trees as if to say, "he finally put feed out, lets go!"  Whenever I go outside they start screaming.   I try to keep food outside for my black cat, but the Jays seem to find it no matter how I try to hide it from them.    Now I find myself talking and screaming back at them and the real problem is I think they understand me.  

 

THE MYSTERIES OF LIFE

The older I get the less I understand or wonder if I ever did understand about the human species and life in general.   We humans are complicated creatures compared to other animal species.  Take my cats for instance, they just want to eat, sleep, prowl around and to some degree think they can control the humans in their life.  Us humans want to take control of our environment in order to accommodate our needs.   In that process we usually destroy, alter and infringe some form of harm on our fellow humans and other animal species in the name of greed as we destroy the environment around us.   

Where I live in the country it becomes very dark when there is no moon and the universe of stars becomes so visible that it boggles my mind to look at the heavens above.   Lately I learned if I could travel at the speed of light I would never make it through our Milky Way galaxy in my life time.   Just to ponder that puts me in my place realizing how little I know or maybe want to know.   Maybe my cats have a better life.       

THE LONE FROG

 Over the last couple of weeks there has been one frog that spends most of the night and part of the day crocking near the front of the house.  I assume it is a frog in search of a mate.  Since I do not know a female crock from a male crock, I'll assume it is a male.   Whenever I operate any power equipment, such has the hedge trimmer it makes the frog crock more and loader.   You would think it would scare or silence the frog.   Off in the distance I can hear other frogs that seem to be communicating with each other on maybe who is available for courting or just looking for a fling.   Why doesn't the lone frog by the house not venture out to mingle with the other frogs in the wild?   Maybe he is hoping a female frog out in the wild will hear his call and come look him up to see if there is any chemistry.   I guess it is one of the many great mysteries of life to ponder.   

THE MYSTERY MAN

Recently one of my neighbors sent out an email to all of us living on this hillside, which is 11 residents, about a tall man wearing a hood walking along Wildflower Lane and not waving or showing any sign of recognition.   On the subject line of the email it was titled, 'Mystery Man'.  Soon afterward there was an exchange of emails speculating on where this person was going, including myself thinking he might be camped out on a 10 acre home site that has not been developed yet.  Another neighbor thought he might be squatting in the old cabin on my lower 10 acres.   The next day I checked out the cabin and found no evidence of anybody squatting there.   One afternoon last week, as I was driving back home, there was a tall man walking up Wildflower Lane just above my driveway.   He never looked back to see me and I assumed he had some kind of listening devise plugged into his ears.  I can't remember if he was wearing a hood.   One neighbor to my east is a tall man and occasionally walks the road, but does not wear a hood and usually waves as I have driven by him.   It could have been him.  My neighbor below me said he should check in their unused horse barn to see if that is where he might be,  Other neighbors report seeing no such person.   This mountain side covers much area, including large acreages to the west with old roads no longer used for vehicle traffic since they have become grown over with vegetation and could be inviting to a vagrant to set up a camp.   With the increasing homeless situation some of these people might be seeking refuge in the rural areas of the county.   On some of my drives into town I have noticed some people with backs on them walking along highway 138 going toward Sutherlin and some were wearing a hood.   Now the common question when neighbors pass each other or meet up at the mail boxes is:  "have you seen The Mystery Man?"

FRED & ORVILLE

In the spring of 1972 the Orleans Ranger District (RD) hired two seasonal employees, Fred and Orville, to work on the timber sale preparation crew.  They had previously worked on the Stonyford RD of the Mendocino National Forest together doing timber work.  Orville had a four year degree in forestry, but was hired on as a forestry technician as most of us working on that crew were.   Fred was a refined hippie, who had family in Napa, preferred good food, fine wine and marijuana,   Orville was an old Kanas farm boy, who would eat anything, chewed tobacco and drank cheap beer and wine.   Orville had a small dog, named Charlie and a horse.   Fred and Orville rented a single wide trailer in one of the nearby trailer parks.   They were not gay, but it was better to split the rent in order to save money, plus there was a shortage of places to rent around the community of Orleans with a scattered population of about 600 people.   They were definitely the odd couple as Orville was more laid back and Fred tried to keep some sort of order in their housekeeping.   There were mornings when Fred came to work in a grumpy mood, probably from smoking too much Humboldt tobacco and complaining how Orville was a Neanderthal man.    If I remember correctly Orville kept his horse tied to a tree near the trailer and used his horse trailer as a barn.   After a couple of years at Orleans they went their separate ways.   Fred went back to school at Lassen College in Susanville to get a two year forestry degree and Orville got a foresters position on the Gasquet RD, north of the Orleans RD, planning and writing environmental analysis for proposed timber sales.   While at Gasquet, Orville met a woman by the name of  Toni at the Rusty Nail Tavern, they eventually married and lived in a trailer on her parent's property along the Smith River.   After a year or two of doing paper work Orville quit his forester job and did odd jobs around Gasquet cutting firewood, garden work, etc.   Orville and Toni did visit me and my family when I was working on the Gold Beach RD from 1979 to 1988.  Orville was hired again on the Mad River RD as a technician doing field work which he preferred more than office work.   Fred met a woman also studying forestry at Lassen College, they eventually married and he got a job on the Rogue River National Forest doing timber sale contract administration.   While I was working on the Gold Beach Ranger District in the 1980's, I met Fred at a training session near Medford and he invited me to his house in Central Point for dinner with his wife and two young daughters.  

After I left the Forest Service in 1995 I lost track of these two characters.   Sometime in the late 1990's, I found out that Orville had been working as a wilderness ranger on the Toiyabe National Forest out of Carson City, Nevada.   He had suffered a heart attacked on a tour of duty in a wilderness area and was brought out for triple bypass surgery.  After that he was put on limited duty until he was forced to retire.   I met up with  him and his wife, while visiting my sister Ann living in Yerington, Nevada.  Orville and Toni were living on high desert acreage near Silver Springs, Nevada where they had horses.   Orville no longer had his dog Charlie and told me he ran off one day when they lived near Ruth Lake on the Mad River RD and never returned.  

A couple years later I received a call from Toni that Orville died at home from a heart attack at the age of 72 or 73.   I found a phone number for Fred and called to tell him of Orville passing away.   Fred had not been in contact with Orville for years.   He had left the Forest Service and took a job delivering mail for the post office out of Medford until he retired.  

CHRISTMAS DINNER

For many years now ten of us have gathered for a Christmas potluck dinner at one of the homes of the ten as we would rotate from house to house each year.   It is now nine of us since Celia left this world in May of 2021.    We did have the dinner at our house years ago, but I don't offer my house anymore for a variety of reasons, especially not being the best housekeeper.   A week or two before the dinner emails are exchanged on who will bring what, including main dishes, side dishes, bread and desserts.   The group usually relies on me to bring the bread knowing my typical dishes of beans, some sort of swill or the classic gourmet dish of hot dogs embedded in green jello does not overly excite the group, so they just ask, Mike please just bring bread.  

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

THE FATAL HOT DOG

Being raised Catholic in the 1950's we were not allowed to eat meat on Fridays and to do so was a terrible sin.    Fish sticks were served for lunch in the public school and my parents would cook some kind of fish for dinner.   One summer day that happened to be a Friday, the Boy Scout troop I belonged to was out fishing in a pond on a farm where one of the Boy Scouts lived.   None of us brought a lunch and hunger was becoming an overwhelming feeling.    Then there was a shout from the nearby farm house that the hot dogs were ready.   Everybody dropped their fishing poles and ran toward the house.   Some of the other boys were Catholic too but did not hesitate to get a hot dog in a bun and put some mustard, relish and other fixings on it.   Following the other Catholic boys and feeling guilty I indulged in a hot dog thinking how will I ever repent from this sin and be saved from the fires of hell?   Years later the Catholic Church no longer required meatless Fridays and hopefully I was forgiven for eating that hot dog.  

CHILDHOOD MOUNTAIN MEMORIES

Thoughts of my childhood take me back to fishing on Battle Creek with my dad while staying at a cabin in Mineral in the 1950's.   It was an exciting drive up California highway 36 after leaving the Sacramento Valley at Red Bluff, passing up through the foothills of oaks and the rocks that were blasted out of Mt. Lassen in 1914, then the first sighting of pine trees and finally entering the mixed forest of firs, cedars and pines near the mountain community of Mineral.   Just outside Mineral was the headquarters for the Lassen Volcanic National Park where there were administrative buildings, personnel housing and equipment shops.   The center of Mineral was the lodge with a restaurant, lounge with some motel rooms and a store.  The Lassen National Forest had a summer ranger station here.   Most of the nearby houses were summer homes.   The Edwards family from Willows owned a house in Mineral, since Charlie Edwards had worked for the Forest Service or the Park Service here before taking a job with the Forest Service in Willows on the Mendocino National Forest.   They would let us stay in this house at times during the summers.   They eventually sold it.   At the age of 7 or 8, I remember walking through the forest behind this house to a split rail fence where a large mountain meadow was with some ranch buildings off in the distance.   After climbing over the fence and walking out into the meadow a bull laying down on the edge of the forest was startled and got up and began coming after me.   I ran back to the fence just in time before the bull caught up with me.   I never crossed that fence again.  

AN UNFORGETABLE THANKSGIVING

One of my most memorable Thanksgivings was when I lived in Eugene from 1991 to 2000.    My two children were with me on Thanksgiving of 1992 or 93.  To save myself from trying to cook a big turkey dinner, I decided to take them to one of those all you could eat places in the shopping center at 29th and Willamette in south Eugene.   We had been there before, but now it was under new ownership.    There was a line of people going out the front door when we arrived.  Once we got inside I paid for the three of us as we got a plate and utensils.   The first dish was a big salad that looked descent, next was mashed potatoes in one of those big tubs that you would see ice cream served from, definitely instant potatoes.  Then there was a man serving ham or turkey as he told us we could have one or the other and it was cut in thin slices from round cylinders of meat, no fresh turkey or ham here.    After that there was no more food, I don't even remember a vegetable or a roll.  We found a table and started eating.   With the small servings it did not take long to consume our Thanksgiving dinner.   Off to the side was a table of pieces of pumpkin pie on plates with a sign saying help yourself.   Sitting next to us was a large woman wearing a blouse that did not completely cover her bulging belly as she got up for seconds.   When she returned to the table with her family I overheard say, "isn't this great food?"  By then my two kids were eating their second plates of pie.   That did it for me and In desperation I told them eat up we got to get out here. 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! 

YOU JUST NEVER KNOW

After getting a hearing test today that revealed much hearing loss, and above all how my brain no longer understand certain sounds, I stopped by Sherm's Thunder Bird market thinking how my old body is falling apart, maybe a case of feeling sorry for myself.   It was mid day and the store was crowded with shoppers, mostly old folks like myself making their way through the different aisles.   As I came into the main aisle I noticed a crowd of people assembled at the far end near the meat section.   Then I saw a man on the floor as store employee or another customer was giving him CPR.   Other shoppers looked shocked as they were frozen in place.   I moved on down another aisle as EMT's arrived with a stretcher.   Soon they yelled for people to get out of the way as they carried the man out of the store.   A man standing near me asked what was going on since many in the store had no idea what had happened.   I told him about what I saw and made the comment, "you just never know".   He replied, "that's the truth".   I left the store praying that the man would survive and feeling better that I'm still moving and thankful for what I can hear. 

PS:  yes, I will be wearing hearing aids in a few weeks that will help me and my old brain understand  what I have not heard or understood for a good part of my adult life.  

THE WAR WITHIN US

 We all have battles that we are fighting be it physical or mental ailments, addictions, injustice, financial problems, abuse, depression, loneliness, etc.    Did I leave something out?  

Sometimes we take out our despair in anger on our family, friends, politicians and government.    All anger and hate breeds is more anger and hate, unless we can forgive and find common ground.   I believe there is more common ground between us than we know.   Don't we all want security, health care, financial well being, and the freedom to chose our own destiny.   We may not agree on how to achieve all these things, but can't we discuss our differences in a civilized manner?  

How can there ever be peace on Earth if we can not find peace within ourselves and with others?

THE OLD FARMER'S ALMANAC

This is one of the oldest yearly publications in the country dating back to 1792.   It contains many interesting articles on adventures, astronomy, farming, folklore, gardening, home remedies, preserving food, weather predictions and much more.   It provides valuable tables on gestation, mating seasons, planting tables, growing seasons, dates of first and last frost, phenology and measurement tables.   Even the advertisements are interesting to read.   It is a welcome publication with simple advice, words of wisdom and a great resource in a complex world.