MARCH RAINFALL DATA

 I have been recording rainfall since 2008 for CoCoRaHS and this March has been the least amount at 2.04 inches recorded at our station (OR-DG-22).    The last 5 year average for March is 5.24 inches.   The highest amount recorded for March was in 2012 with 11.96 inches.  

For this water year starting 10/1/20 to 3/31/21 we have received 30.58 inches, the 30 tear average is 42 inches for the entire water year ending 9/30/21.   Between now and the end of the water year it will be tough to come up with the 12 inches to achieve our average rainfall, unless the next three months exceed their average of 6.95 inches.

THE SON OF MOE

My dad had a weakness for dogs.  He would bring dogs home after work.  At times there could have 4 to 6 dogs running around the place.  I'm not sure where many of them came from, could have been strays or farmers with too many dogs, just don't remember. One dog my dad came home with was a Great Dane that inherited the name, Moe. The Mormons were building a church next to our place and Moe would go over and visit them and they called him Moses, so my dad came up with the nickname Moe.  Moe was a friendly dog and at times ventured away from home. We learned later that Moe had a thing going with a female Boxer at someplace on a road near town. It is hard to imagine a Great Dane and a Boxer getting together, but it happened. A few months later the Boxer gave birth to a male pup that looked like Moe.  If there were other pups in the litter I don't recall, but the owners of the Boxer were not pleased with the affair and let my dad know of it.   My dad felt responsible and adopted the Son of Moe, which we called Fritz. Not sure why that name was bestowed upon the Son of Moe.  Fritz had a Boxer face, that only a mother could love, and somewhat of a body of a Great Dane, about mid-size between a Boxer and a Great Dane.  At some point in time, Moe got into the garbage and ingested some poison, and died. Fritz lived a long life and moved to Stockton after my dad got out of the farming business and sold our home near Willows.  This all happened after I went into the Army in 1966.  

MY MUSICAL BACKGROUND

 As a young child, I don't remember much music is the home. With 6 children my mother didn't have the time to, and maybe not the interest to promote music appreciation with us.   I don't even remember a radio being turned on

In grade school, it wasn't until the 5th or 6th grade when some students had to buy these red flute instruments, called tonettes, and learn how to play them.  Our class was not included as we were considered slow learners.   On rainy days when we could not have P.E. classes outside, we had to go to the basement and dance to the songs of Pat Boone.   It was horrifying having to ask a girl to dance and then proceed to step on her feet a few times while trying to dance.  

 In my junior year of high school, there was a choral class first thing in the morning in the gymnasium.  Not sure how I ended up in the class.  The first day each student had to hum to a note the teacher played on the piano.    When it was over six of us boys were told to sit up in the bleachers, do our homework, don't cause a disturbance and you will get a C grade in the class.  We were considered tone-deaf. 

As the years went by most music I listen to was country-western or folk on the radio of whatever vehicle I was driving while doing farm work.  Most of the country-western music was about how some woman left her man and his tears were flowing in his beer, not the most upbeat.    During my two years in the Army most music was at the beer garden or EM (enlisted man's) club where they were playing songs dealing with the Vietnam war while we could not consume the beer fast enough.   

When Celia and I were living in Cottage Grove we got involved with a group of people in Eugene, many retired teachers, some musicians that needed people to form a band to play at retirement homes.  They were willing to teach us less fortunate people with no musical talents.    They even provided instruments and taught us how to read music.   Celia picked the flute and I the saxophone.    We did not become masters at it, but it filled in for what we missed out on in those early years.    

VACCINATED

Yesterday I received my second Moderna shot, so far, no ill affects.  Some younger folks I know have suffered from excessive tiredness after their second shot and had to catch up on their sleep, if only I was that lucky.   Most older folks have told me they only had some muscle aches, nothing new there since that's seems to be an everyday occurrence at this stage of life.

Who knows what's next after this pandemic?   In the end we're all going to the same place, and hopefully they serve beer there for those of us that have been good. 

STP OIL TREATMENT

 How many remember the oil additive STP?   It was a thick honey-like liquid used to prevent engines from excessive wear and burning oil, especially old worn-out engines.   I'm not sure if it is still on the market anymore and probably not recommended for these newer engines.   

My dad bought this stuff by the gallons.   He had an old 1940's vintage used White truck (White was the brand name, not the color) used to pull a low bed trailer for transporting equipment.   This truck had a big 6 cylinder gas engine, 5-speed main transmission with a secondary 3-speed gearbox for a total of 15 spends forward.   This truck went through a lot of motor oil and my dad would pour an entire gallon of STP in it at times.       

CAREGIVING

Today was the monthly caregiver's Zoom meeting facilitated by Parkinson's Resources of Oregon.   This organization has been a lifesaver for me offering advice, virtual conferences, and the monthly support meetings with fellow caregivers.   It is a way to listen and learn from others taking care of a loved one.    We can compare notes on health issues related to Parkinson's, share ideas, remedies and at times vent our frustrations.   In many ways, I have learned more from these people than the medical professionals we have dealt with, and at no cost.   

At some time in our life, we will all be called upon to be a caregiver to aging parents, a sick spouse, or a child.   

A MAJOR BREAKDOWN

The hitch behind the D7 Caterpillar tractor had a large pin that attached the chisel plow to the draw bar of the tractor.   There were two smaller bolts on the chisel plow hitch that were used to adjust the tilt of the implement.   Two hydraulic hoses were attached to the hydraulic pump on the back of the tractor.  These two hoses went to a cylinder that was used to raise and lower the implement as it was supported by two iron wheels.   These hoses were made of hard rubber with a steel mesh lining in side, since there was high pressure when the hydraulic oil was forced through them.  A chisel plow is basically a ripper used to break up compacted soil.  This particular implement was 14 feet wide with three rows of rippers offset where they were about 12 inches in width between each ripper that were set for 16 inches in depth through hard compacted ground.   The tractor had a 5 speed transmission and could only pull this implement in second gear, so you can imagine the resistance.   

One hot afternoon the two smaller bolts broke while I was operating the tractor.    The two hoses did not break and were strong enough to pull the hydraulic pump off the tractor when the cast iron housing attaching the pump to the tractor broke.   It happened so fast I did not have time to release the hand clutch and prevent the damage.    

PUMPING FUEL FROM THE WRONG TANK

Whenever farm work was being performed in the field with machinery there was usually was a fuel wagon or fuel truck nearby.    These wagons or trucks had duel tanks, one for diesel and one for gasoline or one tank with two compartments.   It was a Friday afternoon and my dad was planning on picking me up from where I was driving a tractor and we were going to join my mother and siblings where they were camping with friends at a campground on Mill Creek.    When my dad drove into the field where I was working he stopped by the fuel truck that had one tank with two compartments and filled his car with diesel by mistake.   It wasn't until after he had filled the tank that he realizes his mistake.   There had been some gas in the car tank and he thought we could drive as far as Chico and put more gas on top of the diesel then drive to Red Bluff and get more gas in the tank to dilute the diesel.   It worked, we made it to the campground with no problems, just a little more black smoke coming from the tailpipe.  

LEARNING THE HARD WAY

Learning how to operate and maintain farm equipment was usually done by the trial and error method.    Very seldom did anybody read an operator's manual or even know where they were at.  Looking back I never remember seeing one.

Many of the tractors made before 1940 did not have electric starters, some required cranking the engine or turning a flywheel to get the engine running.    Most of the Caterpillar crawlers had gas-starting engines to preheat and start the bigger diesel engines.  International Harvester (IH) came out with a diesel engine that started on gasoline and after a few minutes, you could switch it to diesel.   Most of the equipment my dad had was old and used until 1963 when he bought a new IH crawler.   That winter he sent me out to a field where it had been sitting for some time to move it to another field   As I started the engine it sputtered, started for a few seconds then made a clunking sound and quit.   At the time I did not know the water in it had frozen at some point cracking the head causing water to fill one of the cylinders.   When I started the engine on the gas the piston in the filled cylinder compressed against the water bending the rod to the crankshaft.   Once it started the rod broke causing serious damage to the engine.   I was told later that the spark plug for that cylinder should have been removed to allow the water to be pushed out.   How was I to know and who was responsible for not checking for antifreeze in the radiator?

Eventually, it ended up in our shop where we proceeded to take the engine apart.   There were parts all over the place when the IH dealer came to repossess it due to no monthly payments made for the last few months.   They took it all including the nuts and bolts scattered all over the shop floor.   Sure was a good way to clean up the place.

STICKING MY NOSE IN THE WRONG PLACE

 In the summer of 1962, during my high school years, I did a variety of farm work for both my dad and another farmer by the name of Joe Stutz.   Joe was a row crop farmer, growing sugar beets, tomatoes, and beans.    One morning Joe drove me to a field that he was preparing the ground for planting beans.   The rows had been constructed and it was time to fertilize the beds before planting the bean seeds.   The red Farmall tractor he was going to have me operate had two tanks on either side of it with hoses going down to a toolbar on the back of the tractor that injected the liquid fertilizer through steel shanks into the prepared seedbed, six beds at a time.   The fertilizer was ammonia nitrate, very toxic, but there was no mention of that by Joe.    There was never any talk of safety.

Joe gave me instructions on what levers did this and that and pointed to a trailer parked nearby with a large tank on it where I was to fill the tanks on the tractor when they got low on fertilizer.   Joe's parting words were, "give her hell and somebody will pick you up at 5."  Now it was just me, the tractor, my lunch, and a jug of water all alone, a mile from the nearest county road.

As I drove the tractor back and forth over the rows I noticed the tubes on the back of the tractor tanks indicating the fertilizer was getting low, so I made my way to the parked trailer.   The trailer had a small engine on it that operated a pump for filling the tractor tanks with a long hose with a nozzle on it.    After getting the small engine going and putting the nozzle in a tractor tank I could not hear any sound of liquid flowing.   I proceeded to stick my face, nose first toward the tractor tank opening to hear if any fluid was flowing.   In a flash, I was on the ground gasping for air.   It took me a few minutes to gain a sense of well-being and breath again.   It was not the place to be sticking my nose into.   Luckily it all worked out and I continued fertilizing the field without any more mishaps.  

CROSSING the PRINCETON FERRY

One of my fondest memories of farm work was driving a rice harvester 20 or more miles and crossing the Sacramento River on the Princeton Ferry.    It was the Fall of 1965, and after completing rice harvest in Glenn County we moved over to Colusa County to harvest some more fields of rice.   This full track machine weighed 20 tons, had two diesel engines, one to propel the machine and the other to operate the grain separator.  The unloading auger and the 20-foot header used to cut and move the rice into the separator were removed in order to drive on the county roads and not cause traffic problems.    The tracks were made of steel blocks for better traction in the muddy fields and did not harm the paved roads when driven from one field to the next.   A man had to sit upon the grain tank with a wooden pole to lift any low-hanging power lines as the height of the machine was about 20 feet or more.    There was no way for me to see the traffic behind us, so passing vehicles took a risk with oncoming traffic.   When we reached the steep road down to the ferry I feared the machine would slide on the pavement into the river.    The ferry was operated by the county and had a 22-ton load limit.  The ferry operator signaled for me to come on down, so I trusted he had moved these machines before and knew what he was doing.   As I drove onto the ferry he told me to move it all the way to the front in order to allow the back end to lift off the road.    As I moved forward water started flowing across the ferry deck.    This ferry was propelled by a winch pulling on a cable crossing the river.   As the ferry started across the river it was pulled by the current downstream until it lined up again with the road on the other side.   God only knows where we would have landed if that cable had broke.   Once to the other side, the ferry operator had me back the machine to the rear in order to get the ferry up into the road.  Again, the water flowed across the deck.   We made it across and continued on our merry way.  

THE RAT TAIL MYSTERY

Today Celia discovered a rat tail in the house.  Our cats are noted for their rat-killing abilities outside and have been known to leave certain parts of the poor critters at the sliding door to the outside deck.  I guess it is a way for them to show their appreciation of us and wanting to share their good fortunes by providing us with a morsel for our pot of swill.   How the rat tail got into the house is a mystery.   Most of the carnage takes place at night when we leave two cats outside to do their dastardly deeds and one cat stays indoors.  On colder nights we bring all three cats indoors.  We know there are critters in the walls and they have scratched their way through the sheetrock in one place, which has been plugged up with steel wool, pending a complete repair job one of these days.  We have not witnessed any critters running about in the house or seen anybody parts before the tail appeared today.   So far we have not found the remains of the rat with the missing tail, time will tell I guess.

St. Patrick's Day

 Irish beer with Irish beans--well, at least the beer bottle label is green

HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!

GRANDPA'S TRACTOR

The other day I stopped by the John Deere tractor store to buy some oil and a filter for my tractor, better known as Grandpa's tractor.    There are so many interesting items to look at in the store and outside too.  Tractors of all sizes, utility vehicles, riding lawn mowers, all kinds of implements and attachments for tractors.   I felt like a kid in a toy store, it reminded me of  Zumwalt's Equipment store in the small farming town of Willows, where I grew up in northern California.   Whenever I had any extra money earned from seasonal farm jobs I would spend it on hand tools purchased from Zumwalt's.   Many of those tools from 60 to 65 years ago I still have and use.    When the grandkids were here last summer we all had a good time on the tractor, not sure who had more fun, the grandkids or grandpa.  

CUT-OFF from the WORLD

We were connected to the world by one little black wire that ran under the house from a big gray box outside to the little white box by the computer.  Two days ago there was no internet connection and the little white box did not show a green light where it says FIBER.    I called the technical support person on duty at Douglas Fast Net for advice.   He talked me through the process to trouble shoot the problem and we came to the same conclusion that the little black wire under the house had been damaged by critters.   This afternoon a technician came out and we rewired from the outside big gray box to the little white box inside by running new wire along the outside molding.  After the old wire under the house was pulled out we could see all the places where the critters had chewed the wire.   

Before the internet how did we ever survive with no email, no way to pay bills online, to check our bank account, to check the weather forecast, get the latest news and search for all those things we want to know about?    How did we survive it all with no connection to the world?

The Early Relationship with Indian Women with White Men

Many of the men on the Lewis and Clark expedition had relationships with Indian women.  Some of these men returned to the upper Missouri River country after the expedition and became fur trappers.   It was common to take up with an Indian woman as a mate and to help out with domestic chores.  

In order to obtain an Indian woman from their fathers or a tribal chief it usually was necessary to trade some horses, guns or other goods for the woman, many who were just teenage girls.  Many Indian women received better treatment by the white men than the Indian men.    Indian women were prized for their ability to speak Indian languages, make moccasins, fashion hides into garments, dig for eatable roots, butcher animals killed by the men and cook over open fires.   The Hudson Bay Company was noted for large numbers of men with Indian wives and children traveling through the Oregon Country in search of beavers in the 1820's and 30's.  They were even reported as far south as the Coastal Mountains of northern California in the book Genocide and Vendetta by Lynwood Carranco and Estle Beard.  

On many occasions if it had not been for some of these Indian women some of these men would not have survived, including the Lewis and Clark expedition without the aid and knowledge of Sacagawea. 

SPRING RAIN

Whatever happened to those spring rain storms of the past?   In the 1980's and 90's I can remember heavy rain storms on my drive back home from Cottage Grove to Eugene.  Sometimes you could hardly see the highway with the wind shield wipers going full blast.  This would continue up until the 4th of July, then summer would begin with less frequent rain until the middle of October.   Now the rain tapers off quickly after March.   At our place in Douglas County the 30 year average for March is 4.24 inches.  So far for this March we have received less than an inch (0.77) and spring officially doesn't start for another week.  Hopefully the weather man is correct about his forecast for a wet spring.  

Water is our greatest resource and good quality water is disappearing fast.   Like Ben Franklin said in Poor Richard's Almanac, "When the well is dry, we learn the worth of water."

Pork and Bean Swill

Came up with this one after following a menu from Hello Fresh with some changes:  

Ground Pork

Can of Black Beans

Onion

Can of Green Enchilada Sauce

Rice

All the above mixed together and served on a Tortilla topped with lettuce.  

Lewis & Clark

As I reread about Lewis and Clark in the book Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose, I find it interesting the number of  white people that were living with the Indians near the Mandan Villages in present day North Dakota when Lewis and Clark arrived in 1804.   Many were French Canadians, some British fur traders and a couple of Americans.    Some of the French Canadians were descendent of French fathers and Indian mothers, either from Quebec or from the plains Indians.    Sergeant Patrick Gass, a member of the Lewis and Clark party, notes in his journals that many of the Indian children in the Mandan Villages had fair hair.  The Mandan Villages were a great trade center between different Indian tribes of the plains and fur traders from Canada decades before Lewis and Clarke arrived.   There were trading posts established by the Hudson Bay Company as far west as present day Alberta, in western Canada before Lewis and Clark crossed the Rocky Mountains on their way to the Pacific.   How many British fur traders ever ventured into the upper Missouri River country near the Rocky Mountains before Lewis and Clarke is unknown.  Some may have perished from the cold winters or killed by hostel Indians.   There is some speculation by Ambrose that if Lewis and Clark had not succeeded in their expedition much of the upper Missouri River might have become part of Canada.   

Poor Man Logging Operation

 Eighty feet of cable out from the truck on the road above to log below where this picture was taken.   Now to see of we can post it.    

Second picture of the tree top pulled up to the road.   First log already cut up for firewood.

TAXES

Why do old people have to pay income taxes when living on a fixed income?   Yesterday, with much frustration I completed our 2020 federal and state income tax returns showing us with an income half way between the poverty rate and the average income for a household of two.    It seems like a complete waste of time for both us and the government to assemble all the different forms, bank statements, social security and pension statements and figure out our net income after taking the standard deductions, which does not seem to take in the rising medical costs or depreciation of our aging bodies.  The yearly cost-of -living increase usually never amounts to a net income gain as the increase in health and Medicare premiums take all that away and more.   With the tax withheld from my pension it covers the amount we owe for both federal and state taxes, plus give us a small refund which is just enough to pay for the online tax service that does all the calculations and filing.     I believe the tax preparation services are the only parties making any money out of this madness, sure isn't the government.