WATER YEAR 2021

 Today is the end of the 2021 water year (WY) with a total rainfall of 36.42 inches at my CoCoRaHS station (OR-DG-22).   The 30 year average here is 42 inches.   For the month of September I recorded 2.86 inches, compared to the 30 year average for the month of 1.17 inches.  

Here is a look at the last 5 years:

WY 2017 = 60.93 inches

WY 2018 = 33.71 inches

WY 2019 = 48.75 inches

WY 2020 = 33.64 inches

WY 2021 = 36.42 inches

5 year average = 42.69 inches

It will interesting to see what the new 30 year average will be as they are calculated every decade.  The present 30 year average is based on rainfall from 1981 to 2010.   New averages from 1991 to 2020 are due at the end of this water year.  This is accessible through the PRISM Portal.   

The forecast call for a wet and cold fall and winter in the Pacific Northwest under La Nina conditions.   

I'll believe it when I see it.  

MY 90 YEAR OLD NEIGHBOR

 Lew turned 90 last December and lost his wife almost five years ago.   He lives at the end of the road, about two miles up the hill from me.   Some times he will drive to my house with a surplus of apples or figs from trees in his yard.   Other times we will meet on the gravel road we all share and talk for a few minutes.   Sometimes I will call him or leave a message to see how he is doing.  His hearing is not good, so it is necessary to talk loud.   Our usual conversation is about how each of us are doing, how is our water supply holding up, and to call each other if we need help.    Over the years we have helped each other with tree removals and working on the road.   He has a Kubota tractor and has helped me with pulling trees out of the woods or moving gravel to patch up a mud hole on the driveway or the main road.   In turn, I have cut trees on his place and loaned him some cables to move trees on his place.   

During the big snow storm in the winter of 2019 he was snowed in for over a week with no power, until a neighbor with a small bull dozer opened his road.  During that time he survived on box cereal, and put on extra clothing to stay warm.   Lew was a Navy corpsman during the Korean War and has a license plate on his car indicating a handicap.   I don't know what his handicap is and have never asked.   I do know he has made many trips to the Roseburg VA and a few to Portland.   At 90 he still drives, goes grocery shopping once a week and is always willing to help.    

BUCKS GETTING READY FOR THE MATING SEASON

Caught these two bucks testing out their antlers this morning in preparation for mating season.  It all came to an end when a flock of turkeys came passing by and a hen came over and broke up this encounter.  Both bucks looked startled and fearful of the turkey.  From my own experience a few years ago with a hen, I learned you don't mess with hen turkeys.   If it was not for the shovel I had with me, I might not be here today.  

Tried to get a picture of the passing turkeys, but they were all moving too fast and the lighting was not that good.  Lucky to have taken this picture.  

FALL 2021

Fall finally arrived after another record hot and dry summer.   I recorded 1.70 inches of rain over this last weekend, enough to lower the fire danger allowing the use of power equipment, so I spent a good part of the weekend working on my chain saw, which is 24 years old.   Went to start it up and the starting rope broke.   Another trip to Tractor Supply Monday morning.   With warmer weather yesterday the fire danger went up to moderate requiring all power equipment to be shut down by 1 pm.    That's about the time I usually shut down anyhow, due to a lack of energy.    Maybe some more rain next week.  

Sure see a bumper crop of acorns falling from the oak trees this year.   Trees are changing to their Fall colors earlier this year.  Picture of our Red Oak tree showing leaves changing color.   Everything seems to be happening earlier.   Is Mother Nature trying to tell us something?

RAIN!!!!!

 This rain is like making a home run after getting around the bases without being burned out after this summer.   Rainfall as of 7 am is 0.62 of an inch, the most since 0.71 of an inch was recorded June 14th.

This will not end the fire season, but should lower the fire danger.    

REJOICE!

Kate Wolf - Across the Great Divide

Can relate to this song by Kate Wolf, who left this world way too early.  

PAINTING

 Painting is not one of my favorite chores, whereas Celia loved to paint.   She could spend hours in the hardware stores, Lowe's, The Home Depot or any paint store looking at the color cards.    Some of the rooms in our house have been painted at least twice and some three times in the 15 years we have lived here.   When she had completed painting a room she would ask me how I liked it.   I remember telling her once that I never got use to the old color.    Her usual reply was that the only color I was accustomed too was bachelor white.   We did paint the exterior of the house together 10 or 11 years ago, me on the ladder painting the upper portions and Celia doing the lower portions.    Under Celia's supervision and experience it took us about a week to complete painting the exterior of our 1600+ square foot home.    

Now Celia is gone and the painting responsibility falls on me.   The back deck, adjacent steps and front steps are in need of painting before winter arrives.   So far, I have painted the front and back steps, since there was left over paint that she had labeled.   The can of paint labeled for the back deck was empty and today I pushed myself out the door to find the matching color.   Not knowing where she purchased that paint, I drove to Lowe's for starters.   The young man behind the paint counter informed me they did not have that brand of paint and was not very interested in trying to match the color with what they had, plus he had other customers to wait on.    Next stop was The Home Depot, where there was a young woman behind the paint counter busy mixing paints.   She looked took a sample of the paint from the bottom of empty can, dried it and said she could mix that color with a exterior base paint.   Lucky me,  I was in and out of there in 20 minutes.  

Now to push myself out the door to wash off the deck in preparation for painting or should I wait for the rain predicted for this weekend?   Maybe a nap is well deserved after all that stressful shopping for paint this morning.

REMEMBERING 9/11

Celia and I were at our house in Cottage Grove on September 11, 2001 when one of my sisters called to tell me to turn on the TV.    She was upset, telling me we may never see each other again not knowing how many planes in the skies were being used as weapons that day.   After turning on the TV we were shocked by all the news and uncertainty.    How could this have happened?    The remainder of that day we were glued to the TV watching in horror.    Feeling patriotic, I remember talking to an Army recruiter about reenlisting, but he told me I was too old at the age of 56.   

What do you remember?

BOOTS

Yesterday, Rita Prothero, the professional organizer was helping me with organizing and gathering up Celia's personal belongings to be donated, she  noticed some of my old boots in the closet from days gone by, and said to me, "there must be some good stories to tell about those boots".  Indeed there is.   My first thought was all the money I spent over the years I worked for the Forest Service on six national forests from 1969 to 1995.    My best guess is $2500 was spent on a variety of boots used to climb over all kinds of terrain during those 26 years--open forests, steep brushy mountainsides, logging slash, fell and bucked timber, and miles of surveyed road lines before they were constructed.    Back in those days we were not reimbursed by the government for the cost of the boots.  That may be different these days.   We were allowed a tax deduction for work clothing, but most of us forestry technician types did not make enough money to itemize tax deductions.   We were required to have high top boots for adequate support for working in the woods.  My first pair of boots were vibram sole Red Wings.  I think they cost $80 back then.   That was a lot of  money for a seasonal fire fighter in 1969 making $2.39/hour.   When I went to work at Orleans on the Six Rivers National Forest in 1971, the vibran soles did not provide the traction in the vines and heavy brush we encountered on a daily basis on the steep slopes, while working in the woods preparing timber sales.    It was time to invest in caulk boots (boots with small spikes on the soles).  These boots costs $180 to $200+ depending on the brand and quality of the boot.    The cheaper boots would usually last two years and were to far gone for any kind of repair work.  It was common to have a pair of caulk boots and a pair of vibram boots.    At the end of a day we would change out of our caulk boots into tennis shoes before driving back to the ranger station.   When it came time to burn logging slash, after the first fall rains, caulk boots were necessary to get us through the clearcut units that were covered with cull logs, limbs of all sizes and fallen hardwood trees.  It was rare to ever have our feet on solid ground when making our way across many of these clearcut units carrying drip torches.   Even with caulk boots I had my fair share of slips and falls.   I feel lucky to have made it this far, and it was many of those boots that got me here today.  

TURKEYS IN THE GRAPE ARBOR

 The other day I caught these turkeys in the grape arbor.   This is a tough time of year for the wildlife to find food.   There has been a variety of critters foraging through these grape vines--birds, squirrels, rats, deer standing on their back legs eating whatever they can reach and these turkeys, which I have not seen before.   Times are tough for us all, I guess.   

from MY ANTONIA by Willa Cather

 As I came into the office tonight, I noticed the following typed on a piece of paper hanging on the wall.  How long it has been there I don't recall.  It was typed by Celia some time ago I guess.    Why did it take me this much time to read it and when was it pinned to the wall?   Sure wished I paid more attention.

I sat down in the middle of the garden, where snakes could scarcely approach unseen, and leaned my back against a warm yellow pumpkin.  There were some ground-cherry bushes growing along the furrows, full of fruit.  I turned back the paper triangular sheaths that protected the berries and ate a few.   All about me giant grasshoppers, twice as big as any I had ever seen, were doing acrobatic feats among the dried vines.  The gophers scurried up and down the ploughed ground.   There in the sheltered draw-bottom the wind did not blow very hard, but I could hear it singing its humming tune up on the level, and I could see the tall grasses wave.   The earth was warm under me, and warm as I crumbled it through my fingers.  Queer little red bugs came out and moved in slow squadrons around me.  Their backs were polished vermilion, with black spots.  I kept as still as I could.  Nothing happened.  I did not expect anything to happen.   I was something that lay under the sun and felt it, like the pumpkins, and I did not want anything more.   I was entirely happy.   Perhaps we feel like that when we die and become part of something entire, whether it is sun and air, or goodness and knowledge.  At any rate, that is happiness; to be dissolved into something complete and great.  When it comes to one, it comes as naturally as sleep.  

A CHANGING ENVIRONMENT

Have you noticed the condition of the vegetation and wildlife around your property lately?   The maple trees are dropping their leaves already and it is not even Fall yet.   Some blackberries are wilting and most the poison oak is red with their leaves falling off the vines.  Many of the Douglas-fir trees have died over the last few years due to drought at lower elevations and are starting to fall down, especially in the mixed hardwood stands where they can not compete for whatever moisture that is available.   Many are so rotten they don't make for good firewood.    Some of the song birds that usually migrate from here during the summer months seem to hang around year around now, could be for the water and sunflower seeds I provide.  I have never seen chipmunks around here before, but this summer they have showed up.  The neighbor has them too, and we came to the conclusion that it could be all the fires over the last few years that have caused them to relocate.    Maybe they know it is safer where us humans live.        

CALDOR FIRE/SOUTH LAKE TAHOE

The following are updates from my son, who is acting as public works director for the City of South Lake Tahoe.  Since the City of South Lake Tahoe and many surrounding communities have been evacuated, law enforcement agencies from all over the state of California and military police have been patrolling the streets trying to prevent looting.   He reports a liquor store was broken into and public works was called upon to board up the building.   During the evacuation he was busy getting buses lined up to help transport handicap people and others without cars from the city.    The city public works shop is being utilized to  repair flat tires and heavy equipment used in support of the fire fighting effort.   Presently, the fire has been kept to the slopes south of the city and there has been very little damage to structures within the city.  He did get word from a patrolling city policeman that his house in Meyers did not suffer any damage, but he says that food in the freezers will have to be thrown out since the power has been out for a few days.  Bears must have free range throughout the city smelling all that rotting food.   Maybe it was a bear that broke in into the liquor store for a cold beer?