A NEW BRIDGE

 By-products of a portable sawmill includes sawdust, trim pieces and outer slabs of the logs.   Here a 9 foot piece of slab from the eucalyptus tree replaces rotting boards over a small creek crossing for a trail on the property.   Thanks to Ken and Andy for helping me getting it in place.  

EUCALYPTUS LUMBER

The final stage of disposing of the big eucalyptus tree that went down in December involved milling it with Ken Carloni's portable sawmill.   I will get all the slabs for a bridge crossing, an outdoor bench/table using my artistic skills, better known as chainsaw art.  

BROKE DOWN

The other day, while cutting tall grass with my DR mower the differential broke.   After spending half the day removing the axle, involving laying on the floor of the shed and voicing a few special words all I could find that broke was the cam differential lock in/out that somehow got bent.   (single piece shown above)   Have no idea why it was bent, one of those great mysteries of life.   A new one will cost me $21, plus some other parts that I found that need to be replaced after years of wear and tear.   The real fun will be putting it all back together.   

 

Beetle-Kill Blues

This song expresses the frustration of a timber marker cruising insect infested timber.   The bigger the area the less intensity of the sampling of marked trees, the smaller the area the more intense sampling of the marked trees on the area.   For example on one acre of timber could be 100% sampling of every tree marked.   On 100 acres it could be 20% of all trees marked for cutting.  

CHOCOLATE WINE

After having a nice Easter dinner with friends, the lady of the house breaks out a bottle of chocolate wine imported from Holland for dessert.  This was a new experience for me and most the other quests.    The  smell was tantalizing and the taste beyond words.   After one glass I knew that was my limit, but the lady quests could not control themselves and indulged in more until the contents of the bottle was gone.   I know if Celia had been there with her weakness for chocolate, she would have had a hard time limiting herself to one glass.   With our first glass we toasted the memory of Celia, who had been a good friend with all that were present.      

GROSS MOUNTAIN

This is the view looking north over Green Valley from the ridge top of Gross Mountain.   This mountain is the high point on Wildflower Lane where I live along with 10 other families.   

This view was enhanced by Roseburg Lumber in 2007 with the removal of the trees in the foreground on the north slope of Gross Mountain.   The name Gross is a family name from those that originally settled this mountain, not from the gross management practice of  Roseburg Lumber.  

MY COMPUTER

My computer system, Windows 10, I believe, is 8 or 9 years old and probably operating on borrowed time.    I'm not sure how long these systems last and definitely not a computer wizard.   If it was not for Seth, my son-in-law it probably would not be operating at all.   There seems to be more and more mornings when it loses connection with the internet.  Not knowing the correct procedure to reconnect, I pull the plug to restart it and usually it reconnects to the world through the Douglas Fast Net (DFN) wire connecting me to the world.    It must have been 1997, when I lived in Eugene my daughter set up our first computer on the Windows 95 system with a dial up internet connection over the phone line.    Sometimes you could prepare dinner waiting for it to connect.   The picture of my keyboard says a lot about how much use this computer has had over the years.  Sure glad I paid attention in my high school typing class learning the keyboard.  

So, if you don't see new postings on this blog you can guess this system went south and maybe the writer with it.  

APRIL SNOW

 I can not recall this amount of snow in April.   Half inch measured this morning.  There were many spring days in years gone by mixed with rain, sleet, snow and hail but never any accumulation of snow like this.   Hope fruit tree blossoms make it.   Should move the fire season back a day or two.  

A BAD DAY ON THE FARM

These pictures taken in 2011 on a small farm near Dillard where the Umpqua Bio Fuel  group processed grease collected from restaurants into bio diesel.    The processing facility was made up of old water heater tanks, and all kinds of plumbing powered by propane.  Lucky we did not blow the place up and nothing was on firm ground in the winter as you can see.  

SUMMER QUARTERS

Started building this shelter years ago down in the woods.   The plan was to use it for sleeping during the hot summer nights.  Need to finish the siding, move some furnishings or at least a bed and do some decorating.   First have to clear the trail that will get me there.   Better known as simple living.  

IMNAHA, OREGON

 Have you ever been to Imnaha?   It is located in Wallowa County in the northeast corner of Oregon.  Celia and I went there while staying in Joseph in 2000, when we were looking at real estate.   It is about a 30 mile drive easts of Joseph.   I remember an elementary school, a small post office, a few houses and a store with a cafe and tavern.    As we slowly made our way by this store a half dozen people came to the windows to see us drive by.   We continued driving south toward the Hells Canyon and on our return trip through Imnaha all the people in that store returned to the windows to see who was driving by.  We may have been the only tourist driving through Imnaha that day. 

 

THE CHALLENGE OF ACCEPTANCE

With age comes the challenge of accepting the things we can no longer do or do as quickly as we once did, or should not be doing at all.    My brain says lets do it and the body says wait a moment, that will cause pain.   The culprit is arthritis that comes with age from wear and tear over the years, bad eating habits that eventually cause inflammatory problems leading to arthritis, heart disease and other health issues 

I used to preach to my five younger siblings and my two kids that sugar is the root of all evil.. Not sure they ever listen to me and I was never a good example with my weakness for a cookies, pies or an occasional beer.   The computer seems to know of my health problems giving me notices of foods to avoid, foods to eat, pills that will help and more medical advice on this and that.  If I had the energy to read it all I would probably go mad.   One thing for sure is that I'm in the slow lane now.  

Like Ben Franklin once said, "We get old too fast and wise too late."

ADOPT A HIGHWAY--ELKHEAD ROAD

Yesterday morning the Friends of Mildred Kanipe Memorial Park had their bi-annual adopt a highway pick up of trash along Elkhead Road.   The usual group of 5 or 6 people meet at  9 am in the day use area parking lot.   From there half the group goes north for a mile and the other half goes a mile south along Elkhead Road picking up whatever they find, mostly empty beer cans.    Seems Busch Beer is the favorite beer of the locals using this road with Keystone beer coming in second.   I believe we have been doing this for 8 or 10 years?     Some of the group have departed this world, including Jim and Barbara Long and my wife, Celia Scott.   Celia would always be the last to return as she made a point of getting every cigarette butt she could find in order to keep the birds from finding them.   Years ago we use to retreat afterwards  to the Oakland Tavern for lunch and a beer.    Those were some good years!

COMPASSION vs PREJUDICE

This story was told to me by Celia when she was attending a painting class at the Roseburg Art Center years ago.    

There were 6 or 7 women in the class and they all had brought their own lunch to make it into the early afternoon when the class ended.    Sometime in the morning a young woman with a child entered the classroom, and told the group that she and her child had not eaten in a day and wanted to know where she could go to get food.    The first woman to speak said quietly, "she needs to go get a job".  Celia spoke after that and said, " I can give you half of my sandwich and an apple".  Other women in the group followed Celia example of giving part their lunch.   Who knows what the young woman's situation was?  

RAINFALL FOR MARCH 2022

 I recorded 4.02 inches of rain for March, the 30 year average here is 4.24 inches.   For the Water Year starting 10/1/21 I have recorded 24.83 inches, 30 average through March is 32.81 inches giving me a deficit of 7.98 inches.    Will we survive this summer?