THE ROAD HOME

                                           Of all the roads traveled, the best road is the road home.

THE ANNIVERSITY OF CELIA'S PASSING

One year ago tomorrow Celia departed this world.   It seems like yesterday and at times hard to accept.  

Today I can only reflect on all the good times we had together.   The memories remain and life moves on.

Picture taken on the deck of our cabin in May of 2006, 16 years ago.  

SALT WATER TAFFY

My daughter wrote this about three year old grandson Sam's first experience with salt water taffy, while they were with friends on the Oregon coast this last weekend.

We went to a salt water taffy shop on the Depot Bay water front and allowed Sam to pick out 5 pieces from the bins and buy them from the young man at the counter.  Sam was somewhat confused by the process but he could tell the candies were valuable since the other kids were in a frenzy of bargaining with their parents on how much they were allowed.   Sam worked really hard to open his first piece of taffy and refused any help as usual.   He finally got the taffy into his mouth and you could just see his little eyes glaze over as his senses were overwhelmed.   Sam was no longer with us.   He was transported to some far away place where candy reigned.   He chewed slowly as he stared at the wall of full taffy bins, slowly realizing the treasure he was facing.   He stood transfixed as people walked around him.   A large string of sugary drool formed on his lips, hung for a moment then hit the floor with an audible smack.   

The sugar addiction begins...

TODAY

 Another pleasant spring morning as I step outside where there is a slight breeze, a bird singing in a nearby tree, and a few clouds floating by.   It looks like it will be a good day.  

I reflect back on this past year and wonder how I ever got through it and where does life go from here?  For now all I can do is focus on today.      

MONTANA

 In the summer of 2005, I drove from Cottage Grove to Bozeman, Montana to visit my daughter, who was working there for the USDA Natural Resource and Conservation Service.   It was a two day trip through southern Idaho, with a night in Boise, then up through west Yellowstone into Montana.  Bozeman is the home of Montana State University where winter weather can occur any time of the year and the grocery stores are well stocked with Buffalo meat.   My return trip was through western Montana, through northern Idaho, with a night in Coeur d'Alene, then down through eastern Washington.   These pictures taken during on our hike into the Spanish Peaks Wilderness.  

DIVINE INTERVENTION OR DID CELIA DO IT?

Over the past few years arthritis has invaded most my joints, except my right wrist.    Well, this morning it took hold of the right wrist with vengeance.    I applied ice, prescribed ointment with little relief of the pain.   Then I began looking for my wrist brace that I have used for my left wrist over the years.    Looked in all the places where I thought it might be with no luck.   After searching in the bedroom for it I went back into the living room.   As I past by Celia's favorite chair there was the wrist brace on the arm rest of her chair.    Was it divine intervention, Celia looking out for me or am I losing it?

WALDO LAKE

Waldo Lake is the second largest freshwater lake in Oregon after Crater Lake.   It is above 5000 feet in elevation in the high Cascades of the Willamette National Forest.   The are three developed campgrounds on the eastside of the lake with 200 sites, including Islet, Shadow Bay and North Waldo campgrounds.  

In the late 1980's and 1990's my two children and I would go up to Waldo Lake and tent camp in the North Waldo campground.   This was a big campground with 58 sites and easy to find an ideal camp site next to the lake.   On the westside of the lake it is all wilderness area.  There is a 20 mile trail going around the lake that permits the use of mountain bikes.   Along with a friend and my dog Jack we rode our bikes around the lake.  It was a real workout and when we finally made it back to the campground Jack's tongue was hanging out almost touching the ground.   We all had a good sleep that night.   I never remember a crowd at this campground and there were many available campsites.   In 2003, when Celia and I were living in Cottage Grove we took our 16 foot camp trailer up to Waldo Lake thinking we would have the same experience with many campsite to choose from.   When we arrive in the North Waldo campground it was standing room only as we drove around the many loops in search of a vacant site.   Finally we found one on the upper loop, a good distance from the lake and totally surrounded by other campers.    The only privacy in this campsite was inside our trailer.  The next morning we packed up and went home.   The world has discovered Waldo Lake.  

CIGARETTE SMOKE

 Both our parents smoked Chesterfield cigarettes without filters.    There was second smoke all throughout the house and us kids were used to it.   At times my mother would have two cigarettes going at the same  time, not knowing where she had left the last one during her busy day raising six kids.   I can remember her saying to herself, "where did I leaved that cigarette," and proceed to light up a new on.    Three out four of my grandparents smoked and many other people of that generation.    Ash trays were common throughout most homes and it is amazing more of these homes did not burn down from cigarettes falling on the floor or smoking in bed.

At the age of 11 or 12, I had to try it for myself.   It was easy to take a cigarette from one of my mom's packs and slip out the back door and light it up.   I took a few puffs, not inhaling and don't remember getting much excitement about it.   Later in life I tried some cigars and even a pipe, but the next morning the sore throat put an end to it.   Only one of us kids, a sister became a full-time smoker, guess she did not get enough of that second hand smoke in her younger days.    

SATURDAY MORNING DONUTS

Occasionally my mother would go to town early Saturday mornings to get a box of assorted donuts to have with our breakfast in the 1950's.    Me being the oldest of five siblings was left to babysit as my dad was either out of town or working.  When mom returned with the big box of a dozen or more donuts we couldn't wait to break into the box and get the donuts with the most chocolate.   Mom would set the box on the table and try to get some dishes and utensils out for cereal to go with the donuts.  About this time my brother, who was 6 or 7 years of age would grab the box and run through the house trying to bite into as many donuts as possible before somebody could catch up with him and retrieve the box.   It was total chaos as my younger sisters ran after him screaming for mom to stop him.   By the time order was restored half the donuts had been bitten into.    This happened more than once.   

MY FIRST FOREST FIRE

It was after 6 pm, our quitting time and four of us were gathered in the cook house finishing up our dinner.   There were seven of us, including the foreman assigned to the Hilton Spike Camp Guard Station on the Big Valley Ranger District of the Modoc National Forest in the summer of 1969.    Our days off were rotated in order to have at least four people always on duty during fire season.   Five of us, including the assistant foreman were seasonal employees.  The foreman, by the name of  Jack was a full-time employee at the GS-6 grade, who lived in a single wide trailer outside of Adin, where the District Ranger station was located.   Adin was a small community of 150 people, with a store, post office, church,  tavern and a saw mill.   The District Fire Control Officer (don't remember his name) always had a hand held radio set with him and would take it home after work hours or wherever he went, usually the tavern.  The tavern was the most popular place at the end of the work day where local ranchers, saw mill workers, loggers and Forest Service employees gathered.  

As we were cleaning up our dinner dishes the land line crank phone rang.   This phone line only went to one place, the Manzanita Mountain Lookout.    The lady on the lookout told us of a smoke she detected about two miles northeast of our location.   She also called in the smoke over the two-way radio to the Forest Dispatcher in Alturas, the Forest Supervisor's Headquarters.     The four of us got our hard hats, fire packs and headed out in the two fire trucks assigned to the station.   We made our way in the direction the lookout had given us, but we could not see any smoke due to the flat terrain, plus there was a maize of old logging roads everywhere.   As both fire trucks stopped to look at the map, I got out and stood on the top of the water tank on the bigger truck where I could see a column of smoke 400 or 500 feet from where we were parked.    The assistant foreman told two of us to take hand tools and walk up to the smoke as he and the other driver would try to find the nearest road to the smoke.    When the two of us found the smoke it was a ground fire burning through pine needles about a tenth of an acres in size and we easily got a hand line constructed around it.    We could see it started from a lightning strike to a pine tree in the center of the fire.  

When the fire trucks arrived on a nearby road the assistant foreman called in the fire situation to the District Fire Control Officer.   We could all hear the radio conversation over the truck load speaker as the Fire Control office yelled out, "hey Jack, your crew is on a fire."  From all the background noise we could tell all the overhead was at the tavern.   With the water from the trucks we were able to completely extinguish the fire before returning to the station.   The next day we returned to the fire to make sure is was out and Jack was with us.   

GRASS CUTTING TIME

 It is that time of year to start cutting the grass in preparation for fire season.   No doubt it has got ahead of me with all the wet weather and the breakdown of my DR mower.    The new parts arrived Monday and by noon yesterday I had it all back together without much profanity--amazing!    

APRIL RAINFALL 2022

I recorded 5.92 inches of rain for April thinking this might be a record at my CoCoRaHS station (OR-DG-22), especially after  recording 0.41 of an inch last April.    In April of 2019 there was 7.12 inches of rain record here.   The 30 year average for April is 3.11 inches, the last 5 year average is 3.80 inches, not including April of 2022.