IT'S HOT!!!

The last few days have been record breaking heat with temperatures as high as 110 at my place.   By afternoons all I can do to survive is retreat in doors in hopes the air conditioner does not breakdown or the power goes out.    The power did go out Sunday night from 9  to 11pm.  Not knowing how long it would be out, I got my generator going to keep the refrigerator on.    Trying to catch any sleep with a generator running on the front porch is a challenge.   Just about the time I felt sleep taking hold to the hum of the generator the bed side lamp came on.  I got up to shut the generator off and returned to bed until the rising sun got me up with the overwhelming need for coffee to jump start the old body into action.   The first chore of the early morning when the outside temperature is in the sixties is to water plants.   One of the benefits of living in the hills with no nearby neighbors is no need to completely dress, so out the door with just my underwear on.    No fear of anybody turning me in for being indecent.   The only food that appeals to me is cold pasta salad, cold beams or just a bowel of cereal.   Just think on the positive side of life, I'm 18 degrees cooler than Death Valley, where they had a recent high of 128.  

BLACKOUT

Last night I was sitting in my chair reading on a stormy night.   About 7:30pm the light flickered and a few seconds later the lights were out.   It was pitch black as I sat in the chair knowing the flash light was on the table by the bed in the next room.   I don't recall such blackness, not a glow of light anywhere.   It was like having my eyes closed.   I slowly made my way toward the bedroom with arms stretched out feeling for furniture and the walls.  I made it to the bedroom door, then to the bed feeling my way to the bed side table where I turned on the flashlight.   After lighting some candles my neighbors called to ask if my power was out as they had lost power also.    Later we learned most of the northern portion of Douglas County was without power due to storm damage to the BPA transmission line to the north somewhere.    After receiving some text messages about the situation I retired to bed thinking how unprepared I am for a long term power outage; dirty diches in the kitchen, have not started the generator in the last year, camp stove somewhere in the shop and way too dark to deal with any of it on a stormy dark night.   My biggest fear--how would I ever make coffee in the morning?   At 9:30 the lights came back on and I could rest easy knowing I would not have to boil water on the wood stove in the morning for that precious cup of coffee.   

THE HOLIDAY FOG

 Lately the fog has been formidable.   The other night I was visiting with friends in Oakland.    It was about 9 pm when I started my way home through dense fog.   Oakland is a small town with most of its streets going north and south and east and west.    My intended route home was to take a street west turn north on old highway 99, cross the Calapooya Creek bridge and take the Green Valley Road home.   At this time of night there is never any traffic on this route so it is considered a safe drive.    Driving west in Oakland I somehow missed seeing the stop sign where I would turn north on highway 99 and ended up on a dead end gravel road near the railroad tracks.    While turning around I had the fear of getting stuck not knowing what the ground was like off of this little gravel road.   Miraculously I made it to highway 99 and it took a half hour to finally get home through the dense fog.   When I arrived home I discovered my black cat was on the roof .  I had left the ladder up on the deck to apply moss killer and the cat had climbed it but would not come back down without my assistance.   After putting gloves on and climbing the ladder I grabbed the cat and got her down without a catastrophe.   Felt like a survivor at the end of this day. 

GOING PAPERLESS

Today I opened up the envelope containing my insurance premium that arrived in the mail last week and is due in a few days.   I was going to write a check and mail it in the envelope provided along with the payment stub.   Well, there was no return envelope or payment stub, just a statement with instructions on how to pay online or by phone.   I tried both with no success.   Online it would not accept my credit card and by phone the automated voice wanted me to repeat everything until I got frustrated and hung up.   In the end I wrote a check and mailed to my insurance agent with a note expressing my frustrations and asking them to figure it out.   

SECOND ANNIVERSARY

Today is the second anniversary of Celia leaving this world.   It still seems like yesterday.   In many ways she is still here in this house with all her decorations, furnishings, paintings and other things she cherished.    It still feels like home to me.    Family and friends are still my greatest support, especially friends who have also experienced the loss of a loved one.   They have given me much emotional support that I will always cherish.   One thing for sure, love never dies.  

LIVING ALONE

 Living alone has its challenges and benefits.  Trying to keep order with the day to day chores can be more than one person can handle at times when living in a remote setting where there is a yard and house to maintain, a water collection system to operate during the wet season and keeping the place warm using firewood during the winter.   In addition,  there are 20 acres of forest land to take care of which provides an escape from some of the other not so enjoyable tasks.    A routine is important to keep loneness at bay, but there is always time to reflect back on what life was like when there was the two us here to share in the daily rituals of life.  In many ways there is still the two of us here.  

 Living alone is nothing new to me.   Except for times when my children lived with me in Eugene, I spent a good part of 14 years living alone before Celia and I took up with each other in 2000.   Over the 20 years we were married many habits and routines were developed and they are hard to break.   For now I do not see myself moving to some strange place as long as I'm in fairly good health and have the support of family and friends.   Who knows what tomorrow will bring?  One thing for sure, the price for love is grief.  

 

THE DUMP

The other day I made a trip to the Oakland transfer station or as many of us call it "The Dump".  My memories drift back to my younger days growing up in Willows, California in the 1950's and 60's.   We used to load up the old pick up truck and make the drive to the county dump once or twice a month.   The dump was a series of pits where the county had dug up gravel over the years to rock and pave the many miles of county roads.  Afterwards the gravel pits, maybe an acre or two in size and 40 to 50 feet deep were used as a place to dump trash.   As we would back up to the edge of the pit along with other county residents we could see all kinds of debris thrown in the pit, including tires, appliances, furniture and God knows what else in addition to household garbage.   Fires smoldered in the pit as a toxic smell of smoke was in the air.  There was a man that looked like he had been raised in the pit that started the fires and rummaged through the debris.   He was small man in dirty clothes and with very dark skin.  There was a shack off to the side where I always thought he lived.   Not sure if he was paid by the county or what?   There were no fees for dumping there and nobody ever questioned us on what we were putting in the pit.   

Some time in the late 1970's open pit burning was banned nationwide and landfills came into existence.  The word recycling was not part of our vocabulary until the 1980's.  

THE MYSTERY HOUSE PLANT

 This house plant was given to us from an old neighbor when we lived in Cottage Grove.  It must be over 20 years old.    Every year I have to cut the taller stem as it will almost reach the ceiling and let the new stem take over.   Celia faithfully watered it.   Now I water it when I think about it and sometimes that is once a week or longer.   I don't know the name of this plant and just call it the "Jack in the Bean Stock" plant.  Anybody know what it is?   

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!    

THE BIRDS and the BEES

 No, not those birds and bees.  The is about the real birds and bees, sorry.   This time of year the air is filled with birds and bees.    As I get distracted from what I should be doing, which is not hard to do, I wander off to watch all the bees in the flowering trees.  All kinds of bees, small black ones, white ones, multi colored ones and many honey bees.   Even the Mason bees are coming out of their nest boxes.  

The birds start singing as soon as the sun appears in the morning.  The Stellar Jays sit in an oak tree by the house in the early morning and talk to one another before they go off to harass other birds.  Even the buzzards are back.

Maybe a story another day about the other Birds and the Bees, the ones most of us learned about in the public library when we got distracted from our studies by those books in the reproductive health section.  

SPRING 2021

With the changing of the seasons comes all the spring projects.   Darn, I never finished all the winter projects.   Spring house cleaning should be priority one, but I doubt that will get the attention it deserves.  There is painting to do, gardening, pruning, firewood to split for next winter, grass to cut, preparing for fire season and the dreaded summer ahead.     

I forgot, time to get the hammock out where I can retreat and think of all that needs to be done.

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.

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. 

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!

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.  

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.

A Productive Day, for an old man

Yesterday, after a few morning showers the sun appeared and being cooped up in the house for a few days because of the rain, I thought I would go cut some firewood and give the old body a work out.   Sometimes I think I'm still 30 years of age.  After an hour the saw broke down and my back started hurting, so went back home to recuperate in my old reclining chair.  The old chair broke down and will no longer recline, so used a couple of books to prop it up and took a nap.  

The upcoming anniversary we will never forget or PTSD

 Remember February 25, 2019?   For us it was the beginning of eight days of no power, down trees, 16 inches of wet snow, the threat of our roof collapsing and using a flashlight to shop in the local grocery store.  It was all the thrills we could stand with just trying to make it through those days using the wood stove for heat, cooking, hot water and drying laundry.  We used our camp stove on the back deck under a collapsed canopy for cooking.  It took 3 days to plow wet snow off our road to make it to the highway.   We had the generator running to keep a couple lights on in the evening and the freezer going during the day.  It was hard to get gas when there was no power at the stations to operate the pumps.  

Those were the days that we don't care to repeat.   We have much sympathy for those suffering from the cold and no power in the southern portion of the country.

How did our ancestors ever survive back in the good old days without all the modern conveniences of today?

Rain in the forecast into next week with no snow predicted at our elevation and hope it stays that way.  

Me and the Birds

 Bird feeding is a habit I started a few years back.    My thinking was that if I supplemental feed the birds maybe they will hang around and eat some of the insects damaging our trees.   During the spring I do notice more birds in the woods when the insects are active.  I go through 40 pounds of sunflower seeds a month.    The Tractor Supply Store just down the highway has a good supply, plus it gives me a good excuse to look at things I don't need.  During these winter months I fill the feeders every other day.   In the afternoons when the feeders are empty many of the birds, mostly Nuthatches gather on the grape arbor and stare into the nearby window of the house trying to tell me, " you better feed us or we are going elsewhere."  

Just wishful thinking or am I losing it?