EASTERN OREGON

Eastern Oregon has always intrigued me with its vast open country, insolated mountain ranges, high desert, small communities and less people.    I think back on all the places I was fortunate to see in my travels through eastern Oregon, including the Steens Mountains, Alvord Desert, the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, Lake Owyhee, the Mahogany Mountains, backpacking in the Strawberry and Eagle Cap Wilderness areas, just to name a few.   Celia and I looked at houses in Joseph, but after giving it serious thought decided not to thinking our children would never come visit us.   We even considered buying 40 acres of high desert land for sale outside of Dayville.   Not sure how that would have turned out, probably best we landed where we did.    

This picture is looking south across the John Day Valley toward the Strawberry Mountains.   

OREGON TREE WORKS

Took Oregon Tree Works 3 hours to clean up the eucalyptus tree by chipping debris and cut down 3 hazard trees from the top to bottom.   This would have taken me 3 months.   Would highly recommend them if you need any tree work done, very professional and very reasonable.    

THE AMERICAN ROBIN INVASION

Do you have Robins invading your madrone trees?    For the last couple of weeks Robins have been feasting on the abundant crop of madrone berries.   It starts out in the morning with the sound of Robins chattering, flying in all directions, madrone berries falling to the ground and a few Robins flying into the windows, maybe a little intoxicated from the fermented pulp of the berries.   My vehicles are covered in pulp.   This afternoon I walked down the road with berries falling on me as Robins made their way from tree to tree.  The hill side is covered with them, there must be thousands.  By late afternoon they are gone.  Where do they all go for the night to sleep it off?

Fawlty Towers FUNNIEST MOMENTS: The Staff | Fawlty Towers | BBC Comedy G...

Humor is essential to life, especially when all else fails.    Fawlty Towers is one of my favorites to escape the madness of this world.   It can make us laugh at our own stupidity.  

THE OREGON GARDENS

Out of all the places we visited over the 24 years we were together, the Oregon Gardens, outside of Silverton was one of our favorites.   It was Celia's top pick for Mother's Day where we would meet up with her two daughters that would drive down from Portland and Seattle.   On a few occasions we stayed at the Oregon Garden Resort for the night, including after a brew feast four or five years ago.   This picture was taken in 2009 at the Gardens.  

MY OPINION ON WAR

 

It seems to be human nature to do battle with each other.    Battles have been fought over defending one's territory, religious beliefs, to conquer foreign lands, to put down rebellions within a country and these battles are usually fought by the lower class that have very little say so in the decision to go into battle.   In many ways wars never end these days, especially for those that fought them as they suffer from the physical and physiological effects of war.   Probably the greatest loss of life was in eastern Europe during WWII, when the Soviet Union lost 27 million people, both civilian and military, and not just to the German invasion, but also to Stalin.  

Since WWII  this country has not really been victorious in a war, except the first Gulf war to free Kuwait, when we all learned about smart bombs and surgical strikes.    It seemed like a testing ground for these new high tech weapons.   Eisenhower warned us about the military industrial complex as they have become a big part of our economic base.   The United States is the largest exporter of arms and I'm sure it provides a good return to stock holders in the arms industry.  

Just think if there was no more need for weapons of war and all these big corporations went out of the business of making weapons, or better yet transformed into producing products for the betterment of mankind and the planet.     

With the threat of war in eastern Europe it could effect the entire world and possibly lead to WWIII and the end of humanity if nuclear weapons are employed.  Lets hope not.    In my opinion wars are not winnable anymore, they just go on forever and more civilians die in the long-term than military people.  

MY ANCESTORS FROM IRELAND

 These are my great grand parents, Mary Kenney and Edward Burke.   They were both born in the Ottawa Valley of Ontario, Canada.    Edward was born in 1852 and Mary in 1860.   Edward's parents, Patrick Burke and Bridget Gallagher were born in Ireland and migrated to Canada sometime in the 1840's and they married in 1844 and were farmers.  They had 10 children.  Patrick's father, Michael Burke, born 1777 later followed his son from Ireland to Canada and died in 1852.   Mary's parents also migrated from Ireland and her father, John Kenney was a blacksmith.   

Edward and Mary married in 1878 and Edward had to get permission from her parents, since she was under 18 years of age.   Edward started out as a dairy farmer in Ontario, then migrated to Iowa, then to Nebraska, where they got into the meat backing business.   My grand father, J.R. Burke was born in Nebraska in 1894.  Sometime in the early 1900's Edward and family moved to Alberta, where they began working on the railroads.  My grand father, J.R. Burke married Agness Caldwell, whose family had migrated from Alabama, also to work on the railroads.   My dad, William Burke was born in Lacombe, Alberta in 1922.   Sometime around 1928 my dad's family moved to southern California, where J.R. and Agness got into the real estate business.

Of  the 10 children of Patrick and Bridget, only Edward migrated to the U.S. and back to Alberta, Canada where he and Mary died in the 1920's.   The other nine children remained in Ontario and some later moved to Saskatchewan.  

THE AIRBORNE DISASTER

This is me as a Army Medic at Fort Stewart, Georgia in 1967.    This picture was taken when airborne troops from Fort Bragg, NC parachuted over Fort Stewart military reservation and some did not make a good landing, twisted or broken ankles and some ended up in trees.    Don't remember the number of paratroopers, could have been 100 or more.  There were other ambulance crews that day picking up the injured.   If I remember correctly there was more wind than what was predicted--blame was with the Air Force.  

ASTORIA

Celia and I made a trip up the Oregon coast 10 or 12 years ago all the way to Astoria, where we spent three days taking in the sights.   This picture was taken of the sunset over the mouth of the Columbia River from the motel we stayed at up river from Astoria.   It was one of our best trips and we always wanted to return.

THE SIGHTS, SOUNDS AND SMELLS OF FARMING

During the drive to the farm as the sun comes up over the mountains to the east, flocks of birds make their way across open fields to the trees along a creek, cattle line up in a field for their morning ration of hay, a jack rabbit runs across a plowed field and a pipe line of sprinklers moves across a field of green grass.
In the early morning hours there is the smell of freshly cut straw residue left in the fields after harvest as the morning dew dissipates, the smell of diesel fuel as it is pumped into the fuel tank of the farm equipment and the smell of the newly tilled soil.  

Once the morning maintenance work of equipment is completed we climb in to the cab of whatever piece of equipment that we have been assigned to operate and our world is filled with the  roar of the engine, the am/fm radio and sometimes the forbidding sounds of clanging and banging from some sort of a breakdown.   By the heat of the afternoon there is dust at the mercy of the wind created from the straw coming out the back of a combine or from the working of ground in preparation of another crop.   The dust may go up or trail behind or blow in the direction the piece of equipment is going making visibility difficult or impossible at times.  

At the end of the day silence becomes a blessing on the drive home.   The next day it  all starts again and in many ways never leaves those of us that have done farm work.

WEDDING IN THE WOODS

In August of 1975 Christine and I were married outside the small cabin we lived in seven miles down the highway from Orleans.   There may have been 20 people in attendance, including both family and friends.  For directions to the wedding a sign was posted on Highway 96 at the junction of the dirt road leading up to the cabin.    A local Episcopalian minister, who was also a timber faller performed the ceremony.  Christine's parents provided food from a caterer, including a keg of beer and a case or two of Champaign.  A good time was had by all.

Even though the marriage ended in 1990, we still maintain a relationship as parents and grandparents, and feel very fortunate for the two children we have.  

BP NATIVE PLANT NURSERY

 Celia and I were members of the Friends of Buford Park & Mt. Pisgah when we lived in Cottage Grove from 2000 to 2006.   We spent many weekend hours as volunteers working in the native plant nursery.  Volunteers were assigned seed plots to maintain, involving weeding, thinning and harvesting the seeds.  Water was provided by a drip irrigation system on a timer.   Seeds were planted in pots and after a year or more these plants were transplanted throughout the park.    The nursery grew a variety of grass seeds, shrubs and trees that were native to the park.    The fringe benefit of this was learning how to propagate the different plant species.  Once a year excess plants were sold to the public during an open house.  

In 2002 we bought 10 acres in Douglas County to try our hand at starting a native plant nursery under our business name of C&M Gardening.    Water was an issue and we set up storage tanks as we tried to grow a variety of plants native to our property, including madrone, manzanita, snow berry, oak trees and a few others with a moderate success, but nothing like the BP Nursery.   This 10 acres is the property below our upper 10 acres where we moved to in 2006 after retiring from the gardening and landscaping business. 

PAIN

We all suffer pain, be it physical or emotional during our life.   There is no way around it, even if we resort to drugs or alcohol which only makes things worse.   We all have our own ways of dealing with pain.  For me writing has offered some relief.   Support from family and friends can help with understanding, but they can not remove the pain.

Pain is the most individualizing thing on earth.  It is true that it is the great common bond as well, but that realization comes only when it is over.  To suffer is to be alone.   To watch another suffer is to know the barrier that shuts each of us away by himself.   Only individuals can suffer.

Edith Hamilton

YOSEMITE

This story is condensed and revised from a 6 page story I wrote  in 1995 that had some humor in it that only the family would understand.  

 In September of 1995 two of my sisters and I, along with my son and daughter went on a backpacking trip from Tuolumne Meadows down to Yosemite Valley.   This was about a 28 mile hike.  We were over packed with enough food for a month, not well organized and behind schedule.   By 3 pm we approached the wilderness permit booth at Tuolumne Meadows and  noticed a sign saying, "all trails full for the day".  The ranger on duty took pity on us noticing how unprepared and overloaded we looked.   We were given a permit with the stipulation to be at least four miles from Tuolumne Meadows before setting up camp for the night.  In short, they wanted this motley looking bunch out of sight of the general public ASAP.   We found a place to camp before dark, ate our dinner and hung our six food bags, estimated at 75 pounds in a nearby tree in order to keep the bears away.   The next morning we were up with the sun, taking our time preparing breakfast, drinking much coffee and getting an early start by 11 am.   The plan for the day was to push ourselves another five miles to Emeric Lake.   After hiking up hill over Tuolumne Pass, it was all downhill in the Merced River drainage on trails carved out of the granite.   At our camp near Emeric Lake we dug through our 75 pounds of food, ate dinner, hung the bags up and retired for the night.   During the night some of us were awaken by the howling of coyotes.  The next morning was another early start, maybe 10:30 am. after another big breakfast and much coffee.  Our destination for this day was another 5 miles to Merced Lake.   The elevation drop on this day was 2200 feet, mostly in the last two miles.   We arrived at Merced Lake exhausted.   We were required to stay in a designated camp site and we were one of the last groups into the camp leaving us little choice of picking a secluded site.    Some of our neighbors were interesting to watch and I'm sure we were entertaining to them.  There was a man traveling by himself and had the perfect camp with all his equipment laid out just right compared to our camp with everything scattered all over the place.   After eating  dinner we were too tired to wash dishes, so we placed them in metal bear box provided near our camp along with our food bags.  During the night we were aroused by a bear banging on the metal box, probably our box with the dirty dishes.   The next morning some of our neighbors did not look upon us favorably.   Our hike for this day was short with about a 800 foot drop in elevation.   By 2 pm we asked a passing ranger where the nearest camp site might be.  He pointed to to a clump of trees across the river, which was easy to access by walking across the river on a rock out cropping.   This was the best camp site of the trip with a place to swim and good seclusion.    The next day we had a pleasant hike on mostly level trail into Little Yosemite Valley, which is 5 miles by trail from the main valley.   Here there were many people since it was a fairly easy hike up from the big Yosemite Valley, where the lodge, parking lots, and other park tourist facilities are located.   Here again camping was restricted to designated camp sites with bear boxes.   No camp fires were permitted, except at two community sites.  As night settled in, so did the multitudes of people.   The posted rule in this camp was no noise after 10 pm.   We no sooner settled in our tents and sleep started to take hold when people started banging on their pots and pans yelling BEARS!   I looked out of my tent to see flash lights moving through the trees within the camp.   This went on for most the night and I even saw a cub bear run through our camp site.   It was total madness and there were very few early risers in camp the next morning.    After getting our stuff packed up we made the final descent in to the big valley to my sister's car in a parking lot.   We drove back up to Tuolumne Meadows to retrieve my car.   I think we still had 20 pounds of food we never consumed.

It was a trip we would never forget.