THE DEER ENCOUNTER

 This morning while working on a trail up to the pump house a deer ran by me so fast I did not realize it until it had gone by me.    All I saw was the flash of the deer just a few inches from me.   The deer was being chased by another deer and I believe it did not see me until the last second.    At the speed that deer was going I don't think I would have survived the blow if it had run into me.   It was my lucky day and I still have a hard time thinking about how close it was.

CATASTROPHIC FIRE DAMAGE

 Recently I took a road trip with my daughter and her family down to visit my son in  Meyers, California.  We took the Susanville/Reno route by way of highways 89 to 44 and 395 to highway 50 in Carson City.    It must have been 6 or 7 years ago since we traveled this route and since then there has been many catastrophic wild fires.   All the way starting at Hat Creek along Highway 89 down the eastside of the Sierra Nevada Mountains along Highway 395 to Reno much of the forests have been burned.   There are areas of green timber that were not burned or completely destroyed.   Much of this was burned by the Dixie Fire in 2021, including half of the Lassen National Park and destroyed the town of Greenville.   

While we traveled around South Lake Tahoe and Meyers during our visit we could see the burned forests along the south rim of the Tahoe Basin that was part of the Caldor Fire in 2021.    Presently this area is being logged to prevent a future fire of the standing dead and down trees, in addition to the hazard trees on the slopes above Highway 50 leading to Sacramento.   Most of these logs are being hauled and decked in Carson City waiting for processing in a future mill to be constructed in Gardnerville, Nevada.  

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CAMPING IS NOT WHAT IT USED TO BE

Recently a friend invited me on a camping trip up to Scott Lake, which is about 15 miles up the old McKenzie Highway over 4000 feet in elevation.    It has been a few years since my last camp out and much of my camping gear is old, like me.  I looked forward to getting back up in the high mountains to enjoy the solitude of nature, a campfire and boiling up a pot of coffee in the morning.    Most campgrounds require reservations and payment in advance online these days.   This campground required no reservations and picking out a campsites was based on first come, first get with a fee of $5 per car.    After picking out two campsites we went back to pay the fees thinking there were envelopes to deposit the money in and take the receipt back to put in the car windows to show that we paid.    To our surprise it required an app on our smart phones to scan the campground code.   Being out of range of a signal to the internet a sign was posted stating it would download the payment once we had a signal again.   We were unable to get any of this to work on our smart phones and figured that nobody would be checking on us this time of year.   There was no campground host and nobody showed up to check for receipts.  I guess we cheated the government out of $10.  

Now about that old camping equipment, especially my old backpacking mummy sleeping bag of 40 plus years that was to keep me warm down to 20 degrees below zero.  It didn't work, I was cold all night, even with flannel pajamas on and a wool hat.  Later I was told the down in those old bags becomes less effective over time.  I guess the time had run out of my old bag.   Then I got thinking back on when Celia and I slept in two full-size sleeping bags zipped together and how warm we were, especially with two warm bodies in the same bag, sometime we got too hot!    One thing for sure is that coffee still taste good in the early morning mountain air and those Canada Jays or camp robbers are still around to pick up any morsel that may fall to the ground.  

2022 WATER YEAR (WY) SUMMARY

For the 2022 WY ending 9/30/22, there was 39.70 inches recorded at my CoCoRaHS station OR-DG-22 at an elevation of 915 feet.  The average is 42 inches.   The lowest rainfall recorded in the 16 years of living here was 32 inches in WY 2014 and the highest was 61 inches on WY 2017. 

THE FARMER'S DAUGHTER

My dad was friends with an older man, probably in his 60's at the time, who owned a large ranch west of Willows where he had raised dry land barley and sheep.    He had a teenage daughter, by the name of Mary Ann that was 15 or 16 when I first met her, while visiting with my parents at their house in Willows.  She was a nice looking young blond girl.  Like me, we both were attending Catholic high schools, me in Sacramento and she in San Rafael.    We got to know each other during family visits either to our place or their home.   One evening at our place I walked her around the property we lived on showing her the field behind the house.  While walking along the fence line back toward the house as it was getting dark, we passed by a shed on the neighbor's property.   She asked if we could climb over the fence and go in the shed?   I informed her the shed was locked and thinking back on it that probably saved us from getting in trouble.   During the school year she wrote me some letters telling how she and some other girls would sneak out of their dormitory at night giving me the impression she was a wild young woman.   The next summer she asked me out to a dance at a relative's house in the town of Corning, about 30 miles north of Willows.   This would be my first real date.   Her mother drove us up to Corning and was probably acting as a chaperone in order to prevent any mishaps,  knowing her daughter.   Mary Ann was wearing a white strapless dress that would drive a young boy mad with all kinds of lusty thoughts.   We made it home without any trouble.  In the years that followed Mary Ann  got involved with a couple of boys in town that I knew.   Once when I was doing farm work one summer, I was informed by the foreman Mary Ann and another girl had driven out to this farm in search of me, but unable to find me.  The last time I saw her was when I was attending Chico State College in the Fall of 1964.    

MY INTRODUCTION TO BEER(S)

How many remember these beers--Burgermeister, Lucky Lager, Falstaff, Schlitz and Olympia?  These were some of the beers my dad enjoyed back in the 1950's and 60's.    I did have a chance to sample some of them, usually when no body was looking.  Six months after I entered the Army in 1966 I turned 21 at Fort Hood, Texas and the beer of choice was Lone Star and a few others I don't remember.    When I was transferred to Fort Stewart, Georgia Old Milwaukee was my choice and cheap.    During my two years at Lassen College in Susanville, California Hamm's beer was within my budget living on the GI Bill.   Later in life during the 1970's into the 90's there were a variety of beers both in cans, bottles and what ever came out of the tap at the local taverns.  Most of these were made by the big three brewing companies--Anheuser-Busch, Miller and Pabst.   Back in those days it was all just plain beer and I had no idea that there were ales, porters, stouts or pilsners.    Today there are so many beers from the international, national and local levels.   The big three have bought out many smaller breweries and Bud Light is the favorite of many.  In the world of craft beers Sierra Nevada tops the other national craft beers.    A the local level there are more craft beer breweries than anybody can imagine.   So many beers now to sample and so little time.

FALL 2022

Fall has finally arrived.   There is the sound of crickets all night, the cool morning air with the earthy smells associated with the recent fall rains and best of all the low fire danger.   It always seems like such a great milestone has been reached after making it through another dry, hot summer, especially in August, which seems to be the longest month of the year to get through.   With the extended spring rains this year summer was not as bad as the last few that started in May with temperatures in the 90's.    

Now to prepare for winter by getting the firewood under cover, finish up some exterior painting that is long overdue, clean out rain gutters, pick apples before the deer eat them all and much more.   Don't have to worry about putting the vegetable garden to bed, critters did that for me by eating it all by the end of August.  Sometimes I wonder why I bother with it, but I'm sure by the time next spring arrives next year I will do it all again.  

DANGERIOUS WILDLIFE ENCOUNTERS

My only encounter with any dangerous wildlife in the years I worked for the Forest Service was my first summer of 1969 on the Modoc National Forest.    A badger ran along side my pickup truck trying to bite the front tire as I was driving slowly on a forest road.   In all my remaining years until my retirement in 1995 nothing, not even with the bears of Alaska.   

Since living on this forested property for the last 16 years, I've had a close encounter with a cougar and a mad mother hen turkey.   

Sep 22, 2022

WILDFIRES ON REBURNED AREAS

 Do you ever wonder if there is anything left out there to burn after all the fires over the last decade(s)?   

A few weeks ago I drove up to Oakridge to inquire about camping at Waldo Lake.   I was informed by the Forest Service that Waldo Lake was closed to the public due to the Cedar Creek Fire as it was spreading around the north end of the lake.   Knowing this area north of the lake burned 10 years ago, I asked what the fuel load was on the old burned over area.    Looking at a map on the wall at the Middle Fork Ranger Station I was told that the regrowth of under brush and old burned trees had fallen to the ground adding to the fuel load creating another catastrophic fire that eventually burned into the many campgrounds on the east side of the lake.    I'm not sure what the answer is on how to manage these burned over areas.   It might depend on site specific conditions, such as protection of communities, recreation facilities, road systems and other improvements.  My son informs me the Forest Service is removing many of the dead trees from the Caldor Fire that burned into the forests near South Lake Tahoe as a prevention measure to future fires in an urban area.    Highway 50 leading up to South Lake Tahoe from Sacramento is having all burned trees that are a hazard removed by Caltrans.    This is also true along I-5 going through the mountains of northern California from recent fires.    Locally we can see it up the North Umpqua Highway.

Fire has always been part of the ecosystem and may become more frequent on burned over areas with time, especially with a warming climate.    Will these burned over areas ever recover to what they once were? 

QUEEN ELIZABETH

Today Queen Elizabeth died at the age of 96.   For some unexplainable reason I found this upsetting and felt a sense of loss.   She always impressed me as a steady, solid, non emotional person no matter the circumstances.   Over her life time she was a witness  to World War II, the decline of the British Empire, family scandals' and dysfunctions.    After getting out of the Army In 1968 I accompanied my grandmother to Canada to visit some family members.    We spent a night or two in a hotel in Edmonton, Alberta.   While riding in a hotel elevator I over heard two men talking about how Canada was attached to the Queen and comparing how the United States had no such attachment or anchor.   Back then the Dominion of Canada was a commonwealth nation to Great Britain when the Union Jack was part of its flag.   The Queen did not rule Canada as they had their own prime minister and parliament.    I think it was the tradition of being connected to the Queen and sense of belonging to a family, a royal family at that those men in the elevator were talking about.    Is this tradition still important in a changing world of political division, environmental disasters and economic instability?    Was it a loss of tradition I felt today?

THE END OF AUGUST 2022

We have finally come to the end of another forgetful August feeling neglected that the annual tradition of smoke filled skies would pass us by.   But, last night the haze and smoke moved into the valleys of the Umpqua making our summer complete.    How long it will last is anybody's guess depending on when the Fall rains return.     

PEPPERS & TOMATOES

Picked a variety of peppers and tomatoes from the UCC garden plots that Kasey and Janice started.  Spent a good part of this afternoon making salsa, including onion, parsley, squash, kale, garlic, some lime juice in addition to the many peppers and tomatoes.   Could be a wild night.  

THE LOSS OF AN OLD FRIEND

I received an email from Judy Barceloux, the wife of my old friend Alan Barceloux, informing me he passed away August 12th. Alan had been fighting stage 4 lung cancer for the last five or six months. Alan and I had known each other going back to our days as Boy Scouts in Willows, California in the late 1950's. We had many adventures together exploring the Mendocino National Forest during the summers in our high school years, including backpacking through the Middle Eel Yolla Bolly Wilderness Area. We spent some early mornings hunting ducks and geese in the rice fields south of town during the winter months. In 1966 Alan enlisted in the Air Force for three years during the Vietnam war at the same time I was drafted into the Army for two years. In the Fall of 1969 Alan and I shared an apartment together while we both attended Lassen College in Susanville, California under the GI Bill. Later he attended Chico State University then took over the family auto parts business of Baceloux Brothers Auto Supply in Willows and worked at the NAPA Auto parts store in Orland until he retired. No doubt we drank our fair share of beer together over the years. We kept in touch by email and in many ways Alan was like a brother to me. Whenever Celia and I were visiting family in Chico we would enjoy a meal and have a few beers with Alan and his wife Judy. RIP old friend!

8/16/2022

DOG DAYS OF SUMMER

So far this summer we have been spared any smoke, fire threats and record temperatures compared to the last few summers, but anything could still happen over the next two months before the Fall rains arrive.  108 is the highest temperature I have recorded here this summer.  Not as bad as 115 near the end of June last summer.   Last major rainfall was June 13th with 0.65 of inch at my place and only a few drops since then.  August is not my favorite month with hot afternoons preventing me from doing any outdoor work.  The sound of crickets at night is encouraging, a sign of change.   Fall can't get here fast enough for me.