THE END OF A LONG WINTER

Yesterday I made the drive to Eugene to close Celia's credit union account and distribute the remaining funds to her two daughters.   On my return trip I left the freeway at Creswell and drove east on Cloverdale Road, then turned south onto to Sears Road which goes along the eastside of the Coast Fork of the Willamette River all the way to the Row River Road east of Cottage Grove.    There was only one other car on the road during my drive.   It was the first real spring-like day this year with green fields, cattle grazing in lush pastures, old logging equipment in a field now overgrown with blackberries, the old Hemmenway Dairy now with vacant barns and the other scattered farms along this 12 mile route.  Driving this route was like going back 30 years when I worked for the Forest Service on the Cottage Grove Ranger District with all the log truck traffic delivering their loads to all the mills in the vicinity that are gone now, the smell of the manure from the dairy, and the many Sunday drives that Celia and I made on this road when we lived in Cottage Grove, especially to the Cloverdale Chapel on October 7, 2000 to get married.  Yesterday was a good day and I do believe this long winter is over. 

NEIGHBORLY ADVICE

While living on the Gold Beach Ranger Station in 1980, the neighbor's wife living in the house below us asked me to take a look at the engine in their car to see if she had put water in the radiator correctly.   She showed me where she had filled what she thought was the radiator to the top.  In shock I saw she had put water where the oil went.   She had completely filled the engine crankcase with water.   I advised her not to start the engine and  have it drained and flushed out with oil and replace the oil filter a couple of times.   Later her husband returned home and was not pleased.   He apologized to me and was thankful I advised his wife not to start the engine.  

RAINFALL DATA FOR CURRENT WATER YEAR

 At my CoCoRaHS station (OR-DG-22) I have received 22.76 inches of rain from the start of this water year on 10/1/2022 to 2/28/2023.     The average for this time period is 28.57 inches giving me a deficit of 5.81 inches.   

CABIN FEVER

It is now the first of March of 2023 and we all have had our fair share of winter weather and confinement to the house due to snow and icy roads, better known as cabin fever.   This got me thinking back on my younger days when I worked for the Forest Service in Orleans, California living in a small house that was half trailer comprising of the bedroom and kitchen all attached to a wooden structure that made up the bathroom and a small living room.  I guess you could call it a shack, all for $70 a month.   I was a full-time employee and I think the only single employee working on the Orleans Ranger District, except for most the seasonal employees that had 180 day appointments or about six months of work before being laid off.   The winter months of 1971 to 1974 could be lonely with no seasonal employees to hang out with after work, no woman in my life while most the other permanent employees were married and had families.   The days of winter were short, the weather could be dismal and Orleans did not offer much entertainment or social events, except sitting in one of the three taverns drinking beer with the local Indian population that were not too friendly when they had a belly full of beer.   This led me to drinking at home in the evenings and usually consuming poor quality cheap wine, the kind that had no cork in the bottle.  Having consumed a good portion of this stuff sleep was not a problem.  My reading material consisted of monthly subscriptions to Mother Earth News, The Alaska magazine and a few others.   On weekends outdoor activities such as fishing or hiking were limited due to the rain and snow at the higher elevations.  I did have a dog for company by the name of Herman, a black mutt male that I found as a puppy wandering lost along the highway one weekend.   Sometimes after heavy rain storms the highway out of town would be closed due to landslides up to a week or more.  This would prevent the delivery of the basic essentials to the local market, including beer and wine.  Sometimes panic would set in after going to the market and seeing very little available on the shelves, especially beer and that cheap wine.  

By spring time it was a relief to see some of the seasonal employees return, people to go to the tavern with or into Eureka or Arcata on the weekends.  In  January of 1975 a new receptionist was hired by the name of Christine, we were married in August of 1975 bringing an end to those lonely winters.

 

CELIA AT THE CABIN

 This picture was taken on 2/5/2011 at the cabin where Celia did many of her paintings.   She was taking a break and enjoying her favorite can of beans.  My kind of woman!

A COLD MORNING

So far this is the coldest morning this winter at 22 degrees.    The coldest I have recorded here is 9 degrees.   The coldest place I have ever been was at Fall River Mills in northern California in the winter of 1972 when it was minus 25.  A few of us went over there from Orleans to go duck hunting and stayed in an old ranch house with a gas heater.    When we went outside to hunt we could only stay outside for 20 minutes before our noses started to go numb.   By noon we called it a day and went in to Fall River Mills to get something to eat at a restaurant.  The high for the day was zero as we started the long drive back to Orleans with no ducks.     

THE TALE OF TWO LOOKOUTS

 A young husband and wife were hired one summer to be fire lookouts, while I was working on the Orleans Ranger District of the Six Rivers National Forest from 1971 to 1977.   In order to make more money they both volunteered to work in two separate lookouts.   The wife worked on the Orleans Mountain Lookout and the husband worked on the Offield Mountain Lookout on the Ukonom District of the Klamath National Forest.   Both lookouts were in sight of each other with a distance of maybe less than five miles the way the crow flies.   By road it was close to a two hour drive.   After work hours lookouts were allowed to use the radio system to talk to each other socially, since they were isolated and life could be lonely.  The rumor has it the wife on Orleans Mountain one clear night with the lights on in her lookout, called to her husband to look in her direction with his high powered binoculars and to let her know if he would be interested in driving over for a visit.   It was said that she was standing out on the open deck of the lookout wearing very little, if anything and rumor has it that he did make the drive in less than two hours for the visit and made it back for work the next day at his lookout. 

GUNS, PICKUP TRUCKS AND TEENAGE COUNTRY LIFE

The culture for most teenage boys living in small farming towns across the country was and might still be all the same involving driving pickup trucks, hunting and fishing during their free time.  The small northern California town of Willows, where I was raised was no exception.   Hunting pheasants and geese was common in the fall and winter.  Fishing and swimming in the creeks and the Sacramento River were the favorite past time in the summer.   To get to all these places required a pick up truck, since we were beyond the age of riding our bikes.   With a learners permit at the age of 15 and half I learned to drive our 1951 Ford Pickup with a three speed stick shift.   My mother supervised and would let me drive it to the dump whenever our garbage cans were full, usually every two weeks.    After I got my driver license at the age of 16, I was on my own with driving, whenever the pickup truck was available.   On one occasion my friend Alan and I drove out in the hills with our .22 rifles in the truck.  We were driving up the Clark Valley Road and stopped to shot at something from the truck.   All of sudden a California Highway Patrol car pulled up along the side of the pickup and the officers told us not to shot from the truck and drove off ahead of us.   We were so stunned and relieved that we were not issued a citation.  We continued our drive and never touched the guns again until we got home.     

GROCERY SHOPPING

Grocery shopping is not one of my favorite things to do, but is necessary since the alternative is not pleasant.   Usually what prompts me to think about the need to go shopping is when I notice the refrigerator starting to look empty.   I prefer shopping at the Thunderbird market in Roseburg early Sunday mornings to avoid the crowds, plus they have a good selection of organic produce.    Being a creature of habit I know where things are in this market and make the same old route through the store as quickly as possible before the crowd gathers and avoid the fear of catching the dreaded virus of the day.   Most of the customers in the store during this time of day are other old men wandering aimlessly in search of whatever.    Within 20 minutes I can get my usual two bags of basic stuff for about $65 and be out the door and feel I have achieved a great task knowing I will survive another week.      

DRY LAND FARMING

There were a few crops raised in the Sacramento Valley of northern California without the need for irrigation.   Barely, safflower and wheat were generally the crops that were planted in the late fall and early spring that were totally dependent on winter and spring rains.    Many of these crops were raised in the foothills along the westside of the Sacramento Valley.   Ground preparation took place in the spring when the soil was easy to turn over with a moldboard plow and left fallow through the summer months.   In the fall the plowed fields were disked, harrowed and planted with barely or wheat during November and December.   Safflower was planted in the spring and only required a couple inches of rain.   Safflower is used for its oil, both in the pharmaceutical business and for cooking oil.   Barley was mostly used as a feed grain for livestock and some for brewing of beer.  Most of the wheat was exported.   In the summer of 1962, I worked for a couple of weeks for Joe Stutz, who was farming on the Holmes Ranch west of  Willows, in northern California.  It was my first farm job driving a D-4 Caterpillar tractor that pulled a grain cart that followed two combines that were harvesting barley on a large field (maybe 200 acres) next to the foothills.   When the combines were full of barley they would empty into the grain cart that would be emptied into a truck that transport the barley to metal bins for storage until taken to market later.  We worked 10 hours days and I was paid $1.50 per hour.   It was hot and dusty work, not to speak of the noise.   At the end of the day and when sleeping at night I could still hear the clanging of the tracks on the Caterpillar tractor.  

Today there is no dry land farming on these lands due to a drier climate.   Some of these crops are raised with irrigation throughout the Sacramento Valley.  

CHRISTMAS 2022

It's that time of year to be jolly, get into the holiday spirit and overlook family dysfunctions.   In my old age I feel more like scourge this time of year, but getting gifts for the grandchildren saves me from total despair.   One habit I have taken up over the years of living here is to take a picture of the Christmas tree standing in the middle of Oakland, and sending it out by email to family and friends in place of Christmas cards.  Sure saves on postage and a good way to get a response from old friends and distant relatives scattered across the country.   

  

   Merry Christmas from Oakland, Oregon!

WORKING IN THE POISON OAK

In the summer of 1972 the seasonal fire crew of four people were put to work clearing the roadside brush leading into the Bluff Creek Guard Station on the Orleans Ranger District of the Six Rivers National Forest.   This work was done with hand tools and the brush was piled in a Forest Service pickup to be hauled off to a burn pile.   Most of the brush was blackberries mixed with poison oak.    Nobody on the crew was familiar with poison oak.    It was a hot day and some members of the crew had taken their shirts off as they gathered up the brush and put in the bed of the truck stomping it down.   The next day these people were human blisters in need of medical attention.  

RAINFALL UPDATE 10/1/22 to 11/30/22

Since the start of the 2023 water year on 10/1/22 to 11/30/22 I have received 7.31 inches of rain at my CoCoRaHS station (OR-DG-22).   The average for this time period is 9.56 inches leaving a deficit of 2.25 inches.  

HOOPA BLUFFS

 Of all the highways and roads I have traveled the most dangerous I can recall is California State Highway 96 between Hoopa Valley and Weitchpec, where the Trinity River meets the Klamath River.   A section of this portion is called the Hoopa Bluffs where there is a vertical rock face above the highway and a vertical drop of a few hundred feet straight down to the Trinity River.  There was a series of curves through this section with a few guard rails in some spots.   Beyond the guard rails it was straight down to the river.

When I lived and worked for Forest Service in Orleans between 1971 to 1977 it was necessary to travel this highway to seek medical attention at a clinic in Hoopa Valley or do serious shopping in the big cities of Arcata and Eureka, or just to get away to enjoy the civilized world.   On many return trips it was dark and without knowledge of this section could prove to be fatal.   If you missed a curve here there was no time for prayer as you plunged toward the river below.