2015 trip to Leslie Gultch

Sandy Morrison stopped by on her way back home from visiting her son in California. She had never see Leslie Gulch, so a trip was in order.

It was a cloudy day that eventually went in to a light drizzle. My only disappointment was that it didn't rain hard. We had a good day in spite of the weather. Both Sandy and Karen are rock collectors, so the car was quite a bit heavier going out than it had been.

This entry is mostly pictures. So click on the first one and each click will bring another pile of rocks for your viewing pleasure.

The lighting was a bit washed out and I had to really "saturate" this photo to enable us to see the Steen's. The light got better as the day wore on.

I liked the Juniper growing out of the soil that had blown in to the rock.

These are Choke Cherry bushes

The Indian Pain Brush is a little darker red this year.

Their were Chukars every where.

A Kestrel was sitting on the highest perch he could find.

This rock reminded us of Jeff Dunham's dummy Walter.

This poor rock was only a shell of its former self. Apparently a victim of drinking too much.

The lake is starting the year as low as it normally is in the late fall. It is down to 29 % of its normal level. This is the original stream bed.

We looked in this hole twice trying to see what if anything was nesting in it.

 With a bit of manipulation you can finally see Mama Horned Owl and a nestling in the back.

The rather amusing part of these trips into Leslie Gulch is that one never sees it all. There is always a new feature to the rocks. Its never the same.

Owyhee Watershed Field day

Each year at the end of April the Owyhee Watershed Council holds a field day at McGinnis Park at the base of the Owyhee Dam. There is every thing from Wild horse's to trapping, and even Falconry demonstrated to the various 5th grade classes around the area. There was even a bus from a charter school from Powell Butte, they had a 6 hour bus trip and spent three days total to participate. Quite a road trip. Of course there was education stuff as well, ODFW, Trout unlimited, noxious weeds, gold panning, Water safety, Rangeland ecology, soils erosion, Beef bi products, wildfire management, on and on. Sufice it to say every thing concerning the land and water of the area was covered.

The classes were cut down to about 15 kids each with a FFA volunteer as a guide for each class. They only spent about 15 minutes at each station, so it moved right along and the kids were exposed to every thing over the two days that they were there.

Jessie had been twisting her Jesses , so I had to untangle her.

This group ate their lunch while at our station. 

We ended up giving talks to 19 different groups of kids. That means we introduced about 300 kids to the Raptors of Oregon in general and Jessie in particular. She had to sit on her perch while they almost all lusted after and wanted to touch her.  Needless to say I had to unwind her jesses more than once. She was great though and tolerated a lot more indignities than should have been permitted, such as a cat invading her space.

All in all it wasn't a bad trip. Our pet sitter called in sick, so all the critters had to go with us. Three dogs, and two Cats. Karen had just returned from a week long visit to Wyoming on Sunday and had one day to recuperate and load the trailer. The only thing we forgot was matches and my Coffee. Oh, I screwed up the water tank and all the water smelled like the swamp at the black lagoon. Minor crap all.

The interesting part was the sleeping arrangements. The cats generally sleep in a dog kennel at home. This is to keep them off the bed with us. Nothing like a cat "purring in your ear at 2 AM. Frank (above) is currently on a regime of diabetes shots, that happens to give him the "shits". He and Tiger, our semi normal cat share the kennel. He also hates the smell of Frank crap! So very early in the morning Tiger is strumming on the kennel door to escape - very loudly!

The next night I decided to put them in the bathroom with their litter box. Tiger spent about 20 minutes trying to dig his way out, so I got up, locked him in the kennel by himself, and went back to bed. Once again he is strumming on the door like the washtub thumper on HeeHaw. Karen weakened first and got up to try to bribe him with some food. Apparently she was too groggy to lock the door, and some time around 2 AM he could be heard purring in Karen's ear.

The cats do quite well and apparently think of the fifth wheel as their alternate home. We were able to turn them loose and they never strayed far from the trailer. The dogs also are quite reliable and rarely give us any trouble.  Josie however discovered some really sweet grass that dogs apparently cannot resist. Of course she choose to puke on our comforter, on the bed. We however had another so no real harm. Then I took them for a walk, and they had a good time with all the new smells. I noticed Josie chewing on something, but it wasn't very big. We had a good run and every thing was going well. I was sitting in my chair reading when I heard Josie puke on the other comforter. Sigh!

Water traps revisited

As every one knows, Mice and Rats are a scourge where ever they are found. If they are not controlled they soon find ways to get in the house and cause all sorts of problems, such as having to wash all the silver ware because a mouse has left his calling card in the fork drawer.

Here in the Desert, one of the really serious problems are Pack Rats. We have three separate species here, none are desirable. Our attic was a favorite of them. The rock walls are easy to climb and there are numerous little holes chewed into the wood where the rocks meets roof. They of course are stuffed with steel wool, but I am sure there are others that are not as easily visible.

My cure for the attic was a rather large industrial strength Victor electronic noise maker. I have heard that strobes are effective as well. The Victor seems to work quite well however. At first we could hear one for a while, but they soon decided that it was too noisy for comfortable living and have moved out.

I actually started actively trapping outside of the house to augment my hawk food. Mice make dandy little vitamin pills. I have discovered that Jessie, the Peregrine, also likes them, so trapping has gone into high gear. The funny part is that the Mouse breeding program seems to be well able to keep up with my inroads into their number. I am quite sure that I have trapped at least a hundred so far with no reduction in numbers.

I still have a number of Starlings that I trapped in winters past, but they of course are only a tidbit for a 31 oz Peregrine. My feeding program for Jessie consists of either a "spent breeder Quail"  or a 8 week old Quail one day, and a Starling and about five Mice the other. then one day of fasting sometime in the week.

Considering that Quail are running about $1.50 each, the savings are considerable. I have bucket traps set at the likely mouse runs around the house and in the Motor home. This of course means that any mouse getting any where close to the house, first has to resist the temptation of all that P'nut Butter. Considering the two cats that live here in the house have not caught a mouse since last year, not many can resist.

I have refined my trap a bit since starting, but it isn't all that necessary. I have used PVC to make a nice smooth roller.

Mice run along walls, so I have a ramp that makes it easy for them to get to the roller. I smear a light patch or two of P'nut butter on the ramp to get them interested, then pretty good gobs of it on the roller on all four sides, so that bait will always be present. The idea of course is to get them to walk out on the roller to get the food, and then all is left is to find out how good they are at log rolling. You also need about four or five inches of water in the bucket.

This one is in my hanger and at the corner of the garage door where they come in the hanger.

You can see the live trap beside it. I had a pack rat that was big enough to hold onto the edge and lick the bait off the bar, so I set a live trap with some apple on it and I had him within 3 hours of setting it.
This one is a bit smaller or dumber, whichever. There are also two Mice in there as well.

This is the nights take, from the back porch, the hanger, and the Motor home. This comes out to three days supplement for Jessie. Its worth it for the cost savings not to mention the hazard and damage that the Mice represent.

A empty sitting Motor Home or Fifth wheel represents a great place for Mice and Rats. Easy for them to get into and no one to cause them any distress. With a trap set in there one only needs to empty it every now and then, and maybe put a little newer bait on it. 

One can make the traps with something like a plastic coke bottle with a wire stuck through the middle of it so that it will roll smoothly. You just need to keep it close enough to the edge that the mice can crawl out to the bottle. For that an 1/8 "all thread " rod and a few nuts to keep it where you want it works pretty good. 

I have a lot of old 1 1/2 pvc here at the house, so I carve a plug for each end, drill a hole in the center, and run a piece of stiff wire down the center and span the center of the bucket. Then all you need is for a way for the mice to get up to the bait. I am using a ramp, but I bet a piece of cloth hung over the side would be enough. I just like to make it easy for them to die.

Last year I ran a "trap line" of about 18 snap traps to try to get the Motor Home and fifth wheel cleared of Mice and it was a lot more trouble. This way if there are 3 mice working an area, you are able to catch all of them. The traps only have to be re baited and the water changed every now and then. 

Yogi

Yogi has been with us for about three years. She has been a lot of fun. She has been a pleasure to handle, She has tolerated the clumsy cautious hands of hundreds of kids that she has met at various educational venues. She has willingly hunted with every one that was willing to take her out.

I decided last year to give Puddy to one of our falconers on the West side of the state. Rabbits were down to almost bare bones in this area. Karen, due to her medical condition could not withstand the rigors of hunting the rim rock where the Jacks live. Tami's new son was too young to handle that as well. I did not care for the complications that arise from hunting two hawks, so a reduction in ranks was in order.

Unfortunately Yogi has decided that she does not want to hunt Jack Rabbits on her own. Quite frankly I found this to be astounding. I have seen her make the first strike on four Jacks in one outing. It is true that she had help almost immediately from Puddy, but I never would have imagined that she would not close with Jacks on her own. She is perfectly willing to catch any and all Bunnies that we could come across. This is the right and logical choice for a bird that has grown up in the wild, but unfortunately I cannot make that concession. This is Jack Country, and even those are way down in population. So Karen and I began a search for a new owner for her.

We settled on Sarah Morrison.

Sarah has been a member of Oregon Falconers Assoc. since she was 14 years old. I have watched her and her mother attend every meet that the club has held. She has proved her devotion to the sport, as well as earning our respect. When we found that she might be interested in a new bird, we approached her about Yogi.

Sarah and her mother, Sandy arrived last week to pick her up.

We made an attempt to take Sarah's other Harris out for a Rabbit hunt, but the weather was quite "springy", totally different location from what he was used to along with the drastic change in elevation and Townsen's Ground Squirrels every where guaranteed that we were wasting out time.

We did find a road killed Jack however that was furnishing breakfast to a Raven. Sarah immediately wanted to stop. ( My kind of gal! ) She gutted it there along the road, and bagged every thing but the hind leg that the Raven had been feasting on. The leg and the organs were left there for the bird.

The next morning preparing for their departure, Sarah began cutting up the Rabbit. Frank, our white cat did his best to eat as much as he could before she got it put up.

It will take Yogi a bit to get the hang of hunting in trees. I hope that Sarah has as much fun with her as we have had.

  

The VW curse, or the consequences of a seemingly trivial act.

Things have been a bit slow here lately. The bone spur removal on my foot has left me with a lot of time to kill, and of course think. Some of that comes from getting older, although the really hard stuff is quite some time down the road. Still I am to the point in my reflection where I am remembering the embarrassing stuff. For the most part I have done pretty well and acted honorably with the exception of a few of the opposite sex that I wish I had treated better. I can only plead the callowness of youth, and hope for the best.

There are always major "turning points" such as the decision to not go to Army Helicopter training in 1963, that would have been totally life changing, not to mention possibly shortening, but I am not talking about the obvious ones. Just the little inconsequential day to day things that reach across the decades.

One such was the purchase of a shortened VW frame with a 36 horse motor in a box. Piddly cost of $100.00. That event has caused more money, trouble and change, one could say punishment than almost any other act of my life.

At the time I was a fairly new Oregon State Police Trooper in Klamath Falls, Oregon. One of the city Policemen offered the VW to me. It had been shortened by 18 inches. The perfect Dune buggy project. I bought it on the spot. Karen and I had been married about 6 years, and we were doing about as well as could be expected. Not great, but not bad either. I imagine that she felt that it was a waste of money, and before I could even blink, had found a 2 year old Appy mare for just the same amount of money. Like I had done she presented me with the act already accomplished. Checkmate!

We both had fun with our different projects, and I have to admit Dusty, the aforementioned horse, was pretty great and a lot of fun. Of course I am leaving out all the barns, feed, hay, trimming, shots, trailers, foals, tack,and odds and ends. The list is tedious any way. While I learned to weld while building the Dune Buggy.

I used the Dune Buggy for hunting, camping and all around fun. The damn thing would go just about anywhere. I could jump fallen trees with it after I put a skid plate on the bottom. One day while Squirrel hunting for hawk food, I decided to jump a ditch with it. I got over the ditch alright, but I twisted my back in the process. It wasn't bad enough to be serious at the time. However a few nights later while on patrol I had to help in the arrest of a drunk driver that bolted. I grabbed him, but my back was hurting badly enough that I could not wrestle with him. End result, a busted fist, and he spent the night in the hospital. Admitted for a sprained wrist. There was a bit of a dust up over that with the result that I was supposed to get three days off without pay. I had a supervisor much higher that wanted more, and I ended up quitting in disgust. Life is much too short to deal with assholes. It just wasn't worth it.

I took a job at a lumber mill on a temporary basis until a horseshoeing course would open up at Oregon State College. I had turned down three other state jobs in the process. I was pretty burned out.

Fifteen weeks later I was self employed. It wasn't all that bad. Of course Arab horses and their owners were the bane of my existence, but it was pretty good. Over all, nasty working conditions, lots of heavy sweaty work, but still not bad. The only hang up was winter. Nobody wanted horses shod in the winter, so I drove a School bus and worked at a towing company the rest of the time.

Karen had gone to town for me once to resupply and mistakenly bought 50 lbs of racing plates. We were both too busy to return them, so my welding hobby kicked in and I built "nick nacks" out of horse shoe racing plates. I tried to sell them, but apparently I thought too highly of my work, so in disgust,I started giving them away. One of the gals, (Terri) that I gave them to worked for the Superintendent of the Burlington Northern RR.

The only problem with my winter employment was that the kids were always sick, and of course they shared with me each time they got on the bus. They either coughed, sneezed or farted at the top step. I was always sick each winter. One day Terri called and asked me if I would like to have a job with the RR as a welder. I explained that I really didn't know how to weld, but she assured me that they would teach me. Thirty years later I retired from that job.

We sold the house that we bought during that period, and bought a place here in the High Desert of Oregon, bringing two horses with us. I gave the Dune Buggy away for scrap when we left.

One of the two Tennessee Walker horses that we had was a pain in the butt to catch. We finally sold him to a horse trader, leaving a 6 foot at the withers gelding that is still a kid in his mind. I finally talked Karen into letting me give him away to a friend in Klamath. Walkers are about as much in demand here as rubber crutches. Hay at this point is about $200.00 a ton. He needed 5 tons a year for feed. His main function these last few years has been fertilizer manufacturing.

So, I hope that I am finally free of the VW curse. It has been expensive, but it has been a plus as well.

Indirectly the VW caused me to quit the State Police. I could have retired at 50 years old, but would I have retained my "sweet" personality with 25 years of dealing with the assholes and dregs of humanity? I doubt it. It took me three years to overcome my personal PTSD of being a cop. At the same time it positioned me to work for the RR in a job that I really enjoyed. Giving me a retirement that was comparable to the one that I left behind on the State.

All in all it is very interesting to see how things are linked to that one day, and that one urge. I wonder how it would have turned out, if I had declined the urge to buy it?