The Painted Hills, Oregon

Finally the weather has broken and it's worth going outside. It has been my wish to show Brenda some of the splendors of Oregon . It has been a long long winter and now we seem to be going from nasty to full summer. 

The first on my list of Brenda's introduction to Oregon, was to visit the Painted Hills in the central part of the state. I have never gotten around to going there, so this was a trip for me as well. The area is about 250 miles North, so we planned to spend three days total. I looked it up on the web and found that there were really no RV camps close to where we wanted to be, but a nice couple had visited the area and told of a chunk of ground owned by the Forest Service that was open to camping and unregulated.  Sounded good to me!

There were two ways to get there so I intended to go one way and back the other. The first leg of our trip went from Burns Or, to John Day, then West to Mitchell. John day is at a much lower elevation than here at the house, so we dropped off down a long steep Canyon about 20-30 miles in length. As we came around a sharp curve, near Canyonville, a tree weakened by all the recent run off of melted winter snow had fallen across the road. The signs were plentiful that the water had been over the road in many places. It was still quite a surprise and I had an interesting time getting all that weight stopped. We sat there as traffic built up in both directions, (Probably 5 cars either direction. Its kinda of remote) before someone with a chainsaw came by and cut it out of the road.

Once past John Day, it was about 77 miles to our turn off. Winding roads, through a narrow sliver of a Canyon, eventually coming to the town of Mitchell. The turn off is about 5 miles past the town.

We found the camping spot with no trouble at all. At the time there were only cows there and it took us no time to get set up. We spent the evening checking out the scenery and even though it was still raining lightly I made a couple of short trail hikes and took a lot of pictures.It had been really pouring the rain, so everything was muddy, as well as water over the road in a few places. The mud was what I call "tallmud", the more you walk in it, the taller you get.

In the four days that we were there we had about 15 different campers stay there. We had a parade every morning when the cows came out of the hills to drink.

I took a LOT of pictures on this trip and have included all of them worth seeing, in an attempt to give you some idea of what the place is about. So this will be short on narration. 

The area is actually pretty small as far as Parks go, but long on beauty. Almost all the hiking trails are about 1/2 mile. It is a lesson and view of time and the changes that have and will occur, apparently quite naturally. Unless the Neanderthals were much more destructive than we thought.

This is the end of the public road. The area beyond this and the lake in the background are all private.

I took a few pictures of the rocks, as all of them were different.

The signage was a bit hard to see, but there was a lot of information on them.

While it rained often the drops were not thick, but they wee big!

The Painted Lady of the Painted Hills!

I let Brick out of the truck to pee while I looked at this large boulder. I was amazed to find that there was a Cholla, "Jumping Cactus", at the base of it. True to its name, a chunk of it managed to get in the hair of Bricks leg. It was only stuck in the hair, so I managed to get it out with a stick.

And last but not least was an outcropping of Rhyolite ( Such as occurs at the Pillars of Rome. just down the road here at the house.)

After all the scenery we decided to do a little scouting around and of course went into the town of Mitchell to see what was there. I neglected to take pictures, but there was a General Store and a Gift shop there. Brenda cannot go past a store without searching it for things she cannot do without, and the little "country Store" in Mitchell is a treasure trove. I saw things in there that I had been searching for, for years. This is a little town serving probably less than a 1000 people within a 50 mile radius. If they didn't have it you didn't need it. Great people too. Brenda found some Strawberries that were almost as big as apples. She made me go back the next day to buy some more.

We stayed a total of four days, and just relaxed. Brenda loved the area, much different from what she is used to. The "park" is small by most standards, but well worth the visit.

All the pictures are shown small in the body of the story, but if you click on one of them it will open up full screen and you can scroll through them.

Adjustments

 I am not sure just why, but several (2 or 3 ) people have encouraged me to continue to post to my blog. However, exciting adventures, and wonderful scenic trips have been in pretty short supply recently. I could fill the pages with how well Brenda and I are adapting to a "postponed" relationship, but I have shied away from that in an attempt to be circumspect. I wanted to at least give her some time to at least make sure that she understood my humour. 

In the first place I have had difficulty believing that we could be so compatible. All of the important things that are needed to make a sustainable relationship with someone, are there. We fit together so completely that I am amazed. I keep checking to make sure that my personality is not overriding hers. I like to think that I am secure enough that I am able to allow her to be herself and for the most part I have succeeded. She smokes, I do not! It doesn't bother me at all. She is a night owl, I use the time to get to sleep before she comes to bed. She sleeps late, I don't mind the alone time. the only fly in the ointment, the only contention, is shopping!

I took a pretty good cut in available funds when Karen died. I learned in short order to be frugal with the funds that I did have. I make a grocery list throughout the month on the things that I need. Its a four hour round trip to the grocery store, so fooling around only gets you stuck in Boise rush hour traffic, plus the dogs should be getting to the point that their legs are crossed pretty hard. So its get in- get out.

I understand that the little town that she lived near was a bit more rural as well as possibly a bit limited in selection, and it is possible that her feelings about Costco with all of its tempting goodies might just have the same effect on her as a trip to Cabela's would for me. 

Our first restocking trip was an eye opener. She doesn't walk that fast any way, so I had to throttle back quite a lot. I know where everything is, and I kept finding that I left her a couple of aisles back. ( She just came in to make sure that I didn't call her "gimpy", she is just cautious! ) 

My house is actually pretty small, 1470 sq feet, but I have a cool room dug into the ground off the back porch, that I am able to store some groceries, canned goods mostly, but storage in the house is limited. 

When we began we agreed that she would buy the groceries, and I would handle the rest of the living expenses. That way we should both be able to put a little money aside each month. I figured it would be about $400 bucks a month.  To make a long complaint manageable, I went down one aisle, she went the other way and I didn't find her for about an hour. She had in the meantime got another cart and mostly filled it up.  The car looked like the beverly hillbillies going home. the next trip she took off somewhere around the frozen foods and I didn't find her till I got to the checkouts.

I was in a bit of a dilemma, She was spending her money on stuff for us, and I was bitching because we didn't need it., so I resolved to bring a book and sit in the car. ( and try to keep my mouth shut) Suuuuuure, that's gonna happen! 

We finally got the paperwork back that would allow her to buy Oregon vehicle license plates for her car, but we had to go to Burns, which has a DMV office. I had gone through all the stuff here at the house to see what we needed to replenish our stock, and could only come up with Mustard. She needed some Flonase, so I decided to stay in the car and take a nap. Now the grocery store in Burns is a Safeway and isn't all that big, so I reminded her again that all we needed was Mustard, and that we still had enough to probably last us for a month or more at home. I dropped her at the door and went out in the parking lot to wait. She has a handicapped tag, since she is gimpy, or rather careful!, but since I was going to stay in the car I left it open for someone who might be handicapped. I took a nice long nap, eventually waking up, amazed at how long she had been in there, and sat for at least 15 minutes more when she called me to pick her up. I drive up to the door and here she comes with a cart stacked to the top and overflowing, and even had some poor stock boy, ( about 50 years old, and obviously wrapped around her finger) Saying "Thank you for helping me, sugar! in that WVa drawl, pushing her cart for her. I was speechless, if you could believe that! This was after two hours in Big R, a ranch store. Then she wanted to go into Big lots! Strangely enough by that time I had lost my hearing and managed to miss the turn off to get there.

I realize that I tend towards impatience, and I do try to curb that as much as I can. I have always maintained that if I was supposed to have patients I would have studied to be a Gynecologist.

I realize that if that is all I have to complain about, and it is, I am a very lucky man. We are still in that "pinch me" state that is quite rare in this world, and I believe that we both have seen enough in our lives to be able to appreciate what can and is another chance at having a true caring relationship for the rest of our lives. When I touch her, no matter where, she turns to me, never away!  ( Think about that for a bit ) 

The dreaded Christmas letter!

 

Since I am too anal and lazy to send Christmas cards, this is my contribution to the season.

While the year has been challenging, it has all been worth it and positive in the extreme. The end of last year began with Cataract surgery, followed by more eye surgery in the spring to remove a long string of junk floating in my left eye. That had me scared. My right eye is improved to 20/50 vision following the cataract surgery, but the left eye developed a lot of floaters that insisted on being to the forefront of all my vision. I am amazed that someone could actually go into the eye and suck out all the garbage, and still give my 20/20 vision back. I am now able to function without glasses except of course for reading. Grocery store cheaters manages that quite nicely.

During that period, Brenda contacted me. Our parents had been friends, and Brends and I have known each other since the 50's. Imagine that! I left WVa in 1963 right after graduation from High School. We didn't meet again until 1968 at my fathers funeral. We were both married by then. We had corresponded several times through the years,  but I had lost track of her in the 80's. I had attempted to find her again after Karen died, but had no luck. She had divorced her first husband, eventually marrying her second who had died about 13 years ago.

To say that I was very surprised would be an understatement. I had found that I didn't want to live alone. I had had a good marriage, and wanted to regain what ever of that feeling that I could. After a year of searching dating sites I met Connie. While she wasn't interested in melding our lifestyles, she was a lovely lady, and lots of fun to be around.

Brenda expressed interest in renewing our acquaintance, so I invited her to visit for a couple of weeks to see just how bad her memory was and if it matched reality. When she got on the plane to go back to her home, I asked her if she would like to come back. She did, finally arriving at the end of August with a trailer full of stuff. We have been sorting ever since.

There is no doubt that if she had not been so young when I left, (15 ) I would have never left WVa. We are doing our best to enjoy the rest of the lives allotted to us. I am extremely pleased that we have this time together. 

Falconry was a total bust this year. The Rabbits are so scarce that I really never started hunting this year. We did put in a couple of weeks, but have given it up as a waste of time, and possible breeding stock for next year.

The Ducks are infected with a "Bird Flu" this year that is fatal to Raptors, so Bud only had "bagged" birds to fly and other than being alive still, has gained nothing towards to being a falconry bird.

While it has been a challenging year, I am glad to be alive, and looking forward to the coming year. I wish you all a Merry Christmas , and a Happy New year!

Thank God for the ability to laugh at myself!

 I had thought that I would not be posting much, because there isn't that much that is worth taking your time to read this blog. However today's exercise in futility is worth sharing. Many cliches come to mind- "Some days are diamonds, some days are stones". "Life is tough, especially if you are stupid", and on and on.

I have been trying to get Hope in shape and back in the groove to stock up on food for the coming year. Rabbits are a bit more scarce than I would like, but I have found one field 26 miles away that seems to have more of a population than anywhere else. 

It is getting colder each day that passes, and I am worried that we might be getting our "normal" below zero temps" soon. Hope is holding her weight well, and I have been trying to fly her every other day. With this snow on the ground the Jacks are flushing at least 100 yards away, making it tough for her to have much of a chance to put anything in the bag. I have been taking the dogs, as both love it so much. Poor old Josie has gotten to the point that I can't keep her reeled in close enough for Hope to even get a fair chance at one. I started out yesterday, and she was so far out that the only way I could reel her back in was to fire a couple of shots in the air. I took her back home, and went back out with just Brick. We got a couple of chases, but no luck. I didn't feed her thinking that I would go to Arock today and leave both dogs at home.

It was fogged in this morning so I got a couple of things done here that need fixing, and at 1:30 we loaded up to make the drive to Arock. I left Brenda in the car, while Hope and I struck out on our own to see if the Jacks would be a bit slower to head to the next field.

These are some of the trails that the Rabbits make, going too and from the field.

I just get in the field and a Jack starts sneaking off into another field. Then another heading the same way. Hope flies in that direction, but he either hid or went on without stopping. Hope lit on a fence post, and I began that way hoping to flush him. Nothing! As I neared where she was sitting, she took off after another one out there about 100 yards. I went over to see if I could make anything happen, but nothing was moving that we could see. I eventually picked her up and went back to the first field. 

I had told Brenda to take the car to the other end of the field, with the intention of hunting towards her, hoping that she would be able to see some of the action. I managed to walk about 25 yards, and Hope flew off the fist to the ground at the base of a Sage Bush. As I stood there trying to figure out what she had seen, she gets down on her belly and crawls through the Bush. She picked something up in her beak and crawls back out. I thought that it was a Rabbit foot that an Eagle had dropped. I look a bit closer and it was a Duck head and neck that I had thrown away last week. :-/

When Bud catches a Duck he will kill it by biting its neck. He will then pluck some of the feathers off, eating the neck and leaving all the little vertebra, and head attached. When he stops eating on the Duck he will come to the fist for the better tasting Quail. I then cut the neck off to make it fit better in the freezer, tossing the neck away. I had forgotten this neck in my bag, so the next time I took Hope hunting I found a nice thick Sage to "dispose" of it.

After the initial temper tantrum, and the accompanying cussing fit, I began to see the humour in the situation.

 There was no way that I was going to get it away from her, and no way that she would be able to hunt successfully with that much food in her crop. At least not well enough that I was willing to slog through all that snow to just get her exercise.

Just the fact that she was able to see the damn thing was wonder enough, but the chance that I would walk close enough for her to pick it out inside the bush was amazing in its self.

 

This is what I am hunting in There are a lot of Bushes, whats the odds that I could have found it if I was looking for it. Hope has always been able to see Rabbits that are hiding, and consciously looked under Sage to spot Rabbits that are hiding. Some times it is helpful, others not so much.

It was at this point that I could see the humour in the entire mess, and go home laughing. There will be other days!

Dec 2022

 Winter has now descended on the Rock House. We have had two small snows, enough to indicate where Jack Rabbits are living. Of course keeping in mind that the Sage leaves and stems that makes up most of their winter food supply is apparently loaded with Amphetamines.  One needs to divide the number of tracks by a factor of 50 to get even close to the actual number of Rabbits living in the area. You cannot believe the depth of trails that have been trodden deep into the snow, or the number of trails that have been left by the wanderings of Rabbits. I once read that Jacks will travel up to 10 miles for food or water, yet they are reputed to have a "home range" of 2 acres.

I went out yesterday here at the house with Hope, covering 3.75 miles and actually saw 5 Rabbits. Hope only managed to pull a hand full of hair out of one of them for our efforts. It was not all a waste of time however. I reaffirmed a cure for leg cramps, caused by the different way that you walk on soft surfaces. That is either a teaspoon of salt in a glass of water, or four Ritz crackers loaded up with mustard. I prefer the taste of Ritz to salt. I know that is hard to believe, but Mustard will stop leg cramps.

I have changed things around a bit here, by once again tying Bud (Falcon) up again in the weathering area.  Hope is living outside in the other side of the weathering area. I have not hunted Hope in the snow before. I was worried about her ability to keep warm enough to avoid hyperthermia in the past that I kept her in a more protected area at night, thus she was always freezing when we went out in the snow, and unwilling to slog around in it. I must admit that I don't like hunting in the snow either. We have not gotten any of the minus temps yet, so she is acclimated to the weather.She is out of the wind, so that helps, and for once she is hitting the ground as though the snow was a natural event. When we start getting minus temps I will put her in the shop at night.

I gave Bud the last Duck that I had purchased at the beginning of the season, so there is little reason to keep him flying. He now will be fed on the fist every day, without the hassle of trying to fly him. The hood is his problem, yet you cannot transport him without one, so that fight needs to occur every time he flies. Once I take his hood off he is fine. He flies up to the drone, takes the lure, lands, eats his food on the lure, flies to my fist to finish his meal with no indication that we just went through a hissy fit 10 minutes earlier. 

I bought 11 Ducks at the beginning of the season because of the Bird Flu that was running rampant in the Western Fly way. The risk is just too great to fly wild Ducks. I needed him to learn that his quarry is Ducks, so bagged ones are going to be the only safe way to teach him that. The deal is to send him up for the lure on the drone, but release the flying Duck just before he gets to the drone. He would then break off the drone and fly the Duck instead. He only lost two of the 11 that I tossed for him. One occurred because I waited too long to toss the duck. He grabbed the lure just as I tossed the Duck, and she flew merrily on her way up the creek. I then raised the drone up to 550 feet before I released the Duck apparently he decided to "gently grab the Duck", which promptly dodged and made her escape to the creek below the house. A lesson that he needed to learn.

So far in December I have walked 13.12 miles in search of Rabbits, catching three. Some of the reason is that Hope is not in shape, and some is how we are hunting. Josie my old Brittany is now12.5 years old.  wants to hunt, but she wants to be way out in front of us. She has a growth on the base of her tongue, and huffs and puffs like a steam locomotive. She has lost her hearing so she cannot hear the warning sound on the electronic collar that I used to use to curb her travels. I refuse to shock her, so we have been dealing with it instead. Last Friday I went to Arock to hunt, and she got lost. Luckily she still had enough of her facilities left to go to the car and wait for me. Its rolling Sage and Lava rocks so she couldn't see me and forgot where she was. I put another two or more miles looking for her. I tried to take her out yesterday and it became clear that I was just wasting my time, she was jumping rabbits out so far that I would lose sight of Hope when she chased them. She has been one of the finest dogs that I have ever had, but its time to leave her home.

There is really very little to report. Here are a few pictures that have sparked my interest recently. Brenda and I wish all of you a Merry Christmas and Happy New year, while we go into hibernation for the year .

Sunset over Idaho

Lost Snow Geese rested a bit before flying on.

They normally do not come this way. 

South Mtn in Idaho catches the last light of the day

Sunset looking South

Catching the last light of the day.