Rivers and Trees, OH MY! (Trask River Rd)

I got a chance to drive up the Trask and only went to mile 6 before I realised I still needed to get to Bay City before dark! 

 I was impressed my car still knew how to drive on the road~it wasn't in very bad shape, but it was odd. I think it was because the trees have all gotten taller!!! I miss these curving turns and squishy roads. On one side is the river and the other side is often an embankment.

 One of the fishing spots on the river. This one, I believe, is called The Dam Hole. It was fairly overgrown since fishing season hasn't started yet.

 It was strange having to go down to the river to get a picture of Daniel's Rock. This is the rock we used to keep an eye on during floods-if it was covered up, we knew it was gonna be pretty bad in town. We used to see it fairly well from the road, but as I mentioned earlier, the trees are much taller than they used to be.

This is Daniel's Creek, which used to flood down the hill and cause slides. It seems to be a much more manageable creek today. There was sign of high water since the week before these photos Tillamook was blessed with a downpouring of 9 or so inches all at once!

August On The Ranch!

Sometimes this really drives me nuts-the layout of this blog. But, I am going to let it be. Jon went up the ranch this last week and took some really neat pictures of the wildlife. 

 This is one of my favorite pairs. In this one, there is something hidden!











                                                    And here she is!

 I liked this one, too-This buck is lopsided and is just LOOKING at Jon! Made me laugh!

This is  just foliage, but the stuff is stunning. Fall is on the way~

  Another just trees and stuff, but I really liked how this one came out.

 Jon actually DID see some wild horses up there, but we call this one, "Bronco, in repose."

Hawk over thistle..which isn't as cool as it appears....

COW!

These little specks are birds. Jon said they are tree swallows. I'm not so sure, the tails don't look right.

rediscovering a porch

   I had wanted to change a few things on our porch-move the bear, add a bench, and get the floor boards more even. I had no idea how much work this was going to be!

As you can see from these two pictures, the siding was added AFTER the porch. It was not moved over so the siding would be put on properly, but the siding was put on AROUND the porch. You also see the side of the porch (the cats use the pillars as scratching posts, which is not as stressful as it may seem!) in the left hand photo is actually IN the window. The cats appreciate being able to look directly in, but it is odd since the symmetry is off.

You may have also noticed the bottom rail on the right is on the floor of the porch. Steve had 'fixed' this on the other side and the pieces facing the front. It was too hard to get the leaves and snow off thru the stairwell.

 Here it is with the boards evenly spaced and sanded. We desperately need a new door (it was the door which got me grumpy about needing to get this thing fixed.) and hope to find one this next weekend. One of the ways to clean out between the boards on a deck or porch is with a butter knife. You run the knife along the space and the debris usually comes out. Since the spaces were so strange, it was not as easy as it might sound. Some spaces were as wide as a pencil, some were too slim for the butter knife blade. When I cleaned out under the threshold, the knife sunk into the area about halfway up  the handle! Now, it might be dry rot or it might be a space in the door frame which was not filled in properly. Or, knowing this  house, it is probably both. In the bottom photo (which for some stupid reason is not turned properly), you see things used to make boards spaced evenly. The carpenter pencils have a screw attached with tape (this is so the boards are spaced the width of a pencil and the pencils don't fall down the cracks) and you see part of a pry bar. Old boards warp and need help moving.

 I was able to apply one of the many forms of Thompson's water sealer stuff to the sanded boards. It worked wonderfully and although the boards look dark and dirty, they are now water proof!

The final (mostly) product. Of course, it was dark-Jon's been taking the camera out for harvest! The door is still needing replaced and I had some sealer left, so I water sealed Wilson.

  He looks so much better! It appears the stain is to last for 10 years, but he had been scoured by the ravages of dust and sunshine. I figured it was time to preserve him again. And he has so many cracks, it couldn't hurt. Could it?  The bench isn't done yet, either. I was able to get some brown tile this last weekend and will finish off the edges. Moses and Maxwell appear to like having the bench on the front porch. They like sleeping on it! 

So, there is the saga of the just moving a couple of things!  Next time I'll know better. Maybe! 

(also, the blog itself is being odd. On the creating part, it looks nice and has things lined up very well. On the preview part, it has the photos in a line, none are next to each other. I can't fix it.)

Dayton, WA.-All Wheels Weekend part 1

 I was interested in things beyond the awesome chrome and shiny cars (some were dirty!). I liked how the Cooper above (the Mouse that Roars) had tires I could easily change and then this giant jeep had tires which were incredibly tall!

 

I also loved all the fun things you find on people's rigs. I don't rightly know what the car with the great airplane hood ornament was, but I loved it and the REO Speedwagon was a super cool rig! 

 Of course, we saw very few (2 in fact) Mercuries, but no car show would be complete without a DeLorean.  Minus the flux capacitor......

 And a car from another movie! OK, not exactly, but it reminded me a little bit of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang!

An advertisement on one of the cars we saw. It fit a GREAT many of them! I'll post just cars later-

Dayton, WA- All Wheels Weekend Part 2

All Wheels Weekend Saturday ended with a demo derby. Being a fan of the Tillamook County Fair derby, we were a bit skeptical. But, we were pleasantly surprised. For $10 a head we got a super impressive 3 and half hour show! They did a lot of heat races, which sounded boring since the track wasn't very large. However, they were anything BUT~The cars were raced over and over and over and they basically took each other out if they could. The Dayton Fire Fighters and EMTs took to the track several times. No one was hurt, but it made for a great show. 

 These two photos here are favorites-most of the cars that tipped were just tipped back over on their wheels and then they drove off. As the announcer said, the drivers had 'their bell rung.' I'm sure some are pretty sore today, but hopefully a few have some extra cash!

 Jon took videos, which were loud and dusty. I'd love to post one..I'll have to figure out how to do that. The demo derby consisted of three derbies. A small car one (which the cars above may have crashed in--I sort of lost track!), a truck derby (an old Ford, a middle aged Chevy, and a Dodge. The Dodge was hammered, but won..only cuz the Ford was pushed onto the cement guard and couldn't get off of it..and he lost a wheel! It was noted as the Ford drove off, put a new tire on that baby, punch out the door, and she'll run again! The Dodge..probably not!). , and then a regular car derby. I believe the green car above won that. The red and yellow car came VERY close, though!  As you can see fans were of all ages~And you can also tell it was HOT!!!!!!

Early June on the Mtn Ranch

Jonathan and Steve have been doing fences the last few days. However, Jon went up alone one day with the camera and took some amazing pictures. I chose a few of the over 100 to share!

 I love all the flowers blooming up on the mountain during the spring. Yes, it is still spring up on the ranch. The fence of wild roses is rather stunning.

  Deer playing peek-a-boo!

Things you find in the pond-A GREEN dragonfly, a snail floating on the ceiling of the water, and polliwogs! 

This snail Jon took several photos of-finally, he saw it tilt and realised it was a snail underwater with it's foot on the bottom of the surface of the water~which is really strange. 

 At this time of the year, the pond is green and not full of pond weed, the cows have not torn up the edge of the pond, and everything is peaceful. I only hope the killdeer nest hatches out its babies (it was near the pond!).

 As Jon drove home, he captured the ranch in his mirror and camera (my camera). I think this is one of my favorite photos,.

Mole Rescue

Jon found a mole in the middle of a gravel drive-it was furiously attempting to get thru the gravel, but couldn't. So, Jonathan caught him and brought him home. We kept him overnight and learned so many cool things! Moles eat earthworms-they really like earthworms. We watered last night, so the yard had many night crawlers available for a young and agile man to snag. So, Jon did. He dumped several in the plastic tank where the mole was residing and we got to see some amazing action! It was like Tremors! (only with a mole) It dug and the soil jumbled around...it made two holes (one in each corner at this time) and it rose up out of a far hole, sniffed around and LUNGED! It snipped at a worm and snagged a HUGE one and pulled it into the tunnel. The one it snipped, stopped moving. We found out moles have a toxin they use when they bite worms so they can keep a worm larder underground. 

 We took out a bunch of dirt in order to get photos of our guest. He was pretty annoyed with us for messing up the tunnels he had made and he was also wanting to escape. Moles look like they are swimming in the earth and get oxygen from the ground-incredible creatures!

 Their 'hands' are made for moving earth and they move it FAST. They are mostly blind, so they don't see well and are rarely found above ground. They eat worms, invertebrates, and nuts. The worms, as I mentioned, are stored, but they also have traps in their tunnels so when a worm is caught, the mole can run and get it. Like an underground spider, only not as creepy!

After spending time with a mole, I am more understanding of the Redwall creatures. I almost talked to it in mole speech, but decided not to....We let him go in a nearby pasture and hope he has a great time digging in an area several blocks from his 'home'.