Howell Mountain 2017

Last year there were no animals, no birds, very few bugs, and one footprint of a Grizzly bear. This year there was lush green vegetation, lots of bugs, birds, chipmunks and squirrels, but no bear tracks. We happened upon these four moose nearly on our trail. We stepped back off the trail, behind some trees while the moose decided what to do with us. They walked calmly away and we breathed a sigh of relief.

On the left is a photo from last year and on the right is a nearly identical photo from this year. Our path up and down from the meadow was along the cliffs between the two snowbanks but this year we had to go the long way around. I traced our previous year's path in red across the snow in this current year's photo. Obviously there was a lot more snow this year.

These two photos taken from down in the meadow show what the path up the cliff looked like both last year (on the left) and this year (on the right). Our path from last year, over the bare rock, was completely covered in about 10-20 feet of snow.

When we arrived at the crash scene the fuselage was exactly the way I remember leaving it last year, with the orange baling twine holding the last remaining pieces together.

We unbolted or cut off all of the steel control rods and shafts, wires, hoses, cables and fuel/hydraulic lines, then cut the fuselage in half so the multiple pieces could be carried by no more than two persons each.

When we were finished the only thing left was the engine. All of the big pieces have been carried away and the last of the small pieces were bagged and ready to be carried away as well.

I learned a lesson the hard way: Don't try to find your way up the cliff before Louis is there to show the way. I ended up going up a very steep route, between a snowbank and a cliff. In the left photo above you can see the snowbank above me. Then I was gripping the cliff with fingertips, toes, knees, and elbows. There was no time for taking pictures. At one point I was wedging myself between the cliff and the snowbank, like climbing up a chimney. The middle and right photos above show what it looked like after I reached the top.

With one more angle on that route, you can see both above and below the snowbank. I kept the camera as level as possible so you can see how steep the slope is, and note that it was covered with loose sand and gravel.

Here is a photo of the correct route, taken from above. James is in the center of the photo, wearing his red and black plaid shirt. Obviously he didn't need to crawl on his hands and knees to get up that slope, but it still wasn't easy.

The two left photos show that we both made it safely to the top and the right one shows the cliff we climbed as we walked away from it.

At the top, in the location we call "stage 4" James and I loaded up some scrap to carry out. He took one of those two landing gear wheels that Lief carried up the cliff last year. Louis carried the third landing gear wheel all the way from the meadow, and I just grabbed a bag of misc small parts from the stage 4 location.

On the way out we didn't encounter any more moose or other large animals. We had started from the meadow at about 8:20 AM and we arrived at the car at about 5:00 PM, having taken several long breaks along the way. The distance from the creek crossing to the car was approximately five miles by trail, but three miles in a straight line.

It rained every night, once with thunder and lightning, then it got very cold, but it was clear and hot again each morning. The giant chipmunks in the meadow are extremely shy and they don't attack our food supplies at night. The marmots were seen only at a great distance but we could hear them calling to each other from time to time.

Eclipse August 21, 2017

Here are my two "little boys" looking through pinhole viewers at the eclipsing sun near Beech Creek, Oregon on August 21, 2017. Somewhere I have printed photos of them doing this same thing during the February 1979 eclipse in Yakima, Washington.

This time we have two new, young, first time, total eclipse viewers for the 2017 eclipse. What a delight to share this event with another generation!

This is not my photo but it is the best image I've seen that looks like what we actually saw. Notice the star in the lower left of the photo. I saw that through my binoculars, and there were sparkling orange flashes at the rim of the Moon.

Yellow Flowers

These are just a bunch of weeds along the river but some of them are quite stunning looking. Apparently they are quite happy in the hot weather, without rain, right next to the river like this.

This lush cluster of yellow buttons is called Northern Dune Tansy.

The green and yellow beetle with black spots is a Spotted Cucumber Beetle. The field guide says they eat foliage, flowers and pollen of cucumbers, melons, corn, potatoes and peanuts. Maybe this is the bug that attacked our Sunflowers.

This Bird's Foot Yellow Trefoil looks like wild peas, except for the bright yellow color of the flower.

Orange Sun Reflection

I took these two photos late yesterday afternoon. I tried getting the entire scene into a single frame but the exposure settings were too drastically different. I aligned them here, above and below each other, so you can see what it actually looked like with the sun above the trees and the orange reflection in the river water below. Our smokey weather is still with us, and probably will be until in begins to rain in September.

Hazy Sun Through Smoky Sky

We have so much smoke in the air these days that it is actually reducing the amount of sunshine we get. They tell us the smoke is coming from British Columbia wildfires but the air doesn't smell like smoke at all. I think at least half of this air pollution is just smog from automobile traffic. I took this photo of the sun at about 6:13 AM yesterday (Aug 5, 2017). Looking directly at the sun with the naked eye was no problem since all of the UV is being blocked out by the air pollution. Looking at the hills in the distance I estimate the visibility here is less than one mile.

Last night there was a nearly full moon. It was high in the sky and very dark orange as well.

New Bicycle: Cruzbike T50 Deluxe Black Cruiser

As part of the Cruzbike "kickstarter" program, I was able to purchase this limited edition "Deluxe Black Cruiser" T50 model. There were only ten of them put together with the wooden fenders, luggage rack, gumwall tires, and rear view mirror. But like all Cruzbike models, this bike has front wheel drive. Putting your feet on pedals that are attached to the front (steering and balance) wheel is a little tricky to learn but even an old codger like me can do it. I've been out on two shakedown rides now, other than coasting up and down the street in front of my house. During the first, about 20 miles, I noticed that I wobbled a lot, but during the second one this morning I discovered that the bike began tracking a much straighter line. It only wobbled a bit when I got tired or stopped concentrating on keeping a straight line.

The front fender has not been installed yet, due to a packaging problem at the assembly plant. I added the water bottle cage behind the seat, the orange pannier, headlight, tail light, and air horn.

Replacing Clothesline Posts

Our clothesline was set up about 28-29 years ago by two teenage boys (Lief and Tony). They used two treated 4 X 4 posts set about 18" deep in the lawn, surrounded by concrete they mixed in a wheelbarrow. The clothesline stayed out there 24X7 for all those years and the only maintenance we did was replace the line once. Then the other day I noticed one post was leaning more than usual and I gave it a test shove. It snapped off at ground level taking all of the hanging clothes down with it.

So now I'm drilling out what's left of the posts and I'm going to drop in some new ones.

Kayak Adventure

Launch site: Cedar River at Williams Ave bridge

River current moving at about six knots across from the high school stadium.

Current moving slowly but surface is glossy smooth approaching the bridge at the mouth of the river.

Middle of the lake is glossy smooth too.

Mercer Island mansion

Looking south from Mercer Island

Log jam at river mouth

Landing at boat launch

Walking trail

Having a beer at the Dog and Pony

1958 Flight to California

This slide was labeled, "Flight to Calif 1958" and I remember Dad went on lots of "business trips" in those days but I suspect this trip was a recruiting trip to visit Weston Hydraulics. That mountain looks a lot like Rainier in the background but what really caught my attention was the propeller in the foreground. Yeah, this was 1958 and that airplane was probably a DC 2 or DC 3, and this photo was taken fairly far forward in order to get both the engine and the tip of the wing in the photo. I wonder if it was taken from the cockpit rather than a passenger side window.

Slide Show Sneak Peek From August 1960

Monarch Pass is about sixty miles south of Breckenridge/Vail, as the crow flies. The sign says we're at 11,312 feet elevation. The full-sized file doesn't zoom much since the original slide is just a bit blurry. There were eight of us in the traveling group. The only person missing from this photo is the photographer.

Where did we all ride in that car? I remember frequently riding in "the way back" but I don't remember doing that for this trip, but we must have done that since there were four adults and four children. Check out those classy white wall tires.

These days you would not find me standing so close to the edge of a precipice but in those days I had absolutely no fear of heights. This gorge is labeled as being 1780 feet deep in a related photo. It's where we found a bridge that was built across the gorge just to make it the highest bridge in the world or something to that effect. I think I still have the medallion with an image of the bridge on it, and I got it from the souvenir shop across the bridge.

I am intentionally leaving out the identities of the persons in these photos. If you want to know or tell who they are please keep it in email.

Building a Walipini

On Sept 24 and 25 we went to Amboy to help build a walipini. A walipini is like a greenhouse except that it is buried halfway into the ground, to help it stay warmer in the winter time. James dug this trench between the two driveways using his new tractor.

The bottom of this trench will be the main walkway. To the right will be one raised garden bed and to the left will be another, along with a higher walkway. Above that walkway will be another raised garden bed even higher than the lower two beds.

This photo was taken from the top looking across all three intended garden beds. We were pouring concrete into the cardboard tubes, making foundation pillars for the uppermost outer wall.

For size reference you can see the ten foot tall orchard ladder down below, in front of the tractor.

The young lady (J) wearing black is an intern earning construction experience. She turned out to be the most knowledgeable of the entire crew and was a delightful work companion. She also did all of the heavy lifting of 60 lb. concrete bags.

Looking down the length of the uppermost wall you can see pillars number 3, 4, and 5. We are standing next to pillar number 5. In the foreground you can see our water level (bucket of water and clear plastic tubing), and the 2X4 braces that are holding the metal lumber clasp up out of the concrete that I mixed with too much water.

In this last photo you can see across all of the garden beds, with the uppermost wall location in the foreground.

Snow Bear

Last weekend I visited the straw bale house again and was greeted at the end of the driveway by a big (dirty) white dog named Snow Bear. Lucky for me James was there to capture Snow Bear's attention so I could take this "Selfie" photo.