One Hundred Years on Halloween 2020

 

The plan was to take photos of Mr. Smith and me on our 100th birthday: that is, on the day our combined ages turn to 100. That was today, Halloween, my 75th birthday. Mr. Smith turned 25 on June 10, 2020. (Dressage enthusiasts, in particular, celebrate, in horse show classes, when a horse and rider combination is 100 years or more. Neither Mr. Smith nor I are show material anymore, but I was still looking forward to this day.)

I spent hours this week polishing harness and cleaning the cart I used to hitch him to, in our younger years. Today I spent much time brushing my beloved horse. I managed to untangle his mane and get the surface mud off, but it would have taken a bath to get him clean. The air was chilly and I was tired and lazy by that time so no bath.

I enlisted Johnny's help to take the photos, first of Mr. Smith before harnessing. My horse was not as enthused as I about this historic day. He was not interested in posing with head and ears up. He was bored. The photos showed his boredom.  They also showed that I had neglected to get cleaned up myself.  Oh well.

 

 

 

Then came harnessing him. Alas, it has been so long neither Johnny nor I remembered how to do that. After much adjusting and figuring and refiguring, we finally got the harness on him and he hitched to the cart. But I didn't want to ask him to go anywhere as his long ago foundered feet don't need any extra work to do. By this time Mr. Smith was mostly asleep. I was tired and cranky. Neither of us were photogenic. Skip those photos.

The good news is we will have a combined age of 100 until June 10, 2021, when Mr. Smith, aka Rogue Hill's Skybird, turns 26. So maybe between now and then, I can get a good photo of the two of us. But don't count on it.

This Halloween also had a Blue Moon, the second full moon of the month, a fairly rare event. I tried to get a photo of the moon as it rose over the east hills.

And also a photo of the moon with Mars above and to the right of it.

Once in a blue moon, I and my horse turn 100. And in spite of the less than successful 100th birthday photo ops, this special day was made joyful with all the happy birthday phone calls. Thanks, friends and family! And Happy Halloween!


 

October Bounty

Pumpkins and white acorn squash! It's harvest season. But first, puppy news...
 

Annie Puppy is growing by leaps and bounds... and doing a lot of leaping and bounding... She looks calm here, but only because she ran and played... and chewed things up... all night.

 

Poor Mr. McCoy  babysits all night... and sleeps all day.

Sometimes friend Mary and I take Annie with us on hikes. She loves exploring.

 

 

This is the season for picking grapes and having Johnny freeze them for his winter snacks. I cut down the vines and make wreath rounds for future Christmas wreaths. I made a lot of rounds this year.

 

As always, young witches with flying permits but not enough experience crashed in our back yard.

A "pod" of eight children came to choose pumpkins and run through the arboretum. They are schooling online at a neighbor's house.

 

 Johnny and I took a day off to drive up Agency Creek road and look for Dippers. We found one at the rock quarry. 

 

 Johnny also spotted a weasel that then ran out into my view but I wasn't fast enough with the camera. It was a beautiful long-tailed weasel in golden brown summer coat.

 

Here Johnny looks for Dippers but we did not find any at this stop, "The Chutes". 

 

 It was scenic, though.

 Lots of scenic spots on our route...

 

 Many work days later, I took a day off to meet an old birding friend at Baskett Slough. By chance, another of our old birding pals went there the same day. I think we'll start an Old Ladies' Birding Club.

We saw lots of Cackling Geese...

 

And one Snow Goose...
 

 The next day frost warnings were out... so I picked the tender produce still in the garden... cauliflower heads I didn't even know were there! Also broccoli, cabbage, cucumbers, zucchini and...

 

 

tomatoes to ripen in the window upstairs.

 

Ghosts suddenly appeared in front of the house... really frost covers for tender plants.

 

A very long ghost for the tomato plants with green tomatoes still in the garden.

 Johnny has been spending much time up at 90 year old neighbor Irv's, bringing in wood for the winter for Irv and repairing his spring box and water line. Johnny likes that better than all the machinery repair he has had to do on our farm. He also picks up apples here daily and periodically makes wonderful cider.

I have, of course, been harvesting and canning and freezing and storing the winter squash. These white acorn squash are delicious! I love October.  It's a bountiful, busy time of year.

 

 

Escape to the Beach

 Once a quarter, I walk a mile on the beach and report what I see to CoastWatch, a division of Oregon Shores. Today was my 4th quarter walk, selected because of the fog and cold in hopes few other people would be there. The Oregon coast has become a very popular place during this pandemic. 

"My" mile is accessed at McPhillips Park north of Cape Kiwanda. That park has been blocked off until recently. Now it's just blocked below the parking area to keep vehicles off the beach. No vehicles, other than those needed for boats, are currently allowed from Tierra del Mar south to the mouth of the Nestucca River. However I don't know how many people know that. Today one pickup was on the beach. The people with it acted guilty so I think they knew they weren't supposed to be there. Always there are people who think rules are for others, just ask the poor clerks in stores trying to get people to wear masks.

Besides the people in the pickup, only a few other people were on the beach and those we met in the narrow access road to the beach put on masks, as did we, when meeting. Most people are responsible and kind.

Here are a few photos of  "my" mile in the fog.

That's Johnny in the fog, reading a book. It's an appropriate subject for the coast: Octopuses

 

I also use this walk to check on Black Oystercatchers (BLOY) who nest on Chief Kiawanda Rock but forage on rocks in "my mile", at the foot of Cape Kiwanda. In the years they successfully fledge chicks, they bring the chicks there to forage. Today there was a pair of adults but no fledglings, so I guess they didn't have good luck this year. It's a good thing BLOY can live a long time because they sure don't seem to raise fledglings successfully very often.

 

On the way back, I saw a little flock of little birds I didn't know what were, so I took photos. Although distant, it allowed me to look them up at home and guess that they were American Pipits. I asked for verification on Oregon Birders On Line and got it. This is the first I knew they hang out on beaches as well as open fields.

 

After our hike, we stopped at our favorite Pacific City restaurant, Los Caporales, for takeout, which we took out to a River Access spot and ate.  Back home I spent the next hour or more on my least favorite part of the walk: entering data. 

But it was a good day on the beach. Any day I see a Black Oystercatcher is a good day.