Finding the Rainbow

It's been a rocky several months. Just before Thanksgiving, friend Mark fell, broke his shoulder, and spent the holiday in the hospital. It turned out he had more wrong than was caused by the fall. We agreed to keep his adorable and much loved little dog, Ranger, until he was home again.

Ranger accompanied us on several raptor surveys as well as two Christmas Bird Counts. Here is Ranger following Johnny in the snow on the Dec. 16 Christmas Bird Count ...

 

Mark went from hospital to Skilled Nursing and never left. Mark died on January 22, the day after Johnny's 79th birthday. 

Another friend of Mark's knew Ranger and loved him and we were glad to have Ranger get a permanent home. Here he is on February 2nd, the day he left... on our dirty floor. A muddy farm is not a great place for a little dog.

 

In addition to being the day after Johnny's birthday plus the day Mark died, January 22 was our friend and neighbor Irv's 92nd birthday. At least one person who visited him that weekend came down with Covid. Irv isolated when he found out, and seemed to be okay for awhile, until he wasn't. Irv had refused to be vaccinated. He fell ill but seemed to rebound. We tested him with a rapid test on January 27. It was positive but he still didn't want to go to a doctor. He would get better and then worse and finally agreed to go to a doctor on Feb. 3. The doctor sent him directly to the hospital. He tested positive for both Covid and Influenza B. Irv died on Feb. 10 in the hospital, surrounded by family.

We, mostly Johnny, have been dealing with all that must be dealt with after Irv's death. Irv's son, the executor of his will, lives across the mountains and relies on Johnny to take care of Irv's place and be keeper of the house key for family members to come in and sort and organize and take what each wants. Johnny cleaned out the freezer, keeps the pellet stove working when needed and tended the chickens. Fortunately another neighbor now has the chickens.

Irv's funeral service is this coming Thursday, outdoors, at the cemetery. It is all emotionally exhausting. 

So we took off on February 13 to celebrate our 55th wedding anniversary by escaping to the mountains. Of course, we got lost getting where we planned to go... Mt. Hebo. It was a lovely sunny day and I wanted to see the view from on top. We went up the mountain but not the right one, apparently, then down the other side until we hit Highway 22. So we decided to continue to Hebo and take the more civilized road up the mountain. But first we stopped at Gunaldo Falls along the way, as we always do. 

I decided to try to take a selfie with my Nikon camera, the way people do with their smart phones. We have no smart phones and I'm not smart enough to figure out the timer on the camera and set it up at a distance, so here we are in front of the waterfall. A long way in front of the waterfall... which is clear across the canyon...

 

That little white streak next to my glasses is the waterfall. That thin red streak on my forehead is from Irv's rooster that I caught the day before and put in a cage for the neighbors who were taking Irv's chickens. I caught the 13 hens without damage... theirs or mine.

And onward we went and up the very long, steep road to the top of Mt. Hebo.  Along the way is this sign... Since we were being tourists, I took its picture.

 

And then we're there!

 

 

Here is the long awaited view of the ocean from on top...

 

Yes, those are clouds over the ocean. Oh well.

 The meadow up there is lovely...

 We started home by the way we had tried to come up since it would be shorter than the way we had come from Hebo. Alas, the road was deep in snow and did not look like anyone had successfully made it through. 

 

So we went back to Hebo and Hwy 22 and home.

Today, the day after our anniversary, is Valentine's Day. It started out with a beautiful rainbow, so I jumped out of the EZ Go that I was hauling horse manure in and ran to the house for my camera. 

I noticed that the west end of the rainbow seemed to be pointing at a Red-tailed Hawk sitting in our big scraggly-topped fir where raptors like to perch.

 

 At the end of the rainbow there may not be a pot of gold, but there was, on this day, a hawk bathed in rainbow light. 

And so, life goes on...