State of Our Union 2026

 Every year I send out a State of Our Union message around the time of our wedding anniversary, February 13. This year I was late. I have recently written up my excuse to send to friends and family, but have no doubt missed some so here it is... written, actually, mostly by Johnny. After all, it was mostly his fault that I was so late...

 

STATE OF OUR UNION 2026

I meant to write and send this closer to our 59^th February 13^th anniversary. Surely I would get it done before the end of February. But life intervened. I'll let Johnny give his version of the events of February 24^th that changed our lives. (With additions from Linda in parentheses).

Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026

6:57 p.m. We were sitting in our reclining chairs watching an episode of “Young Sheldon” on our ROKU television screen at home. Suddenly my head and face felt unusually hot. After 5-10 seconds my chest also felt hot. I sat forward with my hand on my chest. Linda asked what was wrong. I told her I felt hot and the heat was going down my left shoulder and arm now. I stood up and headed for the bathroom. Linda dialed 911 and described what was happening. The operator asked for our address. Then said see if he will chew an aspirin, a full strength aspirin (to thin his blood.) As the operator was talking, we heard sirens and vehicles driving in. The 911 operator apparently had called them immediately and knew when they arrived. She told Linda to unlock the doors and turn on outside lights. Linda went to do as told and met the EMTs as they arrived at the back door. She led them to me in the bathroom. I told them what happened and then went back to my chair in the living room. The main EMT person said you have had a cardiac event and they would be taking me to Salem Hospital. Meanwhile one of the EMTS was taking medicine information from the bottles Linda had given them when asked. At some point they gave me an aspirin. They checked my blood pressure, etc.

By 7:20 I was in the ambulance and on the way to Salem. ...Arrived at Salem Hospital Emergency Entrance at 8:00. I was in the Emergency receiving room for 20 minutes answering questions and being prepped.

Meanwhile Linda had called Kevin... Jessica answered and told Kevin and he called Steve and Ian and Autumn (friend and farm sitter nearby). Kevin and Ian drove from north of Seattle to Salem and the hospital. Linda arrived at emergency receiving room and talked to Johnny who seemed fine. Shortly after, she was directed to waiting room outside the cardiac area and Johnny was taken to surgery.

8:00 Johnny in Emergency receiving room for 20 minutes answering questions and being prepped.

8:20 Heart surgeon Dr. Thompson came into receiving room to say he would be operating. In through vein in my right wrist and installing two stents.

8:30 Pushed down hall to operating room At some point while on the gurney I felt one huge blow to my chest. Next day was told my heart stopped and was “restarted”.

OPERATION

When I woke up I asked when they were going to operate. Dr. said “all done”.

About 10 p.m. I was taken to ICU room to bed. Shortly after, Autumn and Linda came into room. Autumn had arrived at waiting room and found Linda and then led her to the window where she had to give the number she had been handed.

11:40 Autumn left

11:45 Kevin and Ian arrived (from north of Seattle... for them to rendezvous and drive to Salem should take much longer than it took them.)

WEDNESDAY FEBRUARY 25

about 2:30 a.m. visitors were all sent away. Linda, Kevin and Ian to Grand Ronde.  Ian back to Salem in morning and worked in Salem office...(a rented cubicle...) all that day. Came to hospital about 6 pm. Later drove back to Redmond.

(Friends) Lin and Gina came to hospital (with an orchid, still beautiful!)

Kevin and Linda came to hospital

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 26

Released from hospital late afternoon.

FRIDAY FEBRUARY 27

Kevin cooked, did computer work, organized pills. Steve (son) arrived (by plane from San Francisco to Portland, then rented car to Grand Ronde) late afternoon.

SATURDAY FEBRUARY 28

Steve and I (Johnny) took Kevin to Amtrak in Salem (for his return to Seattle)

Brad and Steve Werth visited (They were in the area to visit their dad who was just out of McMinnville hospital with another life-threatening ailment. Like Johnny, he survived and is back to doing more than he should, no doubt.)

SUNDAY MARCH 1

Autumn and Tim (husband) came for Steve and Autumn's birthday party. (Their birthdays are two days apart.)

MONDAY MARCH 2

Steve cooked, split and brought in firewood. He left for airport at 1:30 p.m.

Postscript from Linda: What we did during the year prior, I have no idea. I'm sure we worked here on the farm and did bird surveys as usual... for several organizations. Looking through my 2025 engagement calendar, I see we started going to weekly protests in May (and still are when able) plus the No Kings rallies, did Ren Yuan on Sundays with friends including Mary... who gallantly carried on as she could until she died of cancer on March 16^th, not long after Johnny's heart attack. Jessica's mother died in August after a long and heart-breaking downhill slide. It has not been a great year. Our friends are growing older, like we are. The government nuttiness and cruelty has not helped. But the flowers still bloom and our animals remind us of what's important: their food and attention. Birds still sing every morning. Our kids and their families are wonderful, caring human beings. And so onward we go into our 60^th year of marriage.

May you and we all have much to be thankful for in the coming year... and little to regret.

 

Post post script: 

The photo at top is of Johnny on Easter Sunday a month after his heart attack. All seemed to be going well until April 7, when he was back in an emergency room (Lincoln City this time) with severe back pain. That turned out to be muscle spasms... thankfully not heart or kidney problems... just over exertion from an 83 year old man going on 18, at least in his mind.   

 

It's Spring on the Fink Family Farm!

 

It has been a long time since I wrote a blog post. And this one should have appeared days ago, but life intervened. I posted these photos on facebook, March 18, but think those blog followers who are not on facebook also deserve to see them. If you want to, highlight the URL below and click on it. You should see my post with all the photos and the comments, too. 

I will try to update this blog more often... if life allows. 

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1L7CAJYzcv/

  

 

  May your spring be filled with sunshine and flowers...

 

    

     

 

HOLIDAY WREATH SEASON

Holiday wreath season starts before Thanksgiving, when I gather the ingredients from around the farm. This year it was holly from the front yard, pine from the rose bed, and, from the arboretum: Modoc cypress, Arizona cypress, and lots of Eucalyptus because it was leaning over a path and invading "China". As always, I wind grapevines (from our grapes) into circles for the wreath framework, then stick the greenery into them to create the wreath. My workshop is the stock trailer, repurposed. When the wreaths that get mailed to friends and family are ready, Johnny packs them into boxes that he creates. This year we mailed eight. 

Here is the workshop with wreaths waiting to be given away: 

  After Johnny packages the wreaths, we take them to the post office and get a long list of tracking numbers. I follow their progress on the computer... We call it the wreath race. Some years a wreath gets delayed for days or even weeks... usually the one going to Colorado and one to California. This year, though, all arrived on their estimated delivery dates... a miracle for sure. Some recipients send me photos of their wreaths after they are displayed. I love getting those photos. The first one to arrive this year was from friend Hazel in Washington:

The one below came from son Steve. His poor dog did not look happy wearing the wreath...

 

Nephew Rob always uses their wreath as a table centerpiece...

 Local friends often add a red ribbon to their wreath. Here is Carol's...

 And Linnet and Gina's...

Along with the wreath comes a Holiday Wreath letter with a description of the ingredients and suggestions on how to keep them from falling out... which doesn't always work... 

Grandson Ian hangs his on their apartment door... and describes the process...

After 15 minutes of wrangling the fishing line and failing to tie a knot, and dropping the whole thing twice, which led to needing to do some repair work ...

                                                             The apartment is now festive!

Every year some greenery is left over after the wreaths have been distributed. I can't stand to waste any of it so I make the leftovers into more wreaths and hang them here... on doors, barn walls, arena mirrors, wherever. This year I salvaged enough greenery, mostly eucalyptus and holly,  for five wreaths.

This one has been through a wind storm already. The Resist Frog was made by a friend.

On the side of the woodshed, facing Johnny's shop

This one is on one of the arena mirrors and is pure eucalyptus and holly.

The goat barn doors are wreathed now, too.

The holiday wreath season will last through Christmas,  New Year's Day, and beyond... depending on wind storms... 

                                              HAPPY HOLLY DAYS!!!
 

  

Wandering Spirit Has Fledged!

 The Big Baby Barn Owl spent a day on the prow of the barn, south end, and then disappeared. However, it (or something) managed to find the 3 dead rats we put on the ledge by the owl box. Owl pellets and splats under the limb, mostly at the south end of the barn, let us know Wandering Spirit has been eating. 

I hope she survives the winter, reappears someday and nests here. You can be sure I'll blog about her, if she does.

 

  

Wandering Spirit

  Wandering Spirit is what I named the baby owl that was the only baby in the second clutch of our Fink Family Farm Barn Owls in 2025. But I think I may also be a wandering spirit or at least my blog is. I started a new blog, More Ramblings from Fink Family Farm, back in April because I could not get signed into my original blog (this one, Fink Family Farm Ramblings) to write a new post. Today I cannot get signed into my More Ramblings blog but did manage to get into my original one. Is that clear as mud? We'll see where I get next time I try.

To catch everyone up to date on the Barn Owl story this summer at Fink Family Farm, I'll repost what I have sent to my email list of folks who have expressed interest in our Barn Owl news. And then, hopefully, add from there... As background, the first clutch this year fledged 5 owlets in early June. The owls don't always have two clutches, but this year, they did. However, only one egg in the second clutch, which has never happened before.

July 10...First egg was seen in the nest box, with Mama Owl, tonight, July 10. In the past first fledging happened about 90-100 days after first egg appeared. That means fledging will probably happen in early October...

I finally again on Sept 7, after the egg had disappeared, saw mama owl sitting sort of upright with a very fuzzy -- and big -- baby owl under her, looking out at me with that moon-shaped face. So apparently she laid only one egg and hatched it out and has been setting over it, hidden from my occasional visits, ever since. Time wise it should be feathered and ready to fledge in October, as I first predicted. However I don't think there's any point in trying to have a fledging party for one lonely chick. I think that might be a bit traumatic for all concerned. 

This Big Baby Owl managed to have a traumatic fledging even without a party. Here's the rest of the story as told to the list.

October 5...

Tonight I climbed the ladder and checked the one baby barn owl that was produced in this second litter of the year. The big baby is still covered in down but the face looks like a heart-shaped Barn Owl face now. I was beginning to think Mama Owl had mated with a much bigger owl to produce this giant chick, but I think the big little guy is just the result of being the only one getting all the food.

Parent owls catch whatever they can and feed it to however many children they have. When only one, apparently that one eats and eats and eats and grows and grows and grows. I may go up with a camera and see if I can get a photo without extra lighting. We have never had a Barn Owl chick this big. It has to duck its head to stand inside the nest box. Except for the head and face, it is still just a mass of white down.

October 9...

Yesterday morning (10/8), when I went into the loft to throw down hay, I walked toward the south end of the barn to get a bale for the bucks. They get the grass hay that has less lotus in it than the bales at the north end that I feed to the milkers and kids. I stopped as a tremendous ruckus went up from the rafters high over my head at the very south end of the barn near the little opening at the end of the tree limb that extends from the north end of the loft near the nest box to the south end near the opening. The tree limb is for the owls to roost on. We do not stack hay under it as that's where the owls hang out when they first leave the nest box... and make lots of big white SPLATS (as I call them) under the limb.
   I looked up toward the sound and could barely make out what looked sort of like an owl face scrunched up under the roof where there did not look like there was room for an owl... but it was very dark up there. So I went down the loft ladder and turned on the light... went back up and that had not helped as the lights don't shine up at the ceiling but down. I dashed back to the house for a flashlight (and camera, of course). When I came back up into the loft, I could not see an owl face or anything recognizable. But there was something up there that I could not tell what was with light or camera. Rather than give the Thing a heart attack, I fed hay to the goats and climbed back down out of the loft.
   That evening I went up to feed hay with my flashlight in tow. There was nothing at the south end of the loft where something had been that morning. When I finished feeding hay, I took my flashlight and climbed the stairs to the nest box and peeked in, shining my light off to the side, not into the box, so as not to blind whatever might be in the box. That is my standard procedure on the rare times I check the box.
   Standing at the back of the box, was the Big Baby Barn Owl, as usual. But now I noticed that peeking out here and there from all that fluffy down were feathers, mostly hidden in the down but there. I suspect Big Baby is beginning to explore and try to use his wings, such as they are. Pretty impressive that he made it all the way from one end of the barn to the other and found a hidey hole, of sorts, under the roof. And then, after I left, made his way back to the nest box. Well, it could well be a "she", not a "he" as the females are usually bigger than the males.
   I'll start checking for feathers and owl pellets under the limb to see if Big Baby is hanging out there when I'm not around. I'll keep y'all posted.

 October 10...

Yesterday morning (Oct. 9) when I went out to do morning chores, the big baby owl was in a tree in front of the barn. I'll attach photos I took yesterday. I don't know if parents came to feed it last night or if it fed itself but this morning it is in a slightly different place in the same thicket of trees... eyes tightly closed, apparently asleep. I'm wondering if the parents of this owl got tired of feeding the big baby and so it left to find its own food. The night before I had seen it in the nest box, where it had returned after I'd seen it that morning at the far end of the barn. So it was able to get from one end of the barn to the other. I am suspecting it was hungry and going out looking for food. Maybe a parent was enticing it out with a rodent?

I don't really have a clue why it left the safe barn when it obviously has not mastered hiding in broad daylight. Can only hope it survives.

 

One other time we had a baby owl, fully feathered, who took off during the day and tried to feed itself. It stayed out for several days until crows finally convinced it that it should hide. After that, I assume it turned into a night owl. I wrote a children's story with photos about that. Dawn Villaescusa came over and took some of the photos.

On Oct. 10, this year's wandering owl was still in the trees but in a slightly different location. Here are my responses to folks who wrote:

(Oct. 11) It has moved its perch slightly but still in basically the same area. Once when I was in the area, I could see its eyes open. I can see a feathered wing between all that down on its front and back, so maybe it can fly, sort of. Do not know if parents are feeding it... I have not heard their calls nor have I heard the baby begging, but I'm not going out after dark so as not to interfere with any feeding or hunting. (2nd photo)

A retired wildlife professor friend told me that 80% of wildlife born do not reach adulthood. That makes sense when you think of it... If all offspring survived, the population would increase dramatically.

It rained last night and I worried. This morning, 10/12, there was no owl to be found in the trees outside the barn. I wondered if it had moved to an evergreen, a much safer roost, or if it had managed to get back into the barn, or... if it was lying dead below the trees somewhere. I milked and fed goats, then went up the ladder to the barn loft to throw down hay. Before I reached the top all heck broke loose above me... baby owl was definitely back, crashing around from somewhere high at the south end of the loft to the north end where the nest box is. It looked fully feathered now with not much down visible. I guess all it's wild activity had de-fluffed it and allowed the flight feathers to be seen.

I went ahead and fed hay to the bucks, as usual, while the owl flopped around on top of the nest box. When I looked next, it was gone. I think it is inside the box but it could have flown out the opening right by the nest box. I don't think it did as it could have done that when it first flew to the north end of the barn instead of stuffing itself below the ceiling on top of the box. Later I looked outside and saw no owl in any nearby or distant tree. Tonight I will try to feed hay before dark and look inside the nest box... unless the owl is again crashing around the loft.

At any rate, I feel much better about this owl's chance for survival. It must be eating. And it certainly can fly and knows how to get back into the dry barn loft. I have dubbed it Wandering Spirit.

DSCN0502_1252_297DSCN0502_1252.JPG

The Excitement Never Ends...

 

Another storm, another tree down. This time the hybrid poplar clump in our front yard let go of one of its trunks across the front yard, not across our driveway or house. That's because the intense windstorm blew from the south, knocking out power to us and 41 other households in our area. It was night, farm chores were done, so we just went to bed and hoped for the best. 

Power was back on in the morning and all animals were alive and all but one building was still intact. I actually drove my EZ Go back and forth to the barns several times without noticing the tree lying in the front yard. It was cleverly shielded by the bushes it had crushed.

 

 I was always looking the other direction where the big trunk was still nestled between firs across the front driveway from the Christmas night storm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 This latest victim was more noticeable from the front yard

 

 

In the back yard, we had watched, before dark, the intense wind blowing the Linden branches clear to the ground before they sprang back up. It was dramatic. But in the morning the Linden was intact. However, it had dumped all its dead twigs all over the ground

 

 

So I spent hours picking up twigs/branches, loading them in my EZ Go and taking them down to the burn pile in a lower field. It was a beautiful day so I didn't mind although my sciatica did

 

Goats were enjoying the unusual warmth and sunshine. 

 

Until they saw me driving by with a load of what they thought was tasty browse for them to chew on. Sorry, gang, it was just dead twigs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Meanwhile I had noticed plastic blowing from the shed that held plywood, along with other stuff. That shed was the last remaining piece of the old barn that had been on this place when we moved here and where our goats lived for the first many years. Johnny spent the whole day trying to resurrect that roof.

 

 

 

Johnny is back on the roof today. You can't keep a good man down. 

As for me, I'm doing the documentary here. And taking a tip from this garden gnome...

 

 

 

Our 58th Anniversary

 It seems impossible that Johnny and I, young things that we think we are, have been married for 58 years but... we were married on Feb. 13 in 1967 so...  

I have told the story many times in these blog posts of how we happened to get married the day before Valentine's Day. 

Briefly: Johnny's Forest Service boss in Wyoming told him the Friday before that it was not acceptable to be living with a woman he was not married to. (Remember: This was 1967). So I had to move out. Instead, we got married the next Monday, when we figured the courthouse would be open. What we didn't realize was that Feb. 13 was a Federal Holiday (Lincoln's Birthday, I think) and courthouses in Wyoming and nearby Utah were closed. That's how we happened to get married in Paris. 

Paris, Idaho, that is. I guess Idaho did not observe federal holidays. 

Johnny always says Friday the 13th came on a Monday that year. And it does seem as though we have had some minor bad luck on most of our anniversaries. Those stories are in my blog posts, too. 

This year was no exception.

I have been sick for weeks with the coughing virus that's going around. Johnny gave it to me. Of course, he's well now. It's a good thing, too, because the weather has been challenging. I talked him into staying home on the 13th to celebrate our anniversary with me. All seemed to be going well at first. We watched a wonderful movie on the Roku TV that son Steve had given us and installed when they came here for the Christmas holidays. We had no clue how to use it, of course, so grandson Kestrel wrote out instructions in a little book and left it for us with the tv. Thank goodness for that little book. Johnny figured it out and we spent the afternoon watching The Greatest Showman. All was well until I went to the bathroom afterwards and discovered that we had no water. 

Johnny investigated the possibilities and discovered a broken pipe between well and house. Of course, he got stuck in his EZ Go in the snow and I was enlisted to pull him out with the tractor, which I have not driven in ages. That went well and I was able to take my coughing body back to the house while he gathered up all sorts of tools and, eventually, fixed the broken pipe. 

The only other still-unresolved problem is the bathroom tub drain doesn't drain and he's spending Valentine's Day working on that.

I guess it just shows if we can survive our Friday-the-13th-on-Monday anniversary each year, we can stick together for 58 years... and counting.