Johnny at Traumhof... and home again

Johnny spent a week up at Kevin and Jessica and Ian's dressage training facility in Washington in late April, early May. He worked hard every day on the zillion projects that needed his expertise. However, he took very few photos so... Some of his accomplishments that I sort of know about were: fixing something or other to do with their clothes dryer, something or other that had to do with the horse wash rack drain, something or other to do with the water heater in the barn, and more stuff. He repaired 3 stall doors and other things in the barn, fixed back gate on dump truck, sorted lots of stuff in the hay/shop area to find wood for planter repairs, and more. I got that out of his notes in his journal but... Well, here are the photos...

 This is some kind of tank that Johnny cut apart to use as a sump for the wash rack. I think.

And here is a planter for tomatoes that Kevin designed out of pieces of the zillions of pallets they have. Johnny and Kevin put it together. Since this photo, Kevin has covered the pallet parts with vertical pieces of wood to make it look better... wood that Johnny located up there in his many hours of sorting and organizing.

And here's a photo I can identify! A squirrel that daily visits Jessica's seed feeder.

Gleaned from his journal:

Early every morning, Johnny "helped" Kevin with the morning hay feeding before Kevin left for work. Johnny says he mostly just followed him around.

On Johnny's way home on Thursday, May 4, he stopped to visit friends near Seattle.

On Friday, his first day home: "Picked up 1 ton of horse cubes in Dallas; soaked in hot tub at Dallas Aquatic Center for 45 minutes; United Methodist Church chili feed in the evening."

On Saturday I dragged him off to the coast where he napped while I took Coast Watch requested photos at Bob Straub Park, then he napped some more while I did my quarterly Coast Watch mile walk at Cape Kiwanda State park. Then we went out for supper in Pacific City and back to Cape Kiwanda for a one hour Brown Pelican survey, wherein we saw no pelicans. But at least it was restful just sitting in the car staring through binocs and scope at Haystack Rock.

On Sunday we took a restful walk through our arboretum and woods... which turned into a rather unrestful several hours for Johnny when we discovered a broken pipe and water gushing out of the pump house down by the creek. Boy was I glad Johnny was home for that excitement. He managed to cut off the broken part, re-thread the pipe and do other magic to get us water at the house again.

He's already talking about going back up to Traumhof to finish some projects he left half done. When he does, I'll request photos of family and horses and cats and other interesting stuff like that. Wish me luck.

One Sunny Day

Yesterday was it. A day with sun and no rain. For awhile, the forecast called for nearly a week of no rain, but that didn't last. The forecast changes faster than the clouds scud over our farm. So I just keep on trimming horse hooves, clipping goat udders, digging out invasive marsh marigold that is giving a virus to my hellebores, deadheading daffodils, weeding flower beds... and getting wet. Between times, I take photos.  Mostly of flowers and birds.

On April 28, it finally stopped raining long enough for me to take a walk in the woods and arboretum. I found this pollen-laden bumblebee in the arboretum.

A pair of Bewick's Wrens were conversing alongside the house.

Purple Finches keep the sunflower seed feeder empty and wait nearby for me to fill it up again.

 And in the woods... flowers are blooming at last...

Pacific Bleeding Heart

Red Elderberry

Twinberry

These Oregon Bluebells are almost open...

Horsetails (Equisetum) are everywhere in the marshy areas. I think they're pretty, too.

Sessile Trillium

Wood Violet

Serviceberry

Lawn Daisy

Another day of little rain found a blue butterfly...

Echo Azure

...lots of logs in our portion of Agency Creek...

and blooming Oregon Grape...

After 2 days of not too much rain, the grass was dry enough to mow on Sunday. And the ground almost dry enough to drive the tractor over to the horse barn with 7 sacks of horse feed. I made it without falling into the pond or the washed out hole on the other side of the dam. Johnny is gone for a week helping the kids up north with a zillion projects. So all the farm chores are mine. Tractors scare me.

Johnny usually does the run-to-town-for-stuff chore, (as well as tractor work), so I went on Monday for goat feed and managed to get it unloaded in only light drizzle.

Tuesday it was more than light drizzle, but I went to the coast, anyway, for a tidepool clinic. It was very informative and the drizzle actually slowed considerably for us. Most of the participants were from the Lincoln City area... I could tell they were Oregonians because they said "What a nice day!" when it was only drizzling.

I didn't take photos except this one. The little black things between the barnacles are baby mussels. They will grow and dislodge the barnacles eventually.

One of the best things about this clinic was learning that these wonderful tide pools are right down the street from our favorite restaurant... the Jasmine Thai. And we never knew they were there! They are totally underwater except at very low tides. It was a minus tide on Tuesday.
 

From Lincoln City I drove north to Bob Straub Park in Pacific City to do my monthly beached bird survey. No canoeing needed (as was necessary to get to my previous beached bird beach). Just a long hike on hard sand. And no dead birds so far! But the mist had turned to rain.

Happily, there were live birds to see through the rain.

A Sanderling...

Three Whimbrels...

And small groups of Semi-palmated Plovers, Western Sandpipers, Dunlin (that I could identify). The Semi-palms are the cute ones, with the black bibs. The Westerns have rufous heads and dark legs. The Dunlin have black bellies (this time of year).

There are always interesting things to see on the beach. Pretty shells...

 Pretty on both sides...

Art work...

Lots of  Velella velella  on the beach. These jellyfish relatives wash up every spring.

A strange huge ship just sitting motionless off Haystack Rock... ?? I later learned that this ship was anchored there laying cable.

And a beautiful spider. Don't click on this to make it big if you are an arachnophobe. The spider is in the very center of the photo.

But after several hours of walking in the rain, it is always good to see this sign that tells me where the trail is back to the parking lot and my car. These signs are numbered up and down the coast for rescuers to know which beach access to use to help whoever needs help.

And then, the very next day, it happened, the hot, sunny day... The temperature almost hit 80.

Warblers were everywhere. This one caught an insect.

And then, apparently, bragged about it in song...

I let the goats out into the tall grass in front of the barn. They were happy.

Today, the day after, started out sunny but soon changed to clouds and wind and lots of thunder.

One sunny day is a gift, nonetheless.

A Day Off the Farm

On Friday, the day before Earth Day, a Peace Pole was being dedicated in McMinnville. I had an eye appointment in that town. A horse drawn equipment auction was happening at the fairgrounds there. And friend and Linfield art instructor, Totem Shriver, was holding his annual Art Burn on the Linfield campus. And so off we went, after lunch, for a day away from the farm.

Having left my camera in the car, I did not take photos of the Peace Pole. However photos can be seen on the website of the Peace Pole Project. http://www.peacepoleproject.org/peacepoleproject.html
There are, according to The Peace Pole website, tens of thousands of these poles around the world, sponsored by many different organizations.

Each pole says May Peace Prevail on Earth in different languages on each of its four or six sides.
The pole in McMinnville's Civic Center has English, Chinook Wawa (the trade language of Northwest Native American tribes), Spanish and Hebrew. There will be five more Peace Poles planted in McMinnville ultimately. I was reminded of the song lyrics... "May we have peace on earth... And may it begin with me."

It was a short ceremony, so we had time to spare before my eye appointment. We drove to Airport Park, near my eye doctor's office. Johnny had not been there before. It is a very birdy park... with lots of small airplanes taking off and landing nearby, to Johnny's delight on this rare warm and sunny day.

I asked Johnny to pose inside the concrete mushroom in the wooded park.

Also in the park are many concrete benches. Concrete is a great way to make benches and picnic tables last in our wet climate. They grow green with moss, but don't rot. I foresee some future projects on our farm...

A small creek runs through the park. Two bridges cross it.

We wandered long enough to make me almost late for my appointment. While I had my eyes tested and dilated, Johnny wandered around the Air Museum across the highway. After I came out of the clinic, we still had time before supper at our favorite restaurant... Thai Country, so I  suggested we go back to Airport Park. I could see little because of my dilated eyes but I could listen to the chorus of bird songs. Afterwards, we drove around behind the airport and stopped to take a photo of Mt. Hood in glorious sunshine.

After supper, we again had time before our next adventure, Totem's Art Burn, so I asked to go to the fairgrounds and see if the Horse Drawn Equipment auction was still going on. It was and I was able to walk around and admire the many carriages. It brought back happy memories of the times I had gone to the Small Farmer's Journal auction many years ago... first with Jerry and Jean Easterling when I was writing for the SFJ and when Jerry was the auctioneer... way back in the first years of the auction. Some years later it was moved to Sisters. Dad and I drove over there several times. He had worked with horses as a kid and had a story for every piece of horse drawn equipment that we saw there. One trip we came home with a horse drawn wagon that Dad restored for me... but I only pulled it with my horses one time. It is now a flower bed, planted with spring bulbs.

 Ah, but those beautiful carriages at the fairgrounds!

This one was a wedding coach. I suggested we hire it for our 50th wedding anniversary party. Johnny just laughed.

Several covered and uncovered wagons were in the line up.  I liked the sign on the back of this one. CAUTION!! POWERED BY OATS. DON'T STEP IN THE EXHAUST!

But best of all were the sleighs. Oh what fun it would be to ride in a one-horse open sleigh! However, we seldom get enough snow...

Then we were off to our final event of the evening, the Art Burn in a field near the Linfield campus. This is the 9th year that Totem's class has held this burn. We had not attended for several years and were surprised at the turn-out. In the early years, it was pretty much his class and a bunch of his 1970s era, alternative lifestyle friends (like us). There were some of us oldsters in the crowd this year, but mostly it was Linfield students... lots of them.

Spectators are encouraged to write something they would like to have go up in smoke and put it inside the structure. I have never been sure if this should be something you want to get rid of forever or something you want to have seared into all eternity. This year the structure was painted and decorated more than any has ever been before. It was impressive.

This year's structure, Totem explained to the crowd before the ceremony began, was built by his class in January and had been sitting out in the rain ever since. Lighting it could take some doing. Totem and friends and class come up with different intriguing methods of lighting it each year. My favorite was the flaming arrow. Or arrows. It took about six of them to finally hit the right spot. This year an adjacent tower was built with a pyramid suspended by a string from its top. A piece of yarn hung below the pyramid. When lit, the yarn would burn up to the pyramid which would, in turn, light the string it was hanging from, setting it free to swing by a wire that was attached to the main structure onto the wad of newspapers at the base of the structure, lighting them, and thence the structure. Thanks to the vagaries of wind, it needed a little help from Totem in the toppling.

Lighting tower to the left with a wire and string attaching it to the structure to make sue it falls the right way. The crowd here is gathered to listen to Totem give an explanation.

And here's Totem!

Taiko drummers added a dramatic background to the occasion while Linfield's fire dancers performed around the structure.

The yarn is lit!

I took lots of videos but did not get any stills of the structure going up in flames, so have taken some frame shots to add to this blog.

The lighting tower has been pushed over to light the art structure

You can hear the Taiko drummers and the crowd in the videos I put on youtube:


https://youtu.be/8GnWjJY9QCs

https://youtu.be/Ab0eH0VIgLw

https://youtu.be/vltPvPtW2S4

In the one below I held the camera sideways by mistake for the first part so you have to lie on your side to see it upright. (This is the one where the tower topples as you can see in the photo above that I took off a screen shot... and rotated it 90 degrees.) After awhile I realized what I was doing and put the camera upright, so you can then sit up to watch it. Technology is not my strong point.

 https://youtu.be/GgHj1O7URtU



Wonderful weather, interesting sights, and good friends to connect with... it was a good day.