Thursday May 22, 08

Today I am writing this from the public library in Madras, Or. Tonight is our last night in the campground at Cove Palisades State Park. Hopefully the wind will lessen tonight so I can have a camp fire. We leave tomorrow for a week-end in Portland.

This morning we woke up to beautiful blue skies and calm winds. Mount Jefferson was "out" and was sporting a new white coat. With a little walking, I could also see Three Fingered Jack and Mt Hood, far, far away. The wind picked up about Noon and so the temperature has remained in the 50's, but it is really very pretty out there.

Is warm weather to come?

J

Wednesday May 21, 08

Here I am in the Redmond Public Library using their Wifi network. We have been out of range for a few days. We are staying at the Cove Palisades Stae Park, near Culver, Or. What a beautiful place! The campgrounds are nice. Lots of grass in E Loop. A,B & C loops have the feel of the mountains with lots of rocks, etc. We are staying until Friday and will be gone before the M Day hordes arrive. Then, after spending the week-end at friends, it's home on Monday.

It was in the 80's when we got here on Monday and by Tuesday, it was in the 50's. They say the low will be in the 30's tonight. No rain though and and lots of sun which is great!

I have some new pics but they are still in the camera. I will sent a couple of the Lake Billy Chinook area on the next entry. Until then here is a picture of our site at the Narrows. Quite nice for the middle of nowhere. ( How do we know it's the middle?)

J

Sunday May 18,08

After several days visiting friends here in Bend, Winnie and the rest of us are ready to hit the road again. Where should be go, that is the question? East is out until August when we head back over to Malhuer for our 60 day volunteer commitment. I'm looking forward to that. It is an amazing place, so isolated, so quiet, so beautiful. It will be totally different there in late summer. The water level will be considerable less and probably different birds to view and record. Already we have seen about 10 birds that very infrequently, if never, venture into the Willamette Valley where we call home. Birds with exotic names like the Black Neck Stilt, or Advocet, or the beautiful Sandhill Cranes.

So where do we go tomorrow? The weather forcast is always a factor. It says nice tomorrow ( 80's) and then clouds and twenty degrees cooler for Tuesday- Thursday. Maybe sprinkles. So that tells me to stay on the east side of the mountains and the chances of drier days are better. So maybe Camp Sherman, maybe Madras area, or Prinville Res. I'll let you know tomorrow if we have internet availablity.

See you then,

J

Friday May 16,08

Today was a traveling day. After a leisurely breakfast, we loaded up, drove north on Hwy 205 and then headed back west on Highway 20. We stopped at the rest area near Brothers for lunch. In the shade to the trailer, we put out a small table and two folding lawn chairs and had sandwiches and fruit.
While traveling west, several small groups of antelopes were spotted. They are easiest to spot if they are facing away from you because their white rumps stand out against the earth tones of the Oregon desert. It's great to see God's creatures in their natural environment.
We arrived in Bend about 3:30 and drove to our friends home on the west side of Bend about three round-abouts from downtown. The round-abouts in Bend are large enough to handle larger vehicles and our rig negotiates them easily.
This week-end we will spend with our friends seeing some of the highlights of the Bend area. We will head out of here Monday morning.

Thursday May 15, 08

It was supposed to warm up today so Winnie and the little girls stayed in the trailer while R & I did some exploring. We drove east past the Refuge Headquarters heading for Princeton. Never did find it ( it must have been the two houses that were along the road, but we did see a lone mule deer and a herd of 9 antelope. The pronghorns were right up alongside the road when we rounded a curve but they maved off rather rapidly enough tough I cut the engine and rolled to a stop. We watched them for 10-15 minutes until they moved off too far watch even with binoculars.

We found Hwy 79 and headed North, coming to the village of Crane. We turned off the highway to check it out. If you are ever in the area and see the sign for Crane, don't bother to turn off. Crane must be another word for ramshackle. There were only 3 buildings in the town of 150 that didn;t need to be torn down, the PO, school, and the LDS Stake.

On to Burns. Had lunch alongside a side road watching wildlife. The ranchers in the Burns area have a unique way of irrigating their pastures. They flood them in the spring. This serves two porposes; soaking the soil and providing a wetland area for migrating birds. Then in the summer they drain the fields and plain grass or grain. Harvesting it in the fall and letting sheep or cattle on it to graze thus fertilizing it for the winter and the cycle begins again. Definately a win-win situation.

After our lunch we decided to drive about 7 miles west of Burns on Hwy 20 to the BLM Wild Horse Corrals. It's open to visitors from 8-3pm M-F. We followed the auto tour road around the facility and must have seen about 100 horses. In talking to one the workers there, he said that they monitor the number of wild ones in the various areas of the western states. (Nevada has the largest population. Oregon is about 4th. ) The object of the BLM is to limit the number of wild horses in the various areas to correspond with the ability to support them. So during Fall and Winter the herds from Oregon's 15-16 areas are thinned and brought to the Burns facility where the horses get medical care, hooves trimmed, tagged, etc and are put in the corrals to wait for adoption. If you have the facilities to take care of one, you can adoption a mustang for $125. Of course, like adopting a greyhound, there are going to be other costs. The operation was pretty interesting to see. There were many mares with very young ones with them.

Then it was back to Burns for fuel, a truck wash, and of course, ice cream. Life is good.

J

Wednesday May 14,08

Today was our first day by ourselves. It was great. After having a leisurely breakfast, we decided to drive to the wildlife refuge to check it out. We negotiated around a road full of cattle being driven somewhere else. When we got to the refuge, we went in and introduced ourselves to Carla who is the volunteer coordinator for the refuge. We sat in her office and talked for a few minutes. She told us about what to expect during our stay. We then got in her pickup and drove over to the area where our trailer will be parked. There are 5 paved spots and one gravel all with full hook-ups. In addition, there's a building with two full bathrooms with showers. Then there's another building with a large room that could be a livingroom, a laundry room, a kitchen, and a large screened porch. The Refuge realizes that it is a good idea to treat your volunteers well.



She then took us over to the sod house ranch where we will be working. It is not open to the public right now due to the fact that the cormorants and the blue herons are nesting in the cottonwoods on the site. If you look closely at the picture, the "clumps" in the trees are the nests which are used year after year. Anyway, she opened the gate and we drove the 1/2 mile into the ranch site. We walked around the site, staying away from the rookery area and listened to Carla tell us the story of the ranch and the surrounding area. It will be fun "boning up" on the history of the area. Future reading to do.

When we left Carla, we drove what's called the Center Patrol Road which sort of bisects the refuge north to south through the Blitzen Valley. 15 mph with frequent stops to watch the birds and other wildlife.

Tuesday May 13, 08

Woke up to partly cloudy skies and warmer temps. Had a noise on the truck checked out ( OK) and then went to find a WIFI signal in Burns somewhere. I parked outside of the library but no signal there. So I dorve through town with the computer on and watched the screen until a signal showed up. Voila! So I checked email and sent WOD. Sorry about Monday.

Last day with guests traveling with us. I was glad. We hooked up and headed the 25 mi. south to the Narrows. Very nice RV park with full hookups plus Wifi, a store, restaurant, fuel, and ?)cable. (This is "camping"?) Our friends drove which was ok. Drove down to Bueana Vista Overlook which looks down on acres of water and wildfowl. Then on to the Peter French visitor center and met a gentleman named Dick Jenkins. I think he owns a large part of the area down there and donated 10 acres for this place. It turns out that he was born in Le Center,MN. We talked and found out that he is related to R roomate in college. It is really a small world. Sprinkles on the way home. Drier tommorrow and warmer too.

J