The perfect Minnesota Truck

As I was walking Mollie this morning, I noticed this truck at the local Chevy dealer.  Is this the perfect truck for a Minnesota winter or what?

Southern Minnesota

   Land of the farm.  Driving around in southern Minnesota, I remember what rural America is like.  Miles and miles of corn fields.  Lots of fields of soybeans as well.  Scattered throughout the countryside among these fields are groves of trees.  Each of these groves is a windbreak for a farm.   Everywhere are cornfields and trees.  In Eastern Oregon the ranch home sites are 10-15 miles apart.  Around here the farm sites are about a half mile apart. 
    Today we drove to Windom to visit an aunt of R.  It is harvest time.  Everywhere you look, you see huge dry fields of corn and beans.  I thought they were dead from the drought, but that is just what they are supposed to do at this time of year.  As you travel, you see large combines working through rows of dry brown corn stalks or equally brown stands of soybeans.  You will also see parked combines using their comveyor shutes to load the corn or beans into waiting grain trucks.  Farmers are very busy right now spmetimes working into the night to get the harvest in.

A Trip to Minnesota Day One

   We got an early start on Monday.  Not as early as I would have liked, but 7:30 was pretty good.  The Prius was really loaded!  There were a few extra boxes aboard, one containing my Teac reel-to-reel tape deck and two computer paper boxes full of reel-to-reel tapes some of which I have recorded and some were purchased from Special Services in Viet Nam in 69-70.  Some old stuff.
   We were taking it to Minnesota to give to R brother.  He has a recording studio and is going to see if the deck or any of the tapes are in good shape.  I might get some recorded CDs out of the deal.  We will see.
   An hour lost as we crossed into Malheur County.  An hour lunch in Jerome, Id at the Burnt Lemon where burnt lemons are used to make a tasty lemonade.
   We arrived at the Days Inn in Evanston, Wy. at about 8:00 pm       600 miles and the foam rubber pad helped keep my butt from falling asleep.  Early to bed for the next day which turned out to be longer than we expected. 

Minnesota Trip Day 2

   Left Evanston, Wy at 7:30am   The geology along the way was great,and scattered rain showers and sunshine made the trip enjoyable.   As I travel, I like to look at the vehicles both coming and going.  We passed a couple driving a very cool car tooling along I-80. 



    We lost another hour due to the time zones two hours after crossing into Nebraska.  Then about half way across the 400 miles we were trying to decide where to spend the night and came to the conclusion, " Why don't we just drive straight through to Minnesota?"  Let's do it!!

  
 By midnight, we wondered if we were ever going to get out of Iowa, but at 3:30 am we arrived at R sister's home in Fairmont, Minn.  I was asleep within 3 minutes of my head hitting the pillow.


I'll put in  a pic of the car when I find my camera.
 

Safety Cones

    There is a shortage of safety cones in Nebraska.  There has to be because there must be at least 100,000 of them scattered along I-80 across Nebraska in at least a dozen construction zones that last for 5-10 miles each.  Each zone consisted of a narrow single lane passage through cones on  both sides with no noticable construction going on in any of them.  The only use I can see for this construction is that is was good way to slow down the flow of traffic.
   Iowa is trying to use up its quota also, but they seem to put out a few pieces of equipment here and there to simulate actual construction.   It might be wise to buy stocks in the safety cone business.

Antique Hunting

    Yesterday, Wednesday, R and I went antique hunting.  We weren't looking for your average antique, something Gramma would have had in her house.  We were looking for items to display at the Sodhouse Ranch, circa 1880's / 90's.  There weren't many women there at that time either.  The Clark family were the managers and Mrs Clark raised at least three children and cooked for the ranch crew.  She may or may not have had a cook to help her with that job.  Then during the haying time several women would have been hired to cook three meals a day for the men that came to the ranch to for that period.  They all lived in tents on the ranch property and ate meals prepared out of the hay kitchen which, at one time, was the homestead house.  Our goal yesterday, was to find addtional items to furnish that hay kitchen and the bunkhouse.  With a shopping list in hand, we hit the road. 

  First stop:  a junk shop just east of Burns on Hwy 20.   Prizes:  a pair of leather chaps. ( in need of clean up), some harness tack, a coal oil can, and a stirrup.

  Second Stop:   A shop in Canyon City that has mostly decorative items.  They also make horse drawn wagons, surreys, and even stage coaches.    No luck here.'
 
  Third stop:   Jim's Antiques in "downtown" Canyon City.    Prizes:  a nice conversation with Jim, the owner and a line on an old saddle that he has at another location

Fourth Stop:   "A Touch of Europe" in John Day.  Prizes:  A set of blinders for a horse, some knives and forks, a glass hurricane lamp.

Fifth Stop:  "Skeins" in John Day to visit with the owner, Teresa, to catch up on her life and to buy some interesting blue wool roving.

Sixth Stop:   A shop on Hwy 26 just east of Mount Vernon.  Ken, the owner has several barns full of goodies.  What we were looking for and more.  A chair, three spoons, and a dust covered lantern.

Cowboys

It is Fall, time for the local ranchers to move their cattle from summer pastures to pastures that they will occupy until the end of the year.  There are herds in the fields on both sides of the ranch.  The herd from the Church family ranch arrived last Sunday.

 Cattle drives have occured since the late 1800's.   They continue today.  The distances are shorter.  The herds are different breeds now.  The comboys are mounted, some on horses, some on less traditional transportation. 

A Walk Back into Time

   My wife and I were invited to go with a group to an area of the refuge that has been occupied by humans about eight thousand years ago.  It was located on a bluff overlooking the Blitzen River Valley. 



The People rested in the open areas near their homes making stone tools and viewing the green area filled with game and fish below them.  Secondary chips are present in the areas near the ten rock circles that were habitation sites for the People. 

   Below the bluff are rock faces marked with petroglyphs.  Were they stories?  Were they braggings?  Were they religious?  Or were they just graffiti?  No one knows.  What do you think?

A Deep Question

    When did we stop calling it "Pepsi Cola" and start calling it just "Pepsi"  ?

A Busy Day

Today went by very quickly, because I was busy.  It was Monday so the crew of the refuge was back to work.  Carla, our supervisoer, came out to the ranch and we decided what to do now that the crew had left the ranch.  The cabinet in the corner of the back office needed to be taken out.  It was filled with the droppings of lots of mice.  So an hour of me dressed as a alien, using a pry bar and a hammer, and it was gone.  Another hour of painting two coats of KILZ and the day is almost over, but the place looks a lot better.

Tuesday Our Day Off

So what do you do on your day off?

  Sleep late ( like 7:00 am)

Watch CBS This Morning.

Watch two movies and have breakfast in bed.

Light lunch

Go out to the ranch for a couple of hours. 
    Measure the rooms in the ranch office for future shelves.
    Look for my Mini- Leatherman that   disappeared yesterday out there.
    Empty the 100 gal water tank that is in the  back of the truck and water the little cottonwood "starts" that are scattered around the ranch.''

  It is 4pm and I'm back and I feel that I have accomplished something.

 Tomorrow we are going to drive up to John Day to see if we can find some antiques to put in the buildings at the ranch.  Here is what the bunkhouse looks like now.
 

A Monster?

There's a funny looking person out there and he is looking for mouse poop to clean up.

cool toys

The refuge has some interesting equipment on hand.  Here are some.  The top one is called the Marsh Master.

The other is an air boat. 

Both are way cool.

The Ranch Dog

   Mollie is loving the time she is spending out at the ranch.  Prior to this time at Malheur, she has only been off the leash in our back yard.  At the ranch I started experimenting with letting her off leash when I walked around the ranch performing chores and she was with me.  It worked pretty well.  I needed to keep an eye on her because she would get distracted by a smell or a taste of some "goodie" lying in the grass.

    While I was watering some cottonwood 'starts', I let her explore around the pickup.  She stayed pretty close.  So far so good.  Then, the other day, after she had been exploring on her own, I picked her up to sit on my lap and smelled an aroma.  Mollie had been rolling in ranch "poop per ree".  She didn't seem to be the least bit concerned with her aura.  I was so I took her back to the volunteer house and gave her a bath in the deep sink.  But it is official now, Mollie is a ranch dog.

the Harney County Fair 9/4/12

   We went out to the fairgrounds in Burns today.  Actually, we were there yesterday painting the walls and floor of the wooden booth that the refuge rents every year.  Today we were there again to set up the display for this year. 


   It is also the first official day of the Harney County Fair for 2012.  It is set up day for the booths, the midway, and the food booths.  It is also judging day for 4H and FFA which means that the area was filled with healthy and well groomed anaimals of all types.  Over here was a girl running with her sheep ("It's a male you know.")  Over there are cattle being lead into their stalls.  The dog event was just getting over as we were setting up.  The most exotic breed I saw were five whippets owned by the same lady.  It was mostly herding dogs and for good reason.  This is ranching country.  Cows, sheep, hay and alfalfa if they can irrigate are their products.


   The fair is the typical rural fair.  It doesn't change much each year.  R and I went two years ago and from what I could see, it looked the same.  In addition to the animal judging, the main events are a rodeo and horse racing.  The rodeo fills the stands and I imagine the racing does too.  There is not that much to do around here.  As an example the local theater has sign on it marque, " Closed for the Fair".


    This year is the 150 anniversary of the Homestead Act of 1862.   The theme of the booth decoration this year was based on that.  We brought out items from the ranch to make the area look good.  And it does not look too bad.  The interesting thing about the docorations, we were instrumental in many of them.  The trunk was ours, as was the rocking chair.  I made the table out of old lumber that I found on the ranch.  Looking at the picture of the booth makes me smile.

A Warm Springs Visitor

I am sure that many creatures visit this place.  I will return some day to sit, reflect, and perhaps to nap

The Barnes Homestead

   Last Thursday Carl and Jan, fellow voluteers who happen to be archeologists.  Took R and me on a field trip to the southern part of the refuge.  We began with breakfast at the Frenchglen Hotel.  Fortified we got back into the refuge vehicle and opened a locked gate and drove the short distance to the Barnes Homestead.  They started renting it about 1927 and the family lived in it for over 50 years.  Since then, it has remained empty, unused, neglected, forgotten.   Not much remains.  A sod building that may have been a cabin but more likely, a storage building.  25 -30 feet of willow fencing,  a loading chute that is on it's last legs.  A couple of apple trees struggle to survive among some beautiful cottonwoods.








   The highlight of the place is a natural warm spring that flows out form the hillside into a small pool and then away into the meadow.  A wonderful oasis that beckons one to stop and soak the feet in the clear tepid water.  You can imagine the ranch hands lined up down the path for their annual bath.  The dragonfly enjoys the area is well.


    Reluctantly, we continued our trip, traveling on some lightly used refuge tracks that took us on a circle around Boca Lake watching the Pelicans, Canada Geese, and other water fowl,  even disturbing some 4 point bucks as well.




    Before going home, we visited a rock outcropping that sported many pictographs, many too faded to be recognizable.  Thanks to our friends for the day.