The Steens

Today we decided to drive up to Steens Mountain.  The wind from yesterday had gone away. 
We drove south on 205 through Frenchglen, climbed the hill behind it, and continued another 10 miles or so to the turn-off for the South Steens loop.  Twenty miles east on that gravel road gets you to the turn off for the Riddle Ranch.  We tried the road but it is not a trail that I want to take with my pickup.  Turning around, we continued up the south side of the Steens loop.  It is a spectacular way to climb the mountain.  Steep and exciting.

This was taken from where we had lunch.  Big Indian Canyon  The top of Steens mountain is in the distance to the east.



At the summit of Steens Mountain looking west down Big Indian Canyon toward our lunch spot.

Frenchglen

The Frenchglen Mercantile - Lots of cool stuff

The day we wanted to get out of the house.  With all the smoke we had not gone anywhere, so it was time.  "Let's drive down to Frenchglen and have lunch."  Rich and Blanca, Elzi, R, and I piled into our pickup and had a fun afternoon.

The Frenchglen Hotel  -   B & B with good lunches.

Corral fence

The corral fence has been here for over 130 years.  Remarkable that it still stands.

Cottonwood

This Cottonwood tree was planted in about 1894.  Imagine the stories it could tell.

Wed Night Sunset

Ranch Pics

Today was Wednesday.  An optional work day for us, so I opened the gate at 8am but did not open the office until mid-morning.

 If you look closely, you will see a Turkey Vulture sitting on the branch of the willow tree.  The bunk house is on the right,

 I spent several hours sitting on the front porch waiting for visitors that never came.  I left at 2:30 and then returned at 4 to close the gate.  I hope tomorrow is better.  It seems kinda sad that we have spent all the time and effort to clean and decorate the buildings and only a few folks stop by.  They are happy that they stop by, but I wonder if all this work is worth it.

Canyon Creek Fire

Looking 100 miles north.  The fire that has been burning for two weeks.  More than 30 homes destroyed.  It is primarily in the Strawberry Wilderness now.

A horse manger

More Smoke

   Another smoky day.  The last two days have been with wind and thus, less smoke.  Today is less windy so more smoke.  The visibliltiy is limited, in fact, I bet less than a mile.  The air quality is poor with all the smoke.  Unfortunately, the prospects for cleaner air depends on rain and there is no relief in sight.
    Yesterday, Saturday gave us 9 visitors at the ranch, one birder and eight "regular" folks.  It was also the "Free Fishing" day at the refuge, offering carp fishing without a licnese, prizes for the most fish, largest fish, etc., and a fish fry for guests.  This being the Fish and Wildlife Service and rural Oregon, things were loosely organized, attendance was small.  However, over a thousand lbs of Carp were removed from the Blitzen River.

  

Smoke

Sunday August 16, 2015.
This morning's sun trying to fight it's way up through the smoke cloud in the east.

Ranch Truck

This is the ranch truck.  I don't know what year, but I would estimate late 80s or 90s.  The rig has a 5 speed manual transmission which allows me to prove I can still drive a "stick".  As per most of the vehicles around here the maintence and cleaning is done at extended intervals.  With all the dirt and dust on the roads and in the air, it would be difficult to keep vehicles clean but I doubt that this truck has been swept out or vacuumed since we were here three years ago.  Well, it is now.
  The pickup is used to provide transportation for us and our gear the 3 miles to and from the ranch site. The odometer reads 51,000 miles and I bet none of it was recorded outside a 50 mile radius of the refuge headquarters.

First Day

Today was the first day open for Sodhouse Ranch.  The sign on the gate says "Open Aug15 - Oct 15" but the birds that roost there are gone, the buildings are prepped and ready, and we were ready, so our supervisor was OK with us opening today.   Because it was day one, it took us longer to open than it will tomorrow.   
  Gate unlocked and open 
  "open" signs put out on the road to attract visitors
  buildings unlocked and open
  Waiting for our first visitors
  The total for the day was eight.  Not enough.
 We left a little early because the wind had picked up and was gusting at around 50mph.  There will probably be some repairs that will need to be done tomorrow to replace loose or missing boards.

 

The east side of the Long Barn.  If you squint you make see Steens Mountain in the distance.

In the 1800s horses were for riding and pulling ranch equipment and wagons.  This barn was used for feeding these horses. The hay wagon would be pulled through the door on the far end of the Long Barn and hay would be forked into the mangers on both sides.  The floor consisted of three layers of logs laid cross-wise, length-wise, and cross-wise to provide a firm floor for the heavy wagon and horse traffic.

 

Great Horned Owl

There is a juvenile Great Horned Owl that spends a lot of daylight time in the tree across the driveway from our trailer.  Waiting for dark, I would say.  You can hear him screeching or at least vocalizing from time to time.

   The first picture is nearly sunset out our kitchen window with the sun getting ready to retire through the trees of the headquarters.

If you enlarge the photo, you will see our neighbor perched on the top of the dead snag to the left of the main foliage of the tree top.

Traffic Jam

The traffic here in eastern Oregon is unpredictable.  You can get caught in a traffic slow down at any time.  The slow downs" also can cause the road to get messy.

The way to handle such a traffic jam is to slowly push your way through and try not to hit anything.

Fires

The resident fire crew here at Malheur was called out yesterday.  There was a brush fire east of here toward Crane.  Right now, fires in brush and sage have priority over fires in forests.  Fires kill Sage Grouse and burn their habitat making them vunerable to predation. 
     About 30 miles southwest of here is Foster Flats, a dry lake bed.  For as long and anyone can remember, this area has been a Lek for male Grouse to do their mating strut.  A couple of years ago a fire burned the sage brush in the whole area.  I asked if the birds still return to the same spot or have moved to a new one.  I was told that their numbers are down, but they still return to do their dance.  It would be something to see.

I can count

Yes I can count.  These are stops on the self-guided tour of the ranch.  Some have been repainted, some need repainting, some are missing.  I have been working on the solution for a couple of days.

Once they are all finished they will be distributed around the ranch.

Tweet

   Yesterday, I was in the Homestead House reglueing the legs of the table.  As I applied the glue, and attached the clamps, I heard rustling in the cook stove.  I assumed it was a mouse.  The building has so many loose boards and cracks that rodents can come and go as they please.  However, as I inspected more closely, I noticed a beak sticking out one of the vents of the stove.  After removing one of the circular plates on the cooktop, a new friend hopped out.  After a couple of minutes of getting his bearings he flew out the open door.  How long he had been in the stove, he never told me.

Sunday Morning

Today dawned with a red sun.  A front moved in last night with some wind and clouds but no thunder and no rain.  It moved on in an hour or two and the rest of the night was quiet.  The weather this week is going to be good, at least that is what I can get from about five different websites.  They all differ, but the general consensis is sunny and 85 for the week.  Great weather but, as I look out to the north, I can see only a few miles because of smoke.  Evidently, there are brush fires in the area causing our air problems.  It is a problem that southern Oregon has been having for a week or so, but it is new to this area and not very welcome at all.  One of the things I like about eastern Oregon is the distant views.  The miles and miles of miles and miles..
Not today.

Loud !

There are four of these parked here at the refuge.  Malheur Lake is shallow so a normal boat will not work here.  These boats go in instead.  But there is no way that these "sneak up" on the wildlife

Look at the V-8 engines and the nearby exhaust headers.  Quiet, no way.  Exciting, you bet!

Week one

   The first week of work at the Sodhouse Ranch.  Three buildings have been cleaned extensively.  Ten months sitting empty is not a good thing for a building.  Add to that the rush to get the buildings closed in October meant that the contents were poorly protected.  We will be here for the closing this Oct and will do a more thorough closing procedure.
    The three buildings; the office, the bunkhouse, and the original homestead house are cleaned and nearly ready for the first day which is Saturday, August 15th.  Most of the "props" are in the buildngs and are just waiting to be staged.  The grounds have been mowed and the tall grass, cut and bailed.  Some additional "weed wacking" is needed around buildings and fences, but we are getting close.  We will definitely be ready.

 On the left is the ice house constructed in 1900 with blocks of limestone brought from nearby hills.  The two story bunkhouse is one the buildings that is getting ready for visitors. The fabulous long barn is on the right.  

 This complex includes several animal buildings and harness shed.

Monday morning

   It's 7am Monday morning.  Quammy and I are back from our walk.  He has been fed.  I'm sitting outside in the cool air.  It is cloudy today with a chance of showers today.  We'll see.  It is the desert, you know.
    Had about 14 sprinkles on our morning stroll.  Disturbed a owl who was perched in the equipment shed housing the air boats.  Several cotton tails also scattered when we passed.  Several yellow wildflowers lined the gravel road that enters the headquarters from Sodhouse Lane.

This is called Blazing Star

Aeroflite

Our last Monday night at the Flight Deck restaurant in South Lake Tahoe. This cool aircraft landed and took on fuel.  Most the the guys in the place stood on the outside deck when it taxied up and watched until it shut down it's twin turbo props.  Then there was a flurry of us looking up Aeroflite, a Canandian company that leases firefighting aircraft.  This particular one can scoop up 1600 gallons of water off a lake or resevoir in 12 seconds while skimming along the surface.  I would LOVE to see that!  I can't imagine the drag from the contact with the water plus the rapid increase in weight and how the pilots must compensate for that while "in flight".  No wonder it has two powerful engines and an

enormous tail section.

Burns, Oregon

    Drove the 30 miles into Burns yesterday.  Didn't need anything but it had been 4 years since we had been there and we wanted to see what had changed.  Well the answer is, "Not Much".  Actually there are two towns; Burns and the logging company town that abutts it called Hines.  For practical porposes they are one community, an isolated community, an land island.   Bend is 120 to the west, John Day is 75 miles north, Ontario is 100 east and nothing is south until Winnemucca 200+ miles SE or Reno nearly 400 miles.  So those who live in Burns/Hines are an independent and hardy folk.  Summers are hot and dry ( 92 right now but 57 tonight) winters are cold and dry ( 10 below is not uncommon).  Notice I said dry for both seasons.  This is a desert, a high desert (Burns is at 4200 ft elevation) but still part of the Great Basin Desert.
      Getting back to yesterday, the town did not look much different.  One less car dealer.  The Dodge dealer closed after 30+ years.  Only Burns Ford is left.  Still only two stop lights in town.  Two grocery stores.  No industry remains.  Ranching and tourists traveling through on Hwy 20 or 395 keep it alive.
     Unlike Tahoe, there is no conspicious display of wealth.  No display of prosperity, just common folks getting by, living in plain, inexpensive houses, in a quiet, small town.  The climate allows the growing of hay and alfalfa ( with irrigation) and the raising of cattle.  So ranches dot the countryside.  The Harney County Fair and Rodeo, in September is the highlight of this ranching area.  I will definitely attend this year, though I doubt that it will be much changed from the one we attended four years ago, but still, something to look forward to.  Stay tuned for that.

This was taken this morning on my walk with Quammy.  We are on the hill above the refuge headquarters, looking northeast toward Malheaur Lake in the distance.  The lake (actually a swamp) is suffering from the four year drought that the west is going through right now.