Stonehenge

Stonehenge

There’s a unique place located right off Hwy 97 just north of the Columbia River. It was built by Sam Hill, a Seattle industrialist who owned a large amount of land in what is now southern Klickitat County. On his large plot of land he built a town, named Maryhill, a mansion that is now the Maryhill Museum, and a memorial to World War I that has the exact specifications of the Stonehenge in England. It sits up on a flat spot overlooking the fruit orchards of what used to be the town of Maryhill. You can walk right up to it and inside too. Nearby is a memorial to the other wars that have taken our children.

Alpacas

What do you know about Alpacas? Same here. So with the open house last Saturday at Golden Pine Alpacas, we had an opportunity to find out. What we found on our exploratory trip was most enjoyable. The location of the farm was nestled in the ponderosa pine covered hills a couple of miles north of town. colored balloons on a string announced the "open house". The owners, Pat and Barb Patterson, in about three years, have made good use of their small farm. The first thing you notice when you drive in is the barn. Pat built it himself. It's a nice size and ascetically barn-like. Once you walk inside and look around, you see that he did his homework before building it. At the top of the walls, just under the roofline, are windows that let in plenty of light. Pat told me that he didn't want a dark barn. These window, actually, are just clear corrigated lexan, that can be opened to allow ventilation in the warmer summer weather. The same hold true with the window in various parts of the walls. They are also of the same material. The outside doorways, in addition to being constructed of wood, have these materials as part of their construction so they can double as additional air openings or sunlight sources. Very ingenious I thought.

Another "Hmm" moment was when I saw how Pat had constructed the interior. The floor is not concrete, but instead it is 4 inches of tamped crushed rock. This is covered with the same type of material that is used in road building to keep the underbed from erodong away. This covering allows water moisture to pass through it so when one of the animals relieves itself, the liquid passes thru. Any solid material can be picked up and the floor hosed off with that water also sinking into the ground. Walking on the floor, you would not know that you are not on concrete, except for the look of it and the feel, because when you do notice it, you have to bend over and touch it to find out.

Walking around the barn I also noticed that the vertical support beams had vertical slots on them. These allowed planks to be slid into the these slots to create animal pens and larger areas as needed.

Then there were the animals. They resemble Llamas but are considerably smaller. Because of their smaller size, alpacas are not used for beasts of burden, like llamas, in their native countries of Peru, Chile, Bolivia and Ecuador, but are raised for their fiber. Their fleeses do not contain the lanolin that wool does so people that have trouble with the scratchiness of wool, can enjoy the softness and warmth of alpaca.

Alpacas are interesting creatures. The ones at Golden Pine, had been sheared so their heads and feet appeared to be oversized. The trimming also emphasized the length of their necks and made them look more like one of their distant family members, the camel. It is easy to see the resemblance. Like camels, alpacas can spit. They spit to show displeasure. The "ammunition" varies from just air, to spit, to stomach contents depending upon how upset the animal is.

Mostly alpacas appear to be just interesting, docile, unique creatures. The cria (young) are, of course, majorly cute. The female female can be bred shortly after giving birth but will hold the egg until the young had been weened before the pregnancy begins. The gestation period is about 11 months. I have included some internet pictures of Alpacas so you can see what they look like unsheered. Pictures from the farm will come soon. Thank you Golden Pine for a grat day.

Bickleton

Road Trip to Bickelton

Today is a Tuesday, our second day off so we went for a ride. Let’s go east and see what is out that way. So we head east out of Goldendale on 142. Thirty miles or so, slowing down for the tiny burg of Cleveland, we arrived in Bickelton in time for lunch. Luckily there is a place to eat in town. The Market Street Store and Café. It’s either a general store with a café inside or a café with a convenience store inside. Either way, the burgers are big and juicy and you can substitute fruit, salad or fruit for your fries. So we ordered one burger with fries and one with fruit which was good because both of the sides were large enough for both of us. After lunch we walked across the street to McCredy’s General Store an interesting combination of “general need” things and gift and decoration items. That makes for two stops in Bickleton. Had it been any day but Monday, we would have had another stop. The Carousel Museum houses an entire carousel plus much associated memorabilia.

Leaving town we headed south on East Road with our intermediate destination being the village of Roosevelt which is on Hwy 14. A stop that we did not make was the “Hoot and Holler Museum”. The sign at the road says, “a ranching museum”, but I understand that it has quite a bit more, including a interesting collection of antique autos. I will pull in next time.

The twenty five mile trip was through an area that is rapidly sprouting wind generators in every direction. Twice during the journey we had to stop and wait while trucks passed carrying parts of these generators. These generators are so large that the columns take a truck to haul each of its sections. The units consist of three blades and each blade is so long that it requires a truck with a special trailer to haul it. The highway up from I-84 is rather narrow and has several curves so traffic is held up at each end of the hill as these rigs negotiate their way upward.

As I gaze around the hills here and nearly everywhere, I am unsure. Part of me (the left brain) dislikes watching them steadily cover the surrounding hills, slowly turning in the wind. The other part of me (right brain) says “Yahoo! Keep it up. Let’s go green. More wind, more solar panels, florescent bulbs, less waste, etc.

So which side wins out? A little of both I think.

Charles Messier

Charles Messier

Charles Messier (1730-1817) was born the 10^th of 12 children. His interest in astronomy was stimulated by the appearance of the great six-tailed comet in 1744 and by a solar eclipse that was in his hometown in 1748. When he was 21 he starting working for Joseph Nicolas Delisle, the astronomer for the French Navy, who instructed him to keep careful records of his observations. As time went on and his reputation as an astronomer grew, he was elected to several astronomical societies.

The King, Louis XV, believed that if a comet appeared without warning, he would die. So he hired Messier to “keep a look-out” for them. Messier saved the king’s life 15 times. During his search for comets with his 102mm refractor telescope, he observed many “fuzzy” objects out there that interfered with his search for comets. He kept meticulous notes on these objects (as well as the comets) and in 1774 published a “catalog” of 45 such objects. The final version of the catalog was published in 1784 with the list of Messier Objects growing to 103. Since then astronomers and historians have discovered evidence of another seven objects that have been added to the list so there are a total of 110 Messier Objects. M1 – M110 are still in use by professional and amateur astronomers alike. The objects were assigned numbers by Messier as he discovered them so are not in groups by location or object type as the later New General Catalog (NGC) would be.

The Messier Catalog comprises nearly all of the most spectacular examples of deep sky objects galaxies, open and globular star clusters, and planetary nebulae visible from European latitudes. Because they were discovered with a relatively small telescope, they are objects that can see seen fairly easily by backyard astronomers as well as professionals with much larger equipment. If you have the opportunity, take a look at or Google some of Messier’s objects such as M-13 or M-57. They are spectacular!

The Stars

The Stars (and the Moon)

The nights at the observatory are fun. Usually several vehicles are waiting at the gate when it opens at 8pm. The evening program begins as soon as the cars are parked and the visitors have entered the building. First on the agenda is a review of the history of the Goldendale Observatory. The telescope was built by four gentlemen at Clark College in Vancouver, WA. Once it was built, they went in search of a place to put it that would assure that the telescope would be for public use. They visited Central Washington State College, but were told that the telescope would be used by graduate students for research. On the return trip to Vancouver, they spotted in Goldendale for lunch. The owner of the restaurant convinced the gentlemen to consider Goldendale as the site for their device. The Goldendale Observatory was dedicated in 1973. Financial issues caused the city of Goldendale to close the observatory and so after a visit to the state capital, the observatory was sold to the State of Washington in 1985 allowing it to become a state park. I like to tell our visitors that GO State Park is the largest in the state of Washington. On the ground it is only 5 acres but looking skyward it goes up to more then 30,000 light years.

After learning about the observatory, the program covers the ways to determine if it is a good night to stargaze and the visitors are lead outside to rate the night. This is followed by a walk into the telescope room. During the time the visitors are in the auditorium, I have been opening the dome and checking the settings of the telescope to assure it is aimed correctly at the first target, the planet Venus. In July, Venus is the bright “star” low in the western sky. Through the big telescope, it shows up well enough and large enough to see it “in phase” just like viewing the phase of the moon. At this time (July 12, 2010) Venus is the same distance from Earth as our sun. (93 million miles) and its orbit will be bringing it yet closer. Keep watching Venus on its evening travels because as the month comes to an end the planets of Mars and Saturn will both come in close proximity to it. This will be something to view. An now the moon is coming into view in the evening. These shots were taken by putting the lens of my Canon up to the apperature of a 8inch reflective telescope one evening. Not bad for the type of arrangement. Try just putting your binoculars in front of your camaera. You will be surprised at what you will get.

Goldendale Observatory 1

Goldendale Observatory sits and a hilltop at 2100 ft overlooking the valley below. From our views to the southwest we see green farm land and tall white wind generators scattered over the hills in the distance. The view to the southeast is pretty much the same with snow covered Mt Hood in the background. We are parked in the observatory complex about fifty feet north of the observatory on a site that at one time held a single wide mobile home. The observatory is open everyday except Monday and Tuesday from 2-5 and 8-midnight (summer hours). When the observatory is closed, so is the gate and we are here alone. I’m not sure I will enjoy that. Time will tell.

We met with Steve (the only full time employee) who is the “Interpretive Specialist”. His job is to keep the place running and also put on the evening program. We are going to attend that program tonight as tourists and see what its like, but the weather is not cooperating. It is cloudy at 6:50pm and sprinkling right now and, believe it not, clouds make for poor star gazing. I will give you my impressions tomorrow.

On the Road Again June 30, 2010

June 30, 2010

The beginning of our latest adventure. We left Eugene yesterday at about Noon. We had a few things to finish up before we took off and our trip was only going to be about 200 miles so it was alright to leave late. A trip up I-5 to Portland, around the 205 and then east on I-84 got us to the Columbia Gorge. It had been a long time since we last traveled through that beautiful area. It brought back some good memories too. We decided on the name for our younger son at one of the waterfalls not too far from Multnomah Falls. Take some time and drive the scenic highway so that you can stop at the many waterfalls and also Crown Point. It is worth your time.

We arrived at Biggs Junction which is at the junction of I-84 and Hwy 97 at about 5:30. The campground at Maryhill State Park across the river was full so we pulled in to Deschutes Crossing State Park which is in Oregon. The campground is very nice with lots of trees and grass. The A loop is set up for RVs and has water and electricity at each site. The B Loop is more for tenters with no hook ups and large spaces of grass in which to use. Because it was only for one night we parked in a nice flat grassy spot with the rear of the trailer about 20 feet from the Deschutes River.

During the 1840s and 1850s people were using the Oregon Trail to get to western Oregon which an emigrant of 1852 called “the Garden of the World” The overland route was called by some, “the landscape with no earth” because of the rocky conditions encountered. Each succeeding group had to travel a slightly different path on the “trail” because the previous herds would have eaten and tramped the vegetation into dust and/ or mud. When the parties finally reached the Columbia River and proceeded along the south side, they came to the Deschutes River. Depending on the time of year, crossing the river at the mouth could be quite treacherous. Brave souls forded the river themselves sometimes using Native American guides. Others paid the $15 to ferry their group across the wide river. Looking at the river this morning I can’t imagine trying to walk or even ride a horse across that wide body of water