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.