Not For The Faint Of Heart

Neighbor Dean, who is currently in Nigeria for a couple of months, recently sent these photos along. It seems one of the natives had found and killed a rather large python. They decided they were going to turn it into soup, like the goat soup he had been having on a regular basis.

Dean thought he might be able to get the skin to save as a souvenir, perhaps, but when he got to the "kitchen" he discovered the "chef" had cut the whole snake up, skin and all.

In spite of that he said the snake pepper soup was even better than the goat pepper soup.

Whatever you say, Dean. Whatever you say.

Teach 'Em While They're Young

I figure that if I'm babysitting for free I may as well get some free labor, one way or the other. In order to get started in that direction you have to teach the kids how to do it when they are really young, something I failed to do when my own kids were this age. Live and learn.

So under the guise of "fun" and "helping Gramma" we start off with the laundry. Here is the baby taking the stuff out of the dryer and putting it into the basket. You'll notice she gets every last piece out, even if she has to climb partially in to get it.

The last piece is out.
Now we she takes the stuff out of the washer and puts it into the empty dryer.
Yeah, sometimes it takes a while.

But eventually it will all be transferred. It doesn't matter if some is dropped onto the floor.

Now to wait for the next cycle.

Maybe in another six months she won't even need any supervision! ☺

Picnic At The Lake

Today my husband and I took the baby for an outing to nearby Lake Mung Ming. We decided to have a little picnic.

The baby was ready.
We found a nice table in the shade overlooking the lake.
She enjoyed her pickle...
...and boiled egg...
...along with some juice to wash it all down.

We were going to stop and feed the ducks and geese on the way home but she was getting sleepy.

Very sleepy.
Over and out.

Spell Check

I don't know how the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT) makes their signs. There were more than one of these posted in the area (on the way to East Lake), but this was the only one with a "problem".

I'll allow that the "L's" were worn away, probably by weather.
Somebody please get this sign painter a spell check!

Wils Fly Over

Changes

After we got back from vacation I was wading through my backed up e-mails. There was one that told me a free horse I had mentioned interest in was now available, as the previous potential deal had fallen through.

That meant if I was truly still interested I would have to find some room. I agonized for a few days and finally decided to put the sheep up for sale. I decided to make a clean break and put them in Craig's List for $25 each. The next day they were all gone, and the buyer (who bought all five) also took the goat. I am left with the ram, but I was asking substantially more for him. I don't mind holding on to him for a while longer.

This is the picture that came with the original email looking for anyone who might be interested in the free horse. She is an Oldenburg, branded but no papers, 17 years old, 15.2 hands and goes by the name "Northern Star". She is a former eventer. You can see why I was so interested. She's really nice!

Here she is at my house, after we went for a little ride.

At first I was a little timid about riding her since I was used to little Flora, who's only about 12 hands high (one hand is 4"). But today is the second time I rode Star and I've already relaxed a lot with her. I hope to be able to ride several times a week. Also now when I ride with my sister I won't look like a big fat freak on a poor little tiny pony.

I've also been thinking that since I no longer have the sheep (with the exception of Perry, at this point) I might want to change the name of my blog. You must admit the title is rather long... Maybe I should change it to something like "IDC and other creatures", or "Wilamar Farms", or "My Micro Farm", or something along those lines. Any suggestions? Anyone??

As we were leaving Bend for Eugene we stopped at the Best Buy and I bought the laptop I've been coveting for so long. It's a Macbook Pro, 15", and I got an "air card" so I can connect when I leave the house, i.e. when I go with my friend Vicki to Cambria. Also if Wil is hogging the pc and I want to look something up I can just use my laptop! Yay!

Another big change is one of the best. I don't know if I mentioned in this blog yet (though I know I've mentioned it to relatives in emails) but there is a one year waiting period to enter the Coast Guard. We wrote a letter to our congressman asking if he could speed things along. I wasn't sure if it would help but a nice lady from his office did check into it for us. The Coast Guard only takes in about 4,000 new enlistments per year, compared to about 80,000 for the Army, which helps explain why there is such a long waiting time. So while we wait for Wil to join the service in the meantime he has found a job.

Actually neighbor Dean's son, Randy, found the job for him. Randy is a pilot and works for a company that checks pipelines for oil leaks. He mentioned that the company would be hiring a new observer and Wil went to apply. This all took place a couple weeks before we went on vacation. Today was Wil's first day as an aerial observer. His first paid job. YAY!

I expect I will again have sheep some day. But for now I can say "Been there, done that." Meanwhile how about some suggestions for a new name for my blog?

Vacation 2009, East Lake

One of the things the whole family did together was spend the afternoon at East Lake. The gang was split into two groups which then piled onto the two rented party boats. I'm not all that into fishing and I had brought a good book with me. I asked the group I was with to drop me off at "my" beach, which is on the opposite end of the lake from the docks.

The majority of the banks of the lake are very steep.

But "my" beach is very interesting. Here's the view from the beach looking out towards the lake. You can see the party boat that dropped me off is just left of center in the picture (click on the picture to enlarge).

Here's a shot of the beach from the water. (This was taken as I was being picked up a couple hours later.)

Behind the beach area, unseen from the lake, is another tiny little lake, more of a pond. It's very peaceful here.

Here's where I set up my stuff. This is from the big lake looking toward the little lake.

And here's from the little lake looking toward the big lake.

That's probably one of my favorite spots to go when we visit. If there is anyone else on the beach they're usually quite a ways away. Usually I'm totally by myself though. I get to put my music on my ears, pull my hat down, and read my book. If I get drowsy I simply take a nap. I know I'll get picked up in a little while and I'm away from the hustle and bustle. It's a good time for "me" time.

Here's the crew coming to pick me up.

Later, after I got picked up and we were cruising around the lake we noticed this cross etched into the rock. Click on the picture to see it better. It's on the dark rock directly in the middle of the picture. Makes you wonder why it is there.At one point the two young men jumped into the chilly water for a quick swim. That's my nephew in the front and my son (Wil) right behind him. Good practice for the Coast Guard! Brrr!

That was a good day.

The next day we had barbecued hamburgers and hotdogs at the Owner's Park and the following morning half the group left for home. We stayed one more night and then went west to spend one night in the Eugene area before heading south ourselves towards our home.

On the way home we spent some time driving around the Roseburg area. I think we may have found the location of where we would like to relocate to. We've been through this before but this is the first time my husband is actually looking at properties on line.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed. ☺

Vacation 2009, Lava Butte

In all the years we've been visiting Central Oregon the one place we had yet to visit was Lava Butte.

My husband had been up there when he was a youngster. But even though we drive by it every time we drive to Bend I had never been to the top.

I only saw it from the road.Once on top the view is amazing.

On one side is the road we drive by on. You can see how lush it is with the forest.

On the other side you really notice the barrenness left by the volcanoes from long, long ago.
There is a little crater at the top.We walked the trail that edges the crater top. The observation tower is visible at the very top.

Now that I've been to the top of Lava Butte, finally, I can actually say I've been there. I may never do it again, but at least I finally did go!

Vacation 2009, Benham Falls

We had been told that Benham Falls was very pretty to see. On one of our little jaunts around the county we decided to stop in and see for ourselves.

It starts out quietly enough as the Deschutes River.
There is a wide and easy trail leading the way. Soon enough the river begins to narrow.

Benham Falls isn't really a waterfall at all, but rather a section of whitewater rapids.

It's pretty just the same.

Vacation 2009, Edison Ice Cave

At the house we rented for the week (which was very nice, btw) we had an almost daily visitor.
It seemed she was fairly used to people so I think she may have been getting handouts from several people in the neighborhood. I'm not a fan of feeding the wildlife, but I let Wil give her an english muffin once. Just once! She would come around and if nobody came out to feed her she would meander on to the next location. Other times we saw her browsing in the areas between the homes.

A long, long, long time ago, when we first started visiting the central Oregon area, say about 20 years ago, or maybe more because I don't remember having any kids around, we once went to a little hole in the ground they called "the Ice Cave".

As I recall it was a small hole in a little depression in the woods off a dirt trail off a dirt road. It was about 15 feet wide and maybe 4 feet tall at the entrance and went about 15 feet deep. It was probably 85° outside and there were actually ice crystals inside the cave.

I decided one day on our recent vacation that I wanted to visit the cave again and take some pictures. We dug out the 30 year old Deschutes County Forestry map and set out to find it. Click on the map picture and you can see where it says "Edison Ice Cave" in the middle.

We found an area that may have been near and we walked and walked. Then we walked back and took another trail and just walked a little ways. I got my exercise for the day. Unfortunately we were unable to locate the ice cave. Over the years some of the streets have been paved, the trails had changed, trees grew and fell and we just couldn't find it.

We even went so far as to buy a new Forestry map which had totally different trails than the old map and the Edison Ice Cave wasn't even on the new map! Later, once we got home and did a little research on the internet we found a couple of sites that mentioned GPS locations. Next time we go back we'll bring our GPS and try again!