49/52 - Wild Trout Lake

This past week, Trout Lake showed its wild side.

Last weekend, we got a couple inches of snow to coat the ground. But then it got a little warmer, and the falling snow turned to rain. A lot of rain. For the next several days, it poured continually. This is a bad combination. The rain quickly melted much of the snowpack that had developed on the mountains, and the combined deluge overflowed all of the local waterways. The worst came together on Tuesday night into Wednesday, when water flowed across the main road in Trout Lake, closing the school and rendering several places unreachable. Friends of ours woke up Wednesday morning to find themselves surrounded by water: their driveway and ground floor garage were already flooded, and the water was only a few inches from entering their slightly elevated first floor. They moved what they could to the second floor and were evacuated later that day by Search and Rescue.

This USGS White Salmon River discharge chart speaks for itself.

Near the peak of the flow on Wednesday, we walked down to the river. The water was as high as I think we've ever seen it, to the point where we had a hard time recognizing where we were along the river.

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Somewhere underneath all of that water is our sandy beach and several waterfalls, including Sidewinder/Kettle Falls. With this much water, it's easy to see why all of the waterways in town overflowed.

By Friday, the rain had largely abated, allowing much of the water to recede. We took advantage of a break to take another walk to the river on Sunday.

By Sunday, the river was back to a normal high level for this time of year. The difference between Wednesday and Sunday was striking. For reference, here is the water level at a bridge near the southernmost river section of our property.

Wednesday at peak flow / Sunday at normal "high"

Corinne and Anders stood at Wednesday's waterline, which was easily identifiable by the clean line of Ponderosa pine needles that were swept up.

Here is Anders standing next to a cluster of severed roots that were swept up by the currents and pressed into a ball against this tree.

Despite having the river as one of its property boundaries, we are very thankful that our property is not in a floodplain. It is incredible to see such a dramatic change in such a short period of time, and we are able to be an observer of the high waters without worrying!

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Trout Lake exerted its wildness in other ways this week as well. We've had a covey of quail (yes, I looked it up) around the house. They wander around the driveway until they notice us, then fly up into the trees.

When we first moved to Trout Lake, we saw turkey tracks all over the property. But we hadn't seen any in a long time until this past week.

Now we have a confirmed sighting of 13 turkeys! The rafter (group of turkeys - yes, I looked that up, too) has been wandering all around our place for several days now.

But the most unexpected exhibit was one that happened too quickly for a photo opportunity. On Thursday morning, I noticed some movement out our Great Room window and discovered a herd of Elk booking single-file through our yard into our forest! We've had elk come through our property before, but this is only the second time that we've witnessed it.

Mother Nature abounds!

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders

41/52 - Stumps, Squash, and A Bat

Our neighbors have a flower and squash patch every year. They previously had a large garden patch they tended, but for the past few years they have seeded with flowers and squash as a low maintenance way to keep the weeds out. We enjoyed cut flowers a few times from it this summer, and now that fall is here the squash is overflowing.

We gathered a carload of various decorative and edible squash a couple of weeks ago, but it barely made a dent in their patch. They decided to load a trailer full of squash and put a "free" sign on it at the end of our road. Within a few hours, the entire trailer had been emptied. So a few days later, we gave them a hand loading it a second time. It disappeared just as quickly.

We are now properly prepared for the great pumpkin shortage of 2015. Thanks, Carl and Inese!

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Speaking of things you only see in farm country... Corinne was out for a walk to the mailbox when she encountered this coming down the road:

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This is one section of one arm of a pivot irrigation system, which we have throughout the valley. It's not every day that you get to see something like this. And this was actually the SECOND one in a row to drive by, so Corinne had enough time to get her camera out.

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As summer fades into fall, our time for doing outdoor improvement projects is closing down. We have a BIG one starting very soon (more on that next week), but I did accomplish a smaller one that was particularly satisfying.

In the almost 10 years that we've lived in Trout Lake, we have thinned out the plethora of trees in our yard. The previous owners loved trees and planted a variety of interesting trees in what was then an empty yard: Butternut, Quaking Aspen, Elm, Oak, Maple, Cherry, Giant Sequoia, Port Orford Cedar, Hawthorn, and more. But as the trees grew, they started to crowd each other. So we have gradually started to thin them out. But without a good way to remove the stumps, we just left them.

Until now.

Last weekend I rented a stump grinder and spent a few hours grinding out many of the stumps we had accumulated. We didn't quite get them all this go 'round, but one more day and we should be able to check this longtime property management task off of the to-do list.

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Walking back into the house after practicing soccer in the yard, Anders suddenly called out: "Mom, Dad, look at this!" When we got closer, we saw what he did: a small bat was lying face down on the grass. When we leaned over to get a closer look, it turned its head and opened its mouth.

Something wasn't right. We have little brown bats in our area during the summer months, but we don't see them this late in the season. And we'd never seen one just sitting on the ground in plain sight. We couldn't see any obvious signs of injury. We know that white nose syndrome is a major problem for bats, but we didn't see any of the telltale white coloring on his nose, and the experts haven't reported any cases this far west yet. When we checked on him after a short while, he had moved about a foot from his original location, still on the ground.

Not knowing what to do, we made a call to our local conservation district. They referred us to the local Department of Fish and Wildlife office, who then called their bat specialist in Olympia. The best hypothesis they had was that this bat could have been one of this year's pups that somehow got left behind when the rest of the bats migrated at the end of the summer. There aren't any wildlife rehabilitation facilities anywhere near us that would take bats. They suggested that he was probably cold, so the recommendation was to give him a place protected from the elements and see what happens.

We found a small cardboard box, lined it with fleece, and wrapped the outside with a towel. We used two sticks to transfer him to box and placed the box at the base of the closest tree to where we found him. He seemed more active when we picked him up, spreading his wings once. Once we placed him in the box, he appeared to snuggle into the inside corner on the fleece.

Survival seemed unlikely, but it didn't hurt to try. Now we could only wait and see.

We checked on him every day, but he didn't show much activity. By the fourth day, we confirmed that he had lost his battle for survival. We hope he died knowing that someone cared.

We put the whole box - bat and all - into a ziplock bag and put it into our refrigerator, hoping to bring him to Anders's school for Show and Share day. But the school was concerned that it could give the kids nightmares, so they said no. Seems to me like this would have been a perfect opportunity to de-mystify bats so that they aren't scary, particularly given that several of the students did a bat writing project.

Oh well. Anders got a good look and hopefully a better appreciation for bats as a result.

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders

36/52 - Old Friends, New Wildlife, 1st Grade!

We see lots of wildlife around us on a daily basis; we practically have deer living in our yard fulltime. But it's still a nice surprise when we come across some of the less common creatures.

Coyotes are no stranger in our parts, but they are animals that we mostly hear and not see. (And boy, can they make a racket at night.) But recently we have seen a lone coyote out during the day and wandering through the lawn. We're guessing that it's a younger animal, perhaps born in the spring. We're glad to see him around! He should feel free to eat as many mice and gophers as he likes.

On a different day after some irrigation work outside, I walked back to the house only to find that somewhere along the way I had unknowingly picked up a hitchhiker: a praying mantis!

He seemed perfectly content just sitting on my shoulder. It even looks like he is posing for the photo.

After our shoot, I dropped him off back out in the tall grass. Hopefully that's where he wanted to go.

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We happened to notice via social media that a college friend of ours from the East coast was going to be at a library conference in Portland, so we made plans to join him for dinner after his arrival. After he took a brief diversion - public transit in a new city is hard! - we took him out to a few of our favorite eateries in Portland while we refreshed old friendships.

Salt & Straw

Great to see you, Tom!

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Each September, the town of Bingen WA hosts a Huckleberry Festival. In addition to the huckleberry ice cream and huckleberry pie, they always put together an engaging lineup of live entertainment. This year we enjoyed a raptor demonstration, a jazz band, a juggler, a swing trio, and a fire dancer/juggler pair.

The entertainment that made the biggest impact, though, was the evening rock band, LiveWire. While primarily an AC/DC tribute band, in their first set they did a veritable tour of 70s and 80s rock: Journey, Foreigner, Guns N' Roses. But the one that really stuck with Anders was their performance of Hot Blooded by Foreigner. (Thankfully, he doesn't really know what the song is about.) We stuck around for the beginning of their second set as well, but by that point it was getting late so we headed for home.

Before the show we had explained to Anders the concept of a tribute band, and that LiveWire was an AC/DC tribute band. But apparently we had neglected to mention that the band's first set wasn't actually AC/DC songs. The next day at home, Anders kept asking for us to play AC/DC. But when we did, he got upset: "Dad, I wanted AC/DC!" What he really wanted was Foreigner and Journey. I'm afraid he might be confused about AC/DC's music for some time. He did notice that the font on the side of his AC/DC Hot Wheels vehicle matched the one that LiveWire used on their drum kit.

Several days later while he was laying in bed, he made the following observation:

Dad, I've noticed that in music they use the word 'tonight' a lot more than the word 'today'.

He then proceeded to demonstrate by singing Hot Blooded and Rockin' Robin, two songs that have probably never been sung in succession in the history of civilization. I think he's going to be a good person to have on your team during a Sing-Down.

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Anders is now a first grader! He actually missed the first day of school, home sick with a mild fever. But he was excited to rejoin his 15 classmates on the second day.

Kindergarten started an hour later than the rest of the school. So last year, Anders rode a dedicated kindergarten bus route which arrived at our house around 8:30am each morning. But starting with first grade, he rides the regular morning bus which stops at our house at 7:13am. That is early, and we are not morning people. Anders, in particular, loves his sleep in the morning. As an example, Anders didn't wake up until 10am on Christmas morning this past year.

In preparation for the earlier bus time, we did shift Anders's bedtime routine 30 minutes earlier when we returned from our trip to the East Coast, before he had a chance to readjust to West Coast time. But man, it's still feels early.

Did I mention it was early? We all look tired.

Despite the early start, he is still loves going to school.

Anders and his 1st Grade teacher, Mrs. Davis

Enjoy First Grade, Anders!

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders

17/52 - Birds and Old Books

A few years ago, our friend Jen read the book Hardscrabble Harvest by Dahlov Ipcar in one of her Kindermusik classes, and we instantly loved it. Dahlov Ipcar wrote children's books from the 1940s into the early 1980s, and this particular copy was actually from Jen's own childhood. Most of Dahlov's books have been out of print for some time, but luckily for us a Maine publisher had just started reprinting them. Since then, we've become big fans. Her artwork is fresh even after all these years, and the nature inspired story-lines are a hit with Anders. He now has a "Dahlov Ipcar" section of his bookshelf, and he accesses it frequently.

Dahlov Ipcar is still producing art today at the age of 96. Given her age, we decided now was the time to let her know how much we love her books. Anders drew this picture for her which we sent along with a note.

In response, Dahlov's son, who manages her correspondence and website, sent Anders a picture of a reindeer that Dahlov drew at the age of 4 1/2, along with her review of Anders' drawing:

In her estimation, [Dahlov's reindeer drawing] wasn't as fully developed as Anders' deer picture. She thinks his is an excellent work.

They even posted his drawing on Dahlov's own website. How's that for inspiration?

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Our friends at the Mount Adams Resource Stewards (MARS) organized and hosted a Bird Festival at the Conboy Lake National Wildlife Refuge in nearby Glenwood. The event included all sorts of bird-related activities. Biologists from the Washington Fish and Wildlife were capturing small songbirds using mist netting, then tagging, weighing, recording and releasing the birds. There were also guided bird walks through the refuge. We arrived just in time for Anders to build a bluebird birdhouse from pre-cut kits.

We gave Anders the hammer and tried to keep our fingers as far away as possible.

Did you know that the inside of a bluebird house should be notched or scored so that a young hatchling can climb to the opening? Neither did we. (If he can't get to the opening, perhaps that is a sign that he shouldn't be jumping out, either. Just a thought.)

The Gorge Discovery Center brought a few of their raptors to the event. All of their birds have some disability that prevents them from being released to the wild.

This American Kestrel was illegally captured as a baby by people who were planning to train it for falconry. As a result, he has imprinted on humans and never had the opportunity to learn hunting skills from his natural-born parents.

This Great Horned Owl has poor depth perception and would be unable to hunt very successfully.

This Red-Tailed Hawk has a damaged wrist and can only extend one of its wings about 80%.

All three birds are flight capable. Whenever the wind blew, they would all turn into the wind and spread their wings.

Oh, and we also won a pair of nice binoculars in the festival raffle! This was the first in what is hoped to be an annual event. I suspect we'll be back.

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders

13/52 - Spring Break

When Spring Break arrived at Anders's preschool, we took some time off to make it a break for the whole family.

Our first Spring Break activity was a hike on Mt Adams. We worked the morning (from home) and then took the afternoon off to enjoy spring's first spell of warm weather. We picked an easy route with only a small elevation change, from the Mt Adams Horse Camp to the Big Tree (which we have visited before), only a couple of miles roundtrip.

We didn't see a lot of wildlife, but there were signs everywhere.

Something lived here

While the snow had melted at our place, there were still significant patches in the woods at this higher elevation. In fact, we had to start our hike at a slightly different spot because the access road still had a downed tree across the road.

Anders has entered the "joke" phase, with joke intentionally in quotes. However, on this hike he made up a fairly decent (for a 5 year old) joke:

A: Knock knock
B: Who's there?
A: Moss
B: Moss who?
A: Hey, wait for moss! (wait for us)

At least it makes sense, so that's progress.

Hooray for spring (and summer) in the Gorge!

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The more significant part of our Spring break celebration was a long weekend trip to McMinnville, OR. We rented a small house downtown with some friends; with two 5-year olds, one 2-year old, and three adults on the trip, there was never a dull - or quiet - moment in the house.

Our two planned destinations on this trip were the Enchanted Forest and the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum. Since the warm and clear weather did not follow us to McMinnville, we chose the day forecast to be less rainy for our visit to the Enchanted Forest.

The kids had a great time exploring the rides and exhibits.

The weather held out for us all day! But not everything went so smoothly.

When we passed the Haunted House, Anders decided that he really wanted to go in. We tried to convince him that it was pretty scary, but he was undeterred. Yes, this is the same kid that only recently made it all the way through his first movie. We didn't want to be too protective, so we made a deal with him. In another part of the park, there was a small, dark (admittedly creepy) Alice in Wonderland rabbit hole that went through a tree stump, down into the ground, under the walkway, and out the other side. When we first passed it Anders wouldn't go in. If he wanted to go into the Haunted House, he would first have to go down the rabbit hole.

"Okay, no problem!"

We walked back to the rabbit hole, and Anders went straight into the rabbit hole and out the other side. His friend Bridger, who also wanted to go into the Haunted House (though less enthusiastically), still wanted no part of the rabbit hole, so he was eliminated. But Anders had passed the test and was ready. Or so he thought.

Before...

Anders and I walked slowly through the house. When we were about halfway through, Anders turned to me and said "I know that this isn't real." But his bravery only lasted for another minute or so until a louder-than-average sound from down a dark hallway pushed him over the edge. We walked more briskly to the exit.

...and After.

When Corinne praised him for being so brave he burst into tears and responded: "No, I was only brave for half of it." Still, we are pretty proud of how he handled himself.

Overall, a successful day of fun!

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Our other destination has been on our "to visit" list for quite some time: Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum. We picked the right day to be indoors; the sky dumped rain all day. We had two giant buildings to explore!

The big draw for most people is the Spruce Goose, which is enormous and impressive. It's so large that the museum building in which it is housed was designed and built around that plane.

Here's the model...

...and now the real thing, or at least as much as we could fit in the lens at one time.

If you look closely, you can see the two kids at the bottom center.

For us, perhaps the most exciting aspect was seeing one our our own creations on display in the museum: the Insight (aka ScanEagle) Unmanned Aircraft. Here Anders and Bridger, both children of former Insitu employees, do their best impression of a ScanEagle in front of the real thing.

We skipped the Evergreen Water Park. If we wanted to get wet, we could have stood outside for a minute. I did get to ride in one of the vehicles before we left. (Needs more horsepower.)

Fun vacation!

- Mike, Corinne and Anders