Homestead Projects

Our little birdy was taken to a wild animal rehab where she will be set free into nature when she is old enough to fly. The lady said had we not brought her in she would have died. She was dehydrated. Most of the advice we got online was 100% wrong. It's hard to trust what you read. We were giving her an assortment of crawlers mostly worms. Once she had worms she spit out the water soaked dog food(she decided she no longer wanted that). Nobody ever mentioned that birds get most of their liquid for hydration from berries. The first thing she told us was to give her strawberries, or blackberries. So there is some advice for you fellow 'birders' who may also come across an abandoned bird. They need berries!

We have started on a couple of projects around the house. The first one we found at a re-use store. Everything was half off. Wayne saw that the head of the axe was a good shape, and it had a Swedish stamp. Later did he find out it is a Gransfors Bruks axe. Which is apparently top of the line. He immediately ordered a Gransfors Bruks replacement hickory handle, and started restoring the head. Apparently by soaking high carbon steal in vinegar it takes the rust right off, and with a little grinding, and sharpening the head was like new! Not bad for a $2 duct taped hunk of junk.

This next project I was a little more involved in. Wayne cut the piece right after we moved in. The tree had already been downed and it was already dry. He sanded the top, and linseed oiled it. It started out as a plant stand. We were at the hardware store, and I really wanted to use metal pipes for something. I love metal pipe DIY projects! Here she is- our little space ship!

We have been doing an incredible amount of yard work. Apparently every time a tree or branch was cut. The previous owners made a pile of brush on the side of the yard. The area that they covered up was somewhat level. That is a rare thing in these parts, so we hauled and chipped the entire area. We decided that we would turn that area into a camp site. The campground now connects to all of my hiking trails. It is starting to really come together!

We now have the tipi set up!

We have started a small orchard! We have 3 Apples trees, and 2 pear trees.

We painted the cottage, it now has a loft, and power!

I also did some brick work. The project took 2 days! We did not have a line between dirt (which I hope is temporary), and grass. I recently bought grass seed in hopes to get these mole holes covered, and fill in the thin areas. Our dog has recently figured out she likes to dig! What perfect timing! hah. We had a huge stack of bricks under the house. The previous owners used them to keep their wood stack off of the ground. They are 8 inches long, and added up the amount of bricks we had. It was the perfect length for what I had in mind! Next stop: Ground cover, and stepping stones. :)

Some Sad News From The Homestead

About 3 weeks ago a couple of robins started building a nest outside of our bedroom window. We had no complaints seeing as we are dying to see some wildlife out here. About 2 days later the robins came back from wherever birds go to "get down". The lady bird-- which we call "Bright Eyes" came home to brood her eggs. Robins have 2 sets of kin each year. We assume this is the second batch being that they are so late into summer. We never thought a bird would enjoy 'people watching', but that's what they did until the babies hatched. They had 3 funny looking little babies. We watched them closely waiting to hear them chirp. I don't think we heard a single chirp till the 3rd day. The mom and dad took turns feeding them literally non-stop all day every day. On the 4th day I couldn't see the nest for whatever reason. I thought maybe I was just not seeing from the right angle. It was a little windy. I ran outside assuming if something happened I would hear them. I heard nothing. The next day was our Birthday trip to Crater Lake. Upon returning home-- We found out the nest was gone! Something had snatched up one of the babies, and knocked the other 2 out of the nest. Only 1 survived. She(we think it is a she) is now 7 days old, and is showing a LOT of progress. One of her eyes was damaged in the fall. Wayne has taken up the mother roll. They talk to each other. She always wants to be close to him when he is around. She jumped and flapped her wings onto his finger today. Yesterday she did no perching. Today that is all she has done. She has learned balance in 1 day. She is perching as I write this. Tomorrow I will wake up to her flying! According to the inter-web baby robins fly from their nest at only 13 days old. It takes them another 10-15 days to become strong fliers. Wayne built her a covered nest attached to the house. It keeps her away from predators, less wind, accessible for us to feed her, and she can hear the other robins in the yard. This is where she will learn to fly from, and will come back to be fed. Eventually from what I read they will stop coming "home" to be fed as they learn to find food on their own.

Wayne honored the fallen family by building a covered box and placed their nest back up in the tree that they fell from. Maybe someone will make use of it, or parts of the nest? Either way we liked them living here for the last few weeks, and it was one BEAUTIFUL nest.

I will update as things go on. We have done a lot of research on the topic, and have every intention to keep this little lady as wild as possible.

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Crater Lake Birthday Adventures

There is no place we can't go! This was considered my Birthday trip. The previous birthday trip was not supposed to be so elaborate. Everywhere was sold out, and I really wanted to go see something new, and stay somewhere overnight. Crater lake is quite close, and I havn't been there since I was little. My mom doesn't remember it being the way it was either. So it was a well needed trip for all of us. It WAS BEAUTIFUL! My mom and brother came along on this trip with Wayne and I. Everything around Crater lake was sold out, and has been probably for a year now. The lake was so calm, and reflective. It looked like a mirror. It is the most photogenic place I have ever been to by far(I took over 1,000 pictures on this trip).. It is also the deepest lake in the United States(7th deepest in the world), and the park takes up an impressive 183,224 acres. It is apparently rare when all of the snow melts off in the summer. The roads were all completely open this year- Giving us the WHOLE experience. We saw a side of crater lake that many people don't get a chance to see. I highly recommend making the trip if you havn't recently. Especially this year!

We stopped at 2 waterfalls. 1 on the way there, and 1 on the way home. Salt Creek Falls was a huge highlight of the trip as well. It is the second largest waterfall in Oregon at 286 feet tall. The height of the waterfall is just a little less impressive as the process that created it. According to the Northwest waterfall Survery, "Glaciers scoured the valley out during the last Ice Age, then following their retreat, lava flows filled in a portion of the valley, creating the narrow canyon walls composed of columnar basalt that can be seen at the falls." There is a high salt content in a lot of the springs in the area. This waterfall would be beautiful to go see any time of year.

We also did some adventuring around Waldo Lake. It is one of the largest natural lakes in Oregon, and one of the purest lakes in the world(along with Crater Lake). Both lakes do not have any inlets, and there is a prohibition on gas motor use to preserve the water clarity. You can see depths of 120 feet in Waldo Lake on a calm day. It was impressive to see a lake so large, and so little activity on it. This is a good place to "get away from it all". A Very very quiet and beautiful lake. Every lake after seeing Crater Lake was.. Not even on the same level of beauty though. I recommend seeing everything on the way to go see Crater Lake. End the trip with a bang.

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Meet the Newest Member of the Family

Meet the newest member of the family. She is a 9 month old playful pup named Kola(It means 'friend' in Sioux). Her breed is German shepherd/border collie mix. She just happens to be one of the fastest learning, and smartest dogs I have ever been around. I am really excited to watch her grow, and learn. We have kept a close eye on her to see what our limitations with her are- as far as trust goes. She has been so good! She impresses me every day. I think she is really liking her new home, and we are happy she is a part of it.

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Birthday Adventures

Yesterday was the celebration of my birth. I am one year older now, and I am feeling damn good(Can I say that?). :) I really wanted to go to the lake, and have dinner. There is also a year round gondola ride to the top of a mountain on the way, and of course we stopped. I am SO happy that we did. I could have went home after JUST doing that, and I would have been a happy lady. The gondola ride is at Willamette Pass Ski Resort. It takes you up to the top of Eagle Peak where there is a 360 degree view of all of Oregon's beauty. The elevation was 6,666 feet at the top. We started at 5,120 feet. We went up 1,546 feet on the gondola! The weather also couldn't have been better! My mom, brother, sister and 2 of her kids came along with Wayne and I for the trip, and our next destination was Odell Lake Lodge & Resort!

Odell Lake is one of Oregon's largest natural lakes, and is only 2 miles from Willamette Pass. Apparently it gets very windy there mid day. We had only stopped there once in the morning on our way to our Fort Rock Adventures. After a look around the sold out lake. We continued on this wonderful birthday adventure to Crescent Lake.

Crescent lake is a much smaller lake than Odell lake, but it has a beach with sand! Both restaurants had live music at 5pm. We thoroughly enjoyed staying there to eat(less wind). The food was great, the music was great, the weather was great, the view was great, and the company.. I can't forget them. I loved everything about this trip. My nephew went for a swim in the crystal clear blue water before we headed back.

We stopped at several campgrounds on the way back to my house(for smores). My sister and her new husband like to go boating, so we peeped a few areas they may be interested in. We found a GOLD MINE! Shelter Cove on Odell lake is the spot! They have 13 lakefront cabins with their own personal moorage per cabin. It is free on private cabin docks. The marina holds 130 boats, has boat rentals, and even gas available on the dock! 72 campsites, a store(with an espresso bar), showers, laundry, and a community fire pit in front of the marina. Their resort vehicles were hummers.... It was top of the line, or should I say "top shelf". We will be back there. Maybe for an extended family gathering, or someone else's birthday(HINT)!

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