Saturday, June 1st
Every year in early June OSU’s Peavy Arboretum celebrates National Get Outdoors Day by hosting a variety of family-centric activities in the research forest. The goal is to get people outside, with a focus on encouraging the participation of families who may not be familiar with the recreational opportunities available in these state-owned forest lands. As the web page puts it: Durante este evento, el bosque está lleno de actividades bilingües, familias, y grupos comunitarios, todos unidos con el objetivo de salir, disfrutar con la comunidad, y con suerte aprender algo nuevo.
E has been a bilingual volunteer in the event for a couple of years now. This year she was assigned to the cookie table. Now we know what you’re probably thinking: What an ideal choice on the part of the organizers in terms of matching a specific worker to a specific job! But actually, they weren’t that kind of cookies. E’s job was to help kids decorate wooden “cookie” medallions to wear during the events and to have as a souvenir.
E was delighted to meet parents and their offspring from a variety of Spanish speaking countries, as well as people from Turkey, Korea, Japan and Iran. They all seemed to really enjoy the activity.
Thursday, June 6th
Today we went on a tour put on by the Greenbelt Land Trust. The site was a 1600 acre parcel of wooded hillside called CBow Ridge. This was once a privately owned property which has recently been converted to a permanent conservation easement to be managed by GLT. The tract is about forty-five minutes south of Corvallis, just north of the Eugene Springfield area. As the map shows, it is located just a few miles east of I-5 near the town of Coburg. What the map does not show is that the property climbs the west face of the ridge, rising from the 400 ft elevation of the valley floor to 1500 feet at the top.
It is a very beautiful piece of land. In the past, the property owners had for a time tried to use the hillside to run cattle. But although there are a number of grassy meadows here and there, the soil is rocky and produced relatively low quality forage. There was also some logging in the area, but this was apparently limited to selective cutting of a few high value trees. Consequently there is no sign whatever of old clearcuts or plantation style replantings. Instead, the area retains much of its natural character, which includes large swathes of oak savannah and an unusually large variety of tree and shrub species. In recent years the owners made only recreational use of the property–trail rides and camp-outs.
The trees and shrubs were the focus of the tour, which was led by Ed Jensen, Oregon State University Professor Emeritus and author of Shrubs to Know in Pacific Northwest Forests, along with David Zahler, Greenbelt Board Member and former faculty member of OSU College of Forestry. We were able to practice using a shrub identification manual, which reminded M of his long-ago Field Botany class in college. We were excited to hear about several shrubs/trees that we already have in our somewhat out of control, falling-into-wilderness yard.
Friday, June 7th
Lots of garden work today. E weeded the coreopsis colony while M spread wood chips around.
Saturday, June 8th
M has embarked on another backyard project. He’s plans to dig up about 50 square feet of grass and merge Hummock Project #2 with Hummock Project #3. “Less lawn!” is his rallying cry.
E has been doing long range planning. Today she walked over to the Patissier and bought four pain au chocolate and two almond paste croissants. Thus we have been provided with three (!) Sunday breakfasts. We’ve saved out two pain au chocolate for tomorrow and frozen the rest.
That done, she hauled out an aluminum ladder and spent an hour or so thinning apples. We cut our best tree way back last fall, so now pretty much all of it is ladder accessible. Then she did more weeding and again made war on the mites with her deadly water cannon.
Sunday, June 9th
M went out to continue working on his project. He wanted to get at least some of the basic prep work done before his upcoming enforced idleness.
E managed her usual flurry of Sunday tasks. This included a walk in the OSU forest, where she found a really beautiful day. There were lots of people about but there were also an unusually high number of bird species warbling away and also some very noisy bullfrogs at the lake.
E also claims to have seen a turtle–a very rare sight around here. She has no photographic evidence but is sticking to her story.
Monday, June 10th
M had another surgery, the right eye this time. That will be the end of it as he’s only having two eyes done. Apparently there is no surgery yet available to improve cloudiness of vision in the Third Eye.
John Muir ain’t got nothin’ on you two! And you are even doing the “less lawn!” thing!
My heroes.
I also think your Third Eye is functioning well, no need for intervention. May the second recover as well as the first. Do you intend to wear eyeglass frames with no glass at all? Please enhance next chapter with photo.
Actually, M now has phantom glasses syndrome. He can still feel on his nose the weight of the glasses that he isn’t wearing…
Is it possible that M has an ancestor known as the Cyclops?
Plant!! You finally solved the mystery. We will get a DNA test ASAP
Cookies get used for a variety of things!! One year when money was especially tight, i cut about 4″ diameter ones, sanded the centers, leaving the bark on the outside, Drew pines and lakes and mountains on with black ink, varnished, drilled a hole at the top and threaded twine in, and glued a red bow at the top and everyone got an ornament!!
I use large diameter ones for cake bases. Somewhere I have the one that I handsawed to win that event at a woodsmens competition in Orono, Maine. And if you get the right kind, the smell is heavenly!! (if you can ever find yellow birch, grab it…rough it up..it smells like root beer or sarsparilla!!)
Very interesting! Never knew about any of this!