The Fire

 The fire, whose smoke column we saw from the lake, began as a house fire.  The family lost everything and was connected with the Red Cross, a statement that makes me sad.

I don't know how families go through losing homes to fire, all their belongings, memories, often their pets and just start over again, often at a later age.  

Or how they do it, financially.

The friend I went to the lake with is the lady who is living on the decrepid disgusting property that she and her brother bought, after selling her mom's house in town, without really looking on the inside.  She assumed her friend and coworker, who owned the dump, bred big dogs there, was an outspoken "Christian", would not lie to her.  But she did lie and the place is a disaster and should be demolished.

  She really needs a miracle, like to find a nonprofit that would take that mess of a structure away and pull in with a livable mobile home.

I thought it was stupid to buy it.  Junk outside to me meant the inside was probably a wreck too I told her. Besides, breeding big dogs?   Inside a mobile home? That's nuts on its own.   I knew the place inside would be torn up and stink to high heaven, and it was and it did.  Probably should be condemned.

It makes me mad.   They saw her as a mark, gullible, believing, empathetic, certain a "friend" would not sell her a place that actually needs bulldozed.  

There's nothing I can do.  I need to let that go in my mind.  But at least I can invite her to go to the lake now and then, for some fun.   I love to have company when I go places.  It's been tough to find company for adventures.  From her place, the lake is like twenty minutes drive.  

There's the stick outhouse.   It will be soon enough be high and dry.

Picnic site---my friend looks to be asleep.

It was a very pleasant day, outside of the bee sting.

I wish I knew of some housing solution for my friend, but I don't.  

I had thought about a one night out camp trip, heading out today, to avoid the weekenders, but I'll pass.  Tired myself out yesterday.

This weekend is the Art and Air Festival here.  I'm excited about that.   I hope the weather cooperates.

Four Kittens Fixed and Life at the Lake

 I had four boy kittens in my bathroom last night.  They were adorable, here for just the night.  This morning I took them over to the clinic to be fixed.

A lady in Lebanon had requested help.  She'd taken in a stray mom who promptly had five kittens.  She got the mom fixed last week, but couldn't afford to get the now 3 month old kittens fixed.  The girl would wait because she was underweight and had a cold.  But the four boys were fixed today.  She and a neighbor of hers went to pick them up at the clinic after they had been fixed.

That left me free to go up to the lake with the same friend who went last week.

We both know summer is on the wane.   The Corp will start lowering the reservoir level days after Labor Day, which is the 6th or 7th of September.  That is not long from now.

Not much time left.

I left my car at her place and we drove up the backroads.   This time I took my fold up wagon, to make it easier to take things down the trail to the lake from the road.

It was sooo beautiful and peaceful there.

I went paddling around, along the north shore, to the west, to the boat ramp that side.   Along the way, I saw a crude stick house with drift leaned TP shape around a tree.  Then I saw the toilet paper roll stuck in the side.  Yuck.  An outhouse.  That close to the water.  Except the water level will go way down fast in a couple weeks and that shithouse will be high and dry.

It is on a beach an extremely short walk from the actual outhouse at the boat launch parking lot.  Some people are too lazy to walk a couple hundred feet however, I realize.

Also, I saw the Foster Lake Nessi.  She's awesome and seemed almost sad.

When I got back to the beach where M was, she pointed out smoke to the west and a bit south of the end of the lake.   She wanted to call in the fire.  I looked for it on Watch Duty, but nothing.  About 15 or 20 minutes later it popped up on Watch Duty.  It was on Fern Ridge Road and there were level 3 evacuations out by this time.   It was quickly contained however. Our firefighters, structural and wildland, around here are excellent.

Hated to leave this evening, knowing summer is coming to an end.  A yellow jacket gifted me another sting on the back of my knee.  They are just as angry and embittered as we are that summer is almost over.

Spiders!

 My newest hobby is watching the cellar spiders in the corner of my garage.   

I let them stay because they kill the flies.  Every now and then I destroy their very messy webs.   

They are harmless spiders, with extremely long legs and are often called Daddy Long legs, even though they're not really Daddy Long Legs.

Real Daddy Long Legs are Harvestmen and not spiders.  They lack the ability to bite and a segmented body and they don't spin webs.  My garage spiders certainly have long legs but they are Cellar spiders.

Cellar spiders live up to two years, have segmented bodies and extremely long legs that they can sacrifice to predators, to save themselves.

Cellar spiders can bite but you probably would not even feel it.

They are very good at killing and eating all sorts of bad insects from silver fish to other spiders to house flies.   They inject venom into their often silk wrapped prey, that liquifies the victims innards.  Then the spiders suck out the liquified juice.  Yum, eh?

That's why I let a few of them stay, to do a job, rid the garage of any flies.

I think the one on the left is having breakfast

I read about flies too.  (Know your enemy).  Circling flies are generally males trying to protect a territory until a female flies through.  House flies live up to 30 days. Their territories are generally rectangular, not circular. They orient using a light, a stain, something hanging....  They take off when startled backwards, so if you're swatting at one, aim slightly behind the fly.

Flies sleep, so to speak, no eyelids so they can't close their eyes, a few hours at night.  Keeping them awake will tire them and make them easier to eliminate.  Unless they have a food source and warm environment, they die off in October or November, as they are cold blooded.   Eggs and larvae left behind in manure piles, decaying organics, trash....these form the next generation.

 A last intentionally distorted garage spider photo:

I found a home for the neighbors dryer.  They didn't want it.  I feared they'd hand it off to the guy and his trailer the homeless folk helping them knew.  I asked where he took the trash and asked if he was one dumping it along forest roads.  The woman said she didn't know but she thought he dumped it on his property.  Anyhow, the dryer deserved a better fate.  It's been in my garage since they moved but I found someone who needed a working dryer.   She hauled it off yesterday.

I have a lot more space now in the garage and plan to move the old recliner into the garage from the house today.

Avoiding Yardwork Any Way I Can

 I made the video above from a few I took while at Mckercher.  I had my phone in the dry pouch, that is clear but was worried it would get wet anyhow.  It didn't.  Video has add on sound, courtesy of Imovie, an app standard on the phone.

I need to mow my weedy lawn today, to keep neighbors happy, so I'm already doing about anything I can to put it off.  Like scrolling funny facebook reels.  I don't like yardwork.

Otto

Jenny

I don't know about how the wildfires are in Oregon right now because I really don't watch news.

No smoke currently in the valley.  That's a good thing.   

I'm about to finish another book, the fifth in the Louise Penny Chief Inspector Armand Gamanche series.   I like the series.  The characters are deeply developed and so interesting.   Always Gamache is called back to the seemingly idyllic village of Three Pines, where everything about the village seems wholesome.  Except the murder rate.   

Oh I better finish the book now, so I can start another.  Couldn't the lawn wait, another day?  Or two?

Two Locations, One Day

 A Lebanon friend wanted to do something.

When someone says that, I'm like a puppy at the door wanting a walk.  Excited!!  You think I'd turn anything down like that?  Nope.

We went first to McKercher park, outside Brownsville, on the Calapooia.  There's a small fun swimming hole there.   

After that we drove up to the lake and found a pull in spot on the north side and walked down a trail to the water.  It was beautiful little spot in the woods.  People had left trash behind.   Pretty darn common.  It was quite windy at times on the lake.  She doesn't kayak or even float on a tube or air mattress because it makes her seasick, but she walks in the water along the shoreline and sometimes swims a bit.   I swam and also blew up my board and dorked around on it and sat in the sun on a log.  The yellow jackets were out in force.  I wish I'd remembered a book.

This was some of the trash left.

Nice fun day.  Had a blast.

Still the Cats

 Over the last months, I haven't posted much about cats.  

My little nonprofit still got lots fixed.  We gave a grant to a local clinic to reduce the price by half for feral and owned cats.   I haven't gotten final results but it was enough to help 60 to 65 cats with half price fixing.  This month, so far, we took in three cats from Halsey to be fixed at the Salem clinic.  Yeah I drove and picked up, was a welcome get out of the house event.

And yet two more were paid for by HCC--whom I never saw, with a financial assistance request from Rad for a cat caregiver.  Rusty and Beefy were the lucky boys.

I do have photos of the Halsey kitties, two boys and a girl.  Both boys, Easy and Spook, are manx's, while the girl, Piper, was not.  They were living in a culvert and Piper had three kittens the Halsey woman also caught and is taming.

Easy from Halsey, a boy

Piper, the girl, whose kittens were also caught and are about 8 weeks of age

Spook and Easy are replicas, only Spook is bigger and a bit older than Easy and Spook had an infected bite wound on his butt.

Here are some of my kitties.   I got my old Canon working again.  For how long, I don't know.   Takes much better photos than the phone camera.

Misha, from Waterloo

Prissy from Quartzville road

Muffy, with Dougie and Smudge behind

Superior Smudge

Then there is little Tabitha, a small cat from the 7-11 colony.  She had a wonky looking eye before she came here a couple years back when the former manager had to retrap her, after she was fixed, so she could stay safe from the cat hating new store owners.   I finally got a close up of her eye, since she's decided in the last couple weeks to be partly tame (let's me briefly pet her mornings on her terms).

The eye photo made me nervous she could have feline melanoma, but she has had the condition at least two years.  I have no idea how old Tabitha may be.   I'll keep watching that eye, getting photos as long as the Canon keeps on working.

Tabitha's eye

I got my oil changed yesterday finally but again couldn't get the oil filter loose.  It's in a tough spot to reach and it was hot so I admit to giving up easily.   Next time my Lebanon friend is home I'll  ask him if he can do it.  He works out of town, over in ne Oregon during the week.

Well that's it for today.   

Testing Out My Knee

 No I didn't want to drive up to Waldo Lake today.  What a misery, eh?  But I was forced to do it anyway, to test out my knee.  

Just kidding around.

I couldn't wait to go!

I meant to leave at 9:00 but didn't leave until 11:00.

No smoke up there today.  I'd checked before I went so I knew it was clear.

I had a wondrous day there.   Lots and lots of other people were there too, enjoying the beautiful weather and lake.

A young adult man helped me blow up my kayak board.   I'd gone over and asked if they had a pump I could borrow, when I realized a crucial washer was missing on mine.  He came over and pumped it up for me!  

I went down to the south end and beached the board and went swimming.   Then I got back on the kayak board and headed across the lake to the west side where I was enamored with the beautiful purple flowers growing amidst the burned out trees.   

Skies were so clear!   That's Charity, the south Sister and off to the right--Broken Top, down to the north and east of me.  

Water crystal clear and enticing as ever

No knee pain whatsoever on the drive up or back.   But I think I need to test it again, you know, to be sure.