The Refuge of Waldo

 

Rip 

I drove up to Waldo Lake yesterday.  The weather was beautiful and over 80 degrees, unusual for mid October here.   

I stopped up where the motorcyclist died after the crash.  The road people had installed a new post on the stop sign.  Someone had put a makeshift cross and some flowers where he died.  

There were not a lot of people on the lake.   A few kayakers, a sailboat, a couple canoes.  A strong east wind probably was to blame.   Usually the afternoon winds are from the west but yesterday the winds were from east.

Kokanee still spawning to beat the band.   Large orgies of them.  When I saw them near I'd just drift over them like a log in the wind and they ignored me completely.   The lake level has dropped quite a lot from evaporation, run off into the north fork of the middle fork of the Willamette and lack of rain.  Waldo has no inlet and relies on rain and snow to maintain its level.  Its difficult to access the southwest beaches now from the water, or even navigate around the shore side of the island because the water level is low.

At times, the wind died out, and the lake was serene.

I passed a couple wooden kayaks with two men loading their gear.  "Leaving then" I said and they said yes, but they said the canoes nearby were people just arriving to camp.   South end has some very popular boat in campsites.

At the southwest long beaches I spotted movement near a log.  It looked, from a distance like a dog.  Then I spotted a man, alone, on the beach 50 feet east of the animal I'd seen and assumed he had a dog.  But he didn't.

He was camping with an A frame tarp held up by a rope between a couple trees.   Looked quite primitive.    He said he'd hung his food on a tree and I could see it behind him, about head height hooked on something sticking out of the trunk and thought what's he protecting it from. 

 Anyhow, he was enjoying himself and I probably shouldn't have told him about seeing a small animal farther up the beach from him and tried to dismiss it as nothing because it was probably nothing, maybe an otter or a fox. The guy seemed animal skittish and kept mentioning coyotes and a large pack of wolves.   I went on towards where I'd seen the small animal hoping it was an otter because I figured it would be swimming out to check out my kayak if it was.  But I saw nothing more.

Afterall, I can't be a critical snobby judge of primitive camping ways because when I was a kid, my parents decided it would be great to canoe the Bowren Lake chains in Canada even though we'd never backpacked and never canoed before and that's bear country.   And we slept in plastic tarp tube tents and it rained the entire time.

I paddled down the west side of the lake north but the wind was picking up badly and I thought I better  get this over with, paddling back to the east side, into a strong head wind.   So I buckled down and spent 20 or 30 minutes paddling hard getting splashed by waves coming at me and I had a blast doing it.

I've never seen a Great Blue Heron at Waldo Lake before but I did today.  That Heron somehow knew about the salmon spawning all over the place.   

Sailboat off in the distance

I left the boat ramp area to drive home about 5:15 p.m. and was back home a couple hours later.   Only to find out there'd been a school shooting in Bend and 3 kids and a teacher died.   A civilian with a gun ran after the shooter into the school and killed him.  Probably saved a lot of kids by doing that.   Shooter himself was a kid.  16 years old.   It's all horrifying.

I hope the beauty of Waldo Lake is protected forever as a refuge from the world for those who need it.  Like me.

Books

 I've been reading a series of books all summer by Lousie Penny.

Her inspector Gamache series.   I saw the author recommended on a tiktok book review site and got the first two in the Gamache series on thriftbooks.  Later this summer when attempting to continue the series I experienced two unfortunate errors with thriftbooks orders and am not so thrilled to use the site again to continue.

I find the series heartwarming and satisfyiing.   Inspector Gamache lives in Montreal and is the head of Quebecs celebrated surete homicide division.  But the surete are not perfect and corruption has creeped in, which plays a major role in several of the books when the inspector, honest to the core, attempts to clean out the rot in his own beloved department.  

He finds himself often solving murders in the idealic village of Three Pines, where there is no cell reception and  people gather in Oliver and Gabri's bistro evenings and get books at Myrna's bookstore.  She lives in the loft over the bookstore.  Peter and Clara are married artists.   And polar opposites.  Old as the hills sour grapes Ruth is a poet, who eventually hatches a rejected duckling egg and Rosa, the duck, is now always with Ruth, the cantakerous, vulgar old poet.  There's a woodworker in the village who swears trees talk and scream when cut.   He had been a forester but had to quit one day when he "heard the trees screaming".   Now he builds beautiful furniture from downed wood.  He is accepted matter of factly too, as a respected and helpful community member.

There are cozy descriptions of food and furnishings and chairs and fireplaces that make me feel the warmth of the village, comfort food and deep friendships that exist despite the faults of one another.  That is, if this perfect peaceful little village didn't have such a high murder rate.

Ha!!  Always something.

Gamache himself is kind, smart, fair and brave and always quoting poetry or history and loves Quebec with all his heart.

Eventually as the series progresses Gamache and his wife move to Three Pines, the village where he's spent so much time already and found such deep and lasting friendships.

You might like the series if you want something a little different, a little deeper, and a little quirkier than the average detective series.

This is the next in the series I'll read

This morning, Tempest, the mom of the river path kittens, who are now with a neighbor, left for a barn home found by Silverton Cat Rescue.  They worked hard to find a place for her and I appreciate that help so much.   I took her up to Salem to meet up with them and hand her over.   I got up at 4:00 a.m. and set a trap in the bathroom, with tuna.  And when my alarm went off again at 6:30, she was in it, sleeping by then.   I flea treated her through the trap, then transferred her from trap to carrier to head up to Salem.   

So long Tempest and good luck.

Fritter, a.k.a. Kujo, a.k.a. Devil Cat, the self proclaimed police unit of the block.  He chases off all other cats, comes up to people like he wants petted then swats the hell out of them....but we all take care of him.  He was first abandoned by his people in the apartments behind the block.  Then a man end of the block took care of him, but died after falling in his garage.  AFter that a young couple moved into the house and took care of him but divorced after a year and both moved.   So he's still got the rest of us looking after him.  He's not young.  

The Beautiful Days

 The weather has been simply beautiful.  Temps get up to mid 70's.

Today began with heavy fog.  I love fog.  It lays low in the valley like a blanket.

I lived my childhood near the Oregon coast where fog was common, shrouding the landscapes like a mystery.  Fog is comforting to me, like a secret, like deep cover.

When I put my garbage and recycling cans out last night I was dismayed to find the car lot neighbors cars obscuring my curb.  There was nowhere to put my garbage can.  Finally I rolled it way down the street, the only car free place I could find.   

I never know if their cars will be gone in the morning or not so I can't just put them on the curb with their cars in front of them, blocking access by the garbage truck.   It's a rude thing to do that.  They know its garbage can out night.   This morning most of the cars had left.  I had to leave early too, to take cats to the clinic.  When I came back a different neighbors car was in front of the cans.   Some people these days don't give a crap about neighbors.   Fortunately I have a couple really good neighbors so I don't feel that way about everyone in general.  Some people are rude and some people are not.

Yesterday I went out with my former neighbor and her sister to our favorite Mexican restaurant.  But this time, I became immediately sick to my stomach afterwards.   I'm better now though.   Whew!  It was nice to see her and catch up.   Her sister visits from either Arizona or New Mexico.  I can't remember which state it is.

After that, I had to lay down an hour, to try to feel better, before going to Lebanon to pick up more cats from the same household I took the 6 cats in from Tuesday.

They were supposed to have five adults.  We had six spots for them today.  But they couldn't catch one of the adults and then mentioned kittens.  I asked how big they are.  She responded by going to get one and walking down to my car, half block away, to show me, with me freaking out it would get away from her because she had it in her hands and it was squirming around.   

The kitten was plenty big to be fixed so I told her to get another one.  That way we had six to take afterall.

Cleo, muted torti

Princess, a girl

Stormy, a girl

Starlight, a girl

Sticks and Stones, the two kittens being fixed

I don't like to overnight tame cats in carriers because its hard to clean them safely, if they poop or pee in the night.   Currently my bathroom is still occupied by Tempest, so I can't take them in there to safely, in an enclosed space, change cats to a clean carrier.   Or just overnight them in there.

Tempest is leaving for a barn home tomorrow morning.  I'm so happy for her.  She is very lonely and bored in the bathroom by now, but the wait was worth it for her to have a chance at a new life.   She couldn't return to the river path where I trapped her as her feeder man, who was homeless, had died.

Her kittens are doing so well so fast with the neighbor.   They're even getting exposed to kids which is wonderful.  All five kittens are already fixed, so she may find homes for them herself and if not, we hope we can get them into Safehaven.  She's very patient.  

By noon tomorrow, I'll have my bathroom back again.   I can't wait.  

Today I have nothing more on the schedule, not officially, not appointments to be somewhere.  I do have a lot of cleaning up and yardwork needs done.  As usual.  And a nap to take.   And its the perfect day for an afternoon nap out in the sun on my zero gravity lawn chair.

Back at the Cats

 I'm back doing cats.  Not too much work on my part, however.

Today my nonprofit is paying for 8 to be fixed over in Corvallis.

Two of them, the owner took in, from Halsey.

The other six I picked up in Lebanon last night.  A couple were big huge males they had in very small carriers.   

They have a few more, who will be fixed Thursday.   They are picking up their cats themselves about right now.  One boy had a heart murmur and we scrambled to get the permission to proceed, if wanted, despite the risk.  I think it went fine.

The five river path kittens are now with a neighbor getting tamed up proper.  They have friends, kids, dogs, its perfect. They get exposure that way. She's also no novice to taming cats and kittens.  She's good at it.

Tempest the mom is still in my bathroom but SCR is working like crazy to find her a good barn home.

I only got photos of five of the six I took over from Lebanon.  

Its amazing we can keep plugging away but we got some very kind donations, one anonymous for $1500!!!  That fixes 15 cats alone!

8 fixed today, another 6 Thursday.  I know its a drop in the bucket of those needing fixed but it sure helps those who do get fixed and their people and their neighborhoods.

This morning felt like fall with clouded skies and temps that made me think maybe I'll have to get a coat out of the closet.  But nope.  Clouds cleared out and sun came out and its 75 outside now.

I don't like wearing a coat just like I don't like wearing shoes.   This summer I used barefoot waterproof shoes I got so cheap it was ridiculous.  I was only going to wear them kayaking as water shoes but I ended up wearing them everyday I had to have something on my feet to drive or go to a store.  They are barefoot style, a shoe type I did not know existed.  You don't wear them on sharp surfaces like rough gravel but otherwise anywhere else.    

Dixie and Angel

Loki

Max

Smokey

The boy fixed without a photo--Bandit, another buff tabby.

I should be done for the day.  Just cleaning and relaxing.

I've taken to eating cabbage and potato soup.   It's very cheap to make and I like it.  Prices for food, gas, everything really have gone up so high lately it requires ever changing behaviors to make it.  Just have to adapt to this reality.   

Tragic End to a Good Day

 I went to Waldo Lake yesterday. 

 It was supposed to be 80 or more degrees there.    For the most part it was warm enough at least for a couple hours.  Then clouds rolled in but it was still pleasant.

I left about 11:00 and got there near 1:00.   

I had bought a new hand pump and had no trouble blowing up my board this time.  Ha!  Finally.

I paddled along the east bank to the south end, toward the island.  My usual route these days.

Suddenly, near the cove where I first saw those four duckling with their mom, I see flashes of red all around me in the water.   Kokanee!!!  Spawning time.

Probably 15 or 20, really hard to count fish zooming around.

All spawner red.  

Kokanee are landlocked deep water loving salmon often found in Oregon lakes and reservoirs.   These are the fish, prized elsewhere, that died by the thousands upon thousands, when the corp of engineers began deep drawing down reservoirs, like Green Peter above Foster, in our county.  They did so because they were required to by a judge, as a result of a lawsuit brought by, among other groups, the native fish society who apparently like migrating salmon not landlockers.

The red in the water are salmon

 I paddled on past the island, going around its shore side.  There were too many people and dogs there enjoying the day for me to want to stop and go swimming.   On along the shoreline I continued to the west side of the lake.  On along the west side I went all the way to the old tunnel.  I've been to the tunnel many times over the years.  There's a big log up by the sign, about the tunnel, its history.  I like to sit on that log to take a break and just enjoy.

The tunnel sign

Sealed up tunnel entrance

 

The tragic end?   Well, when I was driving out of the boat ramp parking lot a biker had just left, on his large motorcycle.   I got up to the stop sign at Shadow Bay road and the road down to the highway, where there is a stop sign, and I saw some cars stopped.  I got out and went up and there was the biker laid out on his stomach, the stop sign was torn out of the dirt and laying a bit farther on from him and his bike was another 20 feet beyond that.   

A lady was talking to him.  His legs were broken, one badly bleeding.  She'd tried to put a tourniquet around his thigh, with a strap but she said it was not tight.  I went to find a stick to tighten it, and ended up getting a flashlight from my car to use.  When  I got back to him, she said they'd lost his pulse.  Now he had to be flipped to his back for cpr, no matter what that might do if he had spinal injuries.  Ambulance is far far away, like 45 minutes.  So we flipped him, I his legs.   

Three people, two women and a man, proceeded to take turns giving him cpr for 30 or 40 minutes until the ambulance arrived and declared him dead.     Poor man, just out for a ride or a day trip or something, laughing down at the boat ramp minutes before he crashed.  If a car was involved too, they had vanished from the scene.  The police will figure out what happened.    Rip whomever you were in life.  In the end, you had a dozen or more kayakers around you.

Today a neighbor is taking all five bathroom kittens in, to tame them off for adoption.  She's done this before, no novice to doing it, with cats and kittens from a relatives colony.   I am so grateful.

Back to Tcha Timanwi

 Marys Peak is sacred to the Kalapuya Indian tribe.  

The mountains real name is Tcha Timanwi.  Oral history of the Kalapuya's refers to it as a place of refuge natives climbed for safety during massive floods in the valley.  It is the tallest mountain in the coast range at 4097 feet.  I think it got the white name Mary from a settler named Mary Lloyd who first crossed the creek that becomes the Marys river.  Another version of its name is Chintimini.

I wrote an essay about it either in high school or early college and since then have called the peak Tcha Timanwi.  Chintimini is easier to pronounce, however.

It's also the place some very cruel person dumped a young mom and her kittens to die horribly and slowly.  Cowardly and cruel behavior.

The first facebook post about the dumping came from a Springfield woman on September 8.  She and her friend saw them when hiking and caught the first two kittens.   She contacted me on the 16th, and I went up and did not find them but I did leave about 5 or 6 lbs of dry food.

One of the first two caught by the women who spotted them the 8th.

Then about three or four days ago, I was forwarded a new post by someone else about them.  That woman went up and caught one of the kittens, who she took to a rescue.  Another woman contacted me about them but had immediately gone up, seen the mom and set her own trap.  I went up the next day, despite deciding not to, to stay out of it, and checked her trap.  The mom cat was inside.   I set three more traps.  She checked them later on and there were two more kittens in one of the traps.

The lady who caught the other kitten then went up to the check the traps again and even spend the night camping.   We think all still living are caught now.  The woman who caught mom will foster all three kittens, as the rescue who took the first thinks that kitten would do better with siblings.  Mom is at the radpets being spayed today.  She is named Marys.

The other kitten caught the 8th of September.

It's a good news story.   

The last two kittens caught.  I don't have a photo of the other kitten caught by the woman who saw them again recently.  

Marys the mom

I also took Scamp in to the clinic this morning to be fixed.  He's the last of the river path kittens needing to go in.  And I took Missy and Spots, two cats from the Lebanon hoarder man.  He's in the hospital and his daughters are trying hard to get anybody not yet fixed in to be fixed while he's gone.  But they're horrified by the state of their angry father's trailer and his hoarding obsession and how awful it is for the cats.   They don't know what to do.  I got 60 or so fixed there a year ago and it was nightmare dealing with him and the exhaustion.  I never went inside the trailer.   I feel for those women although we joked about how damaged many of us are from our parents behaviors.  I did not get photos of Missy and Spots.

Marys and her kittens will be fostered by the kind woman who caught Marys, who, without fanfare, without discussion, just went up and set a trap.  I get uncomfortable posting such stories because people then think I did it all and I did almost nothing  They were saved by others.  I didn't do much, just went up to look one day and then helped with trapping one day housed mom after she was caught, got her fixed, but now she and her kittens will be fostered elsewhere.

Growling Mom

 I made a video of the River Path kittens but mom was growling at me for being near her kittens and very tired.   So I overlaid it with audio, thanks to imovie.  Imovie app supplies audio clips to choose from for a video.

Today, four of them are going in to be fixed.  They were all to be fixed on Thursday but I have four appointments in Salem today and neither caregiver I gave them to caught any cats.  At least that I know of.  I really never heard back at all from one of them and only when I contacted the other of them.  They did not contact me.  It was sad.  I felt foolish for entrusting them with these precious hard to get spots.  

But, they won't be wasted.  Four of the five kittens will go.

Which one won't go today?  The one I can't get into a trap again, with mom growling at me as I try.