On the Lake

We finally got sun here.  The temperature shot up 30 degrees for 4 days.  Saturday and Sunday it was near 100 degrees out.  Monday in the upper 80's, low 90's, never heard how high the temp actually got.  Yesterday, hot but not as hot.   But today?  Back to showers likely and cool, like in the 60's cool and that trend is supposed to remain for the next ten days.  Summer?

So, despite excessive heat, I knew I wanted to go to the lake on one of the warm days, because I didn't know when again it might be sunny enough to enjoy it.

Off I went on Monday.  I figured on the weekend, everyone, starved for sun as we are here, would be up there.

On Monday, very few people were out on the lake.  It was hot but nothing intolerable.  I inflated my raft and headed out.  None too soon I realized I had a slow leak in one side.  I could not find the leak and it was slow enough I could just paddle back to the ramp now and then, go get my pump, and fill it up tight again.  The raft is aging now.

The reservoir was lower than I had expected given our extremely wet winter and spring.  They often wait til late in spring to let it fill.  It was also a bit gunky in places already.  But I sure enjoyed paddling around.  I got out and swam some at one point.  And at one point, I laid back, using a paddle board as a back rest, and just drifted, like a lazy bum, snoozing, until my position, with my legs up across a seat, made my toes go numb.

I like the lake when the water is wind whipped, white capped.  The rougher the better.  Means few will be out and I'll get a wild row.  I love the waves.

Clouds moving in from the east looked like giant puffs of steam or smoke.

These were a strange threesome.  Note the blue bill on the brown duck.

When I got back to the boat ramp, and was about to pump the raft again, a speed boat came in with two guys on it.  I could see something was up.  The big guy had gone into the water, and then gotten out.  The tall skinny guy had a cast on one arm.   About that time, they yelled "Does anyone want to dive for keys?"

Being a former diver, I went over.  But the water where the car keys fell, when one tossed them to the other, was so murky I could see nothing when under.   It was over my head.  The tall guy with the cast asked how deep it was.  He wondered if he could stand in it, holding up his cast, so as not to destroy it.  I said I thought he could.  He was over ten inches taller than I.  So he stood in the water, head still above the surface, holding onto the dock with his good arm, holding the other up, and methodically searched the bottom with his feet!  

Took him maybe 30 minutes, but he found the keys that way and pulled them up with his toes.  It was something!

It was a good few hours on the lake.  It may be hard to find the small leak in my raft.   When I go up again, I'll do a better search with it blown up.

This is fresh produce season.  Strawberries have come on with a fury, but all the rain this winter, coupled with sudden heat, and they are all ripening at once, the news said, creating hardship for strawberry farmers, who must harvest fast and furious and find markets for berries that often would ripen in waves, not all at once.

My favorite strawberry farm is down on highway 34 and Seven Mile.  I know that property, got cats fixed for the prior owner.  She was sick then, and when she died her son wanted to farm the land, but never did and wanted badly to sell the property then to someone who would farm it.  Well these were the perfect buyers.  They started out with just strawberries but now also grow blueberries, and some vegetables, including zucchini.  3 for a buck yesterday, so I bought 3 and a half flat of strawberries.  I wouldn't ordinarily buy a half flat.  But with the strawberries ripening so fast this year, I knew I better.  I've already frozen half the berries.  I have my own strawberry plants out front and have been getting a handful morning and evening to eat from just a few plants of my own.

K Family Farm Sign

The farm stand

Half Flat

In the summer, I live on Oregon berries, much as I can.  Strawberries come in first.  And raspberries.  Blueberries generally mid July but earlier this year.  Then Blackberries.   I suppose my favorite berry is the strawberry and my second favorite is the blackberry.  Third favorite is blueberry.  The best thing about blackberries is that they are free.  They grow everywhere.  Many consider them a pest but more people don't, and are often eyeing wild growing patches early on, so they know where to return in the fall, when the berries ripen.  We only watch for places where no spraying is done.  Many of us consider them a gift, and  essential to survival, in a state where it can be difficult to survive with cost of living so very high.