The sky is falling! The sky is falling! Oops, it's only fish!

Have you ever camped at one of those remote high lakes areas and wondered how those fish that you caught for supper got into that lake in the first place? Well here's how:


Those high lakes that you often have to hike in to are stocked by air! The Department of Fish and Wildlife has this neat shuttle like contraption (called the "Rudy") which attaches to and is controlled by a helicopter. Within the "Rudy" are 30 small canisters which are filled with specified amounts and types of fish based on each individual lake that is being stocked.



A Department biologist uses different factors known about each lake being stocked to determine how many and which fish to stock. Several of these factors are, fish habitat (is there food and cover available and how much), water temperatures (highs and lows), and size of the water body. Then based on those findings, Rainbow trout, Cutthroat trout, Brook trout, or a combination thereof are chosen for each specific lake.



The canisters are filled on the ground prior to the first flight, or a second set of canisters is loaded during the subsequent flights in order to minimize turn-around time. The canisters are pre-filled with a specified amount of water, then the fish are loaded, by weight, into each numbered canister. The numbers correspond to a master list which the Biologist in the air has with them for each flight. Mikael got to help measure and load fish into canisters for the last flight out on Tuesday the 14th.



The canisters are loaded into the "Rudy" (so named for the Director of the Department of Fish and Wildlife who spearheaded and funded this program) by the ground crew. The pilot and at least one Department Biologist fly on each flight, with the biologist directing the air release of fish into area lakes located with GPS. Often there are a couple Department employees as 'ride-alongs' for each flight.



While in the air over the lake, the operator is able to press a button in the helicopter which releases, or dumps, the canister of fish specifically filled for that lake. The canisters release or dump the fish much like water is dumped on fires from the large mechanical bucket. Good thing those little guys are hardy! Kind of a tough way to end up in the water though!



The first day scheduled for flights was clear at the base, which was Mt. Hood Meadows, but thick clouds, rain and fog over all the lakes to be stocked made it impossible to make any dumps. They made a second attempt on Tuesday, and everything was clear and they finished the stocking by mid-afternoon.



Charles was responsible for hauling and handling two of the three stocks of fish, so he was up there both days. We joined him Monday for part of the day and Tuesday for the afternoon portion, where Mikael helped load fish and Nathanael played in the snow. I provided scones and coffee on Monday to help the crew pass the time while they waited for the cloud cover to lift.



The view of Mt. Hood from the exit to Mt. Hood Meadows off Highway 35.



On the way back down the mountain on Tuesday, the boys and I stopped at the White River to check it out. It's a beautiful, glacial fed river, cut deeply through the rock and ash of the mountain. The channels are deep and run beneath Hwy. 35. When we stopped and hiked down to the water, the river was indeed running white. I was just up there two days ago (two weeks after this picture) and the water was running the most yucky color or cheap hot-chocolate! We've had days of intense heat and the snow and glacial melt is now running brown in all the rivers. Even the Sandy, here where we live, is running brown.

Even in the summer we can have science classes and field trips! This was one of my favorites!

Summer

I'm sitting here at my desk (about to start paying the monthly bills) and I can hear so many sounds coming in my open, shaded windows. I can look out and see the old rancher next door on his red tractor, making large circles in the field, making the first cutting of hay this season. The smell of freshly mown hay is drifting on the breeze, teasing me with remembrances of summers long past when I was a child and the neighbors would be cutting hay, and afterward we would haul load after load to our barn for winter feed for the horses. I remember the sweet grass smell, dry grass tickling my arms and legs and prickling too, hot summer sun and sweat, and billows of dust when each bale was thrown down from the truck to the pile.

As if that weren't enough distraction from my grown-up activities, I'm also hearing a riding lawn mower from my office window and smelling the freshly mown green grass. Charles is riding the dark green Craftsman mower, exercising dominion over the land by making the grass all uniformly short. I see him on his passes down and back around the open area across from our house, in the hot summer sun, watching the June beetles and bees buzzing and clicking their wings as they fly out of the way.

Isn't freshly mown grass the smell of summer? I was day dreaming a bit about that when I realized that though both smells are of freshly cut grass, they are distinctly different. The one makes me think of hot summers, where the land is beginning to dry up and iced peppermint tea in the shade is cooling and refreshing. The other makes me wish for summer, as if it weren't truly here yet. The green blades of grass, moist from the dew, have more of a promise of the heat yet to come.

Many other distractions pull at me: the rushing of the water in the creek, the birds twittering and calling to each other in my cherry trees, the whir of bike tread on asphalt as Nathanael goes whizzing down the road toward the river, the teasing breeze as it plays with the pages on my desk on it's way in the north and out the west window, and when both the tractor and the lawn mower are on the far side of the fields I can hear the rustle of the breeze in the burning bushes that flank my windows, and of course the dappled sunshine on the adirondack chairs set to over look the creek is teasing me to come out and play.

But, I need to grow up again, and after a sigh of remembrance and regret, go back to my responsibilities.

Yet... maybe I'll go play in the creek later with the boys!

Oops!

Well, I guess I forgot to say that we did return from our trip to Southern Oregon... two weeks ago! We had a great time with the family, went fishing, cut firewood, pulled weeds in the garden and built some patio furniture. Of course, the boys also found time to ride motorcycles, make new wooden guns and play some basketball.

While we were away, our garden kept right on growing, though we almost drowned it because it rained here instead of being sunny like it had been predicted, and we had set the automatic watering timer as if it would be hot and dry! Well, it's all growing fine and we're getting ready to plant the second wave of some of our crops. The flowers are doing well, also, and we're getting ready to plant 3 grapes. That will give me grape leaves for my pickling recipes this summer, and in time we'll have grapes to eat, juice and make into jelly!


our garden


our raised beds


the new grapes (Thompson Green Seedless, Concord Seedless, Suffolk Red)

Here are a few pictures from our trip south:


My nephew Sydney, Nathanael, step-brother Justin, and Mikael.


Nathanael, Mikael (with the snorkel) and Justin at Lost Creek Lake.


My dad, Syd, Nathanael, Mikael and Justin.


The view across Denman Pond to Table Rock at sunset.

And next time I'll share a little about why we're 'wide-row' gardening this year!

We're off!

We're off to Southern Oregon to visit family in about 5 hours. I should be sleeping, but there are always last minute things to get done, like planting more beans and beets because the first ones didn't germinate well, setting sprinklers on the flowers and the garden, programming the new hose-end water timers, adjusting sprinklers, more adjusting sprinklers, dishes, packing, making lists, paying bills, responding to emails, and now blogging, all starting around midnight! Whew... I'm tired just typing all that stuff!

Well... off to finish the bills and lists. See you in a week!

Ugh... It's allergy and cold season!

Well... other than the coughing, scratchy, sore throat, sneezing, stuffy head, running nose, itching, red eyes and the never ending "hack, hack, hack", we're doing just dandy! I think the boys started out as allergy driven colds, and I'm thinking that I just have allergies. Charles is the only one who seems well, which is good, since he's the one who has to go to work!

In spite of our sniffles and coughing, we've been out trying to get things planted in the rain. Last Saturday, May 2nd, as a family we attended the Clackamas County Master Gardner's Spring Fair! Despite the rain alternating between drizzling and pouring, and Nathanael developing a fever during the tour of all the vendors, we had a good time. Nathanael has recently developed a keen interest in bleeding hearts (Dicentra spectabilis)

and therefore, it was his mission for the day to spend some of his saved up allowance funds on a beautiful specimen for him to plant at home. Mikael, on the other hand, had not really bothered with flowers and didn't plan on spending his money on anything like that until I just had to detour into this one little booth that had Japanese iris of a different color than what I currently have, so I bought the iris ensenata "Gypsy Queen"

and while I was paying, Mikael noticed the picture on the tag of a Dianthus "Eastern Star". Though we didn't stop and buy it then, all throughout our browsing and lunch time, all Mikael could talk about was "his dianthus." So, when we went back through and purchased everything we needed for the garden, ("we" being Mikael and I, since Charles and Nathanael went to the Suburban to get sicky-kid-Nathanael out of the rain) we also had to stop so Mikael could buy "his dianthus"

which is still in the pot and not in the ground yet!

Among the other things we purchased were garden starts of tomatoes, cucumbers (eating and pickling), peppers (hot and mild), zucchini squash, yellow crook neck squash, basil, rosemary and sage. I also purchased a flat of marigolds to plant around the garden to entice the good bugs to come and eat the bad bugs! I still have to find rhubarb, raspberries and strawberries. Then, I have to plant all our other seeds, but that will come when the garden isn't a marsh!

ah... ahh... ahchoo!