New Life in the Woods

I had a great visit last week from a friend of Mari and Jerry’s named Donna… and her charming dog named Bessie. It spurred me to get some cleaning and straightening done before the visit. The cabin is still not completely cleaned up, but it is much better. We made a nice dinner and talked late out on the deck. The next day, following a good brunch, we went down to the Applegate river and explored a bit. The river was quite warm and Donna even swam a bit, although Bessie was a little more timid. I was with Bessie. I didn’t have shorts so I passed, but it was very peaceful and beautiful and we all had fun.

The rain keeps trickling in… just as the Summer heat has kicked up a notch. It got up to 102 in downtown Grants Pass late last week. It was in the mid 90s in the shade up at the cabin. Friday night we had a Thunder storm from about 8-9 p.m. with moderate rain, which was a big help to the garden, especially since the water had stopped running from the Spring pump a couple days previously. You can see two limbs of a tree that broke in the high winds here during the thunder storm. The limb in the lower left was still living, the one in the lower right wasn’t. Huge Fir trees around the cabin were moving visibly from side to side in the high wind. It was exciting!

In this picture you can see that the dead limb actually landed across the driveway (see the debris in the driveway to the right of the downed limb) right into the area where I used to park my car all the time. I have lately been parking further down the driveway in the shade where the hose from the spring box terminates, so I can fill up water containers there and bring them up to the garden in the car. Good thing I switched parking areas!

It turned out that the hose from the spring pump was plugged with mud. I dithered for a couple days trying to figure out whether I could connect an old hand pump I found out in the woods to the hose to force the blockage out. Finally I disconnected the hose at the spring box and at another spot a little further down where an extender connects two pieces and simply blew through the hose. That did the trick. I put a screen over the outflow drain in the spring box and plugged a leak in the floor, sort of. The water started flowing strongly again through the hose all the way down to the driveway where I fill my water containers. Today it had stopped flowing again and I went back to find that that leak in the floor of the spring box had opened up again. I may have to dig out the clay I put at the bottom to plug up those leaks and replace it with cement or something. Maybe plastic will work as a stopgap.

Meanwhile, I have been working on fixing some of the sheet rock here and there at the cabin and continuing to work on the garden, particularly the fence. It has been too hot to do a lot of work outside, but if I wait until the afternoon it cools off a bit and I can still get stuff done.

In other news, I did see a rabbit on the lower stretch of the driveway the other day, so maybe Mari was right about what was eating my veggies. I may need to get some chicken wire to keep them out since the mesh of the fence, especially in back, is big enough to let them through. I have also seen a hawk (probably), a baby deer (a few days old maybe), another grey fox or possibly a coyote (not sure), and lots of wood peckers recently. The picture shows the woodpecker but doesn’t quite capture his brilliant red crest. They are very hard to catch a good shot of since they are always moving and pecking and spot me moving in to take pictures right away.

My next tasks: find some straw or something to mulch the garden much better and find a job. I have decided to just go apply at the local supermarkets, etc., so I can have some money coming in. I have lots of mixed emotions about it, but it can be a temporary thing, a stepping stone so to speak. Anyway, I am still out here, still making progress, and the cabin is ready (more or less) for more visitors. So, all of you start thinking about when you can get some time to come on up. You will enjoy the visit and you can give me an excuse to explore the area some more!