More S’camping.

This was a week ago; I wanted to get it up right after I got home, but of course didn’t, and then it felt like it was history so not worth blogging, but I’ve been enjoying reading posts from years ago, so for the sake of my future self, I’m going to do this anyway.

Got out last week for two nights in a row, and it was very successful. I’m now not only hopeful, but confident, that somehow this camping with Scamp and cats is going to work out.

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Days 5-7

Day 5:  Most of this day was spent driving through the mountains, stopping often just to look and take pictures.  It was soothing to my soul–moountains do something for me that no other landscape–or seascape–does, however beautiful it may be.  Especially the high Rockies.

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Trip inauguration

Four days on the road so far.  This trip will be about ten weeks, if it goes according to my rather vague plans.  Which are subject to change–indeed, have changed already.

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Getting back in the groove

This is a bit of a trial run to see how my new technology (new iPad, Logitech external keyboard) is going to work for blogging.  In two weeks I’m headed out into my longest roadtrip since the spring of 2014, and I’m hoping the combination will work for posting from the road.

But–the content is actually from a couple of weeks ago, when I met one of my sisters and her husband for three nights of camping.  I was frankly mildly nervous, because I had recommended the campground and I wasn’t sure if it would meet their standards, but as it turned out they loved it, so that was OK.

(Just ran into an irritation, but it has to do with the WordPress app, I think–it’s not letting me select anything between the whole post and a single word.  It will select one or the other, but if I try to modify the selection to include less, or more, it just pops back to a single word.  Annoying, but not catastrophic.)

The first day, we drove down to Gold Beach–they had some things they needed to buy, and we wanted some beach time.  

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Cat exploration

A few months ago, Shadow figured out how to climb up on the sunroom and thence to my bedroom window.  He was very sure I should open the window for him, but it’s screened, so he was out of luck.  He’s been persistent enough that I’ve contemplated putting a cat door in the window, but haven’t had the initiative to get it done.

Then this morning he took it a step further:

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A few pics

Lovely time of year. That it’s a month early and that should concern us all I shall say no more about. Here are a few pics from my back yard. 

First, what a difference a little sun makes. This rose. . . 

. .  has never put out more than a couple blossoms before.  Several times I’ve considered taking it out. But it now has several blossoms and a bunch more buds, thanks to the neighbors removing a couple of trees. The rose gets to stay, and I’m thrilled. It even smells like a rose, which is hard to find these days. So much for Shakespeare. 

This is not so happy a story.  

It’s a peony planted last summer, one of two. Neither bloomed last year. One is doing pretty well, several buds on it. This poor thing has put up shoots a couple of times now, only to be eaten by . . . something or other.  Could be rodents, could be deer, heck it could be CJ or the cats. Why this one is getting eaten and the other not I have no idea. 

The other rhodies are mostly done, but this red beauty . . .

. . . comes on later than the others and is only now starting to fade.  Cameras all seem to have a hard time doing justice to red, but the above may give some idea of what it’s like. Seems to me it’s much more lush this year than it was last year. 

Finally, here’s a shot of Phantom on the freshly mowed lawn, exemplifying the truism that any scene is made more picturesque with a cat in it. 

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Success!

Let’s hear it for Dremel cutoff discs and sledgehammers.  A powerful combination.

The only problem was access–

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Baby steps toward getting the trailer out of the garage

Which is desirable for a couple of reasons: 1) the next house renovation includes putting a new roof on the garage, and 2) I’m giving (or lending–we need to talk about that) the trailer to my niece and family and so it needs to be operational. Getting it that way can’t happen in the garage.

Step 1) Change a tire that has been flat literally for years.

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We’re wet here

Not as wet as further north, or as I gather parts of England are, but wetter than the past couple of years.

This is the entry to the little county park where I often walk CJ.  It always floods in wet years, but this is the highest I’ve ever seen the water there. 

Here’s a little different perspective that shows how high the water is on the sign.

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Silver Falls State Park

(Note:  Two requests for identification are at the end of the post, one flower and one bird, so ID gurus–you know who you are– may want to skip to the end to check them out and give me your best guesses.)

People call Silver Falls the “crown jewel” of the Oregon State Parks system, at least according to its website, and you couldn’t disprove it by me.  I just got back from a couple of most excellent days/nights there and took lots of pictures, so this is a long post.

The first day, my brother and his wife took a day trip down from Portland and we got to discover things together.  First, a couple of pictures of my first view of the South Falls (there will be more later.  You have been warned.)

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House quickie: Window curtains

About a week ago the miniblind in my bedroom fell–for the third or fourth time.  I was going to replace it, even bought a new one, but was in the middle of several other projects at the time, so just stuck a length of blackout material (I have tons left from my aborted experiment with a cat skirt for the van) over the window to shut out the very bright streetlight and left it at that.

Thereby discovering how nice it was to have more of the light blocked out of the room at night.  And also how much I missed the view out the window, and the natural light coming in, during the day.

Solution: curtains, backed by blackout cloth.

Done.  View:

 

And light blockage:

The curtains are nicer than I thought they would be–they’re just cheapies from Freddie’s.  I think they’ll be more effective at keeping out heat from the afternoon summer sun, too.  Win all round.

If I can keep the cats off them . . . .

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My new toy

I am now the proud (?) possessor of a new etrike–an adult tricycle that I can pedal as usual, but is also powered by an electric motor and battery.  I’ve owned it (in all its component parts) for a few weeks, but I finally got up to Portland to the Ebike Store, who put it all together for me, to pick it up.

It’s been a process.  First, choosing all the component parts, which had to be bought via the internet, which means no see-touch-feel, which I hate–you don’t really know what you’re getting or if you’ll like it.  The battery is a whole thing unto itself–I went for more power and longevity, which means it’s big, which means finding a container for it and deciding where to mount it on the trike were both issues (and I may change it around yet).  And how to transport it with the van?

Anyway, here it is, just after unloading it at home.

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Who knew?

Somehow, the cats have turned out different from how I expected.  In appearance, I mean.  See what you think.

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The Pineapple Express comes to southwest Oregon

You all heard all about the Pineapple Express in California last week–if you have TV or radio, anyway.  But it made it up into the Northwest too, so I headed over to the coast to experience it up close and personal.  I’ve been wanting to be at the beach in a good storm, and figured this was my opportunity.

It was pretty cool, too, though I suspect other storms in the past few years have been better.  

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December hike

I will be telling you, down a ways, about something you will never do.  Not necessarily because you will never travel to this neck of the woods, but because you are smarter than me.

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Toy

Just look at this!

You buy something for cats to scratch on, and SOMEONE decides to chew it up.

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Crazy cat lady, at home and on the road

Having noticed a certain obsessional taking and posting of cat pics and videos, many of them repetitive in type, over the past weeks, I’ve decided to see if I can get it out of my system by posting a glut of them all at once.  Perhaps then I’ll be able to turn my mind to something other than cats.  We’ll see.  I’ll warn you–it’s long, lots of pics and several video clips, so if you skim through–or skip it altogether–I’ll understand.  Well, I’ll never know, but I would understand if I did know.

First, pictures of cats lolling around.  (No videos in this part.  Go figure.  I’m not quite crazy enough to do video of sleeping cats.) 

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Camping with cats: cat walks

We’re almost there!  In fact, I think we are there.  I think I’ve succeeded in raising a couple of travel cats, and pretty much have things figured out for how to travel with them, including long trips–they/we did fine on a 10 day jaunt around the Northwest back in September.

But off leash cat walks–that’s the icing on the cake.  Went camping last week for a couple of nights, with the goal of taking a walk in the woods with all three critters.  Headed for Foster Bar, because it’s relatively remote, and mostly used by day-trippers as a place to unload from the river, so I figured we’d have the campground to ourselves, and we did.  Et voilá!

<p><a href=”http://vimeo.com/109598420″>catwalk 2a</a> from <a href=”http://vimeo.com/user33545867″>Jean Mitchell</a> on <a href=”https://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a&gt;.</p>

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3-Species Walk

This is too cool just for FB.  I just took a walk down into the gorge–with all three pets.  A couple of inches of rain are expected in the next couple of days, so I figured this would be my last good opportunity until next summer.  Had to hack my way through some blackberry brambles to get down there, but it was worth it.

I wasn’t sure how it would go between CJ and the cats; her dearest ambition in life is to be allowed to chase some cats.  She’s good with them in the house and yard, but out in the open, when one of them dashes past?  I just wasn’t sure.

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Raising travel cats: Progress report

Overall, it’s going well.  I think.  The kittens stay in the van every night, and clearly regard it as home.  They have learned (mostly) to stay out of the front area when we’re on the road (every now and then, perhaps once/trip/kitten) they need a reminder: being grabbed by me and tossed onto the bed in back.  Thus I was able to take down the big kennel/crate, which I had put in mainly to contain them while driving.  This has made the interior of the van feel much less crowded and improved visibility to the rear.

Another point of progress is I don’t have to take them out as often.  They seem just fine even when it’s been up to a week since we went out.  This is a very good thing, because it means I can get other things done with my life.

The big new focus is leash training.  Well, leash accustomization; “training” is not really the right term, because I don’t do rewards.  We’ve had two go-rounds of it so far.  Pictures from the first round are absent–managing two kittens, each on a leash, is hard enough, without also taking pictures.  You’ve heard of herding cats? Yeah.  Well.

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