Books

Recently finished reading Modoc
which is a very interesting book.  True story about a boy and an elephant who were born at the same time, at the German home of an elephant trainer. Although I have been trying to buy some local books by local authors, I picked this up in Coronado, California.

I am now reading Up To My Armpits  which I bought in the Big Bend area.  It is a biographical book by a veterinarian and very interesting.  Though we traveled some of the area that he refers to, it is also interesting to anyone who has been around livestock. 

Just bought a local book here in Silverton about a dog that lived in this area but was lost in Indiana during a vacation and walked all the way back here to Oregon.  Bobbie The Wonder Dog

Have just finished Old-Before-My-Time-Progeria which is very interesting.  A young girl in England has Progeria which is the 7 years to 1 aging.  She has a facebook page at OldBeforeMyTime 
You will find it very interesting.

Lynn

Silver Spur RV in Silverton, OR

Such nice weather here in Silverton, OR near Salem.

Silver Falls State Park  Click this link to see our time at a couple of the 10 waterfalls in this park south of Silverton, OR a few days ago.

The last several pictures in this album are of some of the various farm fields we drove by on the way back to Silverton.  They sure have a wide variety of crops here, barley, wheat, corn, hay, lots of grass seed - which is combined out of a windrow after drying a long time - lots of fruit trees, nut trees, berries of all sorts, and lots of Christmas trees - see photo at right..

                          After combining the seed from the
                          grass they come in and bale what
                          is left.

One of many fields with windrowed something waiting to be combined.

Phyllis thought this field at the right might be shallots.

                                              Grapes

Yesterday we went downtown to a fabric shop that Cousin Karen Miles had told Phyllis about -- and she would have bought out the store if given a chance -- and I had a walk-around.  Found this sign, which from a distance I thought it might be at a Psychiatrist office or something.  Got closer and saw that it was at a jewelry store and they would clean and examine head of your ring.

We found a park on the Willamette River that had a good sized Carousel in a building, with a lot of kids riding it.

There are lots of marked bicycle trails all over Oregon.  Many of them are on the streets and highways.  Almost every street downtown has a clearly marked 4 foot or so wide path marked.  We chose not to ride on them, but did find a walking/bike trail around this park on the Willamette River and rode something over 3 miles on it.  Crossed the river twice, each time on different bridges.

 

This weekend is the Marion County Fair which is held in Salem at the Oregon State Fairgrounds.  Thursday was Senior day with free entry and free parking so only spent the $9 for a Chinese dinner we shared from one of the food booths.

We ate at a table in the shade of a tent roof that was right beside the main stage so listened to entertainers while eating and later after we had wandered through the various livestock barns.

                              Watched a guy and 3 of his kids
                              try the Zipline ride.

                               There was a trampoline setup
                                with fiberglass poles supporting
                                the kids.  These girls were
                                doing flips.

They had quite a few sheep, goats, cattle, hogs and goats.  We visited some time with a lady who had llamas and alpacas on display.  Guess I didn't get a picture of them.






Have finally up-loaded album of all we saw at the Oregon Gardens the other day Oregon Garden at Silverton, Oregon  Click this link if you would like to see.  This was quite a place and literally had thousands of plants.

Today we are having the Air Conditoner worked on in the Ford and will probably not venture far from the trailer as it will take much of the day.  Turns out the guy who replaced the busted Turbo hose in Arizona put the clamp back on in a wrong position and it vibrated against an AC coupling which wore through and let out all the freon.  He had also over-tightened the clamp so it had eaten through the Turbo hose which has to be replaced also.  Of course the AC line is a wye fitting because of a rear Air Conditioner and had to be special ordered and is a little difficult to get to.

Till later, Lynn

Oregon Garden          Web site

Spent yesterday morning at Oregon Garden here in Silverton.  Fantastic place, enormous amount of flowers, trees, vegetables, anything that grows.  The garden was started after the city set up a lot of settling ponds from their waste water plant on this huge place and that water is all used to irrigate the whole 80 or so acres that are currently in the garden.

Silver Falls State Park    Web site


We went in the afternoon to this state park.  Walked some 3 miles to and from couple of the 10 water falls in the park.

Today headed to Salem, to State Fair Grounds to attend the County Fair that is starting today.

Later, Lynn

In the Williamette Valley of Oregon

Another nice day in Silverton, OR. We drove to Woodburn, Mt. Angel and spent time here in Silverton.

At 1 pm we watched the Glockenspiel do it's thing in Silverton.

 Flowers and lots of truck farming everywhere here in the valley.

      Ate at the Sausage Co -  good eating.

These folks greeted us at the front of the restaurant, though they seemed a little wooden.

We weren't sure what this crop was, but a huge field.

This was some kind of berry field and probably 25 or more people were picking in the field.

This "May Pole" was located in the center of Mt. Angel had symbols for each of the different businesses in town.

Lots of flowers.

 Silverton literature states they have 20 murals on buildings throughout the town.  Saw many of them.  This particular one is either being finished or touched-up.

Our air conditioner is running out of cool, so have an appointment with local mechanic to add fluid to it in the morning.  Phyllis had her hooves worked on this afternoon.  Guess that should be nails.

Will be here until Sunday when we head north to Portland.  Hope to go over to the coast around Lincoln City to spend the day on Thursday.  Will be meeting Phyllis' cousins in Portland on Monday or Tuesday and also found that Gordon and Beverly are in the area and may meet them also in Portland.

Worked up some figures -- Have now pulled our trailer 5,764 miles and driven 3,353 miles without it.  Have spent a lot of "windshield time" and seen a lot of country.  We left our winter home in Texas three months ago today.

Found out on Facebook today that our house in Clarinda is getting a little use -- by Phyllis' cousins.

Glad they enjoyed themselves!

Till next time, Lynn

Oh, photos of last few days are at:
Near Salem, OR

In Silverton, Oregon

Click the link above to see weather in Silverton when you are looking at this - right now is 67 degrees.
We drove from Florence on the coast to here, just northeast of Salem, on Sunday.  An easy 145 mile drive and traffic was light since we were here shortly after noon.  We were on I 5 for a short bit and there was a lot of traffic there, but it moved well.

George, the guy on our GPS, had us completely skirt Eugene to the west and north through some very nice country side.  Saw lots of farms, wheat in windrows and one place a combine was picking up the windrows.  We stopped at this nice fruit/vegetable place just about noon.  Got fresh blueberries, apricots, pickled olive mix for salads, and other stuff I can't remember.  

They had a line of seasonings with a rather unusual name.

Notice the load of hay going down the road just past this sign for potatoes.  (we did get a bag of potatoes).  There was a lot of hay fields in the area and several seed companies for grasses, etc.

Monday we went on a guided tour of Oregon's capitol building which our guide made very interesting and informational.

 Both chambers were in session, finishing up this year and they finished for the year in the afternoon.

Phyllis caught these flowers on our walk from the capitol.  Can't remember their name, but she said they were much larger than some she had planted on our place in the country near Clarinda.

In the afternoon we toured a very interesting set of buildings that had been moved in near a woolen mill and all is now a museum.
We are heading out now, as I write this, so will write about that later.  Think we are going to Mt. Angel.

Lynn