Snow is in the Air

Old Man Winter is begging to get back into the action. We've had two straight days of flurries in the air--it's way too early! On top of that, the kids are off today--teacher training day, and we're getting caught up on all that quality time stuff, each person is in front of their own screen at the moment. Well, I guess I'm being a little facetious. Anyway, the squabbles up 'til three seconds ago were short lived and everyone was in their own world of bliss. Don't get me wrong, we have plenty to do today, like help set up the Book Fair at school and possibly attend a trail building seminar at the Brewery tonight. The changing seasons are always alittle unsettling and it seems like there's too much to do before winter sets in.

I finally signed up for the "How to Start Your Own Business" course taught locally by the community college. I don't see many downsides to not starting it (minimal start-up costs--it's a personal service) and I'm not ready to cave in and fit myself back into a corporate setting working long hours. Fortunately, my lady is patient with me and economic times as bad as they are, we are surviving. Guess that's the impeteus, we're used to more than surviving, and we want to get back to that lifestyle as soon as we can--just complimented with work we enjoy doing.

Have a great Columbus Day Weekend!

Survival of the Fittest

The cute little guy above is a recent orphan and probably won't survive...how sad. Yesterday I was getting wood from the stack and he comes hopping up to me. I didn't know what was going on, was he being fed by a neighbor? Or was this a sick animal to stay away from. I called the little girl of the house out to take some pictures and then we followed him around the yard for a while. On the way home from church we had seen a large squirrel that had been recently killed by a car--might have been Momma.

But wait, the story gets worse. Under our deck is another little guy. This one is either very sick or catatonic (turned out he was dying) and he is curled into a little ball but still moving when gently probed. His little brother or sister stayed under the deck with him for the rest of the afternoon--until I want out for more wood. Then the survivor follows me about 20 yards back down to the wood pile and climbs a tree, and that's where he stayed the night. Haven't seen him this morning, but we're not to sure he's a good forager. We laid the other guy to rest.

In other news, Pippin the Wonderdog just has a mild case of Kennel Cough. Yup, he caught it his first (and only) day at Doggie Daycare, despite their strict vaccine policy. It's good news because it's relatively easy to treat (Julia was envisioning dangerous and expensive surgery to remove a Lego from his trachea.)

Volunteering gets Complicated

Pippin at Doggie Daycare.

Can you say, American Legion, School Site Committee, Garden Club, Book Fair, Walkathon, Local Option Committee, etc. Guess we're getting immersed and those are just some fun things we're involved in. I thought we'd put our planners away, but it looks like that was just a pause.

In other news, the working one received a raise (oh yeah!) and the other guy subbed at school for the secretary and librarian for several days last week. The kids seem to be taking it all in stride and are busy developing huge Christmas lists--guess they think Santa is not affected by all the bad economic news.

Not to leave Pippin out of the discussion, we're off to the Vet today--he's got something making him choke every 5 or 10 minutes--made sleep near impossible for us. I suspect they won't find anything and we'll just have to tough it out until whatever passes.

Kayaking Three Creeks Lake

My son and I, adventurers that we are drove up to Three Creeks Lake which is only about 20 miles from the house. Once the pavement ends on Forest Road 16, the driving gets really slow because the road is so rough you worry about bottoming out on your oil pan. The lake is picturesque and calm. It is located in a glacial cirque, below Tam McArthur Rim, which was probably last occupied by glacial ice about 13,000 years ago during the Canyon Creek advance of the Cabot Creek glaciation. The outlet stream from the lake flows northward and is joined by two other streams to form Three Creek. See the slideshow below. Click it to go to the album for a larger view.

One More Photosynth

Here is the view of the Three Sisters and Patterson's Elk Ranch in Sisters, Oregon--a view we see everyday going to and from town to our home.

Photosynth -- Sea of Lava

I made another short trek today. This time west of the homestead up Highway 242 to the Sea of Lava. Note Mount Washington in the background of this Synth. Be sure to look at the image full screen to see the whole effect at the world of PhotoSynth at: http://photosynth.net/Default.aspx Search for "242".

Enjoy!

Photosynth is Pretty Cool!

Checkout the collage of the Three Sisters I made using the new technology by Microsoft at:



This Synthy was made with 207 pictures I took in about 5 minutes on the way to grocery shop this morning. Be sure to use the arrows to look all around and zoom the image. I look forward to bringing you other sights around Sisters soon...