Neighborhood

On Independence Day 2009, it seemed oh so appropriate to head over to nearby Independence to see how a namesake Oregon small town celebrates the Fourth of July. I hadn't been to this annual event for a long time. But now that I have a Suzuki Burgman 650 scooter, I look for reasons to go for a drive. Even on a 93 degree day. My timing wasn't so great, because I got to Main Street just as the parade had ended. Onlookers hadn't left yet, so at least I could pick up a hint of the parade vibe. The town…

Excellent story in the Portland Oregonian today, "Coping with neighborhood coyotes." It makes the same points that my wife and I have shared with some coyote-hating neighbors of ours recently.(Since the Oregonian eventually archives its online stories, I scanned the piece by Jacques Von Lunen so it will be permanently available.)Download Oregonian coyote story 4-28-09Coyotes are part of nature's balance. Von Lunen says they weren't in western Oregon until wolves were eradicated and clear-cutting of forests enabled them to cross the Cascades.Laurel and I wish we had more of them here in semi-rural south Salem. Ground squirrels are a problem…

Maybe this is karma for a one-time Californian, moi, defying Oregon governor Tom McCall's plea in the 1970s to "come visit, but please don't live here." I stayed, and now I've got plenty of California company --  ground squirrels who have migrated into the northwest and are making a mess of our yard and crawl space.  They are super cute, which makes dealing with the critters a lot more difficult. We can't imagine killing them. But their reputation as "one of the most troublesome pests to homeowners and gardeners" seems well-deserved.For most of the nineteen years we've lived in rural south…

We're engaged in a not-entirely-friendly debate with some neighbors about coyote killing. They're out to shoot the critters. We want to live with them. The facts are on our side, because killing coyotes generally results in more of them, not less.So says a factsheet, "Living With Coyotes," from the city of Tigard here in Oregon.Download Coyote factsheet While coyote control can be effective in eliminating specific individuals, it will not help reduce local populations. Coyotes have a compensatory, density-dependent breeding rate. Killing coyotes disrupts population structure causing more coyotes to breed and have larger litters. Coyotes will also quickly fill…

What's real? What's not? Philosophers, mystics, and theologians have argued this question for millennia. I don't know the answer. But a fall walk late this afternoon helped put the upcoming election into perspective. Both are real -- nature and politics. Yet only one calms the spirit. Which I needed right now. (click a photo to enlarge) Here's a vine maple that Laurel planted on our property. This is its reddish year. Another one, even more dramatic than its neighbor. Find the dog in the photo. Tough to do. Her Shepherd coloring blends with Oregon's early November hue. Having turned 60…

It's yin and yang time in the Willamette Valley. Oregon is doing its changing thing. Rain most of the day, then a burst of late afternoon sunshine. The daffodils in our garden use it to show off. Look at me, so bloomin' beautiful! Down the path, Spring Creek is springing. New growth on winter's bare branches. Nearing the lake, a long shadow pointed the way to the sun. A first cherry blossom welcomed me to the lake shore. Aging oak. Aging bird house. Belonging together. Cattails, old. Willows, new. More yin and yang. Last year's cattails. This year's willows. Each…

Would a wine connoisseur buy a bottle because it has a dog face on it? Surely, not. But I'm surely not a wine connoisseur, so the outcome of my first Oregon wine tasting experience was entirely fitting to my oenophile standard. Actually, it was my first wine tasting anywhere, a fact I stated repeatedly during my visit to the nearby Ankeny Vineyard this afternoon in hopes any faux pas I committed would be more easily forgiven. I'm sure I made a few, but my wife was the only person who pointed one out to me. After a smidgen of the…

Laurel likes deer. She also dislikes barren slopes filled with dead, decaying blackberry vines. So last year this combined like and dislike led her to sow deer food on part of our property. Fortunately, not a large part. Big enough, though, for us to spend much of yesterday and today pulling up the damn stuff. Laurel thought that it would only come up once. Since this vegetation, a "deer greens" blend of brassica and purple top turnip, isn't very attractive, that was the hope when it sprouted and grew rapidly. The deer liked it. We didn't, so hoped that it'd…

My wife offered the first review of my recently released YouTube feature, Walk in Oregon windstorm. “The dramatic mood of danger is undermined by Serena wagging her tail so much,” she said. True. But such is the challenge of cinema verite. I show what it was actually like to walk through our south Salem woods in the late afternoon of Thursday, December 14, 2006, as a major windstorm was blowing in. I wish these seven and a half minutes contained more adventure. However, I’m glad that this didn’t include a large Douglas Fir falling on me. That possibility was in…