Ten Years!

I made it through the reunion in one piece! The experience was weird, but fun. It was similar to high school, only we're all ten year older. I've heard this is how reunions commonly go, but I guess I'd hoped it would be a little different. Some people have changed quite a bit, while others are stuck in their bizarre snooty rut. Around 10:30 the BBQ "portion" of the event started. It was nice to see everyone out with their families, there averaged almost one kid per person (though only about half of the people there had kids)! Julie and I watched an osprey feeding its young (which surprised me quite a bit) while at the BBQ. Their nest is on a lamp post in one of the baseball fields. After the BBQ we took the dogs for a walk. An irrigation ditch runs through the park so the dogs and I climbed in and waded around, trying to beat the heat. Later in the evening we attended the "formal" dinner. Everyone avoided Julie and I so we had a large table to ourselves until my "friends" came in. The majority of them were drunk most of the night. This weekend made me realize that I really am not like other people. I don't "need" alcohol, I've only been drunk once (and then not nearly as bad as most people I saw this weekend) and I quite frankly prefer my interactions to be sober. Anyway, the highlight of my night, other than meeting up with old friends, is discovering that Julie will dance if we are at a Reggae concert, therefore I will be trying to get use out to listen to Reggae more often!

My father helped me get some maps, with 10m grids, printed up for my vegetation surveys. He also loaned me a GPS, so that I can figure out exactly where I'm at when I'm looking at these maps! He and I have always had a rather tumultuous relationship and it always surprises me when he does nice things for me.

In the course of three days the black-capped chickadees and red-breasted nuthatches have consumed mass quantities of seed. They've slowed down on the suet, which seems counter intuitive. I'm always amazed by the number of birds I see at my parents' house. There was a brown creeper singing one morning while we were picking vegetables, I spotted him and pointed him out to my mother. Later in the evening a flycatcher was calling in the top of one of the ponderosa pines. A great-blue heron has been hanging out in their garden, probably eating the proliferation of pacific tree frogs. Mom's bird feeder is always busy, birds are almost always singing all around the house. The brown-headed cowbirds seem to have left, they usually spend the day riding around on Huka's back. After a short trip to Seattle I'll be back in the field for one more round of surveys and then vegetation surveys. I'm going to make every effort to do more bird watching this winter, because I like being outside, I like watching birds and working on my ID is never a bad idea!

Finally, we went huckleberry picking yesterday. There aren't very many ripe in Southern Oregon yet, but I know where to go to pick them. After cleaning them we have about 5.5 cups, enough for both pancakes and a pie! Next time we're in GP there'll be even more, we'll probably go picking again (then we can send some to Annie). I LOVE huckleberries and it brought me great joy to not only be out picking again but to be picking with my two closest friends.

Southern Oregon

I've been musing over drunkenness over the last 11 hours, or so. We went dancing last night and had one of the worst experiences I've had in a long time, possibly ever. The number of appallingly drunk people was overwhelming. It helped me realize that maybe I would be better served dancing at home. I don't go out to drink, meet other people or any of the other "normal" reasons. What I go out for is the dancing, to be bathed in music, blanketed in music. It's like active meditation/worship. It feels good to dance hard and not think of anything else. Last night I couldn't think of anything other than getting away from the drunk people. Lets just say that the night was disappointing.

We made things better though by spending the day preserving foodstuffs. My parents' garden is full of lovely vegetables and they have been kind enough to share with us. Rhonda picked up some no spray peaches from one of the oldest peach orchards in the area, seconds, mmmmm. The peaches were all very ripe, with bruises and very soft flesh (for the most part). I absolutely love "seconds" peaches, bruises are predominantly tasty. Anyway, we picked about three gallons of green beans, snapped them, blanched them, vacuum-sealed them and froze them. We also picked, blanched, cut, vacuum-sealed and froze corn (a LOT of corn). The peaches were blanched, pealed, cut and are now in the dehydrator. My mom also gave me several fresh carrots, peas and cherry tomatoes. I've eaten almost nothing but fresh vegetables today, it has been quite lovely!

I spent several hours with Audrey today. We played with the dogs for a while, then we bird-watched. Around 11 we went to see Huka. Audrey LOVED Huka. We sat in the pasture and watched Freyja geek out in the trough. Audrey laughed so hard and when Freyja jumped out, splashing water all over us Audrey laughed even harder. The goat is afraid of her, but was acting all goofy, eliciting another laugh from Audrey. At the tree we usually use as a bathing hitching post Audrey and I stopped. I told her all about the tree and then she put both hands on it, started rubbing it, kicked her feet excitedly and babbled to me about it. Eh, I love Audrey so much. She's only four months old and already very alert, loves the animals, talks up a storm and is generally a joy to be around. I made myself a moonstone necklace yesterday with an opal pendant. Audrey LOVES the moonstone so I let her play with it, she had to stop when the opal headed toward her mouth (I was worried the wire used to wrap it would cut her mouth). This rant leads me to my next point . . . I want to finish my degree so I can adopt a baby! If I thought I could deal with pregnancy I'd even consider birthing a child. Alas, I don't think I could go through with it.

Tomorrow is my ten year class reunion. It will prove to be an interesting day at the very least!