Natural Beauty

One of the joys of living in this neck of the world is the tremendous scenery and natural wonders that it has to offer.  We open our door daily to it which is pretty (and) amazing!  There is something about Cloudplay that brings all of those wonders together…

That being said, there are so many other special spots to see and experience that make it natural to share these with the Wwoofers who make our place their temporary home.  I have made it a point for anyone staying two weeks or more to take them to visit at least a couple of those awesome wonders as well as to various spots that make Curry County and the Siskiyou region such a unique bioregion.

As well as these pictures of the coast, which are quite indicative of what you’ll experience in travelling here, there’s (at least) a couple places that I don’t want folks who come all of this way to miss.

a shot along the way

 



shrouded in clouds or sunny, it's magic!

streams and waterfalls, too...

‘Secret Beach’ is one of those.  Whether you catch it on a foggy or sunny day, the magic of that spot cannot begin to be gathered until seen by descending the hill from a very basic pull-off behind a safety railing from the main highway.  There are pelicans and seals checking you out from just offshore, waterfalls, small creeks with pools, tree-topped rock islands and forested cliffs that filter the sun, hidden caves and routes through the humungous rock formations and even natural arches and rock bridges to explore during low tide.

 

Dan in awe in our living cathedral

‘Stout Grove’ is another.  A path winding along a pristinely turquoise river takes you to a cathedral of trees—the mighty redwoods—that speak of another time and which man has fortunately left to be.  There are nooks and crannies, fallen logs, gigantic trees that a family of ten can’t reach around, and a fairy forest in which you can just sit and absorb forever.  Viewing upward takes awhile to discover how and where the sun could possibly enter to hit on scattered patches on the fern-laden ground.  There is no doubt that this place is sacred, and this is only enhanced by the ghostlike voices of fellow souls as they echo within and throughout.  Leaving this place is possible, but not something you are in a hurry to do.

 

All of this being said, you can discover much more at your leisure and find those places that resonate for you.  And no, I am not a tour guide!

Labo(u)r Day

It’s already September!  For those of you in the Southern Hemisphere, it’s kind of like Good Friday (although that’s a bit changeable) in that it marks the end of summer and good weather and getting out and about for holidays and vacations.

On the other hand, Kiwis and Ozzies have Christmas to mark the entrance to down time and better weather, where we here in the US have Memorial Day, which is more like your Anzac—although, we always move it toward a weekend to make for a longer break.  So, we’re now all back to work and/or to school and the days are rapidly getting shorter.

So we have just celebrated our last ‘day off’ until Thanksgiving just like you wait for the Queen to celebrate her birthday in early June.  It also marks the official end of our tourist season, although here in Curry county in SW Oregon, that can go until the rain really sets in in November when most of the retirees and childless couples take advantage of the kids being off the road to visit and to enjoy the natural beauty in our neck of the woods.

Just a few fun facts for those of you interested in planning future breaks depending on your hemispherical perspective.

Labor Day has always been a time that I stop, observe, and reflect on where I and we are and where we’re going.  For us here at Cloudplay that’s easy: we established, planted, and fenced the main garden with the help of Wwoofers Sandy and Danny and just finished fencing the addition that Wwoofers Angelita and Noel helped create.  This creation has been quite satisfying and organic in nature and has really helped this homestead to become a home.

A note on the addition of the ‘winter garden’, after finding several cabbage seedlings disappear, it became imperative to get the fencing up that our friend Sue donated to the cause.  Other than a few plants being munched, however, all the other kale, broccoli, greens and peas appear very happy indeed.

GOT PHOTO UPLOADED, see below...

...and if you don't see it on here the first time, try, try again.

This small success IN NO WAY changes my feeling about computers, however.

The brassicas are in/The computer is my enemy...

OK, so here we go with changing colo(u)rs again...just trying to brighten things up a bit (as we are getting into autumn)--esp given the second half of my title this time around.

The end of this month has seen the exit of our two semi-resident Angelinos, right after they helped create--actually, they did over 3/4 of the work, so why not give them credit?--the autumn/winter veggie bed.  We are going to have some wonderful broccoli and kale this winter, thanks to Noel and AngeliTa, yes that's 't' not an 'n', no matter what Mr. Brad Pitt would have you think.

These two are the second couple of Wwoofers that have made their way to our newly 'founded' homestead, where we now have quite the gardening space.  They also helped finish off the perfect gate that all the work and deer fencing that Sandy and Danny led us to...

So here it is, with the field being readied for its new crop:

AngeliTa and Noel--hard at it, and still smiling!

and, so much for the colour (as photos go), can't upload AGAIN! ($&(@^(&$()@!!!)

and, so for the second part of this posting.  I am downright troubled by technology.  I honestly don't know how to make this funny.  The computer and I really don't communicate, in any effective way anyhow.  BUT, it isn't just me.  The guy at Radio Shack could not figure out why I couldn't open up my Yahoo email account on my new "Android"anymore.  The guy at the other copy/biz centre had to take several steps including two calls to Brent to finish uploading my new Windows software  that he had not been able to finish the other day (WARNING: Do not start something that you cannot finish, ESPECIALLY if it's on the computer!).  We had to wait 30 more minutes for it to load, AND THEN go thru 28 additions (so-called 'updates') which took even longer.

and, so, if you'd join me in a moment of furor in raging against the machine.

and, yes, I will try to upload a picture of the new garden addition, but there may be a few days of growing involved before I can put that up.

and yes, the computer is my enemy...Help me Julia!!!

The (first) garden is in!

The first pole of the deer fence goes in thanks to Dan!

Awhile in the coming, but yes, the "diamond in the rough" is planted out...thanks to my first two great Wwoofers, Sandy and Dan!  The plants are growing big (well, actually pretty small right now considering the late start...) and happy.

ah, yes, my first deer fence!

For the final touch, I've yet to put a gated entry through our deer fence (Dan helped me create this on his final day that we could work together.), but the first garden is now officially going and growing.  I actually found the perfect sprinkler and have run it for its first two sessions, and it worked wonders.  Still have to handwater the corners, but that is easy.


I will AGAIN try to upload some pictures on my personal computer, but have really struggled with making this happen and just want to keep the story going.  


When I have truly figured this out, you'll have to go back and take a look at previous entries for which I am presently photo-less, because you know what they say about pictures telling stories...

a diamond in the rough...

It's finally happened!!!

the 'diamond'

 So, just to update the blog and all of you, I am successfully uploading photos on the web!  HIP-HIP-                                  
                                                                      HURRAY!

Sandy enters the scene--my 1st Wwoofer from Chicago!

We have a plot--well you could say that the story has started for real.  The picture you will see (I'm having a HELLUVA time down or up or otherwise loading these gems for your viewing pleasure.) will be that of my FIRST Wwoofer from Chicago who helped me plant up the first part of the 'diamond' the day after she arrived.  I can tell you that Sandy has been awesome, and it is SO great to get support as we planted out all of the first little seedlings--SO, you also think that planting in mid-July (well at least in the northern hemishphere) is a little late...oh, you of little hope!

Unbelievably, outside of all the little lettuce starts (which will probably grow regardless) and the beans (which really all did need to be planted out about one week earlier), the timing on putting out all of these was perfect.  As many of you know, we've not really had a summer in which to make this happen.  What was weird though, with the fog, the thunderstorms, all of the prep-work necessary, and then finally the arrival of Dan from Hawaii, and the rest of the seedlings placed (the pumkins, tomatos, and squash) again, after another rain that added back a lot of needed moisture and made the earth much less dusty, I could not have asked for better conditions.

It will be interesting to see how all of this love and care in planting and the gentleness of the circumstances Mum Nature bestowed on us on the witching/planting hour will ACTUALLY make things go.

Several other tasks were tied into making what happens here in the future more meaning-full--like taking soil samples just before putting Dr. Earth all-purpose organic fertilizer on half of the bed to see what kind of a difference it will make compared to those that didn't get any.  I also want you to know--esp you, Rob, Margaret, and Julia--that I AM recording this in my plant diary...you know, I am going to start this thing right this time round!

Today, staying in the same kind of mode (you know, getting it right from the get-go), we also weeded out a lot of thistle and tansy (known to be fatal to animals, especially cattle here in Oregon).   Just in case you forgot from my previous entry and are curious about the bat encounters and results, Brent went through the remainder of his bat shots JUST IN CASE there was something really wrong about the bat that brushed by Brent's ear when we moved the wood shed about three weeks back.  He is totally done with the series of shot treatments, and finally, finally, got a nurse who massaged the final injection into his shoulders in Denver which greatly helped reduce the discomfort he experienced previously in Gold Beach.

So, finally, we've got caught up a bit on the practical and I do promise those pictures--some day!

Going Batty

Amazing how the time has gone!  Not even two entries for June--the month of beginnings...

the "batty" woodshed moved and...

You know that you are not in control when you can't blog more than that--my partner, Brent, and I have now been back to Cloudplay for almost two weeks.  That being said, it's been a bit slow-going.  A big part of what we've been up to is getting our place--especially our infrastructure--back in order.  One of the main things we've aimed to accomplish is to get our wood shed moved and set up next to our cabin.

This task wasn't actually that difficult, but did involve some major deconstruction of the present structure.  I wish someone had told the bats our intentions to give them a bit more time to be prepared.

To cut to the chase, there were several who obviously weren't going to move and needed more than a push to move them along.  Although a number of the flying rodents took off immediately, there were several who kept returning or lingered, and one mother was definitely not going to leave her young one    

being painted by Wwoofers Sandy and Dan

behind.


Perhaps she thought that she might win the struggle and to prove it, she decided to wing by Brent's ear closely enough to encourage him to make a trip to the local clinic to follow up on what he'd read that even a brush of a claw that didn't even draw blood was enough to transmit rabies.  Whether that was her intention or not, we'll never know, but Brent is now in the middle of his 4 or 5-shot treatment--just in case.


The result:  several somewhat sleepless nights and some very weird sensations in his body.  There will be more on this later...