Oregon | Ain't Complicated

Beau Vine

Bovine, actually. Cows, you know.

But first, the owner of the cows around here:

Yup, he’s tilling our garden. For the third time in a week. Voluntarily. Free of charge. He’s a great landlord! (Thank you, TW!)

Note: Some of the images below are clickable-to-see-a-larger-version.

But back to bovine matters. Here’s one of the many mothers around here, accompanied by her child:

The background is fuzzy but it gives you an idea of the beautiful views we have out back.

Here’s that same mother and kid:

Oh, I mentioned the views out back, here’s another one (shot in the evening haze), this one of Oregon’s own Mt. Hood:

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Hubbard, Oregon

Way back in 1983-1987, we used to live in the town, in this little house:

Since it’s in the Industrial Park, I’m kinda surprised it’s still there and in use as a private residence. In fact, the mailbox I put up is still there, now in rusty glory:

They’ve got a nice park. Maybe our family will go there for a picnic this summer:

Ruby and I were in Hubbard this morning on a little Let’s Get Reacquainted expedition.

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Little Things

Some of the little things we saw on our Mother’s Day “cruise” on Saturday:

It may be mostly green, but I think that’s really pretty.

Spunky little plants!

We saw these little red “warts” on a bunch of different leaves.

Pretty, too — as ants go.

As I recall, these were all taken at Newport’s Yaquina Bay State Park (or is it Yaquina Head State Park?).

Why Do Good?

“Why does God want us to do good works?” asked the preacher yesterday morning.

I had a “new” answer pop into my head. But before that, another photo from the Mother’s Day excursion Ruby and I took the day before Mother’s Day.

Ruby at Jefferson, Scio, Crabtree Food Bank coffee wagon at Albany I-5 rest area

Food banks are a great way to do good. And when they have coffee at interstate rest areas, they do even more good! If Hubbard (Oregon) has no food bank, perhaps our congregation (Hopewell Mennonite Church, two miles distant) should start one.

Anyway, may God bless and prosper the Jefferson-Scio-Crabtree Food Bank as well as those who make it work. And thanks for the good coffee!

Now, back to the question: “Why does God want us to do good works?”

And what popped into my head: Because He wants us to have faith!

“Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone” (James 2:17).

Mother’s Day Jaunt

Yesterday I took Ruby out to the Oregon Coast. Usually we just go out to Lincoln City. This time we went to Newport via Corvallis so we could go on the route her family would take when she was a Child Yet At Home.

We stopped in at Toledo to visit her Mom’s very active eighty-year-old cousin Wilma. When we got there, we interrupted her work. She was out on her riding mower, mowing a vast expanse of yard.

After that we went on to Newport. One of our stops there was Yaquina Bay State Park:

Yaquina Head State Park, Newport, Oregon

But before Toledo and before Newport, we were at Philomath. We were past the turning spot before we saw it, so we turned around and went back to it: Southern Pacific Caboose 1160.

Well, folks, this morning I used Paint Shop Pro and two pictures I took on our jaunt to make a simple little Mother’s Day card for Ruby. Here are the two images I used:

Here we are in Philomath at the caboose.

(If you click the images, you should see the more complete pictures from which they came.)

That was a really nice 250-mile, 10-hour trip Ruby and I took together. We definitely enjoyed it very much. We didn’t do anything super special for our meals. In Philomath we bought snack wraps at McDonalds. In Newport we bought a foot-long sub at Subway. And in Salem we bought (at McDonalds) fish sandwiches, fries, two pies, a McFlurry, and a milkshake.

Oh, and in Depoe Bay we bought half a pound of salt water taffy.

Get That Squawfish

OK, so I suppose someone with KISS came up with a new moniker for squawfish: pikeminnow.

But whatever it’s called, as of yesterday Oregon gives you the chance to win a reward of $4 per fish you catch. Learn more about the matter here: 2009 Northern Pikeminnow Sport Reward Fishery

In other Oregon news, someone here thinks it would be easier to change the date of a Postal Service price hike than to change the date of Oregon’s election. Maybe so.

What else is happening in Oregon? I don’t know.

Bye.

Today’s Featured Post Office

Here’s a scan of the upper right corner of a letter we got from a customer:

I guess we should move to Eugene, Oregon. Imagine how much money we could save on postage! (Last year we spent over $23,000 in postage.)

Alas, I don’t know which Post Office in Eugene so generously postmarked the stamp-less letter. 😆

Whichever it is, “Hip hip hooray for the USPS!”

😀