Old Habits and New Neighbors

I loved playing office when I was a kid and I still enjoy setting up one. The chamber of commerce here needed some help, so I started volunteering with them to get things organized.
It's fun to learn the names of the business in the community and the people who keep things going.
The camp is filling up, now that June is here, and we have new neighbors on both sides of us. It feels a little crowded after the month of May with the wide open sites but we still are surrounded and buffered by trees.

Mike went out today and dredged with the airhose line. He was under water (50 degrees at best!) with his scuba wetsuit, mask, airhose, scuba boots and gloves. He's working out to the channel in the river where the gold is suppose to settle. It took a couple hours to setup the equipment and then a couple of hours in the cold water is about the limit right now. This week's work is practice using the equipment and getting ready for more dredging as the water level continues to go down. He wants me to go and use the sluice to process the concentrates. Maybe tomorrow but for sure by the weekend.

Dinner tonight were grilled pork chops (it's great to grill outside), scalloped potatoes and broccoli. We sure eat a little healthier without easy access to fast food restaurants.

It stays light until about 8pm so I work on my craft projects in the gazebo or fiddle with computer work with the sound of the creek rushing by. Ah, Life!

Trip to Grants Pass

Today we took a trip over to Grants Pass as the road there finally opened. The picture is from the top of the mountain we went over. It was foggy and snow on the ground and giant pine trees.
On the way we went through Kerby, Oregon and stopped at the Burl Gallery. It's an artist's study of burled wood carvings. Check out the slideshow or go to my Photo Albums to see all the neat things they've made. They have wood pieces for sale too.

Grants Pass appears to be larger than Medford and the trip is a little bit shorter and more scenic. I am really enjoying Oregon, as I had never been here before and Mike only came through it a few years ago with Steve.

Route 48 from Happy Camp is normally closed from the first snow until June. There's a large snow skiing area near the top. It's mostly the Siskiyou and Klamath national forest area. There are a few little towns on the way: Cave Junction, Kerby, O'Brien, that will require future exploring. There's also the Oregon Caves Monument that we will check out later this summer.

An interesting bit of history in this area. In the 1940's the southern Oregon and Northernmost California areas were feeling neglected and started a movement to create a new state called "Jefferson". They were ready to secede in 1942 when Pearl Harbor was bombed and with everyone leaving for the war the effort died out. There's still a strong sense of independence in the area today.

Mike's new office

Today we went out to check on Mike's dredge out on the river. He took it down the side of the cliff yesterday and anchored it to some boulders. Here's where he'll be doing some dredging practice for the next week. Click on the slideshow link to the right for an album of photos from the spot.

I'll be crevicing - scraping up sand and loose gravel from the crevices in the rocks where the water flowed over in the past - and running the dirt through a sluice box. Lots of fun!

We've had a bear in camp the past few nights. Some folks shot at it to scare it away as it got into their freezer. The forest service won't trap it, says it's a known problem. I'm more scared of the shooters.

Today being June 1st, the rent was due - $275 for the space and $43 for last month's electric. About $10/day with full hook-ups. I helped the camp host hook up their new printer to their PC and dropped off some old books that the used bookstores wouldn't take. I snagged a Reader's Digest condensed in trade that will make an interesting altered book.

For those of you who bet I wouldn't last a month, here I am!