In Memory of Opal

A wonderful lady and loved family member passed away this week. Opal, my sister's mother-in-law, died this past Monday at 93. I hadn't seen her a lot but I heard of her and her love for her family through my sister many times. Opal cared for others always, from her husband, children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren to the people she met at The Peaks where she last lived. She always seemed happy and engaged in life and had energy to do what needed to be done no matter how she felt. Our love and thoughts are with her family.

Dredging and Dallying

Getting gold from the bottom of a river is a lot of work. It seems that more time is spent getting ready to dredge, climbing down to the river, suiting up, and setting up the equipment than actual dredging! Today we made the first attempt at getting to the other side of the river, where there is a very promising-looking cove.














The pics today show Mike carrying supplies around some boulders to get to the launch site. I scramble over the rocks. The middle pic is of the dredge floating in the water. On the left side of the picture is the opposite shore we're aiming to get to.

The pic of Mike shows him suited up for crossing the river. That's a boogie board in his hand. He's got a wet suit on and a life jacket and is tethered to a 300 foot rope that I'm feeding from the shore. I'll get pics of the crossing later this week.

It's not all work up here, we took a trip to Grants Pass earlier this week and on the way back I snapped pics of some of the wildflowers growing in the higher elevations of the mountains. I made Mike stop along the road and got out to take the shots. We've been here 3 months now and will be heading back the end of September. I'm looking forward to seeing some early fall changes before we return home. Summer is just flying by.

country pleasures

Sometimes it's the little things that make it fun to be out in the country.

i've grown herbs before but never tomatoes! This is a picture of my first and if the critters don't get it, it'll be ripe in a few weeks. Yummy!

The bowl of blackberries came from the bushes out on the river where we're dredging. These will probably go with some ice cream or pancakes but if I get a bunch I might make up some jam.

Sunday nights are potlucks in the campground. Tonight was smoked turkey. I made some tortilla pinwheels and carrot cake cupcakes (though some of them had to stay home for the hungry guy!).

I hung up the hummingbird feeder but haven't seen any yet. It's right outside the dining room window so I hope to snap some close-ups.

Tomorrow its back out to the river and some dredging in a new spot. Have a relaxing Sunday evening.