Christmas Eve

This is the most beautiful Christmas one could dream or hope for. Our Quadrafire wood stove is keeping our chalet in the woods warm and cozy. I went out earlier and split some wood that our new neighbors and now great friends gave us earlier in the year when they cleared their property for a home. Although we are in the midst of preparation for our move to California, today we will just relax and enjoy the ambiance and joy of the season. I walked out to the river and took these photos to share with all of you and especially my Grandchildren and Great Grandchildren. When I was standing in the shallow edge of the river a Kingfisher's rattling voice reverberated in the canyon and I watched it fly upstream and land on a snow covered branch sending a waterfall of snow tumbling to the ground.The rocks in the river above the water line are covered with snow and the water is crystal clear.

The temperature has warmed to 3 degree's above freezing. As a result large snow bombs are dropping here and there from the trees some breaking into smaller pieces as they hit branches on their way to the ground. Even limbs are falling now and then from the weight of the snow.
This is truely a winter wonderland.

We are fortunate to be here at this moment in time to experience such a glorious white Christmas.
Merry Christmas to all of our children and those we sponser through the "Christian Children's Fund.

Now it's time to enjoy the company of my wife and two cats and warm up in front of the fire.

White Christmas

It's been a while since my wife and I have experienced anything like it but this year we are having a White Christmas. We're busy packing to move to Northern California where my wife will continue her outstanding career at Humboldt State University as Director of Planned Giving. We feel like we're getting a wonderful sendoff with the snow. It is a soft fluffy snow and today I went out to record it and look for animal tracks.

The entire Pacific Northwest has been hit by an arctic blast and it looks like it will be with us for at least another week. Hopefully we will not get a rapid thaw which causes rivers to rise rapidly as well. Some people look at this kind of weather as a problem but to us it is beautiful and we plan to enjoy every moment.

Above are the tracks of what appears to be a cottontail rabbit. While I try to enjoy the moment as I step softly in the snow I can't help feeling the sadness of leaving this place we have grown to love so much.
It has been another memorable chapter in our lives and although we will miss our friends here and the many places we have hiked we look forward to new and most likely challenging adventures.

We hope that someone who appreciates the beauty of nature will find this place and live here harmoniously
with the outstanding riparian woodland and the sight and sounds of the river from their deck and the upstairs loft.
Wishing everyone who reads this a very happy holiday season and a merry Christmas.

Thanksgiving

Time to head em up and move em out. rolling, rolling rolling.... This is the time of year when I look forward to being with my mother, children and grandchildren and their children. All of my cousins and many of their children and grandchildren and so on.
My dear uncle Eddie will be there too and he is one month away from reaching the ripe ole age of 97.



Rose and Eddie caught in a camera trap

Eddie is a great human being who served in the Navy during World War II and was a Lt. Commander. He has many stories to tell and he loves to tell them. Not many years earlier it was my mother alone who hosted this gathering and did all of the cooking and it was delicious to say the least.
This year we are having a potluck dinner in which everyone will bring a dish or perhaps just some nuts to nibble on while we sip our wine and greet each other warmly waiting for the turkey which I will be cooking. There are at least 40 coming this year and it will be loud and crazy with a lot of warm hugs and conversation. When the main dish has been eaten the desert goes fast and before you know it people are leaving already, but it seems like we just got started.

Each year I wish that there was just a little more time to talk to everyone in more depth about life and other things. We have been gathering here at my mother's for over 40 years now and somehow deep down I hope it never ends, this magical day when everyone just relaxes and enjoys each others company. This day in particular reminds us of those loved ones that previoulsy gathered here but are gone now and will be with us in spirit always.

Gertrude and Warne Lark, Randy my beloved son, Denby Lark, my step father Jimmy Britt, Our sweet Auntie Marion, and my dear cousin Lynne's daughter, Robin.

Fish in Trees

It was only last week that my friend Ben Dennis and I stood on the river shelf gazing down at large Salmon spawning upstream. This was a good sight realizing that this once plentiful species still returns at least in smaller numbers to it's ancient beginnings. Then the storms began. (See previous post).

After the river receeded I walked out our trail with rubber boots and noticed more sand filtered through the native plants. Nootka Rose, Vine Maple, Red Osier Dogwood and other vegetation bent 90 degrees facing downstream. Flotsam of trash tangled in limbs have traveled in high waters from somewhere upstream .

The odor of dead fish everywhere, some in trees left there to dry and decompose. This is where these fish began. First as eggs deposited in a gravel "redd" by their spawning parents, protected by surrounding gravel from being eaten by predators. In a couple months they rise up as small fry to feed on tiny insects that have been nurished by the decaying flesh of the adults before them. It's miraculous in a stream full of organisms that would feast on them if provided the opportunity that they made it to the ocean and returned as adults to spawn and die. I ponder their survival as I gaze at their putred smelling bodies hanging in the trees before me. I use a stick to pick them up and place them in the stream to add nutrients which will help the next generation to repeat this amazing life cycle.
I rejoice at this time each year when I catch the drift of decaying salmon and see their dead remains in the water or stranded in the vegetation.
It reminds me that the cycle continues to thrive.

The ups and downs of living on a river

It has rained a lot lately as it usually does this time of the year in the Pacific Northwest. Our raingauge has collected 7.3" in 6 days and more rain is predicted through the week with possible let up by the weekend.
The USGeological Survey Water data at Heisson bridge on the East Fork of the Lewis river in Clark County, Washington recorded: 4,020 CFS and a gage height of 16.59 at 1500 yesterday. The photos below show the difference a day makes after continous rain for 24 hrs.


I stayed up this night watching the river rise, hoping that the rain would let up. The sound of the powerful river was like the roar of the large rapids that I remember while rafting the Colorado. Fortunately, the rain subsided by 20:00 and by 24:00 the river crested at 20 feet gage height, and 10,700 cfs. WHEW! Fortunately I recovered my beaver camera trap just in time.
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River Poetry

My wife Kimberley Pittman-Schulz is a Poet and several of her poems have appeared in magazines and periodicals including: Avocet, Cairn, the Oregonian, Rosebud, The Merton Seasonal, and The Sun. I share with you here a poem she wrote for me and is included in her recently reworked manuscript for her book of poems entitled :
MOSSLIGHT.





River’s Wind

For Terry

Late light on the river
shows us where the beaver lifts
his dark face
from darker water,
willow leaves in his lips, willow limbs
stripped and bare as bones
at our feet.

At the end of the day,
we feel the ending.
Two kingfishers rattle
in the firs and fall silent;
a single, yellow alder leaf
spins downstream,
sinking into dusk.

I look into your eyes
and see they are not pebbles.
The river moves in them—
both fixed and flowing, they are alive
in this moment, two blue flowers
caught in the river’s wind.

The beaver drifts
toward us, just forehead and wet eyes
glinting on the surface, so that
in the dimness he could be
nothing more than water
folding in on itself.

A coolness lifts and
the sky bruises purple,
a dozen bats suddenly above us,
licking into the night. All we want
is here, now. I lean into your left arm,
each of us holding on
as long as we can.

Another Beaver shot

I checked my camera trap today in pouring down rain and found 4 more beaver photos taken on 10-28-08 between 11:15 and 11:30 PM. These photos show more of the beaver since I removed some vegetation that had obscured part of the big fellow last time. No activitiy for the last 8 days.
It's amazing how excited I get each time I check my camera trap with the anticipation of catching a new and different veiw of a beaver. Old men are really just kids at heart!