Jonas, Dohnele & Emma

All I've gotta say is "What was she thinking?!"

If you think that quitting in the middle of a term to an elected office is going to position you better for future political positions, then you're wrong!  I don't know how people could consider this "good strategy."  Two things come to mind:

1. She cares more about herself than she does about her constituents (do we really want that person to continue to represent us?)
2. She can't handle the job.  Let's face it, her career has been tainted by ethics violations for years!

And I think most people will see both of these points if she does decide to pursue an enhanced political future.

This article from the UK seems to touch on things nicely;  And here's another one from Fox News for all of you conservative folks out there who have managed to read this far.  And here is a hilarious essay from MSNBC.

I say "GREAT", not only is she temporarily out of the political arena, but if the GOP is dumb enough to nominate her for president, the Obama stands an excellent chance at re-election in 2012!

Oh my heck, we had such a good time on this vacation and took so many pictures and saw so many cool things!  Let's get right to it...

Day 1
We left early for Portland.  Didn't have time to stop in Eugene for bubble tea.  Got to our park and fly place just outside the airport which is totally the only way to go!  It's way cheaper than airport parking, your card is under 24-hour guard and they pick you up at your car and drop you off at the ticket counter a scant five minutes later!  Emma, and the rest of us too, all got through security with ease.  We had lunch at a gourmet sausage shop at the airport and Emma did some coloring in her coloring book in between being fascinated with the airplanes.  The flight was pretty decent, actually; nonstop to Anchorage and Emma slept for about half of it.  James showed up 15 minutes after us from Spokane, we got our bags and rent-a-car (don't ever buy a Dodge Avenger - absolute crap!) and started our drive to Girdwood.  We stopped several times along Turnagain Arm and took some beautiful pictures of the snow-capped mountains.  Everyone from Delta Junction showed up at the Alyeska Resort 15 minutes after we arrived and after dropping our gear in our rooms, we went to dinner (delicious pizza!)  After dinner we went into town and got ice cream, drove around looking for Ted Stevens' house and then went for a walk along the base of Mount Alyeska.  It was so neat to be back in Alaska where it doesn't ever get dark at night in the summer!

Day 2
We had breakfast in town with Caleb and Melody and then took off for Soldotna.  We stopped at 20 Mile River, Turnagain Pass and several places along Granite Creek and the Kenai River.  The traffic was really heavy which wasn't too much fun, but we did get a bit of hiking in at Turnagain Pass where there were tons of wildflowers in bloom at the edge of last winter's avalanches.  We got to Soldotna a few hours before the rehersal and checked into our clean, but old hotel.  Since I was the videographer for the event, I filmed the rehersals from several different vantage points.  We also got to meet LaDonna who such a great person!  And we saw several other relatives who we hadn't seen in several years.  That night we did dinner on our own at an amazing restaurant - the steak and king crab legs were to die for!  After dinner Jame and I went with the guys to the bachelor party in Kenai.  It was very tame, but still a lot of fun since we didn't have any other time to spend with Isaac before he got married.  We shot pool and threw some darts until about midnight before heading back to the hotel.

Day 3
We slept in and subsequently had to rush to get to the photo shoot, but we made it just in time.  The wedding was a perfect, happy affair followed by a quaint reception, bubbles instead of rice and then a car chase on gravel roads through Soldotna.  Good times!  Since everyone was leaving the next day, but nobody had really gotten a good chance to socialize, I reserved a place at the restaurant that we had eaten at the night before for the entire family.  We had a late lunch with mom and Erica and then later in the evening we went to the "reunion" which was entirely too much fun.  Excellent food and great company!  After dinner about half of us went to Cold Stone for ice cream and further chit chat.

Day 4
Everyone else left, but we slept in and then drove to Kenai to check the town out since we hadn't been there before.  It was kind of lame.  We went to the beach which may have been nice on a clear, sunny, warm day, but it was cold windy and cloudy and we couldn't see Mount Redoubt like we had wanted to.  So we drove back to Soldotna, had lunch and then drove south to Homer.  The drive was boring, but Homer is such a cool town.  We'd all been there before, but never as "tourists" so it was fun to get a different perspective.  We checked into the hotel (I upgraded us to a hot tub suite) and then went to the Homer Spit and spent the afternoon shopping.  Among the highlights was seeing Captain Jonathan Hillstrand of the "Time Bandit" from the TV show "Deadliest Catch"!  Back to the hotel for a break and then back to the Spit for dinner (amazing fish and chips).  The sun came out in full force which was brilliant, but the wind was so strong it became really cold, really quickly.  Nonetheless, I got some amazing pictures of the sun high in the sky on Solstice at about 10pm!  Emma went to sleep when we got back to the hotel and the rest of us hot tubbed until about 3am!

Day 5
It was pouring down rain, so we ate a quick breakfast and left for Seward.  The drive was just as boring, but was made worse by our horrible little car which was uncomfortable and had wipers that just make a smeary mess on the windshield and made it tough to see other cars (which all seem to drive slowly in Alaska)!  Anyway, we got to Seward and went directly to the Alaska SeaLife Center.  Once again, we'd been there before, but really wanted to show Emma and James.  We were glad we did, because it really is a neat place.  We checked into our hotel and napped (can't believe we did that!) for a couple hours before dinner.  We went to supposedly the best pizza place in town, which wasn't that impressive and had horrible service.  After dinner the rain stopped and I really wanted to go show everyone Exit Glacier which only I had been to before.  So we drove into Kenai Fjords National Park.  With the sun coming out, the place was amazing!  We hiked right up to the toe of the glacier which was only accessible by wading across three glacier-fed streams (literally with chunks of ice drifting past).  I had my Teva's on, so I rolled up my pants and carried everyone across the streams barefoot!  It was totally worth it, to get right onto the glacier and snap some amazing pictures!  It was almost funny to be hiking across a glacier at 10pm in full daylight!  Emma was fascinated by three things 1) glacier ice she could pick up, 2) bear poop and 3) moose poop that she could pick up (Dohnele got mad at me for encouraging her).

Day 6
We got up a bit early, had breakfast, checked out, did a quick tour of downtown Seward, took some neat pictures of the mountains which got a fresh blanket of snow at the upper elevations and then took off for Whittier.  As soon as we left Seward the rain started again and stuck with us all the way to Whittier.  We got to Bear Valley and the entrance to the Whittier Tunnel.  None of us had ever been through the tunnel to Whittier before and we had to check it out.  It's a two-and-a-half mile tunnel which is only one lane wide and doubles as a rail tunnel.  It's amazing!  Every few hundred feet there are emergency pull outs and "safe houses" for evacuation.  We popped out of the tunnel and into Whittier.  It was like entering Siberia in the 1960s.  Snow, avalanche remnanats and glaciers go all the way down to the ocean.  Gravel roads.  Freight yards and concrete buildings everywhere.  And of course it was pouring.  We drove around town, took a couple pictures and then got back in line to head back through the tunnel.  It was pretty amazing to see the old Buckner Building, however.  Built in the late 1950s it was a "city under one roof."  Literally the entire town was housed in this one building which has now been condemmed and replaced with a newer, yet similar building.  Anyway, back on the other side of the tunnel we stopped at Portage Lake and took pictures of icebergs and Portage Glacier.  It was windy, rainy and really cold so we didn't stay long.  We drove towards Anchorage and the sun gradually came out.  We went to lunch at the Moose's Tooth which both of us remembered as being an awesome pizza place (it still is).  Then we went shopping at the Fifth Avenue Mall because we both remembered it being awesome (it's actually really lame now).  Then we went to a movie - "The Proposal."  I left with Emma half way through, because she was bored and started giving commentary much to the chagrin of our fellow movie-goers.  We finally went to the airport around 11:30pm (still light out), checked in for our flights and then flew out.

Day 7
Our plane left Anchorage at 1am and got into Portland at 5:30am.  We had wanted to make a day of it and go shopping, but we were tired and felt dirty so we drove directly home where we slept for most of the afternoon.

Whew!

Have you ever been so irritated by something that you just wanted to share it with everyone?!  Here in Redneck, Oregon there are more things than usual that irritate me.  Usually I'm too lazy to follow through, but here are a couple things that really frustrate me:

1. Smoking.  I think anyone who wants to destroy their body and ruin their life should be more than welcome to do so, but when that smoke leaves your poisoned lungs, it impacts everyone within at least 100 feet of you.  Smoking should be banned entirely or at least limited to places like smoking "bars" where you can go with all the other rejects of society to light up and not bother anyone else who values their lungs, throats and fresh smelling air.  The alternative would be to increase taxes on cigarettes to a ridiculous level (I'm talking $10+ per pack); the revenue could in turn be used to treat cancer or fund prevention programs.  You want to balance the nation's budget and improve health while doing it?  I just presented a solution in a matter of one paragraph!  Problem solved - case closed!
2. People who think Obama will turn this country into a third world country.  I know everyone is entitled to their own opinion - which is why I'm not accusing anyone directly - but anyone who thinks this is naive and uneducated in the lessons of history and economics.  First of all, let's take a look at the presidents who have increased government spending the most: Reagan, Bush Sr. and Bush Jr.  Hmmmm.  Let's specifically take a look at where Bush Jr. left us at the end of his two terms: trillions of dollars in debt with an economy spiraling out of control (and you say the democrats are bad?!)  Now let's look at where things are now: we can no longer say "coincidence" because with more than six months of economic stability (including the recent bankruptcy of GMC) in a market that fluctuates every second, we're beyond coincidence.  Let's also look at some of Obama's foreign policy: not only is he incredibly popular in this country, but he's incredibly popular around the world.  This popularity has at some level affected violence levels in the Middle East.  Obama is trying to mend relations with countries who previously hated us vehemently.  He's placing less emphasis on oil and domination and placing more emphasis on stability, peace and empowerment while not sacrificing our own image.  And take a glance at his domestic policies: he's creating jobs, stimulating economies at all levels, providing educational opportunities, health programs, retirement programs, care for veterans and environmental incentive programs among other things.  And for those of you out there who think that he's "breaking the bank" just remember basic economics: the more money you have, the more you can spend.  If everyone has money, then everyone can do their part in economic stimulation.  If only a few have money, then you have an upper class and everyone else sitting in the lower classes.  The hundreds of GM workers who will lose their jobs and other workers like them make up the majority of Middle Class America.  If they're given the opportunity to go back to work, most of them will take it!  And if it's a government subsidized program that gets them back to work then so be it!  I seem to recall that's how America got out of the last major economic slump.  FDR created jobs which put people to work which gave the middle class money.  That money was in turn spread around to every corner of society.  America rebounded and became the greatest Superpower the world has ever seen!  Obama is well on the way to providing similar opportunities here in the 21st century!
3. People who doubt in the power of medicine.  Simple things like antibiotics and immunizations which prevent outbreaks and pandemics are so often pushed away and it drives me crazy!  I can think of no legitimate excuse to prevent an illness or the spread of an illness if there is a simple "cure."  It's downright irresponsible if you don't pursue these avenues.  Most recently, a couple in Oregon decided to not give their 15-month old child antibiotics and opted for prayer instead.  Pray all you want, but give the kid every chance that can be afforded to him!!!  There is nothing more valuable than life and to decide against every measure promoting it is nothing short of promoting pain, suffering and potentially death.
4. A weak judicial system.  While I firmly believe in the fairness that the judicial system in this country provides, I'm always disheartened at how rarely the punishment actually fits the crime.  There were two pieces on the news tonight that especially frustrated me.  One was of a single mother from Portland with a history of alcoholism and poor parenting who allegedly forced her two young children off a bridge and into a river.  One child died.  First of all the children should have been removed from her custody a long time ago, but since they weren't and this terrible thing did happen, the mother should be brought to a punishment that fits the crime.  Use your imagination.  The second story was of a fruit cake of a lady from Portland who allegedly met a pregnant lady on Craig's List, then met her under the guise of exchanging children's clothes with her and then killed her and stuffed her body in the crawl space and attempted to steal the unborn child for herself.  Once again, the punsihment should fit the crime.  Use your imagination.  I gaurantee that I'll be frustrated with the punishment that will be handed out to these two women if they are convicted.
   

We looked at a few more houses today with our realtor and found one that we like!  It's an old house, but has been completely remodeled (electrical, plumbing, walls, roof, deck, exterior siding, paint, walkway, front yard landscaping... everything!)  So even though the house was "built in 1948" the reality is that the house is not even finished - some of the remodeling hasn't even been completed yet.

The house isn't exceptionally big and doesn't have a garage, but it's BEAUTIFUL on the inside - especially the kitchen which has all new appliances and amazing cabinets.  The really interesting part is the lot.  It's got dead end roads on the front and the back of the property.  There is a house on one side which is really close.  Then on the final side of the house, there is a gravel driveway which connects the two dead end streets and separates the house from the "yard."  I say "yard" because the owners are using it as RV storage and the whole thing is gravel right now.  But it could easily be turned into a large grass yard/garden/planting site.  Since the house is totally re-done the only remaining work would be easy and fun work to touch things up.  We need and want to go back and take another look at this place, but in the meantime you can check it out:

1. go here
2. enter the number: 9044934
3. click on the picture of the house which will open up the house report
4. click on the link that says "click here to view more photos"
   

Here's a quick update from work: I made it to work at 6:30 and was on the job site at 7:45.  The contractors had to run to town to pick up a fuel filter from a store which didn't open until 9am (since it was Sunday).  That was fine, however, since I had to do some site design work in the river.  I finished relatively quickly and since they had plenty of people to work on their equipment, I just took pictures of flowers along the road while I waited.  It's really neat how many different kinds of flowers you can find just growing along the roadside!

Anyway, the crew finally got their "tree puller" up and running and we placed one log.  Then their tree puller broke down and they had to spend the rest of the afternoon trying to fix it.  I finally left at 4:15.  The crew called me at 9:30 tonight and announced that they finally had it fixed, so they're set for tomorrow.  Unfortunately, I don't get to go out there tomorrow.
We're going to be looking at some houses in the morning and then I'm going to be writing the "Aquatic Conservation Strategy" for the timber sale that I'm working on.

Today was fun.  I went to work early this morning (yes, I knew it was Saturday) to finish moving from one cubicle to another, do some cleaning and organizing and do a bit of writing.  So by the time I got back home (four-and-a-half hours later) Dohnele and Emma were getting out of the shower and having breakfast.

I got them all ready to go and then we headed up to the South Fork Smith River which is about 45 miles north of where we live.  Dohnele and Emma had never been here before and I figured that there would be prime salmonberry picking in that neck of the woods.  It's really wet there, but still plenty warm.  When we finally got there we started hiking down an old overgrown logging road.  Of course nobody was dressed for wet brush and Emma actually started shivering even though it was 65 degrees.  So I nixed that idea and we stuck to the "main" road for the rest of the day.  The "main" road is a single-lane paved logging road.  It's great, because anyone can drive the road (you don't need a 4x4), but it's so remote that we only saw one other person all day long!  Seriously, this place is in the middle of nowhere.  The nearest piece of civilization is a place called Gunter, Oregon, but as near as I can tell the only thing there is an old cemetary - I've never seen any houses - and I work up in this area a fair bit.  The nearest real community is probably Drain, Oregon (another funny name) which only has a few hundred residents.
So we drove up the Little South Fork Smith River a bit and the entire length of the South Fork Smith River looking for salmonberries.  What I hadn't counted on was how shady the place was.  There were tons of berry bushes, but the only places we found berries were in places where the sunshine had found a way through the canopy.  We didn't get much, but enough for a pie.  Plus the drive was really pretty.
On the way home, I took everyone to Mildred Kanipe Memorial Park.  They hadn't seen the place before and I wanted to show Emma a peacock.  It's such a great park, because it's way out in the country - almost ten miles beyond Oakland, Oregon on the way to Elkhead, Oregon (all sorts of odd names!)  Since it's way out in the country and it was late in the afternoon we had the place to ourselves.  The lady who owned the place and who willed the property to the county kept peacocks and stipulated that the peacocks be kept on the property in addition to turning the place into a Memorial Park.  So it's a huge park (several thousand acres) with miles and miles of trails which follow small streams and wind through oak savannah.  And there are peacocks everywhere.  Emma loved them and kept wanting to get closer and closer.  The only time she got a bit scarred was when she had her back turned and one peacock started screaming; Emma freaked out a bit, but she quickly rallied, grabbed my hand and took me right up to the bird like I was her bodygaurd.  Really funny.  So Emma ran around in the grass for a bit and then we all came home.
We've really been getting into a really fun series of short videos starring "Shaun the Sheep."  It's by the same folks who put out the "Wallace and Grommit" series and it's just as funny.  Look into it!

I have to be brief, because I have to work tomorrow.  That's right, I've been working every day for the last two weeks!  Tomorrow and Sunday are not going to be any exception.  It's a combination of all sorts of things:

1. changing jobs
2. finishing up work from my old job
3. starting work for my new job
4. trying to impress my new boss
5. leaving a good impression with my old co-workers
6. cleaning and organizing my new cubicle
   
7. writing an entire Environmental Analysis (EA) for a timber sale in a week
8. writing an Aquatic Conservation Strategy for a timber sale
9. wrapping up stream restoration project design
10. starting contract administration for the stream restoration work

For the stream restoration work I've been authorized overtime because it is a District priority.  So I'll either have a lot of overtime or won't have to take any leave time when we go up to Alaska next week.  Either way, I'm happy.  As for these videos, they're in order, so watch them sequentially and you'll see the site get built from scratch!

Oh, and if folks are wondering why and what is going on, here's the skinny: Around the turn of the century, logging was generally limited to the area immediately adjacent to large streams.  The timber was dropped right into the creeks where loggers intentionally built dams.  These dams backed up lots of water.  At a certain point, the loggers literally set off a piece of dynamite to blow up the dam and all the water stored behind the logs then transported the logs down the river in a torrent.  This was known as "splash damming" and it destroyed many streams.  Then, between the 1940s and the 1990s, most of the good, remaining timber in Oregon was harvested.  The best timber was still in the river bottoms right next to the streams and so these areas got hit especially hard.  Streams of good health are usually plugged with log jams which provide cover from predators and shade for juvenile fish.  With all the big trees cut out of the river bottoms, the source of these log jams was eliminated for the next century or two.  On top of it all, back in the 1970s it was common practice to remove large trees from streams because they were thought to impede fish passage.  Subsequently, many of the larger streams were "cleaned" out.  Without the log jams in place, storms and high flows washed through the streams and removed all the natural gravels found in healthy streams which are valuable for fish spawning.  What was left was a stream with no log jams and no spawning gravel; streams were effectively sterilized.  What many folks are trying to do know is to place logs back into streams to mimic natural log jams.  These jams slow the water down and cause gravels to deposit behind them.  Fish can still pass through the jams and will then get to experience a stream with shade, cover from predators and gravel to lay eggs in.

So today, like I said, I was out administering a government contract for stream restoration.  The contractors are a bunch of ex-loggers from Coos Bay who got out of the timber industry in the 1980s and got into stream restoration.  They've really filled a lucrative niche.  Anyway, they do an awesome job (I worked a bit with them back down in Medford).  I took a ton of videos which documents the whole process really nicely.  On the way to the job site today I saw my first Spotted Owl!!!  It flew right in front of my truck, I hit the brakes, turned off the engine and whipped out my camera.  The owl was there for one picture before it flew off again.  Really neat!

I have to be brief since it's Sunday night (11:30pm) and I have to get up for work in about seven hours.

Long story short, we officially retracted our offer on the house.  We'll get our earnest money back, but will have to foot the bill for the house inspection (money well spent).

On Friday we did nothing more than sleep in, pay bills and relax.

On Saturday we drove up to Eugene, got hair cuts, went shopping, drank some bubble tea, did a Costco run, bought Father's Day gifts (don't ask - we won't tell!) and went out to dinner.

Today I had to go to work and I took Dohnele and Emma along.  We drove up onto Scott Mountain where I had to do stream surveys for a timber sale.  So while I trounced around in the woods, Emma played and Dohnele got to read a book and soak up some sunshine.  For dinner, Dohnele made sesame-wasabi crusted tuna steak served over rice with a homemade, soy-based ginger sauce which was absoluteley fantastic!

So it's been really hot here for the past couple weeks (over 90 degrees on most days and over 100 degrees on a couple days).

This past weekend the weather started building up in the mountains (huge thunderheads).  Unfortunately, these thunder cells never made it down to the valley.

Yesterday afternoon, however, the sky got darker and darker all day while getting really hot and humid (about 85 degrees with just as much humidity).  We had just left our house inspection and were in the grocery store parking lot when the leading edge of the storm hit.  Strong winds and even stronger gusts (50+ mph) whipped everything up.  Lightning started striking every 20 seconds or so with thunder close behind.

The temperature dropped 20 degrees in about 15 minutes!  As we left the grocery store is started pouring down rain at an amazing rate.  Power started going out all across town - even the stoplights!  As we got onto I-5 we saw a power transformer explode in a brilliant flash of green and purple.  The rain and wind was so intense that people were pulling off the Interstate to wait things out on the shoulder.

We drove north, towards home, and eventually caught up to the front of the storm again where the wind was intense.  We drove past a hillside covered in trees which literally exploded as we watched.  A massive gust of wind hit the hillside and everything that wasn't rooted down blew up in the air several hundred feet and got thrown onto the Interstate.  Most of it was just dead leaves and branches, but I had to swerve to avoid hitting a five-foot top of a tree which had probably been picked up and blown for about a quarter mile!

We got home where the wind was most powerful.  Several large trees had blown over and limbs were scattered across all the streets it seemed.  Our power went out and we tried watching the storm from inside the garage since lightning was striking like mad and there was so much debris in the air you had to squint.  Unfortunately, the wind was so powerful, it blew all of my maps and pictures off the wall of the garage - literally ripping them to shreds!

Emma, who at first loved the storm, started freaking out, but eventually just passed out on my lap.  The cover for our grill got ripped off and blown to the other side of the culdesac.  Our car got a good washing, though!

Everyone was talking about it at work today.  A family in a car here in Sutherlin actually got struck by lightning as they were filling up their car with gas!  Everyone had to go to the hospital.  Of all the storms we've ever seen (including some amazing ones in Colorado) this was the most impressive.

Today at work there was another thunderstorm which scarred me off the mountain and made me retreat back to the office.  I wasn't too keen about being alone in the woods while carrying an eight-foot-tall metal survey rod!  The storms today weren't as neat as yesterday, though.

Check this out

Since I'm transitioning between two jobs and have no help and need to finish up projects while starting new ones, I'm absolutely swamped with work.  I love the challenge, but it is overwhelming.  This past weekend I saved some "easy" and "fun" work to do on the weekend.  I figured I could take Dohnele and Emma with me.  That turned out to be a poor assumption.

First we went to Chasm Creek where a botanist had told me that stream degradation was potentially impacting an endangered flower.  The "easy" part of this job was the short walk down the road to get to the stream.  Unfortunately, the stream was completely overgrown with blackberry, raspberry and poison oak.  Also, since it hadn't rained in a while, there were spider webs between every piece of vegetation.  And to top it all off, it was about 90 degrees.  Oh yeah, and we all were sporting nothing more than sandals and shorts.  Dohnele and Emma smartly waited on the road while I crashed around in the brambles lacerating my feet and legs and coating them with poison oak oil (I'm still regretting that).

After that experience we drove to Little Wolf Creek where I had to plan and mark drop sites for logs which were delivered today as part of a stream restoration project which will occupy a good chunk of my next two weeks at work.  Anyway, the last time I was at the site was in winter when you could walk between the road and stream easily.  Now in the middle of summer, the salmonberry bushes were so thick you couldn't see a foot into them!  I started crashing through, but realized it was silly considering how much work I had to do.  I opted instead to just come back the next day.

We came back the next day, but Emma got sick to her stomach on the way there and threw up.  She hasn't done that since she was an infant.  It was really weird.  So while Dohnele sat with Emma on the side of the creek in the blazing heat I took my machete to the salmonberry for about five hours strait, soaked myself with sweat and gave myself a massive blood blister on my thumb.  But the work got done!

This weekend promises to be yet another weekend of work as I'm trying to finish stream surveys for a timber sale - the environmental write up of which is due in a week.

However, all this hard work is paying off.  Today I had my "end" performance evaluation in preparation of my transition to the other Resource Area and my boss gave me "superior" ratings in all three of my evaluation elements.  Because all of the elements were "superior" I now get a cash award between one and five percent of my base pay.  Can't wait for that!!!