1450's Year in Review - Part 2

Each year we start out planning what we are going to do and how we are going to do it. Well 2010 was no different than any other year. We start our strong in the first 2-3 months doing as much in our spare time as possible. By mid year we start to get bogged down and loose sight of our plans. However, we did make it to a few very fun things along the say.

In May we planned a trip with some friends to the South coast of Oregon and spent a long weekend in Bandon and Port Orford. It was relatively nice and we had a good time visiting, camping, and geocaching. We were introduced to “Frickles” (see a previous post) and continue to love making these deep fried wonders. We spent some time shopping at the Eugene Saturday market one weekend. For those that have never been there – it’s a eclectic (if not downright strange) collection of people selling crafts and local produce.

In June, the school year ended and we planned a riding trip to Milican with family and friends. Disaster struck for one of our riding/geocaching friends as he was laid off from his long standing job. I lost three employees and have struggled getting new staff trained all summer and fall. We did make our Milican trip with our family, but it was abbreviated (but very fun). We took some great pictures during the trip, rode some wonderfully dusty trails, and found a few geocahces in the high desert. Watching the parasailing from the butte was also very interesting.

July wiped by, the biggest event was the acquisition of our Great Dane Crixus. He has been a wonderful addition, but very high maininence. Getting used to an enormous puppy has been very stimulating and at times high tension! We took a quick unplanned trip to Crater Lake in August and took Crixus with us.

In October and November we worked and played with the dogs on the beach. Morgan grew leaps and bounds and is poised to move to High School this next year. As the year comes to a close we keep our eyes out for next year and are once again planning. I hope that we can be better about meeting our dreams and ideas. Seeing friends and family along the way and taking the slow road.

I wish you all a great end of 2010 and hope that all your dreams for 2011 come true…. Jamaica here we come!!!!

1450's Year in Review Part 1

2010 is starting to come to a close, in review of the year’s activity, it sometimes seems like it went far to fast and we didn’t do as much as we would have liked. In part that is true – we didn’t get out and do those enjoyable things as much as we would like. Both Bridgett and I have been dealing with difficult work situations this year that have been very time and energy consuming. Bridgett is moving into a new chapter in her life – her company sold to a larger conglomerate on the 23rd of December. I am still stuck in the same situation – but I think it will improve in the next couple of months.

While getting an update on my tattoo – the tattooist explained that he had a conversation with a friend that explained why life seems to move faster the older one gets. When we are younger, our daily lives are filled with new things constantly. However, as we get older we fall into routines that start to interfere with the “newness” we could be experiencing. In short – we drive the same route, we have the same meals, we see the same people, and get far too comfortable in our daily habits. Consequently life moves faster because nothing in our routines really excites us.

Imagination and creativity suffer as do our stress levels because we don’t have the same level of excitement for life and new experiences. When we do get the opportunity to experience something new – it moves like lightning and ends far to quickly.

What to do? Well – I suppose attempting to live life more randomly and force a change from the usual habits and actually follow-through with plans for adventure and excitement. Of course – when you’re a parent – keeping food on the table and a roof overhead are still important. Keeping a better balance is the tricky part.

For 2010 – we did a few things that fit the bill (not as much as we would like) – In January we took the trailer up to Astoria and Fort Stevens to go Geocaching and check out the old bunkers from the abandoned artillery base that protected the mouth of the Columbia River. It was a great trip, albeit a bit rainy (it was January in the Pacific Northwest after all). In March, Morgan and I did a couple of intensive photo trips around the coast. I switched camera systems later that month and really enjoy the new sharpness to digital images that I didn’t have before.

In April we did some more Geocaching and had a very nice ATV/camping trip at Winchester Bay. The weather was fantastic for the third year in a row for our annual group riding trip.

Enough for now – I’ll continue our “year in review” in a couple of days. Stay tuned!

"Yule" be Happy this Year

Something a little different for our blog this time given the closeness to the Holiday’s; after all we are “evil” pagans. This fact of course is nothing new to the few people who actually read our blog or our closest friends and family – we aren’t exactly in the broom closet so to speak. However, the holiday season is always a bit different for us. At least we do live in a liberal part of Oregon where people are somewhat tolerant of these differences. Having come from the ultra-conservative south central Idaho region – we can really appreciate the “weirdness” of western Oregon.

Of course like most spiritual people we do have our beliefs and ideas of what the holidays mean. The nice thing about Yule is that 90% of what the capitalistic and Christian world celebrates was stolen from the ancient pagans of Western Europe. Decorated trees, mistletoe, holly, gifts, carols, and even the idea of Santa Claus all have their roots in pre-Christian cultures. After all history was written by those who could write in vividly illuminated script . . . dang Monks.

For us, we light the Yule log, celebrate the rebirth of the male aspect of divinity, and generally have a good time like others would. We just look at things a bit more historically with the bent that modern neo-pagan wiccans ‘think’ is how our ancestors would have worshiped. No goat skin headdresses or leggings for us, and no we don’t go sky clad (nude) in the winter weather – if we lived in Arizona maybe… I can’t recall the last time we may have sacrificed anything but a nice bottle of mead and a prime rib. No Veronica, not all Wiccans are vegetarians.

The difficulty comes from those around us that can’t understand why we aren’t part of a mainstream religion. While most of the derisive snorting has gone away – we still have to deal with family and friends that think we are downright weird ourselves or in some minds committing great sins. The number one reason: I can’t abide intolerance. It really ticks me off (how is that for irony). We don’t subscribe to the whole “our religion is better than your religion” or the “God will smite you for doing insert whatever sounds fun here” mentality that mainstream brick and mortar religions have. How many people die in the name of any given mainstream religion each year?

Humans are fallible. The natural world is both ordered and chaotic. Spiritual sense is ours to define. Why do we need professional priests, churches, or temples to tell us what is right and wrong? Why would our higher powers give us a brain and not let us use it? Yes we will agree that there is evil in the world and there are good people of remarkable character – but the vast majority of the living and nonliving world is neither good nor evil– it simply is what it is.

Faith, spirituality, and self awareness are other key ingredients for us. Serving life and each other through moderation and making certain we do no harm to anyone (ourselves included) fits our ideals and morals quite well. Magic – well that is what you make of it. Literally, we define what is magic and make it happen through will power and strength of character.

Tolerance for belief (or disbelief) is the lifeblood of America. It’s why I ‘m proud to fly the Stars and Stripes outside my house year round. I’m not some anti-war hippy or mushy tree hugger, but I’m Wiccan and proud to not let anyone tread on me either.

Our good Atheist friend in Portland, my agnostic coworkers, my Christian family members, our even our mushy tree hugger friends; are all part of what makes up the cosmos. They are our religion and our faith. We are all part of it. No one way is better. After all - there is no scientific evidence to prove the existence of any divinity – but then again there is no scientific evidence to disprove it either.

So I say: each to his or her own belief this holiday season. Be surrounded by the love of your family and friends, help a stranger, give to a charity, drink and eat heartily, and keep the magic of celebration alive. But most of all have a happy holiday whatever you believe. An it harm none – do as thou will. Merry insert verse of your choice here everyone!

Crixus (at seven months)

Crixus is now seven months old and is growing leaps and bounds. Last weight was 110 pounds a couple of weeks ago. He still has a great deal of growing still to go! To date his destructiveness hasn’t been too terribly bad – he’s gnawed a leg on the coffee table, ripped a corner off the leather couch, dug a few holes, and leaves huge piles in the yard (if you know what I mean).

He continues to be a very loving dog and like most Great Danes he thinks he’s a lapdog. Of course now it hurts when he flops on someone. Due to his size he does get in more trouble than other dogs, but I think that is only because he’s more visible doing things.

He likes the beach and is getting to like water a bit more (he even cooperates when Bridgett gives him a bath now). It is a bit difficult getting used to another large body in the house along with the smaller Lasa Apso, and three cats… yes we have a few animals, but I don’t count the koi in the back yard pond.

It promises to be an interesting experience!

 Wow – time flies when you are having fun right? Well it also flies when you are so damn busy you can’t take time to think let alone enjoy life. Not to complain, but summer came and went in a blur of work. I’ve been on call quite a bit more than usual since July and we really haven’t had the opportunity to get out and do the things we love. The last time we Geocached was July when we came back from Idaho. We did a day ride with some friends on the dunes a couple of weekends ago – but that’s pretty much it. No camping or other trips. I bought a couple of new camera lenses this summer and I plan to do some portrait work this fall provided I can find space and some models. So should things work out we have a few things to do this fall. Unfortunately, I don’t see the call situation easing up anytime soon.

Bridgett and I were talked into taking a trip this winter to Jamaica – we are really looking forward to that. We’ve never really been outside of the US and it’s been over 10 years since our last non family vacation.

As for what we’ve been doing recently aside from my grumbling around work…. Crixus our Great Dane continues to grow. He is now 7 months old and over 90 pounds. He still has a great deal of growth yet. Morgan is in 8th grade and doing well so far. He’s growing about as fast as the dog. We take a few walks on the beach now and then and try to get out as much as time allows.

I look forward to slower days ahead!

Morgan and Bridgett - Photo's at the Fair

Bridgett and Morgan entered a few of their photographs in the Lane County Fair this year and did quite well. There were probably 300+ entries total in the various classes. They put in three each:

Bridgett Entered: #1 - Lilith - We were doing some Low Key art photography one afternoon and Lilith our small female cat decided to help at one point. Bridgett saw a great opportunity in the light and caught this fantastic image. At the fair she got First Place and a Special Award Rosette plus a $100.00 award.

#2 - Campfire: Bridgett snapped this image one evening in our backyard when we had a small fire. I liked the jumping sparks and trailers. I think we may have over sized this one as it was a little too grainy in print.

#3 - Japanese Fall: Took this one in Portland at the Japanese gardens. Bridgett likes the Bokeh she can get with lenses and did a good job capturing the waterfall through the blossoms.

Morgan entered three photos in the Intermediate category (13-17yrs): #1 - North Bend Bridge. This one had some help with post-processing to darken the sky some and bring out the contrast of the morning. Morgan has a good eye for composition and did a great job on this one. He got Second Place and a Special Award Rosette plus a $40.00 award.

#2 - Sweet Creek Falls - We took this last fall at a waterfall above Mapleton Oregon. If you look hard enough there is a spider web just behind the falling trickle of water. Morgan got a Third place award for this one.

#3 - Couch Sunset - Morgan really loves to take photos of sunsets and he captured this image above Fairfield Idaho last summer. Very little post processing on it - the colors here were natural to the sunset. He liked the mushroom shape of the cloud. Again he placed Third for this one.





For the first go around in putting photos up for public display - I think they did quite well. Morgan in particular is very excited about the positive benefits and I think it will keep him interested. It will be interesting to see what they can put together for next year!

Quick Trips

It's been a long few weeks. A series of problems at work left me several staff members short, so I've been doing my job - plus the jobs of several others. Part of it has been on-call coverage. I was supposed to be on-call this weekend, but I managed to weedle myself out of it at the last moment.

Bridge and Morgan - entered some photographs in the Lane County Fair so took them over yesterday and we decided to go for a drive. We ended up in Crater Lake.... well - I had a full tank of gas and wanted to be as far from work as I could get.

We did a little geocaching along the way and took a few photos. It was hazy and the contrast was all washed out - but I did get a couple of decent shots along the way. Regardless its back to the same old grind all too soon.

Hope to have some Summer time fun at some point - of course, I'm just whining!

What a couple of weeks....

Well its once again the Fourth of July. And as usual it's very hard to understand why life moves so fast. We spent the last couple of weeks doing a great deal of driving, having some fun, and dealing with some "issues" in our personal and work life.

We had planned a getaway to go ride in Millican Oregon with our friends and family. We have talked about this several times but haven't managed to make it work until this year.

Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond their control some unfortunate things happened to our friends and they were unable to make it. We elected to continue on and abbreviate the trip with our parents and hand-off Morgan for his week long Idaho visit. It usually works like a prisoner exchange on a bridge in eastern Germany... minus the Uzis, leather trench coats, and well Germany.

Millican was warm and dusty - very dusty. I rode up front most of the time and couldn't figure out what everyone was griping about. It looked great too me! We had a good time and discovered some sections of the area that we would like to visit again as well as better camping spots. We will try to plan another trip with our friends in the future when they are able to come. Having an idea about the area helps tremendously. Although I'm worried about more dust in the fall.

Once the prisoner exchange happened, we made the long trek back home to the Coast and back to the grind. We planned on doing several things last week, but didn't get many of them accomplished. Both Bridgett and I managed to come down with a cold of some sort (had to give up on the "allergy" theory after a couple of days). Bridge made the long trip to Seaside to pick up the Great Dane pup mentioned in the previous post. Crixus is very pretty and extremely mellow. I was quite surprised by how mellow he was - even for a Great Dane, a breed known for its mellowness.

Work was overloaded and I had to "correct" an employee this last week and will end up covering several days and weekends of call this month and probably next month as well. No Oregon Country Fair for us this year unless I'm really lucky getting extra help.

Friday we left for a long drive to Idaho for the second half of the prisoner exchange. We decided to do some Geocaching along the way and drove through Redmond, Prineville, and John Day instead of Bend and Burns. We picked up several Caches along the way. Crixus did very well in the car (slept most of time).

However we were thick headed and "thought" we would just pop into a hotel on the 2nd of July in John Day. Hey its not like its a "destination" resort area after all. Well.... there was a biker poker run going on and all the Inns were full!! We ended up in Ontario around 3:30am....

Our trip was short, but we managed to see some friends and their new toy. A Can-Am Spyder. This is like a trike motorcycle with the two weeks in the front. I liked it and I've been teasing Bridgett that at 38 years old - its about time for a mid-life crisis!

We also spent some time with my 93 year old grandmother who is now living in an assisted living center. We've been concerned about her health for some time and wanted to see her this summer before anything bad happens. The center where she is living is quite nice and she looked remarkably well.

Of course we had fireworks - Dad lives just on the verge of the city limits, so we had quite a time with the "not-so-legal" skyrockets and firecrackers that he had sitting around as well as a couple of mortars. We drove back yesterday and picked up a few more geocaches. The trip was longer - both "children" were a bit of a pain in the neck - but they did ok.

Now its back to work......

Crixus....

Its been a hectic couple of weeks so not much time to post. Here are some photos of our recent family addition.

Bridgett has wanted a Great Dane for years, but I of course want to keep the animals down to a bare minimum. Well last week I had a brief moment of insanity and said she could get a Dane. Before I could fully come back to my senses - we had a Blue Great Dane.

I must say that he is among the most mellow puppies I've ever seen. Sleep is definitely his favorite past time. At 12 weeks, he is already starting to get big.

Memorial Day Geocaching Camp Trip

This Memorial Day Weekend we went camping at a KOA by Port Orford. We don’t spend a great deal of time on the south coast of Oregon, even though the weather is better and there are some really cool places to visit. It just seems we end up going North more often. Our friends Dan, Heather, and Brandon joined us for a weekend of Geocaching.

Port Orford is about 2 hours south of us and a little longer when pulling a trailer. The KOA itself was OK, full hookups and the usual amenities. However, they had quite a few “rules” – no campfires in the morning, no tent stakes in the ground, don’t leave your dogs side even for a second. The campground wasn’t very full (oddly for the holiday weekend). We weren’t planning on hanging out there anyway.

Dan, Heather, and Brandon managed to make it over the 1000 cache mark while we were there. We are only at 600. Living in a more rural area, we have to go further to get caches…. Plus we aren’t quite that addicted. More on addictions later…

I like the Port Orford area. The scenery is great and provides a lot of photo opportunities. It’s hard to take photographs and cache at the same time – but it gives me some places to visit later for a more formal attempt at doing some great landscape photography.

Sunday night we went into Bandon to grab a couple more Geocaches and have dinner. It was Dan’s birthday so we surprised him with an ice cream cake for lunch – but had to do more at dinner. We ate at a great place called McFarland’s Pub and Grill, embarrassed Dan by having the whole place sing Happy Birthday and were introduced to “Frikles”

I’ve heard of frickles and honestly they sound nasty. A Frickle is a deep fried dill pickle. McFarland’s serves them as an appetizer with a feta cheese dip. Did I mention something about addiction earlier? I got past the “sounding nasty” part and now have a new love for deep fried pickles.

I haven’t made them yet – but here is Recipe– give them a try!

Ingredients:

7 cups peanut oil, for frying

3 to 4 dill pickles, cut into 1/8-inch slices (about 1 cup)

1/2 cup flour

Freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

Have ready a baking sheet lined with paper towels.

In a large heavy-bottomed pot, heat the oil to 350 degrees.

Lightly coat the pickles in flour, shaking off any excess. Use a slotted spoon or Chinese strainer to place the pickles in the oil. Deep-fry, in batches if necessary, for 2 to 3 minutes or until golden brown. Use a slotted spoon to transfer the frickles to the paper towels to drain. Sprinkle with pepper to taste, and serve immediately.