Winter is Coming.....

But Fall is Here-- every weekend an organic farm is having a harvest festival. Trader Joe has a pumpkin flavor or everything.  Leaves are even turning colors and dropping. The morning sun makes the trees and old brick look particularly orange. Judd is buying foam and insulation and window cellophane trying to bar the 1880 house from the elements.

We've volunteered for the Jacksonville Haunted Trolley tours which involves dressing up according to their script and then standing on a designated street corner for 15-20 minutes until the next narrated tour comes by.  Judd and I are across the street from each other so at least we get to fraternize in between stop.  We only signed up for this FRI/SAT and next FRI/SAT but the folks out there Thur were standing in pretty cold rain. 

is this TOO weird???

I posted that artist's rendition of the famous bridge on the Columbia yesterday, personally dedicated to us by the artist...... and today, 1 day later,......

our Country Magazine (gift from Kirk) arrives and look what is on the cover ! ??! Multnomah Falls, OR on the Columbia.  Is our ESP working, or what??

October is pink all over the place

 Well, we had a very full Saturday (again.)  This party started when I got my routine mammogram.  Asante Health is the big healthcare providing system in southern Oregon.  ("asante" just happens to mean thank-you in Swahili.) Bado ninawezi kusema Kiswahili kidogo.  Anyway--this system does up breast imaging right.  The place was extra pink everywhere as October is Breast Cancer awareness month.  But I have a feeling the brart (I made that word up:  that's art made out of bras) were hanging all over the place with catchy phrases, in every change-your-clothes room.  An then, after the state-of-the-art-squish-your-boobs-no-matter-how-small-machine, the technician gave me a special pink goody bag because it's October, plus free service to the candy table.  WHA?   And the bag included both a coupon for a free coffee at The Human Bean, a local chain of coffee kiosks AND a coupon for free flight of wine tasting at Del Rio winery.  SO, Judd being the good sport that he is, agreed to join me for the wine tasting. ...

....tasting, AFTER we did our domestic chores  (i.e. me doing laundry and vacuuming and he doing lesson plans and grade)  HOW IS IT, that a week's laundry for Judd consists of: 

6 collared shirts

2 pair of khakis

3 pair of socks

1 pair of underwear

??

He says he learned it on the AT. Makes me so proud. We'd gone to lunch (Umi Sushi) and to do our laundry and shopping.

SO, about 4:00 we make it to the tasting room in Gold Hill. The drive is along Old Stage Coach Road, the same drive we took to the river fishing but it was too dark to see the scenery.  On this drive we could see all the leaves turning yellow and big Mt. McCloughlin in the background, already covered in first snow.  Gold Hill is about 24 min from Jacksonville. The tasting room is hopping and crowded and then a limo pulls up with a dozen women in matching black t-shirts which we assume was a bachelorette party. 

 

 Judd and I each taste our different flights and decide we should indulge in the
"buy a bundle"-- a box of 6 pink rosés tied up with a big pink ribbon with some proceeds to making mammograms affordable to all.  Then we get our picture taken with an instamatic camera and post it on the wall in remembrance to all our friends affected by breast cancer--so many we have to reduce our font to fit the names on the 2 x 4 inch photo.  : (

While we were checking out the gift shop, we remarked about  a poster of a waterfall coming out of a beer can.  The lady on the bench seat within earshot said she was the artist.  Small world! We struck up a conversation and turns out she and her partner next to her, both work at the same VA as me. We exchanged some stories and name-dropping and then she autographed the pic for us so we had to buy it.  

We were home in time for dinner.  Judd BBQed up rock fish and oysters on the grill. Even the supermarket has new fare whenever we go.  We walked downtown after dinner to get our complimentary glass of wine at South Stage Cellar. Some people had come specific to the live music. Judd made friends with a nice Bulgarian woman and we found out she is a musician and her instrument of choice is:  the accordion. Judd tried to say that my instrument of choice is the accordion but I didn't even bring mine from Maine so I played dumb, which was easy.

After our flight of chocolate truffles we walked further downtown and found ourselves at BoomTown Saloon.  More live music. More adult beverages. Again, meet up with John, the British man who worked on the same space shuttle part as Judd. John invites us to his home for a Halloween costume party.  We dance. We drink. We walk home. A full Saturday and now we have a bundle of pink in the kitchen.

Art Along the Rogue

We cruised up to Grants Pass making sure to stop for lunch at the Honeysuckle Cafe because breakfast was so good there the previous weekend.  We'd heard it was "Art Along the Rogue" weekend so we went to see.  It's essentially a block party downtown where all manner of activity takes place:  live music, a beer garten, and live art going on before your eyes.  4' x 4' squares are marked out on the street  in masking tape so artists can chalk in their version of art. 2' x2' squares are also available for kids to chalk their inspirations. Some folks had serious talent and ambitious designs.  The one I wanted most to see finished, but didn't stay, was a 3-D trompe l'oeil where it looks like a rabbit is peeking out from a hole in the middle of the street.

At Blind George's Newstand, for almost 100 years, they've been piping the smell of the freshly popped corn through the front window out to the streets to lure in customers. It worked for us.

We could only hit 2 of the 18 Applegate Valley wineries on the way home:  DeWitt Winery and Fiasco Winery. Fiasco, closer to home and with a bit more ambience to the tasting parlor also had some grape vines growing right in the front yard.  The owner said they were more "eye candy" for visitors as the deer decimate them before anyone could actually make wine from them.  It was a good day!

they didn't call it 'Catching the Rogue'

"Fishing the Rogue"

In our 6 weeks in Oregon we still hadn't been fishing. We made a point of getting our licenses at the local Bi-Mart (a Marden's equivalent).  I had run out to the car to get my wallet for photo ID so that I could partake as well, and imagine my surprise at the $80 bill.  I remarked, "WHOA! $40 each??" and Judd remarked, "No, $80 each!"  

YIKES-- we better get fishing!



Judd thought our first trip would be better from a boat. We left our boat in Maine. We researched it a bit and Judd rented a drift boat with a guide for half a day. When the guide asked 'salmon or steelhead,' we just said BIG, so we can send pics back to the Maine fishermen. We agreed to meet Charlie at the Gold Hill post office (20 min from our house.)  We set the alarm for 5am (earlier than our work alarms now) and it was pitch black out even at 6:15 at the appointed rendezvous site.  I was sure he must have meant 6:15pm rather than am.  How were we even going to see the fish in the dark?  But Charlie found us and found the river via headlamp, just as the sun was starting to crest over the hill. The boat came with a propane space heater, cushioned seats for 2 fisherpeople, drink holders, warm cinnamon rolls and an ice chest. The guide sat behind us and did all the work. 

Charlie and his partner Brady have matching drift boats. They had a little competition going on to see who posts the biggest fish on the website the next day.  The boats are shallow and  flat for going down the river even when it gets shallow/rocky. Of course the water gets choppy and white over some of the rocks and Charlie switches out from motoring to rowing/steering.  Charlie used to be a rafting guide and when I mentioned I don't do white water, he thought I'd had a bad rafting experience.  I assured him I had NO rafting experience and that's the way I liked it. He said we wouldn't be doing more than Class 1 rapids so I stopped stressing, until the next one. Then my class 1 white knuckles matched the class 1 white water. Judd thought it was hysterical (or histrionic.) 

We had a lovely boat ride. We practiced bobbing for salmon. Charlie baited huge hooks with a stinky linen-like sac of old tuna and red fireballs which hung 3 inches above another huge hook. His neoprene overalls were ablaze with the red stuff. He was also wearing an electric vest which was our first hint that the last day of September is cold on the river.  The space heater ran out of propane half way through the morning.  It was the last day of salmon season which means they're not really into eating (tuna, red balls or hooks)--they're interested in spawning.  So they totally ditched us.  We switched out rods to different massive hooks for steelhead.  No bobbing--just letting the current float the lures out.  I got something to wiggle my line but no one, except Brady's fisherguy in the other boat, caught a fish.  Oh, some dudes were sitting in a boat on the bank and fly fishing but snagging a fish on it's back is considered cheating or something.  Charlie did not have good names for those dudes. Charlie was very apologetic that he didn't get us to land anything and gave us a discount (a skunk sticker on his card) for "the next time we go out with him."  He goes to the coast for November so it might not be til next April, after we pay that slight fee for a 2018 fishing license! Great website and trip
 http://www.fishingtherogue.com/

We wanted to camp to try out our two new camping cots á la Krummel advice.  They just barely fit in the tent lengthwise (the tents, not the Krummels) but there was a nice aisle between them for our travel coffee table so we could play cribbage inside if we wanted to. The purchase of 12 tennis balls which Judd axed up before we left made cushions for the feet of the cots but seemed superfluous since the cots already had intentionally soft feet, knowing they'd be going in a tent. Wonder if there's an alternative use for 12 hacked tennis balls.

We thought camp would be close enough that we could walk to one or more of the 18 Applegate Wineries, but it wasn't.  In fact, by the time we drove all the way to California (part of Applegate Lake abuts the Golden State) we only had time for one winery. (Tasting rooms are generally open noon to 5pm.) Cricket Hill tasting is in a garage kind of space at the vineyard where the husband has quit his day job and is busy growing grapes and making the wine.  The wife 'mans' the tasting bar. She said she can't afford to quit her day job. The walls had the most beautiful art made of slats of barrel wood crimped with all manner of copper and metal. It was my favorite part of this winery. The art, oh,  and the wine.

Judd photographing Oregon's biggest cash crop:  "medicinal gems"

Big and Little Applegate are the rivers coming out of Applegate Lake and feeding into the Rogue. We were pretty stunned at how low the water level was in Applegate Lake. The campgrounds there were closed for the season. We went back north 20 min to the
Jackson campground and found a nice tent site right  on the banks of the Applegate River. A pretty uneventful night except for Judd politely telling some yahoo that no RVs in the tent sites meant he should turn around and go up to the parking lot where the RVs were. I was surprised to awake to the RV still right in the tent site.

We stopped at what looked like a tiny diner: Honeysuckle Cafe in Ruch for Sunday morning brunch. It was fabulous and every table was full by the time we left. Then it was just 20 min home to Jacksonville for mundane things like housework and homework and not posting fish pics.

Applegate Lake (must have had water in the spring)

That's California over them there hills