BACK TO TOWN

Well, I finally did it. On Wednesday (Aug. 25), I took down the hummingbird feeders, cleaned them, and put them away. The population had gradually dwindled to two, and the last couple of days, I’ve only seen them drink once or twice. Meanwhile, the nectar attracts the yellowjackets, and I balk at making things easy for them. I also have other uses for my sugar. So, all things considered, I took the feeders down. And then, wouldn’t you know it, one of the little critters whizzed up, expecting a drink from the bar. “Closed for the season,” I said. “We have hollyhocks out there, or try the neighbors.”

For several days, I watched the deer cavort down on the flat (out north) from the kitchen window while I fixed supper. I would see them again in the early morning – just at the point where the field begins to slope into the draw. Mike and I walked out there one morning, hoping to find the attraction, but I guess they had just found a patch of wheat for good grazing.

Mike spent hours last weekend shopping for a console to sit under the new TV set. He finally ordered one from Amazon – assembly required, of course – with estimated delivery for Wednesday afternoon (Aug. 25), but it was delivered Tuesday forenoon, allowing us to complete the project two days sooner than expected. It always feels good to be ahead of schedule. The console is sturdy, and we’re happy with it.

An internet company out of Grangeville is installing a tower on the neighbor’s property – actually just behind our mailbox, which is a mile from our house. Unfortunately, it has to be in the line of sight with the house for it to do us any good, and it’s not. We can only see treetops. We remarked that the farmhouse is placed in a nicely protected spot, but why didn’t they give any thought to internet connection?

Now we’re back in town to run errands, get supplies, keep appointments, and attend meetings. And today, I did something I haven’t done in years – had my hair cut at a walk-in salon.

We went to Walmart yesterday, where they are re-arranging the aisles. What a mess! We found what we needed, but the shelves are not well-stocked. The same is true – well, it’s true everywhere. And expensive! I have sticker shock over everything from milk to yarn to pizzeria pizza! I’m so glad I’m not caring for a growing family today. KW

MORE OF THE VANISHING AMERICAN SCENE, 1940

In August 1940, Uncle Earle took another series of pictures, those shown here, at the farm. Apparently, there was no reunion at that time, but clearly, he continued to be interested in the historic nature of farming with horses – and perhaps also a sense that these are the last years for both his dad and the horses. 

Note the plantings in the yard in the above picture -- peonies and roses. My dad was having none of that. When Grandma Ina was gone, he removed any obstacle to mowing. I hear the same complaint from Mike. 

Enlarge this picture for a better view of what the yard was like in 1940. It appears to be squared off on the southwest corner -- a much larger working yard than we have today. The orchard to the south was still there at that time. And note all the trees! 

Enjoy the pictures. Blogger just doesn't want to cooperate with me, but at least I managed to post them.

The house is in the background.

"Looking west over the prairie," says Uncle Earle.

AND NOW -- A CHANGE IN THE WEATHER

Harvest concluded on neighboring fields yesterday

Some change! Not even a week ago we were wearing shorts, sipping icy drinks, and sleeping on top of the sheets. The weather began to cool noticeably on Tuesday (Aug.17), and last night (Friday, Aug. 21) the big storm hit, finally raining enough to alleviate the danger of wildfire. This morning I’ve made a pot of hot spicy herbal tea.

Mike made this trail through the stubble for our hikes.

Mike opines that it will be warm again, though from the looks of the forecast, not this next week. The predicted lows are in the 40s with highs in the mid-70s. It might get to 80 by next weekend. I think the triple-digit highs are over for the season. I say, let the autumn celebration begin. Pumpkin pie, anyone? (But first we have to finish the strawberries.)

Central Ridge from the west side of the north field

We were in town for two days (Tues/Wed, Aug. 17-18), where we pursued an agenda of shopping, errands, and a meeting. Tuesday afternoon we shopped Costco for a new TV for the farmhouse, choosing a Samsung 50”, the largest that would fit on the designated wall.

Besides getting groceries and supplies, I also shopped JoAnn’s for fabric to finish the puff quilt for Little Guy. It was my second unsuccessful effort to find the appropriate fabric in the local market, and I was discouraged. But when I got home, I checked my stash and found some yardage that will work. When all else fails, check what you already have on hand.

Thursday morning (Aug. 19) we drove back to the farm and set to work immediately to install the new TV. We removed the old TV from the chest-type entertainment cabinet and carefully pushed the cabinet around the corner into the den. Now it will serve as storage for Mike’s motorcycle accessories, etc. Then we pulled the new TV from the box. 

Fog in the canyon -- a welcome sign of moisture

Once we had connected all the cords, we spent about two hours scratching our heads and swearing because we couldn’t get it to move beyond the start-up screen. Mike made phone calls while I searched the internet for help. Finally, it occurred to us that maybe we should exchange the provided off-brand batteries in the remote for our own Duracells. Sure enough! Success!

Fog over the river canyon to the north

The farmer finished harvesting at the neighbor’s yesterday, and now that harvest is officially over in the immediate neighborhood, I must de-clutter and dust. KW

THE VANISHING AMERICAN SCENE, 1939

"Taken from southwest corner of flat." -- Earle Dobson

This set of pictures was taken by my uncle, Earle Dobson, 82 years ago – August 29-30, 1939 – on my grandparents' homestead where we live today. 

Taken from mail carriers road. -- EJD

It had been a small family farm, but one by one the children had grown and left. And now the American farm scene was in a state of flux. The old guys were still farming with horses because they couldn’t afford to do otherwise. Younger farmers were switching to tractors and larger, better combines and plows.

I’m reminded of a neighbor, Neil Miller, who recounted to me years ago: “I told my dad, if you expect ME to farm here, you WILL get a tractor. I AM NOT walking behind horses.” So, they got the tractor, and Neil went on to farm in this community for the rest of his life, although he expanded his acreage. His family is still represented here, but like the rest of us, they have turned their farmland over to a corporation that farms on a large scale. That’s the only way we can afford to farm these days.

Vance making friends with Bossy (or young Buttercup).

Anyway, as an industry, agriculture was changing, and some farms (and some people) were caught in the tightening web. What had been a good way of life was slipping away. In 1939, Grandpa Jack was 75, and Grandma Ina was 69. The work was hard and getting harder, but Jack kept at it until he was at death's door (1945), with Earle returning in the summer to help out. That worked well for a decade or two, but finally summer help just wasn’t enough.

As will usually happen, the children had all moved away and established their own lives. Myrtle was 45 and working in Portland. Earle, 43, was a junior high teacher in Idaho Falls. Vance, 35, was a piano teacher in Raymond, WA. And Shirley, the youngest, was 29. She had lived at home, or nearby, until 1937 when she married her longtime beau, Henry Shockley. They would soon move to Seattle for work.

I don’t know why this family reunion occurred at this time, but while they appear to be having a good time, the group photos suggest something more serious. Or, maybe I just read that into it. Earle captioned this photo: "Examining a grasshopper's teeth," while Myrtle added, "No wonder they can chew up the crops!"

Bernice, Myrtle, Vance, Shirley (with field glasses)

And it's not lost on me that while the children are deep in discussion over grasshopper teeth, etc., Dad works away down on the flat, and if he has help, it isn't from his children. Earle captions this photo, "Hauling hay during threshing," and Myrtle adds (perhaps years later), "The Vanishing American Scene."

Uncle Earle notes that the group photos below were taken August 30, 1939, the morning he and Bernice left for Idaho Falls. Back in the day, Idaho schools started after Labor Day, and one reason was that the farm kids (and many were farm kids) were needed to help with harvest. KW

Left to right: Earle, Shirley, Vance, Julian (Jack), Ina, Myrtle, Bernice

Standing left to right: Myrtle (Aunt Lynn), Bernice, Jack, Ina, Earle; seated: Shirley and Vance

EVACUATION – WHAT WOULD YOU TAKE WITH YOU?

Harvesting at the neighbor's

If harvest at our place is the greatest, then harvest at the neighbor’s is next best. I heard them before we could see them. Despite the dust – and the smoke – I think I’d have to say that August (and moving into autumn) is our favorite time at the farm.

The neighbor’s crop is soft spring wheat, planted about the first of May, and then we didn’t get any rain to speak of after that. It doesn’t look like a great crop – sparse and stunted -- but they’re harvesting it, and I wish our farmer the best. What blesses him blesses all of us.

Smoke before the Bedrock Canyon Fire

Smoke in Little Canyon this morning

The Bedrock Canyon Fire at Lenore is probably within 10 miles of us as the crow flies and is the cause of most of the smoke that fills our gullies and canyons, but since it’s on the other side of the Clearwater River, we’re not concerned that it would endanger us. Nevertheless, we empathize with those everywhere whose homes are lost or endangered, and the threat posed by wildfire is never far from thought these days. Sometimes I wonder what I would take with me if we had to evacuate, and I think it’s wise to have a plan.

Looking toward Peck on Aug. 11

Actually, I did think about this years ago when we moved here, and I stored in town everything I considered irreplaceable – pictures and letters. It’s not much – just four decorative shoebox-sized containers. So, if I had to leave the farmhouse in a hurry, I would take my devices. I’d pack my laptop and my iPad into my big black briefcase, throw my phone and my iPod (yes, I still love my iPod) into my purse, sling the camera over my shoulder, and never look back. And that’s good because I think Mike might have quite a bit to take.

Walking home over June's place

If I had more time – say an hour or half a day or even a day to get ready – I don’t know what I’d take. I think that would actually be more of a problem for me because we can only get so much into the Jeep, even if Mike does have excellent packing skills. If we were here in the big pick-up, we could pack quite a bit. Maybe I’d grab the Christmas ornaments from under the bed, perhaps my sewing machine, and my projects in progress. I’m afraid I might just start grabbing things just to be taking them, and maybe that’s not a bad way to go – if you have the time.

Boxes for packing would be a problem. We don’t keep many boxes. I would certainly dump the recycling out of our crates and use those. And I guess we have other storage bins I could empty to use for more important stuff.

The most important thing is to preserve life. After that, I would want to be compliant with authorities and get out of the way so that they can do their job in the interest of all. KW

Geocaching on the South Fork

There were only three geocaches I hadn’t found in the Grangeville area (except for one at Tolo Lake that continues to elude me). All of these are down on the South Fork of the Clearwater River. I’ve been eagerly anticipating going after these. It’s fairly rare that something you’re enthusiastically looking forward to turns out to meet expectations but this did.

Today (Aug 11^th) was forecast to be very hot. In fact, one of my riding buddies declined my invitation to accompany me because of the heat. Nevertheless, I left the farm this morning on my little XT250 a little before 8:00. It was very pleasant as I rode into Nezperce and proceeded down Hwy 64 toward Kamiah. The first 8 or so miles of Hwy 64 takes you across the rolling hills of the Camas Prairie before it drops off to a grade descending to Kamiah. At the start of the descent you hit 3.2 miles of gravel with a big drop off on your right. As you approach the bottom the pavement resumes but narrow, winding and no lines. Most of this part of the road is shaded and very pleasant.

At Kamiah I proceeded east on Hwy 12 to Hwy 13 at Kooskia where I stopped for gas. My XT mileage on that tank was 83.3 mpg. I continued down the river on

Hwy 13 until it turns up the Harpster Grade to Grangeville. At that point the road that follows the river is Hwy 14 going to Elk City and beyond. Just beyond the intersection of the Mt. Idaho Grade there is a rest stop called Blackerby. It’s named after a famous and much respected Supervisor of the Nez Perce National Forest responsible for building many of the hiking trails in the area. The cache there was well disguised in a DNA container behind a rusty washer embedded in one of the sign posts.

Blackerby

The next cache requires you to cross the river on Hungry Ridge Road which is a gravel forest road. The cache is called “The Mill Creek Blowout Disaster” named for a flash flood in 2008 that came down the mountain and wiped out the road. You can make out where in came down.

Footbridge to Switchback

The last cache was called “Switchback” and was my favorite. I must need to upgrade the map on my GPS because it showed a road crossing the river before I got to the footbridge which actually led up to the cache site. At the bottom of the footbridge I met a couple of hikers from SD. I began hiking up the trail with them for a while but they soon stopped wanting me to go on by. They looked to be in their late 50’s or early 60’s and the man had recently had heart surgery and the woman had had both knees replaced. Got to admire them because the trail was steep. The cache was about a half mile up climbing 400 feet in that distance. It was on a ridge with a nice view.

Mill Creek Flood

By the time I got back down it was mid day and hot. I turned back and rode up the Mt Idaho Grade to Grangeville where I stopped in the shady park and ate my lunch. It was cooler there and pleasant. I rode back on Old Hwy 7 to Nezperce covering some of the same road I had the day before on my bicycle. The Lawyer’s Canyon draw is MUCH easier traversing on a motorcycle. I got back to the farm around 1:30 having covered 182 miles on a great little adventure with no damage to me or the equipment – not always the case. M/W

FIRE BREAK

Mike said it: “It’s a fall morning.” Really, we’re anticipating another hot week with temps in the triple digits in the Valley, but this morning it was 58 here at the farm. I put on my cozy robe and slippers when I got up.

This is the way it used to be in the Intermountain West – cool in the early morning, warming to hot by mid-day, then cooling again in the evening. When I was a teen-ager, I got up at 6:00 to do my chores in the cool of the morning. This morning I baked cookies, and Mike took off for a long bike ride.

As I mentioned in a previous post, Farmer Kyle made a fire break around the house and grounds after harvest last week. The farm yard sits right in the middle of the fields, which is lovely in one respect but also dangerous should fire erupt. Ironically, we have more trouble with water in this dry place than we do with fire. Nevertheless, a fire would be devastating, and I’m not sure the fire break would help all that much if a spark ignited the old trees.

In fact, Grandma Ina said as much in a letter to my dad in 1934, wherein she described a fire in Little Canyon.

…there was danger of the fire crossing the canyon and coming down on our side and it would have just swept us clean if it had. You see, the grass is awful thick over west and this old fence row running through to the west from the “green grove” is a rod wide at least and a regular fire trap, so with a west wind I don’t think we could have saved the house after this grove got afire.

In those days, the farmers helped one another. Ina mentions calling the neighbors, who left off haying in order to run over to the canyon to fight the fire. She also contacted a threshing crew, who came immediately. They fought that fire day and night for two days, mostly back firing and digging breaks. Ina concluded by saying, “Everything was so awful dry.”

Even today, the farmers rally to help fight a fire, but there aren’t enough of them now and other resources and modern methods are necessary.

[Ina uses the term “rod.” I don’t think I’ve heard “rod” since arithmetic story problems in grade school. A rod is 16 ½ US survey feet. It’s useful as a unit of length because whole number multiples of it can form one acre of square measure. I can just hear my dad explaining that to me now.] KW

 

MORE HARVEST PHOTOS

From the top of Plank's Pitch looking across June's field to the north field

The house and grove beyond June's field

Brother Chuck has appreciated the harvest photos in previous posts. I told him I had taken about 35 photos, but I thought they were kinda fuzzy. He said they looked good enough to him. How could he see more, he wanted to know. So, I'm posting more harvest photos.

Combining the north field

Mike and I were in town over the weekend. We shopped two grocery stores and came back this morning with lots of supplies. Mike is grilling chicken breasts and I'm sauteing zucchini. No, it's not from my garden. It's Albertson's finest. The zucchini in my garden is still little. I did pick a nice tomato for our salad, though. (Glad we're not dependent on these raised beds for our sustenance.)

The south field; smoke in the canyon

It was a lovely old-fashioned summer day here -- about 80 degrees with a nice fresh breeze. This evening we walked up Plank's Pitch, around Pete's pond, and then back across June's field. What a treat to actually come down into the yard instead of climb up the lane. KW

Plank's Pitch (See Bess?)