| 10-13-01 Hello All, The leaves are turning; the days are getting shorter. I must go out this weekend and bring in the last of the garden stuff. We have been eating cucumbers and lots of tomatoes. We have grapes that are almost ripe; they will be the last of the fruit for the year. The boys and I have been scrounging up some last minute firewood and kindling from the forest. We have about 3 cords of wood. I hope that will be enough. I lit a fire a few nights ago, and everyone complained that it was too hot in the house! It must have got up to at least 65 degrees! That's ok with me, no more fires until someone says that they are cold. The nights have been down in the 40's, so the house is around 55 degrees in the morning. The boys and I cleaned the flue pipe on the wood stove, and we also disconnected it where it comes into the stove (it was acting funny last winter), sure enough we found that it was not hooked up right! The lip on the stove was not seating between the double wall of the flue. We fixed that and got it all back together. It should be ready for winter. Our friend Pat has an apple tree. A couple of weeks ago he said "come get apples", we brought back two shopping bags. We ate some, we dried some, Lorelei made a yummy apple crisp thing. Our friend Gary the farmer phoned last weekend and said "the last field of corn is ready, come and get some". Adam, Cody, and I went over on a beautiful warm October afternoon. We saw Gary parked at his house, so we detoured from going directly to the field. Adam hopped in the back of Gary's truck with his friend and classmate Nathan (Gary's son). Gary led us to the field of "super sweet jubilee". I let Cody get out of his car seat so he could see better. He bounced up to the front seat and immediately spied the two "trackies" that were parked in the field. I slowed down so he could get a good look. Gary noticed what we were doing. We dove to the far end of the field where the corn was the ripest. We began picking, Cody ran over and picked an ear and began to pull at the husk, Adam and Nate paused to help Cody remove the husk and then took off into the maze of corn. Cody began chomping on the corn and not watching where he was going, tripped into a tire track left by the big tractor. Of course the track was filled with water, from irrigating the corn the day before. I pulled off his muddy shirt and wiped his hands and he took off like nothing had happened. Gary insisted that we take all the corn we could use. I always feel that every ear we take is one less that Gary and his family have to sell. He said "Glynn, I get $60 a ton for this corn, you could not take enough to make a difference". We loaded up about 70-80 ears. Gary then said that before we left, he had to see Cody climb up in the big red tractor! Cody's eyes lit up. He jumped in the back of the truck and we started towards the "trackies". The "big red tractor" is one of those with the dual tires on each side of the axle. The tires are about eight feet tall! There were about 5 steps on a ladder to get to the enclosed cab. Cody climbed up, and when he got to the cab, he got a little frightened, it was a long way down! I followed him up the steps and we sat in the cab while Cody pretended that he was driving. Adam and Nate in the meantime had received permission from Gary to drive the smaller tractor that was parked alongside us. Nate hopped up and started it up and off he and Adam went into the harvested field of oats next to the corn. Cody and I climbed down and when the boys returned, Adam jumped down, and Cody and I climbed up with Nate on the smaller tractor. I sat on the seat and Cody on my lap with his hands glued to the steering wheel. Now even though this was the smaller of the two tractors it was still good sized! We were sitting at least 6 feet off the ground! Cody was a sight. He had muddy shoes and pants, no shirt, his long blond hair blowing in the wind and a huge smile on his face! Cody drove us around the field. The boys realized how much corn we had got, when the next day they started shucking! I got a pot of water boiling. As they shucked, I blanched the ears for two minutes, followed by putting them in some cold water. I then cut the corn from the cob and Jon took over putting it in baggies and Lorelei sealed the bags and packed them in the freezer. Sunday before last, Jon and I got up and headed for the coast. There had not been a lot of rain and our minds were on Salmon! I knew that the fish would be concentrated in tidewater, because there was not enough water in the river for them to get very far upstream. We arrived at the highway 101 bridge over the Salmon River at about 8 a.m. Not exactly a good time to arrive if you really want to catch a fish! There were lots of people concentrated at the bridge, as well as fish. The fish were rolling everywhere! We saw two people hook fish and subsequently lost them. I asked Jon if he was up for a hike. He said sure, so off we went. I knew that fewer fishermen take the time to hike into my favorite spot. The only way to get there is to hike or by boat. I had not even looked at a tide chart before we started out; (in this case there is more than one good reason to look at a tide chart!). We had to cross an irrigation ditch near the road to get to the trail. This ditch is affected by the tide. The only way across it is an 8'' diameter steel pipe. We got to the pipe and there was little water in the ditch so I surmised that the tide was somewhere near being low. The pipe was about 4 feet above the water, and the water only about a foot deep, so a missed step could be interesting, but certainly not fatal. We balanced our way across the 8-ft. span of pipe without incident. The hike to the fishing hole is about a half of a mile across the beautiful tidewater marshland. Ducks and geese are regularly spotted here, along with herds of elk. I commented to Jon that the limit was two Salmon each, and could he imagine this hike with us trying to carry our gear and two salmon each! We arrived at the fishing hole and I was pleasantly surprised that only 1 other fisherman had walked in from the bridge, and there were only 3 boats in the area. A quick look at the direction the water was flowing told me the tide was on its way in, a factor that would play a role later on. We began fishing; I had brought along a spinning rod for Jon. I knew that it would be no match for a big Chinook salmon, but it was easy for him to cast as he was learning the basics of salmon fishing. The fish were rolling and jumping everywhere, Jon kept wanting to cast near where the last one had jumped! I coached him to just relax and cast, and retrieve slowly. We had fished about an hour when I felt my spinner suddenly stop, I reared back hard and felt the solid pull of a salmon, I yelled, "fish on" and called to Jon. I handed him the rod and the fun began. I knew that with my stout salmon rod, level wind reel and 20lb. test line that he had a good chance of landing this fish. His eyes lit up as he realized the power of these fish. I coached as calmly as I could, pull up, reel down, no slack! The salmon made several dazzling runs as I hollered to Jon to just let him go, Jon then tried to regain the line that he had just lost. Near the shore the fish made a tremendous leap in the air, I could see that it was a fresh bright fish, just in from the sea. The other angler that had walked in, offered the use of his net. I readied the net and waded ankle deep into the river. Several times the fish was near enough to attempt to net, but it was either sideways to me or swimming away. I told Jon that he had to turn his head towards me before I would try and put the fish in the net. Finally the time came, the fish was tired, Jon was tired, he got the fish coming straight towards me, and I gently slid the net under him. Everyone cheered and Jon gazed in amazement at his first ever salmon. It was a 20 pound buck. We fished for another hour or so with no luck. We decided to clean the fish and head for the truck. The tide was now near its highest point for the day. Jon tried carrying the fish, but quickly decided that I should have the honors. We took our time and walked leisurely, it was a warm September 30th, unusual for the coast region this time of year. We got to the irrigation pipe and yowsa; it was 2 feet underwater and of course remember there is about 5 feet of water under the pipe! We were obviously not going to make it across here. We began following the ditch upstream to find a place to cross. At one point it looked shallow enough, so I told Bear to take off his pants and see how deep it was, he waded out and went in up to his waist! He came out and put his pants back on and on upstream we went. We finally made it around the ditch and back to the truck. Jon agreed that it was a fun adventure. In other news the boys are all fine. They are doing well in school. The animals are fine. The hens are still not laying well. I may have to try 24 hrs. of light, to get them going! The ducks are hanging out near the house most of the time, which is beginning to wear on Lorelei. We will have to do something about that. We have gophers and moles going crazy in our yard! Jon's soccer team is out of control! The one team in their league that has never lost, (Jon's team tied them last year), they beat them in their first meeting this season. The other teams they have beat handily. Last Saturday's game they were ahead 8 to 0, the coach moved Jon from his normal defensive position to an offensive one. Jon scored his first ever goal! They won that game 12 to 0! Lorelei is still walking daily and being her beautiful self. Although she has had a lot of trouble sleeping as of late. We are trying to sort that out. That's about it for now, Glynn Jr. |