It's been a fairly cool week, with temps between 75 and 80F, which motivated me to go for a little longer walk, while 'blazing new trails'.
I've mentioned before that while we officially live in Sheridan we're much closer to Willamina. It's about 1.4 miles to the center of town and only a mile or so to the beginning of it, where the fire-station is situated, which is where I walked to.

I followed the short railway track the veneer mill uses to have their wood delivered from the Hampton lumber mill on the other side of town.
It's used only a couple of times a week and the trains practically crawl from one end to the other, so there's no danger of being hit at all ..

                   
 
The railway hugs the river for a while and I was pleasantly surprised to find this beautiful stretch with not one but two (!) tiny waterfalls in the river itself.
The things you discover of which you never knew you lived right next to!

                                                                   

This Osprey saw me coming long before I saw him and flew up when I came to close, but didn't go very far before landing on the tippety-top of an old dead oak.
I guess there's fish in that river!

Closer to home, as in 'our' pond, we had a visitor as well, a beautiful Blue Heron:



This is a 'juvenile/immature' who still has some brown feathers mixed throughout and is lacking the long, dark plumes on the head, neck and back of the adult birds.

            

He stuck around for a while and did some wading and fishing in the muck and the now very shallow water.
I hope he got some of the eggs and tadpoles of those #$!@%! loud bullfrogs!

A lot more worry-some is this:                               

That's one of Bret's ladders leaning against the wall of the barn, which of course is no big deal at all, but it's what's being build between the two steps there almost at the very top, if you can see it ..

Wasps! At first I thought they were rather harmless paper-wasps but after a second inspection I'm now quite sure they're the much more aggressive Yellow Jackets!
Here's a close-up:

   

 
We've decide to let them be since the ladder isn't used and they're not close to the house or the RV, but we move very 'lightly' around them since their 'attack-mode' is usually triggered by vibrations, like tapping the nest or movement of the wood or structures they build their nest on.
Off course they have generally earned themselves a bad reputation. But despite their occasional aggression, these insects play an important role in the ecosystem by killing thousands and thousands of spiders ans insect to feed their young.
Too bad they're (quite literary') such party-poopers!

Here's some things I am much happier to find in the yard .. apples and pears!

      

Although I came across two trees that, in contrast to last year, didn't carry any fruit at all, there are fortunately a lot of trees that are loaded!
I'm looking forward to using my new dehydrator to dry some and to do a lot of baking.
I already flagged an awesome looking apple cake and I realized that it has been ages since I baked a real dutch apple pie .. time to get my baking-hat on!

I forgot to mention we bought something else for the office at a garage sale we ended up at last week, when we went to the Saturday Farmers market in Sheridan.
James wasn't too happy with the small white microwave he had in there so he was leaning towards buying a black one (they're about $55 at Walmart).
Well, what-do-you-think, he found one at said garage sale for $12! Score!

         

Much better? Sure, honey .. if you think so.