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.

Bumble bee on a thistle

I guess we just passed 'midsummer', if you count 6 weeks from June 21st, and nature seems to already, albeit slowly, real slowly, wind down a little ...
Summer flowers are starting to look just slightly 'over the top' and of course the days are getting just a tad shorter every day.

         

Wild (oregon) sweetpeas and corn flowers are still brightening up the now dead-looking grass in the meadows ...

                                    

We finally made it to the Sheridan Saturday market.
They only take place every 2nd Saturday of the month during the summer, so it's a little bit of a hit or miss if we can make it, but today we did!

                                                 

Well .. we wouldn't have missed much if we couldn't have made it. There were only 4 booths and none were much of an interest to us:

Except for the baked goods booth of course!

One of those Maple sweet rolls with Bacon(!) just had to come with us.
But only one, since they looked to have a zillion calories to begin with, and also because she charged $5.50 for the one! Holy smoke!
I thought they were $4 and James was already sort of committed to buy but I almost walked away without buying one.

It was really delicious though so at least there was that ..

Meanwhile, at the RV, we're having a little bit of a war going on at the moment with the Red-winged black-birds.
They come in large flocks, bully all the little birds away and empty all the feeders in no time!

                                                                                

I guess they raised their young, among the reeds of the lower pond, and are now bringing them over and teach them where to find an easy meal!

In an attempt to make them loose interest so they'll try their luck elsewhere, I've taken down the feeders for a week or so.
Of course I did some googling and found some other tips and ideas to handle the problem but I'll try this first. Keeping my fingers crossed ..   

And look, the first blackberries are starting to ripen around here!                                                                                                              


I've picked a bowl almost every day and there's lots and lots more to come!
James already has visions of blackberry cobblers, pies, crisps, buckles and muffins ..

                                             

Also, I finally found a perfect little shelve for the empty wall space where the printer used to live (which moved to the office since):
              

Isn't it a cutey? I'm tickled pink with it!
A little plant and some candles completed the 'look'. Perfect!

And that rounds up another summer-week. Only about 6 more weeks to go until Fall! Yesssss!
Here's a few pictures from an 'al fresco' Sunday morning breakfast (Grand Slam!), and an evening BBQ (Ribs, baked beans and macaroni salad!)

Life is good!

Oh, and of course the Olympics have ended:

Of course the US came out on top but 15 Gold medals for Holland and a 6th place in the medal tally is not bad for such a tiny country!

 

                                 

We're finally seeing some bees around here.
Probably due to the cold and wet spring there haven't been too many but with the warmer weather of lately and the Queen Ann's Lace flowering all around us, they seem to be flying around a lot more.

We still don't see much wildlife here at all though.
The deer that came by almost every evening in June when my sister was here, are not showing up anymore and other than just one coyote I spotted in the fields a couple of days ago, I'm not seeing much else ..

Or .. wait .. there's something after all!
There's two small ground squirrels, I expect they're this year's young ones, that live inside the big oak next to us:

                                                            

It's always fun to watch their antics and they're so darn cute!

I've got a few Morning Glory flowers popping up every now and than and a pot with Petunias is still alive and flowering profusely but other than those none of this years plants are very happy.
I wonder if it's the soil we got in bulk this spring at Winco and which I filled every pot and raised bed with ..?

           


Mid-summer is the time for all the county fairs and rodeos to take place, especially in rural areas, and we always try to go to one. Nothing says Summer more than a fair!
This year we picked the one in Yamhill county to visit.

 

It's not a large fair by any means but all the usual events are taking place.
Of course there was the carnival midway with carnival games and some amusement rides:

And the 4-H and FFA shows & agricultural and livestock exhibits:

It was a hot day and this girl shared an ice-cream with the pig(let) she raised:

Of course we had some fair-food, although we kept it somewhat 'healthy' by having Filipino food instead of the curly fries and hamburgers ..

                                                                                              
... followed by a funnel cake with blackberries and cream. No sugar in this of course ..!

After strolling through 'vendor-row' for a bit we made our way to the arena where the rodeo was to take place.
It started at 6.15 and it was still very warm. We were sitting in the bleachers at the general seating area .. no shade at all!

                

I always get goose-bumps at the opening ceremonies of these rodeos, the flags, the horses, the national anthem .. it's all very impressive and rather emotional:

 

First up: bareback bronc riding .. always a spectacle!

                                       

Followed by calf-roping:

 
 

Throwing a lasso from a galloping horse to a fast moving target and than tying it's legs together .. not as easy!

I would have loved to see the bull riding, my favorite, but after an hour in the still blazing sun on the hard, unforgiving bleachers, we gave up and went home.
Thanks the heavens for air-conditioning!

Fortunately temps have come down a bit and next week's forecast is looking even 'cooler' with temps in the high seventies. I'll take it!
In the meantime I'm holed up in the RV in the afternoon and watch the recorded events of that night and the live events of the day.
After a slow start and some disappointing losses Holland is finally hauling in medals in bicycling, rowing and sailing.

                             And how about that Femke Bol! What an athlete!