Our 'compound' is starting to look very pretty with these fall colors ..

I don't have much to show for this week, but here are a few more pictures of the vineyards around us.
They're just so photo genetic, especially now in the Fall ..

                                

I'll throw in a few more of those awesome trees. That's an Oregon Ash on the left and off course a Red maple on the right ..

  
  

                

I picked some branches of both (and some oak for good measure) and brought them inside:

                                                    

                                                Doesn't that look cozy?

In between some heavy rain-showers we still managed to get our weekly 9-hole golf round in on Wednesday, and afterwards we ended up at the Chehelam Brewery Co. for our weekly dinner out.                                               

Tucked away in the back of a parking lot is this tiny pub. It’s typical of the contemporary brew pub genre - concrete floors and “industrial” ambience, but it has a few nice tables outside as well.
It is a small venue with a relaxed atmosphere. There's a (glass) garage door at the front that goes up weather permitting.

 
The special happened to be 'Wing Wednesday', so we tried a few. They were pretty good!
We also split and excellent portobello mushroom burger with beer battered fries, and to wash all that down we tried a 4 flight beer!

          

                                                                 

Everything was really delicious and the portions were generous, so despite us splitting everything, we were pretty much stuffed when we left!

Other than that, I've finally started to 'earn my keep' in this household, as they say!
Since they were rather backed up this week, I've been tutored by James to assist him in preparing the appraiser-files to the point that he can make an appointment and 'take them on the road' ..


It's really very basic stuff, filling out forms, looking things up in various on-line programs, a lot of copying and pasting and putting together a physical real paper envelop with all the necessary papers ..
Nevertheless, after a couple of hours my head was spinning, and although I've been doing a couple of mornings and even a whole day this week to help them out, the plan is to do only about 2 hours a day, a couple of mornings a week.
More than enough, me thinks!

We had a rather rainy and cold week and the skies looked rather dark and gloomy early in the evening like in the picture above, but it's finally looking a little better for the next couple of days.
Hopefully we can get some golf in for the weekend!

Oh, a quick update on Merlin: he's very happy to be done with the pro-and antibiotics (and so am I!) and is doing a lot better.
He's still not eating a lot though, and is moving very slowly. I suspect his legs are bothering him a lot and I'm afraid he's in quite some pain. If he doesn't improve this week I might ask the vet for some pain-killers .. poor boy, getting old is not for wimps!

                                                      

When in Rome ... !

Yes, we went wine-tasting .. again! It wasn't the plan, but it's hard not to stumble across a winery out here and they all try to lure you in sort of .. anyway, it's hard not to give in!
We did work for it somewhat though since we went for a hike, up hill even, so we agreed we deserved it .. yeah, yeah, .. excuses, excuses.

About that hike, we drove over to Harvey Creek in Dundee, which is all but 10 minutes from us.
                        

There's a quiet 1,5 mile loop hike, over the creek and up a fairly steep hill,through a lush forest of ferns, maples, and towering firs ..

There's actually a creek 'running-through-it' ..

And look at the moss on these branches: 

     

Halfway up the hill, you have a view over the hills to the north side:

When you reach the top you walk right onto the Dundee Pioneer Cemetery:

                         

This small cemetery was established in 1855 and the pioneers who are buried here were the first to establish themselves in this area.

There are some beautiful old stones where whole families were buried ..

  

And amongst a few 'unknown', which we've seen before, there were also some marked as 'occupied' .. kind of weird?

On the way back we drove for a while through the back roads of the beautiful Dundee Hills ...

         

You'll pass vineyard after vineyard, with their tidy rows after rows of beautiful grape-vines.
Known as the heart of award-winning Oregon Pinot Noir, the Dundee Hills boast over 100 vineyards and wineries!

So, guess what .. we ended up at another winery for some wine-tasting! Hey, somebody has to do it!
This time we visited the Dundee Library winery.
At first we expected there to be a real library, with books about wines, but it's actually a library with a collection made up of all kind of different and special (bottles of) wine.
Like such:



There's also a B&B on the premises, and the communal sitting room does actually have a book-library, with some of them about wines ..

                                  

          

As you can see they can raise the glass doors at the front of the building, so you can sit inside but have some fresh air, but the weather was absolutely beautiful, so we opted to sit out on the terrace, from where you have a beautiful view over the Dundee hills ..

Our flight of wines consisted of three different Pinot Noirs, with one Chardonnay thrown in for fun ..

          

Here's how it's done by a real expert ..

                                                 

It was a wonderful way to end the day, life is good indeed!
            

More and more trees are turning in our neighborhood. Here's a few in Doug and Brenda's yard ..



... and a few in the neighbor's ..

                          

And some already have fires going!

One more thing that happened this week was that we had to bring Merlin to the vet again. He was still barely eating and getting really weak.
Fortunately they had a cancellation on Tuesday so we could bring him in.
The vet did a thorough examination and studied the lab results again, but really couldn't find much else wrong with him, so she settled on an Irritated Gastrointestinal tract.
She gave him an anti-nausea shot and they tried to give him some SC-fluids, but he was a little too upset by then and didn't want any of it.


So, we went home with antibiotics, probiotics, an appetite stimulant gel and the bag of SC-fluids to try at home when he'd calmed down a bit.
As soon as we came home he wanted to eat (!) and he kept improving steadily during the afternoon! I was able to get 150 ml of fluids in him and 5 gram of the probiotics, of which he's definitely NOT a fan, but such is life ..

                            

We're 3 days further now and he's doing a lot better, thank goodness! We stopped all the meds accept for the antibiotics. His diarrhea has stopped and he's eating like there's not tomorrow!

So, yeah .. still crossing our fingers, but much happier! All of us!

So far we're having a beautiful Fall, which makes me so very happy!
Most days are gorgeous, temperatures in the low 70's and this coming week even in the high 60's, and the nights are nice and cool in the high 40's!
The trees are all starting to color and the vineyards are looking so pretty in that low, warm light that is so really Fall.

                                  

Talking about vineyards .. Doug and Brenda invited us to an impromptu wine-tasting on Friday afternoon. They are members of various clubs and vineyards and could go tasting new releases several times a month if they would want to.

Well, we didn't say no of course, so we made the short trip to Beaux Frères, a vineyard on 88 acres just outside of Newberg at Ribbon Ridge.
Like most other wineries at the moment they were still working on the last of the harvest of the week, and the smell of (fermenting) grapes hung strongly in the air .. 

This winery is one of the earliest and now leading wineries in Oregon, founded by Michael G. Etzel, and brother-in-law (“Beaux Frères” in French) Robert M. Parker Jr in 1986.
Their philosophy remains the same; to produce a world-class Pinot Noir and they certainly do a good job of that since their 2014 Pinot was voted 3rd best IN THE ENTIRE WORLD!

 

It's a small place, a 'boutique' winery as they call it, their tasting room is simple and the atmosphere very laid back. It's all about the wines and they are certainly very good, we liked them!

      

It was a great afternoon and it was fun to hang out a little with Doug and Brenda besides work and just 'shoot the breeze' instead.

Here's another sure sign of Fall I'm hearing more and more these last 2 weeks ..

           

Canadian Geese! The Willamette Valley is an important stop-over for them on their way south, and large groups gather in the fields and on the lakes around here.

                     

They often stay for a few days to rest and eat before moving on .. still a long way to go!

And than there's these two does, I think it's a mama and her fawn from this spring, that have been hanging around our orchard for a whole week now.

They graze on the new grass, that's been coming up after last week's rain, in the early morning and late afternoon, and seem to spend the night in the 'wilder' corner of the orchard, in the far back.
I might break down and set out some corn for them if they decide to spend the winter here!

Not much else for this week I'm afraid other than that I made 'snert', the first of the season (but certainly not the last!), and baked a very nice pumpkin loaf, if I say so myself:

Oh and before I forget, we brought Merlin to the Vet for a 'senior' check-up.
She couldn't believe how good he was looking for his 18 years and was amazed by the fact he's been diabetic for 9 years of that.
A full blood panel was taken which showed 2 days later that he is totally healthy and his kidneys, liver and thyroid functions are all normal. How cool is that?

Unfortunately the fact remains that he doesn't eat enough and keeps getting skinnier.
He had some loose stool the other day, but, of more concern, he also seemed to have had 2 short 'episodes', during which time he cried out in what I believe was pain and passed stool during the first, and stumbled over and fell down while passing urine during the second.

He might have had a stroke or a seizure? Time will tell. He's definitely not feeling well, but what else can we do? 

Not much, I'm afraid, just making him comfortable and just hope he'll have a few more good days left ..

 

Snoozing in the evening sun ..