Oh my goodness, isn't she the cutest? At least, I think it's a she ..
'She''s an Eastern Fox Squirrel and unfortunately, despite being so darn cute, they are a nonnative invasive species (brought over from the east-coast) and rather considered a threat to native squirrel populations.
They aggressively compete with native squirrels for food and nesting habitat, they require far less territory to persist, and they can spread disease to native populations.
Oh well .. I think they're gorgeous (I guess that's not the problem though) and I love to see them.
So, when they showed up this week and started to eye my bird feeders ..

          

I gave them their own ..

      

It took a while, but they finally figured out how to lift the roof to get to the mother-load!

Adorable!

OK, what's next .. oh yeah, 'Sinterklaas-avond' which we celebrated with the usual baking of 'speculaas,', watching some special dutch television episodes of the 'Sinterklaas journaal' and a nice hearty meal of peasoup.

Some traditions will never change ...

And now that feast is officially over, we've completely immersed ourselves in this  "♬ most wonderful time of the year ♫" .. Christmas!
I'd already hung the wreath, lights and garlands and now the tree is also up:

It took some doing since the lights turned out to be kaput and I had to take all 100 of them out. Easier said than done because the cord for each light was wrapped three times around it's branch .. $#@!^&%!
Oh well, it's done, nothing that a nice hot mug of eggnog couldn't fix, and the new (LED this time) lights are pretty as can be ..

Time to write some Christmas cards! I don't send many 'real ones' anymore but still like to do some, and a few need to go 'over-sees' so I better get them on their way early (especially now with all the Covid-delays).

My 'fall' puzzle is done once again ..

And I already made a start with my 'crazy elf puzzle I got from my mom, because I realized I have quite a few winter/Christmas puzzles, which I like to make in 'the right' season7 .. I need more hours in the day!

                        

Remember this little guy? It's the Wooly Bear caterpillar which have a reputation for being able to forecast the coming winter weather. If their rusty band is wide, then it will be a mild winter. The more black there is, the more severe the winter.

I guess this one we saw somewhere in October might just have a smidgen more black than brown .. an in-between-winter?
Apparently due to 'La Nina', a weather pattern we're apparently in right now, the surface of the Pacific ocean is much colder than normal at the moment which could cause a colder and more snowy winter!
Already the snow levels in the mountains are coming down right now, all the passes have snow, Mt Hood got a few feet (!) and our forecast for next week looks like this:

                                               

See those 'snow-showers' for the 15th?! Bring it on! Dare I hope for a white Christmas?

It's rather cold already right now, with temperatures around 38-42F so I've started to make some of our winter-favorites .. 'Boerenkool met worst' (farmers cabbage with smoked sausage) anyone?

Look at that! I've opened my very own 'Wild Bird Saloon' here and to say that its 'wild'ly popular is an understatement!
Those tiny little feather-balls are Bush Tits and they come by once or twice a day with the whole family, sometimes there are as many as 10 of these little guys hanging from that feeder! Which looks something like this (sorry, a little blurry):

 

I have a couple of different feeders out and among those the suet feeder certainly is very popular.
That's a Song Sparrow in the pictures above and the one below is a Downy Woodpecker ..

The most popular feeder though is hands-down the tube feeder, which I filled with black sunflower seeds.
That cute little guy on the left below is a Nuthatch and the one on it's right a Chickadee:

     

Next up .. a Black-eyed Junco ..

He's one of the few that actually also goes for my least popular feeder, the 'hopper', which is filled with a variety of seeds. The Spotted Towhee likes that one too ..

                                                      

The hummingbird feeder got a place on the wire too! I normally have it hanging on the awning on the other side of the RV where we're sitting outside in the summer, but since we're inside right now I couldn't see them anymore. Voila, problem solved!
These Anna Hummingbirds are the only hummers that overwinter here in Oregon and they're so much fun to watch ..

When the sun hits them just right that pinkish spot under his shin will shimmer like a jewel, just like the green on his back .. so beautiful!

    

Of course we do have squirrels in these woods around us, and of course they've already been here to check things out:

                    

So far they have not been able to walk the wire or attempted to jump on the feeders.
They are very agile and resourceful, so it probably is only a matter of time ..

        

I do like to watch them though, and I think I'm going to get them a feeder of themselves to fill with peanuts. These are Fox Squirrels by the way, the largest of the tree squirrels here in Oregon ..

 

Besides all these birds we also have a young Whitetail buck that comes visiting us ever so often lately.
He munches a little on the (still) green grass of the orchard but mainly seems to come around to sharpen his antlers on the willow upshot along the ditch ..

                                                                      

It's hard to take a picture of him doing this but here you can see him rubbing his head against the branches .. he'll be doing that for 10 to 15 minutes!
This buck is a yearling and should be about 1,5 years old right now, but the fact that he only has these little 'spikes' for antlers may suggest that he is only a year or so old.

Spike bucks are typically viewed as genetically inferior, but instead of genetics the reason for them is usually that the deer herd is above carrying capacity and the animals are not getting the proper nutrition, or that he was born late in the season when the food is losing it's quality.
Often these are the ones that are getting culled first to promote better antler development of the herd, but in fact most of them will develop normal antlers eventually when they receive better food.

On another note, look what we got done this Wednesday .. yeah, our boosters went in!

                                       

I was lucky enough to snatch up two early appointments 2 weeks ago, when only out of curiosity I looked on the Internet to see if they were available yet.
It turned out they were literary just approved, and the website only just loaded.
Appointments at the moment aren't available until late January! Like my sister mentioned, sometimes you're just lucky!
(Funny side note, we actually had an appointment for a week earlier but they refused to give them to us since our previous shots were not quite 6 months ago .. we were 2 days early! Ridiculous!)

There's not much else to write about this week other than that we visited the Woodburn Outlet Mall after attending the memorial service for Brenda's mom who had passed away the week before.

I wanted to do some shopping around for various items but I forgot (we'd been their before) that it's a clothing-only kind of mall. On top of that it wasn't even decorated very much whereas I had hoped to see some festive over-the-top Christmas-lights extravaganza.
Oh well ..

About those lights .. yes, 'tis the season!

I've started decorating, always so much fun! So far the outside lights are up, the wreath is hung and inside the garlands are in place.

I've saved the inside tree for this coming weekend.

'Tis the season for some stick-to-your-rib food too of course, so last but not least, I made a wonderful chicken soup and a hearty Brussel-sprout mash with a slice of meatloaf.

Yeah, we Hess's know how to have a good time .. with food!

The Willamette River

Oregon's wet season, during which most of it's yearly 51 inches (!) of rain falls, runs from November through March, when the jet stream is strongest in the Northern Hemisphere.
This year doesn't seem to be any different than others, but of course there are some sunny moments too!
Like last Sunday, when we went to Newberg's Fall Bazaar and Crafts Fair at the town's Cultural Center, the sun was even out!



Which was nice because some of the vendors were set up outside but most of them were inside the 'ballroom'.

Pretty much everyone was wearing masks, but keeping any distance wasn't really feasible.
We try not to attend too many of these 'mass'-events, but every now and than we'll just take the risk ..
James isn't that much into arts and crafts but he's a good sport and goes along for the ride, and of course there's always food to find at these events .. like these mini donuts!

      

Mini donuts with chocolate fudge sauce .. no calories in those ..

Afterwards we walked it off (a little) by driving to the Willamette river which, in the late afternoon light, was absolutely gorgeous ...

Apparently this little park is part of the Willamette River Greenway program which is "a cooperative state and local government effort to maintain and enhance the scenic, recreational, historic, natural and agricultural qualities of the Willamette River and its adjacent lands".
A number of trails exist along the greenway, although there are still a lot of gaps, and we will certainly pick some in the near future to go for a nice hike.

Like always, Thanksgiving snuck op on me (again) this year, but in my defense it also was an early one, being 'only' the 25th of November ..

          

Our usual traditions were observed .. there was a nice breakfast (pumpkin/spice French toast with a warm banana-walnut sauce) (Yum!) and I baked a cranberry-apple pie, which you cannot go wrong with, ever ..
Of course we watched the Macy's Parade which was 'back to normal' this year, as in  spectators lining the streets again. Almost nobody was wearing masks ..

The rockets danced there hearts out once again, and the Big Guy appeared like he does every year, Covid or no Covid.

The National Dog Show allowed it's spectators back also, and best in show was won by one of those unlikely dog breeds that in the eye of most don't look 'pretty' enough to even come close.
She came the closest to being perfect to the standard of her breed though, and that's what it's all about.
I personally really like this breed, the Scottish Deerhound, and I thought she was gorgeous, but she would never fit in the RV!

                                                      

We almost didn't get to see the show by the way because Dish Network, which we use, has boycotted and cancelled NBC that airs the show, but we were fortunate enough to be invited over for dinner at Brenda and Doug's, who (even more fortunate) were watching it also.
The dinner almost didn't happen either though, and was overshadowed by the fact that Brenda's mom had passed away on Monday morning .. she had broken her hip (and dislocated it) 2 weeks ago and quickly deteriorated afterwards.
Everybody was thankful that her suffering was over, but of course she was very much missed by everyone.



But life goes on, and so the (delicious) Prime Rib was cooked and cut, a gazillion side-dishes prepared, the table set, the guests seated and a feast was had ..

  

That's Brenda's dad in the back, who attended despite everything (and some health problems of his own), and that's Becky, Brenda's sister, taking that dish from James, and of course Noah and Sarah and Doug and Brenda.
It was good to be together, and also a special treat for us, after being on the road and not  able to attend for 10 years!

This last week we (ehh .. James) run a heating cord alongside all our hoses, water and sewer, and covered them in insulation-wrap.

This way they hopefully won't freeze this winter! We've had 2 nights of 33F so far, but mostly temperatures are still holding around 40-50F. We'll probably never have a deep freeze around here, but it's better to be prepared or we'll be in deep shit .. pun intended!

Usually I would have some nice pics from my walks to show here, but my foot is still not getting any better so I'm trying to stay completely off it at the moment.
I even borrowed a cane! Oh my god .. I'm getting so old!
From behind my desk the only wildlife I see are the deer that sometimes come by, or there's the occasional bird. I don't know where they all went, but it's not here .. this little White-crowned Sparrow and a few Spotted Towhees are all I could 'shoot' this week.

  

James has promised to string me a wire from the RV to a tree, in front of the window by my desk, to hang some bird-feeders from.
Hopefully he'll have some time this weekend, and hopefully it will attract some birds!



This week's dinner took place in Mcminnville again, this time at Los Molcajetes, a nicely decorated and colorful mexican restaurant on main street.

  

We split the seafood burrito, 'Burrito de mariscos' which was stuffed with shrimp, scallops, crab and octopus in a really delicious sauce. Man, was it good!

 
We'd also ordered a Margarita and a flan for desert, and were in and out for only $30! Great atmosphere, great food, great price! We'll be back!

At our own colorful Casa, we'd run out of preserves, so besides doing a lot of puzzling and reading this week (and working in the office almost every morning), I defrosted and crushed up some of the frozen raspberries I so diligently picked this summer, and made 2 jars of freezer jam.

Previously I'd followed the instructions on the Ball pectin jar and froze the jam immediately after making, but it just never set enough to my liking. So I googled around a bit and learned that most other (freezer) pectin instructions call for it to sit out for 24 hours before storing, since apparently pectin doesn't set very well when it is too cold.
I must say, that makes sense, so I'm trying that this time. Keeping my fingers crossed!

OK. I think that's about it for this week. Here's one of those 'the end' pictures .. the sunsets seem a lot more colorful now it's cooler: