It's the first week of May and the canola fields around us are flowering.
A small number of farmers in Oregon grow canola/rapeseed for the oil in its seeds and canola helps “clean” fields of weeds that are difficult to kill in grass seed crops as well.
(There's a little bit of a controversy about this crop due to fears that it will interfere in the cultivation of related seed crops like mustard or broccoli and there's actually a 500-acre limit on canola farming in the Willamette Valley).
I sure do love to see those bright yellow fields!

The Red Clover is also starting to bloom. Soon the hills all around us will color red as well:

Our landlord grew them last year and some seeds that were left in the ground after plowing them over are coming up voluntarily this year. The bees will love them!

Talking about bees, there has been some activity in my 'hotel', eggs have been laid and tunnels plugged up.
You can actually see a (leaf-cutter) bee in one of the tunnels here:

                                  

And finally we had our first deer show up!

They appeared at the forest's edge on the other side of the pond we're on and moseyed their way to the small group of trees to the right of us.
Coco, out landlord's dog, obviously didn't see (or smell) them so they were safe for the moment.

 

 

We'd heard they're around but because of the dog we hadn't seen any at all since the time we'd arrived here.
I think it's a doe with her 1 year old fawns. So cool!

 

I posted last week that the first Gold-finches were back. Well, I think now the whole family  has arrived!

              

Holy smokes! It's an invasion!

                                                 

They like the black sunflower seeds and sometimes nibble a little from the mixed ones but their favorite are the thistle seeds.
In which they are fortunate since they're the only ones eating them!

James hung the bat-box in the tree for me:

                  

We didn't want to put screws in the tree so we attached 2 rubber straps around the trunk, bend the hardware that came with the box and clasped them over/on the strap.

                                               

 

Et voila! The bat-hotel is hereby opened!

We can't quite see the entrance from the RV since it had to be hung facing somewhere between N-and SE, but we'll just place a few viewing chairs there to see them emerge in the evening.

Hopefully ...

                       

On Sunday afternoon we went for another performance at the Gallery theater in Mcminnville.
We had tickets for the matinee-show of 'Anesthesia, the musical':

According to their website: This dazzling show transports its audience from the twilight of the Russian Empire to the euphoria of Paris in the 1920s, as a brave young woman sets out to discover the mystery of her past. Pursued by a ruthless Soviet officer determined to silence her, Anya enlists the aid of a dashing con man and a lovable ex-aristocrat. Together, they embark on an epic adventure to help her find home, love and family.

Despite a little so-so start, we soon got drawn into the story and we enjoyed the fast paced  and fun dialogues, the beautiful costumes and wonderful voices of the lead singers.
Well done again! We'll be back!

Meanwhile, at the ranch, the counters for the office arrived and James cut them at the right length .. as in: measure 12 times, cut only once!

Perfect!

The large one is going to be his desk and the small one the coffee/microwave counter.

That 'doorway' to the left into the shed is eventually going to disappear (more about that next time).

He spend a couple of days staining and varnishing and they're looking really nice.

Next up: painting the walls.

Today is Cinquo de Mayo, and it's about time to heat the Tamales I bought.
I know, I took the easy way out, but I'll fix a salad and make some guacamole! Flan for dessert, also store-bought (gasp!), but not bad at all.
Oh well ... it's Sunday, which is when I try not to cook, or at least make something easy.

So .. Feliz Cinco de Mayo to you! Fiesta ‘til you siesta!

 

As I said in one of my previous posts, April is my Birthday month, and yesterday was 'my' day!
Since it was my birthday I decided to buy a (three layer lemon-) cake, instead of baking one, to which I added some raspberry-sauce and a few fresh berries.

We actually got into a whole brain-crushing conversation during coffee about if this really was my birthday here, since I was born 9 hours earlier that day (the 26th) in Holland when it was still the 25th here in America ..
We came to the conclusion that everybody probably can celebrate their day on 3 different days, adding a day before and a day after the 'actual' date, depending on where in the world you were during your birth?
Works for me! Three days of cake!

                                                

My mom send me a 'real' card, and my sister and nieces were all over Whatsapp to congratulate me.
I also got a super-cool present (according to me and my nieces):

A Bat-box! So cool! I know, most women go for flowers or jewelry or perfume but I am tickled pink with getting a bat-box.
Not only do I think they're very interesting but since we're parked next to a large pond I hope they'll keep the mosquito population down this summer.
Also, bat-guano is very good fertilizer!

And look what arrived in the mail later that day! My sister and her daughter Lotte send me a box of scented candles (soy wax and essential oils) and a box of pretzel chocolates (sprinkled).

 

Sooooo sweet, thanks again girls!

The weather usually is quite nice on my birthday but this time it rained on and off and was mostly cloudy all day.
Oh well, we hadn't planned anything special other than going out for dinner, so I spend most of the day inside, relaxing and reading, which for me counts pretty much as a perfect day!

       

      

Wildflowers are happy with the rain and the (marginally) higher temperatures.
I have not figured out what that pink one is, it rather looks like a pink delphinium, but the one on the right is a Camas Lily which are showing up in abundance right now:

Earlier this week I spotted this unusually light colored raptor flying low over the meadow:

 

It took me a little to find out what it was but it turns out to be a Northern Harrier. The males are a pearly grey all over, hence their nickname 'ghost-birds'.
Their faces are odly flat, a little like an owl's.

That same morning this Osprey showed up. I was surprised to see him here since they mainly eat fish but than I realized that the river is only a stone's throw away and our property has 3 fairly good seized ponds.

     

It looked like he caught something .. or it's just nesting material?

 

And look who are back as well? The Goldfinches!

        

I wasn't sure if they'd show up here, but sure enough, there's a whole flock of them!
(Actually it's a 'charm' of Goldfinches, not a flock)

At ground-level the Ground Squirrels are happy to snatch up the fallen seeds ..

 

I finally managed to bake an almost perfect sourdough 'Boule' (an artisan free-form loaf):

              

The only thing I forgot was to 'score' it before baking, which gives it a nicer 'break' in the crust but other than that it was a beauty!

After I'd painted the inside of the new office with a primer, James got to do his favorite thing .. caulking!

   

Soon we will paint the walls again (green!) and there will even be wallpaper on the top sections!
Seems like overkill to me but James thought it would be fun .. I've been teasing him that he's building a Taj Mahal but that was actually build for an emperor's wife and this is going to be his office so that won't fly .. oh well, as long as he's happy with it!

                                        

Here's a few pics of my Birthday dinner yesterday. We went to Coyote Joe's in Willemina, just down the street from us.
It's a typical old-fashioned Ma-and-Pa diner with an outdated interior but good food and a favorite of the locals here.
On Friday nights they have Prime-Rib, something I never make for just the two of us, which we split of course. Those slabs of meat are huge:

And of course we (he) couldn't resist dessert, Peanut-butter chocolate cream pie, which we had to split as well. I couldn't possibly eat the whole thing by myself after the meal we just had. Probably never ..

It was delicious!

All in all a damn good Birthday! Let's do it again next year!

 

We're 3/4 into April and it looks like the 'snow-birds' are back in town!
I spotted the first Goldfinch at the feeders yesterday and a couple of days ago I came across this Orange-crowned Warbler down Houser Rd!

Although not quite rare, it's rather rare to see one since they're really tiny and usually spend their time out of sight in the dense undergrowth of the forest.
Despite the color orange being in their name, you won’t likely see much of it, they only show off their orange crown when they get excited because the head feathers raise.

                             

This one actually did show some color. He was singing very loudly and most likely defending his territory against intruders .. me?
(Fun fact; a group of warblers is called a wrench, fall, 'confusion' (ha!), or 'bouquet' (cute!).

A group of Blue Jays, like this jaunty fella, is called a 'band' or a 'party'.
This one was by himself though, but he (band-leader?) got away with a peanut .. for the party?

 

 

I've been working on setting up a few 'raised beds'. I decided to try my luck with a few large plastic totes this time.
They're cheap, lightweight, pretty much indestructible and easy to take with us if (when) we ever move again.
 

I put some holes in the bottom and filled the lower 1/4 with old, dead branches (they'll break down/compost eventually) to save a little bit on soil :

                                   

Yesterday James had to go to town with the truck and took the opportunity on the way home to fill the back with a 5-ingredient bulk soil that he got at Wilco.
For $60 he got a cubic yard, which is a lot cheaper than buying the brand-named soil in bags!

 

I filled all three totes (all kinds of veggies), 2 smaller self-watering ones (rhubarb and zucchini), 4 black 5-gallon plastic plant pots (blue- and rasp-berries), and 2 smaller ones for tomatoes.
I still have a few large (sand) bags left over for future patio-pots and hanging baskets.

I'm dying to plant something but my seedlings in the greenhouse are still tiny and the weather unpredictable. Better to be patient until mid- May or so!

Hard to see but they are there .. that's how small they are, I guess. What hasn't helped is the fact that the whole greenhouse fell over during a huge wind-gust this week.
I saved what I could but lost quite a few and besides that I don't have a clue what some of them are anymore since they all fell in a heap and lost their tags ..

This is the office, looking through the shed-part to the outside ..

             

James continues to work hard on the office in his spare time. We don't have too many appraisals going on at the moment (it's a feast or famine-thing), so there's quite a lot of that .. spare time I mean.

He put the insulation in ..

                           

                            This is the shed-part, looking in to the office part behind that ..

Followed by the inside wall-panels:

                        

The shed also got some shelves, for tools and pantry-stuff:                             

           

He also finally got the BBQ up and running. The bloody thing kept leaking gas but he finally figured out what caused it and fixed it, so all is good.
Let the summer grilling begin!

We christened the season with a nice fat steak .. which we (as usual) split:

A nice sweat potato with all the fixings (butter/sour cream) and a 'fiesta' veggie-medley of corn, peas and spicy fire-roasted tomatoes. Yumm!
Unfortunately we had to sit inside since the weather took somewhat of a turn towards dinner-time with plummeting temps and a cold wind ..

And since we ran unexpectedly out of bread, and I had to make something fairly fast for lunch, I tried my hand at baking Hamburger buns.
They were surprisingly easy to make and came out absolutely perfect. 'Winner, winner chicken dinner'!

OK. Another week done and over with. It's going to be my birthday next week! Time rushes forward at the moment .. probably because we are so busy .