'Tis The Season

Again. Everyone, enjoy your families and friends. We'll be enjoying ours here in our household, by phone and via the internet. Merry Christmas and have a safe and happy New Year. Loving the changes being made, loving the retirement and loving the family, friends and our wonderful natural beauty out here in this great Pacific Northwest. Hardly a week goes by where I don't spend hours wandering the forests, just taking in the sights, smells and sounds of everything around me.

A little bit earlier in the year. Just one of those little country creeks.




A fun road...




A remote creek...


And an east to west creek's drainage.



Life's good when you can get out and enjoy it! Even when you're 64! Merry Christmas everyone! Have a Safe and Happy New Year!!! Enjoy!


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Found it! The blog... Life.

It's been awhile since I've been on here. Well over a year. I'm retired now. I've been retired since 10/2014. All's going as well as can be.

For some reason I thought this blog was removed. Today, while culling out old emails I came across one that was sent to my main account from another email account I had way back in the late 90's early 2000's. Miraculously I remembered my password to the account. First try, I got logged on! Dayum! Anyways, here I am.

Being as I have time on my hands I'm going to try to dust some things off around here and update the ol' blog.

Or not. It depends how it goes. I did succumb to the draw of Facebook... TWICE! The wife got the first timeline I set up so I set up another one. Actually two other one's but Farcebook doesn't like right winged slants and pseudonyms on the same timeline. They're okay with it if it's all a liberal thing though. Nevertheless, it is what it is. It's Zueckerman's, Zueckerborg's (whatever his friggin' name is) little treasure trove. I can't fault him for demanding that when we're in his sandbox we play by his rules. It just didn't sit well with me the way he and his ilk arbitrarily locked me out of my pseudonym timeline and refused to let me back in it so I could mine the several years of information I put into it. But again, it's his rules not mine.

On the other hand this old place is still around. I'm thankful for that. I was running out of things to do, being retired and all. Too little time, too much to do now.

Well, thanks for being here. I'll be dropping by from time to time. Don't be shy, feel free to comment. Just keep in mind I'm machiavellian as all get out when it comes to my blog. I'll put Zueckerman, Zueckerborg, whatever to shame.

Take care!

It's been awhile...

It's been awhile since I've posted to this blog other than copy/pastes.
I thought I'd just drop a line and toss around some thoughts I have regarding life in general.

I'm still out there plugging along in the "puzzle solving" industry but there's definitely a different tone in the immediate workplace. I'm not complaining, just saying...what good would it do to complain anyways. Besides, I look at complaints as a distraction when working. I'll post to the blog or chat about things "after the fact" if I feel compelled to do so but I'm not keen to criticizing and complaining while working.

So, with that in mind I still get out and about quite a bit these days. Not as much as used to but hey, I still have some interesting times out there.

(About the pic... East of Yakima, WA. A homestead that saw better days.)

I'm a bit concerned about the way things are going around here, in this county, in this state, in this country, this world as we see it. We have definitely seen better days and I'm not seeing any real end in sight when it comes to even getting close to seeing them again.

Maybe it's just me but I can't help myself. As I write this the U-6 unemployment rate is at a solid 15%... up from 14.9% last month. The U-6 doesn't take into account those persons who've simply given up looking for work, have fallen off of the unemployment rosters or otherwise can't afford to go out and look for a job.

We have a very sour, very hostile, volatile political climate out "there"... the ugliest I've seen in my lifetime and I don't see it getting any better before November. All I can say is I hope and pray the right choices are made by the majority of the "registered, legal" living, voting citizens of this mighty fine nation.

I didn't want to get political on the blog here but I did. See there, want in one hand and crap in the other... I know which one will fill up first.

RE: Life. We're still living the dream day by day out here in the grand Pacific Northwest. We moved into our new home a year ago (July). We lost our 15+yrs. old Chihuahua (Rookie) to blindness, congestive heart failure and arthritis in June of 2011. Our other buddy, Chief... the miniature Schnauzer somehow got the animal version of AIDS and went from healthy to dead in a scant four months in December, 2011.

After over four years of constant, incessant, increasingly difficult life altering, near intolerable pain I got my back operated on in December, 2011 (Thank you! Dr. Chong Lee!!!) I now feel like a whole new man. We're far more health conscious around here and though we have our "fall off" moments we're reasonably maintaining our weight, combining other activities that keep us active and trying to enjoy life like we used to.

I mean, we're only human.

Okay, I just thought I'd drop a line and let you know we're still out here... just being a bit pre-occupied with life so the posts are few (very few) and far between.

Hopefully I'll find more time in the future to post more upbeat stuff.

Stay safe and take care!

Dennis

Devil's Club...

...a seemingly wicked little forest friend.

Devil's Club (Oplopanax Horridus) is a large shrub native to the northeast Pacific Ocean seaboard including the Pacific Northwest and reaching up into Alaska.

In Washington State it's normally found in large quantities along the floors of mountain drainages in the dense, temperate rain forests of the young coastal mountains, the Olympic Peninsula and the western slopes of the Cascade Mountains. Given the ideal growing conditions found at those locations, i.e. dense deciduous and conifer overstories and damp, rich soils the shrub will reach heights of 15 feet or more and will grow in huge seemingly communal "patches" making much of the forest in those areas impenetrable... unless you're insane or armored with a good hat, thick leather gloves, chaps, long sleeves and a very sharp machete.

Devil's club, affectionately referred to by some as "mountain cactus" or "Alaskan Ginseng" isn't all that hiker friendly.

From a distance the plant itself appears... errr, delicate.

It's tall, thick stalks curl outward and upward from the ground. As they continue to grow their many branches shoot for the sky in all directions.

The huge, innocent, delicate leaves invite the uninformed forest visitor to take a closer look. However be careful, the veins of these huge leaves are covered with spines top and bottom. Sinister, wicked, vicious little spines... brittle as all get out and filled with a chemical type of spine that, when embedded and broken off under your skin definitely will make you wish you were somewhere else doing something else rather than dealing with this particular shrub.

It's not so much the burning of the chemical that becomes the problem after getting in the shrub's way. Nope it's that darned prolonged itching, festering and burning of the spine itself as your body resists the invading, severed spear while trying to push it back out from under your skin in the days, weeks or months that follow... depending upon how intimate you got with the shrub.

I've had friends (and relatives) who have had their gloves "stapled" to their hands because they've reached out and grabbed the shrub's stalks or branches (the wrong thing) to slow them down as they tumbled or slid downslope through a grove of Devil's Club. Now that's quite a bit more than that annoyance you'll get when you encounter nettles or thistles.

The sight of a clenched, stapled glove and fist isn't a pretty sight for anyone involved... it's memorable but it's not pretty!

Either way, empathy reins!

However, in a morbid sort of way it can be a humorous sight if you're trying to put a humorous spin on things. It's certainly something to chat about around the campfire or to revisit as a "war story" over the years... after the trauma wears off. A good chat, a fun laugh, a memorable moment to be revisited in chatter but never again to be repeated in life.

I should caution everyone it's only humorous AT THE TIME if it isn't you trying to peel your glove off of your infested hand. So, reserve your laughter for a later date. Tend to the person in need of assistance at the time of the "encounter".

Laugh later.

Devil's Club has particularly delicate little flowers found hidden amongst it's leaves and stalks in the spring and eventually generates clusters of small, bright red berries in the late summer and early fall.

During this "growing season"... spring flowers to fall berries... the plant itself, all parts of the plant is particularly toxic. Hence, the discussion suggests that an invasive little prick from one of those brittle, little spines during this particular "growing season" is a bit more painful than those encountered in the "off season"... if that's possible.

It's been my unfortunate experience over the years that suggests those little spine "invasions" are as equally intense no matter what the season is...

The berries are toxic. The bark's toxic, the flowers are toxic... the whole plant is toxic.

So, what brings me to the point of writing about Devil's Club? Well... it's that time of year. As I drive through my office in the Pacific Northwest I take in the sights along the way... and while I'm there.

I've seen and dealt with Devil's Club all of my life here in Washington State. Not every day but a lot! I'll most likely be dealing with it for quite awhile longer too. It's not going to go away. But, I've learned some things about this Mountain Cactus... this Alaskan Ginseng.

I've learned that Devil's Club has a far less sinister side to it as well. It's a plant revered by the native people of this particular area. It's known to have healing and spiritual powers and is still used in particular tribal rituals throughout the region.

The healing qualities of the plant includes treatment of diabetes, fever and upset stomachs. Here's a great article on the shrub and it's uses.

The bottom line is this... Devil's Club is to be respected. Respected for it's attributes, respected for it's healing powers and respected for it's natural defenses.

People actually harvest Devil's Club after the berries and leaves fall and before the flowering begins. The stalks are severed, the spines and bark peeled and the cambium scraped to be dried and made into teas, powders for salves, etc.

Just when we think we've found the most sinister plant in the world we learn it's not at all as bad as we thought it was.

Isn't that the way life is?

As things heat up...

...globally and around here I get the opportunity to travel around the state.

Last week during one of our unusual "hot spells" I ran up to the northwest tip of the Olympic Peninsula to have a looksee at a couple of wildfires. The weather was very hot and very dry for this time of the year and these little fires had some of the local folks a bit on edge. I can't say that I blame them though.

On the way back from my little trip I happened to catch one of our nation's submarines making it's way back to it's port. It was being escorted down Hood Canal by a Coast Guard vessel that ensured all vessels in the sub's path keep their distance.

I watched as the Coast Guard vessel led the sub through the opened passage of the Hood Canal bridge... vehicle traffic lined up on both sides of the opened bridge for miles.

The heat waves above the water distorted the views.

It was HOT.

Hot for around here... Hot for anywhere.

We have family in Arizona, Colorado and many other states where temperatures climb into the triple digits quite often throughout the summer months so I guess they're all going to claim they're "used to it".

But take away that air conditioning, that little pool, etc. and see how "used to it" they'll be then. In western Washington we don't normally use air conditioning in our homes because the weather only gets up into the nineties five to ten days a year. Our problem with the heat is the humidity!

Most folks know Washington State is a "wet" state. It rains a lot here and the rain keeps most everything green and moist throughout the year. It's those rare summer days when things heat up and the humidity is high that makes me remember my days in Fort Polk, Louisiana back in June through August of 1972 and several other wonderfully hot, moist locations that my fine Uncle Sam sent me to visit.

The bottom line is I didn't like it then and I don't like it now.

So, when I got home to our empty, sun baked house without air conditioning I checked out the temperatures in the shade and direct sunlight. Once at 4:00 p.m. and once again at 5:00 p.m.

The first picture (above) of the Kestrel was taken at 4:00 p.m. It shows the temperature in the direct sun (102 degrees Fahrenheit) that day, July 11, 2007 in our backyard.

The next picture (above) of the indoor/outdoor thermometer shows the temperature in the shade (100 degrees Fahrenheit) at 4:00 p.m. on July 11. Note the "inside" the house temperature is climbing past 90 degrees.

This next picture taken at 5:00 p.m.is showing the "in the shade" temperature at over 103 degrees fahrenheit and the "inside" of the house temperature at over 90 degrees fahrenheit.

In all, the direct sun temperature peaked out at over 104 degrees fahrenheit in our backyard and another reading with the Kestrel on the deck showed the temperature at over 112 degrees fahrenheit... most likely because of the deck's dark color.

Not what we're used to, not what we planned for and certainly not fun!

But around here if you don't like the weather wait a day or two, it'll change.

Within two days the temperatures had dropped from triple digits to the high 60's, low 70's and the rains came.

Ah, back to that good ol' western Washington summer.

Those dog days of summer behind us for now. We're getting those comfortable Pacific Northwest summer breezes and cooling rains.

Something we all tend to enjoy around here... on the west side of this fine state!