Another Busy Saturday

Marie's friend, Rose, spent Friday night with us at our house. She is pregnant and Marie is going to be the Douala at the birth. We discussed education and pregnancies for a few hours and then went to bed. On Saturday Marie and I had a race to get to at 11. We all ate breakfast together and then Rose headed to Portland and Marie and I headed to the Coast Range to participate in the Trask Mountain Assault.

The Assault is awesome. It is a cross-country race sponsored by our high school. They race middle schools, high schools and there is an open division. I ran it last year and was trying to train for it this year. There are 2 river crossings and 4 mud bogs, as well as 2 ...um...puddles is the closest word for it. The worst part is that there is a .5 mile uphill climb to the top of Trask. It is a killer. This year I walked 3/4 of it. The mud is awesome. There is a downhill which they fill with mud, and I sat on my butt and "sledded" down the hill slaloming past other runners. It saved me a lot of time. Marie did the same thing.

I am not sure times or places this week. I finished right around 30 minutes. Last year my time was around 33:30, so I knocked off about 3 minutes. Marie finished under 35 I am pretty sure.
We returned home, sore, tired and filthy. Marie hosed off our clothes, and we both took extended time on our showers.

Marie took a nap, and I decided to finish up a wine rack that was a project I started a few weeks ago. We did not have any nails or screws so I picked up some supplies this week. I made the rack out of wood in our fire wood pile. I have no idea how old it is, or when/where it came from. It is 2 old 2X6's and some tongue and groove pieces that could be from an old floor? All the tools I had were a hand saw, hammer, nails, measuring tape and I used a cordless drill to help make initial holes on some pieces. It turned out ok (better than Marie expected) but it isn't great. It will work for our needs though.

After that, Marie and I drove to Portland to see Beethoven's 9th Symphony from the Oregon Symphony. It was incredible. It is one of my favorite pieces because of the use of voice and chorus in a symphony. Also the 2nd movement is just fun. I saw a fellow Mac Teacher there and Marie ran into a friend at intermission. At the end of the show, people were leaping out of the seats to give ovations. Myself included. When the choir hit the finale and the Ode to Joy that we all know to well, I teared up and my heart was full. Incredible. Afterwards, Marie and I joined her friend, Jess and her boyfriend John, to go to a cocktail bar and had drinks and dessert. It was another big Saturday and Marie asked me which race and concert is next week. My only answer is that the Portland Marathon is next Saturday........

Habitat Run

Marie and I took part in a 4-mile run for Local Habitat for Humanity. I have been running most of September and part of August. There were 2mile, 4 mile, 9 mile and 13 mile options. I ran the 4 mile and took 4th. I ran unofficially at 27:40. I am happy with under 7 minute miles. Marie ran around 32 minutes, so she made 8 minute miles. Lots of high school students were volunteers and it was fun to see them all out on a Saturday morning. We are headed to Portland tonight to watch a fellow teacher who plays in a band.
Next weekend there is a race called Trask Mountain Assault. I ran the race last year and it includes mud bogs, a 1/2 mile climb and muddy mountain trails. It is a 5k that is awesome. I am hoping to better my time from last year and complete the whole race running. I will post pictures and official times if I get them.

Wine Bottling

Today, Marie and I volunteered to help a local winemaker bottle some of his 2007 wines. We showed up at around 8 am and they were still setting up. The Carlton wine makers are small scale, and it is not worth the money for them to invest in their own bottling equipment (~$100,000). When they want to bottle, they pay a traveling bottling trailer to help them. The winemaker purchases the bottles, labels, foil, cork, and the trailer operators help out. There were 10 volunteers there today, and only 4 had ever helped with a bottling.

After introductions, coffee and scones, we all mounted into the trailer. Marie, myself, and another OSU alum named Josh were assigned foiling. This consisted of putting aluminum caps on bottles after they are corked and before they are labeled. Our first 20 bottles we had the wrong foil caps and they had to be removed. WHOOPS!

Once we got going we cruised through lunch. We bottled Atticus Wines 2007 pinot noir and 2007 pinot select. It was monotonous, but I loved the music that was pumping through the speakers. The wife of the Atticus winemaker made a terrific lunch for the crew. We all sat in the sun and chatted. The two winemakers there invited our classes to the vineyard anytime for field trips, although I am not sure I could get the high school principal to sign onto letting sophomores go tour wine country.

After lunch, Marie helped with loading boxes of bottles and handing them to the person who put them on the beginning of the conveyor belt. We began to bottle the Raptor Ridge (a different wine maker) pinot noir from 2007. I continued with the aluminum caps. After a short break at 2, I assumed the position of putting bottles on the conveyor belt. The empty bottles come packed in a twelve-case box with one end open. I picked up the box, squeezed, and gently poured the bottles onto a table and slid them onto the belt. It was good physical labor. Marie took a position at the end of the line putting the full, labeled, corked, and foiled bottles into the boxes I had emptied. At the end, we were finished feeding bottles, but needed more empty boxes to package the full bottles and I smashed the only bottle of the day. Bummer.

We stopped at 3:30 and everyone was smiling. We bottled over 1200 cases (12 bottles a case). For our labor Marie and I walked out with 5 bottles of wine, all valued between $28-$40. Although it was assembly line work, if we can find a few weekends to volunteer and earn wine, I think we will be happy. I included a video of the pouring station. In the back right you can see the foilers putting on caps!

Open Mic

In my local town of 1000 people there is a little wine and cheese shop that does live music Friday and Saturday nights. They fill the house with fun blues and folk music.
They just recently began open mic nights on Wednesdays. I went the first week and it seemed there were only three artists that night, myself included. I played three tame comedy songs, two of which I wrote and the crowd (10? people) asked for one more. I looked at the owner and she seemed okay with pushing the line a little. I played a fourth song, but as I saw the owner's face turn red, I knew my time was up.


I came back this week at the request of some friends and when I walked in, the owner was gone and only the wine pourer, a server and the open mic host were there. Marie, myself and one friend were the only others there. The gentlemen asked me to play my more questionable tunes, so I obliged. I played 5 songs, of all levels of rudeness and then finished with the Last Saskatchewan Pirate. As I finished a couple with homemade wooden flutes and a conga drum showed up. They were very fun to listen to. I feel bad that the open mic nights are not better attended, but then again I can play some dirty songs that I wrote.

My set list for next week:
Amurika (my song about our great country)
Rippy the Gator (Arrogant Worms)
Carrot Juice is Murder (Arrogant Worms)
Coffee Shop love song (AKA bavarian creme donut)
Rock Hair Song (the true story of my hair)

School

School started this week and Marie and I are back in our classrooms. I am teaching 6 classes of sophomore general physical science, and Marie is teaching 6th and 7th grade science. This week went way better than our first week of last year. We both feel like we have set our classrooms up for success, and that our students are responding better. I think it is because we have a year under our belt, but I also feel that the students are more receptive.

Life is good. We are getting back into the routine of things and dealing with unpleasantness. I hope everyone is having a great start to their Septembers.

Books I read this summer

As summer is winding down, I am sad that my fun reading will be lessened. This summer while on my journey I read:

Waking up in Jamaica - Stephen Foehr
Siddartha - Hesse Herman
One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
The Hidden Messages in Water - Masaru Emoto

We also listened to the Audiobook of:
When you are Engulfed in Flames - David Sedaris

Before leaving I read:
Omnivore's Dilemma - Michael Pollan
Courage and Misfortune- Mountaineers Anthology Series 2

Since then I have read:
Stiff - Mary Roach,

I have started:
Endurance: Shackleton's voyage- Alfred Lansing
Guns, Germs & Steel- Jared Diamond
The Year of Living Biblically - A. J. Jacobs
Digging Dinosaurs - John Horner

I should finish three of these books by the time school starts. We shall see.

Some Math

Marie and I were curious how many different ways we traveled and what distances.

Using Google Earth and websites, these are the estimated distances I think we traveled:

Airplanes: 4, 332 miles
Train : 3,200 miles
Buses: 320 miles
Car: 900 miles
Mass/Public: 200 miles (includes Jamaica Buses)
Cabs: 20 miles
Foot: 200 miles

Total distance: ~ 9,172

Earth's circumference is about 25,000 miles. We went approximately 36% the distance.
We traveled through 17 states, 2 countries.
We stayed on 4 futons and fold out couches and 7 beds in 10 people's houses, apartments, and 1 hermitage at a monastery.
I was gone for 43 days, including the entire month of July.

It was a great Journey.

August 8

The best part of the rain was that the bugs went away as it rained. Marie and I stayed dry and slept fairly well through the shower. When it stopped, the little biters came back in swarms. I mummified myself inside my sleeping bag and was not bothered, but Marie could not get back to sleep. At first light, Marie decided she was getting up and it was time to get out of there. She told me she was going to take down the tent and I groaned my ok. I slept for a little while longer with no covering.


We ate our breakfast and packed up while waving and slapping at pests. We started on the trail earlier than I usually do and found respite from the bugs about a mile down trail.
At that point we found a place where lots of trees had blown down in a storm. We walked along and Marie took it upon herself as our leader to clear trail. She did a great job of moving anything about 6 inches in diameter or less. Teamwork was required for a few logs, but if any of you plan to go down the Crag Creek Trail, know that it is more passable because of Marie.

When then came down a ridge and found that our trail was over grown with lots of little shrubs and plants. It became the Crag Creek "path of least resistance" instead of a trail. We marched on while the rain soaked leaves happily transferred the liquid into our clothing. We were soaked to our chests and then found a river crossing. The trail had eroded. We less than a mile to hike, but a river was between us and our car, so we bushwhacked for a half an hour or more along the bank trying to find a place to cross. There was a place where the trail crossed the river on the map, but if a bridge was there, it was washed or crushed long before we got there.
We then decided to find a shallow spot and wade across. I chose a tree to cross on, but the women moved through the wet cold river up to their belly buttons, wow. We then decided to just walk straight north, knowing that we would hit the road or trail. As we found a clearing we stopped for a break and then followed what looked like an old trail for bit. We then cut through more brush and came out EXACTLY AT THE PARKING LOT!
Bobbi had packed beer in her trunk for us. We all took off the wet clothing and packs and laid articles out on the warm rocks. We then enjoyed a beer relaxed. We got to the car just after 10am and headed back to Carlton after a long while. Marie and I got home at around 1:30 and quickly did laundry and cleaned the house to host her Mom, Dad, Aunt and Uncle that evening. We cooked a great dinner and went out to listen to music. Needless to say, I am home but I am still moving around.

Jefferson Park

The next day we woke up early, ate our breakfast and picked the driest clothing to put on. We then packed up and headed to Jefferson Park, right under Mt. Jefferson. About a half an hour into hiking we ran into a small amount of snow off trail. As we kept hiking, eventually our whole trail was covered by snow.

There were beautiful waterfalls made from small snowfield runoffs, and amazing views of the mountain as we climbed. Once we made it to the ridge, we worked our way down into a gorgeous meadow filled with wild flowers, snow and a wide stream. Our trail disappeared and we crossed where we could with helpful rocks.

Our final goal was a set of alpine lakes that should have filled our valley. We found the trail and kept hiking until it was clear we had gone too far. We looked at our map and decided to just bushwhack through the snow fields in the direction we knew the lakes to be. About 10 minutes later we found one. We are pretty sure it was Scout Lake be we are not 100% on that. We stopped and ate lunch. Bobbi and I each took our turns splashing in the cold water and then we relaxed and dried out the rest of our gear in beautiful sunshine. We debated putting up camp, but seeing that we wanted to leave early the next day and the bugs would be atrocious at the lake, we decided we should move on.


We made our way to the Pacific Crest Trail and followed it for a bit. We lost the trail and at that moment, a woman looking for the trail going the other way appeared, and then a gentleman following us also appeared. We all hiked around the snow looking for old footprints. The trail was finally located and we each went our separate ways. The woman we found was leaving notes and signs of the trail for people following her, so it was easy to make it through the rest of the snow. We ran into a few other groups of hikers and had another creek crossing. We finally found a nice campsite and decided to make camp. As the sun went down the bugs came out in swarms and attacked any exposed skin. Marie and I had packed light and only brought a tent footprint and a rain fly. This left the bottom of our tent open to the elements, mainly MOSQUITOES!!! As we hung our food and brushed our teeth we started to see lightening light up the sky. We covered most everything we had and went to bed.

Backpacking

I arrived back in Oregon mid-morning Monday. I promptly slept most of the day and relaxed at home. I was happy to be back in Oregon and not having to move at the end of the summer. It is my first time in 6 years that I have not moved twice or more during the summer.

Tuesday I spent all day sorting mail, doing laundry, and general organizing of life. That night Marie and our friend Bobbi sat down to discuss backpacking plans to the Mount Jefferson Wilderness. I was back and forth on whether or not I would go, and when they invited me, I decided I would kick myself if I didn't.

We left Wednesday at around 2:30. Bobbi drove Marie and I out of town and toward the little town of Detroit.
We did not get on the trail until 5:26 pm. It was a late start, and we had about 5 miles in mind for the night. We started to hike an unrelenting uphill climb, when we heard some thunder. The mountain was hidden by some clouds, and as the clouds came overhead, it began to sprinkle. We decided to keep going until it was a soaking rain. The rain came not too much later. We ducked under a large tree for cover. Marie was the only one with a pack guard, although she has never used it before. I do not own one, and Bobbi laughed at her husband when he tried to lay one out for her. The storm began to pour a little harder, and then we noticed pea sized hail coming down. We starting laughing, thinking of hiking in the rain and hail when the sky broke loose with marble sized hail. It pelted us through the limbs of the trees. I was leaned over to protect my head with the top of my pack. The hail lasted no more then 10 minutes and the rain stopped soon after. The trail we were hiking on was a dirt trail that turned into a raging current flowing against us.
We had to straddle the trail as we hiked up the hill. Hail on the sides of the trail was 6 inches deep and the stream kept going until we decided to quit. We were wet, cold, tired of the uphill, and the sun was going down. We stopped by a large rock and decided to make camp. The sky cleared beautifully that night and we were able to steal about an hour of sunlight to try and dry out some gear. We made some pasta and hit the hay.




The stream going by here is the trail and I picked up all hail with a little dirt. The hail was deep!

PHOTOS ONLINE!

I have uploaded all of our trips photos (500) to the web. You can now view them at your leisure. Enjoy.


http://picasaweb.google.com/cory.eklund/OurSummerJourney?authkey=0gfS5T_bHsA

Harvest

Today the combine broke down, but luckily we had a mechanic already coming out to fix the radio.  The mechanic stayed from 10:30 am to 4:00 and still wasn't sure they fixed the problems.  They were looking at something electrical.  I have been in the kitchen most of the day helping my mother and my aunt.  I finished canning some jelly, so I will be able to have my own preserves.  I finished my last bit of laundry, and tonight I will socialize to get my last bit of family before I head back to Oregon.  I will get on the train tomorrow at around 3 and get into Portland the 4th sometime in the morning.  This will be the last post for a while.  I hope that if any of you are still reading it, you are not dissapointed.  I have had too much fun, and am not sure if I am ready to go back to work.  

Happy August

Today I was a gopher for harvest.  I started the day by dumping two grain trucks at the local farmer's co-op and then proceeded to cook harvest lunch.  We had bbq'd cheeseburgers.  My cousin Mark showed up today to help with harvest and my aunt Mary came to the farm as well.  We now have a full house and there is lots of commotion as we try and get the winter wheat cut.  In the evening, I went and watched my dad put on a coat of varnish on his cedar strip canoe.  He is planning on entering it into the county fair under the woodworking department.  I think he will get some praise.  Two more days, and than I am back to Oregon.  

Chicken

I have not helped butcher chicken for a long time.   My uncle each year raises around 100 chicken and keeps 30 or so through the winter.  As a child, I learned a lot of my anatomy through watching my family butcher turkeys, chickens, deer, cattle, etc.  I was able to identify lung matter, livers, hearts and intestines before kindergarten.  Today we butchered about 15 chickens.  I helped pick feathers and clean the chicken before we stuck it in the freezer.  I was then asked to clean a couple of wash tubs.  

The tubs used to cool down the chicken before it is put in the freezer.  They are full of clean water and chicken that have been dressed and cut up are put there.  After a while they are placed in bags and put in the freezer.  

I have always just rinsed the tubs out and put them back where we get them from.  Sometimes we use a little soap.  This time, my aunt Jerri noticed there were quite a few spots on the tub.  We then began to scrub the tubs and found the sides of the tub were coated in layers upon layers of soap and old chicken fat.  I do not know when the last time these were scrubbed, but I worked on one tub for over an hour and was still not done.  

We ate a delicious dinner and then moved equipment to see if we could harvest.  Right now, the crew is in the field and the first wheat is cutting at about 13% moisture.  It is time to harvest and get the wheat out of the field. In the next few days, I will help out when needed, but I think I probably won't see much of my father for the rest of the trip.  Wish us a fruitful harvest.  

July 30

The farm is getting ready to harvest our winter wheat and we lease a combine, or harvester, to help cut the grain.  The machine was delivered on Wednesday and I helped Dad put on a second set of tires.  The wind was blowing about 20-30 miles an hour all day and it was HOT!  Mom and I spent a day in the kitchen baking bread and she also was teaching me how to make jelly.  Hopefully when I get back to Oregon, I will make some Blackberry and raspberry preserves.  Mom, Dad and I ate porkchops for dinner, and I ate my share of potatoes.  At around 8:30, the wind died down and I went running.  I don't miss the burning in my lungs I get in Montana.  In Oregon, there is enough humidity, my legs always give out before my lungs.  In Montana, I am short of breath and coughing much before my legs are tired.  I should come here to train if I ever want to compete in a race.