Chickens and bunnies, bunnies and chickens....

Sorry no picture today, except the one in my head, I will try to share!

Went out to feed the horses this morning, as usual Easy was waiting outside, so her stall was empty. I get to throwing hay to the other two and filling Easys slow feed hay net. I hear crowing of roosters out behind the barn, so I walked to the back to take a look. There are three big white roosters and four big white hens, they are kind of a creamy white, but you get the picture. I am watching them, they are about 20 feet away.  They are the neighbors chickens, that run in the pasture. They scratch in the manure pile almost every morning, I dont mind all the bugs they eat.
The roosters are crowing every so often. Then I notice they are on alert, cluck cluck cluck in a deep voice, one of the roosters makes, with their funny head strut. To my left, on top of the manure pile, I see a wild rabbit. He is slowly stalking the chickens. I just assume it is a he, protecting his territory, rabbits are very territorial. He starts hopping towards the chickens, they continue to alarm cluck, as they slowly wander farther out in the pasture. He gets them far enough away and turns around and heads back towards the barn. He then sees a tweety bird, and proceeds to try to chase it away to! The little bird flies into the blackberry bush. (which I am spraying this week!) Silly rabbit!
I went back inside and finished feeding the mares. I dont think he tries to chase them off! LOL hmm but maybe thats why they were so squirrely when they came in last night!!! LOL LOL

People think rabbits are so cute and cuddly! But really they are evil, I tell you, evil !!! LOL LOL

Trip up the Columbia Gorge post two

View from the road of the Oregon side of the Bonneville Dam. 

 To the right is the Oregon side, the whiter looking side is the Washington side.

 The Dam as we got closer. The feature in the foreground is another fish ladder.

 The gate to get to the Bonneville Dam visitors center is now manned by security guards. Thanks to 9-11.  Back when we were younger you could drive across the Dam to go fish on the island in the middle of the river, no more. He asks you if you have any firearms or ammunition and if you are going to the visitors center. If some terrorist was to get a car full of explosives on to the Dam, it would wreak havoc down river! The Bonneville Dam is the farthest West Dam on the Columbia River, and the water would take out a lot of towns downriver! We drove up and talked to the guard, then turned around to go meet with my cousin and his wife.

 The guys after we had lunch, Hubby, Rick and my cousin Matt.

 We stopped back and went into the fish viewing area inside the Dam, on our way back. This is a beautiful mural inside the elevator tower. The elevator takes you down two floors to the fish viewing windows.

 The fences and gates now in front of the visitors center.

 One of the fish viewing windows. There were only three fish that I seen, couldnt get a picture due to the pack of Russian kids that were there, 6-8 of them!

 This pic looks blurry because it is through the glass door to the fish counting room. See the yellow lines on the window? Someone sits in this little room and counts fish!

 About the fish ladder.

 Fish count for last year.

 Saturdays count. Not to many coming up yet. 70 Chinook and 39 Steelhead. One Chinook Jack. The Shad run in June, there are a lot of them!

 Dog Salmon on top, Sturgeon on bottom and a Choho on the right, most likely a Silver or Jack in the back. These are models in clear plastic, in case you couldnt tell, LOL.

 Another beautiful mural on the wall, I believe of Celilo Falls, which was covered by water when the Dalles Dam was built.

 View from the second floor, looking down at the fish windows.

 Seating area down below. Love the colors of the carpet huh! The floors and seating are very plush and padded.

 There is an exhibit of Native American photos and artifacts on the second floor.

 Model of an old fish wheel. They used to catch fish with these! They still do in Alaska, if you have watched Yukon Men.

 Beacon Rock with a fish wheel below it.

 A 675lb Sturgeon!!!! I dont know if they get this big still, but I bet they are close! If you fish for Sturgeon you can only keep them 44 to 60 inches long, measured from the nose to the v in the tail. It is still a lot of fish! Only open to fishing Thurs Fri Sat, certain time of the year. Must use barb less hooks.

 Another fish wheel.

 Dip netting platform, used by Native Americans.

 Celilo Falls before the flooding of it, a few years ago they dropped the water level to expose the falls, on a commemorative day.

 Migratory patterns of fish in the Pacific.

 Ha ha, I took this one for my kids, they will always remember this place! We went there all the time when  they were growing up!

And we went back up the elevator to the top and you can look down at the fish ladder from above.

 Quite intricate how they have to swim through.

 Lots of places to rest as they head up river.

 More of the fence outside, Hubby thinks the grey lines, which are some kind of PVC are a motion censor.

 The view across the parking lot, over the Highway. There is a parking lot there with a trail head that you can ride up to the Crest trail.

 The old entrance, now blocked by large cement barriers. Still sobering to think of all the changes there are since 9-11. One only has to drive by any government facility to see the change.

We had a nice drive, lunch and spending time with my cousin and his wife again.

Good day wet and NW dreary as it was!! LOL

Grammy and Road trip up the Columbia Gorge

My cousin and his wife came down on Wednesday for Hubbys Grandmothers funeral. Grammy would have been 100 years old on May 10th, she was born in 1913!!  She was a classy lady to the end.  She is Hubbys Moms, Mom. She had a long wonderful life, and will be missed. This photo was from last year at her 99th birthday party.

Friday my cousin left and drove over to West Portland to see his Mom. Saturday they headed home. I had seen a small gun show in a town up the Gorge, in the local paper. So we decided to meet up with them when they headed home and go to the gun show and walk through a small antique store that is there too. We then had lunch at a local cafe. I took some pics, but it was raining so hard when we stopped at the antique store that I was more worried about getting the umbrella and forgot my camera! darn it!!

We stopped and the fishing bank, just below Bonneville Dam. The Gorge is beautiful even on a grey dreary day.

This is looking West down river. The Coho salmon are just starting to run, along with a few steel head. I will show you the fish counts in the next post.

 Looking East up river, towards the Dam.

 The fishermen are parking here and walking down to the bank to fish. You can see one guy there on the bank.

 One coming back to the parking lot and one heading out.

 The Dept. of Wildlife, or the Corp of Engineers, dont know which, put these tubes up to put your lost line into. After a backlash there is usually a lot of line left over. So instead of leaving it on the bank they want you to put it in these. A close up of the sticker on the front.

 Funny looking things huh! LOL

 Sturgeon fisherman just getting ready to cast out. The fishing pole they use is usually a one or two piece pole that is 12-15 feet long! With a large bait casting reel.

 And the cast!

 They use 8-10 ounces of lead, and a barb less hook. Smelt when they can get it, hasnt been a run in the Columbia for a few years. Role mop, sand shrimp stuff like that is also used. Tied on with stretchy thread. The cast goes out usually a third of the way across the river. Here you can also see where a large creek comes into the river on the Oregon side, and a lot of fishermen over there also.

 The boat launch on the Washington side. To anchor in the Columbia river a fishing boat needs at least 300 feet of rope! and an anchor buoy that slides on the rope. An absolute must as the current is so hard and fast!!!

 The newer fish bypass that screwed up where we used to fish from the bank, years ago.

 The fish are sent down this chute and dumped back into the river below the Dam. The sprinklers on the end are to keep the seagulls from eating any stunned fish, although it does not help keep the sea lions from doing it! Yes we get a lot of sea lions up the river this far! Dont know exactly but its over 250 miles from the ocean!

 The Gorge is one of the most beautiful places there is to me.

 Getting closer to Bonneville Dam.

 These last two pictures are for Lisa! LOL LOL We were talking about moss, well the rocks around here have several kinds each, of moss, lichen and slime! LOL LOL

More in the next post!!