Red Bluff Daily News

August 29, 2015

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Iwishyoucouldhave been with Clair and Jan- ice Morey, Lloyd Dodson, John and Donna Dahlberg, Don and Fran Smith, Lucre- tia Betts, Robert and Linda Diehl, Wanda Ragland, Linda Harness, Bill Harvey and me when we boarded Mt. Lassen Motor Transit for our Oregon Adventure Tour in Red Bluff and An- derson last week. It was so smoky we could barely see Mt. Shasta from the freeway, and the smoke was so thick you couldn't see the mountains to the west across Upper Klamath Lake on the 18th. Highway 230 west of Crater Lake was closed due to the fire. Above Klamath Falls on High- way 97 I noticed the ease- ments on both sides of the highway had been cleared of trees and brush, and piled, ready to burn when it rains this winter. It was so smoky we couldn't see Mt. Batchelor. High Desert Museum near Bend, Oregon was our first major stop. As we left the parking lot to enter the building there was a large sign, "It's hot out there. Please do not leave your dog in the car. We will provide a shaded, private outdoor kennel and plenty of water for your furry family mem- ber while you visit this mu- seum." Inquire at the front desk. An interesting photo was a comparison of Prineville 1910 with grassy hills and few juniper trees, while 1991 was covered with juniper. Junipers drain the available moisture, and grasses do not flourish for the wild life. In Spirit of the West there was a 1914 Model T Ford, with an old gas pump. A recreated 1880s mine and town. Buckaroos were fea- tured in another exhibit with the gear they used years ago. Children learned about wild animals homes, habi- tats and how to identify an- imals by their scat. Sum- mer camp was breaking up, when we arrived in the af- ternoon. Another room was a dis- play about the Plateau In- dians with baskets, bead work, dolls, jewelry, etc. This museum opened in 1982. A young child was en- joying chasing a bobcat on the other side of the glass wall, as it paced back and forth. There was a half mile loop outdoors with a wild life observation area, the 1904 Miller family ranch and sawmill, plus pond and forest, but it was too warm for me. Spent the night in Bend. I was fascinated with the landscape we traveled through on Highway 97, be- cause south of Bend it was Lodgepole pines, some Pon- derosa pine, and then north of Bend it was juniper and sagebrush to Redmond. Then it was irrigated with ditch water and large fields of alfalfa. North of Madras we crossed a beautiful deep canyon, high on a bridge. There was lots of alfalfa on rolling hills with no rocks, while to the south there had been rock fences and pivot irrigation. Someone's ranch had large signs between rock pillars by each road leading to the ranch. "No Trespass- ing. No Hunting." When we crossed the 45th parallel, it was flat rolling hills, no trees, no sage brush where it had been cleared. You could tell where ranch headquar- ters were, because there were tall trees around the buildings in the valleys in a small area. The old cemeteries had tombstones, but no trees or green lawn. The farther north we drove the more harvested grain fields on the flat roll- ing hills, or the field had been summer fallowed. There were grain storage tanks on all the farms. The Dalles is on a bend of the Columbia River, and once was a series of rap- ids, which the French voya- geurs christened les dalles, or "the trough." Now there is the The Dalles Dam and no rapids. We had a delicious ca- tered luncheon at Columbia Gorge Discovery Center and Museum. A make it yourself deli-sandwich, soup, cookies and dining on the patio. Previously we had a dem- onstration on raptors; a horned owl, falcon, and red tailed hawk. A film presentation about the barges on the Colum- bia River and the Missoula flooding that created the river. There were replicas of the supplies and equip- ment carried by the Lewis & Clark expedition. We drove on the his- toric two lane Highway 30 to our destination, Hood River Inn, with rooms/bal- conies overlooking the Co- lumbia River. Nice. It was 93 degrees with white caps on the river, while we watched the kiteboard- ing, windsurfing, paddle boarding, etc. from our balconies. That evening we had a dinner cruise on Columbia Gorge Sternwheeler, from the Columbia Locks. Only trouble was the beef was so tough, you couldn't get a fork into it; let alone, cut it. I was embarrassed that they would try to serve beef shoulder as an entrée. They said the steelhead was de- licious. We shared the dining room with 43 guests from Pennsylvania. They had flown into Seattle, bus to Portland, this dinner cruise, then Highway 101 to San Francisco through the red- woods. The locks were sub- merged when the Bonnev- ille Dam was built in 1938. But we heard references to cascades and white water rapids as we cruised past rock islands in the river. Next day we rode the Hood River Railroad to Parkdale. Every Saturday, the train features a West- ern Train Robbery, but it was only Thursday when we experienced the "gratu- ity heist." Before we could board the train, our leader Clair had to pay a $5 gratu- ity fee per person. A bottle of water was included with our box lunch, but if you got a $2 paper cup of cof- fee, there was a $1 gratuity added on the bill. Hood River was 90-foot, and Parkdale was 1,700 feet. We slowly climbed along the Hood River Valley, af- ter having the locomotive change ends of the train on a switchback. We went past apple , cherry, and pear or- chards, plus a few vineyards and blue berry bushes. There were lumber mills, and fruit packing plants in Odell. We were going so slow that you could see the wild flowers from the train. Blue elderberries were ripe, fire- weed, spirea, Russian this- tle, wild sweet pea, golden rod, purple loosestrife, ripe blackberries, St. John's Wort, Indian paint brush, red rose hips. Parkdale depends on tourists, since we spent an hour in the town. The Hut- son Museum had a collec- tion of over 1,500 arrow and spear points from early Columbia Gorge inhab- itants. There were stone bowls, mortars, grinding tools and specialized hunt- ing and fishing tools made from obsidian, agate and basalt. I was told the arrow- heads were from two fam- ily collections. I have never seen so many arrowheads at one time. They were framed in boxes on all the walls. If you were a rock hound, you would have been in heaven since there were thousands of rough spec- imens, polished slabs, spheres, eggs and cabo- chons. JeanBartonhasbeen writing her column in the Daily News since the early 1990s. She can be reached by e-mail at jbarton2013@ gmail.com. JEANBARTON Tales from an Oregon adventure Drought strategies for managing alfalfa and many other crops are available free from UC Agriculture and Natu- ral Resources. As Califor- nia endures a fourth year of drought and ever-tight- ening water supplies, wa- ter-management strategies have become even more critical to farmers. To help farmers make the best use of the water they have available, a se- ries of new and updated drought tips fact sheets has been developed by UC ANR scientists and funded by the California Depart- ment of Water Resources. "These drought tips pro- vide irrigation manage- ment recommendations for a broad range of agricul- tural crops and under dif- ferent water supply condi- tions," said Daniele Zacca- ria, UC ANR Cooperative Extension agricultural wa- ter management specialist at UC Davis and major or- ganizer of the drought tip series. "The information in these tips will be of prac- tical use for growers and other water-related stake- holders now and into the future as our agricultural community continues to adapt to climate variabil- ity and to a changing wa- ter supply situation." UC ANR scientists have identifiedbestmanagement practices for a wide range of annual and permanent crops and irrigation sys- tems and methods during the drought. In the drought tips series, they also give ad- vice for managing soil sa- linity and using shallow groundwater for irrigating crops. For beef cattle, they provide recommendations for culling herds and feed- ing to supplement grazing. The following drought tips are currently avail- able for free download at http://ucanr.edu/drought- tips: Drought strategies for alfalfa; Drought man- agement for California al- monds; Use of shallow groundwater for crop pro- duction; Drought strate- gies for walnuts; Fog con- tribution to crop water use and Reclaiming Saline, So- dic and Saline-Sodic Soils. Several more drought tips for dozens of commod- ities and situations are in the process of being pub- lished and will be posted online soon. Decades of UC ANR re- search underlie the infor- mation contained in the drought tips. In the 1970s and again in the 1990s, UC ANR partnered with DWR to develop a series of drought management fact sheets. The California Insti- tute for Water Resources, which coordinates water- related research and ex- tension education across the 10 UC campuses and UCANR, has the drought tips and more drought re- sources online at http:// ciwr.ucanr.edu. UC Agriculture and Nat- ural Resources researchers and educators draw on lo- cal expertise to conduct re- search that helps Califor- nia thrive. Learn more at ucanr.edu. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Newly updated drought tips available for farmers PLEASERECYCLETHISNEWSPAPER. Thank you! COURTESYPHOTO The Columbia River with its white caps, from my room balcony at Hood River, Oregon on Mt. Lassen Motor Transit Oregon Adventure Tour. STOVEJUNCTION The TheNorthState'spremiersupplierofstoves 22825 Antelope Blvd., Red Bluff 530-528-2221 • Fax 530-528-2229 www.thestovejunction.com Over 25 years of experience Tues-Sat9am-5pm• ClosedSun&Mon Now Carrying! GreenMountainGrills & Accessories Serving Butte, Glenn & Tehama Counties Smog Check (MOST CARS & PICK-UPS) 527-9841 • 195 S. Main St. starting at $ 29 95 + $ 8 25 certificate Allmakesandmodels. We perform dealer recommened 30K 60K 90K Service At Lower Prices. Areyoumelting? 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