O.C.F Caretaker's Journal O.C.F Caretaker's JournalSunday 28 February The sun shined for a good long while on this last day of February. I finished the logo and did some advance work on the Hemp Tipi, but it was so nice that I had to consider it my solemn duty to get out and go canoeing. Check out all that I found. I realize I'm preaching to the converted here, but it still makes you think doesn't it? The water is at the one foot mark over the road and, all and all, a very quiet day around here, with zero visitors.
Saturday 27 February Everyone I speak with lately is more than a bit tired of the rain. The Site itself has been reduced to little more than a swamp at this juncture. Even the upland areas are in a heavily saturated, quasi-liquid, or gelatinous state. Not even the hardiest person has been slightly intrigued with the possiblity of canoeing for the past couple weekends. In fact, the only person out here today was David Liberty, who was here to help me with the aquarium. Today we placed in it a thick layer of red mineral soil over a structural void beneath, covered that with gravel, and then added about six inches of water. Soil in an aquarium seems very counter-intuitive, but I have seen his tanks and therefore have faith that this will work. Plants, after all, need soil to grow and we are trying to create as natural a system as possible. Now it is in a primordial stage, establishing a population of anaerobic bacteria. Six of us Fairies carpooled in Palmer's Cadillac up to the Coordinators Potluck at Grumpy's house in Salem---through incessant sky offerings, both all the way there and back. Inevitably, ebb has been superceded by flow, the water level rising about six inches the last six hours alone.
Friday 26 February Met the termite and dry rot inspection guy at my house in the morning. About what I expected there, nothing too serious, and he has seen plenty worse. Then I met Fran Chylek about some work she had for me---but after seeing it I managed to wiggle my way out of it. (I'm learning how to say no!) Back here at the site the water has receded down to a low of three inches on the Chickadee depth meter but with the way it is raining tonight it is bound to come back up again tomorrow. This weekend will be another fine chance to canoe the Eight. I completed the maintenance on the John Deere mower and moved it back out of the Warehouse. Also I have started working on the 30th Anniversary logo on my computer. David Hoffman was here towards evening creating another one of his containers. Finally I finished off the week at the gym. Lately I have been giving all my favorite machines their affectionite little names like: Misery Whip, Gutbuster, and TheVomitmaster.
Thursday 25 February This morning the Furrows truck arrived early with the rest of the materials for the Vehicle Shed. This old fashioned barn raising will kick off this year's festivities. Work party is not an oxymoron (at least not at the Country Fair) so y'all come on out and join in the fun the next weekend---weather permittin'. As it was raining most of the time, I worked indoors getting my stereo moved from where my new aquarium now sits. The speaker wires had to be rerouted, and that took some time. Lo and behold, the sun came out in the afternoon and so I had to take another long canoe ride, hauling in my usual quota of floatables. The water has receded about three inches since yesterday.
Wednesday 24 February The water level moved up another six inches, making it a foot over Chickadee. This translates into an approximate average depth of three feet deep through the Eight. I went into town to get a haircut from board member Michele Sharpy at The Hiding Place. I picked up the logo for a sign project I am going to do for Arna Shaw. I also picked up another piece of the aquarium puzzle, which is slowly coming together. Took the canoe out for a spin. Went for my usual fun filled evening of slinging steel around the gym. I'm in my fourth week there and although I lost a couple pounds at first, I have been pretty steady ever since. Now I am hoping that I am replacing fat with muscle and little signs, like the ability to lift a little more weight or do a few more reps, tells me this might be so. Rome was not built in a day.Nil desperandum.
Tuesday 23 February The water is again about six inches over Chickadee. Another big storm is predicted and that should push the levels up even higher. I spent part of the day getting the big trucks, (Mothra, Blueberry Princess, and the Peach Truck) untarped, started, moved, and retarped. This in preparation for the big Vehicle Shed raising on the weekend of March 6-7. I then ran the Site Truck into Max's to have an inner tube put in the front tire, as it had a slow leak. I saw a news item on CNN today about Universal Internet Time so of course I had to get it for my webpage. Maybe this could be the wave of the future we're surfing---although it is actually quite useless at this point.
Monday 22 February It rained the entire day. The flood water is again beginning to inevitably swell. Winter has not finished with us yet. I went into town and met with my realtor, had breakfast, then returned to the site. For the rest of the day I took a bit of time to myself and in the evening worked out at the Body Connection. I am enjoying this calm during the storm, so to speak.
Sunday 21 February Artsy mailboxes are bad and must be smashed. Being somewhat of a pie-eyed optimist, I foolishly attempted to ignore this interminable Law of the Universe, yet it took less than four days to manifest itself. The pitiless efficiency of this sacrosanct prescript both amazed and humbled me. I attended the Board Retreat over the weekend where, for the most part, basic generalisms were discussed. David Liberty helped me begin putting some elements of my new aquarium together this afternoon. I returned to town in the evening to catch the Michelle Shocked concert at the Wild Duck.
Friday 19 February Met Steve at the in town office and he transported my new aquarium from Fintastic back to the site. I stopped of at Ramsey-Waite and got the rest of the parts to finish the maintenance on the John Deere mower and lingered over all those shiny new green machines. Back at here at the site there is a half a foot of water across Chickadee which means canoeing is possible in the Eight. I spent some time cleaning *around* the Yurt since Arrow will be babysitting the Fair this weekend while Steve and I are at the Board Retreat. I went on a quick canoe ride with him when before heading off to the gym, and after that met Steve and Arrow for our usual Friday night dinner. There won't be an entry tomorrow as I will be staying the night at Marlene's house for the Retreat.
Thursday 18 February Well, it looks like I've lost that bet I had with myself---but does that mean that I also have won it? Whatever, it rained hard all last night and continued throughout today, though not as quite as intensely. The flood waters are back on the rise, this for the fifth time. Looks like more canoeing this weekend if anybody is still interested. Today I was in Eugene again, helping James fix up his new house. Although there is nothing even slightly fascinating to be said about drywalling, I am glad to be of assistance doing what I needs to be done. James and Lisa's happiness may not approach my own pure unfettered joy however, when the job is complete.
Wednesday 17 February I spent the day working for Jenny Newtson. The back door on her house had been badly damaged and she had purchased another door from BRING Recycling to replace it. Whilst this sounds quite simple, when you combine the idiosyncrasies of used door with some of the characteristics of an older home, you might just have a recipe for a full day's work---as I found out today. One of the many great things about life is that every day you learn something else that you never needed to know before and probably never will again. This is known as experience.
Fat Tuesday Another holiday, another dollar. Worked at overhauling the Tricycler mower---but I still require a few more parts to complete the job. Steve gave me the go ahead to install the mailbox and I wasted no time putting it up in the pouring rain. The veils of secrecy can finally be lifted from this stealth project.
President's Day Two major holidays in a row!! Shall we just consider ourselves plumb lucky or is there some kind of preordained astrological shenanigans at work here? I spent my day in town, working on the OCF office building. I did some minor repairs in the upstairs tenants apartment which took almost no time at all. Steve came in and we had ourselves a little staff meeting of sorts. I went to Jerry's Home Improvement and got materials to build shelves in the basement for Registration. When I finished the shelves I helped norma in some very minor reorganization of the basement. Walked over to Chapman Office Supplies and purchased a form dispenser and mounted it inside the front door and another old one right outside. Arrived back at the Fair just as the latest rainstorm hit. Steve is an unmitigated, out-and-out weather junkie and predicts more flooding by the end of this week. I'll go out on a limb and say it ain't gonna happen.
St. Valentine's Day It was a nice warm day and I expected to see some of the VegeManECs out, yet there wasn't anybody here until Michael Bishop showed up in the late afternoon. I spent a good part of the day building a planter box in the space between the new ramp and the deck on the Yurt. Why it took so long to build what is basically a bottomless three sided box is difficult for even me to understand. It still needs to be filled and planted. I am realizing that I am accumulating an ever growing list of half finished jobs. I am going to make a concerted effort this week to finish some of them up---before beginning any others. I did manage to break the bolt loose on the John Deere mower. That in itself was a major accomplishment since I have been working on it on and off for several days, and now I can now get all the parts I need this week at Ramsey-Waite and finish servicing it. In the evening I went in and saw the movie Little Voicewith Hilary. It is quite a quirky and charming little movie, one well worth seeing.
Saturday 13 February Today was the biggest day of the year out here so far. There was a Native American Sweat at Dahinda's Acres, a Highway 126 Pickup, and several folks just out for a walk---perhaps thirty people in all. I went out with the highway crew and together we picked up about 16 bags of trash off the roadside. Hilary was out and I took a walk around the property with her and Marble. The Site is very muddy and it is not good to be walking around on it too much yet, as it is very fragile at this point. I for one hope we have seen the last big flood of the season and am ready to begin clearing away the mess left behind in the wake as soon as the site dries out enough to make that possible.
Friday 12 February On my way into town this morning I stopped by the ODOT yard to pick up the equipment for the Highway Pickup. I was off helping James again today on his beautiful new home. By now he has gutted out all the obsolete portions of the house (like the bathroom and kitchen), and so it's all uphill from here. We did some framing, but by far the best part of my day was hauling that seriously overloaded trailer to the dump. I'm looking forward to that drywall experience next week James!
Thursday 11 February I was off the site most of the day today. I shopped around for a couple tools I need around here. Bought Black Jack and tarred some spots on Fair Secretary Jin-Lin's roof in an attempt to stop it from leaking. Dropped by the office again and helped norma on some of her web stuff since she is going to start putting the Fair Family News online each month. Leslie gave me some additional work to do this coming Monday, building shelves in the basement for Registration. I met with a real estate agent about selling my house in town at five and stopped by the gym on my way home for a couple hours. Then at the supermarket I heard an interesting thing. Apparently a few of the new twenty dollar bills mistakenly have the fifty dollar security thread in them. The cashier told me that banks will pay $1000 for these and that Big Apple has already found several. This sounds like an urban legend to me but if anyone finds one after reading this---you can prove me wrong by taking me to lunch!
Wednesday 10 February Did I say a slight possiblity? Well I must have been tempting fate, because right after I wrote that it began to snow. By this morning there were a couple of inches on the ground, but by this evening it had all but melted away. I did a walk around putting up the occasional dimensional floater. Spent some more time with the mower but I can't get off a rounded bolt that holds a blade on. Hopefully, with preserverance, I will eventually. Proofread the new guidelines and emailed suggestions back to norma. All and all, had a pretty easy day holding down the fort.
Tuesday 9 February Very little rain today but it is COLD. There is a slight possiblity that we might see some snow on the valley floor this week. I tied clear plastic around the Yurt skylight as it has a leak and swept the leaf accumulations off the roof while I was up there. The software for the Site Office modem arrived by Airborne Express and I quickly installed it. Voila, Steve finally has email! The new address is ocfsite@eugeneweb.com. Why not send him a quick note welcoming him to the modern era? We shuttled the Site Truck over to Woodall's, a new mechanic garage in the area, to get some repairs done on its hydraulic system. We then went to the Veneta Post Office to in an attempt to see the postman about our mailbox location. No luck yet, so wait is still on for the grand unveiling. During the rest of the afternoon I started working on getting the John Deere Tricycler Mower ready for Spring, which is almost right around the corner. A huge Big Leaf Maple tree fell parallel to Chickadee Rod last night. It looks like a habitate tree since it is not in anybody's way. Steve has left until next Monday. The flood waters continue to recede and the road is clear.
Monday 8 February It was raining rather steadily this morning and I decided to go into town to tie up some loose ends there. I stopped at Jerry's, the Fair office, REI, and EFN. I bought a pair of coveralls at Coastal Farm Supply. I stopped at Jen-Lin's to look at her leaking roof. Attended the 30th Anniversary meeting and looked at some repairs that need doing in the apartment above the Fair Office. Finally I watched the second half of The 60's mini series over at Hilary's. Today was a the type of day in which I seemingly accomplished little, but actually laid a lot groundwork for a wide variety of projects. The flood level has dropped 6 inches in the past ten hours that I have been off site.
Sunday 7 February Another dark and stormy night. This morning the water had risen up a foot over Chickadee. The VegeManEC crew made it to Dahinda's Acres and no further, then retreated back to the Keystone Cafe for breakfast. I spent the morning catching up on some domestic chores and then went out canoeing with Steve in the afternoon. Alternatively the sun would shine on us and then we would get pelted with various combinations of rain, sleet, hail, and snow. As I predicted we saw several trees down, including a very old Yew that crashed on top of a coffee booth near Ark Park. Several others appear ready to fall into the river at any time. We canoed over to the Far Side (which is several feet lower than the river level) and got out and slogged about for a bit. Getting back into the canoe I took a misstep and suddenly found myself bobbing around up to my neck in the Long Tom River. Turns out Randy had tipped over a couple of times in his kayak out here on Wednesday too---so remember, accidents do happen. Practice safe boating and wear a lifejacket.
Saturday 6 February Whoee, what a storm we had last night. Two solid inches of rain plus a lots of gusting wind. I dreamt about the Fair and awakened occasionally to hear to the pounding upon the roof. It is a contented feeling to be warm and dry in bed, safe from the tempestuous weather beyond. The rain continued throughout morning as I worked inside to finish up the mailbox. I was anxious to mount it but Steve wants to confer with the mail deliverer about placement first. I promise to post a picture as soon as it is up though. We did go out on a wet pothole patrol in the afternoon using concrete mixed with gravel and I rinsed down the Site Truck once we were done. As of tonight the water is poised to rise above the Chickadee Road and the flooding has once again begun in the Eight. I would expect more tree damage out of this one, given the saturated ground conditions combined with the high winds.
Friday 5 February I was slightly stressed because my secret mailbox project is spinning out of control (timewise) and I was working away on it when Steve got back. He said that our new address has yet to be activated and suggested completing the portable herb gardens would be a better thing to do, since the VegeManECs could then sift the compost on Sunday. Arrow showed up and lent a hand finishing them up. I then got down to the gym and afterwards met Steve and Arrow at Our Daily Bread for our traditional Friday night meal.
Thursday 4 February First off I called U.S. Robotics. Although all the software is posted right there on their website, they were unable to tell me which file I needed and I ended up having to have them to send the software on disk via FedEx. There is really something a wrong with a modem company that can't enable the use of its own website, at least that is what I think. The rain stopped in the late morning and I did a walkabout. There is still plenty of water in the lots for anybody that still wants to canoe. After that I re-aired the front tire in the Site Truck which has a slow leak, denailed some wood, and began working on a couple of portable herb gardens. (Not that kind!) This is one of Steve's ideas, and a good one it is too. I will build two containers atop plastic pallets in which we will fill with compost and plant perennial herbs for the Kitchen use. We can bring the gardens down during Main Camp with the tractor, and return them to the nursery in the off season. It is back to the gym after a few days off. I don't think there is anything easier than to make excuses not to just do it.
Wednesday 3 February I went into town again to look over my friend James Bateman's new house. He has bought himself into a real super-duper fixer-upper, that is for sure. I helped him tear out some wallboard and such, revealing even more serious problems that he didn't know he had. Undoubtably I will be back to help him repair some of them. Then it was off to the Computer Store to check on RAM for Steve's ancient Macintosh LC II. It only has 10 megs and come to find out it is not upgradeable. So it has to be the dreaded shell account for Steve. The good news is that he can have free email. The bad news is no World Wide Web for him and an extremely nerdly interface. When I got back there were more headaches in store. The software for the modem was on a CD and of course the pizza box has no CD ROM. I tried to find the software on the net. Unable to do that I attemped to shlep the stuff off the CD to his computer on floppies. At the last I was unsuccessful and I will have to contact the tech support in the morning. Finally I gave myself a crash to learn the program so I will be able to show Steve how to work it. Missed seeing Arrow, Rufus, and Randy who were out here canoeing today, and Bob Waldren who showed up to visit me from Portland-- unannounced.
Groundhog Day Last night it rained an inch and a half, but tonight the stars are twinkling through the thick ground fog. The groundhogs Puxatawney Phil and General Lee both did not see their shadows today. We are assured of an early Spring! Went over my new task list for the month with Steve and then went into Springfield to pick out awnings for the two south entrances on Fair office. They will take a week to arrive.
Monday 1 February Today I attempted to embarked on an auxiliary career creating auto ads for the Seattle Times. However . . . . after fussing around on the computer all beautiful day long, I realized that it is not what I really wanted at all. Making lots of money is not important to me. Focusing my life at the Fair and on the Land is what I love. Coping with high stress weekly corporate deadlines could have severely detracted from the Caretaking experience. Much relieved of that burden, I went in for the monthly Board Meeting. The Guideline changes that our little ad hoc committee had proposed seemed to take up the majority of this meeting. They all were eventually approved with minor or major revisions. Never was I attached to any of the specific wording--only to its general essence--which I feel was preserved and even strengthened through the process. Certainly the Site will benefit from these changes, and the committee will remain dedicated to improving the readability and intent the Guidelines, and educating all the Fair Family to the importance of understanding and following them.