Again, I've let slip my loyal updating habits. I'll say I update less often because I'd rather avoid being labeled as completely narcissistic (that's the word Beckers used to describe her scrapbookin'). Anywho, not a whole lot has transpired thus far this summer. Lots of day hikes and working. Lately I've been taking gobs of leaf samples in various orchards, which requires one to attempt to achieve a good random distribution, which requires a whole heck of a lot of trampling through orchards. And I'm learning about beating trays. And helping with codling moth trap maintenance. Today the four of us in the entomology department and a few from plant pathology went to Twin Peaks for lunch. Yay for the milkshakes. It's obvious that actual milk is used..a rarity these days. Next week sounds a little crazy..even more leaf samples and fruit inspections. So far I'm still ok with my job though..a good sign.

Oh, we finally did get chickens. Just two actually. A barred rock hen (Strata!) and a black silkie rooster. The rooster is absolutely ridiculous and obviously neurotic. No wonder, since it was kept in a tiny dog carrying kennel. At times I am unable to tell whether it’s attempting an honest attack (does it perceive "its" hen is being threatened upon my entrance with food in hand?) or suffering from a seizure. Also, it either has impaired vision through blindness and/or shielding fur-ish feathers, or extremely poor eye-beak coordination. I just don’t know how it manages to consume enough food to keep running and doodlin'. I've discovered our chickens are fond of strawberries, bean sprouts, lettuce, clover leaves, apple, and banana. Regular little velociraptors (quite voracious). So the chickens are being kept in the roomy dog kennel and the rabbit is also in there in a separate cage. I’m letting the rabbit out to romp every day within the confines of the kennel however. The poor thing has been cooped up for too long and it seems to be expressing some sort of joy when it randomly hops and turns twists far off the ground. The chickens are suspicious of its presence; the hen has pecked at it a few times and the rooster harasses it with poorly-executed attacks.

In non-poultry related news, Becky flew out to Wisconsin last Sunday to be with Andrew for a couple months. When she comes back in September we’ll be taking her to grad school in California which translates into finally seeing Crater Lake. Good times while she was here...laughing and pondering at Paul Simon’s classics while cruising around, hiking, shopping, eating delicious food, alpaca and dog sitting, etc.
Matt came over Sunday evening, stayed Monday, and left Tuesday morning. We packed quite a few activities in. Tim located the floaties for us and we took a scenic tour of the irrigation canal on an otherwise unpleasantly warm day. We whipped up some scrumptious (natural) peanut butter cookies and made pad thai for dinner - Beckers you’d be proud - yummy results!
I took him up to Timberline and we wandered around there a bit on the fourth (totally packed of course), then managed to locate Umbrella Falls after some difficulty. Later we went to the fireworks - it’s now tradition to get right under them, totally awesome and another great finale this year. Actually found a decent parking spot too. Difficult to start work again so early Tuesday after a leisurely weekend. But one less day makes such a difference!

Last night I went on a short solo hike up to the logging trail and beyond. I saw two deer - one a fairly impressive buck, a scorpion which was under a section of bark I overturned out of curiosity, and two ruffed grouse. It was a nice excursion but I again found myself in the dark - didn’t reach the trail head to the logging road until 9:20 (slightly unnerving, I do miss having a canine hiking companion).
Tomorrow is Friday already. Nothing spectacular planned this weekend - I think I like that.