Winter on the North Fork of the Willamette: Oakridge, Oregon Rest Area

Last Friday, the day prior to Christmas Eve, we were headed to Eugene.  Stopping at one of our regular stops, the rest area south of Oakridge, I walked to the boat ramp and snapped a few pictures of the silver frost.  Here they are:

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

  Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

  Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

  Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

  Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

  Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

  Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

  Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

  Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

  Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

  Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

  Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Here is a link to the same area that I took in the fall of 2010:   Oakridge Rest Area: North Fork and Willamette

Enjoy your New Years Eve!


Kathy M.

At Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy, if you miss a day, you miss a lot!  All material on this post is copyrighted and not for use without my permission ...Please click here to go to my home page and see what is happening in Mayberry today.
 

Getting Organized For 2012 Projects:

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

It is after Christmas, time to clean up around this joint and to reorganize the place.  I have given so much time and effort to Christmas that I wanted to get the rest of our home in better shape.  I did round up most of the decorations, but have not even touched the tree.  It is artificial, so no harm in that. 

I cleaned up our guest room and it is very nice now.  We can access the inversion back board now, which is cool.  Cary used it the other day, but I haven't yet. 

Yesterday, I started working on our office.  It is still a disaster on the floor, but I cleared of the table and began organizing my writing projects.  Here is what I have going so far:

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

On the left is my stuff for The Early Oregon Series.  This pile includes our family history and Sepia Saturday articles. 

In the middle is the information that I have gathered and written about Oregon, travel, and research for my epic novel. 

On the right, is the dry erase board with my To Do lists. 

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

I just put it there for the photos, it isn't filled out yet.  I work well with lists, and this will help me get things checked off and remember what my goals are.  It is big and where I can see it everyday.  It is funny that I didn't put a category for blog!  (I added it a couple hours after posting this.)  I guess that is because you can't pull me away from it.  Also because I like the creative flow that I have going on with it now, though my blog is really the base for everything else.  It is my major organization tool.

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

This morning, I printed off all of my Book Blurb Friday posts, after putting them all into Word.  I have missed a few weeks, but we just finished Week #44 today, so there are a lot of them.  Some would actually make good books, I do believe.  I am new to creative writing, so it gives me a bit of confidence to look at my work.  I appreciate Lisa Ricard Claro for holding Book Blurb Friday for us.  I view it as my weekly homework assignment. 

I am also going to take my Sepia Saturday articles and Oregon articles and put them into Word and get ready to make books out of them, somehow, someway.  Even if they just go out to family for Christmas gifts. 

Come to find out, it is extremely easy to copy and paste off of Blogger.  Way too easy, if you ask me.  And, that makes me very uneasy.  I do have somebody who is visiting my blog numerous times a day from Iowa, looking through old posts and new, but they have never left me a comment.  I hope that they just like my work and are not doing their own copy and paste work from Oregon Gifts.  Because even if you can do that, it is illegal to without permission.  This is my work, after all.

Anyway, the house was shaping up very nicely and I am very happy with figuring out the next steps of what I am supposed to be doing with my life.  I recruited a manager (my businessman husband) and we are brainstorming ways to make some money off of my photography!  I am really excited about that and appreciate Cary's willingness to help.  Thank you, my blogger friends for your encouragement in this area too, I really appreciate it. 

What I really want to do is write and sell books, but I think that I can incorporate that with my photography.  I'll keep you posted on the progress as time goes by. 

You noticed that I said the house "was" clean?  Well, last night, we noticed that our roof is leaking and staining the ceiling.  We have had a lot of rain the past few days, and I had to take everything off of the walls.  We have a repair person coming over to day to help us figure out what to do. 

So, beginning with Sonny's vet bill, Christmas, the new fridge, the upcoming trip to San Antonio, and now the roof ... December has been a very expensive month for us.  We are definitely no longer the rich relatives. (That was supposed to be funny, we never were, but the Lord has blessed us in many ways and we are very grateful for that.)  Hope that I can sell my photos in one manner or another!  And, my books, when I get them written.  I am not discouraged, though I do need to get to work, and I am.

So, that is what is up around here.  We are looking so forward to seeing the family next week at Tyler's Army All-American game.  Please watch the game if you can!  I'll keep reminding you peeps about that on here, just in case somebody misses when I post about it.

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Take care, and have a wonderful New Year's Eve and day and year.  Please leave me a comment on how you plan on meeting your goals this year, if you want too. 

Kathy M.

At Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy, if you miss a day, you miss a lot!  All material on this post is copyrighted and not for use without my permission ...Please click here to go to my home page and see what is happening in Mayberry today.
 

Book Blurb Friday #44: "Turtles Can Wait"

 Photo Source: An Unfittie's Guide to Adventurous Travel

"Turtles Can Wait"

by Kathy Matthews

Lily T. Hunter was now ten.  Just in case you are wondering, the "T" stands for "Turtle", named after that little girl in The Bean Trees and Pigs in Heaven, her Mom's favorite books.  Lucky for those involved in her naming, Lily really did enjoy finding turtles in the pond on her grandparents property in Central Washington. 

This morning, Lily packed her lunch, her turtle hunting gear and the digital camera that she had gotten from Santa.  She kissed her Grandma goodbye. 

As she walked down the trail to the pond, Lily breathed in the scent of the pretty flowers on what she thought of as the "Fairy Bush".  She stopped, sat down and crossed her legs crisscross applesauce.  She also took out her camera.  Lily had seen fairies here before, but had never asked to take their picture.  There's a first time for everything, and the turtles could wait.  (150)


Man, this one fell right into place.  I might even write it.  Enjoy your New Years Weekend, and Go Ducks!


Kathy M.

Oh, there seem to be a few questions about crisscross applesauce.  It used to be called, (politically incorrectly) as sitting "Indian Style".  Here is a video on how to do it the right way:

I am participating in Lisa's Book Blurb Friday, from over at Writing in the Buff.   It is fun, and you can play too!  Pretend that the picture on the top of this post is the cover of a book.  On the inside jacket, you have 150 words to entice the reader to buy your book.  Lisa gives us a week to think about next week's entry (she's gracious like that).  Please CLICK HERE  to read what everybody else wrote!

At Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy, if you miss a day, you miss a lot!  All material on this post is copyrighted and not for use without my permission ...Please click here to go to my home page and see what is happening in Mayberry today.
 

Wicopee Fields, Willamette Pass, HWY 58, Oregon and The Frazier Slide:

On the Willamette Pass (Oregon Highway 58) south of McCredie Hot Springs, (also see The Hotel Mcredie Hot Springs) there is a sign on a gravel road that says Wicopee Fields.  There is no hyphen between the two words, so I always assumed there were some fields there, but not so.  In trying to come up with some historical information about this area, there isn't a lot easily found on the search engines.  I did learn that Wicopee is the area with the marsh, and that Fields is 6 miles further up at the end of the gravel road, with a small campground.  Slide is one mile before Fields, and the names Cruzatte and Natron are also associated with the area.  The Union Pacific Railroad has trains going through here, and it is a favorite area for train enthusiasts/photographers.  I did run across this well written story about the experience of three men who camped in the campground and got "stabbed" (don't worry, in this case that just means blocked in by a train), and it tells you exactly how to get there and what is up the road further than where we went.  Here is the link, when you are done here at Oregon Gifts:  "Stabbed at Fields" .

Several years ago, we drove down to see what we could see, but there didn't seem to be much there.  Last Saturday (Christmas Eve), we gave it another try and came up with some beautiful photos.  There is a marsh on the left hand-side that was covered lightly in ice. There is a program reintroducing "chub" fish into this marsh and in other places around Oregon.

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Across the road from the marsh there is a nice little parking lot with a fire pit on the beautiful Salt Creek.  Somebody told me a rumor once that there were around 50 little hot springs around here somewhere, but I haven't learned anything more of about that.  If you have, please leave a comment (under "Anonymous" if you want to).

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

On January 19, 2008, there was a major mudslide that effected the railroad tracks, known as The Frazier Slide.  The Wicopee Fields road was used as an access road to get the mess for clean up.  This link shows a bunch of construction photo links of the slide: Train Orders.com.  Here are some neat pictures of it after they had gotten the trains running again: Train Web.com.  I also found these videos of when the slide was happening:

Train Wreck:

 Source: Steam Freight Cars.com

That is how it goes on here sometimes, one thing just leads to another.  I wanted to know how Wicopee got it's name, did people live there, was there a store, all that kind of stuff.  I still have a lot to learn about Wicopee Fields, but I found that there was a huge train wreck in the area during the late 30's.  What a mess that was to clean up!  1938-39 Train Wreck at Natron/Wicopee Photos

Here is a link with some geographical information and surrounding areas:  Traveling Luck.com.  If you have anymore info that you would like to share, please leave me a comment. Or, if you enjoyed this post, please leave me a comment, because I love your feedback. Thanks so much for stopping by, and have a wonderful day!


Kathy M.

At Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy, if you miss a day, you miss a lot!  All material on this post is copyrighted and not for use without my permission ...Please click here to go to my home page and see what is happening in Mayberry today.
 

Matthews Christmas 2011:

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Last night, we joined Cary's brother's family over at my MIL Darlene's for a very fun Christmas celebration and a Mexican dinner.  Here are a few of the family photos of the evening.

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

This is the family that had a major hand in creating this group;  Casey, Larry, Julia, Jimmy Beverly and Shelly:

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Jimmy, Shelly, Casey and Beverly

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Bev and Todd's family includes:  

JB, Megan, Tess, Holly, Troy, Brittany and Matt

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Shelly and Brian's family includes

Treavor, Jeffrey, Jason, Christian and Isaiah

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Jimmy and Samantha's family includes
Maykayla, Logen and Ethan

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Casey and Savanna flew in from Italy earlier that day ... 

their sweet kiddos are Courtney and CJ

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Larry, Darlene and Cary

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Larry, Darlene, Cary, Julia and Me

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Grandma Darlene with many of her great-grandkids.  There are nine more from Cary's side that live in Washington and Texas, plus my Casey in Eugene.

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Grandma Darlene and Jason

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Someone is practicing his stretches.

  Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Courtney

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Kathy and Cary, BFF's.

 Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

 Holli and CJ

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy ~ Kathy Matthews

Julia asked for two carats, but got two carrots instead!

Now it is back to work, with Christmas being over with for this year.  Hope that you have all had a wonderful holiday season so far. 

God bless,

Kathy M.

At Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy, if you miss a day, you miss a lot!  All material on this post is copyrighted and not for use without my permission ...Please click here to go to my home page and see what is happening in Mayberry today.