1-12 August 2021 More Fun At Zoe’s

Making Pickles From Her Garden

Zoe was away doing fieldwork in Northeast Oregon for a few nights, camping with a wolf biologist.  They met with a range-rider whose job it is to drive an ATV around and scare away wolves from the livestock.  She checked out how things were going and offered him some more non-lethal techniques.  In return, he left a thermos of hot coffee between their tents at 4 a.m. while making his rounds.   Finally getting into the field after being shut down by COVID for so long was a great feeling she said.  Unfortunately, Defenders has already cancelled some of her future events due to the Delta variant.  

While she was gone we went to Portland and had lunch with a Dartmouth classmate, Dave and Kay, at their lovely home.  They told us about all the gang/protestor activity, some of which recently occurred close to their house where a couple hundred people took over a major intersection, blocking traffic for hours while they drove their cars around in circles until some of their tires worn off.  Police just looked on as there were too many of them and not enough police since over 15% of the force quit or retired in the last year due to all the violence and protests against police brutality.  25% of Oregonians now support abolishing the force in lieu of creating alternative teams of social workers, drug counselors, and mental health experts.  A trend being considered by other states since many people feel Police behavior is way out of hand.  

John, Aunt Shirley, Meghan

Then we went to Salem, Oregon to visit John’s cousin Meghan, her Mom and husband John.  Always fun to spend time with them.  Aunt Shirley is doing pretty well at age 92 as she gave us tour of all the wonderful memorabilia in her assisted living apartment.  She and John had a good time sharing genealogy stories.   We will meet up with Meghan and John again in a couple of weeks as we both RV to Minnesota to see their Aunt Joanne and sister Barbara.

The weather has been all over the map out here.  40’s some nights to 103 degrees during the day.  With no AC on the downstairs of the house stays a nice 73!  Gets a little hazy now from the hundreds of thousands of acres of wildfires burning in the Northwest but not immediately around them but can’t smell the smoke.  That is due to change right when we leave.  

It occurred to us that we have been with Zoe for several major events.  We were touring with her in the Oregon coast red woods when she found out she was selected for the Washington State University PhD program. We modified our trip and drove out to Pullman, WA so she could meet her advisor and check out the town.  I remember feeling OMG as we drove for hours through nothing to get there! We were visiting her in Walla Walla when she got the call from Defenders saying she got the job.  On another trip we were kayaking with her and Gabe in White Salmon when she got the call that they could move into the house they bought. Now that I think of it, we were all with Jack vacationing in Florida when he was notified that he got into the Navy.  Hummm, synchronicity.....

Almost Daily Deer Grazing In Yard 

Pearl and Lulu

Had a another great visit with the girls at the beach with Zoe’s neighbors (Liz, Jay and boys Jack and Abe).  This picture was in their house of Pearl and Lulu among the red woods.  

Time to head East after a most wonderful visit!  If Delta variant doesn’t shut everything down again (like it already is), we hope to see them when they come East for Christmas.  LOVE LOVE