Looking Back - Bear Country Critters

 We have so many wonderful sights and scenes and memories on which to look back in our years of workamping — so many from Bear Country USA especially. Here is a sampling of critters we were privileged to see nearly every day in the summer of 2006. There is a magnificent herd of elk in the drive-through portion of the park as well as reindeer and several varieties of mountain goats and sheep. This beautiful big guy is just getting his new sprouting of antlers, still in velvet.

 Pretty foxes, one of my favorite animals.

 The two grizzlies were a constant source of amusement and inspired not a little awe. This is Cherokee, the female, making a funny face for the tourists.

 And, just to prove that grizzlies can climb trees, too, here is Cherokee again, mastering this very scrawny pine. Tank, her mate, waits at the bottom for the daring climb to end. He looks a little bored!

 The tourist industry in Rapid City would yearly host a showing of the various attractions in the area. Each one would have a booth with information, handouts, and folks to man the booth, which we were doing here. Our Bear Country display happened to be right next to the Reptile Gardens booth, which came complete with live examples of what one might see there. This yellow fellow got quite a bit of attention! After a bit of trepidation we weren't too "yellow" to hold him.

 Of course, every tourist attraction needs a mascot. There is a brave teenager in that costume, greeting the tourists, handing out treats for the kids, and even doing a little dance to special "bear" tunes. Bet it was hot in there!

 The bear cubs, usually between 10-15 each summer, were the most popular attraction of all. The tourists would stay lined up along the fence watching the cubs' hilarious antics for long periods of time, moving along reluctantly only when the little guys collapsed into sleep. There would be a young employee standing inside the enclosure several times a day interacting with the cubs and giving a talk about bear life, always very interesting.

I had several "favorite" critters. One was the porcupine. You would think they were not so interesting, with their slow movements and their prickly "stay away from me" coats, but I was fascinated to watch them eat. They would hold their food in their little hands and nibble away much as we would do. They made a soft humming sound towards each other. I will never forget the exciting days we spent at Bear Country, still our favorite job. I wish we could be there still!

Fort Vancouver

 I haven't blogged for awhile because of illness and weather preventing us from getting out. We did have one short trip over the river to Fort Vancouver. When I lived in Vancouver from 1968 to 1983 we visited the Fort many times. It was always a favorite place, so I wanted to take Mr. Keith there to see for himself. Here he is, posing by this massive cannon. Hey, Mr. Keith, you're supposed to stand behind it, not in front of it!

 In 1818 the United States and Great Britain, locked in a struggle for control, agreed to share access to the fur rich Oregon Territories. In 1825 Britain sought to anchor their claim by moving their Hudson's Bay Company headquarters to the new Fort Vancouver, on the banks of the Columbia River. Dr. John McLoughlin was instrumental in settling the area, which eventually became Oregon, Idaho,Washington and British Columbia. The company moved out in 1860, the era of the beginnings of the Oregon Trail settlers. The Fort burned completely to the ground in 1866. In 1947 archaeologists began digging up the remains of the foundations, and in 1966 reconstruction of some of the buildings was begun. The large house in the picture above was Dr. McLoughlin's residence and the hub of the social life at the Fort.

 This Blacksmith Shop is well equipped and quite accurately duplicates the original shop. The volunteer blacksmiths here have mastered the iron works projects very well and do a good job explaining how it used to be, as closely as can be discovered.

  Mr. Keith always loves to pose in the old outhouses. I can't break him of that habit! This one was next to the Blacksmith Shop.

 The 1845 Bastion was built to protect the fort against threats and to fire salutes to arriving ships. It was three stories high; the top floor held eight three pounder cannons. In my reading, I don't find any evidence that there were Indian attacks or other enemies of any kind.

Officers Row is above the actual old Fort and is a tree lined street of great beauty.
As part of a national reorganization, the U.S. Army returned the headquarters of the Department of the Columbia from Portland Oregon to Fort Vancouver in 1878. Several new buildings were constructed on Officers Row, including this 1886 Queen Anne style home for the Department Commander.  The most famous Commander to live here was Brigadier General George C. Marshall, who lived here with his wife Katherine from 1936 to 1938 while he was in command of the Third Division's Fifth Brigade and directed the region's Civilian Conservation Corps camps. Mr. Keith and I hope to return for a more in depth visit to historic Fort Vancouver when the weather is warmer and we can spend more time exploring.

Looking Back - Bear Country USA

  Our second summer workamping at Bear Country USA began in April 2006. When we arrived there was still some snow in Rapid City. The peacocks were strutting — it was mating season for them. Throughout the summer the peacocks shed their long, beautiful feathers and they turned out to be quite a prize for us and for the tourists. We would drive around in our cart early, picking up any feathers we could find, then during the day we'd look for people to give them to — one for a child, whose eyes would fill with wonder; one for a handicapped person in a wheelchair who would get a big smile; one for a lonely looking tourist, joy, and the others to just anyone we thought would like one! It became a highlight of our day, passing out peacock feathers.

 We were asked to come early this spring to help with the brand new cubs in Baby Land. What a thrill that was! Baby bears have an odd behavior that was so fun to watch. They would use each other's ears as pacifiers. These 4 are lined up, each one sucking the ear of the next. Well, all except for the first one in the line. He was out of luck! They continued this till they were quite large. We saw as many as 8 or 9 lined up once! For helping out with the bottle feeding and cleaning I was given the privilege of naming one cub. I chose the cinnamon cub, third from the left, and I named her Annie!

These two, Mary and Martha, were twins. I held the cubs carefully along one arm, an arm with long sleeves on to protect from the sharp claws, while with my other hand I would hold the bottle. After feeding, I would hold the cubs over a bucket and rub their little bellies so they would defecate, like the mama bear would do with her tongue in the wild, only without the bucket, of course. Some of the cubs were big and strong enough when taken from the dens so that they didn't need to be bottle fed, but some, like these two, still needed the bottle. The others learned quickly to feed from a dish filled with special "bear" formula, and did they ever make a mess doing it. It must have made the ear pacifiers taste all that much better!

We did some volunteering at the Rapid City Rescue Mission. One of our friends there, Monty, was thrilled to be allowed to visit, with us, the closed off region of the park where the babies were kept, and he even got to name this cub "Concho".

Here is Annie again, quite a bit bigger, out in the big viewing enclosure later in the summer. Isn't she pretty? After the first season the cubs go to a section for juvenile bears, not open to the tourists, till they are big enough to be let into the drive-through portion of the park, usually by their third year.

Cubs, and big bears, too, love to climb trees. They would spend quite a lot of time there, much to the amusement of the tourists. All it took was for one to climb up and the rest would follow. We learned early that the cubs were very destructive of the trees, so the caretakers would cut trees in the forest property, stand them up in reinforced holes in the ground, and when they were stripped of branches and needles they would be removed and new trees brought in. That happened several times during the summer.

 The bears and the wolves were together in the drive-through section of the park, but they began their lives, after being removed from the dens, in Baby Land and then in the walk-through area. Here is Vanessa with a new cub. I want one! We were allowed to pet and hold these cuties before they were put out for the public to see and admire.

 Growing pups! They were all quite tame during this stage of their lives.

Here are some adult wolves out in the drive-through area, probably no longer as tame as they were. We enjoyed watching the bears and wolves together. The bears didn't have time for the wolves but the wolves were fond of teasing the bears and trying to snatch their food. There were at least 2 different kinds of wolves at Bear Country, mostly Arctics and Greys. Watch for more critters in a future post!

Looking Back — Our First Workamper Job

Going through old photos, remembering our earlier workamper jobs, I decided to use some of my best pictures and catch up to where I actually began blogging, in 2008, about our adventures. We moved into our 5th wheel in January of 2005 and left for our first workamping job in June of that year. With great excitement and anticipation, and entering into the unknown, we set off for South Dakota. Crossing Montana was an awesome experience. We fell in love! The early pioneers must have traveled in a wagon much like this one. We found this gorgeous scene near the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument near Hardin MT.

Here we are in our modern covered wagon, much more comfortable, just leaving the 7th Ranch RV Park in Garry Owen MT.

We've arrived safely in Rapid City in the gorgeous Black Hills of South Dakota! I'm talking to my best friends to say, "We're here!" Our employer, Bear Country USA, furnished us with a nice spot at the Lazy J RV Park. What we liked best about this park was that it overlooked the east part of the city and on a clear day we could see almost to the Badlands, an hour away. The sky was always gorgeous with frequent rainbows and awe-inspiring cloud formations.

Our boss, Vanessa, was truly the best boss we could have had for our first job. We will never forget her wonderful and kind treatment of us as we began our workamper job at Bear Country USA, a drive-through wildlife park. It has its walk-through area, too, and the new crop of black bear cubs each summer is probably the largest draw to the park. True to the name, the park has around 250 bears, but there are also many other kinds of animals, mostly North American varieties. In future posts I'll include many other critters.

That's a bear sculpture swatting at the plaster salmon in the waterfall above the otter enclosure, and those are real workampers in our "mule" where we spent our days going from restrooms to gift shop to flower beds, to garbage runs, and, most important, to tourists with questions and needs. The best part was that as we drove around we got to watch the animals all day long. We did spend quite a bit of time watching those adorable bear cubs, too. We loved this job so much that we returned for 2 more summers, 2006 and 2008. The park changed management and no longer has workampers, or we'd be there yet.

We shared cleaning duties with one other workamper couple, Ron and Connie, who trained us and then alternated days with us. It was their second summer at Bear Country. Next to them is Vanessa, and seated is Richard, whose job was to pick up handicapped tourists in his golf cart and drive them around to see the sights. We came to love these fellow workers as well as all the other employees at this wonderful and exciting place.

Mr. Keith looking "cool" in the Mule. 

I have hundreds of photos of the bear cubs. This is one of my favorites. We could, and did, watch them for hours, along with hundreds and thousands of tourists. 
Each spring there are approximately 10 to 15 cubs born. They are taken from the dens at about 2 months old to protect them from the male bears and to accustom them to humans. When they are old enough they are returned to the larger bear population in the drive-through area. Bear cubs are like human toddlers. They play endlessly, entertaining everyone. They are even cute while they are sleeping! Their enclosure had a swimming pool, lots of grass, trees for climbing and logs for scampering over. What fun!

The most amazing animals at Bear Country were the two Grizzly bears, Tank, the male, and Cherokee, his mate. They had a beautiful enclosure with a deep moat for protection, but they seemed almost tame. Tank would wave and do funny things to entertain the onlookers and to get treats. We frequently were asked to throw strawberries, or hotdogs, or muffins to the begging bears, for the enjoyment of the tourists. These grizzlies were located right outside the main restrooms so we got to see them several times a day as we cleaned and checked the facilities. I also have hundreds of photos of Tank and Cherokee and I will share more of them in future posts.

Christmas Surprises!

Mr. Keith and I had an unexpected surprise for Christmas. The manager of the park where we are working said he had a Lazy Boy recliner he'd like to sell for $250 and were we interested. It had been a desire of ours for 3 or 4 years to get our ugly green vinyl couch and recliner out of our RV so we could have just 2 matching recliners. Upon investigation we discovered there were actually 2 chairs for sale, not just one, both the right color, the right price, and there were 2 men willing to wrestle our old couch and chair right out the door so the new ones could be installed. Montie took to this one. I think it's his perch now!

It wasn't a surprise for us that our daughter was coming down for 3 days on the day after Christmas, but it was a big surprise for our 2 cats to see that she brought along a lab puppy she was dog sitting. They were angry and very insulted. Here is Abby, also quite comfortable in our new chair.

Montie sits with paw extended and claws out, waiting for Abby to pass by. Smack! Yelp! Let's remember who is boss here!

Mia retreated to the farthest corner she could find in the bedroom, not interested at all in being friends with the pup. She was a little snooty with us, too. How dare we to invade her space with that foreigner!

We gave the cats a respite and took Abby to downtown Troutdale. Betsy is trying to snap a photo of Abby next to this bronze deer, but the pup had trouble holding still for the picture. Too much else to see including Grannie holding a camera, too!

Abby quickly learned where the door was and was eager to go out when she saw Betsy packing up. We were so happy to have had our daughter for this visit. Having family time during holidays has happened rarely since we've been full time RVers, as we've nearly always been too far away to get together for these special days. We've had to wait till the time traveling between our campground jobs to get back to Wenatchee to see everyone, once or twice a year. What a blessing it was for us to be able to talk and talk, take walks, and eat good food together with Betsy. The only thing better would have been to have my son, my younger daughter, and my 2 granddaughters with us, too. But, thank goodness for phones and Skype!

Time to head home to Wenatchee! Wish we were going, too. Abby's owner will be glad to see her, and Betsy's daughters and boyfriend will be happy that she's home. We had a blessed and wonderful Christmas week, one we won't soon forget! Thanks, Betsy!

Dear Departed

As we approach Christmas time I've been thinking about my mother and about our times together as I was being raised. My parents moved us from the California metropolitan Bay Area to a 90 acre farm way out in the country near Salkum, Washington in 1947. The last time I lived there was in 1963, but I've returned many times over the years to revisit old haunts. A really big part of my childhood was our church, the Church of the Brethren in Salkum. The people there were our family. Someone sent me this picture of the church, probably not too long after it was built. By the time we started attending there was a covered front porch and an added steeple. There is a cemetery to the right of the building.

This is a picture of my mother at about age 18, when she graduated from high school and began her college years. Eileen was a school teacher for many years in California, a social worker in Chehalis Washington, and then again a teacher in the small town of Mossyrock, at the school I had attended for 12 years. My mother was faithful in taking my sister and me to church every Sunday.  We participated in nearly every service and many potlucks, quilting bees and other gatherings. The folks came from miles around to be part of our "family". Sadly, when I was 12 the old church burned down when the furnace malfunctioned. We met for a year or so in the Silver Creek Grange Hall while a new church was being built. About that same time the congregation needed a pianist, and since no one was available except me, I was drafted, at age 12, to play the Sunday hymns. It was a crash course in accompanying for a student only 3 years along in piano study! The congregation was very patient and encouraging as I learned to plug along, always keeping the beat. I continued to be church pianist till I married and moved away at age 19. My very early experience prepared me well for future years of accompanying and performing.

My mother lived with me in Wenatchee Washington for the last 8 years of her life. She went to her heavenly home just a couple of weeks after her 89th birthday in 2002. Mr. Keith and I held onto her ashes, not sure where to put them, until in 2005 when we began our RVing adventures. Since my mother's very favorite thing to do was to travel — she'd been all over the U.S. and in several foreign countries, including the British Isles, Australia, New Zealand, and other parts of Europe — we decided to take her with us on our journey! As we workamped in different states I always felt she was right there with us, enjoying the trip. Our campground job in 2006-2007 happened to land us near Olympia, so we were able to take several day trips down to Salkum, Mossyrock, and surrounding areas. Of course I had to show Mr. Keith all the places that were important to me in my growing up years! The dirt driveway in the picture above is between the Salkum Cemetery (to the right) and the plot where the old church stood.

This is where I made my decision. My mother's ashes would find a perfect home on the spot where she began and continued to attend church for 50 years. It was winter when we spread her ashes in this grove, hallowed ground where the old church stood. I told no one in the church what we'd done. It was our secret! I knew she would be happy with our choice. I could imagine the trees leafing out in the spring, glad to be in the same ground as one of God's most faithful servants.

Looking back up the road, we faced the "new" church, though it has been there for 50 years. I spent my teenage years there and have many fond memories of the wonderful folks who helped in my growing up. Most of them are also dear departed ones, along with my mother and the old pioneer church at Salkum.

One last good-bye to the horse who watched us throughout our little private ceremony. He can be seen in the photo above this one, too, curiously wondering what we were doing, or if we might have a carrot or a hunk of hay for him. It was a blessed and memorable day for us.

Frozen!

 We didn't go far today, but we came across some captivating winter phenomena. It's been so cold here for several days — the lowest temp on my outdoor thermometer was 15 degrees. The Columbia River Gorge has numerous waterfalls. There are the bigger, more well-known ones like Multnomah Falls and Horsetail Falls, all farther east along the old highway, but we saw many smaller ones, all frozen like this one on Stark Street, just out of Troutdale.

 The highway here is bordered with high cliffs on one side, water cascading down from the top, making its way through the clefts in the rocks. On the opposite side of the street we looked down on the Sandy River.

Just before we got to the bridge spanning the Sandy River we saw this very delightful falls coming down from the cliffs in what appeared to be a large private preserve. The grounds were surrounded by a high steel fence — no entry here! Beside the charming, completely frozen cascade there were light posts and a bench or two, undoubtedly someone's sanctuary in the midst of very old and large firs. I could imagine myself taking a book and perhaps a picnic lunch and sitting here on a warm spring or summer day!

 There are two ways to enter the historic Columbia River Highway heading east, one by coming through Troutdale and crossing a bridge over the Sandy River declaring itself to be "The Gateway to the Columbia River Gorge", and the other by crossing over the Sandy River at the ending of Stark Street. Both bridges are quite ancient.

 As I said, we didn't go far. After crossing the Stark Street Bridge we headed back towards Troutdale. We saw these lovely frozen falls all along the way, some of them just seepage from the rock walls. This water may not be noticed or even be present in the warmer seasons.

One last shot, approaching the "Gateway" bridge taking us back into Troutdale. I wonder how the bigger falls farther up the road to the east are looking in the freezing temperatures. They are probably not completely frozen, as are these smaller streams, but I can imagine they are even more stunning. We may take that longer drive on another frosty winter day!