A Day Off in Paradise

Weekly Weather Update

14 June – 20 June

Weekly High: 78.1

Low: 45.9

Humidity: 31% - 77%

Rain: Zip

Cheryl's News from Camp Webegone

Rich and I

Wednesday, June 17th, we have a day off. A day to be lazy. A day to eat and read to our heart's content. Back before we started camp hosting, when Rich and I would go camping, we called it going to eat and read, because that was how most of our time was spent.

On this break, in the afternoon after a long period of reading, we walk from camp to Natural Bridge. We walk along the Rouge River. Decades ago, in prelitigation era, the path, a small portion of which still exists,

Old Path

took you to the river's edge. You could sit and dip your toes in the water. You could walk across the natural bridge. Those days are long gone. However, for adventurous campers at Natural Bridge Campground, it is still an option. 

Still, there is a trade-off to doing so. Sitting at the river's edge, you miss the spectacular falls.

The main reason I wanted to walk this particular trail (deer trail for the most part), is there is a better view of the Rogue River entering the lava tube tunnel.

Into the Tunnel

Unfortunately, it's real hard to capture what's happening in a pic. Dang. But what you are seeing in the above pic is the river flowing under the log then into the tunnel.

After spending a leisurely time at Natural Bridge, we meander home to camp. Dinner is pan-fried pork chops, steamed yams served with a bit of butter and brown sugar and salad. The last of the salad until Tuesday. Dinner followed with reading while sitting outside in the meshed shelter until it is too dark to read. A wonderful meal and enjoyable books to close a wonderful day off.

First Visitors

Weather Highlights

7 June – 13 June

High Temp: 86.4

Low Temp: 44.6

Humidity: 33% - 91%

Rain: Trace

Wind Gust: Unknown

Cheryl's News from Camp Webegone

Friday, June 12, as Rich and I return to camp from cleaning pit toilets and vacated campsites, we are greeted by Lisa and Jim, who are staying at the Prospect Inn for a few days. A wonderful surprise.

Even better, they brought a little bit of heaven with them: strawberries and raspberries from their garden. All the fresh fruit available here is stuff brought up from California. We were so spoiled living in Portland, with access to local produce. 

Sigh. Another year without hood strawberries :(

Living at Natural Bridge is a good trade though. The Natural Bridge area is so gorgeous, photos do not really do it justice. With Lisa and Jim here, Rich and I enjoyed playing tour guide and sharing the sights of Natural Bridge, The Rouge Gorge and a meal at Beckie's.

Sunday, we all traveled to Ashland to watch the play Cabaret at the Cabaret Theater. The theater is small, seating about 100 and is cabaret style: tables and chairs. You can order food and drinks, too. And it was a lively and well-acted play. 

The trip to Ashlund is a long one, but it was pleasant and - for me - inspiring. I do love the theatre. And I'm still singing Cabaret several days later as I pen this down.

*

PS: We love visitors! Do visit if you can. Drop us an email or text (we do check emails and texts at least one a week) if you plan to come down so we stay close to camp. Or be spontaneous. But either way, keep in mind, the first Tuesday of each month, we drive to Medford and are gone for most of the day.

Dip, dip, Dipper

Cheryl's News from Camp Webegone

A little bird-watching story.

Ah, the elusive Water Ouzel, aka the American Dipper. Rarely do they still long enough to photograph. Not much contrast either, as their color is the same color as the rock they are typically standing on.

Dipper

For years now, Rich and I have tried to spot an Ouzel nest. But they are always located somewhere inaccessible, like a hole high up in a rock. Or you see them fly to a nest area that is across the river, with no path to get there. And if you try to take a picture all the way across the river, the Ouzel appears about the size of an ant. Not to mention, it turns out looking more like a small rock projection than a bird.

But today, it finally happened! The long awaited moment arrives, and we feel blessed. We spotted a nest.

Rich and I sat for a long, long time, patiently waiting for the Ouzels to arrive and feed their young. Waiting for a few decent photos. Waiting for a chance to make an interesting video. Long enough to need to stand up occasionally and walk around to get some circulation in your butt.

And at last, our patience is rewarded, and the Ouzels arrive. The female is not concerned at all by our presence. She flies straight to the nest, feeding frenzy, then flies off. The male is very shy. A bonus for us. He hangs near to the nest area, creeping a bit closer over time, maybe 10 minutes before feeling safe to feed its young. The bonus is, he sits still long enough to photograph and video!

(The picture and video are of our Ouzel nest viewing at Natural Bridge along the Rouge River! Enjoy!)

 

Perceptions of Time

Weather Report for 31 May – 6 June

High Temperature: 79.2

Low: 41.7

Humidity: High, 92%. Low, 35 %

Rainfall: .08

Wind gust: unknown. Gauge not set up yet.

 

Rich's New from Camp Webegone

Each time I drive to Prospect, there is a transition that happens when I start driving on Hwy 62. When entering the highway, I must get up to speed with the traffic - which is at least 60 miles an hour. As I speed up, nearing 40 I start to notice it feels really fast. 

That feeling reminds me of coming back from Haiti, which I describe as getting on an on-ramp to a freeway where everyone is going 70 and I am going 25. So it happens here too.

 

Bigfoot Rich

The ability to adapt comes in rapidly. And after a few minutes of driving at 60, it feels normal. And I realize that I have once again entered a new perception of normal. I had though 40 was fast, but now I am traveling 60, and it's normal (and it's still too slow for some of the other travelers on the road).

In Clinic I often would talk about the dance that massage therapists need to do with time. New students often have difficulty adapting to doing a massage in an hour. But doing so is necessary in our culture built around Industrial timeframes.  

The massage therapist must live in Industrial time yet be able to move into what I call organic time in order to do good therapy. Allowing the muscle to let go is an organic process, and the good therapist can monitor the session time and also go into the zone that is organic time. It is all perception.

Meditation takes you into organic time. Those moments in meditation when you are absolutely in the moment. Those beautiful, wonderful moments. It too is a perception.  

But because it is all perception, the moment you notice it, you are not doing it any more. You can intend it to happen, but you cannot make it happen. That too is perception.

So last night, sitting at the fire lost in the moment of making fire and the process of keeping it flaming, Cheryl asks what I am thinking. I was not thinking that I was in a Fire moment. But I was. It is a relaxing place. 

Perception of time changes often here in camp. Our morning routine is a structure that we embrace. And in the structured routine, we enter into a kind of trance. A trance we create that helps us get things done. And the time here seems to evaporate, and we suddenly find ourselves at the end of the day, and just how did that happen without us noticing, and what day is it anyway?

I think living in Industrial time is very stressful. Part of that stress is about preparing for the future, a preparation often driven by fear. Will I have enough resources (money fuel food etc.) to survive? What will happen to my family?

That is one end of the spectrum. The other end is thinking about time from the perspective of aging. Listening to someone on radio talk about being in his 70s and noting that for someone in their 20s, their perception of their life is ahead. They have 60 years ahead (they hope) and just 20 behind. The 70 year old has 20 ahead (they really hope) and 70 behind. So naturally the focus shifts. 

And how did I get here so fast? And it was fast and now 20 years seems like it is rushing forward....Time keeps on slippin slippin into the future...

But that is all it is...a perception....

OOPS!

Cheryl's News From Camp Webegone

Tuesday, June 2, 2015

Our Backyard

When you're camping, cooking is a lot more work than usual, so you tend to end up doing a lot of simple, go-to meal types. Which is fine when you're camping for a couple of days or even weeks. But it gets more than just a little old when you're camping for a few months. 

Well, this summer Rich and I decided to expand our dinner menu options. Which is a great and tasty idea. But (there's  always a 'but', isn't there?) it also requires more work on my part. 

Still, it feels like a good trade off. A happy tummy and taste buds, all  in exchange for at least 30 minutes of extra cooking prep. 

That's the plan, anyways. And so our saga begins.

It starts with our first grocery shopping and errand trip to Medford. Which is a 90 minute drive from camp. We leave at 10 am, do our shopping, and then arrive back at camp about 5 pm - way too long a day. 

Then it's time to put all the food away and.....well, it was a great idea to expand our dinner menu, sure. However I, we, did not take into consideration storage. In particular, very limited freezer space. Very limited freezer space and a whole bunch of meat we purchased.

Oops! 

Long story short, with a lot of freezer organizing, a little juggling, and judicious eating choices, I think we'll be okay. Whew.

Color me lesson learned. Rich and I are changing how we grocery shop in the future. We will still be driving to Medford one time a month, but no more going there regularly. No more regular all-day shopping trips. Instead, our regular grocery journey will be driving the much simpler 30+ miles to Shady Cove to shop for meat and veggies there. 

Not only will this save our sanity, we'll be saving money on gas and lowering our carbon footprint. Really, we should have realized and been doing this all along. But we are slow learners. 

Memorial Day

Cheryl's News From Camp Webegone 2015

One of the things we missed while we were at Webeback is wildlife spotting. Both Rich and I were eagerly awaiting our first deer sighting, and it at last happened on Memorial Day. We had spotted some well-used deer trails just behind the site of our camp, so we were hoping to get at least one sighting from our camp before the deer changed their route in order to avoid our campsite. We were lucky we were outside and at our camp at just the right moment. This photo is taken from our campsite. 

Rich and I wonder if this is one of the fawns from last year, now grown up, a yearling.