Deer Visitors and Views of My World

For Eileen's Saturday's Critters and then Mersad's Through My Lens and My Town Shootout ....

Morning mist...taken in November from my deck

Mt. Jefferson

Mule Deer in the yard

The Three Sisters

Horses in a nearby yard

More of the Mule Deer

For Eileen's Saturday's Critters, here are more of the mule deer. All these shots were taken through the deck fencing.

(By the way if you haven't yet visited Mom & my new blog Palette and Paint, please stop by HERE to check out where we now are showcasing all our artwork!)

Can't reach my itch!

Such a sweet face!

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Where'd everybody go?

A short video to enjoy...

Living on the Edge

For Mersad's My Town Shootout and Tanya's Willy Nilly Friday Five and Tricky's Five on Friday, some homes at the edge of the Canyon on Crooked River Ranch...My house isn't as close to the edge of the Canyon, which makes me feel a little better. :-)  Apparently some people like to live dangerously! :-)   But, oh the views they must have!

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One more, for good measure....

 

 

Variety of Visitors

For Stewart's Wild Bird Wednesday and Anni's Bird d'Pot:

Of the birds that have come to visit the deck recently, there is the "new" one I recently had identified by a couple of you helpful blogger friends from my post two weeks ago as a red breasted nuthatch.

Other visitors (just to name a few) include Magpies....

Dark-eyed Juncos....

and the occasional "gang" of juvenile Scrub Jays!....

This one has very "fluffy" wing feathers.

Past Treasures

Before I press forward with this post, let me invite you to come see what my Mom, Latane of Living Life on Main Street, and I are doing with our new painting blog!   You will see artwork done by both of us by clicking on the LINK to Palette and Paint....

For Tuesday's Treaures and Through MyLens:

Our first stop to visit at Ft. Vancouver was at the re-created blacksmith's shop.  At first no one was there, since our volunteer smithy, Matt,  was taking a short break.  But soon he appeared and we spent a great deal of time with him.  Russell and I love blacksmithing, and one of our favorite shows on TV is Forged in Fire, a contest of master knife smiths who work under certain parameters and time constraints to out-do the other contestants.  The smith we were visiting with knew one of the few female contestants that we had watched on the show.  Anyway, he gave me a bench to sit on, as the two veterans started talking about their personal experiences.  Finally, he pulled on the bellows and fired up the coals....

Back when this shop was operational there were four blacksmiths working at the same time on two forges

Matt shows Russell one of the few pieces of actual iron he has to work with.  Iron apparently is very scarce on the west coast whereas we see it a lot in the east.  The scarcity makes it very expensive.  he mostly works with steel.  This piece is a wrench from the period.

 

Working on a piece Matt offered to make for me.

My beautiful stylized leaf!   Thanks so much!!!!

Matt made a smaller leaf for one of the boys in a family that also came to enjoy his talents.

Here are two short videos taken as well....Notice the ceiling bellows he opens to bring air to the coals.

More Mule Deer at the House

For Eileen's Saturday's Critters, more of our mule deer visitors:

Special Times

I am so thankful for the day to day with my sweet hubby Russell, but special trips like these when we can have some wonderful experiences together mean so much!  Linking in to Michelle's  Thankful Thursday as well as Tanya's Willy Nilly Friday Five and Tricky's Five on Friday....
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We arrived at Vancouver, Washington's Fort Vancouver for a wonderful day enjoying history. The weather was very agreeable, another thing to be thankful for since the next day brought steady rain.

2.  Fort Vancouver is the oldest fort in the west.  It was set up by the Hudson's Bay Company for trade with the Indians, but existed through the history of the U.S. in the early years of our country and then  went through two world wars.  There are barracks and officer's houses we did not see on our visit, which we have to save for a later time.

For more information on the Fort, see this link.  HERE.  I will also be doing a few more posts on our visit.
3.  First I walked through the recreated gardens.  Once the gardening area was much larger, but vegetables and fruit grown for the Fort, as well as some flowers, are represented here...

A pleasant spot to sit

A few figs were still on the tree.

4.  On to the reconstructed fort.  I thought the modern airliner in the shot was a nice contrast...

 

 

5.  Back at the Visitor Center however even the bathrooms reflected the history we were about to enjoy!  Since I LOVE historic ceramics, and especially blue and white, this Spode design was a pleasure to see!

 

 

 

More on Fort Vancouver to come!