Time to explore

 Hello Blog Pals,
Little Fox here. It's a beautiful day so why not head out to explore a new place.  My adventure today is at the McMenamins Kalama Lodge.  Whenever this fox goes to a Mcmenamins hotel he always looks for the scavenger hunt clue.  Ah, here it is. 

The clue is asking to me to find some dancing salmon and a curtain.  Hmm, I'm off.   

First stop is the brewery.  Nope no salmon here but if I am lucky maybe I will be able to sample the beer. 

I think my clue might be a painting. I found this painting on the wall, no salmon, no curtain but a dog.  

Nope, no salmon here.  This picture is of a traveler who would come to town, knock on your door and if you invited him to a meal he would thank you by breaking out his violin and his dancing mice.  Yep, real story. 

I must be getting close.  Do you see the salmon?  Back in the day they canned a lot of salmon in Kalama.  The canneries are long gone.....

Maybe I should look for my clue outside.  No luck but I did see a big totem pole.  No fox on it but there was a bear. 

What a beautiful day.  

My roommates are tasking me back to work.  They say I can have a beer when I find the clue.  Let's go!!!!

Found it!  Curtain, check.  Salmon, check. Dancing, check.  

Yep, this one is all for me. 

What's next for this little fox?  

Tire Mountain hiking adventure.

Little Fox here.  Just enjoying some time on the beach.  Interesting....a starfish.....I thought they only lived near tidepools. I wonder what's up with this one?

As you can probably tell Sequoia is indifferent to the starfish and is ready to go hiking. 

Who can blame him?  Of course we have to leave the beach to go hiking.  That's okay.

This is the beginning of Tire Mountain.  During pioneer times a wagons tire fell off near here and someone named it Tire Mountain.  Go figure. 

Wildflowers are in season (forgot the name of the purple one...ohwell)

Indian paintbrush. 

This is balsam root. 

This is the last of the little yellow ones that come out in the early spring.  

Mountain bikers use this trail and the trail maintenance crew has done a good job of clearing trees and keeping the trail open for hikers, bikers, horses, foxes and dogs. 

This tree is old.  No time to count these rings. 

Some of the views along the way. 

Ironically, Tire Mountain no longer has views as the trees have grown and blocked the open views of the mountains.   Speaking of Tire Mountain, I didn't actually make it to the top as the trail was in really bad shape for the last 1/2 miles.  Many a downed trees but some amazing flowers and views along the way. 

Where is the fox off to next?

 

Bear Mail (Round 2)

Hiya Gang.  Little Fox and my pal Unnamed Fox (he's the youngest fox in our Skulk).  My roommate went shopping and saw a deal on Strawberries and these berries are from a well named company. Even though grocery store berries aren't as tasty as farm berries us foxes have to support Fox owned brands.

Washing the berries (and prepping them later on in the day) is a human job. Us foxes supervised.  Do you see the honey in the background Jerry? 

While we are waiting for the berries to fully dry we decided to open a recent letter from Sandy.  

Yippe! After reading Droopy's post about Sandy's PostCard Saga I was waiting for one.  Looks like mine came a few days later than Droopy's but it arrived none-the-less.

Sandy is correct that I, Little Fox, am missing my hikes.  Some places are open but roommates are afraid they will be too crowded with all the other hikers so they have made the executive decision to wait-a-while before hiking again.  Interestingly, Sandy mentioned that some Canadian hikers are having a tough time maintaining the 6 feet social distancing.  I can't speak for the hiking trails but Sequoia has mentioned humans down here don't seem to understand the idea of 6 feet social distancing either.

Cool homemade stickers of the Alcatraz  Sandy wants to know if Reindeer has any good vegetarian and/or vegan recipes and he does!!!!!   Reindeer wants to know if you have ever had Jackfruit Tacos? You can make them Vegan and/or vegetarian.  They sell Jackfruit in the can at Trader Joes (you have those up there???).  Check out this recipe.  https://itdoesnttastelikechicken.com/easy-vegan-jackfruit-tacos/

Another neat handmade sticker of Muir Woods.  Muir Woods is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.....hmm I wonder if Alcatraz is part of that recreation area too? 

Reindeer chimed in again and said there is a restaurant in Eugene Oregon that replicates diner food but it's all vegan. Next time you come on down to Oregon Sandy I will make sure you get to the Cornbread Cafe.

https://www.registerguard.com/special/20180523/comfort-food-all-way-through-at-vegan-cornbread-cafe

Here's there menu:  http://cornbreadcafe.com/eugene-menu/

Waterfall Hike

Mt. Hood hasn't gotten much snow lately so to burn off some Christmas calories I decided to go hiking in the Gorge.  I am a little leary of this trail, the sign at the visitor center said there would be ice, but I haven't seen any yet.  I'll be careful.

This is supposed to be a steep hike.  I wonder if I can hitch a ride from my roommate?

Success!  There was room for me in the side pocket, looks like I am going to get a free ride up the hill. 

Lots of places for me to rest along the way. The water was running fast and loud  today. 

Trail junction, I have never been to Devil's Rest before, but I have been to Angel's Rest (it's nearby).  When I am really good my roommates take me to the Foxglove way trail, it's close to Angel's Rest.  Now that I think about it, I have only been to Foxglove way once, I wonder if I have only been good once?  Nah, nevermind there are more waterfalls to see. 

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My roommate says the waterfall on the left feeds into the waterfall on the right.  The waterfalls are moving fast today.  I saw lots of people on the trail but no ice or snow. Not bad for December.   Happy New Year. 

Holiday preparations

It's that time of year....time to decorate the tree and place my roommates gifts under the tree.  Good thing I got this stool from the garage to help give me a lift.

This is a beary old ornament, it is supposed to hold a candy cane in it, I wonder if my roommates ate the candy cane?  Maybe I should buy a couple candy canes tonight. 

Time to put another one up.  I think I have too many animal ornaments. It's hard to see but this one is a reindeer, I don't even want to MIT to how many bear ornaments I have. 

All done....

Next step, I will need to get the gifts. The boxes are awfully heavy, I wonder if my friend Big Bear can help me out. He really gets into the season.  In fact he always argues with my roommates on when he can put on the Santa hat, the rule is that Big Bear can wear the Santa hat on the day after Thanksgiving. Rules are rules after all (of course Big Bear disagrees when the rule are about him). 

Now that my roommates gifts are under the tree I can't help but notice that I should make a list to fill out the rest of the tree. I should do browsing of catalogs for my own gifts.

Ooh, Chicken, that's perfect for drunk fox and I. I better get some salmon jerky for Big Bear as a thank you for helping me move the gifts under the tree. 

Beer and Velveeta?

  My owners won't buy that for me, maybe they will buy some candy instead?  Hopefully some more catalogs come tomorrow so I can continue shopping. 

Beach, Ice Cream, and Cheese

Well that title basically sums up my after Thanksgiving hike today.  I was antsy yesterday after shopping so I convinced my roommates to take me to the beach today.  I was afraid I might get wet but it was worth a gamble.

Here is my first picture, I figured I would have my roommates take a picture of me before I started.  I think it might rain today, I hope I don't get wet.

We hiked a couple of miles and it was time to rest.  It's nice for them to give me a big stump to think about my day and rest my little fox feet.  "Hmmm, I wonder what I am going to have for dinner tonight?"

Finally, I made it to the beach.  My roommates are not thrilled with me hanging onto the fence.  The beach is so neat I just want to get closer (right now I am on a cliff that is about 500 feet above the beach).  I saw an old boat, lots of seagulls, and a ton of sand (no whales today).

  "Oooh look a friend, I think he is a chipmunk."   My roommate was lucky and caught a quick picture of him as he was running from a rock to the bench.  I hope he is not after my lunch.


Time to head back to the car so we can go to the cheese factory.






Don't worry, I am observing from a safe distance.  The cheese makers are packaging 20 pounds of cheddar.  I wonder if I can take a behind the scenes tour of the cheese factory?  Maybe I can just sneak into the factory, if I get a hairnet and a blue uniform I might just fit in.

 I was a good fox and never sneaked into the factory.  I decided to visit the gift shop instead. I got some cheese curds and saw someone buy some candied salmon (sorry Sandy, I didn't find the part of the store where they bought the candied salmon).  My roommates and I went for Ice Cream in the end, it was a tough choice between flavors: mudslide, huckleberry, or salmon flavored?

Thanksgiving preparations.

As you animals from the USA know Thanksgiving is tomorrow. I decided I wanted to help out with the preparations. I wanted to clean the oven. I did a great job. When I tried to put the door up and close the oven the door didn't go up.

 Yikes!!!! We have turkey to cook tomorrow and no working oven. I called a repair company, they are sending a person out tonight. I told my roommates I would take another look and try to fix it on my own.

No luck, I will have to wait for the repair company. 

Look at all this chopping I have to do.  Where should I start?

Hmmm not sure what to do. I will work on the onions first. They don't make anything my sized. I tried handling the knife, it's really big and took me a long time to cut all those onions. 

Next is the bread. I figured I would use an electric knife to help me out. 

It is too powerful for me. I know, I will ask my friend Drunk Fox (he is in rehab and been sober for 4 years) to help me out. He is much bigger than me but his arms are small, it might be tough to hold the knife. 

"Drunk Fox, can you come and help me."  "Sure Little Fox, I am on it. By the way, what happened to the oven?"  

See he looks similar to me, just bigger and a little drunk looking (although he is completely sober). He is a puzzle master, spends most of his time in a cafe drinking coffee and working on crossword puzzles. Once he got done with the electric knife he went back to working on his puzzles.  Since the cafe is  closed today for Thanksgiving preparations he had to work on the puzzles at home.

   Man, I hope the repairman comes soon......