A Place to Overwinter

We spent the afternoon at the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge, watching swans, hawks, eagles, and waterfowl of all sorts. Our best guess, after poring through the Sibley Guide to Birds and the Smithsonian's Birds of North America, is that this handsome bird is a juvenile Red-Tailed Hawk. The refuge is located on the Washington side of the Columbia River, north of Vancouver.

In addition to gorgeous grassland and wetland scenery, and more birds than you can imagine, the area is also home to what used to be Cathlapotle Village -- a Chinook village that Lewis and Clark visited on their way to and from Fort Clatsop. For your amusement, here is a quote from Capt. William Clark's journal, dated November 5, 1805, describing a night at what is now the Ridgefield NWR:

I slept but very little last night for the noise kept up during the whole of the night by the swans, geese...brant [and] ducks on a small sand island...they were immensley numerous and their noise horrid.

(Captain Clark had many strengths but spelling was not one of them.)

Today's front yard critter count:
Raccoons: 6 (Old Tailless Guy, his Little Woman, Not-so-Crabby Mama's 4 teenagers)
Deer: 3 (the 3 does).
Natural history note: Since the 4 teenagers' mama wasn't present this morning, the youngest doe spent a considerable amount of time standing quite close to them, observing their goings-on with deep interest.

Eagle Eye

Today was a glorious day at the Nisqually Wildlife Refuge. Here are some facts and figures about this magical place:

The Refuge provides nesting and resting areas for wading birds, raptors, songbirds and migratory waterfowl on 3000 acres of salt and freshwater marshes, grasslands, riparian, and mixed forest habitats. Over 175 species of birds have been identified at the Refuge and during the spring migration 20,000 ducks and 300 geese find food, shelter and water there. The Refuge has recently worked to restore the historic estuary by breaching century old dikes and reconnecting the area with Puget Sound.

This photo shows one of 4 adult eagles we saw keeping guard in the willows, accompanied by 5 or 6 completely brown juveniles. While we were there, several flocks of Lesser Canada Geese flew in, circling and honking, then landing and feeding. They spend January and February at the refuge, fattening up before they migrate north in the spring. It was such a beautiful day and the exhibition was so amazing that I wish we'd had lawn chairs, fleece blankets, and couple of thermoses of hot chocolate.

Today's front yard critter count:
Raccoons: 9 (both mamas and all of their 7 playful teenagers)
Deer: 3 (two adult does and a teenager)

Encouragement Along the Way

"Sometimes" by Sheenagh Pugh

Sometimes things don't go, after all,
from bad to worse. Some years, muscadel
faces down frost, green thrives, the crops don't fail,
sometimes a man aims high, and all goes well.

A people sometimes will step back from war,
elect an honest man, decide they care
enough that they can't leave some stranger poor.
Some men become what they were born for.

Sometimes our best efforts do not go
amiss, sometimes we do as we meant to.
The sun will sometimes melt a field of sorrow
that seemed hard frozen: may it happen for you.

Good poem, eh?

Today's front yard critter count:
Raccoons: 9 (both families - 2 mamas, 7 teenagers)
Deer: 5 (two families, all does)

6 a.m. - Muttley in the Morning

Having Muttley the Dog has brought a whole new level of structure to my life, including the requirement to get up pretty darned early in the morning to take him out. I've seen more sunrises in the last year than in all my prior years put together.

But that's what love does, I guess. Pre-dawn walks with Muttley are a teeny tiny example of what Viktor Frankl said:

Those who have a "why" to live, can bear with almost any "how."

Including getting up early.

Today's front yard critter count:
Raccoons: 4 (Crabby Mama and her 3 teenagers).
Deer: 3 (a doe and two yearlings)

A Final Thought on the Pleasures of Inefficiency

A few weeks ago our electric coffee grinder died of natural causes at an extremely advanced age. In dire need of a substitute until we could get to our local MegaLoMart to buy another electric grinder, we decided to try my grandparents' ancient hand-cranked grinder.

We fully expected that use of the ancient grinder would cause large amounts of boredom, irritation, and grumpiness.

Boy were we wrong. Even though the grinder is old and worn, the wood and decorated cast iron are beautiful to look at and fun to handle. The fragrance of the beans fills the kitchen because there's no sealed lid on the top. Grinding coffee now takes a bit more time but the whole experience is so pleasurable that the added time feels more like a treasured ritual than like a chore.

We no longer plan to buy another electric grinder.

Today's front yard critter count:
Raccoons: 4 (Crabby Mama and her 3 teenagers)
Deer: 0

A Bit More on the Potential Pleasures of Inefficiency

I love this quote from The Manifesto on the Future of Food, quoted by Carlo Petrini in his wonderful book Slow Food Nation: Why Our Food Should Be Good, Clean, and Fair:

The entire conversion from local small-scale food production for local communities, to large-scale export-oriented monocultural production has also brought the melancholy decline in of the traditions, cultures, and cooperative pleasures and convivialities associated for centuries with community based production and markets, thereby diminishing the experience of direct food-growing, and the long celebrated joys of sharing food grown by local hands from local lands.

Question: Which feels better, shopping at the local farmers market or shopping at the local SuperMegaloMart? Why?

Today's front yard critter count:
Raccoons: 5 (Not-so-Crabby Mama and her 4 teenagers)
Deer: 0

A Cynic Knows the Price of Everything and the Value of Nothing (Oscar Wilde)

Since mid-summer, our twice-daily walks with Muttley the Dog have taken place in the Big Woods behind our house, rather than on the rural, gravel road where we had previously walked. This morning, as Muttley and I were meandering slowly down a deer-made path to one of the cedar groves, I reflected on the differences between the two sorts of walks. Rural gravel roads are nice enough -- trees line the road, the horses in the nearby corral are generally good for a laugh, and sometimes passing neighbors stop for a friendly chat. But a walk in the Big Woods is an entirely different level of experience. Winding paths with an uneven tread require a slow, deliberate pace (unless you enjoy ending up face down in the leaves) and that slow pace allows time for the environment to make itself known. There's time to notice edible Chanterelles a hundred yards from the back door and red-topped toadstools straight out of a fairy tale. There's time to stand still and hear the raindrops hitting the maple leaves and to notice that the ground is almost always bone dry under the cedar trees. There's time to see where the raccoon trails go and the locations of the Douglas Fir cone middens where squirrels sit to strip the seeds from the cones.

The distinction between the two sorts of walks got me thinking about a recent comment from a dear friend that Wal-Mart and the other big box stores might be good because they're efficient and everything costs less. I wonder. Are price and efficiency really the only pertinent considerations? Or is it worth asking what sorts of goods Wal-Mart and the other big box stores sell? Are their products beautiful, functional, and long-lasting? Where do those products come from? What does it cost the planet to make those goods and ship them around the globe? Are company employees paid a living wage? Do they receive decent health benefits? Do company profits enrich the local community? Are communities healthier and more vibrant before or after the big box store moves in?

Could it be that patronizing the big box stores is akin to striding efficiently down the straight, flat, sterile gravel road, missing all the sounds, the smells, the twists and turns of the un-roaded Big Woods? Is true value being sacrificed in the name of price -- is there greater pleasure elsewhere?

Today's front yard critter count:
Raccoons: 5 (Crabby Mama and her 3 teenagers; the New Guy)
Deer: 0