Freedom of the Internet

Ben and I have gone on a few hikes recently; I did a short backpacking trip to Rosary Lakes, we went camping on the coast, and we hiked up Iron Mountain. However, instead of posting photos of sand dunes and trees, I've instead decided to post a whole bunch of photos of Rocky Weasel because I miss him and because it's the Internet and we're allowed to post whatever we wish:

Goodbye, Rocky

Ben and I lost a big piece of ourselves last week--Rocky Weasel. Born in September, 2005 and originally from a pet store in Hudson, New York, Rocky (along with myself) had the misfortune to live with my ex-boyfriend Geoff for the early portion of his life. When I came back from a caretaker gig in the Vermont wilderness, I liberated Rocky W., along with his cohorts Little Miss (aka Tiny Weasel) and Ichabod from the kennel where he'd left them. They came to live with me and Ben in New Haven, Connecticut in December, an event that shall forever be remembered as the infamous Weasel Christmas of 2006.
Mistrustful from being abandoned, Rocky had quite the fierce bite when we first acquired him. Eventually, he learned to trust us--becoming the sweetest, smartest pet I've ever known. Rocky picked up tricks easily, became a rock star on YouTube, and accompanied us on many adventures, including our cross-country move to Oregon. He has partied like a rock star at a New Orleans hotel during Mardi Gras, taken in sweeping views of the Grand Canyon, and pooped in the corners of countless La Quinta hotels across the continental United States. Despite the YouTube fame of his "Up" trick, far more impressive was his ability to roll on command, known locally in our household as "Rocky, Roll." A holdover from our aquarist days in Connecticut, he had a sweet tooth for algae wafers and would perform his trick the second he smelled the treat.
More important, Rocky was a real little person. He had the ability to look you in the eye, fret when Ben or I was gone, and, I think, to love us, too. We'll miss you, Rocky Weasel.

Rocky Weasel (Sept., 2005 - July, 2012)

Ben's Birthday at Fall Mountain Lookout

For Ben's birthday, we rented a Forest Service fire tower on top of a mountain in eastern Oregon for two nights. It was amazing! The tower was outfitted with a stove, a futon, a fridge--all the comforts of home packed into a room about the size of my office, with windows all around looking out over the mountains:

Here's the fire tower from the outside:

Bringing the ferret cage up the narrow stairs was pretty exciting... as was the drive up many miles of steep gravel Forest Service roads. We sectioned off part of the room for our ferrets and then baked a shepherd's pie our first night out. The next day, we drove out to the Painted Hills, which pretty much beat all my expectations for it. Here are a few photos to give you an idea:

It was probably the most alien-looking landscape I've ever seen; it looked computer-generated. We spent most of the day hiking around the hills, then drove back to the cabin to check on the ferrets (who seemed to enjoy the vacation). Later, Ben and I went out for a meal at the Snaffle Bit restaurant in John Day. The place looked like a dive from the outside, but when they realized that we didn't have a reservation, the waitress placed us in a separate room with seating for six and a chandelier--absurdly fancy, but appropriate for Ben's birthday! Dinner was perfect, then back to the cabin for a spectacular sunset.

It was a great vacation! I am definitely looking forward to booking more Forest Service cabins in the future--they have a whole series of fire towers in Oregon and Washington that you can rent out in the mountains for about $40 a night. Plus, ours came complete with a great set of binoculars, through which Ben spotted our first mountain blue bird. We'll be back, Fall Mountain Lookout!

Raccoon Men, continued

Here are some photos of the five baby raccoons that lived in my office last week:

Raccoon Men

On Monday, an army of five baby raccoons moved into my home office, on loan from Chintimini Wildlife Center. I can now definitively answer the question: do raccoons make good pets? No, no, they do not.

But they are damn cute.

They need formula three times a day, and they muck up their cage pretty badly, so it needs cleaning about twice a day. That's OK, it's not like I was going to get any work done in my office this week anyway, right?

Each one is marked with nail polish on the ear so we can tell them apart; at first it was pretty tricky making sure they each get the proper amount at feeding time, but it's getting easier. Ben rigged up an awesome hammock, and we sacrificed one of our mushroom growing logs for Raccoonlandia.

Today they munched on apples and blueberries, along with their dog chow. Tomorrow, I'm going to cut up the watermelon I bought them and share it out, and pick up some pine cones and other toys. There's one female, but the rest are male, so I just call them the RaccoonMen. More photos to come!

Baby Mouse!

One day I'm going to look back at this photo and think: This is how it all started! That day will probably occur sometime next week. Stay tuned.

Marys Peak

Ben and I finally made it up Marys Peak! It's a mountain not too far from Corvallis, but last year the road was closed each time we tried to go up. At 4,097 feet it's sort of a West Coast parallel of Camel's Hump (4,083), so I was expecting a similar peak. Sadly, the top is nothing like Camel's Hump; it's quite developed, with a huge fence and cell towers and right now the top essentially looks like a grassy field, complete with picnic table. The hike was nice, but the peak cannot compare. I'm hoping that the "real" mountains out in the Cascades will look a bit more dramatic!

The hike itself was lovely. The trillium are blooming, the morels are out but hiding, and I found a pair of gigantic sunglasses on the trail:

Afterwards, we headed to the Woodsman, a Thai restaurant/American bar with logging decor (think lots of saws). They have the most generous plates of fried tofu I've ever seen. An excellent day, but Ben can keep the sunglasses. Maybe elsewhere I will find some morels...