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)

Raccoon Men, continued

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

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...

Good Day for Birds!

Today Ben and I hiked up Dan's Trail in Corvallis. We didn't see many other hikers, but we did see a grey jay and a northern flicker. The grey jay looked a bit like an overgrown chickadee; at first I thought it was a shrike. It didn't look much like the grey jays out East!

I'm still only about 80% certain this is a grey jay.

Hmm.

A Quiet Day in the Wetlands

I didn't bring my camera, but today Ben and I hiked the Jackson-Frazier Wetland in Corvallis and it was amazing. We've had tons of rain and flooding lately, so we weren't sure we'd be able to get in. However, after the flooded entrance, the boardwalk itself was clear of water. The water level almost reached the top of the boards, and slopped up onto them under the weight of our feet. Red-winged blackbirds staked out the highest trees and called to each other across the wetlands, which were unnaturally quiet due to the floods. A lovely hike!

Cake!

Screeeeeech

Our newest obnoxious neighbor:

Bite of Benton, Tiny Weasel Update, and Screech

Today Ben and I went to A Bite of Benton, where you pay $10 for five "bites" of food, drink, or dessert. The desserts were the best: we each had a small cup of Francesco's gelato, plus brought an extra brownie home for later. Now Ben is off to work and I'm back in my office, which I escaped yesterday for a board game night in Albany.
Tiny Weasel is fine and reports that the top layer of sutures (which she chewed out) was quite unnecessary. She's been reintegrated with the other ferrets, who seem pleased to see her again. Here's a video of her drinking water ten minutes ago, to show she is alive and well for those of you who voiced concern (i.e. my mom):

This video, or something close to it, is what Ben pictures happening in my mind whenever I have a vacant look in my eye.
Out on our deck, we've traded our original scrub jay, Peanut, for a new scrub jay who we've named Screech. This morning, Ben came home to find him sitting on the bowl of peanuts screaming his lungs out at two other scrub jays. Even though he sometimes wakes us up at 6 a.m., I prefer Screech to Peanut, as the latter had developed a taste for my strawberries. All of a sudden, my plants seem to be producing a lot more berries.

Kung Pao Chicken and Dimple Hill

This evening Ben and I hiked up Dimple Hill in Corvallis. The trail going up wasn't impressive, pretty much a gravel forest road the whole way, but the view from the top is one of the better ones here in town.

Afterward, we cooked up Kung Pao chicken, and now we're in the lounging around the house stage of the day. Tomorrow, we're going back to Eugene to pick up the moped and watch Whale Rider with the Eugene Book and Social Club. One of these days, I should post the recipe Ben uses for Kung Pao chicken since it's really good.

Jackson-Frazier Wetland

Another short, easy walk today: the Jackson Frazier Wetland. The last time we tried this trail, the boardwalk was flooded by spring rains. This time, it was perfect.

We saw about four Western garter snakes. This one was quite bold and didn't want to surrender his spot on the boardwalk:

The garter snakes out here are really pretty, and seem to like water much more than the ones back East. All in all, a short 0.8 mile walk, but worth doing for the wetlands and the wildlife. Probably a really good place to spot a muskrat at dusk.

The Homestead Trail and Da Vinci Days

Yesterday Ben's back was hurting so we went for a short, easy walk which usually helps it. On the Homestead Trail in McDonald Forest, we found a European red slug that looked kind of like a morel:

It was also Da Vinci Days here in Corvallis yesterday, where people build crazy pedal-powered vehicles and ride them on the roads, up a sand dune, through mud, and finally down the Willamette River. We drove around the race area and found a few interesting "bikes":

And finally, yesterday Ben took a photo of Ichabod that makes him look like an overly cute Japanese anime creature:

So that was this weekend. Now to write a few articles and clean out my spiny mouse's cage. The next few days we're both going to be working like mad, and then later this week hopefully we'll go on a longer hike. Hopefully the weather will clear up, too!

McCulloch Peak

Today Ben and I hiked up McCulloch Peak, the highest peak in McDonald Forest, with our friends Phil and Katie. Granted, it's a tiny peak at 2,200 feet, but a decent hike all the same on forest roads surrounded by pleasant woods. The hike uphill definitely wore me out! At the top, we had a picnic of potato salad, French bread, cheese, salami, and other foodstuffs Ben picked up from Market of Choice (I admit it, I just wanted to use the word foodstuffs). Ben took some stunning photos of this cornflower/bachelor's button on the way back down:

Wheels

Ben bought a moped! It's a Vespa Piaggio Ciao with a 49 cc. engine, just under the size where you need to register it. Ben's excited because it's a moped and inherently awesome. I'm excited because it means I can take the car on backpacking trips while he's at work. I'm not sure why it looks so tiny in this photo:

In other news, I have a mountain bike which is nowhere near as fast as a moped. Quite often, it goes the speed of a pedestrian as I walk it up a hill. But it's still pretty awesome, too. Yay for two-wheeled mobility!

Bikin', Hikin', Joggin'

Since posting last, I've returned to Lower Dan's Trail a couple times, once with my bike and once with Ben. Biking it was a blast -- at least, that one downhill mile was a blast. After that, it turned into me walking my bike up a lot of hills and falling off once when I realized I have no idea how to ride my bike down the sharp corner of a switchback. Expert mountain biker, I am not. Besides, when you're on a bike you're much less likely to find stashes of oyster mushrooms like so:

Today I jogged/walked the New Growth and Old Growth trails at McDonald Forest. I'm hoping that incorporating biking and jogging into my routine will get me a bit more in shape. Judging by how much I ached after biking, the plan is succeeding!

Another Use for Lion's Mane

Today I had a lion's mane "lobster" roll for lunch! I cooked it the same as before, but placed it in a toasted hot dog bun. Not the most fancy recipe, but delicious nonetheless.

Fuzzy Creatures

Last weekend at Mount Pisgah, Ben and I found what looked like a large, furry orange and black ant. Turns out it was a velvet ant or "cow-killer," a solitary wasp with an extremely painful sting. Glad I didn't touch it!
Yesterday, the theme of fuzziness continued when we found the following on Lower Dan's Trail at McDonald Forest:

Their name is appropriate: cat's ears. Lower Dan's Trail (five miles, moderate according to my "Corvallis Trails" book) was incredibly beautiful. I think I may have found the perfect place to bring my mountain bike, or at least return for the occasional hike. We found tons of blue flowers, too:

I'm not sure what they are; I still need to pick up a wildflower guide. I also found a big pile of oyster mushrooms on a log, but when I grabbed one it had been slimed by a banana slug! I am starting to see the hazards of banana slugs...
Tonight, it's back to work for both of us, which is kind of ironic since it's Friday night and everyone around here is celebrating OSU getting out.

The Queen Ant

I've always wanted to have an ant colony, but the ones you buy in stores only come with workers. Without a queen ant, you just have a bunch of workers running around meaninglessly until they die, not a colony.
So this evening, when Ben found a queen ant beside the refrigerator, my first thought was "ant farm!" We placed an empty plastic bottle inside a glass jar, surrounded it with dirt, and closed off the top with bug netting: instant ant farm. Now, we wait...

Future ant farm... I hope

Cute Creature of the Day

I think I've caught Ben's cold, but that didn't prevent us from taking a short walk in McDonald Forest. I found a Pacific Sideband snail who was pretty neat (they fire love darts at each other when courting!), but the award for cutest creature goes to the Pacific chorus frog that Ben found nestled on a fern:

The flower I found last week that looked like purple asparagus has blossomed. Turns out it's spotted coralroot (Corallorhiza maculata), an orchid that parasitizes fungi! It's kind of hard to see in this photo, but each tiny flower is a perfect little orchid.

Peavy Arboretum and Firehouse Café

Today was our last day off before Ben returns to the hospital for a stretch and I return to my various editing and writing responsibilities. This afternoon we hiked around Peavy Arboretum, where the wildflowers are in full bloom. We saw a ton of gorgeous purple Oregon irises along with these flowers, which I could not identify (gotta get a plant book!):

After our hike, we paid a visit to the Firehouse #5 Café, which is located right at the northernmost trailhead for Peavy. The "potato smiles" were adorable until you took a bite and returned for more ketchup, then they just became grisly.

The food was so-so, but I'm still happy to have found the place since it's the closet thing to a diner I've seen since leaving Connecticut. Plus, they have bacon waffles! We'll be back.