DOIN' OUTDOOR SCHOOL

Last week was a spring highlight as I spent it as one of several instructors at a Christian Outdoor School which takes place at Camp Yamhill. This really fine facility is about fifteen miles west of Newburg, Oregon. It was given in 1954 by a family of loggers for the purpose of a church camp and retreat site and is run by a board which is responsibile for its operations, maintenance, and development. The original gift has been increased by recent additions to about 200 acres and is a splendid location for the educational weeks each spring that are devoted to studying the "great outdoors".

The students last week were all sixth graders from Christian schools in Oregon and Washington. It is to their credit and the quality of their own teachers who came along to participate too, that there was nary a spot of trouble or even disagreement of which I was aware. The kids were eager to learn out in the environment and soon became quite involved in their individual studies, and willingly did their various camp chores to help out. As complex as is the scheduling of the individual lessons and finding their locations, all went well and no one was misplaced.

The curriculum is Bible based and the teachers are all expert in their areas of instruction. God and His creation is the focus of all the lessons. My assignments this year included a portion of the soils studies, the forest ecology sections, and the water studies which related to pond health, habitat, and management.

In the soil centered sessions students examined the qualities of various soil types and permeability and also examined the layers of earth in an exposed bank along a creek. My portion concerned the layers of the forest floor. This includes the surface litter layer and plants growing in it, the layer of duff just below that including any kind of animal life in it we could discover, and the humus layer just below the duff. There is a wonderful lesson here of how former forests are being recycled into future forests,

My opportunity to introduce all the seventy-some students to forest ecology on one or another of four hikes almost did me in this year as my feet went into severe protest halfway through the day. Students were shown how to identify the major tree species present, to see the features and zones of the forest, including nurse logs and several specific characteristics of the forest which was logged off some eighty years ago, long before the present forest replaced it. Students also met up close a number of common plants of the forest floor which they learned to identify.

The portion of water studies I taught this year showed how the health of a well managed pond can be verified by observation and a few basic testing procedures. Students measured the pH of the water, the level of dissolved O2 present, the temperature, and the turbidity of the water as basic tests and compared thir results to normal ranges and to other prior results to check for changes. Then they were pointed to the variety and observed wellness of the animal life present: fish, salamanders, insects, birds and reptiles, all of which were represented around the pond.

A week with neat kids eager to learn, a grand and inspiring staff and director, and good food by the camp cooks and crew made this a wonderful experience once again.

[Sorry there is no picture to share. My camera, which I thought I had left at home, actually spent the week in the glove box of my van. Ooops!]

UNCLE DAVID AND THE FLEDGLING NIECES

Saturday, David flew his Cessna 150 over here for a short visit and lunch, which is always a nice treat for us. This time, before he headed home for dinner, he took each of the twins up for a brief airplane ride.

The girls each remarked later that one of the most interesting aspects of flying "low" (that means "not way up high like in a big jet") was that you can see so much and that everything below was really "tiny".

Their dad was working just a few miles directly east of the little country airport and on each flight an attempt was made to locate him to wave. He even started a small fire to help, but the day being one of the first nice weekend opportunities, fifty other folk in the same general area also had small yard fires going to clean up after winter, so that didn't help, and even phone calls between earthbound father and pilot uncle didn't precisely nail down the effort.

It was a nice try all around, and the twins think they would like to experience some more "low and slow" sightseeing someday. Meanwhile everyone is saying thanks to David for taking the time and effort to share his passion for flying with "the cousins" to his girls.

Y'ALL COME TO THE ART AUCTION

As part of the fund-raising effort to gather funds for building houses for the poor in Zorillo, Baja California, our congregation is going to hold an "Unknown Artist's Auction" this coming Friday. Members, friends, and other interested folk have been invited to contribute a piece of art, or a craft, or some other artistic creation to be sold in an outcall auction format. Everyone else is invited to come join the action as the items are displayed, auctioned, and awarded to the highest bidders.

Several of our "Favorite" local artists will be participating, and the auction will be a fun event with professional and amateur musicians providing entertainment, great cooks bringing their finest desserts, art items in various media available to the crowd, and even some opportunity to purchase the works of a few of our own beloved artists with whom we are already familiar. And maybe, just maybe, you will snatch up a special treasure by a "newly discovered" talent.

This amateur oil painter decided to join the effort (and fun?) which immediately brought up the dilemma of what picture to paint. Since the whole point is to be able to afford materials to construct several small homes for families in this very impoverished community near Ensenada, I thought I would use a photograph taken by one of the hundreds of people who have traveled there and participated in the project. I borrowed a bunch of photos and alas, I did not find an image that I thought was suitable or which even seemed fairly representative. My eventual desperate solution was to create a composite illustration showing several typical houses and some of my impressions of the surrounding dwellings and "conditions" where this annual mission effort occurs.

It was not really a bad idea, this "painting someone's photograph", but when it came to executing the plan,I found that even with the photos (which were almost exclusively focused on the people) I still did not have a very clear concept of how the neighborhood around the new houses really appeared. Still feeling a bit in the dark, I continued with the only strategy I had in mind, and I will hope that at least my illustration will do no harm to the impressions of others who have not been to Zorillo.

For those who have not seen any other pictures, Yes! the colors of the houses are almost exactly the colors the folk who get to live in the houses choose for the new residence. Very spicy, indeed! It must be a wonderful and happy feeling to receive such a gift, and I can see the bright colors as part of that joy, can't you?

OK. The auction is Friday, April 17th, at 6:00 pm at the Building located just west of Padden Parkway and 94th Avenue. A fifteen dollar bidder's fee includes your dessert(s) , the musical entertainment, and an evening of culture, humor, and edification, and probably a laugh or two - I heard today that the auctioneer is a chap named Ernie E.

HEAR YE, HEAR YE !! HELP !!

This is mainly a FYI for all who read my blog(s), occasional comments, e-mails, letters, texts, and other iscellaneous documents or attachents. This is also a serious plea for rescue from an annoying combination of problems.

My keyboard is getting "sticky" and "inattentive". Not sticky like with PBJ or honey, but with keys that hesitate when pressed or delay in popping back up caussing an additional extra letter, sometimes well into the next word. It's inattentive in the sense that several keys when hit don't always register the letter, so I get a number of mispellings based on missingg letters which are not the result of my own intended strokes (or maybe it is because of a stroke or other brain fizz-out). The space bar is the worst culprit; I am often going back to separate words thathave run together for lack of the requisite space that did not register. The letter "m' is the next most frequent villian. It often does not show up when entered.

Allthe rest is due to my poor typing or to self-generated errors and "creative spelling" due to fat fingers.

I have "blowed out" the rows and gaps around the keys with compressed air, used a fine tipped paint brush everywhere it would reach, and huffed and puffed, all to no avail. I'm close to appealing to a professional shop or even to anyone who has a viable idea that doesn't sound dangerous or deranged for help in cleaning up the problem.

I'm tired of having to retype or correct 50% of everything I key into text. What solutions have you used to solve this problem??

PS I did not correct this blog so you can see up with what I am having to put!