clearlyconfused: A Neighborhood Walk

When we bought our lot on Rainbow Lane about 4 years ago, one of the things I thought about was how much I looked forward to walking the one and one-half mile loop. There is virtually no traffic, a ton of great birds all the time, and some of the most interesting people you will ever meet. Usually I walk with Paula. She is a "mission" walker. That is, she is on a mission, and nothing gets in the way of getting the walk done. Occasionally I go alone, and here are a few pictures I took the last couple of walks.

Yesterday I heard the chattering of this little Rufous Hummingbird (about 3 and a quarter inches). I caught her sitting up in a Doug Fir just swinging her head from side to side. She is one of the many bird species that you can see on any walk!

In a post earlier this year I talked about my friend Mike, down the road who did our backyard "buck" art. He works essentially with wood scraps and makes panels and other "marquetry" pieces. At first glance his place is a bit odd and some even say unsightly. But I have grown to love going by. His fence panels each represent a part of his life's journey, and as a very spiritual Native American, he is really fun to listen to. He loves the outdoors, and even brought some "Wild Turkey" chicks to the neighborhood a few years ago. We see the grown up Turkey's wandering around today.

The front of Mike's place. Notice the flag flying in the background.

Here are a couple of pictures of the toughest "Tom" in the neighborhood. He still is wary when I walk by, but seems to be getting used to me. One day I surprised him as I came around the corner, and he displayed as follows!

When we moved to Scholls in the mid 80's, Rainbow Lane was notorious as the slums, ghetto, other side of the tracks, etc. There is a now closed labor camp just down the street from us. There were always sirens and squad cars there which we could see from our place up on the hill to the north. I frankly was afraid to go down there much, and the reputation in the community was terrible. When I saw the ad on Craig's list back in 2005, all it said was "large lot on river". When I realized it was just down the hill on Rainbow Lane, I had mixed emotions. On the one hand it was still pretty much the slums, but on the other, it was on the river in a beautiful spot, and two minutes from the farm, where we could easily manage a construction project. Within hours, we made the decision to buy the old flooded out house, and the rest is Rainbow House history.

The road remains eclectic to say the least. Some beautiful homes have been built, but there remain some really sad properties. As I have gotten to know the owners on my daily walks however, the outer presentation of their homes certainly doesn't represent the beauty of their spirit.

Ron Latt is a good example of these "salt of the earth" neighbors. His son recently lost his job and moved onto Ron's lot in a motor home. Ron took it upon himself to acquire this home and move it onto the lot, set up on a flood proof basement for his son and grandchildren. Ron works harder than anyone I have ever seen, and although this home has looked like this for several months now as he ran out of funds, I know he will work to finish it for the family.

Another home just up the road is Bobby and Kathleen's. It sure doesn't look like much, but in fact is a really cozy "cabin" that this firefighter and his artist wife love living in among the wildlife on the river.

Just up the road from them is a home with about an acre and a half where the owner raises Llama's. Frankly I don't think the yard looks very attractive, but again I have come to really love talking to the Llama's as I go by each day. The owner here is a single guy who works hard to take care of his livestock, and you can't help but appreciate someone who gets up and does something.

We frequently run into other neighbor's when we walk. It may be Kermit, our retired friend who lives in Tigard and just comes out to "farm" his little acre on the river. He has cancer and will be in for another round of treatment next month. We really hope he makes it. Often we see one of our several neighbors with their horses out for a walk or a ride. In the next picture is the dog who often joins us at the beginning of our walk and returns home when we finish.

I even love the feeling of this last half mile as we go down to our house at the end on the right. One of the quirks about the lane is our common water system. A well under this old shed serves about 40 of us. We spend about $300k this summer upgrading the pipes, but a couple of months ago as I was filling the hot tub it was coming out brown. Turns out that the iron oxide in the walls of the well had sloughed off into the well and we had to flush it out. After a few hours we got it cleaned up, and all is well.

It is really fun to live in a neighborhood, but be in the "country" at the same time. I love the walk and almost can't wait to see what will be there next time. Earlier this week I got surprised by a huge raptor leaving a tree in front of me. I got off a few shots with the 300mm and am really excited to think that we may have a Bald Eagle nesting in the neighborhood. This is definitely a female by virtue of her size.