RealWest Sound In the RealWest every day is new day. Here you never run out of places to explore–each with a unique experience. Now, prepare your home for sale, plan your move and call me today 541-556-1412. I can’t be a fishing guide but I will guide you to a perfect property in Western Oregon, the heart of the RealWest. Go to http://www.hammerquist.com for featured homes in Western Oregon.
Click photo for a virtual tour of an historic steam powered sawmill.
Northwest of Eugene, tucked away in the Coast Range, not far from Alpine, you will find the only steam powered sawmill still producing wood products.
My father, Pete Hammerquist, was a steel fabrication contractor when I was growing up. I remember visiting these mills with him in his old Ford pickup. He’d park and leave me in the cab while he did business with the mill operators. The pond operation was facinating. You can still get a taste of how they worked by clicking on this link to the past.
Click for More Christmas Tree Facts
- Click for the facts on Christmas Trees!
Trees are a fact of life in the RealWest. Especially evergreen trees. Over 7.5 million Christmas trees are harvested in Oregon each year and another 2.3 million are harvested in Washington State. So when you drape your tree with lights, garlands, ornaments and tinsel please think of us out here. It’s really tough to have to look at evergreens all year long. But somebody has to do it.
Merry Christmas from the RealWest folks!
Click for the facts, all of the facts and nothing but the facts!
Don’t ever go barefoot in your yard in Candy Kitchen or anyplace else in the great Southwest.
- Click photo for more prickly pear information
Prickly pears are about as ubiquitous in the Southwest semi-desert plateaus as blackberries are in the Pacific Northwest. Like blackberries they have a natural defense mechanism that keeps marauding animals and humans at a distance. Blackberries have thier thorns and prickly pears have sharp little spines that would tear up anyone who messes with them.
Click photo for El Morrow Article
The second photo was taken at El Morrow National Monument a few miles from Candy Kitchen. This batch of pears could probably give the Roadrunner a bad time. Anyway, their fruit is ripe and the pickens are free. They produce high levels of pectin so any down-to-earth organic vegan ought to really appreciate jelly made from this fruit.
Click this photo for more on the Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary.
Play Li’l Red Riding Hood Nightlife in Candy Kitchen always includes howling! The Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary charges admission but the wolf howls are free. The Wolf Ranch, as the locals call it, houses about fifty neutered wolves that have been rescued from unscrupulous breeders and citizens who realize that keeping a wolf may be a little unsettling to their neighbors. The sanctuary appears to be doing an excellent job in protecting and nurturing their captive charges. They are housed in fenced pens that are large enough to provide companionship for small packs of two to four animals yet provide adequate separation that prevents unruly behaviors such a fights for dominance amoung alphas. (We should treat politicians this way.)
Besides the Wolf Ranch, Candy Kitchen is famous for another activity. During prohibition an illegal moonshine still operated nearby. To conceal their activity the operaters had the sugar sent to “Candy Kitchen.” When prohibition ended so did the moonshiners but the name stuck. Now there are quite few residences on patches of BLM land in two to forty acre land parcels.
We parked our fifth wheel at my brother’s place, near Pinehill, NM. It was close enough to hear the wolves in the evening. When you’re fifty miles from any large city and at 7200 feet elevation the stars are brilliant. A place to retire? My brother did and he loves it. More in my next article.
PS: You can’t find experiences like this when you cling to the cities and stay in motels and hotels. We love the RV life.
House on Siuslaw River. It's more than the fish sometimes.
Curt Currey recently treated me and two friends to a fall trip on the Siuslaw. The odometer on my truck passed 77,777 miles on the way over to Florence so I knew we would get lucky that morning.
Was it luck or was it Bill's great fishing prowess. You'll have to ask him.
Bill Kent was the first to drop his sardine into the water and before it reached the bottom it was “FISH ON!” Nice 25 pound Chinook. Bill boated the Chinook, tagged it, put on another sardine, and dropped it back in the water. Within two minutes he had another, same size. Luck? Later that morning I caught a huge 20 pound Silver (Coho). Fought like mad, too. We had to release it as silvers are endangered. There were plenty ten years ago but most of the runs were destroyed for some reason. There has been a massive effort to restore the runs and I believe they are coming back now.
Curt Currey with the day's catch
Most of us can go hours before the fish bite, especially when you have three hours to go before the tide is running in. Besides luck I would give Curt the credit. He is a perfectionist when it comes to salmon fishing. Thank for a great day, Curt. Click photo for more on Curt.
Williams gets her pumpkin seeds (lower left) and dried cranberries locally with the help of FoodHub, a virtual marketplace that was founded by the Portland-based Ecotrust nonprofit organization. (Click photo for Food-hub.org)
Cumbres and Toltec RR train
Play ChooChoo Music Chama isn’t Chattanooga but for anyone who appreciates old steam railroads Chama’s the place to go. Chama is the end of the line for the oldest steam locomotive, narrow gauge railroad in the U.S. We had parked our RV in Cortez, Colorado at the KOA. The following morning we drove 150 miles to Chama, New Mexico. They bussed us up to Cumbres, elevation 10,022 feet, where we boarded the Cumbres and Toltec Railroad for a thrilling trip along the canyon rim and down to Antonito, Colorado. At noon we stopped for a delicious lunch of turkey with all the trimmings. At the end of the day we were bussed back to Chama. Next morning we moved on to Pinehill, New Mexico. Click photo for a travel brochure.
The train rolls past alpine meadows and mountain creeks and then plunges along the rim of a breath taking gorge. If you’re afraid of heights don’t look down from the open air car!
The Fall Weather was Perfect for site seeing in the open car.
Forest patchwork in Rockies
At the 10,000 foot level, the aspens were golden with patches of red broken by emerald spruce groves. What a treat.
A cool place in the Land of Enchantment
Play Cool Water Cool, clear, water lies at the base of El Morro Monument. South of I-40 in Northwest New Mexico take Highway 53 to an enchanting bit of history. Travelers have been carving their graffiti into the smooth sandstone even before the Spaniards arrived. The first inscription carved at El Morro was that of Governor Don Juan de Onate in 1605, 15 years before the pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock.
Lockmead Farms and Dairymart prove that local field-to-market farming works. The Gibson family has made sustainability more than an empty catch phrase for four generations. Click the picture and learn how the Gibsons market products from their 3000 acre farm west of Junction City to dozens of their bought-and-paid-for Dairymart stores throughout the Willamette Valley. The farm and dairy, located a few miles apart, allow the products to reach the consumer in 48 hours so they don’t have to do weird things to the milk or the cows for that matter.
Click for details on how Lockmead Dairy operations
Click the cow photo for more Lockmead Dairy’s website.
Mike Hammerquist graduation is today
Your future Wichita Lineman. I hope he decides to stay in the RealWest where he belongs. Play Wichita Lineman