Civil War

A little bit different then my usual but we went on a trip to Tennessee to see my cousin and uncle in 2010 and it was the first time I had been that far east. Other then that I had only traveled the states that touch the pacific or ones that touch those states.  We spent 3 weeks traveling and went to 16 states.

Being from Oregon I must admit I never thought much about the Civil war except how sad it was and how in the world could families fight each other.  I watched the movie Shenandoah about 4 times and cried my heart out every time. What a sad time in our history.  I have friends that are really into the history of the Civil War but until I went to Tennessee that is about all I knew.

Being an Emergency Medical Tech on the ambulance and in the Emergency room of our local hospital anything medical always interests me.  All the injuries that occurred during the Civil War and this is the tools they had to work with.  Talk about a PTSD, I can't even imagine how hard it was to try and treat people with only these tools at your disposal and they did not have the pain killers etc. we use today either.  Sometimes the people they were treating were friends and family which always adds extra stress to them.  I mean most of these are tools you can find in your shop.

I have to think about my dad too as he had his hands cut off in an accident at a mill and they sewed them back on but part of his finger died and they had to take it off and he was amazed that not only was he awake as they did a local on his arm they used a chisel and hammer like he had in his shop.  They did the same thing in these days except they did not have a local IV to put the arm to sleep. Our ancestors were tough people.

I also learned that you can go from New York to New Orleans by water. That really almost makes the eastern USA an Island.  You can go from the Atlantic ocean to New York and down the river system to New Orleans.  I found that amazing and I don't ever remember learning that in school.

Also can you just imagine what a cannon ball would do to a body. You would not have to remove the leg it would blow it clear to the next county.  We had a small canon once that did like a 1/2" ball and it was deadly about ripping things apart.  They could protect the whole river from this location.

  A monument that was located at the park.  I so wished I would have had more time after going here to go to other places in Kentucky and Tennessee and the rest of the south and see some of our original history of this nation.  I sometimes think that people today do not appreciate how hard our ancestors had  populating this country and the wars they had to fight. It was not an easy life but I think people liked each other better as they had to depend on each other to survive.

The are some of the cabins that the soldiers lived in, sometimes many soldiers lived in one cabin. The roofs have had to be redone but most of it is still original.  Inside was heated by the little fireplace and my understanding they also cooked on that fire.  We complain about how small our houses are and cold, the wind had to blow through there.  I have been in some log cabins in Alaska though that were pretty warm as long as you did not open the door or put any type of separation up to keep the wood stove heat from circulating. The problem with a fireplace is that it also sucks some of the hot air up and does not heat anywhere near as good as a wood stove does.

 The upper and lower river had nothing to do with elevations but if it was running upstream or downstream.

We were back there for Thanksgiving I can just imagine how pretty this area is in spring and when the fall leaves are colored all pretty.  The sure said it right when they said the rolling hills of Tennessee.  One of the hardest things for me was once we were past the Rocky mountains it was pretty flat everywhere but beautiful in its own way.  I was surprised as everyone said I would be bored once I crossed the Rockies but being from the west I found it fascinating in its simple way and the trees and the way the Missouri was like a snake you crossed over off and on all day long and it was going a different direction I think every time we crossed it until we got closer to the Mississippi. I can't wait to find the other photos somewhere as I work through my old photos. I loved the Black Hills of the Dakotas too.  So much to see and so much to imagine.  I could see the pictures in my mind of what the settlers must have been thinking when they saw it for the first time. It was really fun coming back and thinking about what the people were thinking when they came west and saw the mountains.

So many things came to my mind on this trip. It was very stimulating for me to see places I had read about and found that many times what was in my mind was nothing like I saw. The pictures you see are of the tourist spots and so different then getting off the freeway and going the back roads. I had more of a history lesson then I ever got in school by far.

Even the photos of Mt. Rushmore I did not think was like it was when we saw it. It was more impressive in the photos and always looked a lot bigger then it did in person but I am so glad we saw It.

After this little short album of photos I saw I can't wait to find the rest of our trips here and there. I will tell you that none of these states have anything on Oregon even if they are beautiful I was still glad to be home in Oregon. I am very proud of our state.

Veterans day in Madras, Oregon 2015

We are a small rural town in Central Oregon but we love our veterans.  This veterans day dawned cold, wet and dreary but many braved the conditions to support veterans.

We have a memorial at our airport for our veterans. The airport was built during world war II. We also have an air museum with world war II planes in it.  We have a memorial down town for one of our veterans that lost his life in Afghanistan.

 The air museum has a huge, and I mean HUGE flag out front that can be seen from Highway 26 which comes from Portland.

Right across the road from the museum in the field between the museum and highway 26 was full of geese flying south who stopped to eat. This is just a small section of them. Winter is on the way in Central Oregon.

Our local ROTC group who came for the parade, the line up was at 1pm and the parade started at 2 so they braved the weather for an hour waiting to march to thank our veterans.

Another group of kids that braved the weather and marched in the parade our local high school and middle school band.

We even had a military Jeep in the parade.

The Native American group. They also had a parade in Warm Springs earlier for the Native vets but they still sent entries into Madras to participate on this parade too.

 Our Jefferson County Commissioner Mae Hueston also came out to support the vets in an old pickup.

Two of our local vets, Jon Granby and Joe Russo.

Several of our vets braved the yucky weather to ride their motorcycles down to ride in the parade. Vets are tough people for sure.

Even some locals saddled up their horses and braved the weather.

The Army hitched up a team of horses and jumped in the wagon to go to the parade.

The Jefferson County Fire District #1 also brought their airport rescue truck to the parade along with several engines to support the vets.

The Black Bear Dinner gave veterans a free meal to honor them.  The Elks club gave the veterans a free supper.  Many others gave them discounts etc. to support them.  We might be a small town but I say once again "Madras, the small rural town with the big heart"

God bless our veterans.

Haystack Reservoir

Haystack Reservoir was built to store irrigation water for Jefferson County farms in 1956/57.  It was the only lake for the kids for quite a while and was popular for boating, water skiing, fishing and just family fun picnics and swimming.

Today the Reservoir is still used for the same thing with campgrounds on the East and West shores and South shore for group camping.  There is a fishing platform for the disabled and youth on the north end not to far from the dam.

They still hold hydro plane boat races there every year and people love to camp on the West shore where these photos were taken.

Many times Haystack freezes over in winter but people still camp on the west shore. The east shore campground and south shore is closed.

Haystack has a lot of colors and is good fishing a lot of times. It has trout, catfish and bass. It is fun to just go and watch the birds and the chipmunks.

Haystack is located between Madras and Redmond near Juniper Butte just about 4 miles east of highway 97. There is also a KOA Campground about half way between the reservoir and the highway for your camping pleasure.

High Desert Community Theater Play "Wash your troubles away"

The little town of Culver, Oregon has a high desert community theater that puts on a play in the spring and one again in the fall. It is usually a musical comedy and they are really good. They are free to the public but you must get a ticket as it is so popular and the room only holds so many people. The accept donations but no charge to see the performance.  I attend them all and this fall it was the musical comedy "Wash your troubles away"

The actors are all from our little rural towns and are good and lots of fun, one from a bank and one of the towns mayors.

Sweet Sally that works for one of the ladies that runs a laundry in this mining town where they have several laundries.  Sally is a hard worker and really sweet.

Miss Olympia Klenz who owns the laundry where Sweet Sally works and thinks of her as her own daughter since she has none of her own.

One of the miners they call Coyote.  The guy that plays him is fantastic and so is Ms. Klenz even though this is her first time.  She accidentally irons his hand.

The villain enters the stage.

The Sheriff loves Sweet Sally

The Villain's girlfriend and fellow crook.

The Villain's mom who spoiled him rotten

The girlfriend and the mom fight over him all the time.

The orphans they use to get people to donate money to them and that they use as slaves labor.

Not going to tell any more of the story but it was a fun play and the local people did amazing in their roles.

Isn't it great to still live in a small rural town where you can go to a play of this quality and know the people who are acting in it. It is so much more fun when you know the people in the play and you get so proud of the job they do.

Of all the places I have been and lived there is nothing like Central Oregon. Once when I was in Prince George in Canada I was talking to some construction workers. I asked them since you have lived so many different places working construction where would you live if you did not have to worry about money?  One laughed and said "oh a little place in Oregon that you have probably never heard of that we built a dam there".  I told him I was from Oregon and had been about everywhere in the state so I might. He said a little town that has it all in Central Oregon named Madras.  I laughed and said...oh my that is where I grew up, my home town.  He proceeded to tell me what he liked about it, the people, the view, the climate and on and on.

That is the day I started to look at my hometown different and see it through others eyes. As I grew older and was away longer I even missed it more and appreciated things I had never appreciated before. First and foremost the people. I call it the little town with the big heart. We might not show what we are made of everyday but when something happens we come together like you would not believe it. Our little town donated so much money to a family that lost the dad and kids in a fire. This summer with the the fires we pulled together and did everything and more that was necessary to get people all over our state what was need for our fire victims and we did it immediately without having to wait for red tape. Yep we are the town with the big heart and we are community in our fun like plays, sports, rodeos, kids rodeos, marathons or anything else you like to enjoy.

Rocks in Central Oregon

Every kid that grew up in Jefferson County hates picking rocks. You heard right, picking rocks. The fastest growing, most dependable crop you can count on growing every year, dry years, wet years, cold years, hot years, all the time.

One of my friends that now has a rock ranch that lets tourists pick rocks for a fee.  He said I got so sick of picking rocks I decided to let the city folks pay me to do it.  Smart man but it did not work for us as our rocks were not agates and thundereggs which grown on his place.

Due to the fact there are so many rocks people have got very ingenious about how to use rocks.  In the settlers days they made their houses out of rocks.

This is an old barn made out of rocks that is still in use for shelter for the animals.

The top of the barn is covered with old hay bales.  Birds love to make nests in the hay.

When I was a kid we had a milk barn that was made out of chicken wire with hay bales in between the two layers of chicken wire. It was warm and cozy.

You can see in this photo where they cut poles to lay on the rocks to hold up the hay bales.

The cows today were laying outside but they do love it when it gets stormy

Here is an example of one rock wall out of rocks.

A lot of people use the rocks to line the driveways to keep the gravel contained. A cheap way to line the driveway and a good way to get rid of rocks.

Everywhere you look people build rock gardens or flower gardens out of the rocks. Kind of funny that people do anything to get rid of their rocks and people on the other side of the mountain actually buy rocks for stuff like this.

I love the light pole they built. They also made a fence. They used them to line the gravel too. A really pretty yard and almost all of it is made with rock.

They got rid of a lot of rock covering this slope up to their house with rocks and more rocks.

This person used rocks everywhere and made some really neat designs with them. I just love what they have done with them.

These were more functional instead of pretty as farmer used them for heavy corner posts for their fences.  Lots of rocks gone and are very sturdy for your corner posts.


Just a few of the things that Central Oregonians have done to use the rocks that are everywhere in our country. You pick them all up and by next spring you will have a bunch more to pick up. Some farmers had what they called a bad strip where they would just dump the rocks in big piles but most put them to some use.