The River’s Too Low

The sportsmen aren’t happy.  Momma Nature’s not playing fair it would seem.  The rivers are too low.

I’ve been commenting on how little rain we’ve been getting and there has been a lot of comment among locals about how much we need the rain.

One of the areas in which local concern is being felt is the spawning runs of Steelhead Trout — which aren’t occurring because the water levels in the rivers are too low: too low for them to navigate the channels and get to where they need to go.  Like salmon (members of the same fishy-family: salmonids) Steelhead return to their birth area to spawn.  Steelhead are actually anadromous (sea-run) forms of the Rainbow Trout, meaning they spend part of their life in salt-water, returning to fresh water to spawn.

But — that’s as far as this non-fisherperson is going on the fishy-bits… My thinking is more along the lines of rainfall.  We need the rain.  Without the rain the rivers run dry and without ample water in the rivers we can’t sing our favorite childhood song:

Fishy, fishy, in the Brook,
Papa catch ’em by the hook,
Momma fry ’em in the pan,
Baby eat ’em like a man.

Ok — enough of THAT nonsense…

How to get a rise out of volunteers…

The other evening I was messing around with volunteer.gov.  I was at home in Journey and I logged into the website to try making heads or tails out of the back end of the website.  We’ve got about 40 different adverts — most are turned off right now — but with about 40 adverts almost all of them share three primary titles and there’ no easy way that I’ve found so far to tell one from the other without opening the listing and finding the tag that identifies which campground or day use area it refers to and then closing it again.

I have the ability to change the name of the advert, so I started doing that on a couple that I know we will need to fill this spring.  And the next thing I know I have a volunteer on the phone asking questions.  WoW — Instant reaction!

It seems there’s a volunteer I have been trying to tie down about joining the family here and I have had an initial contact with them but without reference to any specific campground. They’re interested but don’t know where they want to serve.  It turns out that renaming that one advert and turning it on — overnight — got their attention and now they are sure that’s the one they want.

Methinks I’m going to change all those names so that I can find them — and maybe volunteers will be able to find them better then too!  Hot Diggedy!

L.E.O.’s

Our Forest Service Law Enforcement personnel do the mandatory background checks for us.  The only problem is that they spend very little time in the office and most of their time out in the field.  When Peg and I were applying we happened to luck out.  The former Volunteer Coordinator got us cleared in one day, but during the conversation he said, “…but sometimes it’s a couple weeks before I even see them [law enforcement].”

So, I’m wondering what I can do to whittle that time lag down.  I need to find the crew chief (I have no idea his rank — I know he’s under the Captain of the Watch — because I KNOW that guy) and find out how this can be handled efficiently.

I’m hoping this is department that is a little more consistent to navigate than some of the other departments.  My lifelong expectation:  more organization than I ever find.

Out of the Woods

And on the “Surprise, Surprise” side….

I was walking out of the visitors’ center yesterday after spending the morning out in the field and I saw one of our roving caretakers in the parking lot talking with a guy I didn’t recognize.  It turns out I’d written him an email because I found an old application saying he might be interested in volunteering in 2014.

His situation has changed, but instead of being a volunteer-site resident volunteer he might just turn out to be a pop-over-a-couple-days-a-week volunteer.  He is moving to Winchester Bay — just 10 miles South of the office and he might be available to help us out on a regular, periodic basis.  So, that’s good.

Chen’s Family Table

Lately, I feel like I want to eat everything in sight. We’ve been taking lunches to the office and by the time we finish for the day at 2 or 3 I’m famished.  So last night we stopped at the post office to pick up two packages there — my prescription drug mailing and an order from Amazon — and then we decided to check out another of the local Chinese restos in Florence.   Chen’s Family Dish has had good reviews from people we know, so we did and we were quite happy with the results.  

A couple weeks ago we had gone to the Chinese place in Reedsport, called Ocean Garden.  The menu at Chen’s looks different than Ocean Garden but line for line it’s the same menu.  And the same food — except for the crap puffs which were sort of stale tasting.  However, they have really good Hot and Sour Soup!!!!  And they are reasonably priced.  The ambience is very similar, and pleasant.  So I’m sure we’ll try them again from time to time.   Good Eatin’!!!

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