Company Golf Tournament, Spring 2007

This post would normally be full of wild stories and pictures from the golf event. Unfortunately, the stories are too crude, and nearly every picture I took was of somebody relieving themselves on the golf course. I will not post these pictures.

What I will give you is one perplexing photograph involving Stadtman, Mike the Drunk, a fish, and no explanation.

Six Peak Challenge 2007

Did I do a post on this last year? I think I did. You can look through my archives and find out for yourself.

For those of you not familiar, the Six Peak Challenge is simply this: Travel via mountain bike to the top of six of the tallest peaks in the McDonald-Dunn forest. It takes most of a day to complete, during which we travel over 30 miles and thousands of vertical feet.

Last year, there were some who didn't believe we actually made it to the top of each peak! This year I have photographic proof of each summit to squash the naysayers. In each picture, you can see that we are trying to indicate which peak we are on. For example, if we were on Lookout Peak, we attempt to display an "L".

Forest Peak.

Lookout Peak.

There is a certain stump in the forest that has long been known to house a stash of beer. It is unknown who put the beer there, or how old the beer is. Sometimes a bottle of wine has been known to show up there. On this day, it was proposed that I drink some of this beer. I obliged. This first can was consumed on the way up to Price Peak.

Price Peak.

On our way back down Price Peak, I treated myself to 12 fluid ounces of the Champagne of Beers.

McCullough Peak.

Dimple Hill.

Vineyard Mountain.

At the end of ride, we all indicated that six peaks were conquered.

Stephens and Maggie Take a Hike

The weather was warm one day in spring, so Maggie and I took a walk in the nearby McDonald-Dunn forest. We hiked in a old growth forest, and then climbed to the top of Dimple Hill, where we were rewarded with a sprawling view of Corvallis and the surrounding area.

A strong storm this winter blew down some trees. This giant root-wad dwarfs Maggie.

Who dwarfs who now! Maggie couldn't help but pick up this salamander/newt type amphibian and loving on it.

We took a apple/cheese/cracker break on the way up to Dimple Hill. I briefly contemplated joining a circus acts as the guy who lets an archer shoot apples of his head.

I refuse to follow directions on signs that don't to use punctuation.

Maggie couldn't help but play on this equipment that isn't hers.

A Vegetable Garden

Hello faithful readers. It has been some time since I've offered you a posting. I promise there will be several coming soon.



For a couple years now I have wanted to plant a garden. A garden planted with a variety of edibles. I have finally built this dream garden, and I have plants growing as we speak. Let's look at some pictures.

Here you can see two raised beds that I created. I leveled the pile of dirt that was previously inhabiting this corner of the yard, constructed two 8 foot by 4 foot beds out of composite lumber (it won't rot away like natural wood will), and filled them with "fertile soil mix" I obtained from a nearby nursery.

Inside the house, sometime in March, Maggie and I "started" a number of plants to be transplanted outside later, when it is warmer. We started broccoli and three kinds of peppers.

After a couple weeks, the broccoli looked like this.

Here is a closer look at the beds, with some posts at the corners that will later hold up a fence of sorts to keep critters out. Mixed salad greens can be seen in the upper left.

The broccoli was transplanted to the outside beds in late April.

It is highly probable that this will turn out to be cauliflower.

After several weeks and no sign of life, I thought that I had planted the pepper seeds too soon, and had killed them. I was sure that the seeds had rotted in the cool, moist soil. One day, it got warm (70 deg F or so) and this happened.
Snap peas will grow even when surrounded by grass

In mid May, the beds have many things growing in them, and you can see that I have implemented the aforementioned critter defense system.