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February 23, 2025March 2, 2025

Winter’s End . . . maybe

This week the weather warmed and our colds waned.

It looks a bit like spring outside. Most likely a late winter melt is underway. Could be a ‘false spring,’ but we’ll take what’s offered.

While winter was losing its grip, we continued homebased projects.

One of those was trying a simple oven baked pizza.

This Cast Iron Pan Pizza features a wall of cheese rimming the edge of the pie

Using a cast iron skillet to magnify the oven’s heat, this was a resounding success. America’s Test Kitchen recipes rarely fail.

There are still signs of winter in the canyon

By weeks end the day temperatures had moved into the low forties and we headed off to the river for a long awaited escape.

River levels were up . . . putting grass and willow banks under a few inches of water . . . plus the heavy flows brought turbidity.

Fishing wasn’t great, but the weather is supposed to stay clear and warmer so there is hope for next week’s trip.

Print Recipe

Cast Iron Pan Pizza

Ingredients

DOUGH

2 cups bread flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp instant yeast
1 cup lukewarm water 105 to 110 degrees

Sauce

1 cup tomato sauce

PIZZA

3 Tbsp olive oil
4 oz Monterey Jack Cheese shredded (1 cup)
7 oz Mozzarella cheese shredded 1 ¾ cup

Instructions

DOUGH

Mix flour, salt and yeast. Add warm water and mix until most of flour is moistened. Using hands knead dough in bowl for 1 minute until dough forms a sticky ball, about 1 minute.
Spray a 9 inch pie plate with oil spray. Transfer dough to prepared plate and press dough into a 7-8 inch disk.
Spray top of dough with vegetable oil spray. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 12-24 hours.
2 hours before baking, remove dough from fridge and let sit at room temp for 30 minutes.

PIZZA

Coat bottom of cast iron skillet and use your fingertips to flatten dough until it is 1/8 inch from edge of skillet. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and let rest until slightly puffy, about 1 1/2 hours.
30 minutes before baking adjust oven rack to lowest position and heat oven to 400 degrees.
Spread 1/2 cup sauce evenly over top of dough, leaving 1/2 inch border. Sprinkle Monterey Jack cheese evenly over border. Press cheese into side of skillet forming 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch wall. Evenly sprinkle cheese over sauce.
Bake until cheese at edge of skillet is well browned, 25 to 30 minutes.
Transfer skillet to stovetop. Let cool for 3 minutes. Check bottom of pizza crust. Place over medium high heat and cook until crust browned. Transfer to wire rack and let cool for 10 minutes.

February 2, 2025February 1, 2025

Winter Fishing

Weather finally softened this week and we headed to the river to fish. Fishing doesn’t stop in winter it just takes a different form.

The Crooked River is a ‘tailwater” . . . that is, its flow is regulated by a dam. On a tailwater, levels can fluctuate dramatically, sometimes in a matter of hours.

This inconsistent flow is offset by more constant water temperatures. The mix is good for the aquatic insects, fish food, that cling to the rocky stream bottom.

In winter months a fish feeds mostly on small aquatic invertebrates, most of them less than a quarter inch long. For that reason one employs a different method casting to winter waters.

The Canyon walls can close off the sun by early afternoon. But on days where the wind is light a few hours of midday sun will temper the air over icy river water.

Tying winter fly patterns is simple but not easy because the materials are wrapped on very small hooks. To get these bits of thread, fur and wire down to the fish a tungsten bead adds some weight sitting just behind the hook’s eye.

Adornments of silver wire ribbed over purple, red or green thread and topped with a collar of dyed rabbit fur . . . midge patterns . . . . are the choice for this day.

But nothing I attached to the end of my line enticed any takes. Getting on the river and taking in it’s sun glazed surface was reward enough. There will be other days to ply the river with my handspun offerings and pretty soon winter will pass.

June 30, 2024July 26, 2024

Where There’s Smoke . . .

View of the Darlene 3 fire from outside our front door.

Wildfire has always been a threat to western forest dwellers. Over the last few years there has been an increase in the number of major . . . as in thousands of acres . . . wildland fires.

To us, the off-shoot of most of these conflagrations has been smoke plumes that randomly blanket the spaces we inhabit. We have not had to deal with a direct threat

. . . until this week when we looked out our front door.

Dubbed Darlene 3; because there were two previous fires in the same area, La Pine’s first wildfire of 2024 was reported around noon on Tuesday the 25th.

By dinnertime it had grown to 500 acres and level 3 evacuation orders (“GO NOW”) had been issued to a large number of La Pine residents.

The fire kicked up several times due to wind gusts. Here you can see several new plumes.

Many of the fire fighting resources concentrated efforts on reinforcing containment away from neighborhoods, and in our case we were grateful they prevented the fire from jumping Hwy 97 (located just past the small forest in front of our home).

For the past couple of days the fire has been sitting at nearly four thousand acres burned, with 40% contained. Thankfully it continues to receive a lot of attention from a wide range of state and local agencies.

All it would take is a shift in wind direction and this wildfire would rise to disastrous levels.

Topping off our gas tank at Wickiup Station off of Hwy 97 before heading home.

Some area neighborhoods remain at level 3. Luckily, other areas have been downgraded to level 2 BE SET to evacuate.

Winds continue to push east-southeast away from La Pine and our neighborhood. But vigilance and constant monitoring is our best course.

Watch Duty, a free app for computers or smart phones, has been a great help tracking the fire’s progress. The app allows you to identify and track wildfire even really small local burns that other online sources ignore until they are at disaster level.

November 5, 2023November 5, 2023

Fall on the Deschutes

Days are growing shorter and mornings colder. Leaves have shifted from green to gold and paint the ground amber around our picnic spot.

Fall in Central Oregon is a very short season . . . a brief few weeks between ‘Indian summer’ and first snow.

I’m still looking for Steelhead, so we’re making the trek to the Lower Deschutes.

This week we scouted different access spots, a task acknowledging Tip’s desire to wade, as well as the need to access good holding water.

Just upstream from where the White River empties turbid waters into the Deschutes was a nice stretch. Still no luck catching Steelhead.

However, the sun tempered a morning chill and we found a nice spot to brew a cup of coffee and enjoy our lunch.

Winter looms and we wake to a dusting of snow on the ground more than once.

The week ahead promises wet but mild weather. We’ll pack rain gear, break out the beanies and generally prepare for colder days.

However, this day was a perfect Fall day on the Lower Deschutes and we took advantage of that.

February 26, 2023February 25, 2023

Catching a Sun Rise

Coyotes yap and howl across the valley, while doves stir along Fort Rock’s face.

With winter subsiding, at least briefly, we venture further from home. This week we headed east, early enough to catch the sunrise at Fort Rock.

The Fremont Highway is a strip of two lane asphalt cutting across the northern corner of the Great Basin.

On the western side is a rock structure jutting out of the sage steppe. Fort Rock is an excellent backdrop for sunrise or sunset images, as well as a raptor nesting site.

Summer Lake, one of our favorite birding sites

An hour after sunrise we’ve captured images and drone footage and are back on OR 31 heading further east. Over Picture Rock Pass and down into Summer Lake valley. It’s the latter part of hunting season and there’s not a lot of birding at the wildlife refuge.

We press on eastward through Paisley to Valley Falls, where we turn north skirting the edge of Abert Lake. Oregon’s only saltwater lake, and one of two in the great basin, its eastern shore is shadowed by a 2500 foot exposed fault scarp. Abert Rim is one of the highest fault scarps in the US.

Abert Rim looking south from the lake’s edge

All this comes together for excellent landscape photo ops. There is renewed awareness of the damage drought and irrigation has brought to this important stop over for migrating birds. Recent legislation will focus research on ways to restore alkaline lakes. Hopefully, it’s not too late.

Receding water lines mark issues with scarce water resources

Starting in April and running into the fall, there are a series of different bird species using Abert as a nesting site, or for just a short stop over. Our trip was a chance to scout potential birding spots. To that end, the calendar has been updated with future excursions, which of course will get documented on these pages.

Summer and Abert lakes are remnants of an ancient sea bed

For now we swing farther north along the western edge of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. We hit Highway 20 outside Burns and then take that road back to Bend and complete the circle.