So to keep me busy I am going to chat about a few things we have discovered on this side of the Rockies. First, Oregon has no sales tax! We were told that it won’t last too much longer though so don’t plan on moving just yet.
On our last night in Oregon we discovered huckleberry in the best form possible – ice cream! Now before this the only Huckleberry I had ever known was an ornery boy who had such a twang it was headache to read. But this huckleberry is an actual berry. Josh and I decided that it is a smaller version of a blueberry. It’s a small (smaller than blueberries), round, dark, almost black, berry that grows on a evergreen-like bush. Since our first encounter of huckleberry ice cream we have had it as a vinaigrette and cheese cake topping. As we bike along we fantasize about our future garden and this little baby has been added to the list.
Phil, our Warm Showers host a few days back, had a couple of these plants under his grow light. Josh was of course all over the plants as soon as we walked through the door. Phil showed Josh his garden setup as well as his new goat herd. We got to have a glass of goat milk and it was very good. We couldn’t taste a difference. After this stay we fantasized about our future hobby farm and all the animals we’ll have on it.
We won’t have birds on our farm but there were two others (besides the chukar) that caught our eye. First is the black billed magpie. We’ve been seeing this bird since Oregon and never got around to asking someone what kind it was. So while we waited here doing nothing I killed some time looking it up along with finding the sandhill crane. This crane is much more interesting than the magpie because it sounds like R2D2 mixed with Jurassic Park. It’ll make short but rapid clucking or clicking noises. Here are two videos of their calls (you just need to see the first few seconds of each to get the gist).
https://youtu.be/HeIMak-ohVk
https://youtu.be/XP1x_OXl4Ew
There is one more bird out there that we haven’t been able to spot, but it sounds like my mom’s electric fence when its wet and clicks. The bird does short “beeps” at almost regular intervals.
I have now killed a good amount of time and we are ready to watch a few TV shows before we hit the hay.