Gift Shop and Juvenile Fish Ponds
There’s a lot of repetition of tasks here at the hatchery. Once in a while something new or different needs attention which is usually welcome as it gives us something different to do. One such project was taking the jumping fish water fountain apart to fix what seems to be perpetual water leaks. This is at least the third time that I’ve helped fix leaks over the years. The base of the jumping fish artwork was not designed very well so a lot of effort was made to strengthen it. That cured one leak but the plumbing is always going bad. So the artwork comes off to access the plumbing to each water fountain as well as removing the big blocks of granite that house the drinking fountain nozzles.
The blocks are mortared in place so they have to be chiseled out. Once the leaking water line is replaced it all goes back together again using a gooey sealant around the perimeter of the jumping fish base. Then fingers are crossed hoping that the fountain doesn’t leak until next year.
Sturgeon will be mounted on posts- disregard trailer- it will not be mounted
The state fairgrounds at Salem had a piece of artwork that couldn’t be used so it was offered it to Bonneville Hatchery. Appropriately, it is an 18′ facsimile of a sturgeon. It’s made from a sheet of steel so it’s quite heavy. Hugh, our boss decided to put it on the end of the garage where it will blend with bedding plants and a nice vine. Two metal posts are needed to support the beast, er, fish and they have to be set precisely to line up with pre-drilled holes in the sturgeon. So yesterday Hugh, the other host Mike and I set the posts in holes Mike had dug with a post hole digger, then holes were filled with concrete with the distance between posts measured and remeasured, then measured again before the concrete set. So maybe Monday we’ll mount the behemoth. It will look really nice when completed.
Apple Valley Country Store
Normally I’d be talking about all the neat places we’d travel to on our days off. We haven’t done that this year because we didn’t feel like sitting in the car for any significant length of time. We’ve gone to Hood River a couple of times, once to purchase fruit preserves at the Apple Valley Country Store then stopping to enjoy Toll Bridge Park. We come home via Highway 35 passing a ton of fruit stands before we reach town once again. A bonus to driving through this great little valley is the views of Mt. Hood- just beautiful!
We’ve also spent quite a bit of time across the Columbia in Stevenson (1540 souls). We’ve enjoyed the Columbia Gorge Museum, gone to the Skamania County Fair and attended Mass at Our Lady Star of the Sea Mission. Stevenson (1900 souls) is the seat of Skamania County. We’ve also spent some time in North Bonneville (1300 souls), a community that was created as a construction town as the Bonneville Dam was being constructed.
We’ve also had lunch with good friends Jim and Connie who live in Dallesport WA. It was good seeing them once again. As usual, we had a good chin wag and some laughter to go along with our meals. We’ve seen them a couple of times as they traverse back and forth to doctor’s appointments.
Back at home a fast moving wildland fire was expected to run through a highly populated section of south Reno. It didn’t mostly because of heroic efforts of firefighters to contain it. Several structures were lost including a Catholic church. The firefighters did have some help from the air:
Four Super Scoopers worked the fire, their water source I believe was Lake Tahoe.
Welp, that’s about it for this post. I have some ideas to include the local towns in the next post but by then we’ll be on the road visiting places new to us. I think the new places will trump the well known. Until the next time- Via con Dios!
Travel With Jil and Mike 