Early morning and E. working hard.

I returned from my walk to find Matt's elbow peeking out from his sleeping bag, but not much else.
 

Waiting for Matt to get up, I got a bunch of pictures of E., one of Cindy's relatives.  He cracked me up when ever I would encounter him throughout the weekend. He wandered about with a serious expression on his face, always working at something.  In this case, he was joined by a random dog and explored the mechanics of  the push mower.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Early Morning Walk in Sumpter

Matt and I traveled to Sumpter, Oregon to attend the wedding of Cindy, one of my friend's from high school.  The wedding took place at her family's cabin, which is pictured below.  Cindy and I stayed at the cabin for a few days in August 1993.  It has changed a bit since then.  Then:  no foundation, asbestos tile ceilings, very squeaky ancient beds.  Now:  new foundation, new metal roof, new tin ceilings, new...Well, pretty much everything.  The Clark Hilton is looking niiiiiiccccceee.
 

However, back in 1993, the cabin  in okay shape.  It wasn't as rickety as the house next door is today.  If you are interested, this brown house could be yours for $30,000.
 

Sumpter still has North and South parts of the town. Apparently Auburn, where the Clark Hilton is located is the dividing street.  Do you see those two white signs affixed to the pole?  They are real estate signs.  Pretty much everything in town is for sale.
 

Not this community church, though.
 

 

Here's the Elkhorn Saloon, where we had drinks on Friday night.
 

Sadly, a gentleman chose to drive his truck into the bar at a high speed. Matt and I had left the bar and had walked up the street, but  a lot of people from the wedding were still there.  No one was hurt, but it was rather dramatic and freaky.  Walking around in the daylight seven hours later, I was surprised to find that the bar had enough plywood handy to have so efficiently covered the hole.
 

Should you care to read it, here is a Prayer of the Woods.
 

And here is the sign maker.
 

An Antique Market.  There are several in Sumpter.
 

This is the museum and library.
 

A peek inside the Sumpter Stockade.
 

Which is for sale, should you care to get into the motel business.
 

Some people haven't built cabins, but have built structures to house their RVs.  Interesting.
 

I loved the contrast of the beautiful stained glass window, the peeling paint and missing porch step.
 

If you need some chainsaw carving, here's your guy.
 

I also was intrigued by this addition to the single-wide mobile home.  There was more than one example of this.
 

Wood carving for your viewing pleasure.
 

Big rigs need big roofs.
 

Walking back up the street, I caught some detail on the mobile home I missed the first time.
 

Wondering what the Sumpter Dredge looks like?  Here it is.  It has a state park of its very own.
 

I walked on the ATV trail for a bit.  Felt like a rebel.
 

More dredge.
 

I wanted to get back to the road from the ATV trail and climbed this stairway to heaven.
 

I mean, I was really walking into the light.
 

At the top of the stairway, I found not heaven, but a sign saying I the stairway was for park personnel only and other should stay off.  Also the sign below.
 

Back on the main drag, I captured this metal roof.
 

There's gold in them thar' hills!  Or, I guess there was gold in them thar hills.
 

Shiny!
 

Aside from the dredge, one can also ride the Sumpter Valley Railroad, at least on the weekends.
 

The train station.
 

This sign struck me as having a lot of unnecessary instruction.
 

The gift store was not open at this early hour.
 

Where should we keep this rusty old safe?  How about right here?  Sounds good!
 

This sidewalk also struck me as funny. I think the sign came first and the sidewalk had to bend around it.

So ended my walk.

On the way to Sumpter and Sumpter Deer

It turns out that on a joint vacation, it works well if I drive and Matt reads from the read aloud books.
 

"Sumpter?  That town with the deer?"  Yep.  Sumpter, much like Wallowa Lake campground, has a lot of deer that hang about.  So many that two came over to hang out by our tent.

Picture from across the street.
 

And from a closer angle.
 

And even closer.
 

And closer.
 

And yet closer
 

Closer.
 

Sweetheart!  Don't get too close!
 

Making two triangles a rectangle.

All summer I've searched for a good way to water both halves of the back yard.  Over in Leo's realm, I have a good sprinkler set up.  On the side yard I have soaker hoses.  But the two backyards' odd triangle shapes flummoxed me.  None of my sprinklers worked in triangle form which meant I had to move them around.  This meant that I didn't really ever water.

But hark!  It occurred to me that I could take the fence dividing the two yards out of the equation and regain the rectangle.  And lo, I purchased a sprinkler and some bungee cords and so it came to pass.
 

Watering perfection.
 

Yes! I grew more than 1 carrot!

Don't they look delicious?