Donkey on da hood

One of the things that makes life interesting is the random things which come our way, and the donkey hood ornament above definitely fits into the random category. There's just something wonderfully whimsical about having a donkey on your vehicle for all the world to see.

I found it for sale online (note: I have no affiliation with the company linked, I just found it via a Google search), and apparently the eyes light up, too. Gotta love that. If my vehicle (a scooter) had a hood, I think it would have a donkey on it in fairly short order. I guess I'll just have to stick with my "girls kick @ss" bumper sticker instead. :)

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Out of the shadows

Okay, this is the last photo from the duck pond I've been featuring the last couple of days. At least for now. It really is a pretty pond.

I couldn't decide if I like the photo above or the one to the right, so you're getting both. Don't say I never gave you anything. ;)

I promise tomorrow's photo will have nothing to do with ducks. But it may have something to do with donkeys. Unless it doesn't.

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Why it's called a duck

I was going to feature a different duck photo today, but I decided to go with this one, instead. I may post the other one tomorrow. Dunno.

The one above was taken at the duck pond I featured yesterday. I hadn't realized how often ducks either, well, duck either their heads or the upper half of their bodies underwater. They can do the ducking thing very, very quickly, so I ended up taking several photos of duck bodies with their necks leading into the water. That wasn't really my intention.

My favorites, tough, are of their cute little behinds sticking up, like the one above. They also had a nifty syncronized swimming maneuver going on like in the thumbnail at right (click on it to see the larger version).

They're fascinating little creatures. Do you think the people who live in the little neighborhood where the duck pond is would mind if I just started sitting on the bank with my camera and tripod every single day? More importantly, would the ducks mind? I could dress up like Big Bird, like I did in grade school for a play.

I doubt the costume would still fit, though.

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Duck pond

A fairly new neighborhood off of Fern Ridge Rd. in Stayton has a lovely small pond. I think it's manmade, but it's set so well it feels completely natural.

Roughly a bagazillion ducks live at the pond, from mallards to other ducks which aren't mallards.

You may be thinking the only types of ducks I can identify are mallards. You would be right.

The ducks are hard to see in the photo, but they are there. Tomorrow I'll post a photo of a couple of the ducks, whatever variety they may be.

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Red Leaves and Such

In the Stayton Community Center Complex, which houses the city's pool, community center, and a park. It also has some lovely plants, flowers, and trees, like the one pictured above. I have no clue what type of tree it is, but its leaves and whatever the lighter colored stuff is (seeds?) sure are pretty.

There was another tree of the same type a few feet away whose leaves are yet to turn for the season.

I also took a couple of photos of some roses which were near the trees, if you're interested. Click on the thumbnails below for the bigger versions:

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Chevy DeLuxe

The car above was parked outside a house in Stayton. It's an early 1950's Chevrolet DeLuxe (possibly a 1951). I think it's great to see things like this -- it's a nod to the nation's past, in a way, since cars are tied to a lot of our country's way of life, especially during the 50's.

Speaking of looking back, I want to thank Janean of the J D's Daze blog for her request to post one of my photos, which was featured here back in June. Her post touches on a similar "looking back" theme.

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Americana

This house in Stayton just struck me as being very idealistically American, with the white house, American flag, and manicured plants. It's right by two elementary schools and a church on a quiet residential street in a small town. I don't think it had a white picket fence, though. Perhaps I should go back to the house and tell them they should get one. ;)

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A sign of autumn

Happy first full day of Autumn! Yes, it's that time of year, when the leaves start to turn colorful shades, like on the oak tree pictured above. It's also the precursor of winter, which is my least favorite season, but let's not hold that against it. It's just doing its job, after all.

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Reflected sky

This double reflection is of a lovely early evening sky via the rear view mirrors of my scooter. I was sitting at the top of a hill taking photos of some clouds when I looked down at the mirrors and saw what was behind me.

The smaller mirror shows the outline of part of Stayton's "skyline" which is more of a "treeline" since we have a lot of trees which are far taller than any of the buildings.

By the way, happy last official day of summer (in this part of the world, that is). Tomorrow heralds autumn/fall, and another changing of the seasons. And to those of you heading into spring, enjoy my favorite season.

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Amongst the trees

When I was taking photos of new home construction the other day, I saw the above construction equipment (a backhoe?) silhouetted in some trees, and just thought it was pretty. That's it. No lamenting of trees being cut down, etc. I've done enough of that recently, so I'll give it a break. For now. ;)

I also want to take a moment to thank everyone who visits this blog, and especially to those who leave comments. I don't always have the opportunity to respond or comment back on your blogs (if you have them), but it is always, always appreciated. Thank you.

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Holding up the clouds

As I was going through the parking lot by an agriculture-oriented store, I spotted the above. The manlift in the photo looks like it was placed there to make sure the clouds don't fall. They did, anyway, in the form of a bit of rain, which made the plants in my yard happy. And if they're happy, I'm happy... especially since I've kind of been forgetting to water them.

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Mountain man at the Oregon Covered Bridge Festival

I thought I'd throw in one more photo from the festival before we moved on to other things. Today's photo is of a "mountain man" who demonstrated what it was like to live off the land. It was his mules featured in yesterday's photo.

The man, Tom Marquette, definitely looked the part. Looking at him, with his grizzled beard, old fashioned clothes, etc., was like looking at another time. His setup was right across from a man doing wood carving, and another making arrowheads out of obsidian.

There's just something rather nifty about going to something like this. That, of course, is the great food you can get (like the grilled brown sugar chicken I had), but the other stuff is good, too. ;)

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Sister Mules at the Oregon Covered Bridge Festival

Here we have another photo taken at the 5th annual Oregon Covered Bridge Festival, which wrapped up yesterday. These two mules were part of a "mountain man" display, with old fashioned gear, tent, pelts, etc.

The mules' mother, a Belgian draft horse, was also there, but didn't seem inclined to pose for the camera -- you can see just a bit of her in the background of the photo.

I've uploaded more photos to my Flickr photo set of the event, if you're interested. There you'll find classic car photos (including a nifty Amphicar, which can go on water) and a miniature horse buggy, plus the photos I posted yesterday. Those include Harley Davidson motorcycles, birds of prey, a mountain man, etc.

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Oregon Covered Bridge Festival

This weekend is the Oregon Covered Bridge Festival at Pioneer Park in Stayton, put on by the Covered Bridge Society of Oregon. People come from all over to visit the park's own Stayton-Jordan Bridge, take a covered bridge bus tour, learn more about the history of Oregon's covered bridges, and so on. The photo above shows an antique Dodge sitting in front of Stayton-Jordan Bridge.

There were facts about covered bridges posted throughout the festival, so I thought I'd share.

• Oregon once had 600 covered bridge, and now only 51 remain
• As late as 1959, Linn County, Oregon, had 15 covered bridges. Today there are only eight.
• The Stayton-Jordan Bridge weighs 160,000 pounds (72,727 kilograms).
• The longest covered bridge is 1,242 feet (378 meters) long in Hartland, New Brunswick.
  

I'll be featuring another photo from the festival tomorrow. In the meantime, check out the Flickr photo set I've made of the event.

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Houses, Houses, Everywhere...

Yet another new home is currently under construction in Stayton. This one has me particularly sad because it's being built where a wooded lot used to be. When I was a kid, a lot of us neighborhood kids would play there in our own little forest. At one point, some of the kids built a nifty dirt bike track going down the hill.

Two or three other houses had already gone into the lot, and this house will completely fill up the area. Things change, I suppose. At least a few of the trees have been kept. And it looks like it's going to be a nice house.

I hope they plant more trees. And bushes. And flowers. Anything green is good in my book. :)

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Tree Stump Marker

Here's the promised photo of a nifty tombstone I mentioned yesterday. This stone, located at Lone Oak Cemetery in Stayton, is a Woodmen of the World marker, and looks remarkably like a real tree. Wikipedia says, "One of the most enduring physical legacies of the organization may be the number of distinctive headstones erected in the shape of a tree stump." [click here for more]

The person or persons who created this particular one were certainly talented, bringing all kinds of details and colors to it which I find remarkable, especially considering it's a century old (death date is either 1906 or 1908).

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Entrance to Lone Oak

A nifty wrought iron arch and stair railings mark the entrance to Lone Oak Cemetery on the corner of 3rd Ave. and Fern Ridge Rd. From what I've gathered, the cemetery was started in the late 1800's by a fellow named George Duncan, along with the local Oddfellows and Masonic Lodges (source: Rootsweb.com).

There are actually two cemeteries right next to each other. On one side is Lone Oak, and the other is St. Mary's Catholic Cemetery. It has its own entrance, and one of these days I'll take a picture of it, too. Be sure to watch for that exciting event.

Tomorrow I'll post a photo of a rather unique marker in Lone Oak. I love it, and I hope you will, too.

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How now fake cow

It's not every day one drives by a house and sees a giant fake cow in a yard. It might be made of paper mache, but I'm not sure. I couldn't remember having seen it before, but then it came to me -- it was used in the 4th of July parade this year. And now it's sitting in someone's backyard.

Here's a photo of this fetching creature from the parade, all dolled up in a lovely hat with flowers.

It's good to know the big girl found a home after her day of glory. It mooooooved me to see it. In fact, I was udderly delighted, and that's no bull. She looks rather cuddly, don't you think?

Sorry. When it comes to puns, I tend to milk them for all they're worth.

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Down by the tracks

These train tracks come into the town from the west and run through the industrial section of town before ending at the cannery. Residential houses and apartments have gone in right by the tracks where this photo was taken, W. Locust St. It doesn't afford the best view, but with the way the town is growing, I'm surprised houses haven't gone in on the tracks themselves.

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100th Photo Mosaic

Today is the fifth anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and the downed plane in Pennsylvania on September 11th, 2001. May we always remember the events of that day and may we go forward together in peace and love.

Today is a big day on this here blog. I've decided to change the name of the blog to focus on one town in particular, instead of the entire Willamette Valley. I think this more accurately reflects how the blog has been going. I'll still throw in photos of nearby towns (feel free to submit any and all!), so fear not.

That all means we have a new URL for the blog -- StaytonDailyPhoto.com. Bookmark it, add it to your social networking sites, write on a Post-It Note, scrawl it on the back of your hand, tattoo it on your forehead... whatever ya gotta do. The old URL will still work, but the new one is shorter, snappier, and all around spiffier.

My original plan was to be able to travel to more places in the valley in order to photograph it, but that didn't work out as planned. C'est la vie.

So welcome to the brand new but not really new Stayton Daily Photo. And to celebrate, I've created a mosaic of my first 100 photos posted (this excludes visitor submissions), in no particular order. I hope you enjoy the look back.

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Guard Dog

Sometimes I get the distinct feeling I'm being watched. And barked at. I stopped the other day to take some pictures near a house, and the doberman in the photo decided to make sure I didn't come too close.

He (or she) is such a cutie. We used to have a red doberman named Coco. She was the smartest dog I've ever met. She'd let us know when the other animals wanted in or out the back door, or when it was time for the dogs to eat, and she could understand pretty much anything that was said around her. Nothing got by her.

We now have a rottweiler, who's... well, she's a sweetheart, but not too bright. She spends most of her time laying on the couch on her back, and then jumping up as fast as she possibly can whenever she hears something (real or imagined), which of course causes her to knock things over and sometimes even herself in her haste. But we love her, anyway.

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Hey, it's hay!

The other day I decided to obtain nutritional sustenance at a fine dining establishment. But then I checked my purse and discovered something next to nothing in the money department, so I went to McDonald's instead.

Across the road from Mickey D's is a field where some hayin' was recently happenin'. The neatly stacked hay bails in the photo are all numbered and ready to go. There were three separate hay bail groups.

That would make them -- and I apologize in advance -- hay, hay, hay bails. Fat Albert would be proud. I, however, am terribly ashamed.

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All fired up

These here fire trucks live at the fire department in Stayton. The department has thirty volunteer firefighters, according to their web site. You can also find info about their trucks, if you're into that sort of thing.

Both of my brothers were volunteers at the department for years back when they were younger. I can't tell you how many times they tore out of the house, day or night, after being called to a fire or other emergency. My mother would listen on a scanner at home to the department's radio traffic to make sure they were okay. There were a few injuries along the line, but they were okay in the end.

A side note about the photo: the color quality of the image was a bit wonky due to some haze in the air when I took the photo, so I decided to go with black and white. But then I decided I liked the yellow on the trucks, so I put that back in. I had never done that sort of thing before... it worked better than I thought it would.

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Big Ol' Truck

(Note: I couldn't decide if I liked today's photo in color or black and white, so click here for the black and white version)

This monster truck was sitting in a parking lot of a store in Stayton, advertising the Sublimity Harvest Festival coming up this weekend. Sublimity is a town about a stone's throw away from Stayton, and with the way Stayton's borders are expanding, I wouldn't be surprised if the distinction between the two towns eventually went the way of the wind.

The festival bills itself as a "tractor pull and monster truck show" and their web site shows a monster truck flying (more or less) over a tractor. I'm sensing a theme here.

I doubt I'll be able to go to the festival, but if I do, I'll be sure to take my camera.

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100th Post!

Today is the 100th post of this here photo blog thing! Don't ask me how it happened, but there ya go. Drinks are on me if you can figure out how I can send them via email.

The above photo is an apartment building in downtown Stayton. It used to be a not-so-lovely yellow color, so I was pleased to see it had been recently painted. It made a drab building look a lot more interesting.

The building used to be the Jones Hotel, circa 1922.

I'll be posting a montage of the photos once I get to 100 photos I've personally taken, minus other folks' submissions, since I'll be posting the montage to Flickr.com and I don't want to post those photos there and all. That should be this weekend, I think.

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Fallen log

I haven't been able to go out and take photos over the last few days, so I went into my archives from way back in August to bring you today's picture.

This fallen tree disappearing into the water is just off shore in an offshoot of the Santiam River in Wilderness Park in Stayton. The log was placed there on purpose, to help regulate water flow in the area. There was a rope tied around the base of it to keep it anchored, and it's directly across from a concrete structure which is part of the local water treatment plant.

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Night Walk

It's only one more day before school starts around here, and I'm sure lots of children are excited, anxious, annoyed, and dreading the start of the new school year. I don't personally have any children, but I remember well enough what it was like. Good luck, young ones.

The photo above is of one of the walkways outside the elementary school in Stayton, which is where I went to school. The door at the end of the walkway is for the school office. The thumbnail at right is of a different shot of the same area.

Happy Labor Day to those in the United States, and to everyone in general -- have a very happy Monday.

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Sky hoops

Yes, friends, it's the end of summer as we know it in this neck of the woods. As I've mentioned before. I'm nothing if not redundant.

But at least I have a different photo to illustrate the point. Gone are the days of kids spending their afternoons at the park shooting hoops into a basket with a net barely hanging by a thread. That is, when they're not sitting in their houses playing video games or watching TV.

Come to think of it, do kids play sports anymore? They just sit around all day, doing nothing. Oh, no... wait, that's me. Anyway, the basketball hoop with the evening sky behind it seemed appropriate.

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Bird Spotting

Almost every time I pass by this beautiful yard in Stayton, there are usually at least a handful of crows in it. I personally love crows, so it's always a pleasure to see them.

There are four birds in the photo... three of them are in front of the bushes at the back of the grass.

I would just like to point out I made it through this entire post without making any crow-related puns. That's really something to crow about it.

Oh... whoops. Guess I just did. Sorry. And I was doing so well.

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Daily Photo Theme Day: Doorways

The Daily Photo group has gotten together for another theme day, and today's theme is "doorways." My photo is of the door to the public library in Stayton. It is, both literally and figuratively, a doorway to learning. Reading is and will always be one of my favorite things. It's always great to see a child walk out of the library with books in their hands and eager expressions on their faces.

The library will have a groundbreaking ceremony on September 7th for a long anticipated expansion. I'll try to bring some photos of the event on the 8th.

Visit the links below for more photos from today's theme day!

49 Daily Photo sites have participated in the 1st September theme.

Please visit them using the links below.

1 Porto - 2 Copenhagen - 3 Trier - 4 Hyde - 5 Greenville - 6 Trondheim - 7 Manila - 8 Stayton - 9 St Paul - 10 Alexandria - 11 Kuala Lumpur - 12 Guadalajara - 13 Szentes - 14 Sydney - 15 Buenavista del Norte - 16 Sharon - 17 Albuquerque - 18 Washington - 19 Chattanooga - 20 Antigua - 21 Rotterdam - 22 Portsmouth - 23 Ryde - 24 Saarbrücken - 25 London - 26 Newcastle - 27 Singapore - 28 Aliso Viejo - 29 Seattle - 30 Delta - 31 San Diego - 32 Jakarta - 33 Vallauris - 34 Brussels - 35 Freemont - 36 Stavanger - 37 Paris - 38 Sainte Maxime - 39 Hong Kong - 40 Oulu - 41 Trujillo - 42 Berlin - 43 Vanta - 44 Melbourne - 45 Edinburgh - 46 Nottingham - 47 Dubai - 48 Budapest - 49 Santiago

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