grampa charlie (Grandpa Charlie) Visits Maggie

The name pretty much explains the entry. recently my grampa Charlie visited the ranch, we all had a good time.

One of the first things we did was ride our bicycles around.

We found a small ecosystem at the end of our road. It was dominated by native Thimble Berries and Blackberries and invasive Himalayan Blackberries, all of which were edible and delicious.

Grampa in front of the ecosystem

For the Fourth of July we set up a Bass fishing camp on the Umpqua in front of Maggie.

We only caught two total.

tadpole by the river

The next evening we went fishing again. This time we went to a different spot (although still in front of Maggie). It would be hard to find a time when no one had a fish on.

If we hadn't been doing catch and release we could've been eating barbequed Bass for weeks.

I caught a crawdad right ut of the water.

The next day we went photo hunting amid the Ragwort.

Grampa snaps a goodbye shot.

Gone Fishin'

Lately we've been fishing for smallmouth bass and snorkeling in the Umpqua. (It's realy cool to live on the river!)

Some people think the bass taste to fishy;
they taste fine to us. above: wild foxglove

We dove into a world of bass and rough skinned newts. In the pictures above and below all the little black specks are baby fish about 11 mm from nose to tip of tail.
above: newt
above: dead sucker-fish
above and bellow: newt

above and bellow: bass

above: newt

above: mating newts

The meal above (fish, collard greens, and artichokes) was completely from Maggie!

California Beach

On the way back from The Redwoods we decided to stop at the beach. The picture above is what I THOUGHT a California beach would be like.

What I found was more like paradise.

Me and dad went through a gap in a rock face to get to an area of beach people rarely go!

In the pictures below we found somewhat of a beach promontory with wildflowers on it.

a beach tree

We came back from the hidden garden to the regular part of the beach and then back into our regular lives.