Devil's Club

When you're falling down the mountain make sure you don't grab this!!

Wine Day

It was the first 'springlike' day of the season. Sunny and 50 degrees. Gives us hope that spring is just around the corner. We met Erin, Graham & Ollie in Newberg for breakfast and then headed to Owen Roe for a tour and tasting. The most interesting offerings were the 2007 wines from last year still in barrel. We first sampled the Pinot Gris under their O'Reilly label which almost had a sparkling "spritz" to it. It was then contrasted with the Pinot Gris under the Owen Roe label which was very good. I don't normally care for too many pinot gris's but this one was luscious. The last barrel sample we had was a merlot. It was quite different than any other merlots I have tried. I got a smoked meat aroma. Rick & Graham rattled off others, but I'm not so refined. The finish of this wine was amazingly long. I'm going to need a bottle of this! Next it was off to DDO for their 'valentine' bash. We tried their wines along with their french counterparts from their parent company 'Joseph Drouhin'. I think my favorite of those tried was the DDO Willamette Valley 2006. The place was packed and the only saving grace was the beautiful day as the doors were open & we could step out on the terrace and take in the breathtaking view of the valley and Mt. Hood. Then we were off to Scott Paul in Carlton were we tasted some amazing burgundies. Emily & Kelly were there and Scott & Martha showed up and chatted for a few minutes. The people there are amazing as are the wines. We then stopped at Carlton Winemakers' Studio to pick up our shipment of wine from Andrew Rich. He was there so we stopped and chatted with him for a few minutes. We finished up at the Dark Horse Wine Bar in Newberg. We tasted a Sineann wine and some Ferraro wines. It was a really fun day. Oliver quite enjoyed seeing everyone and flirting. He's on his way to becoming a winemaker!!

Snowy Sunday

We woke up this am at 6:20 and looked out the window and it was just starting to snow. It's now a little after noon and it's starting to lighten up a little. We probably have around 8 inches. A nice afternoon to sit by the fire & drink some port.

Steep & Frozen

Back to work on the Swiss Needle Cast (SNC) Project. Today we drove to some plots near Grand Ronde. The ground at both plots was frozen solid. Very hard walking on steep ground when you can't dig in your heels. However, we made it without any falling. We're in Netarts tonight. They say there could possibly be some snow tomorrow. That could make for very cold toes!!

Snow on Snow!

Another day in the woods. This was our view the last week - from our Liligren Progeny Site re-measurement project for Starker Forests. Yup, it was pretty chilly!