Reclaiming dry land with low tech

[Old Rocks]

I have been in Eastern Oregon many times as I live just 35 miles north of the border, was there 2 summers ago went to Ukiah to visit the Blue Mountain Star party site which my astronomy clubs attend every year, there were plenty of pine trees and cool weather and water as the community with some houses exist.

The Wallowa's in NE Oregon is cold and snowy in the winters, and still cool and humid in the summer. It is true a large part of Eastern Oregon is high desert but the summers are not commonly hot even cooler in some areas to the east and south as I did a lot of looking around to find a place to live to feed by needs for very dark night skies to feed my Stargazing habit.

Bend Oregon is a cool area with possible frost all twelve months of the year as the average lows in Bend is in the upper 40's in the summer with a massive population explosion from just 20,000 in 1990 to 104,000 today which means they have the water available to support it.

The Northern part of Eastern Oregon is hot and dry, but as you move southward it gets cooler and less dry as the rain shadow is smaller as there are gaps in the southern Oregon Cascades that are simply not very high allowing some additional moisture to flow in.

Have been at the Oregon Star party in the Ochoco Mountains at the 5,000' elevation back in the late 1990's with my 25" F5 Obsession Telescope oh it was so much fun!

Have dug some fossils at Fossil Oregon 15 years ago which was in a hill off the end of a football field but now that has been stopped to a regulated dig due to having too many people digging up the hillside.

Then we have the big Steens mountains.......

For a couple of years, while Dad worked on a ranch, we lived about two miles downstream from the Blue Mountain Hot Springs. I remember nights when I was about 13 years old, when it was hard to find the constellations because the night sky was so dark seeing stars down to magnitude 7 was easy.

Steens! Lord, I love that mountain. Actually it is one mountain, a single fault block. To stand at the head of the glacier cut valleys, or the edge of the cliff, looking a mile straight down, makes one realize how puny we actually are. As with Dry Falls in Washington, I cannot understand someone living in the PNW and not making a special effort to see this wonder.

 

[Sunsettommy]

Lordy, lordy, the whole idea of that method was for subsistence farming. In other words, where you are just trying to grow enough for your family. Nor was it ever suggested that it be used for major commercial agriculture. I have driven every paved highway in Oregon. There are families making a good living ranching and raising hay along Hwy 20. Not many, as there has to be an aquifer to draw the water from, but they are there.

There is some dryland wheat around the Grass Valley area which surprised me when I first went by in 1996 to the Oregon Star Party.

Stopped there at the cute park in the small town as my resting spot before I drive on the Ochoco Mt's.

You should try visiting the Oregon Star Party LINK this years July 14-19 time frame where some of the biggest portable Telescopes of the West with be located worth a trip.

 

[Old Rocks]

There is some dryland wheat around the Grass Valley area which surprised me when I first went by in 1996 to the Oregon Star Party.

Stopped there at the cute park in the small town as my resting spot before I drive on the Ochoco Mt's.

You should try visiting the Oregon Star Party LINK this years July 14-19 time frame where some of the biggest portable Telescopes of the West with be located worth a trip.

My ten year old grandson would love that. I will see if I can arrange it with his father.

 

[Old Rocks]

There is some dryland wheat around the Grass Valley area which surprised me when I first went by in 1996 to the Oregon Star Party.

Stopped there at the cute park in the small town as my resting spot before I drive on the Ochoco Mt's.

You should try visiting the Oregon Star Party LINK this years July 14-19 time frame where some of the biggest portable Telescopes of the West with be located worth a trip.

Know that park well. Many Scout functions held there.

 

[Sunsettommy]

My ten year old grandson would love that. I will see if I can arrange it with his father.

Give them the link I posted for them to decide, it is run by the Rose City Astronomers.