Remembering 9/11's Affect

This video recap of the moments of 9/11 put things back into perspective for me. Since 9/11 I've been reluctant to watch video of the event because it was such a horrible event, but after eight years, I felt it worth the risk to remember the im...pact it had on me--not the dismay that human beings could actually get to a point of intentionally trying to hurt so many people in such well-thought-out malice, rather to remember how fragile life is and how important all people are and to be motivated by the many heroes who survived and died helping others and experiences such an event that no one would ever imagine going through....and to have compassion and empathy for all those forever changed by the experience.

Creatures From Our Garden

I opened up a pumpkin flower and to my surprise, peering at me from a tiny thing were two great big eyes.

This Cabbage Butterfly weary from play, found rest on a wide, green, corn-leaf runway.

This butterfly mommy looks playful and fun, but unfortunately our cabbage had no where to run.

With a view of the world from this corn up high, perhaps looking for knights, perched this red dragon fly.

Safe in the garden from danger and strife, this Pacific Chorus Frog sits and ponders life.

Enjoying some sun before having to run.

Quickly fly off while you have time to play! As you can see it's already mid-day!

P.S. --I think these pictures turned out pretty neat...thanks to my wife who performed this great feat.

A Bug's Eye View (photos by C--age 6)

My six-yr-old son wanted to take some pictures, so I challenged him to take pictures of from a bug's perspective. I prompted him on some ideas, but he took the pictures all by himself. We had a lot of fun together. I thought several of the pictures turned out pretty well:

Some bugs crawl on our back steps.

Some bugs climb up on the fence.

Some bugs climb up trees.

Some bugs crawl through a garden forest. This bug is entering the corn forest.

Some bugs crawl sideways along the back fence.

Some bugs run into scary, poking giants.

Some bugs become suddenly acquainted with the tread on some shoes.

Some bugs just congregate.

Tillamook or Umpqua Ice Cream?

We threw two of Oregon's own popular Ice Cream brands together, side by side, in a Tupperware coliseum to fend for themselves against a pair of sweets-starved Ice Cream lovers and their unrestrained stainless steel spoons.

The Teams:

In the first corner, the heavy-weight, farmer-owned Tillamook County Creamery Association was formed in 1909 when 10 independent Cheese plants joined forces with each other. Celebrating their 100-year anniversary this year, they continue to produce quality cheese and ice cream products. Tillamook recently won the Ice Cream Sweepstakes award in the 2009 Oregon Dairy Industry's dairy products contest after their Chocolate, Vanilla Bean, and Oregon Strawberry Ice Creams won first place. (www.tillamookcheese.com)


In the second corner, Roseburg-based and family-owned and operated Umpqua Dairy was formed in 1931 when Ormond Feldkamp and Herb Sullivan started producing milk, butter and ice cream and selling it to railroad passengers stopped at the Roseburg Railroad Station. Since then generations of family members have maintained the high-quality standards yielding many awards over the years including 2009 Judges Award for best Strawberry Ice Cream in the nation at the Quality Chekd National Convention, 2008 Judges Award for best Chocolate Ice Cream in the nation at the Quality Chekd National Convention, and Oregon Dairy Industry's Ice Cream Sweepstakes award in 2008. (www.umpquadairy.com)

The Contestants:

Tillamook Cookie Dough vs. Umpqua Cookie Dough

Tillamook Chocolate Peanut Butter vs. Umpqua Chocolate Peanut Butter

Round One: Creaminess

The first indicator of each team's creaminess was revealed when we scooped the ice cream about 10 minutes before consumption began and it began to melt. Tillamook, had a smooth, even glaze compared to the textured surface of the Umpqua. Slipping off the spoon into your mouth, the Tillamook Ice Cream melted consistently with a fluffy, creamy, consistent texture and flavor. Umpqua put up a valiant fight with a smooth melt, however, it lacked the fluffy texture and had a hint of graininess. In round one, Tillamook ice cream puts the 'cream' in 'creamery'.

Round Two: Cookie Dough Flavor

Umpqua had a nice rich, full flavor fitting its packaging description, "A touch of golden brown sugar added to our vanilla ice cream..." Tillamook has a light, natural cookie dough flavor. Although I personally prefer Tillamook's cookie dough flavor, we'll give round two to Umpqua because they include little tiny chocolate chip squares to complete the cookie dough characteristic.

Round Three: Cookie Dough Bits

The cookie dough pieces in the Tillamook ice cream have the consistency of a frozen mini marshmellow and very creamy texture when you bite through them. The flavor of the cookie dough is also very much like homemade cookie dough. Umpqua's cookie dough bits were a bit grainy, as if the sugar grains weren't dissolved into the batter. For leaving the grainy cookie dough bandwagon for its own, unique smooth orchestra, we give round three to Tillamook.

Round Four: Chocolate Flavor

Umpqua had a rich chocolate flavored ice cream. However, it was on the more bitter, chalkier side of the chocolate spectrum for ice cream. Tillamook on the other hand had a sweeter chocolate flavor which, for me, gives Tillamook a sweet victory in Round Four.

Round Five: Peanut Butter

Tillamook's peanut butter ribboning through the chocolate ice cream tasted like natural peanut butter. I liked the stick-to-the -roof-of-your-mouth texture and saltiness of Tillamook's peanut butter. Umpqua's peanut butter ribbons were sweeter than Tillamook's, but still had a natural texture and flavor. In addition to the peanut butter ribbons, Umpqua also had large, thick chunks of peanut butter flavored candy, the consistency of a super-thin chocolate bar. Although the flavor of the peanut butter 'chips' was on the waxy-side for my tastes, it helps Umpqua win round five.

Round Six: Price

At about $.40 less per container, Umpqua wins this round.

The winner: Tillamook Ice Cream

After a strong fight, to mirror the 2009 Oregon Dairy Industries' ice cream contest, Umpqua takes second in this close battle. Tillamook ice cream had the creamiest texture and the best natural flavors in this taste test.

That doesn't mean Umpqua can't make a future come back. In fact in your own showdown, maybe your palette prefers Umpqua.

Both Tillamook and Umpqua are very worthy ice creams from very good local companies with solid Oregon histories.

What's the verdict of your taste challenge?

Through The Hands of Others....

Some of the most powerful stories are the ones told without words.

The music: the lyrics are simple and sweet; with the feel of the arrangement it is very powerful song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcPSGJZwHA4

Magnifying Freedom

I'm convinced the only way to maintain, and maybe even reclaim, true freedom is for each of us, as individuals, to be the best, unselfish, forgiving, caring, loving, [insert admirable quality here] people we can be.


As individuals and society, we often look to other people or organizations (especially government) to solve our problems, give us our 'fair share' of what 'we deserve', or take away the consequences of our own actions. In the end we slowly entrap ourselves into costly (financial or otherwise) commitments and rules from which we can't or won't escape.

On the other hand, the most powerful person in the world is the one who uses their freedom to bless other people. In the first place they control their own actions to not cause problems for others, then they choose to help others with their challenges by willingly sharing their talents and resources with them. After all we are family.


Regardless of how idealistic or impossible it sounds, if every one personally strives to be the best person they can and develop the desire to sincerely want the best for other people, then we will continually make choices that will magnify freedom and help solve social problems far more effectively than social programs or making rules that attempt to force a solution.


It all starts with us exercising the freedom for which our founding father's established protections and the freedom for which many great women and men committed their lives (in life and death) to preserve....choosing to act for ourselves. No sense striving for less than our full potential and seeing the full potential in others.


Start with gratitude for the blessings we have living in this country. Some of the fruits of gratitude are respect and frugality and selflessness...and continues to grow into the desire to help others have the same or better blessings. I'm sure you can think of other fruits of gratitude.


Make your personal commitments now to magnify freedom by being the best person you can be and to bless others. We can start small and continue to improve day to day.

What Animal Is This?

What animals do you think these are?

Click to find the answer:

Hope: Better Times Will Come

I think this is one of the greatest messages out there.



We all go through cycles of despair, trial, heart-ache, challenges, or other temptations to give up under the trials. But I know if we keep trying our best with hope of relief, and wade through the depressing times, better times will soon come.

The loving Savior helps bring hope and helps us overcome our challenges with the outcome that we are better when it is over!

2009 Pelican Convention

I'm not a well-versed in birds...I'm not even sure if I know what they call a bird scientist, but I've grown to really love the variety and often uniqueness of the birds that hangout on the North Oregon Coast.

On Father's Day this past weekend we went to see the sunset at the beach. When we peaked at the large sand dune that borders the beach, we were impressed by a mass of Pelicans. It must have been the 2009 Pelican Convention. I've never seen such a sight...it was amazing.

Anxious to get to the party!

(Click the pictures for an enlarged image)

Usually they caravan in a long line, often flying close to the water.

These pelicans are quite large. I love the shape of their wide wings as they calmly, yet powerfully fly through the air.

Catching up with the latest news. (Its interesting to note that the seagulls sat right behind the massive flock of Pelicans as if they were waiting patiently to pick-up the left-behinds from the party. I was surprised the Pelicans were so nice to the Seagulls, but at the same time the Seagulls were quite respectful of the Pelicans.)

The sunset made a nice backdrop for the Pelican 'dance floor'. There were more Pelicans circling in the air and diving in the water than there were 'wall flowers' waiting on the shore.

First Anniversary of Birth

Our daughter celebrated her first Birthday yesterday. It was also the first day of her life that she ever tasted cake!

It was a beautiful sunny day and we played outside.

She loved opening all of the presents...especially the wrapping paper part.

Wide-eyed with all her toys and clothes and stuffed animals.

She likes playing with the flowers in the grass.

A Few Recent Pictures

I haven't been in a talkative mood these days, so I thought I'd just say a few thousand words:

Flight Maneuvers

Eye Witness

Make a Wish

Our first somewhat close-ups of a wild Bald Eagle.

Surrounded by Beauty

I love my family.

While Mom's Away, The Boys Play

My wife went away with baby b for the weekend to spend some time with her mom and sisters. The boys and I decided to camp out in the backyard and have some fun ourselves.

We had fun and plenty of room in our relatively new 3-room tent. There was even room enough for mommy and baby b if they were here. That would have been fun too.

In the morning, I called-in our burn permit and we had a little campfire. We're slowly getting our pile of branches burned down and taking recreational advantage of it when we can. We did have a fire extinguisher nearby per permit rules. (Just in case the Fire Chief reads this. :-) )

We also cooked up some bacon and pancakes on the camp stove. We heated water for Hot Chocolate over the fire. Later we did S'mores.

What did you think about the camp out? C: Good. Fun. And Cool. Amazing. And I don't know why it's amazing. And it was....'wicked cooool'.

What was your favorite part of the camp out? K: Uh...the S'mores and the stuff that we did today.

What did you think of the camp out? Eddie Banana Hands: I Loved it!

What's the most memorable part of the camp out for you? S:

What did you like about the camp out? J: It was fun. We should do it more often.

We had a lot of fun hanging together...just us boys.