How's spring coming along in your corner of Oregon? (Portland: apartment, home)

[Fiddlehead]

Originally Posted by mamh

Its been a on the funny side this spring..Most of you have figured out I spend a bit of time out at Oregon Gardens in Silverton and this spring the Kill Deer have been all over the place and madly in love.
At one point last month we had 3 nests in the area I spend my time in and the mallards are nesting too.
So not only is spring in the air but love is all over the place with our animal friends..
this is what makes life fun..

Great report. Glad to hear the shore and waterbirds are doing their duty for future generations!

[Larry Caldwell]

The poison oak is just showing the first red leaves. Madrone had a heavy blossom, and will be setting a big crop of berries this year. The camas has been blossoming about a week, and a few are blossoming all the way to the top. Apples have been blossoming for a couple weeks, with the late varieties just getting into full bloom. The wild strawberries are going nuts with blossoms, probably because of the wet spring. Most of the blossoms won't set fruit.

[Bandon]

If I said all the words I actually WANT to on this subject, I'd likely be banned.

I live in Salem. Our heater has been broken for 5 months or so because our landlord (very rich guy by the way) didn't want to spend the 800 it would have taken to have the missing part ordered. Also, he's "wintering" in Arizona for the winter (presumeably STILL is, as we've not heard hide nor hair from him) so didn't want the inconvience of coming back here (wasn't into slumming at that point I guess) to try to fix it himself (not that he COULD without that part, but this guy is a real piece of work who considered himself a jack of all trades or some such horse****).

So he allowed us to buy several plug in heaters which do JACK about warming up the house because you can't leave them plugged in for longer then a half hour without the plug ins getting hot. Oh, and those heaters cost a LOT in electricity but why would such a kind, empathetic soul want to be bothered with the mundane such as that ?

This whole rant DOES have a point, so bear with me. At the time when he said that we would have to wait for spring for him to come back and try to deal with the heater himself I said to my family "Just watch, the weather will be sure to NEVER improve now..just mark my words".

Sure enough, it's STILL effing freezing at night and in the early morning, fugly ALL day and COLD, COLD, COLD.

So there it is folks. It's like this because our slumlord hasn't fixed our heat. But don't blame me. Blame HIS cheap ass, please.

[FVWinters]

Originally Posted by Bandon

If I said all the words I actually WANT to on this subject, I'd likely be banned.

I live in Salem. Our heater has been broken for 5 months or so because our landlord (very rich guy by the way) didn't want to spend the 800 it would have taken to have the missing part ordered. Also, he's "wintering" in Arizona for the winter (presumeably STILL is, as we've not heard hide nor hair from him) so didn't want the inconvience of coming back here (wasn't into slumming at that point I guess) to try to fix it himself (not that he COULD without that part, but this guy is a real piece of work who considered himself a jack of all trades or some such horse****).

So he allowed us to buy several plug in heaters which do JACK about warming up the house because you can't leave them plugged in for longer then a half hour without the plug ins getting hot. Oh, and those heaters cost a LOT in electricity but why would such a kind, empathetic soul want to be bothered with the mundane such as that ?

This whole rant DOES have a point, so bear with me. At the time when he said that we would have to wait for spring for him to come back and try to deal with the heater himself I said to my family "Just watch, the weather will be sure to NEVER improve now..just mark my words".

Sure enough, it's STILL effing freezing at night and in the early morning, fugly ALL day and COLD, COLD, COLD.

So there it is folks. It's like this because our slumlord hasn't fixed our heat. But don't blame me. Blame HIS cheap ass, please.

So that's why this spring has been so wretched. How much you wanna bet as soon as your landlord does deign to back, we shoot into the nineties and don't cool off 'til November?

[Bandon]

Originally Posted by FVWinters

So that's why this spring has been so wretched. How much you wanna bet as soon as your landlord does deign to back, we shoot into the nineties and don't cool off 'til November?

LOL I'm sure that'll happen too

[Smiled]

Slow! but - lots of blossoms on the fruit trees, and we are supposed to have a hot summer. I get peaches about one year in four - I think this will be a peach year.
Our tulips have not yet opened and we still have fresh daffodils.

[Larry Caldwell]

Originally Posted by Bandon

If I said all the words I actually WANT to on this subject, I'd likely be banned.

I live in Salem. Our heater has been broken for 5 months or so because our landlord (very rich guy by the way) didn't want to spend the 800 it would have taken to have the missing part ordered. Also, he's "wintering" in Arizona for the winter (presumeably STILL is, as we've not heard hide nor hair from him) so didn't want the inconvience of coming back here (wasn't into slumming at that point I guess) to try to fix it himself (not that he COULD without that part, but this guy is a real piece of work who considered himself a jack of all trades or some such horse****).

You really need to look into tenants rights. Briefly, have it fixed and submit the repair invoice as part of your month's rent. Retain copies in case the landlord disputes it, but he is required to maintain your rental in habitable condition.

Now, back to a discussion of spring. The camas are in full bloom at my place. One late apple is still in full blossom, but most of the apples are pretty much done. I got tomatoes set out last weekend.

[Hawk J]

Originally Posted by Bandon

If I said all the words I actually WANT to on this subject, I'd likely be banned.

I live in Salem. Our heater has been broken for 5 months or so because our landlord (very rich guy by the way) didn't want to spend the 800 it would have taken to have the missing part ordered. Also, he's "wintering" in Arizona for the winter (presumeably STILL is, as we've not heard hide nor hair from him) so didn't want the inconvience of coming back here (wasn't into slumming at that point I guess) to try to fix it himself (not that he COULD without that part, but this guy is a real piece of work who considered himself a jack of all trades or some such horse****).

So he allowed us to buy several plug in heaters which do JACK about warming up the house because you can't leave them plugged in for longer then a half hour without the plug ins getting hot. Oh, and those heaters cost a LOT in electricity but why would such a kind, empathetic soul want to be bothered with the mundane such as that ?

This whole rant DOES have a point, so bear with me. At the time when he said that we would have to wait for spring for him to come back and try to deal with the heater himself I said to my family "Just watch, the weather will be sure to NEVER improve now..just mark my words".

Sure enough, it's STILL effing freezing at night and in the early morning, fugly ALL day and COLD, COLD, COLD.

So there it is folks. It's like this because our slumlord hasn't fixed our heat. But don't blame me. Blame HIS cheap ass, please.

A Holmes 1 touch, is a good portable heater. It has low power & high power setting. My cord never gets HOT. The wiring to your outlet might need to be a heavier gauge wire.

It's just NOT Right You have to go without a Heater/Furnace. Your landlord better gets his buns in gear.

Take gentle care of yourself.

[haggardhouseelf]

We're in Eugene. The leaves are finally starting to pop out and uncurl on the trees that surround our home. I still see lots of daffodills and tulips. The ground is still very wet and the sky still mostly overcast with the exception of about 2 to 3 days for every 7 that it still feels like a mild winter.

Saw a Great Blue Heron at the Delta Ponds area doing what looked like building a nest, or enlarging one which was already there. (I've heard they return to the same nest each year usually in February.) I wondered if this was late in the game, as I thought for some reason that they should have the nest built and eggs in it by now? Perhaps he/she was constructing a blanket for the babes. ?

Have only seen turtles out sunning themselves on logs one day in the past month. I saw young eagles with their mottled brown and white colors swooping over the Willamette along the river bike trail.

Still cold, wet, and muddy mostly. I wish people would stop washing their cars on the pretty day so that Mother Nature, with her playful sense of humour, wouldn't rain on us the very next one.

[Hawk J]

Lately the bass are more active & are striking more lures, ****, senko's (worm). They should be spawning pretty soon.

A lot of Hummer birds are active & coming to the feeders fer their fix of nectar. they like to fight each other fer feeder rights.