harvest weekend.

So last Tuesday the weather was looking super nice out. Michael, Darren, and I hurried down to Indian Head in Ecola State Park to try to get an epic Oregon surf day in. The swell had a different plan for us. Instead of the waves being super mellow, like every time I've surfed Oregon, they were big and heavy, and had this tumble effect that followed each wave. I've never gotten into a situation with surfing that has been out of my control, but one or two of the waves that caught me in the tumble were enough for me to chill out on the "outside waves" and stay inside catching some smaller waves. We were able to catch a couple good wave, and even though the trip was not a total success, it was nice for the change of scenery. We watched the sun set, and headed back up to the peninsula.








Saturday i had every intention of sleeping in. Stayed up a little later Friday night, was prob going to lazily wake up around 10am or so... I woke up to my phone ringing around 8am. Kim, my landlord/neighbor was calling. I rolled over and went back to sleep. About ten minutes later there was a knock at my door. I got up and threw some clothes on to answer the door. No one was there... My phone started ringing again, and Kim was asking if i wanted to go harvest some cranberries. Now, i had been attempted to be recruited by two different teams of harvesters a week ago, but i wanted to lay low after the weekend from visiting Ohio. There was a team that consisted of a teacher from my school, a student in my 8th grade class, and others. The other team was Kim, and Steve McPhail (the guy who has the pickle ball court in his barn). From the sounds of it they needed me to help out, hence the morning wake-up drill, ha.
Anyways, i decided to go since i was out of bed already. I drove down to Steve's farm and was fitted for those like super tall like waist boot things (i can't remember the name). Then we ate some bagels and i was taught the ropes to harvesting cranberries. I took these pictures when we were taking a break, so didn't really get to get a chance to take any action shots...

So this is what a field looks like initially. There's about a 2 1/2 foot drop in to the field. The cranberries are planted (this particular field was in the process of being re-planted) and when ready to be harvested look something similar of a small vine.


At about 5am Steve activated his network of pump systems, which pump water from this 20 foot deep pond, and flood the fields (this day we were working two fields worth). The water comes up about between knee and thigh height on me, higher on other folks. You've got to be careful when walking around, if there's any sort of trench, especially around the outer rims, you could fall victim to the bog.
Next, Steve drove around in this contraption that shuffled the cranberries to the surface of the water. This field was the second field we worked on, and was way easier because the wind blew most of the cranberries to one end.


Next, we took these containment systems that are commonly used in containing oil spills in water. It's basically a float, with a sheet of plastic that is held about 6 inches beneath the water. We start at one end of the bog and work our way to the other. During this time we use push broom type tools without the brushes (so basically an angled board) to push/pull the cranberries away from the shore. We are careful to lift the containment system over any sprinkler heads.


Roping the cranberries in.


Though, this may not seem like much, in reality this is 6,000+ pounds of cranberries.


This was a picture taken while we were switching trucks on the other bog. Once the cranberries are pulled into a corner, and escalator type system pulls the cranberries up and into the truck. During this process we stand in the middle of the circle and push the cranberries towards the escalator. As the surface area of the berries begins to spread out, you pull two points of the circle together to make a smaller circle, and a piece of the containment system link is removed.
This bog produced around 12,000 pounds of cranberries.


The truck being loaded up. Done with this bog.


A lot of cranberries, and Bob. It was Kim, Steve, Bob, and myself as the core workers, with Steve's wife switching out the trucks and driving to the Ocean Spray processing plant. About half way through the day we stopped and ate lunch. I had some of the best chili i think I've ever eaten, rolls, salad, and all the Ocean Spray you could drink.


This is Baloo. The entire time we were working Baloo would try and get us to throw whatever he managed to find around so he could run and retrieve it.


He had way too much energy.


At one point he brought me a rock. I threw the rock into the bog, and he honestly did not give up looking for it for a solid hour. At the end of the day we threw objects into the half drained pond. Baloo would launch off of about a 5 foot wall into the water.


All in all, it was an awesome experience. I had a lot of fun with the guys, and it was way more laid back than i think it would have been with the other guys.
Every year Kim, Steve, Chris Jacobsen, and others go down to Costa Rica to hang out and surf. Someone in Steve's family has a place down there. Anyways, Tom, one of my fellow workers would be into going if it was during out spring break. Everyone's considering holding off till then, which means, if they do, i'll be heading down to Costa Rica with them...


Today, i decided to run down to Astoria to hang out for a bit. I found out that if you're a teacher you get 15% off your ATT cell phone bill, so i went to the store to hook that up. Went into downtown Astoria and hung out at a local coffee shop while glancing over my contract to see how much coach's get paid, as they're looking for a head and assistant middle school track coach for the spring... After the coffee shop i decided to check out the Astoria "column". It's like a light house, but on top of the tallest hill in Astoria. You can climb up to the top, and get a crazy view of everything around. Unfortunately it was closed for repair. But you're still pretty high up from the base of the tower that you can get some good shots of the surrounding area.

Looking across the Columbia River, and the bridge, and Washington.


Looking south at the Oregon countryside.


Another view.


This is the column, but it was closed.


Picked up some groceries and headed back up the peninsula. I picked up Darren and forgot to grab my booties when we went out for a surf. My feet were soooo cold. We met up with Michael, and i stayed out for awhile. But the cold water, and the fact i kept slipping off my board because i didn't have my booties led me to retire early.

It's conference week this week, which means everyday except Monday we have half days... Not exactly sure how this business works, but we'll find out.
Jesse Mason is taking this crazy 2 month road trip from LA all over the country. He's going to stop up here for a few days, he's thinking hopefully be up here around the weekend if he can get this project done in time. It'll be cool to hang.