Memorial Day & Town

Memorial Day Flowers from POW

There are some wild flowers on POW this time of year, most bloom in early summer. Here a few of them and I will dedicate them to some special people that have let us.

This is a yellow violet and I will dedicate this to my dad. He was a great dad and has been gone for 22 years now. I have some great memories of him and I think of all the fun things that we did over my childhood years.

This is a purple violet and I will dedicate this to my father-in-law. I never got to spend much time with him. He has been gone for 15 years now. He was a very well liked man in the Hood River Valley. I know that Pat has talked of all the hunting and fishing trips that they went on.

This is a type of wild strawberry and I will dedicate it to all the people that I have know in my life. I use this flower, as there are lots and lots of them around us here.

The skunk cabbage is also a very pretty flower that is all over the area. I hated to dedicate it to someone as it has a smelly name! However they are great food for the deer and the bears and many insects. Now how can anything with such a beautiful flower, that has a nasty name like “SKUNK CABBAGE”, be bad?

This is how we spent our Memorial Day! Fishing in Neck Lake!

We loaded up the skiff and headed off for a nice day on the lake. The sun was out and it was  warm.  First stop was to the net-pens, to fish some and visit with Dolores and Alyana. Pat caught a 17 ½ inch cutthroat trout at the pens. Wow, what a nice fish. We fished there for several hours with no more luck so decided to look around the lake. We went to the north end by some lily pads and caught three more nice trout, all of them where about 12 ½ inches long. The fish in Neck Lake have to be 11 – 22 inches to keep.

Pat enjoying the sun!

I need my shorts on!

Our nice catch!

Neck Lake Photos!

We had a wonderful day on the Lake.

Trip to Town

This is a summary for all you people down south that complain about prices of food, supplies and gas.


The best day that we have had here and we go to town! As it turns out the high was 87 here on Tuesday. Well as the story goes! The boat trailer tire is flat when we get here, so it is dropped off at Schwab/Ellis which is a Les Schwab affiliate up here. It is to be picked up in half an hour. On the drive in to town I told Pat that I would like to get a small package of socks! I didn’t bring enough socks to last till the next wash. Ok, he says and off to the clothing store we go. Walk in, ask for the socks and find the rack of socks ~~~ yikes ~~ is this all that you have, we ask? The “cheap ones” are $16.00, and these are cotton socks for 6 pair. Ok, off we go to the check-out with the socks, and as we pay Pat asks if the shoes go with them!


Then to get some propane for the BBQ, Crab cooker and my new smoker. Propane is $3.21 a gallon this year, 19 gallons of propane and $64.71 later we head off to our next stop. Gas for the boats, it is listed as $3.79 at the pump, but they don’t tell you about the $0.42 in taxes. Oh, by the way what the heck is a Federal Lust tax on gas? 32 gallons of gas paid for and loaded. ($138.16)


Next stop is Log Cabin, which is a fishing, gun and stuff store. Pat is looking for a pair of suspenders, as his has lost the stretch in them. Oh, they have lots of new clothes up stairways now, the check out lady said. Up the stairways we go. Wow, the upstairs is full of clothes. Pat heads straight for the socks! You guessed it! Socks here are $8.00. Rats! They have Hickory shirts here with metal zippers, better get a couple of them. Well, after the purchase we leave with $84.00 out of our pockets! Still, a good place to shop!



Next stop was to have lunch with Bruce, Pam and their kids from Juneau, AK. It was very good pizza. ZATS Pizza.


Then to J.S. Hardware where we have to pick up black paint, ball valve and some 9 volt batteries. Batteries are like gold here. I better remember to bring them next year for sure. Four 9-volt batteries 15 bucks with taxes, a $6 dollar water valve down south is $12.50.


Now to Schaub/Ellison pick up the tire and get diesel. The diesel is $4.79 this year. Fill up and get the tire. Guess what !! No, charger for fixing the tire! We always deal with these guys as they are fair and reasonable. They would make Les Schwab happy they were on his team if he were still around. We recommend them to all.


To our last stop, and it is the grocery store. We are not looking forward to it. Knowing the prices of food south has gone up. We have only a couple of things on the list. Milk , $5.79 ~ eggs 18 count $3.49 ~ lemon juice 32 oz $4.45 ~ Swiss Miss 39 oz $9.25 ~ soy sauce 1 gallon $16.59. This is some items that I could have brought, but forgot! By the wat, a $19 pack of Prilosec is $42, bacon is $5.29 per pound, other items between 30 to 100% what we pay down south.

The good things about the trip were we saw our first fawn along the road. Oh, boy was it small, maybe a few days old. The road is also is very good shape which made it more enjoyable.


Have a good day and keep in touch.

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