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August 9, 2026August 8, 2026

Closer to Home

Sunriver pond . . . smoke haze in the background

As the week started our good fortune ended and a smoke plume took it’s place.

Up to that point, we’d been one of the few good air quality spaces in central Oregon. The wind pattern shifted and then most of the state, heck the Pacific Northwest, got covered with smoke.

On a clear day you’d be able to see the Cascade Range from this point

With the air quality so bad and no place to catch a breath, we’re pretty much homebound for the foreseeable future.

There’s an app . . . ” smokeWX ” which lets you see an animated prediction of future smoke cover. It has been a big help in planning our outings.

At the same time we’re dealing with the smoke, our daytime temps cooled . . . so some good news.

A supply of baked goodies stacked in the freezer

There were a bunch of baking projects that needed to be done, so those jobs moved to the top of the list. Restocking our freezer and pantry was how we spent the week.

Isn’t variety the spice of life? We think so, and to that end have a set of cake pan sized metal bins in the freezer to hold baked goods.

Have you discovered Alton Brown Cooks Food on YouTube? Check it out and look for the chocolate chip cookie episode / recipe . . . these chewy cookies are very nice.

Looking north it’s not bad here, but you can see what’s around us

As the week winds down some of the fires are getting contained, which should lessen the smoke plumes. Now we just have to get through October.

That’s the end of fire season and it seems a long way off doesn’t it?

August 2, 2026August 5, 2026

It has been an odd week. A large portion of Oregon remains on fire and choked in smoke. Over a million and a half acres have burned and thousands of people have evacuated, with more just waiting for that Level 3 – GO Evacuation Order.

While that was going on, our small corner of the world has been nearly smoke free.

There were a few bad air quality days the end of last week. Then this week our skies cleared. Our small section of central Oregon lay isolated from smoke.

We’re not complaining. It’s been nice to open a door and not start coughing. But there is a downside. All our regular haunts are still sitting in the smoke.

There are a couple of project fires just North of Prineville and southwest of Maupin. The John Day fossil beds Painted Hills Unit is scorched. And the plume from all these fires pretty much covers the rest of central Oregon.

We did find a spot close by to escape the smoke.

The Upper Deschutes is relatively smoke free, at least the section we stopped at. So for now we stick close to home and watch the fire apps waiting for the winds to shift and the fires to burn out

July 26, 2026July 26, 2026

Summer Smoke

Wildfire smoke obscures the north end of Prineville Reservoi

We did not get on the Crooked River this week. The Canyon was blanketed with a layer of wildfire smoke.

At the beginning of the week a thunderstorm walked lightning from the south to north, across Central Oregon. In its wake were a multiple fires.

Most of those ignitions were dealt with quickly, but a handful grew into major burns.

The biggest, Akawa Butte fire is over 26,000 acres and only 3% contained. It threatens the city of Sisters. But that’s not the only problem.

Pull up the app Watchduty and you’ll see that from Redmond north to Interstate 84 (the Oregon border) there is literally nothing but orange flames. So many in fact that two are designated “Complexes”.

The Rowe Creek complex is ten fires that have consumed 132,000 acres and is only 16% contained. North of that is the Hay Creek Complex which is 5 fires on 116,000 acres, but it’s 76% contained.

To make matters worse, a second storm swept up nearly the same line and while it brought some rain, lightning started a couple dozen new burns.

All of this fire brings smoke. While here. south of Bend, we’ve been spared the worst of the air quality numbers, we still sit under 100 plus readings. Unfortunately, this has become the norm for summer.

July 19, 2026July 18, 2026

Fishing the Dry Fly

At least one excursion a week is focused on fishing. From May to August those pursuits are primarily in search of dry flyfishing opportunities.

We started flyfishing on the North Fork of the Flathead River, casting Royal Wulff patterns to West Slope Cutthroat Trout. Catching a fish off the surface of a river is, to me, the most fun.

These last couple of months we’ve been chasing the Caddisfly hatches on the Crooked River.

Starting around Mother’s Day and extending to early July, there are a series of these emergences nearly daily. Just before and during the hatch, fishing is optimal.

The biggest challenge with Caddisflies is they hatch, shuck out of pupal skin, and fly off to the bushes at dawn and dusk.

On the Crooked dusk in July is hot and windy . . . kind of miserable and not the best fishing conditions. But on the high desert mornings are typically much cooler and calmer.

All these insects are a boon to the birds, as well as the fish

We’ve been very successful leaving the house about 6:30 (yes after sunrise, so not technically dawn) and being on the river about an hour later. This has connected us with some really successful fishing.

By the time the afternoon wind picks up, we’ve had nearly four hours on the water and are ready to have a cold one and call it a day.

We’re not going to stop spending mornings on the Crooked, but as we move into July and August the target species shifts to Small Mouth Bass on the John Day River, and then the futile pursuit of Summer Steelhead on the Lower Deschutes.

We’ll take you along on those journeys as well.

July 12, 2026July 16, 2026

Last of the Litter

Boo enjoying the winter evening his way.

Almost 20 years ago, as we started to move out of the house in Troutdale, a small black cat started hanging out in our front yard. Turned out . . . that cat was pregnant.

She and her 4 kittens joined us and our pack of 3 dogs in a 5^th wheel camper, as we built a new home on a hill in Sandy, Oregon.