Lone Blue Heron

The lone blue heron which haunted the fields around Mt. Peak was found on the side of the road dead several months ago, its crystal clear eye open to the sky. Another lone blue heron was sighted in the fields last Tuesday the 24th.

Buzz-Buzz Barbie Boy?

Barbie Boy was back on Mt. Peak today. This is the guy with the "Barbie" backpack who blocks the trail when people are trying to get uphill doing their workouts.

Today, he didn't get far up the trail, when a bee came buzzing out of the shrubbery and stung him in the lower back -- ZAP. He stopped, fiddling with his shirt and lower back, trying to get the stinger out. This time, he pulled over to the side of the trail, more worried about getting zapped by the bee than blocking other hikers doing their workouts.

Buzz buzz ZAP . . .

Almost Sunny

Sunny this morning, the rays coming in under the clouds. It was almost sunny today, at least in the first part. It was somewhat bright, and not raining, anyway.

In one of the new warehouses on the corner of Garrett and Battersby, there is finally a tenant. Will they make it in this economy? Will the other vacancies fill? And with more warehouses projected for across Battersby, what will become of them?

Enumclaw being largely a farming town, what can we do to build on and encourage farming here? The farms will be vital if we slide into a full-on depression, providing food for trade.

Mt. Peak Vandalism

Any time a man made structure is placed on Mt. Peak, it usually doesn't take long for it to be defaced or destroyed.

The first obvious instance of this was when a boy scout troop planted signs at intervals along the trail to the top. Each of these was mounted on a 4x4 post, had a hinged cedar cover, and underneath a plaque explaining the flora to be seen along that area of the path.

Almost immediately after these signs were placed, the cedar covers were ripped from their hinges and disappeared. Some of the plaques underneath were destroyed or went missing. And several of the signs were pulled out completely by their posts and thrown downhill on the side of the trail.

Recently a monument was placed at the top of Mt. Peak, commemorating a former regular hiker. It's a large, solid, wooden pillar, set in cement. It has an angled top, where a plaque was attached with a quote and the man's name. This monument lasted about one day intact: The plaque was shattered and removed, and the pillar cracked and gouged, probably in attempts to split it completely.

Recently, the stone sign at the north entrance to the Mt. Peak trail was defaced with a warning in spray paint for those of a certain race to keep out. The Parks Dept. has been unable to completely remove the lettering and restore the sign.

The oddity about the vandalism of the signs along the main path to the top, and of that of the monument at the top, is that why would vandals go to all the trouble to climb Mt. Peak just to destroy these things? Climbing that hill takes a little work, and you would have to pick a time when you wouldn't be seen by other hikers in order to wreck these things. Why go to all that effort?

Building is hard; destroying is easy:

Why would vandals, who don't like hard, but do like easy, do something relatively difficult by climbing Mt. Peak in order to wreak all this damage? Rather than run-of-the-mill vandalism, maybe the motive behind some of the actions is resentment of human alterations to the hill. Maybe not all of the damage is from a human agency.

Snow

We had the first real snow of the season yesterday, with about an inch on the ground.

Today, with it pushing 40 degrees, it's already slushy.

I wonder how much there is on the top of Mt. Peak.

Bigfoot Sighting in Enumclaw

Here is a sighting from 1975, but reported only several years ago:

http://www.oregonbigfoot.com/report_detail.php?id=00426

Can anyone pinpoint which field this was in, southeast of downtown Enumclaw?

Is it right against 410, or closer to Mt. Peak?

Blue Heron

The blue heron that used to hunt the fields north of Mt. Peak was back today. I hadn't seen it in those fields for a couple of years, since the construction of the new homes in the area. It was standing in a field, stock still, so still you'd think it was a wooden decoy. The other day it was standing, statue-like, in a little marsh at the bottom of Mt. Peak.

What a shame those townhouses are taking over the farm fields. If you build over the farms, what will we eat?

A field isn't an empty space; a field can feed hundreds of people.

Will we ever see the day when warehouses and other buildings are removed to make way for fields? Progress in reverse? Real progress?

We need farms and fields in order to live. The developers of the new townhouse neighbourhood are trying to turn Enumclaw into Kent. We need fields and space.

Welcome

Welcome to the Enumblog, the web log of rural and out-of-the-way news and observations in Enumclaw, Washington, U.S.A.