A Storybook Farm

A Storybook Farm, a photo by DeForestRanger on Flickr.

Over a hundred years ago, immigrant farmers came to this area looking for fertile land in a river valley, a place where they could pasture herds of cattle. Meandering Ohop Creek held promise as a continuing water source, but little did the settlers realize until some years had past that the boggy nature of the valley was not an occasional phenomenon, but rather a permanent situation. In an effort to drain the land and make it more arable, they excavated Ohop Creek and straightened out its channel, intending to create a faster run-off, but they were defeated by the clayey nature of the underlying soil. The straightening of the creek's channel had another unexpected side effect. It destroyed the habitat for spawning salmon.

In the last twenty years, restoration of the wetland has been a project for a variety of groups. Contractors were brought in to restore the natural meander, native plants have been reintroduced to the flood plain and invasive species have been removed. Today, visitors to this lovely valley will see farm buildings such as this only above the flood plain. Most lowland structures have been removed.

Becky's Pond

Becky's Pond, a photo by DeForestRanger on Flickr.

Becky Thatcher didn't share all her secrets with Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Like all good fisherfolk, she kept the location of her favorite fishing hole quite to herself. There, on a summer afternoon when the water was warm, she could catch bass and perch to her heart's content, or linger into the evening hours to bait up a big catfish from its lair below a fallen tree. Oh, she was cautious of the boys, always checking behind her as she made her way through the tall meadow grass and into the forest verge. It was no easy bushwhack, two miles or more, and that in a skirt she'd promised to keep clean for school. With a basket packed with a lunch of cookies and a jar of wriggling angleworms, Becky was set to stay until suppertime. "Just one more cast," she'd say, in the manner of the true fisherman who knows you can't go home when the bite is on.

Pufferbelly Smokestack

Pufferbelly Smokestack, a photo by DeForestRanger on Flickr.

"Down by the station, early in the morning,
See the little pufferbellies, all in a row.
See the stationmaster pull the little handle.
Chug-chug, toot-toot, off they go!"

This one isn't going anywhere, unfortunately, but it sits outside the tiny Elbe depot owned by Mt. Rainier Scenic Railroad to encourage people to take a ride. Passengers travel between Elbe and Mineral, crossing the Nisqually River on a new bridge which replaced the one washed out in the floods of 1996. The tour was suspended for a number of years as Tacoma Rail considered the economic feasibility of repairs. The line had only one other client, a lumber mill in Morton, and they'd discovered that trucking their product was no more expensive than shipping it by train. Evenutally, the potential for tourist trade prevailed and the area received a minor economic boost when the line reopened. Ironically, residents take the train for granted, and few of us have ever ridden it ourselves.

Hot Tamales

Hot Tamales, a photo by DeForestRanger on Flickr.

Here's an exploration into a colorful monochrome! I wanted this to be a "hot" shot, and wasn't getting good results from anything I tried until I accidentally put the camera on an automatic setting for "beach" instead of "selective color" as I'd intended. Suddenly, the spices leapt out of the gloom of my kitchen just as they attack anyone who attempts to eat Spanish rice made to my specifications. A little posterizing and a "glamour" filter to soften the focus, and I had exactly what I wanted. And if you should happen to survive my Spanish rice, you can try a curry next!