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Chinese New year 2010~ Year of the Tiger

We made our 3rd annual trip to the Chinese New Year parade in Jacksonville, OR this last Feb. 13th. I have more history and links about the town here,  our first visit to the parade 2 years ago. Some of the same stuff but fun none the less.

The streets were lined on either side with spectators, not packed mind you, but for some reason several fellows felt the need to jump out in the street to take pictures with their “big” fancy cameras and block other people from getting anything but their backsides.

Here are this years shots

Old wooden Indian ~ Famous Jacksonville Tavern

“Peter Britt” ~ Chinese Dragons from San Francisco

Dragons ~ Chinese orphan girl ~ schoolkids masks

I almost missed the long golden dragon thanks to the idiot standing in the middle of the street taking pictures. It was a beautiful morning, but we weren’t in the mood to fight the crowds after the parade so we went over the the museum and checked things out there.

Posted in Canon SX 120is, Interests, Photography, Travel | No Comments »

CORP Job #701 ~ Weed to Black Butte

Central Oregon and Pacific Railroad (CORP) has an Engine  in Weed, CA  (GP38-3 #3809) that switches the local mills, and trades out cars with the Union Pacific RR  from the junction at Black Butte, CA.

CORP runs on the older, more mountainous, former Southern Pacific Siskiyou Line, Union Pacific runs on newer, less mountainous,  former Southern Pacific “Natron Cutoff” mainline. The two meet near Weed, CA at Black Butte, just off of the South Weed exit of I-5. There is an old water tower there and there used to be an old water spout for filling the tenders, until a misfortunate accident involving an Amtrak train and some cars fouling the main line, causing the Amtrak to derail and wipe out the old spigot.

Read more about the history of Black Butte Yard/Jctn.  here

It is a rare thing indeed to actually see the job #701 in action when you have to travel 80 miles and only get down there once or twice a year or so. Northern California recently had storm after storm dump tons of snow in the area, and I was anxious to get down there and get some train/snow shots (actually, my Jeep was threatening to cut me off if we didn’t go play.) It was just by luck that I was there about 5 minutes before it arrived at Black Butte. It must first climb around a steep grade to get there and I could hear the horn and laboring prime mover.

I knew right away what it was, as earlier in the day, I had seen the load and engine waiting at the Weed yard.

(above)  taken at Weed Yard

(above) Arriving at Black Butte.

(above) backing train to existing load. Mount Shasta, (middle) Black Butte, (right)

(above) Old water tower, CORP employee SUV, he ran around throwing switches for them, probably no conductor on board.

Up until this point it was not a great day for spotting trains. I stopped at Yreka Western RR on my way down there, no action, just a few of the engines sitting at the depot. Then I went down to Dunsmuir where the snow was deeper but no trains. Just the snow removing equipment sitting idle in the yard.  (below)

I did see a train however, just as the CORP train got next to the mainline, backing it’s load, a south bound mixed freight rolled through with two helpers on the end.

Posted in Canon SX 120is, Interests, Jeepin', Photography, Trains | No Comments »

Fall Colors 2009

It’s fall again Here are some seasonal images I’ve taken so far. There’s the Lost Creek covered Bridge just outside of Lake Creek, OR. and the Butte Creek Mill in Eagle Point, OR., and Lithia Park in Ashland, OR.

Posted in Canon S2is, Photography, Travel | No Comments »

Florence~Bandon Oregon

We recently got out of the heat (100+) and went to the coast at Florence and Bandon, Oregon. The weather was perfect. We did all the usual touristy things, tried not to spend too much money. I have pics here: Webshots. I made a mosaic of the Cape Blanco Lighthouse near Port Orford, Oregon. It is comprised of nearly all the photos taken on the trip!

There are three links, first is to see it screen size untouched, second is to see it screen size tweaked, third is blown-up to see the individual pics that make up the mosaic. You may have to click within the pic to: enlarge ~ screen size depending on your browser settings.

mosaic made with “AndreaMosaic“

Posted in Canon S2is, Photography, Travel | No Comments »

New Marinade, Balsamic Vinaigrette+

I like to experiment around with different marinades, yesterday I came up with a concoction that was more than just alright. I’ve used Balsamic vinaigrette dressing before with chicken straight out of the bottle but I doctored it up for our flat iron steak we grilled. I like to use the gallon zip-lock bags to marinade, also we love the “Newman’s Own” brand, the one with Paul Newman’s face on it

This is for beef. For chicken, sub- red wine for white wine, or leave wine out.

(depending of course on how much meat you’re covering,)

• pour in balsamic dressing to cover steak well, at least 1 cup
• add 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1/4 cup sesame oil
• 2-3 tbl. red wine
• mix well, let steak marinade at least a couple hours. Let sit to room temp. for about 20-30 min before grilling. Salt and pepper to taste.

Posted in Grillin' | No Comments »

Grilled pork tenderloin

Nothing is better than tender pork loin grilled to perfection in the great outdoors, unless of course it’s a beef loin or, fillet Mignon. We bought those large loins and cut them in two or three pieces and freeze them. Most or all I should say, should be tied with butcher string right out of the wrapper, or they’ll fall apart.

We enjoy them many ways, but my favorite so far is marinated in my teriyaki sauce (see link) for at least a couple hours. then grilled:…

with direct heat about 25-30 minutes, or until the middle temp. reads 155°-160° flipping once. Let it ‘rest’ for 15 minutes, this will finish the cooking to correct doneness without drying and keep in the juices.

Remove strings and slice into 1/2″-3/4″ thick medallions.

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My Teriyaki sauce

We basically grill out year round. I’ve even figured a way to stay dry in a torrential downpour. Summer though it is almost a must what with the heat, we don’t like heating up the house with a stove and especially the oven running for an hour or so. Even left over pizza, we figured out during a kitchen re-model how to warm up pizza on the grill!

The mainstay is my teriyaki sauce I use on almost all meats once in a while. It is “semi-homemade” as I mix pre-bottled sauces to make it.

I use Kikkoman teriyaki and soy sauces as they are a Japanese brand.

• 1 cup teriyaki
• 3 tbl.  soy sauce
• 3 tbl. sesame oil
• 2 tbl. honey
• 2-3 cloves crushed-minced garlic
• 1-2 drops liquid smoke (optional)
• 1 tsp. ginger (optional)

I mix the honey in good with one of those ’springy’ type gravy whisks, mix all good. May be injected as well.

I will be blogging grilled dinners and this is the teriyaki sauce I will be referring to with a link back.

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Steam Train Decoy

Saturday evening, I read in the local newspaper that the original steam engine that ran between Medford and Jacksonville, (OR.) starting in 1891, was displayed in the Oregon 150 party/parade in Jacksonville earlier in the day. The paper also said it will remain at Bigham Knoll school until Monday, when it’s current owners were going to take it back to California.

Sunday, my Wife, her friend and I went to the school to get some shots of it. It wasn’t there, “lets look downtown”. When we got downtown, nothing there either. The kind lady at the Info center, the old Depot, said “They’re sportin’ it around to show it off, try Alba Park, or Hawthorn Park in Medford.”

We looked at Alba Park, nothing there. Went to Hawthorn Parks south entrance, nothing there. “Oh well, let’s go to Dairy Queen”… on the way to Dairy Queen, we went past the north end of the park, my wife says “Look over there, under those trees, is that it?”. about 150 yards away, in the shade, under some trees was a silhouette of a little train we missed on our first pass through the park. “That’s it” I said, just getting a quick glimpse and having only seen a picture in the paper, it was red and black as far as I could tell. But we were going the wrong direction.

After looping around through town, probably breaking a few laws, my wife’s friend says “Drive much”, I replied, “This is how I drive when I’m chasing a train.” We arrived at the park, The train was barely visible with people and trees in the way. It wasn’t until I got right up on it that I realized… “Honey I chased a bar-b-que”

Oh well… lets go to Dairy Queen now. I did eventually go back to the school in the evening and get some shots of it. notice the very close resemblance…

They sure look close to me! Here are some more shots of this historic little engine.

Posted in Interests, Trains | No Comments »

McKee Bridge Day

Saturday June 13th was McKee Bridge Day at, where else? McKee Bridge. Built in 1917, it is now a pedestrian bridge only. There is a nice park next to the bridge, and a great swimming hole.

This photo has the history of the bridge.

some more shots:

We enjoyed ourselves. we had a hot dog lunch and homemade root beer floats were also available.

Posted in Canon S2is, Interests, Photography, Travel | No Comments »

“Pig Train” in Dunsmuir, CA

I got a chance to chase the Pig Train through the Cantara Loop on down to Castella this last week. It’s called the Pig Train because of the Piggyback configuration of the trailers on the flat cars. Back in the ’50s-’70s, Southern Pacific even had special trailers with a cute cartoon pig on them for this service.

These days, it seems, there are mostly ‘Swift’ trucking co. trailers on this service.

1) Azalea Ave

2) Cantara Loop

3) Castella

I have more pics and dialog about this on my updated website tunnel13.com

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