Category Archives: Interests

Grilled Turkey Tenderloin

grilled-turkey

I grilled out some Turkey tenderloins today. I didn’t want them to dry out on the grill so I looked around at some recipes and concocted this marinade from scratch getting ideas from the ones I found online.

  • 2     Tbl.   fresh sage chopped
  • 1     Tbl.   fresh rosemary chopped
  • 4    cloves   garlic crushed
  • ½   cup   lemon juice
  • ½   cup   white wine
  • ½   cup   olive oil
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 6     Turley tenderloins
  • (you can substitute ¼ cup Cilantro for Sage and Rosemary and Lime for Lemon for a Tex-Mex twist)

Mix all  ingredients (except turkey) in a large measuring cup and pour over tenderloins in a large gallon zip-lock bag. Remove all air from bag and set in refrigerator for several hours or overnight. Grill over medium flame about 7-8 minutes on each side until done in middle, finished temp should be from 165° to 170° so to prevent over cooking, cook to just under 165° and remove from flame and cover with foil to ‘rest’ the meat for at least 10 minutes. Slice into medallions or thinly on the bias.

New Hobby for me

Yashica Electro 35 GSN 1973
Yashica Electro 35 GSN 1973

I’ve recently acquired a new hobby, collecting vintage cameras, repairing them and taking pictures with them then burning the negatives into digital. It started when I was posting some pics on my Pinterest account/board. I saw someone had posted some pics of an old camera. I followed the link and did some reading up on the subject. Apparently there are many “pro’s” out there that believe the image results are equal if not better shooting film than digital, and there are certainly many things you can’t get away with shooting digital that you can with film, like better detail in a back-lit subjects.

Argus C44 1956. Made in USA
Argus C44 1956. Made in USA

I Updated my website with new pages about my collection and some fixes. Stop by and get nostalgic. there are some links to other sites about the subject. Also I explain how I fixed the above Yashica Electro 35 GSN, it was quite a task.

Weekend Getaway!

Cheryl and I had just about had enough of this heat and B.S. going on lately so we went to the coast for a little R&R. I made reservations on a Tuesday for the following Friday/Saturday nights and surprisingly got rooms. Later we learned that in Florence, there was a “Rods n Rhodies” car show thing going on down in Old Town and in Bandon they were having their Cranberry Festival that same weekend.

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An “added bonus”, since we knew nothing about the festivities in advance, so we kept our original agenda of relaxing and playing it by ear (sort of, I always have some plans in mind) We got started later than usual, Friday at noon after Cheryl got off work. We went straight through Reedsport in stead of stopping to make dinner at Mo’s in time. Besides, one of our favorite antique shops had closed and that would have been our only stop anyway.

We got to Florence around 3:30-4, got checked into our room and went down to” Old Town” along the river. We did our shopping before going to dinner at Mo’s, a twist for us, as we usually have a lunch at Mo’s, then shopping. As usual, there were a few new shops and a few missing shops.

Here are some pics of the Old Town area:

 

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We did some antiquing the next day before leaving Florence, then on our way to Bandon we stopped at Winchester Bay so I could pick up some smoked salmon. I couldn’t resist so I got a crab cocktail while there, OMG! It was the best crab cocktail I’ve ever had and I consider myself quite the crab critique…

 

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Just next door to Winchester Bay is the Umpqua River Lighthouse and USCG barracks with the old USCG admin building, now a museum…

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In Bandon we walked around the Cranberry Festival and shops till we dropped. Later we went to the Coquille River Lighthouse as the Sun was setting and to Face Rock to watch the Sun sink into the ocean.

 

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The last day, on our way home we stopped at Misty Meadows and got more food souvenirs and we stopped at the West Coast Game Park Safari to see the baby Tiger and Leopard. Billed as the nations largest petting zoo, there are lots of deer and goats and other critters roaming freely about the park.

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If you like, I have all the pics from our weekend HERE at 

Day Trip to Dunsmuir

I took what I call my “Last day trip to Dunsmuir for a while” on Wednesday (10/6/10) meaning, I start my new job at Schwan’s on Monday and it’s going to be a while before I have any time off to do such things. Even though I only saw one train that day, it was a very satisfying and relaxing day. Rewarding as well as I found two new things I have never seen before along the old Siskiyou Line in Northern Cal. and got to chat with an online acquaintance at what was a chance meeting at a remote area along the line.

The night before my trip, I emailed a fellow, Robert “Photobob” Morris saying I was going to be in Dunsmuir area and hoped to run into him. Well the next day as I was driving through Grenada, CA, a very small very old farm town along the Siskiyou line, I noticed a strange looking old Line-shack I had never noticed before. There was a road leading right up to it. It was an old but still usable “in-Motion” track weight scale used for the farmers grain cars.

As I was checking it out, up pulls Robert and his wife to take some pictures as well. Small world… We were both surprised that, after many many years, and being in a small town with high unemployment and basically nothing for the local kids to do it was in such pristine shape. There wasn’t a single bit of graffiti or vandalism, there was expensive but primitive electrical equipment inside behind unlocked doors. I have some pictures at my Picasa site. The first few are of the scale, shack and the old Southern Pacific concrete line shack.

There are a few images of my other discovery that day. An old section of road with a cool old trestle going over it. Thought it would be a good future photo-op location if trains ever return to that section of track again.

“Pottsville” 2010

This last Fathers day, Sunday June 20, we went to “Pottsville” in Merlin, OR. to the annual antique tractor show and flea market / swap meet. There were the usual large but manageable crowds, tractor people seem to be some of the nicest around, hot dog and burger stands, other various food, vendors selling home crafted items. There were these huge steam behemoths rolling around, and the regular old diesel tractors, all were either in the “parade” or parked in rows for viewing. Also there were antique small engines, the kind used for pumping water or some other small job.

Cheryl didn’t find anything at the flea market but I found an old mason jar I’m going to use to make a bird feeder. Here are the few pics I took.

Yummy Quick Ribs!

Tonight I’m making some easy quick baby-back ribs!  It’s basically three steps: cut-boil-grill.

1. Cut ribs into 2-rib sections

2. Place in a dutch oven or heavy sauce pan. Fill with enough water to cover ribs. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer 20 minutes

3. Grill over medium/high heat, turning once, for about 10 minutes, adding BBQ  sauce after turning the first time. I salt and pepper the meaty side and cook that side first.

These aren’t the fall off the bone ribs we crave but they are delicious and tender enough for a quick meal.

CORP tests new GP-20D units on “Hill”

On Friday 04/30/10 Central Oregon and Pacific Railroad tested it’s newest engines in a run from Weed, CA to Medford, OR over the Siskiyou Line, pulling 9 bulkhead flat cars loaded with veneer and 7 Log cars full of logs bound for Riddle and Dillard, Or. mills. The test was to see if it’s new CEFX “GP-20D” engines would make an efficient run over the Hill that boasts some 3% plus grades, testing fuel economy, tractive effort etc… in hopes that service on the south end could economically be restored if the “numbers” looked right.

Service south was halted by CORP around April 15 2008 because it claimed it was loosing money going south of Ashland. Loads originating north of Ashland would be hauled north to Eugene then sent south from there on the Union Pacific. (Instead of originally going south over the Siskiyou Summit to Black Butte to join the UP there.)

A big battle ensued between CORP and shippers, mainly veneer and log mills in Yreka,  and  by the Yreka Western RR. who services the mills, then exchange them with CORP in Montague, CA.

Originally, CORP would take a train of cars originating in the Rogue Valley to Hornbrook, CA, a midway point on the south end, drop that load off and pick up the loaded Log cars, Veneer and an occasional wood chip car and bring them north to awaiting plywood mills etc…  Another set of engines would resume taking the cars from the Rogue Valley south to Black Butte Junction, The shippers felt CORP was asking way too much money to take their loads North, plus reduced shipping days. The logs and veneer have been coming north on trucks ever since.

1 & 2- leaving Weed ~ “old and new” passing old Edgewood Store

Mt Shasta in background ~ passing siding at Gazelle ~ past old tractor Grenada

old tank car ~ fuel tank ~ old tressel

heat waves ~ old Montague station ~ Klamath River bridge

I you like, I have more pictures here

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.

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.