Cascade Raptor Center

The Cascade Raptor Center is a local non-profit that provides medical care to injured or orphaned birds of prey as well as educational programs about the important role these birds play in nature. Perhaps you've seen their ambassador birds at a local event or heard about their work rehabilitating injured birds and releasing them back …

Easy Rider

Earlier this summer, we pulled our bikes out of a back corner of our garage, dusted them off, and hauled them down to Rainy Peak Bike Shop for maintenance. With the sun shining beautifully last weekend, we packed a couple PB&J sandwiches and hit the Row River Trail. My goal for this trip was a …

Luper Cemetery: Eugene

Just north of Eugene, surrounded by farmland, is one of the oldest pioneer cemeteries in the southern Willamette Valley, Luper Cemetery. I love wandering through old graveyards, looking at the headstones, and piecing together the family relationships. I wonder about these people's lives and history and I enjoy the markers their families had created for them. In this …

Connecting the Present to the Past: History Here, Eugene

As traffic streams by along West 11th in Eugene, four brick workers from the J. Marsh Martin brickyard silently observe the bustle from their poster adhered to a metal utility box. Three feet wide by four-and-a-half feet tall, the poster is basically a large photograph with a brief description of the people and places within …

Andrew Reasoner Wildlife Preserve

Traveling along Lorane Highway earlier this summer, the sign for the Andrew Reasoner Wildlife Preserve caught our eyes. After a quick Google search on our smart phones we realized we had just discovered another place to explore in Lane County. The Andrew Reasoner Wildlife Preserve protects almost 300 acres of oak savanna, through a conservation easement to …

Johnson Farms: North Eugene

Nestled  just outside of north Eugene, where urban growth butts against farmland, sits Johnson Farms. Established in 1915, Johnson's is a century farm -- a farm that has been owned by the same family for over 100 years. Johnson's began when newlyweds Alfred Johnson and Oma Davis started growing vegetables and raising livestock to sale. The …

Agrarian Ales

When you compare the number of breweries that I've written about on this blog (0) with the number of wineries (about 17) and distilleries (4) it should be pretty obvious that I'm not really a beer drinker. I enjoy a nice beer on occasion but rarely do I seek it out. That changed yesterday when …

J. Scott Cellars: Eugene

I love discovering neat places totally by accident. Like last weekend when we stumbled across J. Scott Cellars, part of Eugene's new "urban wine district." Saturday, late in the afternoon, we were up in Eugene taking care of some shopping and errands before heading over to some friends' house for dinner. Our last errand was a …

Beaver

The official animal of the state of Oregon is the beaver, and though I've lived in Oregon most of my life, I've only seen one once. It was down at the Row River Nature Park during a rare evening walk, and I just got a glimpse as it swam away into the evening darkness. A …

Crescendo! : Eugene

Limoncello is a liqueur made from lemons. It has its origins in southern Italy and if you’ve visited Italy you may have experienced it, especially if you got further south into the boot. Luckily, you don’t have to visit Italy to have handmade limoncello, instead you just need to drive out west 11th in Eugene …