Giving work, that is, to those of us who don’t like to see our open spaces taken over by the alien invader, Scotch Broom.

​Perhaps it seemed like a good idea at the time when early settlers in the NW brought it over from Europe. Since then it has spread far and wide due to several competitive advantages over native plants: It’s nitrogen fixing and grows rapidly; when ripe, the seed pods burst, forcibly ejecting seed; and the seed can lay dormant in the soil for up to 40 years before sprouting.

Controlling scotch broom is not too difficult but it does require persistence since you’ll find new seedlings every year, especially if old plants have gone to seed in past years. Now is a good time to tackle it since the bright yellow flowers make it easy to spot. Mowing or cutting back to the ground will keep broom from producing seed this year, but it will regrow from the roots next season.

In early spring when the soil is wet, you can fairly easily pull small seedlings (to about pencil diameter) out by hand, roots and all. Pulling larger plants may require a weed wrench. SRN has three sizes of weed wrenches that Skyline area neighbors can borrow for free (call Sen 503-621-3331 or Laura 503-407-7175).

A neighbor offers this suggestion: "Cutting Scot’s broom when the plants are experiencing greatest water stress (August in the Pacific Northwest) results in re-growth of less than 10%. The plants should be cut as close to the ground as possible, or below grade to remove all potential budding stock to eliminate resprouting. A study with these conclusions was done by St Mary’s College in California and reported in Hortus West (Volume 7, Issue 2 - 1996). I have also experienced similar results here in Portland. Cutting can also be done during spring bloom, when resources in the roots are at their lowest levels."

Selective chemical control is also highly effective for seedlings that are too large to pull by hand. Cut the stem below all side branches and as close to the ground as possible. Then immediately apply just enough herbicide to coat the freshly-cut stem. The PNW Weed Management Handbook  has recommendations on which chemicals to use. (Always read and follow the label when using any pesticide).

​The lights go out.

Did you lose power during the recent ice and snow storm? Some neighbors were out for a long time, others only saw their lights blip momentarily.

What if the power was out for days? Certainly not unheard of, up here on the Hill. Then think about what if the power was off for a month or more. And no phone service, no water from the well, and no way to get down the hill to the store due to landslides.

That’s the possible scenario we’d be faced with following the “Big One,” according to Barry Newman, a team leader NET for the nearby Westside Heights neighborhood. Speaking at the Skyline Grange on Dec. 7, Barry went through in some detail what people should do to prepare themselves to shelter in place following a major natural disaster.

SRN wants to help our neighborhood plan and prepare by posting information on our website, in the Ridge Runner, and on the Newsline. On this website, there is now a dedicated section on Emergency Preparedness. There are detailed summaries from the “Big One” lecture series at the Grange, and notes will be added following each session. We will also add links and practical info from state and local agencies. If you know of other useful info resources as we build our emergency prep archive, please send us the link. 

Wow what a day! We realize that the Gathering has become a true neighborhood tradition. Former neighbors, who have moved away, still return to attend the Gathering. The kids who attended the earliest Gatherings now are grown up and are beginning to bring their kids to the Gathering. The SRN Board and Fundraising Committee each year question whether the Gathering is worth the tremendous effort. But watching old friends reconnect, meeting new neighbors, and the general good feeling of this year’s Gather ing convinced us to repeat this event again next summer.

Many children came. Kids rode Spot, Lucy, Triscuit and other horses from Phoenix Farm. Photos of kids were taken on ponies painted by Karin and Coral Kuhlman to look like a zebra and an Indian pony. Raz Sauer, old-fashioned games coordinator, was amazed by the number of kids participating this year. Cooper Campbell’s frog won the Large Frog category and Coral Kuhlman (her frog, that is) topped the Small Frog category in the Shadysprings Down Frog Race. Youthful muscles dominated the Tug-of-War.

The Gathering could not be possible without many committed volunteers. The auction was coordinated by Kathe Fradkin, Sharon Barthmaier, Sarah Bowersox, Jan Campbell brought in a record amount in proceeds. Linnton Community Center, Skyline Grange and Plumper Pumpkin graciously let us borrow tables, chairs and benches that Steve Fradkin and Joe Barthmaier spent hours transporting. Registrants were warmly greeted by Carol & Roger Wilkerson, Nora Schreiber, and Elena Speroff. Donald Jenkins again conducted a rousing oral auction. Miles and Libby Merwin cashiered. The fixed price items section was manned by Sarah Bowersox and assisted by Cassity Aello. We deeply appreciate Karin Hunt and Michael Tillson for letting us again use Shadysprings Farm with its beautiful facilities and pastoral setting.

The Stilltenders played lively music. The potluck was plentiful and delicious and coordinated by Laurel, Joe and Tony Erhardt. Tod Orris grilled hot dogs and sausages and the Pat Brady family made and served homemade ice cream. Cheryl Neal washed all the dishes. Catherine Dalziel coordinated the Informational Displays. KC Davison coordinated the kids’s art table. Susan Ahern designed colorful ribbons for the games.

Informational displays and literature were provided by Friends of Forest Park, The No Ivy League, Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue, Multnomah County Sheriff’s Department, Skyline Church, and Skyline Grange. Personnel from TVF&R were present for safety and to provide the water spray for the popular Tug-of-War. Sevda Speroff, Tovah and Moriah Goldfarb helped with the games. Patrick and Susan Ahern updated all of the road signs with Steve Fradkin’s artwork, and installed and removed them with hardly an argument as to the best placement locations! Tractorman donated the requisite field mowing.

(Excerpted from Skyline Ridge Runner, Nov. 2003)

By Laurel Erhardt
OMG - too funny! Looks like a 10 tier load? Reminds me of the good ol' days (?) of bucking bales. No automatic loaders. It was hard, hot, heavy work. The Erhardt's are inherently strong. My brother-in-law Gene, especially so.

I would watch the "buckers" struggling to throw the bales on the old truck crawling through the field. The truck was usually driven by the 10 or 12 year girl 'cause anyone who was big enough to buck or stack bales was assigned to those duties AND usually the driver was the littlest and youngest who was simultaneously learning to drive a stick shift.

The younger buckers would be struggling with learning the rhythm of striding alongside a crawling truck, jerk a bale up off the ground, step, use your arms to throw and a knee to push the bale onto the back of the truck for the stacker to put in place. The better placed the throw - the easier it was for the stacker. 

The stacker, is trying to keep his balance on a pile of bales in the back of a moving truck while he’s arranging those bales into a secure stack on a vehicle that is cursed with rookie driver clutch jerks. It is also pretty common at this time, for the young crew to have an introduction to cussing on the job 101.

The load starts out easy as you walk along and are only throwing bales truck bed high, then you have to buck it up higher and higher as the tiers grow and grow... Hay haulers brag about their loads in tiers.... "brought in a 8 tier load - man, that was a good stack job!. Getting one more tier on a load is desired to save a walk back to the barn where you offload the whole damn thing into the barn. One more tier is desired and dreaded as your aching arms and tired legs struggle to throw the bales higher and higher - on a hot August day.

Anyway - I digress, because all I wanted to mention was, I remember watching the buckers struggling to buck those bales up to the 3rd, 4th, 5th tier - arms struggling with a 75 to 90 lb bale, knee jerking up hard to help the tired old arms - then there was Gene Erhardt, walking along like he was taking a walk in the park. With one hand and no knee bucking, he would reach down and pick up a bale with what seem like no more effort than picking a daisy - whistling or humming a little song - and give it an easy swing onto the truck exactly where the stacker needed it. Every time.

RIP Gene, we miss you.

By Miles Merwin

Scotch broom, that is. Seeing all those pretty yellow flowers blooming on lanky green shrubs out in the meadow or on the forest edge?

If you like looking at it, you’re in luck because you will see more and more of it in the future. It loves to take over open areas, pushing out everything except Himalayan blackberry. Those lovely yellow flowers very soon produce little pea pods filled with thousands of tiny black seeds. Birds eat the pods and scatter the seed, which are like time-release pills. The seeds will lie dormant in the soil for up to 40 years and each year you’ll see some new sprouts emerge, to continue its slow march to botanical hegemony.

On the other hand, now is a great time to fight back against the alien invader scotch broom. The yellow blossoms make them easy to spot and those are the ones to go after now before they set seed. It’s no good to just cut them off and leave the roots – they will surely resprout. So you either have to pull out the entire root or kill the plant somehow.

SRN has handy tools called weed wrenches that you can borrow to make the job of pulling the larger shrubs a bit easier (see the classified ad section of the Ridge Runner for info). When the soil is still moist enough for easy digging, you can dig them out or even pull up the smaller ones by hand.

Another alternative is to kill them with a small amount of carefully applied herbicide. Rather than spray the foliage, the least amount is required if you cut the trunk close to ground and then immediately apply a small amount of herbicide to the cut surface of the root. Do a search for “scotch broom control Oregon” and you will find lots of info about this and other methods.

So, as you work to push back the broom and let the native plants grow, be happy knowing that you’ll always have a good reason to get outside and enjoy the beautiful spring weather… for the next 40 years.

By Vickie Coghill

it was busy day today! I watch Mila today. First thing in the morning we went to pick up 3 empty top bar bee hives I bought. I lost 6 of my 7 bee hives over the winter. Clearly I don't have enough empty hives! Actually I expect a heavy swarm year this year and I want to start some top bar hives.

After we got the hives, it was off to dance class for Mila. Back home. Lunch, play and nap. Toby got home and I took off fast.
Back to the farm to unload the hives and change into chore clothes and then off to the island to pickup a load of hay for these munch-mouth calves. Did chores, unloaded and stacked hay (whew!) and now I'm off to a friends house for a meal and drinks. Boy o boy, am I ready for THAT!

I do so love a busy day!

By Vickie Coghill

I have David and Jen’s two dogs for the weekend, Riker and Dax. Dax is a 3 month old lab x cattle dog. She did chores with me because she's the only one who can slip through the fence.

The calf saw her and gave chase. Dax barked and screamed up the driveway as the calf chased her to try to smell and see what she was. As soon as the calf started following me, Dax came back again.

She's pretty fearless and I like that about her. Once she saw the calf wasn't going to kill her, she could not care less about her. She is a tired and wet pup now. Ready for a nap in her kennel.

And not a whimper was heard.

By Miles Merwin

It’s that time of year again. Tradition says it’s time to make some resolutions on what you want to accomplish for the coming weeks, months, or year. So how to decide what’s important, and how to keep those resolutions from getting lost among all the other things to think about?

Resolutions can be very short term or stretch out over a whole year, especially those items from last year’s list that I procrastinated long enough to not get done. Yeah, some of the stuff in my workshop needs cleaning and organizing. If I exercise more, maybe I can put on a bit more muscle. Or I can spend the whole year working on ways to overcome annoying insomnia. Etc.

Then there’s the issue of how to organize this long, or short, list of resolutions. If you’re really centered, you can keep them all in your head. However, I’m a person who likes to make lists on paper, and not just at the beginning of the year. My lists can shrink or grow as time progresses, as I get some items checked off, or decide there’s something else more pressing at the moment. What I end up with are lots of little scraps of paper on the desk, bulletin board, bedside table, etc.

Or you can go digital and keep your resolutions and lists constantly at your fingertips on all your devices and out there in the “Cloud,” which never seems to forget, even if you do. I have a bit of the digital method mixed in with the analog.

Perhaps in the end it’s best not to overthink this whole New Years resolutions thing too much. Might be best to be content with making a few simple ones. And I might just accomplish some of them when the time is right.

By Laura Foster, McNamee Rd.

I’ve lived these last 18 years on the Hill and remain periodically unsettled about how far I find myself from many things I love, especially walking in cities, the urban anonymity tempered by the small, warm connections with clerks, fellow walkers, homeowners, homeless folk. An urban walk is my church: where I find inspiration, joy, kindnesses, connections, peace and renewal.

My husband lived here when I met him, and I cannot picture him anywhere but at his McNamee Road heaven. He loved this place at first sight, back when it was a logged off nob. I have come to love it….hanging laundry out at 5 a.m. on a summer morning, skinny-dipping in the pond, lying on the grass and watching clouds in the spring and fall—so unlike Northeast Portland where I’d have to come out of my deep-eaved Craftsman and peer upward to find a patch of sky.
I’ve loved walking in the woods or along the roads, eating things I find, and knowing our kids have learned which wild foods they can eat. And the annual return of the redwing blackbirds, turkey vultures and swallows brings the same joy I feel when running into a friend in the city.

Though I still miss living in a place where I can walk out my door into the energy of a city, I do love walking our trails in winter when trees are dripping, the ground giving, and the ferns fat and plumy. I love leaving my home office on spring afternoons, putting on canvas pants, and plunging down the hill, pulling down deadfall, clearing out ivy, limbing up trees to enhance the park-like effect. I’m proud to be a steward, helping the land thrive after a few generations of logging. While we own the land, days in our woods will remain quiet and if not primeval at least heading that direction.

Out of the billions of humans on the planet, living here puts me in the tiniest group of the most fortunate. I often wonder who will love it, and how, after we are gone.