Tag: OrangeDoor

Manhattan Project Hanford

The Manhattan Project National Historic Park is made up of three sites:  Oak Ridge, Tennessee; Los Alamos, New Mexico; and Hanford, Washington.  Fun fact:  If you collect National Park Stamps, the stamp for the Manhattan Project is in three parts.

There are two tours offered at the Hanford Site.  Here is the link to register. We took the Historic B Reactor Tour, but had I known the Pre-Manhattan Tour existed, it would have been my choice.  Each tour takes up a big chunk of the day and involves a bus ride to the site, a guide and a lot of time to look around.  All for free.  Thank you, National Park Service.

We met outside of Richland, where we looked at some exhibits, like this newspaper. Our guide showed us an introductory video and then we loaded up the bus and were off.

Our guide was great.  She also teaches Biology to college students.  She was very good at repeating the questions asked so everyone could hear them and knowledgeable overall.

Headed out to the site.  At a certain point in history this road would have been closed to the general pubic.

It wasn’t a long trip, but did allow for a short nap.

And here it is!  The historic reactor.  What you are looking at are the caps on the rods.  Scientists changed the amount of plutonium produced by moving the rods in a very big cube. [Science!  Not my strong suit.  Go watch a video or something if you want to know more]

As usual with science things, I was more interested in the people part of the equation. A whole bunch of people had to be recruited to this desert to build the reactor.  They weren’t told what they were doing, just that things needed to be built.  And the people needed to be fed.

The site was full of all sorts of repeating colorful patterns.

And some good vintage and modern signs.

Here’s the view from the outside.  Once everything was built, the construction camps were taken down.  The town of Richland was rebuilt so the workers at Hanford had nice places to live. That’s where the Alphabet Houses came in.  The population of Richland was 300 before residents were evicted in 1943.  Then workers for the Hanford Engineering Project arrived and there were 25,000 people in Richland by 1945 Spokane Architect Albin Pherson designed most of the city. He designed a variety of single family homes, duplexes, apartment buildings and dormitories.  Each design was designated with a letter of the alphabet.  If you visit Richland, you can walk through the Gold Coast Historic District and see a selection of the Alphabet Houses.

I greatly enjoyed my tour of the Hanford site and recommend it for anyone visiting the area.

REACH museum

We were in Richland to experience the Hanford tour with Matt’s mother, but we stopped at the REACH museum first.

I’m still uncertain just what the REACH museum is, even after having visited and after looking at their website. I think it’s talking about how the Columbia River sustains a large area around it.  Here’s a big picture of the Columbia and how it reaches so very far, as indicated by the green patches.  I think that big brown area where the word “irrigated” is might be the Hanford site.

The REACH had some nice displays of how the Tri-Cities area developed, geologically and with human influence.  It’s also the first place I learned about the 2300 people kicked off their land with 30 days notice so the Manhattan Project could build a nuclear power plant.  Also about Alphabet Houses.

Other people displaced by the Manhattan project?  Native Americans.  They had lived in the area for thousands of years.

How big is my living room?

Our square dancing class wants to learn the Plus Level this summer, so we are having lessons in my living room, which is just big enough for a square.

And here’s where things are stashed.  There are also chairs hidden in the pantry, out of site.

It’s times like these that I have the greatest affection for my little house.

New silverware

“Do we want my grandmother’s silverware?” Matt asked me via email query.
“Sure” was my reply.

The silverware has arrived.  Using only this picture, guess the year in which it was bought.  (Don’t read further until you have guessed.)

Look at this nice label in the box, announcing its Solid Stainless status.

And on the back of the informational card, Matt’s grandmother had written the date of purchase.

Did you guess 1965?  You are correct!

I’m pretty excited about this silverware.

Day of Projects

Today was a day to get things done.  And I did!

I hung the first of two bike hangers on the back porch.  This gets my bike out of our laundry/pantry area.  We have plans to also hang Matt’s bike from above.  But the ladder in combination with my height was not tall enough to do that project, so that will have to wait until Matt is home.

This picture shows off what part of the paint job didn’t get done.  This summer, when they repainted our house, they did not paint the surrounds around the doors, or the doors.  I’ve got it on the project list, but I don’t know if it will ever get done because I hate painting.  Also because anything with doors means leaving the doors open until the paint dries. Which is more complicated with the cats.

The new bike changes the view from my desk. 

Now I just have to put the pantry in order.

I took this octopus hanger out of the closet and put it closer to the washer.  I will hang my washcloths from it.

Our kitchen light wasn’t working.  We were down to one working light in the fixture.  Time for a new kitchen light.

This is not the best picture, but here is the new fixture I installed.  I love that it has LED lights, so we don’t have to change them.  We also gained a light with the new fixture.  (Four instead of three.)

In the fashion of all projects, there was a trip to the hardware store.  I enjoyed coming across this truck, with an improvised–yet decorated–tailgate.

The same truck also had this improvised locking system.
It was a good day of projects.

Hike at Tom McCall preserve

Here we are at the parking lot at Rowena Crest, with the Columbia River in the background.  I love this picture because it looks like I’ve got a white stripe in my hair, which has always been a dream of mine.  (I don’t actually have a white stripe in my hair.)

Informational sign about the Missoula Floods, a topic which always inspires feelings of panicked boredom.  Even while typing the letters I need to remind myself to breathe deeply.  Geology.  Not for me.

See that peak up there?  That’s where we are headed.  We’ve done this hike before, in 2013.  (Thanks blog, for keeping a record of this stuff.  Comparing the two posts is also fun.)

Pretty landscape.

That white car on the right is our car.

Mountains peeking through.  We’re at the apex of our hike.

Acorn survivors.

This time, we added the second half of the hike, which took us closer to the river.

These birds were HUGE!  I took a picture, wondering if they were ravens.  Googling in the interim has told me that there’s not really an official line between crows and ravens.  People have also told me ravens are bigger than crows.

Columbia River.

Self portrait.

Nicely tiered landscape.

“Seattle” Spartan Race

We drove to Snohomish for what is advertised on the web site as the Seattle Spartan Race.  Matt was doing the Beast, which was a step up from his race in April.  The sign informs us that the race is 11+ miles and 30+ obstacles.  If I may interject, the lack of detail on the sign is maddening.  Maybe they don’t know exactly how long the course is, but surely they know the exact number of obstacles, seeing as how they have to set them up.

Bag check.

Matt, his wristband, the map, and the plan.

Based on Matt’s performance in April, we estimated when I would have photo ops.

Plan established, Matt gears up, and poses at the official sign.  Here, he is following my prompt to “be a Beast”

Shirts of a team of participants.  While it’s impossible for the person on the right to fulfill both parts of her team name, she’s got the first one down. 

Athletic supporter!  Above and beyond!

Matt gets ready.  Why walk to the starting line when you can climb over a wall?

This was the race were I discovered my camera could take continuous photos if I held the shutter down.  I have a lot of continuous photo shots which were supposed to be complied into short videos, but were not.  Here’s Matt at the start of the race.  I enjoy this photo because he’s barely in the frame and that other guy has lost his shoe in the first 50 feet of the race.  It’s going to be a long race for him.

Race started, I wandered to my next photo op, catching this picture of headstand guy.

Matt climbing up the rope, which was an obstacle he had a hard time with in April.

This time he  easily rang the bell.

The rings, also a trouble spot last time.  Apparently, they are very slippery, so a lot of grip strength is involved.

Plus, you have to transition from rings to the bar, which kills your momentum.

Then there is  a third transition from bar to rope, and that’s where Matt fell

He did great on this obstacle, though.

Having fulfilled the first part of my athletic supporter picture duties, I retreated to the car to nap and read.  According to our calculations, I would next see him at mile 8, at approximately 4:05.  I set an alarm for 3:45 and proceeded to lounge.  I could see the runners along the tree line and at 3:00 I happened to look up from my book.  Was that just Matt?  I jumped out of the car and indeed it was him, more than an hour ahead of schedule.  Having missed the mile-8 photo, I packed my bag, closed up the car and headed for the photo-op spot, the A-Frame.

On the way I saw this sad story.  Also: ballsy criminals.  Due to the staggered start times of the races, people are wandering around all the time.

The downside of continuous shooting is that it eats through your battery quickly.  I was already on my backup battery, and concerned about running out, so this part of the race I shot one picture at a time. 

I liked how interested these boys were into tying grass around the caution tape.

Matt walking over the wall.

Matt at the top of the wall.

Headed toward the finish.  Plus: that girl’s expression.

Trying to turn off the headlamp he was required to wear.

Socks, duct tape and shoes, post race.

Matt indicating he has completed a Trifecta:  Sprint, Super and Beast. (The official Spartan Race requires you to complete all three races in one calendar year, but I think that’s a dumb rule, designed only to boost their sales.)  When you have completed a Trifecta, you get to buy a special medal to hold all three pieces.  The Spartan Race never misses an opportunity to make money.

Matt and the Edge Shirt, post-race.

Self-portrait by smiling males.  (rare)

Matt’s beefcake shot.

A happy finisher.

The athletic supporter had to use the port-a-potties, so the athlete ended up holding the sign with his head on it.  He seemed a bit embarrassed.

Rather than wait in the clump of the front side of the sign, we opted for the post race photo to be on the other side.

2016 Harvest Report

The good:  my many squash plants produced!  I enjoyed having a trombone zucchini and I even got a beet!

The bad: two of My Oregon Sweet Meat squash split, which meant they wouldn’t keep.  I cut out the rotted part of one squash and the rest was fine.  The other I gave to someone at work.  He and his housemates ate it for a long time.

I had saved seed of delicata squash and it didn’t grow true.  Perhaps it was a hybrid.  A goodly number of my delicata squash look like delicata-shaped acorn squash.  Also, of my two trombone zucchini plants, one of them seemed to be more yellow squash than zucchini squash.