Parkdale, OR

Speechless Sunday - Mt. Hood's Snowy Grandeur

Mel took this lovely photo of Mt. Hood covered with winter snow and framed by a delicate branch. Neither of us ever seem to tire of photographing our volcano which seems so different in every season and from so many varying angles. He took this photo just a couple miles from our house in Parkdale, Oregon, but zoomed in on the mountain.

Silent Saturday - Gorgeous Winter Morning On Mt. Hood

This is the view of Mt. Hood this morning, about 1/2 mile from our house in Parkdale, Oregon. I took this at about 8 a.m. this morning. on the way to our son, Ben's, basketball game. Today promises to be sunny and gorgeous. Is it any wonder why we love living here?

SNOW DAY! Mt. Hood, Most of Oregon Slammed by Huge Amounts of Snow!

We had aleady guessed, well before the school district made the official call this morning, that it would be a snow day today. We already had two feet of snow over the last couple days, but then we got 18 additional inches just over night last night, making digging out of our own driveway interesting, what alone braving the roads.

Before this storm, Mt. Hood stood at a small fraction of its "normal" snow pack for this time of year, which would not bode well for the summer water supply. Even the city of Portland got a few inches of snow (which happens generally only a couple times a year) and this morning on the banner running at the bottom of the news I counted 57 school districts closed for the day.

Then a southern air flow brought warmer air and the snow turned to rain through the valley. Here in Parkdale, 10 miles south of Hood River and at an elevation of 1,200 feet, it's a rain and snow mix, but higher, it's all snow. With up to two feet more expected.

This is our son, Ben, in our backyard, where he practically had to swim to get:

Here's our five foot fence... or what is showing of it, anyway:

Speechless Sunday - Heavy With Snow

We finally, FINALLY have a little snow. It started snowing last night and hasn't stopped yet today. This is the ponderosa tree out our side door. Such snowstorms are not uncommon here this time of year, but this year they have been few and far between. This is only the second accumulation of the year at our house in Parkdale, Oregon.

Hood River Valley 3-6th Grade League Basketball Starts

Another season, another sport begins. In our household, you can tell what time of year it is by what sport our boys are playing and we are very pleased with the variety and quality of choices available to us here in the Hood River Valley. This week, our 11-year-old, Ben, started 3-6th grade youth basketball practice with games to start in two weeks. He's on the 5th and 6th grade Parkdale team (he's in the 5th grade). This year the team is made up of 11 players and their coaches are teammates' parents who volunteer their time to these youngsters. The team focuses on learning and improving basic basketball skills, athletitism, conditioning, good sportsmanship and on good old-fashioned "having fun"!

The league is organized through the Hood River County School District Community Education, which offers a huge variety of sports and classes for youth and adults in the Hood River Valley.