POBR Day 10



7/15/19

Day ten, Captain’s log: Early morning start today, as we had about a 2 hour drive to get to the area in which we were working today.
Green Tinged Paintbrush: Pine Mountain area, in the shrub set with Marlow and Charmane, who were grateful for the help which I always nice, surveying two hexagon plots of land for the Green Tinged Paintbrush (Castilleja Chlorotica). It is endemic and only found here in central Oregon, it is a hemi-parasitic plant which means it survives off other host plants by clinging its roots to theirs. We were out here surveying this particular area to try and help this plant survive due to its status as a forest service sensitive and there is a prescribed burn for the area in the works, and this plant does not thrive on fire it kills it as it needs its host plant to survive, and we need to show that this area has a substantial number of plants and we need to figure out how to work around them somehow with the prescribed burn.  This area was last surveyed in 1994 and there were 87 plants counted, after today’s survey I’m happy to say we counted 414 plants! It was a good day. 
 
Obsidian healing: A gorgeous way to end our day, a walk through the Obsidian Flow Trail in the Newberry Volcanic Monument park. There are those special beautiful spots in nature that capture my heart, today was a blessing and I touched all of those healing stones and prayed for all of my loved ones.  Learned that obsidian was valued by certain tribes for its healing properties, they stayed near it for the good spiritual energy it provided, it was also used to make cutting tools such as knives and axes, used to make arrowheads for hunting and defense, modern uses include surgical tools, it makes such a fine blade much finer than a steel scalpel so fine that surgeons need much more practice with precision and softness of pressure while cutting, the end result is quicker healing time due to the incision being so precise. There was also a lot of pumice stones mixed in up there, which make excellent scrubbers for skin care, and are also very beneficial to gardening and arbors, as they are so porous which provides water control and oxygen flow, they are also full of nutrients. Gosh was so cool to see what beauty can come from the destruction of volcanic eruptions. We were able to spend an hour in that walk and I enjoyed every minute of it. Loved seeing the different rocks that were blended together, such as pumice-obsidian and iron-obsidian. Didn’t want to leave the heaven in which we were surrounded with walkways freckled with shining deep black stones and the satisfying crunching noise of the pumice stones under our feet. As I said, it was a good day. 

Spaghetti: No other words needed…… favorite food night! The perfect way to wrap up the end of such a good day. OOooooooh and those pearls of delight, black olives.
Bedtime is right around the corner, after circle time, I’m knackered and will sleep good tonight.

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