The Oregon Train - Day 17

After slouching around the house, feeding the deer and eating a big pancake breakfast, Kit and I planned our return trip home while the men folk played with the big boy toy - Mike's tractor.  Nothing more fun for big boys than a tractor and lots of rocks to scoot around.  Mike has PLENTY of rocks!  All God's chillen in Oregon have plenty of rocks. 

We went to the strangest place after the guys cleaned up.  It was called Petersen's Rock Garden and was in Redmond, not too far from Kit and Mike's place.  I was a bit sceptical when we drove up and they had already warned us that it was not very well maintained.  I guess you could say that about anything good would have been a pleasant surprise.  And what a surprise!  The man that built all the things on the grounds consisting of about ten acres was 46 years old when he started building them and worked on it from 1935 until his death in 1952.  I believe his daughter and family are running the business now.  Mr. Petersen truly was an artist as well as an architect of sorts.  I cannot imagine how he located all those rocks and hauled them home.  They said he got everything he used within an 85 mile radius of his home.  He must have been strong as an ox.  It was truly amazing to see.  He built everything on the grounds out of rock and other types of found objects, but mostly rocks.  You can see the beauty of some of the rocks in the front of the museum and the scale of the structures he built by looking at Johnny in front of one of the buildings.  All the bridges were were footbridges built and encrusted in rocks and seashells.  The museum must have held a million dollars worth of all types of exotic rocks, gems and stones from that area as well as all over the world.  I surely hope they will take pains to maintain it before it really deteriorates any more.  It truly was an interesting thing to see.

 
After the Petersen Garden we stopped by Operation Santa Claus Reindeer Farm.  We were looking at the reindeer over the fence when the owner, Mike, came to feed them.  He was nice enough to give us a personal tour and lots of interesting info.  Their antlers are HUGE.  I cannot imagine carrying something like that on top of my head for a day much less all my life.  Male and female reindeer have antlers.  This farm furnishes the reindeer for Santa's sleigh at Disney World (in the group pic below) each year and lots of other places during the Christmas season. 

Marmalade's Side of the Story

Hey guys, I almost got to ride a real reindeer.  It might have even been one of Santa's reindeer.  Do you see those big antlers?  It looked like they were going to poke each other's eyes out.  That is what Nonnie says, anyway.  I was just glad that one of them didn't chew on my ribbon like those cute Alpaca animals.  Reindeer are funny looking with beards, big feet and a bump on their shoulders, as well as antlers that are about twice too big.  Nonnie even got a piece of the velvet off one of the antlers.  She wants to take it home and show Baker.  God surely did make some funny animals, didn't he?  The man that fed them said that when they get really, really cold they can make the blood go away from their feet to their vital organs so they won't freeze to death at the North Pole and places like that.  Santa surely was smart to pick that kind of animal to pull his sleigh. 

I heard Nonnie and Aunt Kit talking about us heading back to Mississippi tomorrow.  Here I come, Sidney and Baker!!!!