Jaya and Toshi’s Webpage

Do you know where Oregon is?

See if you can find on the United States map where Oregon is. Hint: it is one of the blue states.

Oregon is very very very rainy where I am at, which is pretty close to the coast where the ocean is. There are very tall trees here. Here is the map of Oregon. If you find Portland (your mom will hopefully be able to point out portland), I am in Corvallis which is between Newport and Albany, south of Portland.

There are a lot of Fir trees and they are very tall. Fir trees never drop their leaves. They are EVERGREEN. Most of Oregon is full of trees like this.

Where I am at right now, there are SOME trees that drop their leaves in winter. As you know, trees that drop their leaves are called DECIDUOUS. The deciduous trees here in Corvallis are full of LICHENS and MOSSES. Here is a picture your daddy took of such a tree:

Here is a picture of me in the redwood forest. This is a few years old.

I am taking a class here in Corvallis learning how to grow very very tiny creatures that help your plants. These creatures are important to all life on our planet earth. We grow them in our compost piles and put the compost with all those creatures into our gardens. These creatures make food for our plants.

ASTORIA

Someday when you guys get older I will take you to Oregon. If you go back to the map and look on the tippy top near the ocean, you see the town ASTORIA. This is where I was born. Here is a few pictures of Astoria and me in Astoria.

This is downtown Astoria near the docks.

This is the apartment complex I lived in when I was a kid. It mostly has college kids living in it, even today. Uncle Randy and I were among the few kids that lived there.

One time I was not careful, and rode a skooter down a hill. I busted my head open on this manhole.

I used to take sticks and make hideouts in the sticker bushes by whipping tunnels through those bushes. It was a fun place to hide out. These bushes would be LOADED with edible berries: blackberries mostly. But there were other berries too like huckleberries. Oregon is full of berries. They are everywhere. Here are the blackberry bushes I used to play in.

I used to play along the river bank. I played on the ruins of the old canneries, sewage coverts and docks.

All these photos I took a few years ago when I drove to Alaska. I would love to make that trip with you guys sometime. I love you!