Rockin Ranch

I love it out there! Here's a subtitled video compilation of pictures and videos of my aunt's ranch in eastern Oregon when I was out there two years (and again last year). So much peace for me whenever I go and visit her ranch, and the chance to see her horses again. My aunt's husband has lost a good amount of hearing and now wear a hearing aid. He's not always happy about wearing it all the time but it gets easier with time. I think he can finally relate to me when it comes to trying hear and not always get everything as a hard of hearing person. He isn't in good health but he is in my thoughts and prayers!

It's not often I come across deaf or hard of hearing individuals who love the great outdoors and the ranch life as well. I probably wouldn't raise horses myself but I sure wouldn't mind raising alpacas on a ranch.

Someday....

Ever have trouble going to sleep?

Visualization is a very powerful tool.

For example, when I was a grad student I had trouble sleeping because my thoughts were always running and thinking about projects I had to do, assignments, etc...that I would lose two hours trying to get to sleep. Less sleep means I can't perform as well the next day. The lost hours of sleep were beginning to interfere with my school work.

Later I heard about visualization techniques to help calm you down. What I did is that I choose a particular time in my life when I was a kid that I found myself enjoying outdoors. A time when it was calming and I was enjoying myself. The time I chose was when I was about 8 years old. I was near the base of a mountain (can't remember if it was Mt. Rainier (WA) or Mt. Hood in Oregon) during a family summer tip. I remember walking around amid the tall green grasses and tons of colorful wildflowers that dotted the mountain meadows where splotches of remnants snow higher up were melting away under the summer sun on the base of a hulking mountain giant. It was a vivid scene I still remember today.

I used that image to focus on that very serene scene I experienced when I was a boy who loved being outdoors. It wasn't easy at first. It took practice just to remind myself to focus on that image because my mind would wonder often as would the case for anybody trying to get some sleep. It took me about 3 or 4 weeks to finally get into it. It took practice, diligence and patience. I would use that particular scene in my past to help calm me and quickly go to sleep. I got to the point where I was able to get to sleep in about 15 minutes, sometimes in less time than that, too. My mind was trained to use a specific calming scene as a signal to my brain to begin "shutting" down in preparation for a sleep. It seems automatic at times that I just marvel at the simplicity of it. I'd suddenly find myself go off to la la land just by thinking about it rather than just focusing on it. It has gotten to the point where it became almost automatic. Of course, I don't realize that right before I go to sleep whether it's working but the next morning when I realized how quickly I went to sleep!

Also, I don't use alarms to wake myself up (only in rare instances when I feel the need to use a backup for an important day), either. I have always had this particular ability to "program" myself or remind myself to wake up. I have been doing this for a very long time. There's an internal clock that each of us has. You have that ability to "program" yourself on when you want to wake up. I've gotten to the point that I can wake up several minutes before my alarm would go off.

That's something I wanted to tell you about.

Ask yourself this question. What is the value of sleep to you? Do you find yourself struggling trying to get some sleep?

No pills.

No warm milk.

No strenuous exercise to tire you out.

No big meals before bedtime to satiate you into sleeping.

Just a visualization technique that works. It has worked for me for over 15 years now.

Try it. You'll thank me for it.

The Great Northwest

My hike on Sierra Blanca in NM at 10500 ft (2008). Looking to the East.

Here's a captioned video (see bottom of page) from one of my several hikes I did last year. It's a video of me visiting High Rock lookout point in Washington near Packwood. It was my 2nd time visiting the place. The first time was when I was a young 7 year old deaf boy with my family on a hiking adventure. I specifically remembered this spot and it was like coming home to a spot that I found so fascinating as a deaf boy being at such a high altitude and seeing a majestic mountain in front of me. In fact, that day when I hiked up there as a boy it was that same warm, sunny day. Only this time I brought my camera, my joy and solitude of that place.  Much of my memories growing up as a deaf/hh boy was the numerous camping, hiking, and swimming adventures I had with my family out in the Northwest. The video below is one of the many series of videos I plan to capture the places I've been to in Washington and Oregon when I was a kid. I'll also video-tape many places that I've never been to as well.

In Pisgah National Forest in North Carolina (2001)

Just because you have a hearing loss doesn't mean you cannot enjoy the great outdoors. Yes, it's a cliche'. But it's good see blogs or vlogs with deaf and hard of hearing people detailing their outdoor adventures and visits. Frankly, there's not enough of them. Being outdoor allows you the opportunity to connect with nature and when we die, we return to the ground and become nature again.

I've done several years of hiking in the deserts and mountains of south-central New Mexico. Fascinating and beautiful place. Though it was my time to move again and that was to move back to my old stomping ground in the great Northwest. The only regret is that I didn't take enough pictures or videos back in New Mexico. Video cameras were a bit expensive back then. But today it's cheap and easy to use. It won't be just me having fun but my family will be a part of that adventure as well.

White River Falls swim hole near Tygh Valley, OR (2010

Other hikes I am fortunate in doing is related to my work where such as fire fighting in Washington and Idaho, partake with a fire crew on prescription burns in New Mexico or hike the burned forests and fields for my post-fire mitigation work while the area is still burning and smoldering with the smell of acrid smoke lingering heavily in the air. 

But mostly I do the hikes into the woods to access streams and lakes where I do my analysis inaccessible by vehicle. And frankly, I get to have my lunch breaks in some of the nicest areas deep in the woods, by a stream or sit on perch overlooking the forested valleys with a river or creek winding its way down below on a warm, sunny day. No wild cougars or bears to cross my path. Knock on wood. Of course, I have had my days when it was wet or snowy where I had my lunches there. Part of my job.

This year I plan to visit more of Oregon, one of my favorite state to go and hike and have fun there. The landscape, especially east of the Cascades mountain range where it is drier, is just simply gorgeous. Basically anyplace immediately east of the Cascade mountain range is gorgeous anyway. Perhaps this year I'll chronicle my visit to my old super secret swimming hole located between Dufur

Dufur, Oregon. One of my favorite town to visit. Grew up here playing  there.

and Tygh Valley, Oregon that me and my family had a blast every summer swimming there while growing up. But I won't tell you the exact location cause it's a secret swimming hole! 

Dufur is a quaint, old friendly town in Oregon. It's a town where my mother and father grew up. It's a agriculture community that thrived on growing hay and wheat. I basically grew up there because my family visited Dufur so much during the summers while I was growing up in Tacoma, Washington.

Swimming with my daughter on White River Falls (summer 2010)

My hiking in North Carolina, Maryland, Virginia, Georgia, New Mexico, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon have taken me to some wonderful places of natural beauty from the deserts of New Mexico to the top of a 11,000 foot peak of Sierra Blanca to the jagged rocky peak of High Rock Lookout mountain to the cool river of White River Falls to beat the hot Oregon summer weather to hiking the changing landscape on Gotchen Creek trail. But not only did I witness the beauty of nature but the ugly side of nature when wildfire rears its ugly head temporarily destroying the forest. Only time will these forested ruins come back to life and stake its claim once again. Fire fighting for me as a
hard of hearing person was a tough job to do. Not only was the job tough and physically demanding it was

Myself on a prescription burn in the Guadalupe Mtns of New Mexico

dangerous whenever you are out there fighting fire, the loose rocks above you, the trees that could fall on you at any time (i.e. widow makers), and the ash covered hole that used to be a stump where you can fall in up to your leg and perhaps break it or get burns.

All in all I covered a lot grounds in both the good and bad part of nature. I don't plan to stop. I've just begun.

So, if you're a deaf or hard of hearing blogger or vlogger, please show us your pictures or videos of your outdoor adventures whether it's hiking, white water rafting, camping, mountain climbing, fishing, or swimming in one of your favorite places at a lake, river or creek. What makes you seek the great outdoors? It'd be great to see them. And if you're from the Northwest, then hurrah!

Mike near Conconully, Washington fighting the Tripod Complex fire near the Canadian border (2006)