July, 2019
Did you know there is a town in Washington State named “Mineral”? It’s a very small town, doesn’t have much of anything around it. It’s off by itself in the foothills of the Cascade Mountain Range. It hugs the southern shore of Mineral Lake. It’s not too far from Big Creek Campground, so you can guess where I went today.
“Mineral” might be a funny name for a town, but “Mineral Lake” sounds like a real name for a lake, right? It sounds like somebody found some minerals in the area (or in the lake) and those minerals were subsequently mined and sold. A little research on the internet tells me that prospectors were mining for gold in the area, but found coal and arsenic instead. Those items were mined for a while but those two types of mines (coal and arsenic) failed within a few years. The people in the area then developed logging industries and a sawmill. Those secondary industries also shut down not too long ago. Today the town is a small tourist attraction for recreational fisher-folk on the rivers and lakes in the area. But even more exciting is that the town is known for a famous UFO sighting in 1947 … and there has been at least one Sasquatch sighting here. Hey, it’s pretty exciting in these parts! 🙂
Anyway, the town has been around since the late 1800’s.
Some of the homes are showing their age.
Some of the homes are practically palaces.
I drove around Mineral Lake, as far as the road would take me in each direction. Homes on the west side of the lake had stunning views of Mount Rainier across the lake.
It wouldn’t have hurt my feelings at all if I had packed my kayak with me on this trip (I hadn’t, but as mentioned earlier “take the kayak” is on my list for all future trips).
Instead of a nice paddle around the lake, I drove further out from town on some back roads and enjoyed the scenery immensely.
This area borders the Cowlitz River valley. Eventually I wandered on down into the valley and came upon acres and acres and acres of farm land.
What’s this crop above? Who can tell what it is without looking ahead in these photos?
Ok, getting closer now … and ideas?
How about now, from the photo above, any ideas? I liked that the farm is organic.
Yes … blueberries! It seems to me that there are lots and lots of blueberries grown in the State of Washington. Seems like every valley I investigate has thousands of acres of blueberries growing in it. Is this true in other states as well? Or in provinces in Canada? Or is Washington State known for its multitude of blueberry farms?
The photo above shows the blueberry farm just down the road from the first farm above. Notice the different type of “plastic” covering the roots … and the different shape of the long mound along the roots. The mound used at the first farm above was fairly flat … this mound at this farm is almost exactly square, with very upright vertical sides.
The photo below is the best I could get for a close-up of the material used to cover these square mounds. The material felt like plastic, but it was very thick and heavy and dimpled.
The photo below shows the ends of a few of the rows. You can see the black ends of the irrigation system. Looks to me as though that teal-colored plastic material is buried in the ground, and even tucked under along the length of each row of blueberries. What a lot of work.
I looked for someone who might be working at this blueberry farm who could answer questions, but it was a quiet day and nobody was there. Do any of you readers know why this second farm uses this different material, and why the mounds are square instead of flat, and why the roots of the plants seem to be wrapped inside the plastic in these higher mounds rather than in the ground in those lower mounds? Please comment below and let us know, ok? Or just comment with any old comment … I love all comments. 🙂
And then further on down the road there were fields full of cows and calves … and rows and rows of bales of hay. Sigh … now why are there two different colors of plastic on the bales of hay?! There is so much I don’t know!
If you’d like more information about the town of Mineral, or Mineral Lake, or the area around Mineral, Washington, here’s a link … http://www.minerallake.com/. Maybe better yet, take your fishing gear and spend some time there. Maybe you’ll spot a UFO, or a Sasquatch … or even find some fresh blueberry pie at the local restaurant. 🙂
What a fun drive! And beautiful.
It sure was, both!
So pretty there. I love that white ranch style house. I could live there!!
I don’t have a clue on the different color hay bales. I would never make it as a farmer. Lol
I wouldn’t make it as a farmer either Ginger, farming is a lot of work! But it’s great fun to go see farming things and processes and try to figure them out … and take photos.
We don’t know about those different colored bales of hay either, but the area is certainly beautiful, and the view across the lake of Mt. Rainier is stunning!
Oh, yes indeed, it sure occurred to me that I could live on that lake and watch the sunset on that mountain every evening.
When you asked about blueberries in other parts of the US, I asked around and was told by a local farmer that we grow huckleberries here in Montana but they aren’t real huckleberries, they are actually blueberries, and there aren’t many grown here because of the shortness of warm weather growing seasons hereabouts. So yes we grown them but we don’t grow many of them and we call them huckleberries not blueberries. How confusing is that! 🙂 Thanks Ann.
Confusing indeed Tim, but interesting. After reading what you wrote here, I did some internet searching and discovered that it’s not too uncommon for blueberries to be called huckleberries, even though huckleberries are a separate plant all on their own. Yes, how confusing it that! On the other hand, huckleberries are absolutely delicious as well. 🙂
Friends of ours bale a few hundred acres of hay every year. They say they use black or green wrap for dry hay. The darker colors of black or green absorb heat and warm up the hay and keep moisture inside. White wrap is used more commonly for moist hay since it reflects light and heat and keeps the moist hay from “cooking”. Most farmers use white wrap unless the weather has been such that the hay after harvesting is especially dry. That can vary depending on time of the harvest, which field on which side of the hill gets more rain or run-off, etc.
Great info, Nebraska, thank you! It makes sense too. Black (and other dark colors) does absorb heat. I know of one very old, lovely, classic wood boat whose owner had the wooden hull painted black (most hulls of most boats are white). That boat looked stunning! But in the summer, even with the boat in cool Puget Sound water, the inside of that boat was hotter than you-know-what.