The Salmon Hatchery

Today we were going to the Bonneville Lock and Dam, but because of the government shutdown it is closed. Instead we went next door to the fish hatchery. Because it is the time of year for the salmon to return to their hatching grounds, we got to see the fish sorter at work. Right before they let the young fish (babies) go into the wild they would put a metal wire in their snouts and cut off their back fin. This helped the fisheries sort them from the wild ones. The machine sorted the wild fish from the ones that were let go. All the fish went through a metal detector to see if it was wild or tame. If the metal detector didn't go off they checked if the back fin was cut off. If it did not pass both of the tests it was let go. The hatchery fish were sold to keep the operation going. The fish left over were donated to a food bank. We also got to see huge sturgeon in a pond. One was 70 years old, ten feet long, and 450 pounds. It was the biggest fresh water fish I have seen in person!

Kylie October 8

Kylie October 7

Portland (Camas)

Yesterday morning we packed up the RV and got on the road again. After five minutes we stopped at a giant, interactive agriculture center. It seemed like a place that the local factories had to pay for so the kids in the area could learn about their community. We got to go on a hot air ballon ride inside the building, drive a tractor in a tractor simulator (that had a gps for planting potatoes), and even sort bad onions from good ones on a conveyor belt! My favorite thing was the onion sorter. As the onions went by on the conveyor belt, we had to grab the bad ones and put them in a trash chute. The place was really neat! Then we drove all the way to a town an hour outside of Portland. My mom's friend Lori, who moved out of Argyle to Portland (Camas) a year ago, invited us to dinner. Before and after dinner we stayed at their house for a little bit, and while the grownups talked we played with their two Basset Hounds. One used Kylie's pony tail as a dog toy! We had so much fun!

Kylie October 5

Salmon Fishing

Today I did my schoolwork in the morning and around lunch time went to a fish ladder.  A fish ladder is a small chute of water that is always running that lets fish go through a dam.  It is mainly for salmon during the salmon run.  The salmon run is going on now and we got to see the salmon go through the fish ladder.  The fish had to be really strong to swim through all of that current!  After that we went on the other side of the dam and watched the fishermen try to catch fish.  Then we decided to try to fish too!  We tried for about three hours with only a nibble.  Next time I hope we will have better luck!  Tomorrow we are going to be in Washington state.

Kylie October 3