Family Portrait in the Nutria Field

I love this walnut tree. It shades the lower end of what we call the "Nutria Field" in my family. I thought a family portrait under the walnut tree was a good way to cap our "Dad got laid off" family walk.

We decided the best way to deal with stressful situations like this was to make sure we are doing fun things together as a family. We only live a few blocks from the Willamette River and miles of parks / bike paths. We hitched up our faithful steed Yeti the Dog and all walked over to the island park.

We stopped at one of the gazebos to throw the frisbee for Yeti and eat the peanut butter chocolate chip monster cookie we bought at the Dari Mart on the way to the park.

Thing One is in time out in the gazebo for biting Thing Two's finger

We kept walking through the park to the wooded path that follows the mill race to the river and loops back. From this path you can look across a marsh at the backside of Nutria Field. The large stand of bamboo in the center of the picture below marks the entrance to Nutria City. The walnut tree fills the upper right side of the picture. Note the sections of tree trunk in the foreground - we will look back this direction from the base of that bamboo thicket.

What is a nutria?

Excellent question my friend. They are rodents of unusual size.

Not these rodents of unusual size

These guys - Wikipedia: Coypu (Nutria)

They are basically beaver-sized aquatic rats. They have a huge rat tail and big orange incisors. Originally from South America and bred for their fur in the states, they are an invasive species now and a very common one at that. You see nutria all the time here. There is a very large network of nutria burrows in the corner of the Nutria Field, which we refer to as Nutria City.

Here is the same stand of bamboo we looked at from the path; we are now looking at the other side of that stand of bamboo from up in the Nutria Field:

Following the path the nutria have worn into the dirt down into the maw of the bamboo thicket you come to Nutria City:

These holes in the ground are only some of the many entrances to the twisting tunnels of Nutria City. There are underwater entrances in the channels of the marsh that stay flooded through the summer. Yeti has sprung dozens of nutria in the marsh and they disappear in two seconds underwater and into a tunnel.

Deeper into the bamboo thicket until we break through and can look across the marsh back at our first vantage point - note the sections of tree trunk across the way, that is where we were standing:

The big clump of spiky leaves are irises - they have beautiful yellow flowers earlier in the year when they bloom. In the winter this marsh fills most of the way up with water and only the tops of the iris leaves are visible.

Thing One is fascinated with Nutria City and it is hard to keep him out of the blackberry brambles that surround it. Thing Two just likes sitting in the grass in the shade of the walnut tree playing with twigs and leaves. I can understand where they both are coming from.