We missed a turn and as a result saw a part of Oregon that we hadn't planned to, but it was a good mistake. We went northeast from Burns and went through Vale Oregon. There is a lot of farming done around Vale, corn, wheat, alfalfa, turnips (I think) and onions, lots of onions. I had never seen onions grown on this scale. There were hundreds of acres of onions. They grow pretty much on top of the ground. When they are ready to harvest, they go through the field with a tool on the tractor that cuts the onion loose from the root and they are left in the field for a few days for the tops to wilt, then they have another machine that they pull through the field that picks them up and puts them in a wagon.
After spending the night in John Day Oregon, we went west to Dayville and then followed the John Day river through a canyon for about 75 miles. There was very little activity along the river because the land is very rugged but beautiful. We really liked this area. At one point we say a small John Deere dozer parked on the shoulder of the road, Jane said we needed to go back and get a picture for Nathaniel, one of our grandchildren who really loves machinery.
Up the road another 75 miles or so, near Wasco, we came upon the largest windmill generator farm we have ever seen. At one vantage point they spread across the horizon for as far as you could see. There are probably 200-300 in this one area, but it is impossible to get them all in one picture. I read recently that these windmills cost about $3m each, so someone in Oregon has a huge investment in wind energy just in this one location.
