joecopnw

I am a sergeant for a medium size police department in the great Pacific NW. I have been a cop for over 20 years and I love the job. My partner and I have been together for almost fifteen years. We have a cat (or better yet he allows us to live in his house and serve him). As I am new to blogging I don't really know what I will be writing about but if you find anything of interest let me know. If not let me know that too.

Oct 222006
 

The fifth wheel is all cleaned and loaded. I have lots of extra propane, water and gas on board and plenty of eats. I am heading out tomorrow morning about 6am to go Elk Hunting with a friend from work and a couple of retired guys I use to work with. I’m not actually going to do any hunting, that’s just not that interesting to me although I have been giving some thought to trying bow hunting. I am just going for the camping and will probably tag a long a couple of times when they go out and try to take some photos.

We are going to the area out of Pilot Rock which I hear is very beautiful this time of year with the colors changing. I am prepared for the bad weather with two sets of chains for the Ford F-250 and a set for the 5th too. I am hoping for nice weather and so far it looks good but one of the guys who has been going for several years said it can get nasty. He said one year they went to bed with a couple of inches of snow on the ground and woke with about a foot and a half. They got out but had to stay a couple of extra days.

Rocky is not going with me, this is kind of a boys time out thing. I will be staying until next Saturday and hope to have some good photos which I will post when I get back. See ya then….

Oct 172006
 

At last we have finally started on our retaining wall project we have talked about for a few years. Last year I was able to get a great deal on some rock. I got it from a quarry just down the road. It was suppose to be “pit run” which is just the junk after they blast and take out all of the good stuff. I was getting it just for fill. When the first load arrived there was a lot of very good landscape quality rock included. I was only going to get one load but I had them bring two more. I wish I would have got a couple more but I didn’t have anywhere to store it.The rock before the start of the wall

In talking to the dump truck driver he said that they had just blasted and they had so much rock they couldn’t separate out the good from the junk… Our good fortune. I checked recently and to get anywhere near the same type of rock would cost me over $500 a load. The first section complete

Our intent it to make a larger parking area and a place to turn the 5th wheel around with out driving up into the grass field. I tend to get stuck up there if it is at all wet. Once done I should be able to back the 5th in between the greenhouse and the pole building and then just pull straight out. That is the plan anyway. We also want to make the driveway wider and increase the radius of a very sharp corner which is currently difficult to get around.

So far we have completed about 40 percent of the wall but it is the tallest section. I know we don’t have enough rock to finish it but we should get at least another 20 feet. I’m not sure if we will get much more done this year though as the rains are about here.

Rocky is the real talent behind the construction and has done all the actual building of the wall. I work the tractor and excavate and move the fill dirt and other material. I got most of the dirt from an area we wanted to flatten so we could use it for a volley ball court and for horse shoes. I must say that I am getting good at working the tractor and I did move a lot of dirt.

Click here to see all the Wall Pics.>>>>

Oct 072006
 

A beautiful lady lost her fight with cancer this week and now she is at peace. Barbara, the mother of my best friend from high school was also my surrogate mom. My partner Rocky also adopted her as his surrogate mom and her passing is especially difficult for him. She was very young at heart and touched everyone she knew in such a positive way.

Rest now lovely lady.

Barbara

Sep 252006
 

I don’t get to do a lot of real police work anymore. At some departments the sergeants are front line supervisors and that is about all they do. They are there mostly to supervise street calls. In our department sergeants do much more administrative work. Many days I don’t even get out of the office. We still have to manage the patrol officers and I often do respond to high priority calls but seldom am I directly involved in the call. Usually only when things go to shit.

When I do get out and it is quiet I like to make a few traffic stops. It keeps you alert and up on the statutes. Today I saw a couple of people in a vehicle parked and it just set off that little cop thing inside. I knew something was not just right so after checking the vehicle plate and finding the tags had been expired for four years I just had to stop them. I just thought I would get a warrant or suspended driver.

I ended up getting a big mess of an ID theft operation. Not a super big one mind you but not too bad of one. The funny thing was they were making payroll checks of the company the guy worked for, oh and I stopped him as he was returning to work. His boss saw it and came out and after finding out what was going on, he fired him on the spot.

I admit I enjoy getting to do some real police work again, albeit I must also admit I am a little rusty. Thanks to the great guy that work with me and helped me through it…. The bad part is that now I will be tied up with a long report, logging evidence and doing some follow-up investigating. I will get even more backed up on all the admin stuff.

Still I am very glad that I got them both off the street, at least for a little bit. Both of them are either on probation for ID theft or awaiting a trial for ID theft. ID theft sucks and it can really screw up a persons credit. Well I have to get back to writing my report. Brought it home to work on… a little rusty remember

Sep 202006
 

Rocky and I just got back last Saturday from five great and relaxing days camping on the Metolius river. After I got back from Las Vegas we loaded up the RV and headed out to Candle Creek camp grounds. We actually didn’t stay in the camp grounds but at a site just outside the actual camping area. This is a little camp site I had seen on previous trips up there and it is much nicer than the ones in the camp grounds.Metolius Camp Site Rocky & Duke

Metolious River

It is more private, larger and has better access to the river and most important it is free. The little access road to get into it is a bit tricky to navigate with my 5th wheel but I managed to get in without any mishaps. I took my new Honda generator and put it to the test. It worked flawlessly and is so much quieter than my other cheep one. The fuel economy was amazing. I think we must have run it about 75 percent of the time we were there and only used about seven gallons of fuel.
Metolius River at our camp site

We took Duke of course and we were not there five minutes and he was totally covered with dirt. After about an hour his white fir was so grungy he just looked dull and he didn’t really seem that dirty anymore. His fir is so short and tight that you can just brush off any real thick dirt before he gets into the RV. Duke is turning out to be a very good traveling dog. He rides in the front of the truck and is fairly well behaved. I think he likes traveling.

We didn’t do to much other than lounge around and do some hiking around during the day. Rocky did drive into Sisters one afternoon and I took about a three hour drive around the area on the forest service roads. One afternoon I took Duke for a walk and we tried to cross over Candle Creek on a log. Duke slipped off the log and got stuck so I had to step into the creek to get him off. When I did he knocked me totally into the creek and I got soaked. All I could do was lay there and laugh. It was a bit cold but fortunately we were only about a quarter mile from camp and the sun was out.

Candle Creek CG

Well it was great fun and I am ready to go again. I am hoping to take the RV over to Central Oregon with some coworkers near the end of October when they go elk hunting. I don’t hunt but it will be a good excuse to go camping again. It should be interesting as they tell me the temperature often dips near zero degrees at night.

Sep 112006
 

I just got back from a weekend trip to Las Vegas this afternoon with three friends from work. Well, one that still works with me and two that have been retired for a few years. We stayed at the Flamingo Hilton and had a great time. I lost a little money but managed to have enough to get home on….

We went to Bareback, a show at Harrahs and the guys (and gals) were hot. If you like County music I would recommend it. We also ate dinner on Saturday night at Steakhouse46 in the Flamingo. The food was very good but it was a bit pricey. We all had the Porterhouse steak. Mine was cooked okay but everyone elses was overdone. They sent them back and the second ones were perfect. The service was very good and that is much of what you are paying for.

I spent a lot of my time playing Texas Holdem at O’Sheas just next door to the Flamingo. It’s not a real fancy casino but I always find it a fun place to play. I got into a game and played both Saturday and Sunday until the table closed the next morning at 5am. It’s Monday evening now and I haven’t slept in about 36 hours. I should sleep good tonight.

Aug 292006
 

I grew up in a Oregon City where my parents owned a flower shop and raised azaleas. We owned almost an entire city block which had several greenhouses, the business front and our home on it. It was like living on a large farm in the middle of the city. The house was huge, at least from a child’s perspective and there were many places to play, to hide, and to explore.

My Home 1967

It was a three story house not including the huge attic which actually had a stair case that went up to it…. so does that make it a four story house?? I had a bedroom on the upstairs floor. The floor plan was kind of strange as I think back on it. You walked up the stairs which was about in the center of the house and at the top you waked into a large open room. This was made into a bed room but most of the time my mom used it to do her sewing and other projects. Straight ahead was my first bedroom and just to the left was another bedroom which was much larger. My ageing grandmother stayed in it for many years and after she died I moved into it.

There were also three large storage areas which I guess were kind of like attics but were on the same floor. One of them had the stair case in it to the top story attic. That storage was a favorite place for me to play. My father had built a door going into it that was quite interesting. It was kind of shaped like a large bank vault door. It was about ten inches thick and the outside was a book case. You couldn’t tell it was a door unless you happened to see the hinges which were visible on the outside.

My Bedroom

As I said inside was the stair case to the top floor attic. I didn’t like to go up there too much and found it kind of creepy. Lots of cob webs and it only had some planks across the rafters to walk on. I was always afraid of falling through the ceiling. What was great about this area was I had found this hidden little room. There was a small crawl space between one of the bedroom walls and the roof. It probably ran about ten feet then opened up into a small little area. I made it into my little retreat and hiding area.

My BedroomIf you look at the photo of my room above you can see the area where my hidden room was just behind the TV.

It’s a wonder I never burned the house down as I used candles for light. Later I was able to connect into the back of an electric outlet and had power for a light. My parents both worked in the family business which was on the same property and even though it was just next door to the house, it was like being home alone most of the time.

Well, that’s about enough for now as I want to save some things to bore you with later. Stay tuned for more…..

Aug 142006
 

I had training at work today. It is a yearly event we have done since the terrible incident at Columbine High School in April, 1999. Back then the standard thinking in incidents like that was to contain the area and wait until a special unit like SWAT arrived and took over. Unfortunately it can take quite a long time for them to arrive and during that time many people continue to be injured or killed.

Today our response is much different. In such an event we will not wait and the first three or four officers that arrive will go into the building and search for the assailants and stop the threat by what ever means are needed.

I am glad we do the training but I pray we never need to use it.