Sean C. Morgan
Bert and Betty Udell’s Family Adventure Day and Tree Day held on Friday and Saturday drew hundreds to their Happy Valley Tree Farm off of Bellinger Scale Road between Lebanon and Sweet Home.
The annual Family Adventure Day had more than 200 in attendance, and Mrs. Udell estimated that 300 to 350 persons visited during the 22nd annual Tree Day on Saturday, almost as many as last year’s 400 attendance. A number of persons were still showing up Saturday afternoon for the tour of the tree farm.
Tours of the tree farm on Friday were marked by light rain, only the second time that Mrs. Udell recalled having rain during the event. Some of the smaller children went home as a result of the rain, Mrs. Udell said. On the tour, given in the form of rides in the back of pickup trucks, “if the kids bumped a tree, we got wet.”
“We were worried about the roads because they were so dusty,” Mrs. Udell said. Willamette Industries put three loads of water on the drive in and the tour roads to help keep the dust down. “A half hour later it rained.”
The pickup tours were full this year, Mrs. Udell said. “I think people really enjoyed the tour because we’ve got a new piece of land.”
The Udells purchased a parcel of pastureland, “the Ranch Tract,” across from Mallard Creek Golf Course late last year.
The new ground is primarily pastureland, with some timber, which the Udells are renting out at this time.
Tree Day included a number of exhibits, from mechanical harvesting and pruning demonstrations and a lumber show to a firefighting demonstration by the Oregon Department of Forestry and Weyerhaeuser.
For more information, see this week’s The New Era.