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| Rose Camp namesake |
Then: April 2009
It is certainly the coldest April 1st that I can ever remember experiencing. Light snow and occasional fog all day long. At least today is recuperation day from yesterday's trip to town. Didn't get home til 7pm as the little trailer kept coming off MAX. At least it had snowed while we were gone and the road wasn't muddy. I dropped off some dog biscuits I had made for Larry & Elsie's dogs. She had given some that she made for our dogs in February. It had only been two months since I had been to town, but going this time is a real jolt to my psyche. Couldn't wait to get back up the mountain.
By April 3rd we receive another 4" of snow, but it doesn't last very long. Spring is definitely trying to get here. The chipmunks started popping out right on the March day that the Farmer's Almanac said they would. And, of course, Dinga is right there to chase them.
Don't think I mentioned that the water pump froze up again in mid-March. But on April 5th it thawed out again and the water flowed! Got up to 48 that day.
Standing in the moonlight watching the trees dance. Sitting on the porch listening to the snow melt. Ahhhh, life on the mountain.
Another 3" of snow falls on the 16th, but is soon gone except for the shady areas in the woods. We are out every day taking loads of slash to the burn pile, which is now about 50' long and 5' wide. The road is thawing but still lots of snow on it. And now it is really warming up. On the 21st we see the first bees and butterflies. Grass and flowers are popping up.
I discover that this last mouse we have got into the brown rice and beans that were in a plastic bucket. I hadn't sealed the lid completely. But worse than that, it got into my chocolate chips! I repackaged everything and glued a chocolate chip to the mouse trap. Let him get that chocolate! On the 22nd he tried to and now he's eating chocolate in mouse heaven.
We are moving the carport we use for storage to a place where we can put the two carports together for a shop and storage in which JB can work on MAX or whatever. We get them both setup end to end, and everything moved in by the end of the month. It has already been up in the high 60's, so it's perfect weather for outside projects and I have been out trimming trees. The road is good and we have our car back Up Here. RJ is coming up to his place tomorrow. Haven't seen him since November.
Now: June 30, 2011
As cold as it started out, that was certainly the warmest April we have had so far, especially compared to this year when we had snow into May. In reading my journals and writing this blog, it seems like we did a lot more baking that winter than we have since. Life was a lot more rustic then and it just seemed the thing to do.
It took more than a year to get rid of all the mice that had settled in our house while it was being built. At first we tried the glue traps which are used at the feed store Down There. I thought that, once caught, I could set them free outside. I guess country mice are a lot more wily than town mice, as all we ever saw in those traps was fur. So then we started using the standard "instant death" trap. Even then they were occasionally tripped and the culprit got away.
Our first wild roses started blooming up here on Tuesday. They had been blooming all the way up the road for a week or so, but now the pink is returning to Rose Camp. And their scent is heady.
I saw a whole family of wild turkeys on my way to town yesterday about a mile down from our place. No bears this time.
RJ and Mike were here when I got back from Down There. Haven't seen Mike since last August and he has grown a foot, literally. He is 12 and looks 16. Mustache and all. We caught up on everything and the guys played a couple games of Magic Cards. After dinner we showed Mike some pictures of RJ as a baby and how Mike's Grandmother packed so much into our little Volkswagen bug when we would take our Summer trips to Oregon and California. He didn't believe it until he saw the pictures and even then he was skeptical! Our Mother taught school so we always had great Summer car trips. I think I have visited the Sea Lion Caves on the Oregon Coast at least 15 times over the years. And they are always fascinating. As is the drive down the coast on Highway 1.
Yesterday was very windy Up Here, so JB didn't get as much done as he wanted to while I was Down There. He has started the 2' deep trench along the outside of the shop in which the metal sides have to sit. But if he had tried to put in any of the 4'X12' metal sheets, he would have ended up parasailing into the next county.
It's windy again this morning, although it had subsided during the night. Today JB plans to mow the path again up on the south ridge. Don't think we will get much else done on the deck/shop until JB returns from Seattle on July 20. As soon as everything is moved into the shop, we can finally finish our inside walls.
It is certainly the coldest April 1st that I can ever remember experiencing. Light snow and occasional fog all day long. At least today is recuperation day from yesterday's trip to town. Didn't get home til 7pm as the little trailer kept coming off MAX. At least it had snowed while we were gone and the road wasn't muddy. I dropped off some dog biscuits I had made for Larry & Elsie's dogs. She had given some that she made for our dogs in February. It had only been two months since I had been to town, but going this time is a real jolt to my psyche. Couldn't wait to get back up the mountain.
By April 3rd we receive another 4" of snow, but it doesn't last very long. Spring is definitely trying to get here. The chipmunks started popping out right on the March day that the Farmer's Almanac said they would. And, of course, Dinga is right there to chase them.
Don't think I mentioned that the water pump froze up again in mid-March. But on April 5th it thawed out again and the water flowed! Got up to 48 that day.
Standing in the moonlight watching the trees dance. Sitting on the porch listening to the snow melt. Ahhhh, life on the mountain.
Another 3" of snow falls on the 16th, but is soon gone except for the shady areas in the woods. We are out every day taking loads of slash to the burn pile, which is now about 50' long and 5' wide. The road is thawing but still lots of snow on it. And now it is really warming up. On the 21st we see the first bees and butterflies. Grass and flowers are popping up.
I discover that this last mouse we have got into the brown rice and beans that were in a plastic bucket. I hadn't sealed the lid completely. But worse than that, it got into my chocolate chips! I repackaged everything and glued a chocolate chip to the mouse trap. Let him get that chocolate! On the 22nd he tried to and now he's eating chocolate in mouse heaven.
We are moving the carport we use for storage to a place where we can put the two carports together for a shop and storage in which JB can work on MAX or whatever. We get them both setup end to end, and everything moved in by the end of the month. It has already been up in the high 60's, so it's perfect weather for outside projects and I have been out trimming trees. The road is good and we have our car back Up Here. RJ is coming up to his place tomorrow. Haven't seen him since November.
Now: June 30, 2011
As cold as it started out, that was certainly the warmest April we have had so far, especially compared to this year when we had snow into May. In reading my journals and writing this blog, it seems like we did a lot more baking that winter than we have since. Life was a lot more rustic then and it just seemed the thing to do.
It took more than a year to get rid of all the mice that had settled in our house while it was being built. At first we tried the glue traps which are used at the feed store Down There. I thought that, once caught, I could set them free outside. I guess country mice are a lot more wily than town mice, as all we ever saw in those traps was fur. So then we started using the standard "instant death" trap. Even then they were occasionally tripped and the culprit got away.
Our first wild roses started blooming up here on Tuesday. They had been blooming all the way up the road for a week or so, but now the pink is returning to Rose Camp. And their scent is heady.
I saw a whole family of wild turkeys on my way to town yesterday about a mile down from our place. No bears this time.
RJ and Mike were here when I got back from Down There. Haven't seen Mike since last August and he has grown a foot, literally. He is 12 and looks 16. Mustache and all. We caught up on everything and the guys played a couple games of Magic Cards. After dinner we showed Mike some pictures of RJ as a baby and how Mike's Grandmother packed so much into our little Volkswagen bug when we would take our Summer trips to Oregon and California. He didn't believe it until he saw the pictures and even then he was skeptical! Our Mother taught school so we always had great Summer car trips. I think I have visited the Sea Lion Caves on the Oregon Coast at least 15 times over the years. And they are always fascinating. As is the drive down the coast on Highway 1.
Yesterday was very windy Up Here, so JB didn't get as much done as he wanted to while I was Down There. He has started the 2' deep trench along the outside of the shop in which the metal sides have to sit. But if he had tried to put in any of the 4'X12' metal sheets, he would have ended up parasailing into the next county.
It's windy again this morning, although it had subsided during the night. Today JB plans to mow the path again up on the south ridge. Don't think we will get much else done on the deck/shop until JB returns from Seattle on July 20. As soon as everything is moved into the shop, we can finally finish our inside walls.
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