Then: November 2009 Now: July 15, 2011



Rose Hips




Cougar footprint in the snow

 

Then: November 2009
November 1 and it is JB's 67^th birthday! Says he is spending it in the best place on earth. And I agree.

We all go to town on 11/2. Ran errands and stocked up on meat for the freezer. Spent the evening just reading mail, papers and magazines. Up early the next day and loaded the trailer up with small pieces of bark from around the splitter. Drove it down to the largest of the potholes in the road. Drained the water and put a small drainage pipe out of it. Then filled the holes up with bark. Home for lunch and noticed that Jesse was limping and his hind legs were swollen. I called the vet and "rushed" him Down There. The vet said he must have torn them both jumping over a log or some such thing. The swelling is caused by internal bleeding and he has a hematoma on each leg. He prescribes some medicine for him and tells me that Jesse should be just fine in a week or so. Thank goodness! He really had us worried. Got some gas and checked the mail before we went home.

The next day we are all up early to load the trailer with bark again and drove down to finish filling in potholes. Didn't take that long and we are back by 10:30 a.m. I did my monthly cleaning of the wood stove, while JB cleaned the kitchen stove. I am working on the rest of the Christmas presents and want to have everything done by Thanksgiving so hopefully we will still be able to take them down in the car and not MAX. We have MAX's wheels off to grease the axles and get ready to put on the tracks.

All the grasses and many of the wild flowers have dried on their stems and they are beautiful. I spend a lot of time gathering them for decorating in the house and for crafting with them. I love a vase full of dried grass or a plaque to hang on the wall. We also have something called pine buttons Up Here. They only have a single stem with little, round "buttons" on them and turn dark reddish brown when they dry. Very pretty.

I am almost done cutting all the branch wood. I still have a little trunk wood to split but the splitter won't start because it is so cold.

We load up the trailer with the recycle on 11/14 and all go to town again. Did a little shopping and mailed a couple Christmas presents. Dinga and Jesse sure love their rides to town. Jesse is feeling much better now, almost like nothing was ever wrong.

The next day we finish putting the tracks on MAX, so he's all ready for winter. JB and Dinga drive down the road a ways to where we saw the cougar tracks in the snow on our way to and from town. He takes the camera and gets some really good pictures.

During the week we finish splitting the rest of the trunk wood. The temperature got up to 38 so we are able to finally start the splitter. Then JB moves the splitter and the chipper into the shop for the winter. I think I mentioned that our temporary shop is two canvas car ports end to end. We have several straw bales stacked on the west end to help shelter it from the wind. Not the best option, but it's what we can afford right now.

JB went to town on 11/21 to pick up his new glasses and get our Thanksgiving turkey, along with other dinner items. I am working on our Christmas cards and hope to have them all made in time mail them next week. We take a couple trips down our road on MAX during the week. The dogs love it. We drive four miles and they run ten.

We end up having our Thanksgiving on Tuesday instead of Thursday because the turkey is thawed already. I didn't have room for it in the freezer. It's our first Thanksgiving dinner Up Here. Quiet compared to the family gatherings we are used to and attended in Seattle last year. But it was delicious, and I cooked and canned five quarts of turkey broth the next day.

The dogs have been coming back from their outings with bones from a fresh kill. Looks like the cougar got a deer somewhere close by. Unfortunately the bones give both the dogs diarrhea and we are up most of the night with them for a couple nights. They are also vomiting but we are able to let them out in time, so no messes to clean up in the house. After a couple days, they are fine.

On the 26^th and 27th we finally get some sun. We have had rain, fog, clouds and otherwise Seattle-like weather for quite a while now. By the 30^th I have finished all the Christmas presents and cards so JB will be able to mail them on his trip to town tomorrow. It has been another busy month and we have made a few extra trips Down There in getting ready for winter. We have had several snow flurries, but nothing that stayed for long.

Now: July 15, 2011

Rick, Maureen, RJ and I have just been having way to much fun for me to find time to write! Rick and Maureen slept all three nights in the tipi and really seemed to enjoy it. We hiked a lot. Talked a lot. Ate a lot. On Wednesday morning we all got up at 4:50 a.m. and hiked up to the peak to watch the sun rise over the Columbia River and Plateau.  Nothing dramatic like I have seen in the past, but it was a fun experience. Back at the cabin we were sure we were wide awake enough to stay up for the day, but within an hour we had all fallen back to sleep and didn't get up til 10:00 a.m.! We had a fire in the tipi Tuesday night, and on Wednesday night we all went down to RJ's after dinner and spent the evening around a campfire in his outside rock fireplace. Rick and RJ did some target practice before the sun went down, and we all watched the stars peak out as night crept in. One of those moments you just want to capture so it will never end.

It was the most time the three of us cousins have spent together and we certainly strengthened our family ties. None of our parents are still with us, but we all know they would be thrilled that we have reconnected. It was with much sadness that we said goodbye to Rick and Maureen yesterday morning. I do so wish they lived closer to us.

It was cool and partly cloudy while they were here, with rain showers most of Tuesday afternoon. After they left I did wash and took a long nap. We stayed up late each night, just not wanting to let the days end.

RJ will be Up Here til at least next Wednesday, and JB will be home next Thursday. Today I am going to start cutting the large branch wood with my small chain saw. We have quite a stack that I trimmed off the trees this Spring and it is time to get back to work.