April 20, 2012



Ready to take a load off
the north ridge



Showers over the Columbia River.

On Monday I brought in the last of the firewood that was stacked on the south end of the porch, so I swept and cleaned off that end.  Then set it up for enjoying sitting outside.  Sitting out there with my morning coffee or just resting from work seems so much more wonderful this Spring.  But in looking back, we had been snowed in almost five months.  No wonder I am enjoying the warm and dry outside!  (Warm being anything above the mid-30's.)

As I stepped outside with my basket of laundry on Monday, a large grouse was strutting by the north end of the porch.  So pretty with his (her?) silvery and gold wing feathers.  It took a few moments, but the dogs soon gave chase.

Both Monday and Tuesday started out clear and sunny, but soon became overcast.  It was in the low forties, but good working weather.  Both days I worked on clearing out dead grass and bushes from north of the house.  JB got his Jeep ready for his trip to Seattle today.  On Tuesday we brought three trailer loads of small branches to the chipper, and one load of larger branch wood to be cut for the woodshed.  The north ridge looks so nice now.  Definitely worth all the effort.  Now we can get working on the east slope.

After lunch on Monday, we all walked down to bring my Jeep all the way up to Rose Camp.  Still some snowy spots, but I had no problem driving it home.  And, of course, we walked two miles and the dogs ran six.  A few showers passed over mainly to the west of us.  We got just a few drops from the edge of the clouds.  However, it started raining about 5:30 pm yesterday and continued until well after we went to bed.  Looks muddy out there but the dog's feet weren't too bad when they came in.  Hope JB doesn't slide around too much driving down this morning.

Thought for the day:  The great pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself too.  Samuel Butler