May 29, 2012 Fantastic Photos from Friends!



Claudia's moose in Idaho



A bear at Larry & Elsie's pond



Baby Sasquatch??!!!

I am so envious of these photos!  That young bull moose just walked into Claudia's yard.  Her dog alerted her but didn't bark and chase it away.  Larry and Elsie's photos are from their trail cam by their pond.  If that's a baby Sasquatch - where's mama??!!  Sure glad we're waayyy up at the top of the canyon.  A big thanks to Claudia and Elsie for sending them to me.

We have had scattered clouds and wind most of the week, but good for working outside.  The canyon seems to have an infestation of tent caterpillars this year.  We always have a few but right now almost every bush on our south ridge is covered with them.  Larry suggested using melathion, so when we went Down There on Saturday we bought some.  Unfortunately we don't have a big sprayer, so we are using a quart spray bottle.  Took a while, but I think we got them all. 

The Farmer's Market is more diverse than in the past few years with live music and crafters.  Still early for much veggies and fruit, but I did get some local honey from Leavenworth.  I'm sure we'll be back during the summer.  Got a great photo of a buck and doe on the drive down our road.

I started cutting the two piles of branch wood that we hauled up last November, and got five wheelbarrow loads stacked in the woodshed.  JB got three sides of the mulch frame built and will finish it today.  Then I will move the two piles I have going into it along with some cardboard.  It will mainly be the long grasses I cut, no kitchen scraps.  Don't want to invite unwanted guests.  We have so much natural mulch around.  We're checking the garden every day for any sign of little green sprouts.  Yes, I know it's only been two week, but. . .

Thought for the day:  The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them.  Patrick Henry

May 26, 2012



Bathroom window



The rest of the bathroom





















Our bathroom is looking great!  I decided to paint the window frame instead of just finishing the wood.  So it is all painted, as well as the "hall" wall between the bathroom and bedroom.  For that wall and the bottom of the window frame, which sticks out over the wall underneath, I chose a peach color.  The bathroom walls are a sage.  Am very pleased with the results, and so glad Elsie got me going on this project!

Unfortunately now that rooms are becoming finished, the dust and dust bunnies are beginning to look really out of place.  I vacuumed and dusted on Thursday and am sure I will be doing a lot more house cleaning than I have been for the past four years.  Oh goodie. . .  I also moved a lot of my little knick-knacks out of the great room as I am realizing that they make it seem cluttered.  I got rid of so much stuff before we moved Up Here, but I still have a lot of little things that are very meaningful to me.  I have decided that the shelves on our bedroom wall will be my personal clutter.  Really doesn't look so bad, and every item has a special meaning.

Weather and temperature this past week have been great for working outdoors.  JB mowed the paths up and around the south ridge and I pulled out a lot of bushes.  Am starting with those nearest the house and working up into the south slope.  The last two Springs were very wet so the underbrush got very thick.  I want to get rid of that fire hazard.  JB also built the gate for the garden.  It has been fairly windy, especially on Wednesday which is the day I stayed in and painted.  Yesterday JB worked on his cover for the shop generator, and now plans to build a frame for our mulch pile.  Read a great article about putting cardboard in the mulch, so will try that.  Actually, in pulling out the bushes I have located several areas with wonderful, natural mulch at least a foot deep.  Will probably put that on the potatoes once they start growing.

JB took the tiller and painting tools that they had loaned us back to Larry and Elsie last Monday.  Larry said that one of their chickens had learned to escape the fence around the chicken tractor but always came back in for the night.  He hopes they have successfully thwarted it's efforts to get out.  While they were talking, JB saw what he thought was a large hawk fly over but Larry told him it was a turkey!  Never have seen them fly except up into a tree.

I read a new Jim Butcher book, Changes, that JB had given me for my birthday.  Excellent, as always.  Couldn't put it down, and now I have to go buy the next one because of the way this one ended!

JB and I are going Down There today to check out the Farmer's Market, pick up our winter coats and overalls from the laundry and do a little shopping.  Will also check out the boots I ordered to see if they fit.  I will probably have to go Down There again next week for jury duty.  I have to call on Tuesday to see when.  Can't wait. . . 

Thought for the day:  Home should be an oratorio of the memory.  Henry Ward Beecher.

May 22, 2012



One of the deer caught
on our game cam last week.




Three of our hummingbirds.





















Wild Rose tilling the garden.



Right now the woods are thick with birds and are ringing with their music.  Up Here there are no other sounds to drown out their songs.  The only noise pollution we get is from jets from Sea-Tac and the local airport, and the occasional helicopter or small prop job. So nice!

On Saturday I finished tilling the garden, and we got most of it planted.  Three rows of potatoes: russets, Yukon gold and reds.  Two rows of onions: yellow, red.  Now we just have to plant the carrots and bunch onions.  It was drizzly all Sunday and Monday, which was just perfect for watering them. 

Sunday, solar eclipse day, was overcast for the first time in weeks, of course.  The sky didn't seem to get any darker at 6:30, so I'm not sure if I misunderstood the timing or shadow or what.  Hopefully Sandy in California was able to see it.  We'll just have to wait until 2022.

I washed the downstairs windows inside and out on Sunday, then tackled the loft windows.  The ones on which we had smashed yellow jackets during the winter.  I used one of the scrubbies that JB's Mother had crocheted with netting and it worked perfectly.  Between drizzles, JB cut the wood for the bathroom window frame and will urethane it today.  Should be all installed by the end of the week, and I can hardly wait! 

I mentioned having put away our winter clothes and unpacked our summer ones.  That is something I never had to do when living on the west side of the mountains.  Over there one pretty much wears the same clothes all year long, just less sweaters in the summer and occasionally shorts and tank tops for the few days that it is warm enough, but always the raincoat and lotion for your webbed feet. . .

In the current Better Homes and Gardens magazine, their garden editor has chosen a reblooming lilac as a favorite pick for 2012.  One that blooms from Spring to first frost.  Wow!  I definitely want to get a few of those next year for Up Here.  We had lilacs around some of the homes I grew up in.  I especially remember the ones in our yard in Lakeview, OR, where we lived for the five years I was in elementary school.  Funny how experiences of those younger days shape the rest of your life.  Those were the years when we spent so much time out camping and searching for Indian arrowheads and other relics.  It was also a dry climate with four distinct seasons. 

My Grandmother planted lilacs at the ranch where my Father grew up.  One summer, maybe twenty years ago, my Mother and I visited my Aunt in Spokane and she took us up to see the ranch.  Of course none of the buildings were there except for the brick pump house, but the lilac bushes were still there and in bloom, as were the many wild roses.  My Grandmother had their house at the ranch moved down to Veradale in the early 1940's, and my Grandfather dug out the basement with his team of horses.  She furnished the basement with all the items from the ranch house, including the old wood cooking stove from the kitchen (which I really wish I had now).  My cousins and I loved to play down there when we were kids.

Thought for the day:  Youth is a wonderful thing.  What a crime to waste it on children.  George Bernard Shaw 

May 19, 2012



Our fenced garden.



Larry tilling with the chickens

 

Turkey visiting the chickens!

I love the humming birds!  I refilled their feeder on Wednesday and as I walked out the door with it, one of them almost landed on the feeder while I was carrying it.  I hung it up and another humming bird appeared.  I simply stood there as they battled to see who would get to eat.  I guess they finally called a truce, as they both landed on the feeder obviously keeping an eye on each other.  Being that close, I could tell that one of them was a ruby throated humming bird.  So beautiful!  Now if I can just remember to take my camera next time I feed them.

Thursday was one of the best birthdays I have ever had.  The gifts, the day, the phone calls - everything was just perfect.  We got all the fence posts up around the garden, and JB put together the frames for around his tomato planters and planted his herbs.  I cleaned out the storage area in the loft, which I needed to do in order to reach the trunk with our summer clothes.  So now our winter clothes are all packed away and our summer clothes are out.  Our weather has been so warm and dry that we really do need some rain.  (Not too much, please.)  And not this Sunday as there is an eclipse of the sun about 5:00 pm that we are supposed to be able to see.

Yesterday JB and I made our six-month garbage-and-recycle-cardboard trip Down There.  After dumping those off, we bought the fencing for the garden and wood to frame in the bathroom window.  Then back home to put up the fence.  This weekend I will till the garden a bit more and JB will make the gate.  We're getting there, and I can't believe I am so excited about it.

Above are photos of our garden and Larry and Elsie's.  She sent me that photo of the chickens following Larry.  They got so close that he thought a couple of them were going to get tilled right into the soil!  He has finished their "chicken tractor" so the chickens will spend the summer out at lots of different locations instead of in their coup.  Seems like they are loving it.  And the wild turkeys are very inquisitive.

Larry and Elsie have had only the one sighting of bears this year - the mama and her two cubs.  Seems the cause of this is that someone in the next canyon over on the paved road was taking out hunters during bear season and baiting the bears.  Sounds like alot of them were shot.  So sad. . .  So bad, and I am so mad!

Thought for the day:  If people concentrated on the really important things in life, there'd be a shortage of fishing poles.  Doug Larson

May 16, 2012 4th Anniversary at Rose Camp!



The aspen along our road decked out
in their Spring green coat.



Balsam root by the bird bath.


















The drive down and back up the mountain yesterday was alive with color.  Flox, lupine, sweet pea and arrowroot are now blooming amid the balsam root.  Makes me just want to stop, sit and enjoy.  Especially since I chose the hottest day this year for shopping.  Was supposed to get up to 90 Down There, and I believe it did.  It was hot at Rose Camp, too, but "only" 75 with a nice breeze.  JB measured and marked his rows in the garden, and will probably plant his potatoes, onions, and carrots today or tomorrow.

On Monday I painted the bathroom and it looks fantastic!  Now we just have to finish the ceiling, which we should be able to do this summer.  At least our biggest project, fixing the drainage problem, will be done by someone else.

Larry returned home Sunday afternoon from fishing on the coast.  After cutting up his large catch and vacuum sealing it all, he and Elsie drove up to bring us some fresh halibut and more eggs.  I simply do not know where they get their energy, but I sure wish they would share that too.  Last night JB grilled the halibut with butter and wasabi, along with some fresh asparagus.  Oh my!

Tomorrow will be my fourth anniversay of living Up Here, and also my 65th birthday.  (Finally, affordable health care - at least through November.)  What an experience these past four years have been!  The pioneering aspect is over and we are able to settle in and enjoy.  In a sense, life is not so different from Down There, and yet it is not at all the same.  We have our own sources of electricity, water and heat.  And they are ours alone.  We are not dependent upon a government agency, local or otherwise.  We will be growing our own vegetables this year, which is another big step towards self-sufficiency, and maybe someday we will have chickens.  We have our own sources of help and support.  Nearby friends with the same outlook on life; relatives, some of whom may not understand our choice of life but are always there for us, and many who would love to live Up Here also; and even those we do not know face to face who support and advise us. 

Above all, in the past four years, I have learned patience and to ask for help when we really need it.  I have learned to relax and simply be.  Some of that may come with age, but I believe most is from our way of life Up Here.  It is even better than I had imagined and I am so thankful for all the blessings that have come our way, especially those in the form of friends.  Life is good.

So with this fourth anniversary, I will be posting on my blog only twice a week, Tuesday and Saturday.  It is an adventure to live up here, but not as exciting to read about it as it was when we first began.  I will continue to post pictures and write of our endeavors and experiences, just not as often.

Thought for the day:  Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul.  Unknown

May 14, 2012



Rocks on the west side of the garden.



Another trilium.





















What an incredible Mother's Day it was!  Blue sky, mid-seventies.  Wow!  Spent some time in the garden dirt throwing out rocks.  That is going to be quite a job.  We also tilted the solar panels up to their summer position, and checked the game cam card.  Just dogs and coyotes, people and cars.

A man from one of the two companies we have called for quotes on our drainage issue came up to see what we needed.  We should have the other one up sometime this week.  Will probably have the work done the end of June to be sure the road will be dry.

JB has to go Down There today, and I am going to paint the bathroom.  Will be so good to get everything back into place.  I am going Down There tomorrow to buy a new pair of work boots and will also get paint for the hall and bedroom walls.  It's really going to be hot Down There the next few days before returning to seasonal temperatures later in the week.

Met some very nice people while working with Elsie.  Amazing how many want to talk about politics, and NOT ONE of them has anything good to say about our current administration.

Thought for the day:  Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.  John F. Kennedy

May 13, 2012 Happy Mother's Day!

How green is our canyon!

Such a beautiful Mother's Day!  I slept waaayyy in.  Felt so good after getting up early and hitting it for three days in a row.  I really enjoyed working with Elsie, but I must admit that I am so glad I don't have to do it every day any more.  Don't know where Elsie gets her energy.  She drove up to our place yesterday evening to put the texturizing on the bathroom walls.  I tried drawing long grasses on the walls which looks pretty good now, but we'll have to see how it shows up after I paint tomorrow.  Am going to enjoy a nice leisurely day today.

JB is fixing a big breakfast now, so that's it for this morning.

Thought for the day:  Everything is okay in the end.  And if it's not okay, then it's not the end.  Anonymous

May 11, 2012



Bluebells are out now. . .



. . .along with the balsam root.





















Up at 7:00 am; shower; eat breakfast; leave for work.  I remember this!  Thank goodness this time it's only for three days and not 40 years.  It was fun being with Elsie for the day in their shop, but I was ready to go to bed as soon as I got home. . .

When I got back from Down There on Wednesday, I helped JB in the garden again tossing out rocks and roots he had tilled up.  Once we get all the rocks out, the level of the garden will probably have dropped a foot.  It is very good soil though, so we should have no problem growing veggies.

That's it for this morning as I am on my way to "work" again.

Thought for the day:  Seize the day and put the least possible trust in tomorrow.  Horace

May 9, 2012




JB tilling his garden




A view to the south of Rose Camp

 















It was a great drive to and from town on Monday.  Other than that, town was town.  Except for Costco, which is always a delight.  As Elsie says, "Pray for me - I'm going to Costco."  If I ever came back home without something that was not on my list, I would know I was sick.

Larry brought their tiller up for us Monday evening.  What a guy!  Even brought his father up to meet us and see our place.  Had a very enjoyable visit.  Then they drove down to see RJ and his place.

First thing yesterday morning, JB was out tilling the garden.  I shooed him out to do that while I did the dishes, defrosted the refrigerator and made chicken broth for the dogs.  After lunch I went out to help and pulled out all the rocks and roots that JB tilled up.  It is going to take several days to get it all done as this is the initial tilling.  Still lots of grass, balsam root and rocks.  I would assume that next year it would be a lot easier.  But it is still very exciting!  Never thought I would use that word to describe it, but it really is.  JB plans to just plant potatoes, onions and possibly carrots this year, and tomatoes on his "grow boxes."  Maybe add squash and other items next year.  The garden itself is going to end up being about 20' X 32'.

Am going Down There this afternoon to spend some time learning what Elsie wants me to do for the next three days in their shop.  It's cold but clear this morning, so should be another nice day.

Thought for the day:  There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval.  George Santayana

May 7, 2012 Happy Birthday Dad



Garden site before. . .



. . . and after.

 















Sunday was another sunny Spring day, and certainly not one to work inside.  RJ came up for breakfast and after we ate we all went outside to discuss how we should attack the drainage problem.  I think we have it figured out.  Now we just have to see how much it will cost.

I worked on clearing a bit on the outer edge of our property on the east slope, pulling out and stacking fallen branches and trimming trees.  JB planted horseradish that Larry and Elsie had given him in a large half-barrel planter and did some other puttering around.  Nothing of interest on the game cam, but it is quite a hike down our steep driveway to it and back up again.

I am going Down There today for grocery shopping.  Looks like another beautiful, warm day.

We had a surprise visit from a neighbor which was very nice, as we hadn't seem them since before Christmas.

I had been able to get a really good deal on the third season of "Fringe", so we have been watching two or three episodes a couple times a week.  We are so very addicted to it!

Thought for the day:  Housework can't kill you, but why take a chance.  Phyllis Diller.

May 6, 2012 An Amazing Visitor



Our Friday evening visitor - a bobcat!



RJ's cabin
He's going to have to mow his roof
this summer!
















The Universe gave us a most amazing gift Friday evening.  JB went into the bedroom about 6:30 pm to take off his work boots and a movement outside the window caught his attention.  There, not 15' from the house, stood a bobcat!  JB called to me to come quickly and bring my camera.  We spent about two minutes watching the cat and snapping pictures as he leisurely looked around, then walked to a tree at the west end of the house.  He stood on a log there and looked up as if to check out the tree for climbing.  Must have decided against it as he lept off the log and disappeared over the west ridge.  JB and I were exultant.  I was so excited that I had to call my brother, RJ, who is down at his cabin.  I also called my Aunt Nene.   What an incredible experience, especially since they are nocturnal and rarely seen.

Friday had been a busy day to begin with.  JB made a delicious carrot cake from a recipe by Carol Fenster that was on one of the small bags of Bob's Red Mill GF flour.  Not a recipe I would try as it had about twenty ingredients, besides 3 cups of grated carrots, like crushed pineapple and coconut.  It is baked in a bundt pan and is very moist.  It called for a cream cheese icing which was just the perfect touch.

Friday afternoon instead of sanding the bedroom walls, the dogs and I walked down to RJ's.  It is a little over a mile and is down hill all the way.  When I arrived I called JB and he drove down.  RJ has several little projects going, including rebuilding the frame for the couch near the fireplace and a closet next to it.  We had a great visit but had to take the long way home as the shortcut was too muddy to get back up.  Even coming down JB's Jeep had slid a bit.

Saturday was a full moon, a Full Flower Moon.  And what an appropriate name.  There are wild flowers all over now.  Can hardly walk without stepping on a Western Spring Beauty.  The Blue Bells are out now too.

We pulled out the last of the roots and bushes from the garden site.  I also cleared some of the tall dead grasses along the trail to the north ridge.  The balsam root plants always have a circle of dead leave and stems in the Spring from the previous year.

We are both still feeling the wonderful effect of seeing the bobcat.  It is so cool to know he is around.  He was most likely full grown and no bigger than Jesse.  Where there is plenty of food (small rodents and rabbits) they have about a five square mile range.  This may be the same bobcat that Elsie saw  during the winter when she was driving home after work.

Thought for the day:  In the beginning God created man, but seeing him so feeble, He gave him the cat.  Warren Eckstein

May 4, 2012 Spring Snow!



One of four deer Thursday morning
(my clothesline in the foreground)



Spring snow!





















May 3rd and it we awaken to snow.  It started about 5:00 am and by 8:00 we had 2", at which point JB had to go clear off the solar panels.  The dogs, especially Dinga, thought it was great fun.  She was cavorting about and making snow angels.  Even I enjoyed watching it fall.  But it was a very wet snow and by noon it turned to rain and fog.  We may have to pump to day.

The dogs alerted us to four deer crossing the east slope before breakfast.  We watched them disappear over the south ridge before letting the dogs out.

On Wednesday RJ came up for breakfast and we had a good visit.  He will come up again for our big Sunday breakfast, but we will go down to see him before then.  All is well with his cabin and he has been working on the grounds, at least until yesterday morning's snow.

We worked more on the garden area Wednesday, and I pulled more of the dried grasses from around the house.  We decided to put the green house closer to the house because of the wind, and will have the south side dug out a bit by whomever we hire to fix our drainage problem.  They will probably have to do a French drain on the south side of the house anyway.

I realized yesterday that all the mudding, sanding and priming wasn't really as bad as I had anticipated.  In fact, I actually got started on the bedroom walls, mudding the corner, one seam and screws as much as I could on two of the three walls that we had sheetrocked without moving the bed.  Can't believe I am doing this!  I swore that we were going to put up tongue-in-groove pine over it.

Thought for the day: Forget about likes and dislikes.  They are of no consequence.  Just do what must be done.  This may not be happiness, but it is greatness.  George Bernard Shaw

May 2, 2012

Coyote caught on the game cam
Monday morning

It's been a very windy couple of days.  Monday there were scattered clouds racing across the sky all day.  A couple of them dropped rain and hail on us as they passed by.  Yesterday there were fewer clouds, but neither day broke 50 degrees.  A bit chilly with the wind, but still good for working outside.

We both worked on the garden site Monday, pulling the last of the bushes and roots, and piling up the rocks.  JB spent Tuesday taking the last of the pile to the chipping area, and staking out his garden area.  It will be about 16' by 32', although we have cleared a much larger area.  The ground gets very rocky the closer you get to the edge of the ridge.  Larry and Elsie have offered their tiller for us to use once we are ready.

Tuesday was coffee day for me, so I had a lot of energy to do things I really don't enjoy.  First I polished my boots.  Then I spent the whole afternoon priming the bathroom and the little hall wall.  Something I really do not like to do.  It takes so long with all the preparation and clean up, but it does look good when it's all done.  Now I can hardly wait to get it painted.  Any time you're ready Elsie!

Wow!  It's May!  And a busy month this is going to be.  The end of next week I am going to help Elsie in their shop as Larry is going fishing on the coast.  Then there's my birthday.  And then I get to report for jury duty on the 29th.  We also would like to get the tongue-in-groove pine up in the great room.  May have to take June off just to rest. . .

Speaking of coffee, I have found that since I went gluten free I seem to be less tolerant of caffeine.  Or maybe it's just a coincidence, except that I don't believe in them.  So, anyway, I only have coffee about twice a week now.

My brother, RJ, is up at his cabin for the first time this year.  He got up on Monday and will be coming for breakfast with us this morning.  Am looking forward to seeing him.

We noticed a new bird Up Here this year, or at least one we have not seen before.  JB identified it as a warbler.  Very pretty with its yellow cap, throat and wings. 

Thought for the day:  Jury: twelve persons chosen to decide who has the better lawyer.  Robert Frost