June 30, 2012 A Resident Skunk



My project on Wednesday




RJ and Mike encountered a skunk on our road when they drove back to their cabin Monday evening.  It stayed in front of them for about 50 yards just sauntering along, occasionally looking back & fluffing its tail when they got too close.  Hopefully it won't want to come up to Rose Camp with the dogs around.  I'm pretty sure Jesse has learned his lesson about getting too close.

On Monday, I got out my "dowsing rods" that Larry had made for me from two metal hangers, and had Mike try it out.  He has the "gift" too, and the look of amazement on his face was priceless.  While he is Up Here, Mike is training each day with long, steep hikes with a 60 lb. pack on his back for climbing Mt. Adams and Mt. Rainier in July.  We have climbed quite a ways up Mt. Baker in the past, but now-a-days my response is, "Wow!  Good for you.  Send me a postcard."

It drizzled all day Tuesday, but the road had already dried out during the night when I took the dogs to the vet Wednesday morning.  Poor Dinga had a bad morning what with getting her shots and having her eye looked at.  She doesn't do well with that kind of attention, while Jesse just breezes through.  My checkbook didn't do very well either.

JB had planted grass in the front yard by the time we returned.  I spent the rest of the afternoon covering the black plastic that was still showing on the step down from the top tier where we had the drainage rock laid on the south side of the house.  I used some rock and large, thick pieces of bark that had been our mud path.  Turned out quite nicely.

I had promised to bring dessert for dinner at RJ's on Thursday, so that morning we made four pints of blueberry pie filling, canning three and using the fourth for coffee cake.  A favorite of all of us, especially Mike.  RJ made baked potatoes and chicken-apples sausage in his outdoor fire place.  He had discovered flat, square marshmallows made especially for s'mores when he went Down There for supplies that morning, so we had two desserts!  Can't remember the last time I had s'mores and now I can't imagine why it has been so long.  Yummm!!

Friday I spent shopping Down There.  Bought extra perishables as I really don't want to go again til JB gets back from Seattle.  He leaves on July 6 to spend two weeks with his Mom while his brother and sister-in-law go on vacation.  His son had to cancel his trip out here, so it will just be RJ, Mike and the two of us for our July 4th barbeque.  I splurged at Costco and bought Frasier River wild salmon.  Thank goodness these holidays only come once a year. . .

Looks like another nice day today, but it is supposed to cool down and possibly rain on the 4th, as usual.  Don't know what Mother Nature is trying to tell us, but we rarely have a sunny and warm 4th on either side of the mountains.  Possibly a fire prevention technique.

Thought for the day: No one can read our Constitution without concluding that the people who wrote it wanted their government severely limited.  The words "no" and "not", employed in restraint of government power, occur 24 times in the first seven articles of the Constitution and 22 more times in the Bill of Rights.  Rev. Edmund A. Opitz

June 26, 2012 Lightening Strike!

. . . and when we left.

Lightening strike when we first arrived. . .



We spent three hours Sunday morning helping Larry put out a lightening strike.  The early morning was filled with thunder and lightening, so when I finally got up I remembered that we are supposed to look for strikes.  (It's been a year - what can I say.)  Doesn't matter how much much it has been raining, the incredible heat of the lightening can start a fire anywhere.  And all that fire fodder under the shelter of the tree is usually quite dry.  I saw smoke to the west on the ridge where some 206ers have a small cabin, so I called Larry and Elsie, waking them up.  Didn't see any other signs of fire off our south and north ridges.  JB was in the middle of making breakfast when this all happened.  We just finished eating when I looked at him and said, "What the hell are we doing sitting here while poor Larry is out dealing with that fire?!!"  We called the dogs in, grabbed our backpack, juice, shovels and pick axes, and hopped in his car.  The strike was less than a mile away as the crow flies but about 2-/2 miles by the road.

The first photo above is when we first arrived.  Larry had a two foot ring around it already dug down to the dirt.  The lightening had hit one tree, causing patches of bark to fly off.  The tree next to it was okay, but they were both blackened around the bottom where the grass had burned.  The ground all around here has about 4" to 6" of mulch - good fire fodder.  So we spent the next three hours digging and turning over all that mulch to be sure there were no hot spots left.  We had brought up a couple small containers of water and Larry made two trips on his ATV to the nearest neighbor to fill them up and get three more large containers.  It was a good morning.  My Forest Service Dad would be proud.

It continued raining off and on the whole day as it had on Saturday.  We had cancelled our dinner with RJ because it was so muddy Up Here.  But Monday looked much dryer, so I called them and they came up in the early afternoon for cards and dinner.  Another very good visit.  We plan to go down to their cabin Thursday afternoon for the same.  I have an appointment at the vet to take the dogs in for their annual boosters tomorrow morning.  It's raining again as I write, but is supposed to clear up for the next few days - until July 4, of course.

Saturday morning we managed to put in six more fence poles and Monday morning we put on the rails.  Looking good.

We can hear baby wrens in the bird house.  I think I have given up on ever seeing them learn to fly.  We've missed it every year so far.

Thought for the day:  Some things you learn best in calm and some in storm.  Willa Cather.



June 23, 2012

Our fence

Our first wild roses of the year bloomed Up Here on Tuesday, and since then they have been popping out all over!  They are blooming all along the road now, too, in more abundance than ever.  Their scent is almost overwhelming in places.  Makes you just want to stop and enjoy.

We put in four fence posts and six rails on the north side of the house on Tuesday, then yesterday we put in the corner post on the south side of the entrance to the yard.  JB drilled a hole in the top of three of the posts and stuck in solar lights.  It looks so cool!  We have six more posts cut and ready to put up from the small trees we cut down.  We are using the broken tipi poles for the rails and should have enough of them for at least half of what we need.

Wednesday JB towed the trailer Down There to pick up four bales of straw for RJ to use for an archery target.  Seems his son is interested in taking that up.  However at JB's first stop my Jeep wouldn't start.  He had to have it towed to the shop as the alternator went out and took the battery with it.  They had to order the parts, so I drove down to pick up him and the trailer.  We drove back down Thursday afternoon to pick it up and met RJ coming up.  They will be here for two weeks and will come up for dinner and Magic Cards this afternoon.

Thursday morning I shoveled drainage rock from the extra that we had and wheelbarrowed it over to the north side of the house.  (That is heavy stuff!)  I first put down black plastic three feet out and covered it with the rock.  I have long ago said goodbye to my nice long, winter fingernails and am hard at work on my farmer's tan.  (Had ibuprofen with breakfast Friday morning.)  The roof eaves come out two feet and that's about where the water runs off.  It rained Thursday night into Friday morning and the new drainage system seems to be working as advertised.  Supposed to be showers off and on for the next few days, along with lots of muddy paws.

While I was working on the rock, JB was breaking down the several old bales of straw we have and scattering it on the newly graded road around the house to cut down on the mud.  We originally bought the straw bales to protect the west side of the carport we were using as a temporary shop and storage before it blew down.  Being that old, the bales were full of bugs. . .

Yesterday JB working on getting the front yard ready to plant grass.  I put some drainage rock along the stream that came from the south side of the house to the driveway.  We will have a little rock bed winding through the yard.  We are going to enjoy having the summer to work on the yard and surrounding area.

Looks like it may be the last of July before we get the great room finished.  JB's son will be here the first week of July, then JB will be going to Seattle for a week to stay with his Mother while his brother goes on vacation.  It will be a good indoor project for hot weather. 

Thought for the day:  Memory - that thing you forget with.  Alexander Chase

June 19, 2012 A Rose Camp Bear



Look Nene - a Rose Camp bear!!




Wild roses blooming just
down our road.
















Finally - a Rose Camp bear on our game cam!  We think he has been skulking around nearby for the past few days now that all the noise is gone.  The dogs have been barking alot while not going far from the house.  A deer or coyote they will give chase to, but not a bear.  And thank goodness for that!

I drove Down There on Saturday to have lunch with the friend from Seattle who was supposed to come Up Here on Friday.  With everything going on, I just could not keep that rendezvous.  But we did have an enjoyable visit and hopefully they will make it Up Here next summer.  I also did all the shopping and picked up the mail.  It was very hot and muggy in town, but so nice when I got back home.  It is usually 10 to 15 degrees cooler at Rose Camp.

Ahhh, the Summer Solstice is tomorrow.  Even if it is warm enough to go dancing naked through the woods, I wouldn't want to scare the bears and deer, let alone the poor bobcat.  Will just celebrate with a Margarita. . .

I know this may be sacrilegious in some off-the-grid circles, but part of my city mind is still intact and sometimes when I read about TV programs, made-for-TV movies, or special series like Downtown Abbey that sound really entertaining, I think I would like to get a satellite dish and spend most evenings just relaxing in front of the TV.  Then I just slap myself back to my chosen reality.

My Aunt Nene told me that the wonderful kitchen wood stove that was my Grandmother's was taken to the dump when they were getting her house ready to sell after she passed on.  The dump!!  I can't believe it!

Our garden is turning more green with each day.  The russet potato plants have finally sprouted.  JB planted the carrots and bunch onions on Saturday.  He will get the tomatoes going soon.

Sunday, Father's Day, we just puttered around but pretty much took it easy.  Was really waayyy too windy to work outside anyway, although not as dusty as I thought it might be.  Most of the dirt was still damp, so it is pretty well packed down from the heavy equipment.  Yesterday we cut down eight tall but thin trees that were causing crowding on the north ridge.  Pulled them up into the grove and I limbed them.  We will use them for the fence JB is going to start building this week.  I have been cutting all the little roots that are sticking up all over where the grading was done.  I also planted the lavender that I bought for a great price at Costco.  Sandy was the one who convinced me to buy some.  More purple!

Thought for the day:  We cannot live only for ourselves.  A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects.  Herman Melville

June 16, 2012 Our New Yard



Our new front yard with
the drainage rock on the south side.



Looking north to the tipi,
where the greenhouse will be.

Our garden

Our mountain quiet is even more appreciated now after the last two incredibly noisy days.  The grounds outside our home are completely different, having been attacked by a backhoe and a bulldozer, but it's all good.  Even better than we had envisioned.  Now we just need the grasses to grow back.  It's going to be a dusty summer.

The three little trees in our front yard are gone and so are three of the four stumps.  It looks so much larger, and now we have so many of the details to take care of.  Kind of moving into a new house, only it's a new "yard."  There was extra drainage rock that was put on the south side of the house, so we used that for the parking area and where the green house will go.  A lot of the dirt (and there was ALOT of it) was used to extend the west ridge along the grove.  As I said, it just looks so very different.

We had spent all day Tuesday getting the area around the house ready to be re-sculpted.  Took down my "wiggle" wood fence and transplanted the iris to the west ridge near the garden.  It may be too windy for them there so I might have to move them again.  Got all the "decorative" rocks moved.  Then, of course, they couldn't start on Wednesday.  And isn't that just the norm.  But we were able to just putter around on Wednesday and get a better idea of what we wanted and what we thought it would look like without feeling rushed.

We had to move the wren's birdhouse and the humming bird feeder.  So amazing to watch the birds fly to the exact spot in mid-air where they were.  Took a couple minutes, but they found them both.

Our garden is flourishing (see photo above).  Can hardly wait until harvest time.  The wild flowers are flourishing also, especially the lupine.  It is certainly a purple Spring.  When there is a warm breeze coming up from the canyon or when the air gets heavy just before a rain shower, the air becomes almost overwhelmingly fragrant with the scent of the wild flowers and bushes.

The new bird bath is very popular, especially with the grosbeaks.  They come in a very colorful flock of at least six to eight birds.  The males are a muted red and the females a soft yellow/green.

I have had some inquires about the "Sasquatch" photo, so here's the answer.  When I zoomed in on the picture on my computer, it was fairly obvious that it was a bear that had just got out of the pond and was shaking off.  I know that's not nearly as exciting, but the truth rarely is.

Thought for the day:  The best of all government is that which teaches us to govern ourselves.  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

June 12, 2012





Grosbeaks in the new bird bath.




One side of RJ's remodeled kitchen. . .
























. . .and the other side.  A propane kitchen stove
will sit at the end of the counter.

Saturday was windy, as predicted, but we didn't get the strong gusts Up Here.  They swept through the Wenatchee and Columbia River valleys.  But the wind did blow in a nice warm front.  We had begun to think it was March instead of June.

We were outside again on Sunday, after RJ came to breakfast.  Started clearing our yard and the surrounding area in preparation for the sculpting that the heavy equipment will be doing.  Have to move all the "decorative" rocks, the planters, logs, etc.  It's a good thing we decided not to wait til the week before they were due up here on the 25th, as we got a call yesterday afternoon from the foreman who asked if they could come up and start today!  Thunder storms and rain are predicted for today, plus we are just not ready, so be begged off until tomorrow. 

I did find time on Sunday to make another bird bath out of our metal fire pit and some rocks.  With all the birds we have, it was obvious that we will need at least two, of not three, baths for them.  They took to it immediately, as you can see in the photo above.

Yesterday was our visiting day as we delivered the antique table to Larry and Elsie, and of course stayed to visit.  Then we stopped in to visit another couple who were up for the weekend.  After that, we drove down to see RJ's cabin and all the work he has been doing.  He has completely redone his kitchen, enclosing it about five feet back from the front wall which he will tear out and make into a screened-in porch.  The call from the construction company came in as we were visiting RJ.  When we got home, we moved most of the rest of the rocks and JB cut down the three small trees in the front yard.  After dinner we dug for the propane line and the third electrical line.  After finally finding them both, we just collapsed into the chairs on the porch and tried to unwind.

Doesn't look like it will rain this morning, so we will hit it again right after breakfast.  Looks like Gayle and Stephanie will be visiting a construction site!  That's typical.  You make plans for one event and soon other things seem to cluster around it.

Thought for the day:  To succeed in life you need three things:  a wishbone, a backbone and a funny bone.  Reba McEntire

June 9, 2012



Another bear at Larry & Elsie's pond.


 

 

Humming bird that
flew into Claudia's porch.



Our Sunset on June 4.

The weather finally cleared up for Tuesday and Wednesday, but the rain was back on Thursday and we have water under the house again.  May have to pump it out today.  My drive down our road Tuesday morning was dicey.  I'd turn left and go right.  Turn right and go left.  But I made it okay and by the time I drove home the road was fairly dry.  It was worth the trip though, as I finally found some good work boots.  The Coastal store in East Wenatchee just got women's work boots in and, since it was Tuesday, I saved 10%!  So nice to have comfortable boots.

Gross out alert, Sande - while I was gone, Jesse found a rabbit's head.  We don't think he killed the rabbit.  More likely he found left overs from the bobcat's kill.  But JB thinks he ate the whole head, ears and all.  I'm not sure he did because there he hasn't had the usual intestinal problems after something like that.

The wild roses are blooming as far up as Larry and Elsie's and are so beautiful.  There are buds on our bushes, so they should be blooming Up Here soon too.  My friend, Gayle, and her daughter are coming up next Friday to visit so they will be able to see lots of wild flowers.  Just hope the rain has let up by then.

All the onions have sprouted in our garden and several of the Yukon and red potato plants have pushed leaves up through the dirt!  I check on them at least twice a day.  As I've said before, never thought I could get this excited about a vegetable garden.

Wednesday I cut and stacked three loads of branch wood.  JB finished my small shelf for the bathroom.  I will probably paint it today, then he can put it up on Sunday.  With all the rain and fog on Thursday, I got caught up on my computer projects: updated the DVD and pantry lists, and finally got caught up on the photo and subject indices to my blog.  When we moved Up Her, I created a spread sheet on which to keep track of our supplies.  Every time we take something out of the pantry or add to it, we adjust the quantity on the sheet in pencil.  Every 4 months or so I have to print out a new list for us to use.  JB has been engrossed in a Jason Bourne book, which he finally finished on Friday.

Thursday was Sandy's birthday (she is older than I am), and when I called her to sing "Happy Birthday" I got her message:  "You've reached the Birthday Girl.  I'm out celebrating.  If you haven't sent money or a gift, you better get right on it."  I was laughing so hard I couldn't sing, fortunately for her.

RJ is up at his cabin and came to have breakfast with us on Friday.  He'll be up again on Sunday, then Monday we'll go down to his place to see all the current projects he has finished.  His little root cellar seems to be doing great, so we thought we might have the crew that comes up to sculpt the land for our drainage problem dig a 6X6X6 hole for our root cellar.  Will depend on how much time they have.

Friday we started digging for the main electrical conduit that goes from the battery shed to the house.  Finally found it, and it will definitely have to be extended as it doesn't go deep enough into the ground for where they are going to dig - which is between the battery shed and the house.  We also have to find two other electrical lines and the propane line.  JB can redo the two electrical lines he put to the house, but we will probably have to get the electrician up here for the main one, and someone from the propane company to do that line.  We did find a broken conduit in the main electrical line, which is a really good thing.  I'd hate to have had a problem in the middle of winter with that.  But we've found it now and can get it fixed.  And, fortunately, we weren't out digging during our 15 minute hail storm!  We tried to get it done between showers.  This was the first time I have had to bring the wash in before it was dry due to rain.  It started out as a nice, sunny day.

Just heard that we have a wind advisory for this afternoon: 20-30 mph sustained winds with gusts 45-50 mph.  Oh goodie. . .

Thought for the day:  A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.  Dwight D. Eisenhower.

June 5, 2012



Small coyote caught on our game cam.




Our kitchen table that I wrote about on
my last posting.


















We worked outside all day Saturday.  JB chipped and I cut a big load of branch wood with my trusty little chain saw.  Jesse discovered a long, skinny bull snake down the driveway.  He knew it wasn't a rattle snake and was very curious about it.  It wasn't too curious about him though, and quickly slithered into the bushes.

Sunday was another good day for working outside, but because of the threat of rain on Monday we used MAX to pull the trailer of chippings down our road to work on the worst pot holes.  JB had read in "Home Power" that it is best to square out the sides of the holes which will be better to keep in whatever you fill the hole with.  So that's what he did and then we filled four holes.  Hopefully the chipped material will work better than the bark we had been using in previous years.

The rain moved in Sunday night as promised and Monday was drizzley and foggy.  A fire in the wood stove sure makes such a day so very cozy inside.  JB baked bread and I kept busy doing cleaning and sorting.  It's been a while since I have had to hang the wash up inside.  We put the hose out from under the house and turned on the pump, thinking that with all the rain there would at least be some water in our "pond."  It wasn't pumping out any water, so I got dressed in my under-the-house outfit and crawled down to look.  Not a drop anywhere and all the mud is drying out nicely.  Hopefully it will stay that way until the land is sculpted to solve the drainage problem the last week of June.

I am going Down There today to try to find some new work boots and do some grocery shopping.  Wasn't called in for jury duty, which is really a good thing because of the commute.  Have been called for jury duty three times in my life, but have only been chosen once.  An experience everyone should have, in my opinion.

I have two food projects that I want to try this summer.  I found a recipe in the newspaper for rose petal jelly that sounds good.  Lord knows we have enough roses.  And there is a great article in the current "Mary Jane's Farm" about making syrups and jams from elderberries.  We have a lot of elderberries too on the mountain and in the canyon, so I will definitely be picking them when they are ripe.  Larry said we can pick from the bushes down at their place too.  

Thought for the day:  Faith is about what you do.  It's about aspiring to be better and nobler and kinder than you are.  It's about making sacrifices for the good of others - even when there's not going to be anyone telling you what a hero you are.   Jim Butcher from Changes, page 252 (Which doesn't at all reflect what the book is about, only the strength of the main character)

June 2, 2012 Memories of a Kitchen Table



Balsam root




Pine cone "buds"
















All the wild flowers are in bloom now, including paintbrush which I saw the first of yesterday up on the south ridge.  The yellow balsam root and arnica are everywhere, interspersed with the purple lupine.  White flox and prairie stars dot the green grass.  There are other yellow and white flowers that I haven't yet identified, but they all work to make the landscape so incredibly colorful.  Even the ponderosa pines are brilliant with their red pine cone "buds."

I realize I have been mixing up my terms of "mulch" and "compost."  It is a compost bin that JB built, not mulch, and it is already 1/3 full!  I cut the grass in the yard and a couple areas where I had pulled out the shrubs, and dumped it in the bin along with leaves from the balsam root and other flowers that got in the way.  Also, we have been saving the coffee grounds and tea bags, so I scattered those in along with a little cardboard.  Larry and Elsie were up Wednesday evening and brought two dozen eggs.  (Time for another angel food cake!)  Elsie says that she scatters coffee grounds over everything - her lawn, flower beds, garden.  Anywhere she is growing something.  And, speaking of growing, our onions have popped up!  And there are little mounds along the potato rows, so we should see their green sprouts very soon.  I never thought gardening could be this exciting. . .

The weather has been very cooperative, so we have been working outside every day.  Yesterday got up to 68, but there was a nice breeze to keep us from getting too hot.  JB is working on filling the trailer with chippings, which we will take down the road and use to fill in ruts and holes in the road.  I have been cutting out undergrowth and adding to his to-be-chipped pile.

I took out my Mom's old green kitchen table from the bedroom where it had been folded down and was being used as shelf space.  I washed it off and set it up where our round wood dining table was.  That green table is at least 62 years old and I have always loved it.  My first memory of it is in the kitchen of the student housing where we lived when my parents were attending Washington State University (just "college" back then) in Pullman, WA, when I was about three years old.  Dad had somehow come into ownership of a donkey, and we needed to keep it in the kitchen for a few days until he could drive it up to Spokane to my Grandfather's place.  Mom and Dad used the chairs to the table to block the door to the living room, but one morning it got out the kitchen door.  Dad was still in his bathrobe and took out running down the street after the donkey.  Now my Dad like to sleep in the buff, so there he was running after the donkey with his bathrobe and everything else flopping about.  I'm sure the other students talk about that to this day.

Another specific memory of that table is my Dad and I sitting at it and listening to "The Lone Ranger" on the radio when I was in grade school.  The last I remember of the chairs was in the early 1960's, but the table has been used for various duties ever since then.  It was even my crafting table when we lived near Chicago.  Now, once again, it is a kitchen table.  I have seen the retro furniture like it that is being made now, so I will be on the look out for chairs to match.  We are giving the round dining table to Elsie as she really likes it.  It is a beautiful antique that belonged to JB's Grandfather, but we simply have no room for it and no one else in the family wants it.  Kind of sad, but I'm sure it will be very appreciated in Larry and Elsie's home.  

Thought for the day:  Be aware that as soon as you put a period at the end of your definition of life and the force behind it, you have only defined your misunderstanding of them both.  Unknown