June 3, 2015 Birdhouse & Wild Flowers

The "new" bird house.

Some of the lupine along our road.

Monday 6/1. NOAA's forecast for today predicted rain from noon to 5:00 am tomorrow, and up to 1" of rain per hour in thunder storms.  So we tried to get all our outside work done this morning.  I was out right after breakfast and finished all the mowing.  Ran out of gas just as I was taking the last swipe.  Then we finally put up a bird house that I had purchased in Chicago eight years ago.  I still have to find a place for the one that JB's Brother and Sister-in-law brought back from Montana for us last year.

After lunch I did some more very successful searching for devil's thorn.  Am working on my second bag now.

Clouds were dark and foreboding when we started, but there was a lot of blue sky by the time we stopped for lunch.  We had three five-minute showers during the day, but it wasn't until 4:30 pm when the first clap of thunder rolled down the canyon to the south of us.  The rain arrived ten minutes later, but only lasted for a half an hour or so.  I'm sure it was pouring somewhere in eastern Washington, just not here.  Our high for the day was 72.

We have some really fat robins Up Here now.  Didn't see any for the longest time, and now they are everywhere.

We started watching season one of Tyrant this evening, a DVD that Sandy sent to me for my birthday.  Takes place in the middle east and is quite well done.

Tuesday 6/2. It was 50 this morning with a 13 mph, chilly wind and partly cloudy skies.  Nice to have a cool interlude.

Our project for today was to mow our road down to the main canyon road, which is about 1-3/4 miles one way.  We left a little after 10:00 am, with the dogs and I walking in front of the tractor in order to point out any hidden rocks to JB.  I also walked most of the way back up, taking photos all the way (85 total).  With all the scents and sights, I am at a complete loss of words with which to describe our experience.  No Texas plain nor Colorado mountain meadow was ever so vibrant with wild flowers!  

We need an American Monet Up Here to capture these flowers on canvas.  Hmmm. . .maybe my friend, Jane, should come out from North Carolina.  She's a very talented artist.

On our way back up we cut a ways down on the short cut to RJ's place.  Found some fairly fresh bear scat on the road.  While we were out and about, Jesse rolled in something, and I think that was it.  I guess he wanted to smell like a bear so he could sneak up on one.

We were gone about three hours and we all enjoyed the outing.  Well, except for all the dust that the tractor threw up.  We had a quiet afternoon.  The dogs slept.  JB and I read out books.  Then I finished Sandy's birthday present which I will mail on Thursday.  Her birthday (the BIG 70) is on Sunday.

We have a new bird Up Here that I have never heard before.  Haven't been able to see it yet, but it has a very distinctive and pleasant song.

The girls gave us 55 eggs in May.  More and more each month.

Still lots of clouds by late afternoon and our high for the day was 64.  Perfect weather for working outside.

On these long Spring and Summer evenings, I often enjoy strolling around Rose Camp after dinner and just being.

Wednesday 6/3. It is 48 and overcast this morning with warmer weather promised for tomorrow.

Thought for the day: The soul should always stand ajar, ready to welcome the ecstatic experience. Emily Dickinson

June 1, 2015 We Have Water!

Our warm-weather porch.

Working on the well.

Sign at the start of our trail to the
north ridge.

Friday 5/29. The well company men arrived just before 10:00 am and were here until about 3:30 pm.  Unfortunately, the fix was the most expensive, not the least expensive.  The motor, which is separate from the pump, had blown so they had to pull up 600 feet of pipe which is in 20' lengths.  Those guys have this all down to a science though and can unscrew the pipe and pull more up with the winch truck very quickly.  Took them 1-1/2 hours to pull it up, but the brand new motor was bad.  So JB drove down to their business to get another one, which took two hours.  Obviously we won't be charged for the time they didn't work and will get some sort of a discount for his making the trip.

When they unhooked the pipe to start pulling it up, it was filled with water right to the top.  A very good sign.  They saved all that water for us in one of our 50 gallon drums.

Since they had to pull everything up anyway, I had them install new wire which is much better than the wire they used seven years ago.  Total cost for everything will be about $3000.  Thank goodness for Visa!!

While they were doing all this, I did more weeding.  Then I moved the last row of fire wood off the porch and into the wood shed, using the wheel barrow.  So now we have our warm-weather porch back.

After they left, we had loud thunder and about an hour of rain.  We have had rain so often that the ground doesn't get a chance to dry out.  Which brings up something else that I forget about Spring in the Winter - bugs.  With all this sunshine and moisture we have a lot of bugs.  Flying, crawling, buzzing.  Not my favorite situation.

It was a very relaxing evening knowing that everything was back to normal.  Water.  A generator that we don't have to go outside to turn on and off.  I feel absolutely spoiled!

Saturday 5/30. It was 60 and mostly clear this morning with temps in the high 80's forecast for Down There.

We are still going to use the dish rinse-water and the rain-barrel water to flush the toilet.  But we get to shower more often (we wash by hand every night).  And I get to wash my hair every day now, instead of every other day.  And we will be using less paper plates.  Best of all, we don't have to bring water up every week or so from Larry and Elsie's.  Don't know how we would have got through all this without them.  Life is good.

JB thoroughly vacuumed out all the air intake areas on the tractor.  He always cleans the screen off as he is mowing so it doesn't get clogged, but I guess there was enough inside to cause a problem.  Seems to be working okay now.

I found a post and we got the sign up by our trail to the north ridge, that I had wanted to for a while now.  With my Dad having worked for the Forest Service for so many years, he had some outdated souvenirs.

I split and stacked three wheel barrow loads of wood, while JB was working on the tractor.  He also finished mowing the middle of the south slope.  I am pretty sure that the rest of the wood that is ready to split will fill the wood shed.

Our high for the day was 75, but we had a lovely, cool breeze most of the day.

We have three pairs of nesting wrens Up Here this year.  One pair in each bird house and one under the eaves just above the bathroom window.  So we have a symphony of bird song all day long.  Just wonderful!

We are running the well pump for about a half an hour each day until the cistern fills.  That should be done on Monday or Tuesday.  Then we will just fill as needed.

I changed from flannel to regular sheets today, which I am sure is the earliest I have ever done that.  We had one year when I never did stop using flannel sheets because we had such a cool summer.

We watched the last episode of season six of Burn Notice this evening.  Now I just have to find a good deal on season seven.

Sunday 5/31. It was 60 with a light overcast that thickened into clouds, and the air became very muggy.  But the clouds began to break up a bit early in the afternoon and it was a hot 76.

JB drove down to Larry and Elsie's after breakfast to borrow their lawn mower.  Ours died last year at age 30, and we don't have a replacement yet.  

While he was gone, I worked on my long list of little things that need doing inside the house.  Then after lunch I mowed ALL around the house.  JB did some mowing when I got too warm.  I will finish up tomorrow.

I had a nice chat with Nene today.  JB said there are only 104 days until we leave for our trip to Idaho and wanted to know if she had started packing!  I think he is just counting down the days until he has some alone time. . .

The wild roses are blooming Up Here now and I can smell their incredible scent everywhere I go.

I plan on going Down There on Thursday mainly to do laundry.  Hopefully one of my last such trips.  With all this new, fresh water, the dirt should be disappearing quickly.

We watched Guardians of the Galaxy this evening, me for the third time and JB for the first.  What a great movie!

Monday 6/1. It is 64 this morning and clouded over with just a few tiny patches of blue sky.  Looks like we may get some more rain.

Thought for the day (which I wish I had had for Memorial Day): Our flag does not fly because the wind blows it.  It flies with the last breath of each soldier who died protecting it.

May 29, 2015 Oh, The Roses!

Deer on the south slope Wednesday morning.

Wild roses along our road.

Wednesday 5/27. For the second time, Blondie had already laid her egg for the day when I fed the girls breakfast.  And that was the only egg we got for the day.  I think that poor little picked-on Blondie is the one who is laying almost every day.

Thunder clouds began sneaking in from the southwest mid-morning.  Most of them stayed to the south where Mission Ridge is tall enough to snag some of them.  We stayed dry at Rose Camp though.

I saw a deer on the south ridge this morning, fortunately before the dogs did, and was able to snap a picture of it before they chased it off.

JB did some more mowing on the south slope but the tractor overheated again.  Once he started it, he just drove it down and parked it.  We are probably a little low on coolant in the radiator.  I will pick some up tomorrow when I go Down There.

I have been pulling lots of fire weed along with the grasses as it seems to be growing everywhere this Spring.  I am letting it remain in areas that I designate, otherwise we will have to change our name from Rose Camp to The Fire Weed Ranch.  Of course that could be a dangerous misnomer now that pot is legal in Washington and we don't have a license to grow it. . .

My lilac is blooming and two of the irises have large buds.  The two new lilacs and mock orange won't bloom this year, but they are doing great.  I'm afraid the rose of sharon is just a dead stick.

Our road has finally dried out so JB called the well company and they will be out first thing Friday morning.  Woo hoo!!  We are hoping for the quickest and least expensive fix.

Thursday 5/28. It was 60 and clear Up Here this morning, with 89 forecast as a high for Down There.  Definitely was not looking forward to driving down into that heat.  However, the roses blooming along our road made it all worth while.  They are scattered all along it, but there are two places where the bushes are solid for more than a 50 ft. stretch.  They have all bloomed since I drove up on Sunday, and their scent is amazing.  Of course I stopped to take pictures.  The giant paint brush is also popping up in many places, adding orange to the mix of purple, pink, yellow and white.

I ran my errands and picked up a few groceries as quickly as possible.  Wouldn't have even gone down til next week if there weren't things that had to be done now, like getting coolant for the tractor.  But I was able to be back home by 1:00 pm.  Our high for the day was a pleasant 75.  Pretty sure it was well into the 80's Down There.

While I was gone, JB had moved the gas generator back to the shop.  I helped him get it all set up after a quick lunch.  He has the propane generator all wired back in, so now we can start it from the house instead of having to go outside.

By dinner time the sky was almost completely covered with dark clouds.  A little after 6:00 pm a light rain began to fall and quickly turned to a downpour.  It only lasted about a half hour Up Here and we received .02".  However, down at Larry and Elsie's, the rain fell until after 8:00 pm, and they received almost .25"!

Friday 5/29. It is 58 with a few clouds on the western horizon this morning.  JB is awaiting the call from the well guys so he can drive down and meet them at the gate.

Thought for the day: Inner peace begins the moment you choose not to allow another person or event to control your emotions.

May 27, 2015 Back Home With Thunder Storms

A wren nesting in the bird house Nene gave us.

Lupine growing along the south ridge's
 lower loop of the road.

Monday 5/25. When I arrived home yesterday, after three nights and three days in Larry and Elsie's home, my home seemed awfully small when I walked in.  But that soon changed and it was good to be back.  We had rain and thunder Friday morning, but then all the rain went to the south and I could just barely hear some thunder the other days.  Of course, it was much louder Up Here for JB and the dogs.

It looked like all the grass shot up another six inches while I was gone, so I did a lot of pulling and cutting around the house.  JB mowed some more with the tractor, as he had been doing every day.  The east slope, south ridge and around the house are almost done.  However, this afternoon the tractor overheated and he wasn't able to get it going again.  It was good timing though as our neighbors from Seattle were here for the weekend and came up to visit.  Always a pleasure to see them.

They had been here for about an hour when rain started falling and thunder started booming, so they quickly left to put tarps over things at their camp.  JB had already put the tarp over the tractor, so we were good to go.  The rain lasted for more than an hour.  When the sun peeked out again, I took a post-hole digger down to them for a project they are working on.

It was a chilly day with a high of only 52.

We began watching season six of Burn Notice last night, and watched more this evening.

Tuesday 5/26. This morning was 48 and partly cloudy. I sat out on the porch with my tea watching the humming bird wars.  We have a wren nesting in the bird house that Nene gave us.  It will be the first tenant.  It might also be the same wren who started to nest in our other bird house as I haven't seen any activity lately over there.

I was hoping for a dry, quiet day, but that was not to be.  Big, dark clouds began to appear on the western horizon before noon, so I was out pulling and cutting grass as quickly as possible.  

It is funny that I can envision a snow-covered Rose Camp at any time during the year, but during the Winter I completely forget how lush our Spring can be.  And this year is as lush as I have seen it.  The lupine has started blooming with a vengeance in the past week and there is purple everywhere.  Actually there is a whole range of colors in which it blooms, from a rosy pink to a deep blue-purple with various shades of lilac and lavender in between.

JB was not able to start the tractor and we were afraid it was going to have to go into the shop.  However he soon realized that he had forgotten to disengage the mower.  As soon as he did that, it started right up.  Too late to do any mowing by the look of the clouds, but it was a big relief to us and our bank account.

There have been wild turkeys down from the west ridge for the past several days and they have been driving the dogs crazy.  And the dogs' barking has been driving JB crazy.  They must have moved on because today was very quiet in that sense.

Rain began falling at about 2:15 pm today, same as yesterday.  But today it was just a short shower with some distant thunder.  I could still smell the pungent aroma of the bitter brush in bloom on our afternoon walk with the dogs.  And we are surrounded by lupine on the south ridge's lower loop road.  I love it! 

We are cutting back on our big dinners.  Neither of us are hungry for that much food any more.  I really think it is just a part of aging.

We heard poor wills during Sunday night.  Haven't heard them for a while.  Tonight at 9:30 pm we heard two or three hooty owls (barn owls, I think) hooting to each other.  Poor wills and barn owls are fine, but it's the screech owl that really freaks me out.

Wednesday 5/27. It is 50 and clear this morning.  Hopefully this will be a dry and quiet day.

Thought for the day: Earth laughs in flowers. Ralph Waldo Emerson

May 26, 2015 My House-Sitting Weekend in Pictures

Larry & Elsie's guest cabin.

Some of their girls.

Favorite napping places.

One of Elsie's planters.

Old man in the rock.

Thunder clouds to the south on Saturday.

Thought for the day: Your life is made of two dates and a dash.  Make the best of the dash. Nadine Hulse from Guideposts magazine, May 2015

May 20, 2015 Devil's Claw & A New Cuss Word

This bush has a very pungent but
pleasant aroma.  I think it is
bitter brush.

Monday 5/18. Our project for today was to take the tracks off of MAX.  We didn't to it last Spring and we should have.  Plus, guests who visit during the summer really enjoy a ride in MAX.  I also took the last of the kindling off of the porch and stacked it in the wood shed.  Will probably do that with the last row of fire wood on the porch next week.

When Larry and Elsie came up yesterday they saw large elk tracks on the road just down from the beginning of our driveway.  Must be what the dogs have been barking at on the east slope lately.

I am finding devil's claw in many places now.  It likes moist, shady places and after all the rain, we have plenty of those.  The only way to get rid of it is to put it in a large, black yard bag and take it to the dump.  So that is what I am doing.  There is so much of it around that I don' know how I am going to get rid of it all.  Just don't want it getting embedded in our dogs' paws.

Tuesday 5/19. The day began with 55 and mostly clear skies.  Another day, another project.  

Today we planned to put the mower on the tractor.  It is definitely not easy, but we have done it twice before.  Well, today was a ten on the frustration level.  It isn't really that complicated but the directions are so extremely detailed that it makes is seem so.  Plus the fact that it is something that is only done once a year.  Finally, at 2:30 pm,  I said, "Enough is enough.  We will look at it again after dinner!"  I went in for a snack and JB persisted, looking again at the manual.  He actually figured out what we were doing wrong and we got it almost completely attached before our afternoon walk.

But that experience has given me a new cuss word - zerck (sp).  A zerck fitting is the nick name for lubrication fittings.  And they are a pain in the patootie!  The tops tend to break off, and replacing them is nearly impossible, despite the fact the the people at the tractor store make it sound so easy.  We broke three, trying to install two of them.  Maybe we are just getting too old for this kind of thing. . .

Tomorrow I am going Down There to do laundry and be at Larry and Elsie's shop by 2:00 pm.  Larry is going fishing on the coast and if I am there to help, he can leave early in order to arrive before midnight.  Then I am going down to their house Thursday evening to house-sit for the weekend.  Elsie is leaving Friday morning to visit their son and daughter-in-law.  I cannot access the internet from their house, so my next blog posting will be Tuesday, 5/26.

I have filled a yard bag 2/3 full with devil's claw already, and I have just begun to attack it.  Everything I have pulled will probably have grown back again by the time I return home on Monday.

The wild roses down in the lower part of the canyon have already started blooming.  Ours are still small buds.  However the lilac bush that Larry and Elsie gave to me for my birthday two years ago has two large bunches of buds that look like they are ready to pop.  I just cannot stop talking and writing about the flowers this Spring.

We finished watching season one of Elementary this evening.  So good!

Wednesday 5/20. It is 50 and clear this morning.  A good day for going Down There.

Thought for the day: The day the Lord created Hope was probably the same day he created Spring. Bern Williams

May 18, 2015 Birthday Musings

Flox and sweet peas - they're everywhere!

My birthday present from
Larry & Elsie!

Friday 5/15. So many and varied flowers on the drive down our road that it was difficult not to stop and take pictures every fifty feet!  The sweet peas are a vine flower and they have climbed into many of the bushes making them look like the bush has purple flowers.  Saw "our" blue grouse on the way down and a huge tom turkey on the way back up.  Couldn't get my camera out quickly enough to get a photo of either of them.

Was so nice to do shopping and errands without taking two hours or more for laundry, and was home by 2:00 pm.  Our high for the day Up Here was 64, but I am sure it was well into the 70's Down There.

Saturday 5/16. It was 55 and clear with a strong breeze this morning, but large, dark, scattered clouds soon starting floating overhead.  The sun shone most of the time and we only received about ten drops of moisture.  A great day to be outside, so our project for the day was to give the tractor an oil change.  We work well together on things like this, especially because my smaller hands fit into places that JB's don't.

Dozed on the porch to the hum of the humming birds.  Puttzed around the yard.  A very good day with a high of 67.

Still enjoying Elementary, season one.

Sunday 5/17. It was 46 and overcast as my 68th birthday began, and also my seventh anniversary of living Up Here.  Phone calls, visits, cards and gifts.  I love it all!

Mother Nature had the audacity to rain on my birthday parade.  But that's okay.  If it had been sunny, I probably would have found myself splitting wood or some such thing.  Instead I just lazed and mused:

68 years old and I feel as though surely that must be a mistake and I am only 48.  Granted an arthritic and grey 48, but 48 never the less, for where in the world did 68 years go?!  My Father and all four of my grandparents had passed on by this age.  And they all looked much older than I do now.  I think that after 50, age doesn't define you, at least as long as you don't let it.  And after 60, it simply does not compute.  Can't possibly be right.  At this point I don't think it is years that make the difference, but then maybe they never did.  It's all in one's attitude.  

Larry, Elsie, Gridder and his oldest son came up about 1:00 pm initially to help put the generator back in place, but they brought birthday goodies and stayed to visit for a couple hours.  The light rain only lasted for about an hour, so after Elsie and I talked for a while inside, we were soon outside, walking and talking with everyone else.  Our high for the day was 55.

After everyone left and into the night, we talked to our son for a few hours as he was on his ten-hour drive home from Texas after his Navy Reserve weekend.  Just before 9:00 pm a downpour began that lasted about an hour.  We received a total of 1/3" of rain yesterday.  But it was a very good day.

Monday 5/18. It is 51 and partly cloudy this morning.  Diving into another year.

Thought for the day: The older I grow, the more I distrust the familiar doctrine that age brings wisdom. H.L. Menchen