Summer at last!

The temperature finally got more summery in Washington and the tomatoes and I are thankful. I got so inspired about the warmer temperatures and the opportunity for things to grow that I had to make more room to plant things! At first it started as tilling up more lawn in the front yard. Then the thought shifted to making a lasagna garden in the back yard in a newly observed sunshiny spot near the house. Lasagna gardening is the method of layering compost and peat moss on top of the soil then planing in the layers instead of digging down into the soil- works great on lawns (start with wet cardboard or a heavy layer of newspapers to act as weed cloth) After some consideration about the chickens and the dogs and the fence building that would need to be done in addition to the major scoring of some free 6'x8' lumber from a restaurant who had just redone their front stair entrance, Russ and I decided we could install a few more raised beds in the front yard while still using the lasagna methods. Russ came up with a unique design of triangles to complement the original square foot garden. I got the basic run down of the tools I'd need and where to find them then it was handed over as my project. Weee! Power tools, air wrench, dirt and hot sun! By Saturday afternoon I had 3 new boxes.



Sunday I shuffled compost and horse manure around while Russ mowed down the ever growing and too much shade providing shrub by the driveway. By Sunday afternoon I had a garden spot for strawberries, cantaloupe (I know it is tough to grow here but I am giving it a shot!) broccoli, more tomatoes, bell peppers, basil, dill, parsley, lettuce, spinach and carrots.

The Sleeping Lady

Clark Conservation District is one of 40 something conservation districts in Washington. There is pretty much one district for every county in the state. Every year, district employees from across the state get together for a conference at a little resort in Leavenworth, Washington. Leavenworth is an interesting town in itself, it is very close to Lake Wenatchee, where I was not too long ago for Envirothon, at the east side base of the Cascade mountains. So in the rain shadow and dryer climate and near the mountains that get pretty snowy. Perfect combination for becoming a tourist town if you have the right charm.... well... Leavenworth went for the small town Bavarian theme very similar to another mountain Georgia town that I know about. However, if you pass through Leavenworth and turn down a road that goes along Icicle Creek, tucked in at the base of a steep mountain range, amongst a shady canopy of ponderosa pine and hidden by native shrubs, you will find a beautiful little resort that exists as close to harmony with nature as it can while still providing the most peaceful and soothing accommodations to its guests. The resort was built with environmentally sensitive construction methods, and incorporates environmental conservation into its daily operations. It has been recognized for setting standards of excellence in ecotourism and ecobuilding industries. With its central location and its environmentally conscious setting, this resort and conference center is the perfect place to hold the annual Washington Association of District Employees conference. So looking at the mountain known as the Sleeping Lady, that towers over the resort with the same name, can you see how she got the name?

WADE is a wonderful occasion for districts to connect with each other and share experiences, ideas and changes. The conference also provides learning opportunities for all the diverse jobs of district employees. From financial administrators to resource planners, there are a number of classes and discussion sessions to learn about the latest and greatest techniques in the conservation district world. I spent the 3 days following the livestock information sessions since most of my job entails farm planning and technical assistance for livestock owners. I had a few refresher courses on pasture management and joined in on a discussion about farm plan formats. Wednesday night Becky (the financial manger for Clark CD) and I competed in the first ever WADE Rain Gutter Regatta. The boats we built we quickly discovered were no where near the engineered for speed marvels that some of the other competitors had created so we did not stay in the running very long, but we had a great time racing our boats! The 3 days Becky and I spent at WADE were a great experience, a beautiful setting, wonderful food (all you can eat buffet 3 times a day with local and seasonal foods and prepared beautifully by the resorts own chef), and beautiful sunshiney warm weather!

It is about time!

It is sunny!! The high pressures and low pressures moved around out off the coast and the northwest got some long overdue sunshine and warm(er) temperatures starting yesterday. Russ and I reveled in the afternoon sunshine; we took our bikes down to Fort Vancouver for a ride. There is a new land bridge that connects the Fort to the river front, providing a walkway over Hwy 14. It was a rather expensive project but it sure did turn out nice. There are lots of native plants started along the edges of the bridge and many informational signs and places to stop for views of Mt. Hood, the water and the plane traffic at PDX. We were happy to utilize it's gentle incline of a pathway to get us over the highway and to the river. There is a nice wide walkway known as the Waterfront Renaissance Trail that runs through Old Apple Tree park and then along the river, providing beautiful views of the water and a nice paved surface to walk or bike. The old Apple tree was planted in 1826 and has survived quite a bit of history so Vancouver deiced to make a little park around the ancient fruit barer. It is a pretty neat little park. There were a family a rabbits playing in the grass near the tree when we rode by. It always amazes me how adaptable life can be. Amongst two very busy highway overpasses and a concrete jungle, wildlife is able to survive and thrive in a little bit of green space. We had a lovely peddle all the way down the walkway until the pavement ended at a large interesting stainless steel metal sculpture. It reminded me of a woman worker from the World War II era artwork, there was a whimsical house and boat sculpture at her feet along with a welding mask and various other tools. After a bit of research, it turns out this is Wendy the Welder. Built by a group called "Women who Weld" to commemorate and celebrate women’s contribution to the war effort and also honor all the workers in the neighboring Kaiser Shipyards. It is quite an impressive and fun piece of artwork. After admiring the craftsmanship and detail, we decided it was probably time to start heading back before it got any darker. It was a lovely evening spent cruising along the river and exploring new parts of Vancouver but especially soaking up some late afternoon sunshine!

It is June already!! How does your garden grow?

So how 'bout some warm June temperatures!? Oh wait, I am not in Georgia anymore! It doesn't get warm (in my opinion) until August, if we are lucky. The grass seems to think it is warm enough though. It has needed mowing every weekend, pretty much. When we had a few consecutive days of warm sunshiny weather I got all inspired. I put tomato, pepper and squash starts in the ground. But now they are just hanging out; waiting for some more above 65ish degree sunny days. The peas I planted back in February and then again 2 weeks later are now going crazy, they are a good 4 feet tall and climbing and there are tons of flowers. I have had one pod venture out and mature so far but I think they are just waiting for that sun to peak through for a little longer before they really start fruiting.

I am trying something new this year. I have heard quite a bit of success stories with black plastic around the base of warm loving plants. I have a raised bed with 2 tomato plants in them; I figured the raised bed would help the soil warm up faster and have ripe fruit before the end of the short northwest summer. Last year I ended up with LOTS of green tomatoes. So this year I am comparing raised bed to no bed with black plastic. We'll see how it goes. So far the tomatoes in the black plastic are looking pretty stout compared to my raised bed plants. We'll see what happens once my cosmos starts coming up around my tomatoes! I am running out for room for all the things I want to grow, I am seriously contemplating digging up some more of the lawn so we can have more things to eat.

We have been enjoying cilantro and some spinach so far from the garden so far. Actually, I have gotten more adventuresome with cooking and created some yummy pasta-tomato-spinach-bean creations as well as a little bit of this little bit of that southwestern inspired bean salad. (I am still learning how to use the right amount of onion!) I love going in the front yard and picking things when I am making dinner and figuring out how to use them in a meal. I had some lettuce that was doing quite well until I just noticed today has been mowed down by slugs. I think I need to bring the ladies to the front yard for some slug hunting. I have a hunch that the resident crow family picked out my beans, only one came up. I have a hard time getting annoyed with them, though. I feel like they are family. I have been watching them the last few weeks break twigs from a Red Bud tree and fly them up to the nearby Doug-fir where they must be building their nest. I will plant some more beans soon and hopefully they will be too busy with their youngsters to visit my garden. Maybe the squawking chickens will help with crows too?

When I was rooting around in the garden, I discovered some un harvested potatoes from last year that are now sprouting so we will have potatoes again this year, hooray!

The week after Memorial Day...

The week was already screwy because Monday was a holiday and starting the work week on a Tuesday is never fun. But I was only in the office for a few hours. Just long enough to get the car loaded up to head off on a 6 hour trip to north central Washington for the annual State Envirothon Competition. (http://www.envirothon.org/ and http://www.waenvirothon.org/) This year's state event was held at the YMCA camp at Lake Wenatchee. A beautiful lake on the east side of the base of the cascade mountains. The significance of the east side (as opposed to the west side) is that the Cascade mountains are an excellent water stopper. The heavy wet coastal air hits the mountains and falls downs on the west side of the mountains. The east side remains dry and cold. So a drive over the cascades usually means going to sunshine and a completely different landscape. (Think of the movie "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" and going to Toon Town; yeah same sort of feeling when you get into eastern Washington especially when you have been stuck in rainy cold grey ick for months on end) So hear is an example of the terrain on the east side, the route we took followed along the Columbia River through the Gorge and then up through the reservation lands in central Washington. Then we cut back west again to get to the base of the cascades again.

Back to Envirothon; as the Chair of the Washington State Envirothon Committee; I needed to be at the state event to help it run smoothly. So I found myself on a 6 hour trek to Wenatchee. It is a beautiful area and the camp was a well run place. There are about 24 6 person cabins, we had a full camp! Teams came from all over Washington to compete. They arrived Wednesday night for the Thursday competition. The 5 member team of students demonstrate their knowledge of natural resources and how it relates to the annual theme (the 2008 Envirothon theme is Recreational Impacts on Natural Resources) with five different rigorous tests and an oral presentation. (Current Issues (relating to the annual theme), Wildlife, Forestry, Soils and Aquatics. I was in charge of running the Wildlife station. While at my station, students had to identify various tracks, skulls, scats, and other evidence of wildlife (see, Mom, my collection of poo and skulls came in handy after all!!) It was interesting hearing the discussion as they problem solved with their team to figure out what species the skull belonged to.

It is hard to believe that this is all part of work!

Wednesday night I was on after lights out patrol, making sure the kids are all where they are supposed to be (in their assigned cabins!) after 11:00. Of course I had the best light for the job; hand selected from Russ's personal collection. My cohorts were quite impressed with the light's brightness and beam power. We did not find any kids out of place after lights out, but I did find a few stumbling around in the dark just before bedtime that appreciated a guiding light back onto the trail.

The competition was over and kids out of camp by 2:00 Thursday, then we cleaned up supplies and organized ourselves and headed out ourselves. It was a long ride home, we rolled into the office parking lot at 10:30. Thankful to be back (even if it was grey and rainy!)

Friday in the office was like another Monday; messages to answer; e-mails to reply to; try to figure out where I left off/ wrap up for the week, etc. Oh well, that is just the way some weeks go.

So why a blog?

Look at this, two in one day! I am on a roll! So why a blog? Well, I like to write. And I like to think I do interesting things and have interesting thoughts and that folks might like to hear about what I have to say and share. That and I just like writing. This seems like as good a place as any to put it out there. So what is interesting about me? I live in the southwest corner of Washington State where it rains about 70% of the year. I just married an amazing and wonderful and fun to be around man last month . Our household consists of me, my husband, a golden retriever mutt, a lovely German Shepard and 3 funny chickens we refer to as the ladies Fern, Hazel and Scratch. And of course there is Warren, my beloved horse, but he doesn't live in the house, he lives at a boarding stable down the road a spell. Well... if you are getting technical the ladies don't live in the house either, though they would like to, but that is another story. I have a wonderful job working with local landowners protecting their natural resources and teaching them about more environmentally friendly farm practices. I do lots of riding in my spare time but also enjoy bike riding, hiking, camping and just plain hanging out with my husband. So sure there are lots of things to share and lots of things to reflect on. Might be interesting to someone. Mostly it is for my own amusement.

A post..

Well here it is.... another blog in blogdom! But it is better than that; it is MY blog! *lots of excitement inserted here* (envision Kermit the Frog on the Muppet show pointing his froggy Muppet nose to the sky and going "YAAAAAAAAY!) Actually, the big excitement will come when I reach a 6 month anniversary of continual posting on the blog. Stay tuned for details....