It's not summer without a trip to the beach!

I got together with a group of horse buddies and took Warren and Phoenix to the coast for a few days last week. We stayed in an Oregon State park that catered to campers, bikers and horse folks alike. It was a lovely few days.

I brought a friend of mine with me from Wintergreen farm, where we board. She has a 3 year old draft cross named Special.

We got to our camp site Tuesday afternoon just in time for the tide to be out which makes for great beach riding. We took a short ride letting the wide eyed Special take in the sand, the salt and the sound of the ocean. Warren had seen the beach once before so he did not seem to surprised with the scene when we got to the top of the sand dune. We took a stroll in the wet sand where the waves hand washed it smooth. It did not take long for even the horses to become soothed by the rhythmic sounds of the ocean. Even though Warren and Special are both comfortable with water, water that moved rapidly towards their feet was a new concept to them, it took a few walking forward and running backward maneuvers until the two of them figured out that they were not going to be attacked by watter approaching them.

Tuesday night we had a potluck dinner with the rest of the gang and hung out for awhile enjoying stories from the season's competitions. Then we all turned in for the night. Warren and Special each got their own corral at our campsite and while Lea camped out next to her horse, a wet, sandy Phoenix slept with me in the horse trailer. (While the horses initially had a little apprehension about the water, Phoenix had no aversion whatsoever; she plopped right in with typical wallowing Phoenix grace and style)

About 2 AM I woke to the sound of rain. It was a little cool and the horses had no roof over their heads so I felt compelled to go through a rain sheet on them. So I used one of the handy super bright flashlights that I had been so lovingly equipped and got the horses tucked in a little snugger for the rest of the night. By the time we started thinking about getting going in the morning, the rain had let up and there was blue sky tyring to break through. After an easy breakfast, Lea and I took the horses down to the beach walk in hand (no riding). As I suspected, Warren couldn't resist the soft sand, he had a lovely roll in the soft stuff. Special had an exciting romp on the beach when her lead line broke and she got a chance to run around freely. Fortunately, she had deiced that Warren was her buddy and after running around Lea in a few circles, she wasn't too interested in getting out of her pal's sight and Lea was able to catch her easily enough. Wednesday afternoon turned out to be beautiful so Lea and I went for another ride, we rode all the way down to Nahlem Bay. It was quite exhilarating to be cantering along the beach with the rhythm of waves crashing on shore and the sounds of two pairs of thunderous hoof beats drumming along.

Early Thursday morning we went for one last ride on the beach before heading home. It was a beautiful morning with the tide and the fog headed out and the sun rising to warm the day. We had a fun time on the coast and look forward to the next time we will return!

Russ the Inventor

Russ loves designing and creating ways to improve the function of a particular tool, widget or gadget. From door knobs to the bathroom shower curtain, our house is full of thoughtful fixes that make living just a little more efficient. This affiliation for engineering has carried over into his hobbies as well. Most of the flashlights in our house (of which there are many, as Russ is an avid collector of high performance flashlights), are modified to hold ultra bright LEDs, run off lighter batteries or just turn on and off better.

Did you know there is an entire community across the nation that is just as interested in flashlight mods as Russ!!? Well my dear husband has tapped into the community and is learning all kinds of information!!! He has even found a flashlight friend locally in the Portland area! The share all kinds of flashlight stuff. In the past 8 months Russ has been mentioning the need for a lathe to make more flashlight parts for his modifications. With this piece of machinery, he can make even more customized parts. Besides the fact it is another piece of machinery to figure out how to work. It just so happens that our friendly neighborhood craigslist had exactly what he was looking for at a real bargain of a price! In the last few weeks, Russ has not only figured where to get parts and how to run the lathe but he also managed to turn out a large number of flash light parts too - woo - hoo!!

Happy Birthday!!!

We celebrated Russ and our friend Jade's birthdays on the lake in early August. It's not a party on the party barge without balloons and party hats, so I made sure we had both! There was recycled cake (Erica's sister's wedding cake leftovers) and hamburgers cooked with plastic forks (it makes grilling way more exciting!!) and tubing fun to be had by all!!

August Already!?

So here we are in August and the garden is really taking over the yard!!Seems like the last few weeks all the greenery has exploded! I have tomatoes sprawling everywhere, The broccoli is trying to take over and the volunteer mystery plants (squash, pumpkin, or cucumber, I'm not sure yet) is creeping out of the boxes and sprawling all over the yard!! It's great!!! There are lots of green tomatoes promising to turn ripe soon and my little plant of sungolds is producing tasty sweet tomatoes regularly now. I even found a surprise when I was watering the other day, a fist sized cantaloupe growing under the leaves, yipee! I might have a melon by the end of the season, how exciting!!!

Russ and I did something really fun today. We met up with a friend of ours to go on a horse back riding adventure. It is called a trail trial and it was put on by the Oregon Equestrian Trails group. It's basically a trail ride through cow pastures but along the way there are all kinds of horse obstacles; maneuvering through "the car wash", dragging logs, walking over logs, moving around balls, approaching mailboxes, navigating through a course of balloons, etc... Kimberly, our pal, has a youngster that needed some exposure to new obstacles and she happened to have an extra horse to ride if Russ wanted to ride too. So we hauled Warren down to a ranch along the Columbia River and went for a ride. We encountered all sorts of fun obstacles, Warren bravely stuck his nose on most of them, Jubee, the youngster was doing good to just see them from a distance and Dodge (how appropriate I was riding Dodge!!) was a pro at opening the mail box (though the instructions were to side pass to the mailbox allowing the rider to be close enough to open it to retrieve the Tootsie rolls) Dodge thought it was way more fun to walk up to the mail box and open it himself! It was a really fun day all the way around!

Back on the homestead; I have managed to find a way to keep the girls in their pen, they aren't too thrilled with it, but Fern has gone past just laying eggs in random places in the yard. She was jumping the fence and hanging out in the neighbor's yard. That is not okay! So now the chickens are confined we aren't home and they let me know exactly how they feel about it, too! burrawk cluck cluck brrraaawk sqwaaak squaaaak.....

Blasting through July

I can't believe it is already past the mid point of July! At least it is finally starting to feeling like Summer around here! On a very hot late June weekend we went out on Lake Merwin for the maiden voyage of Jade's party boat dubbed the strawberry el-De barge. It is a floating deck and a wonderful addition to the fleet. We tootled around the lake which was very high and had a mass of drift wood floating around in it. The barge pushed right through paving the way for other boats. The snow was still melting off the volcano so the water was VERY cold but by the sweltering afternoon we were all ready to get at least our feet wet. I pulled on my wet suit and eased myself into the water. Yeah, that is amazing, I was in before Russ and after drying off and baking in the sun, got in for another dip. It was a hot day!!

The garden is growing away! I have hopes of red tomatoes.. there are lots of promising green ones appearing from yellow blooms and I also have yellow squash and a few peppers that are almost ready. The cantaloupe is looking pretty good too.



Strawberry season is over, all the road side strawberry stands are closed and getting ready for raspberries and blue berries. I got a flat of the tasty strawberries from a local grower to freeze as I am the only one who enjoys strawberries in the house. I made several tasty strawberry milkshakes with some of the fresh ones too. I picked up some rhubarb from another local road side stand (my rhubarb is looking a little pathetic right now) so I decided to make a strawberry-rhubarb pie. I was quite impressed how it came out. Yum!

Russ and I have been going on low key local adventures, we take short bike rides, went miniature golfing, and pretty much just hanging out the last few weeks. He is staying pretty busy with a deck construction project too. Other than that, there really hasn't been too much going on. I took Warren to a horse show yesterday, which was a long day but a pretty fun time (I write about my horse stuff on another site: http://members.horsecity.com/warrenpeace/ )

I need to figure out how to keep the hens in their coop during the day. They start out there in the morning and somehow figure out how to get free and are running all over the yard in the afternoon. It wouldn't be that big a deal except they have taken to laying their eggs around the yard. I found one of their nets, but I think either the dogs have learned about it too or they have found a new hiding spot to lay them as we have not been getting any eggs the last few days.

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!