I absolutely love summer!

This is what happens when you wait 8 weeks between posts: 
A.  4th of July parade - No Coal!
B.  Jury Duty in Seattle
C.  Harry visits from Colorado
D.  Leif's memorial in Federal Way/family gathering
E.  Encampment/Dan Hicks
F.  Ken and Lisa visit after 25 years
G.  Weaving Weekend/Darby and Jennifer
H.  Granddaughter Lenora comes for a week
I.  County Fair/gang visits

Throw in a terrible cold and sewing up two quilts for the twins and is it any wonder I haven't had time to post anything?

So people not into reading blogs can stop here.  My Table of Contents lists it all.  Maybe a few photos:
A.
Fourth of July--No More Coal - click on this link to see Roger and I parade down Spring Street with 80 of our closest friends to protest the possibility of Coal shipments through our pristine Salish Sea.

C.  Roger's cousin Harry is a retired elementary school principal from Grand Junction, Colorado.  He travels on his bike around the country each summer and is something of a troubadour.   Roger's dad Al invited him to play at the Retirement Home and he put on a nice concert.

D.  Celebration of Life for Roger's brother Leif who passed away last month.  Spent the weekend with family and had two nice get-togethers at Lil's and at Guy and Brenda's.

Lenora, Ethel, Corbin, Audrey, Bjorn, Iliana
 

E.  Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks played town the same weekend as Encampment.  We went to both.  I Scare Myself
F.  Ken and Lisa visit Thornbush for first time.  Good friends in college, have not seen Ken since Roger and my wedding twenty-five years ago.  Great visit, long overdue.  Here's a pix at the Lavender Farm.

G.  Weaving Weekend was the first weekend in August.  Roger and I did our usual shtick with sticks.  I was already feeling poorly then, but managed to get through it and join Peggy Sue at a lovely dinner with our sailing friends Gene and Jennifer as well.

Note cedar hat that won a blue ribbon at the Fair a month later

H.  I Absolutely Loved the week I spent with my granddaughter, Lenora.  I think she had a pretty good time, too, reading, coloring, watching movies, and play dates with other seven-year olds.  It's your turn next year, Iliana!

Lenora in the corn with the sun in her eyes
 

Also, I gave the twins their birthday presents four months late.  The quilts and a major cold were two of several reasons I didn't get my Fair Challenge "Sheep Happens" finished in time.

 

 

 

I.  Everyone loves the County Fair and the gang participates in the Zucchini 500 races.  At first I was going to enter one of my cardoons.  They are pretty impressive this year.  But then I thought, been there, done that.

Barry measures Cardoon height
 

Another highlight was when Diane won the Throne of Games at the art raffle.

 

 

But the biggest thrill came at the end of the Zucchini 500 when The Romney Bus and Flower Power joined in a mass suicide on the Ramp of Death:

  You are probably used to me adding a bit of sad news at the end of my posts.  Unfortunately, this post is no exception.  Last Saturday, the Downrigger restaurant burned down.  At least no one was hurt.  We all have memories of the Downrigger and before that "The Mariner".  No telling at this point if it will be rebuilt or not.

The end

5th Anniversary of my Retirement

Hired at Metro 8/9/77 retired at K.C. 1/31/08
 

This month marks the fifth anniversary of my retirement from King County Metro.  It occurred to me that I have now been retired longer than I was Supervisor of Scheduling. Wow.  My successor, Jon, has been a supervisor a year longer than me.

2013 begins with a New Year Celebration with the gang.  Here’s a pix looking down from above. 

I didn’t realize that we had instructions to all wear blue. . .

 Father-in-Law Al turned 87 and celebrated with a visit from Lil and Bree and Guy’s family. 

Miles and Austin size up the pony ride

 

Niki shows Al and Bree pictures from her phone

I wanted to show a picture of the loading dock that Roger built last Fall.  It has an outdoor sink perfect for bathing the dog, also we’ve moved the worm compost system here from its original setting behind the shop.  The dock has been very handy for many projects.  Here’s a picture of my willow harvest this winter.

Four kinds of willow plus some plum

 

The weather this winter has been fairly mild, but we have had a few frozen days.  Here are some pictures—of the frozen waterfall at Eric’s and a picture of the path to the pond—compare this to last July’s picture.

 

 

 

Click on to enlarge

 

Roger has been busy rerouting the railroad around the boiler to meet up with the new loading dock.  He has also been collecting up to 18 eggs a day from the two chicken flocks.  And he’s been getting the nursery ready for Spring.  The Grange is busy making plans for the year including a seed exchange.

 I managed to finish a basket this month.  And I got to go to our annual spa retreat with Liz, Jeannette, and Michelle.  And last weekend R and I went to Seattle, visited the new new MOHAI, and celebrated Diane’s big 6-0.   Mine will be coming up soon enough.

Celebrating the 60's

 

The month of January was filled with family, friends, projects, natural beauty . . .

 

It looks as though this retirement thing is working out just fine.

  

2012 Retrospective

I skipped out of a Grange Meeting to work on my blog.  Last week I jotted down some important events of the past year thinking I would make a top ten list like they do on the radio.  But the list got very big and unwieldy so then I categorized them into:  milestones, home improvements, trips, visitors, and crafts. But even these subdivisions bled over into one another.  What’s a blogger to do?  I do feel a need to document—but why bore people with details that many of you already know or can refer to in earlier posts? 

My quick summary is starting to look like any other Christmas letter.  Drat, Blogger is not working properly for me to upload pictures from my computer.  I will have to reuse from past blogs.

I’ll start with visitors—since the all time big event for me was the Family Reunion centered on Dad’s 90^th birthday.  So, 72 people here on the island in June.

 

Other visitors include:  Liz, Guy, Jay, Marc, Nancy, another Nancy, Loretta, Don, Lynn, Diane, Craig, Barry, Karen, and Bjorn’s family (Bjorn, Ethel, Lenora, Iliana, Audrey, and now Corbin.)  I know I’m forgetting someone.

So, you’ve already guessed some milestones.  Our grandson Corbin born on March 13^th, My Dad’s 90^th birthday on June 10^,  Also, some sad passings, our nephew Drew in March, my friend Olivia and my first husband George in May and June.  And a couple great weddings as well, Abe and Hilary’s, Lindsay and Greg’s.

We also took some memorable trips in 2012—two to the Oregon Coast, two east of the Mountains (one all the way to Boise), and my big trip with friend Liz to Missouri to visit family and sightsee.

 

On the home front, we made some progress at Thornbush, mainly by getting ready for the big reunion.  I painted the bedroom and bath upstairs.  And Roger built a loading dock on the back of the house—complete with outside sink and dog bath.  I also made a mosaic bowl for the fountain.  But that brings us into the realm of craft.

 

This was a big year for craft.  I got to weave quite a bit, even bought a table loom --an 8-harness to augment my 4-harness floor loom.  I also made several baskets and attended the Columbia Basin retreat at Rockaway Beach, Oregon for the first time.  You may remember the cedar hat I showed off in October.  And now there’s the crow’s nest which the girls were eagerly decorating last week while up for Christmas.  I also participated in the Trashion Fashion show at the County Fair and hope to build on that success in 2013.

 Roger managed to run his business, lead the Grange, and improve Thornbush with loading dock and several improvements to the garden chicken run.

 So you see, quite a laundry list with out even including all the fun gatherings we went to through out the year.

 

Besides more trashion fashion, this year I will be President-elect of the Textile Guild, Roger is once again Master of the Grange. Goals mainly are for more home improvement, attending a weaving conference in Bellingham in June, and a short road trip to Canada to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary.  I am turning 60 in May, you are all welcome for a big potluck at my house.

(and I hope Blogger is working next month so I can show off with new pictures!)
 

What I've been up to

Gosh it's late February already.  I'm sure you're all wondering what I've been doing in the dead of winter.  As last we left it, we were pretty much snowed in for a week.  Lovely, lovely time.  But then the events that were postponed bumped up against other events and I feel like I've been double-booked ever since.

Karen Z, Carol C, and Victor O at Janey's Retirement Party

I've been on a couple whirlwind trips to the Mainland, one fun (Janey's retirement), one not so fun (dental work).  I've been weaving at a workshop on Orcas for a few days.  I've been to several parties, the playwrights festival, and a lot of meetings.

Susan M working on Doubleweave Pattern

And in between all of these things, I've been painting my upstairs bath and bedroom.  Bright colors. 

Outside, the weather improved quite a bit and has actually been quite mild since last month.  That all came to an end this weekend when it started snowing again.  Roger and I have been chipping up all the tree branches and shrubs we put into piles last July (sometimes it takes us awhile).

Note snow on lens of camera

We also started a tree house for our grandkids!  First, cut off a Willow Tree a few feet off the ground.  Then let the willow sprouts encircle a floor attached to the stump.  Place gangplank from higher level across chasm to "crow's nest".  Begin weaving basket using willow sprouts as stakes.  In a couple years, ya got yourself a treehouse!

This month also marked the beginning of my first book club since retirement.  Five of us met at my house for a dinner of West African cuisine as we discussed Little Bee by Chris Cleave.  It'll be a great success if its only half as good as the ones I've belonged to in Seattle.

Looking forward to March we planned more home improvements, another retirement to celebrate,  more meetings and parties to attend, and the best of all, helping take care of the twins when our grandson arrives in the world.

Rolling into Fall

Relaxing at Thornbush

Jay spent the first week of September with us and we worked him so hard he had to take naps any way he could.  Thanks, Jay, for all the hard work bringing in the firewood.  We will be appreciating it all winter long.

Cheryl, Cathy, Antoinette at HS Reunion

I took Jay home on the 9th and continued on to my friend Mary's house to help put on our 40th High School Reunion.  The weather was fabulous, the food scrumptious, and a good time was had by all.  Here are three of my best friends from high school catching up on the last decade or so. 

I thought things would kind of quiet down after the reunion--but no, they've gotten busier instead.  The weather has been great (trying to make up for July).  So I've been re-staining all the window trim, doors, and the new carport posts whenever I have a minute between guests. 

Also, all the clubs/organizations I belong to have reignited their activities now that Labor Day is over.  I have many duties associated with the Textile Guild, the Soroptimists, even the Grange.  I attended a day long symposium on prairie restoration that my cousin Rose helped put together last week.  Rose flew in from Boise for the event and practiced her speech on stewardship in our cottage into the wee hours.  It was a very informative symposium.  American Camp Prairie Restoration



Miles explores Thornbush

Then a rare treat--a visit to Al from his great-grandsons--all three of them.  Clare brought her three-month old Rafael, and Niki and James brought Miles and Austin.  Miles just turned two and Austin is not yet a year.  The last time niece and nephew saw Thornbush they were eight and ten (?)  and James' wife Niki had never seen the place.  The weather cooperated and the day was only marred by the yellow jackets who would not let us sit outside.

Austin, Miles, Great Grandpa Al, and little Rafa

Today it was back to work on the carport.  We brought a big chunk of the tree we cut down last month to the mill and carved out the boards we will need for the rafters, plus a few extra 2x6's.  We got caught in a downpour.  The sign of things to come now that it is officially Fall.

Cottage Industry

(Continued from May 2)

Once we had the sawmill, we started pulling the logs out of the woods with a winch. We also cleared the area where we decided to build the cottage, on the edge of a fairly level area overlooking the pond. Many of our current forest paths started with a log dragged 50 feet or more and then around a stump and dragged further still out to the mill.


From that point, it was a matter of turning the logs into beams and posts for our "cottage". There was a learning curve.

By the summer of 1991, we made progress and our 16' x 12' cottage was begun.

The cottage was put together backwards--first the posts, then the wallboard, then the insulation, then the outer walls. Many of you know the story already, so I won't explain it again.

It got the name "Birdhouse" because we were only able to build it a weekend a month over many, many months and the swallows took advantage, building a nest in the eaves. By the time we got the windows cut in, the swallows were in a panic, trying to find their way out. We waited until they had fledged to add the glass. Even so, months later when I was cleaning out the old nest, I found a dead bird, killed from exhaustion, I imagine.

Later, Roger embellished the theme by adding faux birdhouses to disguise the roof vents on either side of the gabled roof.

And many friends came up and helped us along the way. Thank-you Eric, Tom C, Linda K, Jay, Abe, Bjorn and all the others who pitched in to help.


At the end of the summer of '92, the cottage was complete. There was a worn path to the outhouse way in the woods and a 12-volt battery provided our lights. Each year brought more civilization. We had a well dug, we brought up the water by hand at first. Then electricity, then a pump. Hooray!

Our mill provided all the board & batten siding.

We added a propane stove. Now we're cookin'.

By 1993 (or was it '94?) we were ready to add a back porch. Our living space grew by 30%. No more treks to the woods, we had a real bathroom! The composting toilet and the shower were giant leaps for womankind.

To date:
1989 May: bought land
1990 June: pond started/ Dec: Windstorm topples trees
1991 Summer: cottage started: August: garden w/topsoil planted
1992 May: honeybees in cabinet/ cottage finished
1993 Jan: 16*F- 4"of ice on pond
1994 May: new well/ 'Sept: running water
1995 Feb: snowed 5"