More like home than home ever was....

I am really happy and content here. This was such a great thing for the kids, and all of us really. We do so much together, and I feel very comfortable in the congregation. I can't put my finger on one thing that cements it, so I guess it's the whole package. I definitely feel like I have known people longer than just a couple months. It's odd sometimes not to have a history here, like when references are made to things that happened months or years ago, and I have no idea what they are referring to. We aren't wasting any time making new memories, though! We've been swimming and socializing more than the last several years combined. I feel like we are making frineds that we will have for a lifetime, and the "loss" of the family over on the other side is not felt to the degree I thought it would.

I do miss Skyler and Levi a lot. I am proud of both of them when I hear about things they are doing, but I miss them a lot. Sometimes when I am having fun here, I feel a little pang of the blues wishing they were here to join in.

On a humorous note.....I was telling one of my new buddies here that I lost my beer snobbiness. She nodded enthusiastically and said, "Yeah, Busch is just a good as Bud, huh?"

The Bounty Begins!

Here is a picture of what we picked this morning....

In case you are wondering, there are about 5 kinds of peppers, pickling and regular cukes, a dozen lbs of tomatoes, OUR FIRST CORN, about 2 lbs of green beans and some basil.

Napquest

The kids have discovered a new past time..the thrilling, exciting, much-sought-after NAP.

Some hot afternoons nothing seems like a better use of your time than a decadent slumber. I do fear that with this evidence posted I am setting myself up for retribution, should I fall victim to the call of the nap.

Playing Hookey and Sleeping in the Bus

As you can see by the local harware store's sign, it's pretty warm this weekend. The general consensus from the locals that this thermometer runs about 5 degrees higher than reality, but it makes us Tonasketites feel tough. I went in field service yesterday for several hours and was able to sit in on two bible studies, which was very encouraging. I love the service here because the incredible views are a reminder as to what our message is in the first place.

I returned later than expected, and the kids were dying because I had promised them a day at Lake Osoyoos. We finally made it about 4 pm and stayed till 8. I have never had a summer where I could spend so much time playing with the kids!

Hugh stayed home, and called because he had been picking tomatoes, and we are finally producing more than we can eat in a day! This is whats lefiotvoer this morning after we all feasted last night. The little grape and cherry tomatoes are sooo sweet and tangy, I love them. Tomorrow, I plan on making a pico di gayo with some of these babies!

Lastly, on the list of "things I never thought I'd love with"....Hugh and I have moved into the bus that was converted to a camper that was here on the property. I still need to attack it with some spray paint. I have to say, I actually really love it. It gives us a place to have a private conversation, and Hugh built the bed frame up so that we can gaze out the windows at the peach orchard next door. At night the moon shines in, and in the morning the sun wakes us up. As son as we finish the cosmetics, I will post a pic of the new "master suite".

The only tough part is the early morning trek to the house for the bathroom. I usually lie as still as possible, wondering if I can go back to sleep without relieving my bladder. I hope we have our bathhouse built by winter so I won't have as far to go.

This Place is Starting to Bug Me

There once was a cricket named Jerry
Whose size seemed to make him quite scary.
When we found him inside,
we were fit to be tied.
He was creepy and crawly and Hairy.

We had to search to find out that this bugger is a Jerusalem Cricket. He was about 3 inches long and looks like a cross between a grasshopper and an ant.

Dakota comes home

At last, our family is complete here! Dakota and Skyler met us in Leavenworth on Saturday. The night before we had an incredible lightning storm like something from a movie. The thunder and lightening came right on top of each other and the flashed were one after the other.

Dakota needs to detox from the craziness he has had the last several weeks. He has actually done pretty well, but the first day, we thought he would go mad! Cheyenne actually kept a 30 minute journal about what he did, and it was hilarious.

We put the boys to work yesterday, as their blogs detail. You can see that they were delighted to be of assistance. The good news is we now have a functional laundry facility! There was a pipe that had been clogged for MANY years and the overfow area was serving as a drain. Hugh and a power snake became best buds yesterday as he cleared the grime and successfully opened the way. We also learned that Gabriel has an amazing tolerance to bad smells (we had suspected this for, uh... other reasons in the past) He was able to stand down next to Hugh, who was breathing only through his mouth so as to not take in any of the noxious fumes, while munching on a snack. Hugh was impressed and disgusted at the same time as he asked Gabe how he could do that. Gabe mutterred something about Hugh being a wimp and dashed back upstairs to avoid the recoil.

Stampede

We trekked down to Omak today to check out the carnival at the Stampede Grounds in Omak. The actual stampede is a race down a cliff by a bunch of of people on horseback. There are often horses and people hurt and killed, hence it's called the "suicide race". Anyway, there's tons of controversy surrounding the actual race, but plenty of good, clean family fun to be had at the fairgrounds.

Mind you, "Good Clean Family Fun" is a subjective evaluation, as some of the things considered normal her are not quite..er...PC on the coast. For Example......

Here, P.E.T.A stands for People for Eating Tasty Animals. I can't imagine a booth like the one we where we saw this...

at the Puyallup Fair. Yes, that was the price for actual furry little faces and feet cut off real animals. there was even a brochure with a pricelist for tanning and preserving everything from faces to scrotums. Seriously. As an aside, can I just say that bobcat fur is softer than I ever would have imagined?

The kids had fun on the rides, and we had fun checking out the scenery. I don't think we are going to make the actual stampede this year.

Hello and Good-bye

Gabe made his long awaited appearance, on the heels of his summer job as an adventure camp counselor. We are VERY happy to have his muscle around and looking forward to introducing him to the wonders of life here on the homestead.


He actually arrived Monday, and we have had a FULL week.


Gina had used our van so that she could bring another load from "The Coast" as everyone here refers to anything West of the Cascades. I was left in charge of her zippy little Camry, and fulfilled my obligation by losing her ONLY key the first time I drove it. Knowing that 1) she probably had a spare and 2) it had to be here...I wasn't all that concerned until I found out that item 1 was incorrect. I looked a little more diligently, but failed to find it before she returned.


With Paula's departure imminent, it became more important to have the second vehicle and I retraced my steps from the day I drove it and still came up empty. 3 acres is a lot of area to search, and fortunately Gina did have a code that she received when she bought the car that was supposed to guarantee her a matching key from a locksmith. The closest locksmith we could find was in Chelan, so yesterday she and I zipped on down and picked up a replacement. A replacement that didn't work.


I had put off the one one place I was afraid the key had ended up...the trash. The day I had driven it, I had checked the mail and sorted a pile on the table. The majority ended up in the circular file and that was where I figured the phantom key had settled. After the replacement key failed to work, I steeled myself and headed for the garbage can.


Now, for some, that may not seem an impossible task. I however, am cursed with an incredibly weak tummy and just the THOUGHT of opening the trash can had already sent me running for the porcelain god several times. I reminded myself that we do not put very much food in the trash can (thanks to composting and hungry teenagers) and the likelihood of spoiled food was minimal. The good news is, I learned that mind over matter is something I am capable of. The bad news was, someone hadn't listened to the 'no food in the trash rule' . The worse news is that after 30 minutes of delicate scrounging, no keys were found.


After another 30 minutes of scrubbing myself clean, I stood in the kitchen trying to think of where...in this tiny house...the keys could hide. I looked on a couple of the newly arranged shelves with no results.


About an hour later, while Gina was shopping, Hugh asked for the location of the Orange Spark (a powdered caffeinated beverage that you add to water). Although I had had several servings of it over the week, I suddenly remembered that when the drawers and cabinets had been getting painted, a bunch of items had been deposited in the same drawer and I dove into the drawer with wild abandon and discovered the keys.


On a sadder note, we said goodbye to Paula and Raine yesterday. We loved having them here. Wednesday we went with some of the friends we met in the congregation to Deep Bay to swim and BBQ. It was a formal occasion, as you can see.

Worlds Best Hound Dog

When I was a kid, we had several dogs, but none compared to Sampson. Sampson was my moms dog. He was a mixed breed, and I am not even sure what his pedigree consisted of. I know he was part Irish Setter and I think he had some lab or retriever in him. I remember he was beautiful, smart and that my mom loved him. We had a lot of pets, including dogs, over the years. My mom was always great at caring for them and even performed surgery on a lizard that had played the roll of a chew toy with one of our cats. Anyway, Sampson was very well behaved and he loved my mom right back. When he was still a puppy, he contracted distemper and we had to have him put down. We were all sad, but no one grieved like my mom. I was sad too, but I didn't understand the bond she had with her dog...until now.

Meet Ruby. She is a redbone coon hound. We picked her up in Seattle and she is now 5 months old. I just adore this little pup. She trots around the yard and chases birds away (and digs when she shouldn't and barks at the cats) but she just makes me smile every day! I love her big floppy ears and the way she cocks her head when I talk to her.

Irrigation Proclamation

Now that the corn is close to shoulder high, the little sprinkler system we set up (we call it "the irrigation" so we sound like farmers) was starting to lose it's effectiveness at getting the whole garden watered. We've know for a while we needed a 3rd length of the irrigation hose and it finally made to the top of my priority list today. The garden is 50' * 150' (so far) and there are basically 5 rows and 5 columns of garden beds with end beds as well. Each bed is about 4' * 25', with paths between them.

My goal was to move the existing hoses each west a row, and then add a third line down next to the tomatoes. Each line is attached to it's own spigot that is controlled by a valve on the north end of the garden. There is not not a 3rd spigot, so I needed to join the new hose to the old one at the end, and then wrap it back towards the starting point. Every 10-15' there is a Rainbird style sprinkler that is plugged into the hose and attached by a piece of rubber tubing. (this photo is one in the front yard area so you can see what they look like together.

I found a lot of irrigation hose with attachments and parts going in many different directions. My first plan was to re-use the old hose, and add pieces where I needed to. But then taunting me in the corner was roll of brand new virgin hose still in it's shiny plastic.

"How easy to just lay it out exactly as it needs to be, with no old holes and plugs to deal with!" I naively thought.

The first part was attaching the new hose to the one in the garden already. These hoses are made to cut and clamp and punch holes in, they are thinner and made of a semi-pliable plastic. I rustled through the boxes of irrigation parts (see yesterday's post) and found a coupling I thought would work. I unrolled the hose, no easy task as the plastic like to stay in those little loops it had been bound in for who-knows-how long. Then I counted out the sprinklers I had available to attach and, satisfied I could complete the job, I started on the tricky part. There are these tiny little plastic parts with a pointed bottom and a valve on top and on the side. You have to poke the sharp part into the hose and then attach the sprinkler to the top of it. Its hard to push the point through he plastic. Sometimes it just slips right in, but most of the time you make a screwy face and twist it back and forth and bruise the end of your thumb. Or maybe that's just me. There was no instruction manual in the box of parts, but I was happy when all the pieces went together the way I hoped they would.

About halfway through the sprinklers I had all had a Little plug attachment at the hose end. I couldn't get it out, and with the pain the little sharps things were causing me in the first place, I didn't want to pierce the hose, pull the sharp thing out and reinsert, so I just started cutting the end off that had the little plastic valve already on so I could attach them to the shiny new ones I was using. After a couple hours, I had the run completed.

I tested my hard work with a twist of the valve and was immediately disappointed to see that ALL of the new ones failed to function. Not a single sprinkler broke forth with a satisfying tick-tick-tick of spray. I waled up the malfunctioning row, thinking that perhaps the little blue valves were all in the "off" position. A couple of the sprinklers (out of 20) seemed to respond a bit to this and give up a teeny trickle of water- still not strong enough to activate the sprinkler heads. When I reached the original coupling, I saw that it was leaking pretty bad. Bad enough that it was possible water was all being lost at that point in the hose. Off to the hardware store for a piece.

The hardware store has an aisle and a half of irrigation parts; metal, plastic and hybrid. I actually found a hose coupling that was 1/2" on one side and 3/4 on the other, and a few small clamps to ensure no water escaped the coupling that wasn't supposed to. I even picked up the CORRECT tool for punching the holes on the holes. The box called it an "irrigation hole puncher".

Back to the house, switch out the coupling and race to the valve to see how well all the new sprinklers work.

No change! The news ones all failed to spray. I again traced the line back to the new coupling and started messing with the first sprinkler. On my way there I remembered that there was a little toll with different gauge wires attached that was for clearing the sprinkler heads of gunk. After adding that to my arsenal, I trudged to the line and stared sternly at it, willing it to behave the way it was supposed to. Like the kids, it was not intimidated into compliance that easily. I wiggled the base of the attaching line, reached out to touch the sprinkler head which came off in my hand as a stream of water headed directly for my face. Startled, and a little wet, but happy that water HAD made it through my coupling, I put my mouth on the bottom of the sprinkler head and blew (a technique described by the previous owner to check if they were clear) and was rewarded with a stinky gooey blob of something shooting out the other end. Immediately horrified that I had so freely placed my mouth on the end of something so heinous, I was still rather delighted when I returned the sprinkler head to it's place (while fighting the stream of water that would soon go through it) and the tick-tick-tick broadcast across the corn.

The next one was not quite so simple to solve. Removing the sprinkler head yielded a slow drip, and as I messed with the valve it did not improve. In fact, I couldn't really tell which direction was "off". I ended up pulling the entire valve out of the hose and, as it sprayed me mercilessly, I tried in vain to clear the line that was supposed to run between the hose and the sprinkler.

You get the picture. Every single sprinkler and line has to be cleared or cleaned to some extent. Some had to be completely replaced, and some were fine as soon as the tips were cleared. Apparently the pile of sprinklers laying in the pile with irrigation stuff had been irresistible to all manner of critters and dirt. Some had rocks in them, some grass. It was puzzling how items so large had gotten crammed into the sprinkler heads, but one by one they were reborn.

In the end I was one sprinkler short, and soaking wet from the trail and error method of fixing each unit.

Most of all, I was pretty darn satisfied that I had figured it out and solved a problem for the garden.

When cats attack

Back when I was studying my real estate courses, there was a section about things that can actually be part of a property transfer that are not considered "real property". When you purchase a home, you are actually purchasing the LAND and everything attached to it. Like the house (and items attached to that), trees etc. What you don't automatically get are things like the furniture, potted plants, yard implements and such. Back in the metropolis of woodinville, that sometimes led to interesting conversations when sellers wanted to remove officially "attached" items (light fixtures, shower heads, flowers) and I actually had a deal flip when the seller refused to leave a dining room light and the buyer insisted that she would not accept payment and installation of an exact replica as sufficient. But I digress.

At the time of the study, It was hard to imagine why you'd buy all of somebodies old stuff anyway. This little taste we've had of farm life has changed my mind completely. Someone who has lived and worked on the property ends up with all kinds of useful tools and sets things up to work efficiently for the property. Going in and setting up all new systems (like irrigation parts) would be considerable expense, and if the seller took the pieces they had bought for your particular property, they likely would not work right at THEIR new property. So in addition to an impressive array of sprinklers and pipes and hoses, we have a ton of great tools and yard equipment that were part of our deal here.

One of the necessary tools here is a "barn cat" (or several) to control the rodent population. We don't have a barn, but to balance the deficit, we have 16 barn cats. Or 19, depends on who is counting. These cats don't live in the house and they subsist on the scraps that get thrown to them as well as a hearty supply of field mice and birds. The queen kitty is raising her second batch of kittens for the summer, and the first batch has yet to find homes. It was rumored that the natural enemies of the cats would 'thin the herd', but unfortunately these kitties have several new protectors that look suspiciously like the kids.

Nearly from the beginning, the kids began naming the cats and kittens, much to the chagrin of Hugh and I who have a hard enough time naming pets we wants to keep. One kid or the other will rush in bright eyed and ask "Do you know what penelope just did?" or "Goliath's eyes are open!". All such reports are met with a stern "We are not keeping any cats!" We were told we should have at least 3, so with our resident transplant kitty (who actually was barn cat from here once upon a time) Shadrach, we can keep two more. It's been a constant rotation of nominees from the kids as to which lucky cats we will keep. I prefer the natural selection method; in which the kittens will be given away until only the most hideous specimens are left to patrol the premises. This is how Hugh and I once ended up with a kitten named "Little Ugly".

It is my hope the the two homely cats will be so grotesque they will cause other felines to vehemently reject them as mating candidates. In fact, I hope the cat community begins to believe that there is toxic waste here and they flee from the sight of the property as if their future generations depended on it.

Until then, the far-tamer-than-usual barn cats are gracing me with lovely displays like the one above. I believe this is the one they call Tumbleweed.

I think she likes it here

This is why I wanted to do this. For these moments when I am blessed to actually be here for a happy moment with the kids. So many years of late nights, distracted dinners and interrupted vacations. I quality of my time with the kids has increased exponentially the last 30 days. We have so much talking to do, and I love hearing them develop opinions based on experience.

Today we were at a local nursery, Kings Garden. They have bedding plants and we actually bought the majority of our tomato plants from them. We were there for a few flowers to liven up the front entry (Paula's idea, of course) and the kids all came with and had an appreciation for the surroundings that I knwo they would not have had a month ago. In fact, when we were done, Jesse asked Annie (the owner) if he could walk through the garden to see the plants. I am sure that is a request he never would have made before. When they were done walking, he admired her patty pan squash and she gave him one!

We also had a visit from the local agriculture manager. I guess most of our apple trees are pretty infested with coddling moths so we have to destroy the fruit and wait till next year. We have a few trees that are minimally infected, and we have to start spraying those every week with alternating types of organic pesticide. He had a really great suggestion about starting a small, high density orchard with a variety of fruits for next year and the years to follow. It will be up on the discussion block, I think.

Done with the drive!

Hugh and I made the drive back to Woodinville again yesterday, and we drove back to Tonasket today. We took the North Cascades Highway home, which is BEAUTIFUL, but I am soooo burned out on the drive that it was hard to appreciate it.
We were reading the new John Grisham paperpack, Playing For Pizza . Its about a 3rd string quarterback for the NFL who ends up playing for a season with and Italian team playing American Football. John Grishams writing is, as always, exceptional. The story was not as captivating to me as his other tales. I enjoyed his previous forays into different genres than the one he is famous for (like Painted House and Innocent Man)but this one I did not find quite as captivating. However, it did make my mouth water the way Andrew Zimmern usually does as he detailed the the 4 hour meal at an Italian trattoria.

What we NEED

When I was packing up the Woodinville house, I felt like I was pretty brutal in my decisions as to what we "absolutely, definitely would not have room for in Tonasket". I labeled several dozed boxes with the instructions such as "books we need but not right away-STORE" or "to sell in Tonasket". The latter means we did not need the item, but that I had failed to dispose of it intelligently prior to packing.

I am embarrassed to admit, we also brought a contingent of boxes labeled "misc. crap" These boxes contain the last things that were left in the home, many of which remained until last because they are necessities, but some of which were so so hideously useless they defied categorization. One of these MC boxes contained the following: 6 expensive cooking knives, a bottle of dish washing liquid, a stack of current bills, cat food, two bottles of Belikin beer from Belize, 5 dirty socks, a model of Galileo's thermometer that had been a family day gift several years ago, a screwdriver, 3 unidentified computer cords, an order from for Levi's graduation photo, a pillow that had lost it's shape and has been floating around the house for weeks being used as a weapon of assault by the kids, and a half empty jar of facial moisturizer...oh, and a dremel-like tool from the time I decided to try and do my own acrylic nails. These boxes defy categorization even now. Do we store them? Sort them? Burn them? Do they have priority of the dozens of boxes marked NEED, which were supposed to indicate the plethora of items that no Rainey could be without.
The front and back yard of the house are still piled with boxes, many of which are marked "NEED", and they silently mock me as I live longer and longer without the items inside them. A few boxes have been cannibalized as we sought one specific item that WAS truly needed. Mostly, though they sit silently waiting their placement in our museum of STUFF.

It gives me pause for thought at our pursuit of things and our attachment to them. Why are we driven to posses more items than we can actually use? Why do we need 45 shirts when 3 would give us a nice rotation without taking up the space? Why do I keep books, hundreds of books, most of which will never be read a second time? How could I have chosen to BUY the books rather than checking them out from the library where someone else could continue to store them for me and I could have spent the ten bucks on a nice shirt? Now I am faced with paying for space to store these hundreds (ok thousands) of books for Lord-knows-how-long, until we have home again that will contain them.

Jesse's Booty

Jesse would like the "booty" pic to be something less appropriate than what follows:-)

Today's stroll through the garden yielded our first ripe green beans. We also found out the cukes I planted 3 days ago are already up! Also pictured are 3 pickling cukes, a zuccini, a summer squash and Jesse's rarely seen smile for the camera. Gotcha!

Paula is Here!

Paula and Raine arrived last night and are staying with us for 3 weeks. They had the finest guest tent reserved, the one with the extra cushy air mattress. Paula and Hugh have been working since breakfast outside, and (as I am still nursing a nasty patch of sunburn) have busied myself indoors. The kids got up at 5:00, went JOGGING, had breakfast, went swimming and now after that exhausting morning, they are holding down the living room sofa with all their might.

A few pics

The view

Yesterday I spent the entire day in the garden. There are so many projects here that need attention, yet for me the garden addicting at a level I could have never predicted. I find a lot of pleasure in just sitting on ther damp ground, plucking the invading weeds until what remains is just the chocolately rich earth offering it's prize up; the single plant that has been given that spot as it's own.

The garden is large for a bunch of beginners, but I am anxious to expand it's borders. I envision the entire back hill covered in full beds of prolificly producing varieties of vegetables.