Swans on the Lake

A few days ago, the swans were back, happily swimming on the lake with their new baby.

Then yesterday, they were gone, and the lake had frozen about 2/3 of the way across.

When I went to check the ice on the lake today, it was totally frozen from end to end, and to my horror, it looked like the swans were frozen into the ice.

So I walked through the woods to the end of the lake to get a better view.

They are all fine - just sitting in the sun on the ice, making really interesting sounds.

Family Camping

For the first time in many years, we had a family gathering where all of our kids we able to come to visit.  We ended up with an RV, a tent trailer, and two tents, 15 adults, 16 children, and 2 dogs.

We started out with a sand mountain, that by the end of the weekend was a sand molehill.

Ron stayed busy ferrying kids around the forest and back and forth to the lake.

I made several trips across the lake with kiddos who wanted to do a distance swim.

Great day to take the puppy for a boat ride,

or to teach the grandkids to row a boat,

or for a fisherman uncle to teach a child how to actually catch fish,

or engage in marathon horseshoe games.

Getting Ready to Build

I haven't been on the internet much lately as we have a massive project going on here!  We've been getting ready to build a new house on the 5 acre lot adjacent to our house.  The good side of this is we don't have any commuting time - the down side is we don't seem to know when to quit!

We started with a site that Ron has been mowing for 20 years - not large enough for a building site so some trees had to come down.

We used our small tractor to haul all the branches and blocks of wood to other areas.  Two large Hemlock trees will provide firewood for about five years!

There were about a dozen maple trees that had to come out also - the biggest was a real challenge - you can see it in the distance - still standing.

Down it goes!

Now to remove the massive stumps!

Site work mostly done - house corners staked,

Perk holes dug - waiting for design.  Now the fun begins!

New Neighbors/New Dock

Our daughter and son-in-law bought a house across the lake from us.  We helped them rebuild the dock this past weekend.  While the pilings on the dock were good, and most of the underlying structure was okay, it had never been completed.  A strange form of plastic sandwich material had been screwed down for about a third of the dock several years ago, but it was warped and had holes in it in places.

Ron and Dan started by carrying the new material down the hill.  Each trip is equivalent to 4 staircases according to Amy's pedometer.  At least the trip up was empty handed.

 

Then they added new structure to the unfinished part of the dock.  They were able to add four 2"x12" 12 foot boards onto the pilings while balanced on loose boards without dropping any into the lake.

Some of the work was done in a downpour.

At the end of the first full day of labor, new boards had been added to where the old boards started.  The hardest part was removing the old boards, as they were put down in brackets and linked by tongue and groove.  The brackets had rusted and were mostly stripped, so removing them was a tedious task.  Amy and Dan take a break in the end of the day sunshine, experiencing a bit of what it will be like when done.

 

From the lake - all new boards.

From the shore.  Looking forward to many summer days enjoying the finished product!

 



Family Visiting from Salt Lake City

Our son, Cameron, wife, Anne, and sons, Gavin and Marcus who are visiting from Salt Lake City took a walk through the woods at our place in Granite Falls.  They are enjoying the cooler temperatures here.

Cam's high school friend, Kirk, and his family came to visit and the boys played several games of horseshoes before they got bored.  Then they resorted to their boyhood and tried throwing two at a time, throwing from different angles, etc. anything to make the game a bit more dangerous.  Everyone survived.

Anne showed us how to roast a perfect marshmallow - she turned it perfectly brown, without once catching it on fire.

    Hot tubbing                                         Eating berries off the vine

Boating

Driving the tractor

We had a great visit!

Grandma Rosie's Garden

There is nothing like fresh tilled dirt and bare feet on a sunny summer day.

Another group of grandkids posed for me today as we looked for edible stuff in the garden.

We all found some fresh peas to nibble on.

We ate the carrots but saved the beets and the potatoes.

It's early to dig potatoes, but we found quite a few.  It's a lot like an Easter egg hunt digging potatoes.

We pulled a few weeds in the beans,

and checked to see if the corn was knee high.

Fun picking strawberries and checking on the blueberries,

and ate a few strawberries.

Then we headed to the lake and the hot tub for most of the afternoon.

Aah, summer, my favorite time of year!

Cinco De Mayo at Swartz Lake

These are the days we live for in the Pacific Northwest, but they usually come in July!

So we were very blessed to have an 80 degree day on a Sunday in early May.

It took a brave 6-year old to convince me it really was time to start swimming.  Sadie is definitely the bravest, but six of us finally went for a swim.

All girls, I might add.....

We all went up to the garden to plant some seedlings.

Kyrie and Joseph put the painted strawberry rocks into the strawberry patch to hopefully fool the birds.

The grandkids are working with me on a children's book I'm writing, "Grandma Rosie's Garden"

Everybody helped.  Even if it was only to watch or supervise.

Then they rushed back to the lake

and the hot tub.

A fun day for everyone - even Tillie, once she got out of her PJ's.