Christmas Eve 2018

This was as close as it gets to a perfect day!  Sunshine without frost to start, and time to work on a garden project.  I could have cleaned my house, but as a native Washingtonian, when the sun shines, I can't stay inside.

So it seemed a perfect day to tackle my grape arbor/garden fence. Nothing puts out more vines than grapes and when they are covered with leaves and grapes, and even the netting I put over them to keep birds out, they are impossible to contain.  Even now, they are  a bit daunting.....but since I only use them to have leaves for my pickles, I figured I couldn't go too far wrong.  My main goal was to keep them from covering the driveway and the garden.  So when I prune them, I am pretty ruthless.

So after the first step of cutting back all the vines to the fence line, I used the tractor to pick up all the downed vines.

So my burn pile is maxed out and the next step is to burn it.

I have winter rye planted in all the tilled garden areas except for my little garlic patch.  You can see the garlic is coming up nicely.

The swans are back on the lake.

We've collected a pile of rocks for the children to toss in the lake this summer, the grass is coming up, 

We have a new carport with a view,

a few trees came down in the wind storm, but missed all the buildings,

and my two week old Christmas bouquet is still bringing me joy!
We made it past the shortest day of the year, so every day gets lighter and brighter.  New Year's resolutions are in place, and we're looking forward to 2019!

Lake Ice Update

After ten days of below freezing weather, the lake froze completely to a depth of about 3".  It was strong enough for me to walk on it without danger, but I didn't venture too far from the dock.  The lake is fed by springs, so there are definitely warmer spots where the ice could be thinner.

The thick ice lasted for one day before we had a warming trend, and the ice started to weaken.  When the ice first started to recede, it looked like a giant had created a jigsaw puzzle on top.

This is the last of the rocks we threw on the ice earlier.  All the others have already broken through.

Now the heather is in bloom.  The ice was a nice novelty, but we're ready for spring.

Winter Update

The past couple of days have been very cold - barely getting over freezing during the day, so the open water on the lake has gotten smaller and smaller.  Swans were here last week, but are gone now.  With another couple of cold weather days predicted, probably a good idea for them to find a bigger body of water.  Dozens of Mallards still on the lake.

New tracks in the snow - raccoon I think.

The yard was full of Varied Thrushes and Oregon Juncos, picking at whatever falls off the fir trees.  So I decided to put up some feeders when snow covered most of the ground.  So far, they haven't sampled from the feeders.  Maybe they are too unstable because they are hanging on a rope?

So I've been throwing seed on the ground under the trees, and they've been enjoying that.

There wasn't a lot of snow on the driveway, but since it was supposed to get cold and icy, I raked it with the tractor yesterday.

Where I didn't rake, the tracks have turned into a solid layer of ice.  I quit where cars had driven out because I thought my efforts might make it worse, but I probably should have continued all the way to the road.

Sunday at Swartz Lake

Suddenly summer is upon us!  Time to head to the lake!

The instructions for our new "Relaxation Station" say "inflate slowly".  Believe me when I say, there is no other way to inflate this monster.  Even with a commercial compressor, it took over a half hour.  Well worth the effort, though!

Bart and Dan tried it out first and brought it back for a bit more air.

A side benefit:  it is like having a kiddie pool on the lake.  Kids can play safely on the mesh bottom and still leave plenty of room for adults to lounge.

Sadie in the sandbox

Sadie and Jonah make the car into a double-decker bus.

Moshe and Karen introduced us to a fun new Scrabble game

July Birthday Party

July is a big birthday month in our family.  We celebrated three grandkids' birthdays this weekend.  Cupcakes are the in thing these days, so we had cupcakes rather than cake.

Adelyn turns 7

Colt turns 3

Daphne turns 1

Charlize

Cash

Joseph

Laura

Ty and Joseph

A Rubik's cube type puzzle is probably not the best choice for a child turning one, but it did say "Juvenile" on the cover.  Even the older kids were having a hard time figuring it out.  Daphne licked it and thought it was great though. 

A good time was had by all on a perfect day in the Pacific Northwest.  We all swam in the lake but mostly in the hot tub as the lake is still a bit cold for the kids when they have the option of the warm tub.

Busy as a Beaver

 We live on a small private lake outside of Granite Falls, Washington.  Over the years, instead of being a logging town out in the boonies, we have become a bedroom community.  Better roads into town, larger cities growing a few miles away, and people looking for acreage in the country have developed the land surrounding us.  We don't own a dog or a cat, so we have become somewhat of a wildlife refuge for the animals squeezed out of their old habitats.  


I took this picture of the beaver that I watch out my office window the other day.  Then today, when Ron was out mowing, he called me out to "show me something".  I followed him around the deck to the side yard where he had been mowing and this is what he showed me.

 Before I started berating him for chopping down yet another tree, I noticed that the cuts were conical in nature.  The branches looked like they had been chewed off.

 The down tree is in the front of this picture, the house in the background.  There can't be 50' between the two!

I asked Ron to leave the tree laying on the ground to see if I can catch the beaver at work.  He/she has an established trail from the lake to where it has been working harvesting trees in our front yard.

Sunset over Lake Eufaula

The sunsets here on Lake Eufaula are spectacular. It is hard to not take pictures every single evening, as each seems different!