Welcome Spring!

For the first day of spring we actually had snow mixed with rain - which melted promptly.

A day in Port Townsend

Recently we spent the day in Port Townsend - primarily for a NW History class that Gail was completing.

We had lunch at the Salal Cafe and visited the Jefferson County Historical Society Museum – except for Rilla (3) and Cian (2) who had had enough ‘history’ for one day and ended up watching a DVD in the van with Dad. We also drove through Fort Warden.

Part of the adventure was riding the Port Townsend/Keystone Ferry Klickitat. Interestingly this past week a crack was discovered on the Klickitat and the ferry had to go in for repairs. See the story here and here.

Of course the highlight was re-visiting Elevated Ice Cream before we left...

Port Townsend 2.24.07

Saint Patrick's Day!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Tractor Pulling

I had a big list yesterday. Haul wood down from the red barn, clean out the chicken coop, prune fruit trees, move sawdust from driveway, etc.... However, plans ground to a halt when I circled the red barn with a bucket-full of firewood and sank axle deep in mud. It wasn't that deep to begin with, but with a good effort, our faithful Kubota tractor was fully entrenched. About an hour later, after digging mud away from the tires, sprinkling offerings of gravel into the mud, and finally laying strips of cedar bark into the ruts (these were just laying where we had split wood - I didn't tear the bark from trees), that we emerged triumphant. Caleb became so concerned, that he called Jack on the phone for advice and then brought the phone to me. No secrets among family members. In the end, it was Rilla who came up to ride the tractor out with me, yelling excitedly, "We did it! Good job, Mommy!"

The Tractor c. 2000

68 Degrees!

Yesterday set a record high temp of 68 degrees – and yet just last week we had eight inches of snow! Here is a picture of a few of the kids at Lake Sammamish State Park enjoying the sunshine yesterday – from Jack’s cell phone camera.

Emma, Rilla, Caleb 3.6.07

Snow Again!

Well, even though a previous blog stated something about the last of the snow for the year, the last day of February brought more of the white stuff. Rilla (3) who has been dropping her s'es calls it "no." Jack made it home from work after an extended commute while Gail and the kids zipped back from the gym; chaining up on 88th to make it up the last mile or so. March 1st awoke to clear skies and over eight inches of the white stuff. Here are some images (or ‘snaps’ as Jack’s colleagues in India say) including a video of Cian.

Snow 3.1.07