Free Range Mama

another road trip weekend

It seems like nearly every weekend for the past few months some or all of us have ended up going down to Oregon for one thing or another, so this trip shouldn’t surprise anyone. Saturday morning we all piled into the car and drove down to .. you guessed it… Portland! The occasion was a family reunion of sorts, with quite a few wonderful folks we hadn’t seen in a while, so it was fun and definitely worth the drive.

The original plan was for Dh to drive down separately so that he could then take a side trip off to Yakima on Sunday to go fishing/golfing with some of his buddies, but in a surprise development, his beat-up Jeep ended up going into the shop for major repairs, so that plan was re-worked. The new plan was all of us going down together, and then all of us driving to Yakima on Sunday to deliver him to his buddies who will (hopefully) bring him home at some point.

We left on Sunday morning at the bright and early hour of 6am and headed up the Columbia Gorge. We couldn’t resist a quick stop at Multnomah Falls…

If you are ever going to visit the falls, by the way, 7:00 in the morning is definitely the way to go – no crowds!

The rest of the drive to Yakima was long, but quite scenic, and was actually a welcome change from our usual route.

On the way, we passed a truck carrying a single blade from one of these windmills:

It was so huge, that we were all quite impressed - as they look deceptively small from a distance.

Here’s an example of some more Columbia Gorge scenery. It’s hard to see, but in the center of the photo is the famous Stonehenge reproduction!

Once in Yakima, we left Dh on a golf course, so we knew he was happy and well cared for…

… and then pretty much came straight home, driving back over the Cascades. It’s good to be home!

low tide

Because this is the time of year for ultra-low tides, I  decided to take the kids to the beach to see what might be revealed in the tidepools. We picked Dh up from the office, and we all went to Golden Gardens Park on Puget Sound. It probably wasn’t the best choice – being so close to Seattle, it was a tad crowded – but it worked out okay. The tide was, in fact, way out, and there were plenty of tidepools with crabs and seaweed and anemones and other stuff to look at. The kids had a great time splashing around and poking at things. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera’s memory card, so no photos of this one!

visitors in the strawberry patch..

The kids and I were outside getting some greens and strawberries for lunch (salad), and we found 3 tiny baby rabbits hiding in the strawberries. So cute!

A bit later, I decided to water the garden, which scared them out. They decided to hide in the grass, and amazingly sat quite still, no matter how close we got to them.

There have been a ton of bunnies in the yard lately – in addition to those 3, we counted 4 more older bunnies wandering around the yard at the same time. The kids were of course speculating about which one was mama.

my weekend at bsg

Saturday morning, WAAAY too early, I took the train down to Portland to meet up with Sandy for our annual trip to the Black Sheep Gathering.

We drove from Portland, and pulled up in time to get a get in a complete survey of the marketplace and the livestock (check out the Chinchilla with Donna Nelson of The Spinner’s Wheel – I want one!!)…

… before heading over to Ocean Sky (a Chinese Restaurant) for dinner. I highly recommend this place if you are ever in Eugene, by the way, the food is amazing. It was nice to see some old friends and do some catching up, and we topped it off with a little spin-in back at the hotel.

Day 2 was more shopping, but a bit more serious this time. I wasn’t buying much fiber because I have tons of it at home, but I couldn’t resist a little of this raw alpaca:

I also picked up a book, and a gorgeous Ken Ledbetter (KCL Woods) niddy-noddy. It is purple heart wood with inlaid stones on the pegs.

In the afternoon, we drove back to Sandy’s.

Monday morning, my mom picked me up and drove me into Portland where we met up with my brother and sister for a lovely Thai lunch, and then hung out for a while until it was time to catch the train back to Seattle. Taking the train is a bit of a novelty for me – usually I drive between Portland and Seattle – and it was long, but quite pleasant. I got a ton of knitting done!

happy birthday, alex!

My first baby turned 9 today! Awww. He woke up an hour before the rest of us, but sweetly decided not to wake us and just sat quietly in the living room waiting and staring at his pile of gifts. Once we were all downstairs, he tore into them with great enthusiasm (and with some help from Z).

He got a kick scooter, some lego, video games & accessories, tennis balls, a shirt, a book, and some water guns.  We then had a big brunch and Alex spent some time building the lego kit.

In the afternoon, we went out and picked up 2 of the kids’ friends to accompany us to Gameworks, a big video game arcade in Seattle.

Once there, the kids played games to win tickets that they could cash in for prizes. The girls pooled their tickets and so did the boys, so we ended up with two big piles. 1900 for the girls and 1800 for the boys. The girls could not believe that they got more tickets than their big brothers!

They all had a blast picking out their loot.

On the way home, we stopped at Ruby’s Diner for dinner…. milkshakes, sundaes… you get the idea. Of course, Alex also got to enjoy his royalty-free birthday song.

Now, we probably didn’t need any more cake after this, but Alex had specifically asked me to bake one, and it was still there when we got home, so much later in the evening we did have the traditional birthday cake/ candle blowing out ceremony…

cops and cake

Today was Dh’s birthday – yay! In honor of it, he took the day off and accompanied us on our morning field trip, which was a tour of the Police Station. There were about 3 other dads on the tour, which is an unusually high turnout, so I guess the subject matter was enough of a draw to get a lot of guys to come along. The tour was pretty interesting, the highlights being the cars and the jail cells. Z wouldn’t even set foot in a cell, so hopefully she’ll remember that in her future career as a rock star when she starts contemplating trashing her hotel room. The kids both took a pass through the squad car though:

After the tour we went to a cafe for lunch, picked up Dh’s cake and went home. The kids and I then “set up” the party while Dh went to the driving range and the grocery store. When he got home, dh put some shrimps and steaks on the barbie and we had a lovely dinner, followed by ice cream cake – yum.

weekend fun..

Well, Dh and Alex went down to Oregon this weekend to join FIL for a male-bonding weekend of crabbing and resort living. They had a great time, ate a lot of crab and even got to see some fireworks.

Meanwhile Miss Z and I stayed home and took advantage of some of the goodness of small-town living.

Saturday was our annual Parade...

Sunday was the Firefighters' annual Pancake Breakfast. Aside from the M&M Mickey Mouse Pancakes...

Z is also a fan of putting out the fake fires

and checking out the fire trucks.

Later on, we drove into Seattle to pick Dh and Alex up from the train. It was a lovely evening, so we decided to head down to the waterfront.

I couldn't pass up the chance to eat at Ivar's Acres of Clams...so we had a lovely dinner before heading home.

beautiful day

Seriously perfect weather today. Spent a lot of time just looking around in awe of it. In honor of this glorious day, here's a garden update...

First of all, I am thrilled to report that the chicken coop is finished, and to say Dh outdid himself on it is an understatement. It's awesome!

Here it is from the back, where you can see the little play yard, and the reclaimed wine barrel that will catch the rain off the roof for the chickens to drink. Hopefully they won't get too drunk.

The chickens are getting quite big, especially "Sunshine" who is our evil genius and self-appointed boss chicken.

Z still loves to carry them around...

Though sometimes they can be tricky to catch.

The garden is doing well - all our seeds are sprouting up, and the strawberries are flowering.

Of course the weather is also perfect for drying  wool, so here's a snapshot of what I just took off the drying rack... rainbow!

Cheese Tasting / Dairy Farm Tour

Life has been way crazy. I have started a business selling handpainted yarn & rovings which has been taking up a lot of my time, among other things. I've traveled down to Portland a few times, and the list goes on. There's no way to catch up, so I'm going to jump in with this weekend.

Friday we took a tour of a local farm where they make artisan cheeses from cow, goat, sheep, & yak milk. the highlight was (of course) all the baby animals...

I don't think Z could ever get tired of playing with baby goats  - they had about 50 of them, and they were sooooooo cute.

The yaks were pretty cool too see too, though one of the kids' friends caught a horn to the side of his face while petting one, which was very painful, though thankfully it seems that there was no permanent damage.

Saturday I spent most of the day at a spin-in, and Dh finished roofing the chicken coop, and that's about it!

telescopes, bowling, and books

Yesterday was a pretty busy day, especially for Alex who spent 6 hours out hiking around at Wilderness School, and a couple more hours in the evening at the University of Washington Jacobsen Observatory attending a Telescope Building workshop with his Dad.

He had a great time.

Today I woke up with a sore throat, but the beautiful weather enticed me outside where I spent a few solid hours working in the yard and hacking at blackberries (very therapeutic). Dh mowed the lawn for the first time of the season, and the kids celebrated with a little Lawn Bowling:

Yes, Z is wearing ratty pajamas in that picture, and it's quite late in the day. That's how we roll. They also tried putting the pins on the septic tank lid when they couldn't get them to stay straight on the bumpy lawn - not strictly regulation, but it worked.

The sore throat also didn't stop me from indulging Alex in his current favorite pastime - you guessed it - reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows . I covered nearly 250 pages of it over the course of the day (reading aloud - with voices and everything), for which I think I really deserve some sort of medal. I still can't believe I've read him (nearly) all seven books over the last few months, and that we're almost done. I'll kind of miss it when it's over, but  he tells me the The Chronicles of Narnia are up next, so we'll see how that goes.