The guys got to go sailing with some people from church. Jon, as usual, took photos and I thought we'd start with these two. The paper pirate and dad! Kinda makes you want to giggle, huh?

They got to sail on the Columbia on the Washington side. It was about an hour drive to get there and it was NOT breezy at all! When they arrived they had to motor for a while before a breeze kicked in. Jon got to steer back to shore at the end.




In that last photo you see the boat, the Adios (Jon couldn't remember the name of the one he was on!) and the guy who organised the trip, Steve.


Reflections and trains are great things to photograph! Gotta love BNSF!!!!!


It was late when they furled the sails and settled down for a BBQ. And if you look closely in that photo, you might be able to see the giant man who, too, is settled down for a rest!

Birds!

I set up an area for the birds that was nicer than just the feeders over the mint and they seem to appreciate it. So do the cats (see window).






Jon took these one afternoon. Well, I took the first one! Are not these finches and house sparrows CUTE????? sigh. Even though they are pigs and super noisy way too early, they are very much fun!

Mudding..not exactly what they wanted to do!

A lovely tranquil May Sunday afternoon on the ranch.

NOT!!!


After being rescued by a good friend, they are on the road again!

Jon took a great many pictures of this not so fun experience, but am not loading all of them. It would just have been too much mud for the computer to handle!

Spring Lyrics

"Let me tell you 'bout the Birds
And the bees,


And the flowers

And the trees,

The moon up above

And the thing called Love....."


(not exactly how I wanted to lay it out, but there you go!)

Early in May

Just a few photos from May 9 up on the Mtn ranch. The geese were pretty amazing!

more April animal antics!

I know, it is May, but it has only been May for a week and I still have some pictures from the last trip to the Mtn Ranch that need posted. And some pictures of the critters who normally don't get photographed! So, to begin: below we have our dearest Rusty cat, Katy Kat, and then Teddy. Katy Kat and Teddy are the grumpy ones in the family! Rusty cat is just, well, to mix up the animal kingdom, she is a lone wolf!



Up at the ranch, Jon found a zillion or so (he said) of these cool flowers. When he got home and we were looking at them on the television (hooking up the xbox to the camera!), I realised what they were. Yellow Fawn Lily's. They are so pretty! I didn't realise how many of them were around in the woods in the spring.



One of their ideas was to chop down a tree by hand. It was a VERY large and long tree, as you can see! Jon had some pretty amazing callouses from the work of using a hand axe, but he was pretty proud of himself!

They also saw several more deer and this ultra cute chipmunk that posed for many photos for Jonathan. Isn't it the cutest thing you ever saw???????

Am reading a sweet series by Kristen Britain. Green Rider and Call of the First Rider.

April Animals on the Ranch!

Look at all these cute critters! As cute as they are, however, I was annoyed. They also decided to nibble on my golden willow tree sticks that survived from our move from Tillamook! We had stuck them in a bucket with water and finally gotten around to planting them up on the ranch this spring. Unfortunately, the deer REALLY liked the coastal treats. This last weekend the guys went up and put some wire around a few. Hopefully, those ones will survive. Jon took scads of deer pictures (as usual) and we especially liked this one of the deer jumping the fence.


The mountain creeks were running nicely this April and tree frogs were everywhere! They found this adorable green one as well as a darker brown one.


More deer! It is too early to tell if any of the ones they saw were bucks, but I am pretty sure that come October the ranch will be devoid of white and black tails! That is the way deer season works!

Next up, pictures of the ranch at the END of April and flowers in the year. Jon got some of the cutest chipmunk photos, but you will have to wait for those!

winter/spring..whatever!

Spring means snow, right? Well, we got a skiff here in April and it was NOT fair! The daffodils wouldn't lift their heads and even Moses was not impressed. He was seriously looking for that door into summer and this one was NOT it! (actually, I think the daffs are ones that keep their heads down as they still have not lifted them!)

For the WMHS band auction I had Jon make another flower. I really wish I could keep this one, but we needed to give it to the band fund. I added one of my cement leaves and we call it Garden Stuff. This one has petals made of kitchen knives and leaves made of a spatula and a spoon. It is VERY clever. I hope people like it. I think we'll make more and see if they sell during Caledonian yard sale day! That is the problem with creating things, you just want to KEEP them!

Maxwell, today, found that door into summer. It was not very warm out in the yard, but on the top of the lawn mower in a sun puddle he was very content! Jon said he couldn't mow the lawn since Max was sleeping. I told him to move Max and mow anyway. The front eventually got cut.

Am reading Alcott, Eight Cousins and Rose in Bloom.

Rainbows and Chocolate

Sometimes you have to really look for the rainbows, but when you find them they are amazing! I always wonder about what might be at the end of the rainbow and I have never found a 'pot of gold'. but it doesn't matter. The promise of a rainbow is much more awesome than gold!

It is even better than chocolate, which is a debatable point, I am sure! We had our annual Princess Party at church and I was asked to bring in my chocolate fountain. It is such a fun party tool and I made certain to let parents know if their little girls in their pretty frilly and lacy dresses ended up with a coating of chocolate, to use a product designed to remove oil. Fountain chocolate has a LOT of oil in it! We also learned how much fun this type of chocolate is as a lip gloss. Many young girls really like chocolate. (can you say, understatement??)

I also did something different this year when it came to tidying up. This year I brought the fountain home in order to dismantle and clean it, rather than doing it at the church. It was MUCH easier, but I did think the cleaning tips in the directions left out some very important hints. (If you are a fan of Willy Wonka, you will also realise that they leave out scenes of cleaning in the chocolate factory. This, I feel is not fair!!!) So, if you have a fountain of your own or are thinking of getting one, please refer to these extra notes when the party is over. (I have used my fountain several times and felt it was time to write this information down for sharing.)



1. You need at least 2 empty sinks and a LOT of hot water. 2. You need two people to take apart the fountain when it is all messy with the melted chocolate. One person must hold the bowl of the fountain in place as the second person untwists things. (This is a VERY messy job.) 3. All the fountain bits for my fountain (except the electric base) are dishwasher safe, but to make sure it is all very clean I suggest running the bits through the dishwasher twice after rinsing them off completely. (I realise this is not an energy efficient idea, however it eliminates the grossness of wiping chocolate residue off your stuff after it is clean when you are ready to use it again) 4. When you remove the first layer of leftover chocolate, do not use a sink of soapy warm water as you actually end up with a larger mess than you started with. Also, do NOT use the little sprayer thingy that is often attached to a sink. Warm water and chocolate and oil can go a very long way when sprayed. Trust me! 5. When scraping together the chocolate to toss, I use an old plastic container with a lid. The chocolate does not compost well and attracts many critters who are better off not knowing how yummy chocolate is, just throw it away. (NOTE-fountain chocolate is not reusable. However, with our 'kid' parties, we serve them the warm chocolate in little cups, thus keeping our chocolate very clean and crumb and germ free. This allows me to actually retain the chocolate for another use, but it is not a practice that is naturally followed..as much as it kills you to toss the used chocolate, you must do it!!!!!)

If you follow these tips, you will have a much more enjoyable time using your fountain and you will refrain from adding to Craig's List after it's first use.