Sunrise in the Okanogan

Fire, fire everywhere. The sun peeked through the smoky cloud cover this morning. Other pictures show the various stages of the fire . . . until it crept up too close for comfort.

Watching the Chelan fires from the top of our mountains. Very far away!

The first hint that something's burning closer.

Burning alongside highway 97 on our way evacuating. Glad I'm not that house in the front.

How do you spell "Kevan"? C-R-E-A-T-I-V-E

Kevan loves to build things and create things. Here is a gun made out of construction paper, tape, glue, and rubber bands. It shoots rolled up paper bullets or--deadly--sharp pencils. The force is enough to shoot a hole through paper. You can make your own gun by going here:
PISTOL THAT SHOOTS PAPER BULLETS

Here is the gun disassembled:

Here is the gun assembled and ready to shoot:

Watch the video to see the gun in action:

A Rainy June

We've been gone most of June . . . traveling in the very warm Midwest and Texas. I knew the rain was pouring on the coast (i.e. Seattle), but apparently our usually dry, north-central WA homestead saw its share of rain.

This is a mushroom . . . one of the biggest and most beautiful mushrooms I've ever seen. Nestled next to an old log and some lupine, this little fellow is sure proof that we've had more than our fair share of rain this month. After driving through the smoke in Montana and up I-25 through fire-scorched Colorado, I will never complain about the rain again!

We're Off the Mountain for a While

It's a far cry from a mountain in the middle of nowhere of Washington State to Chicago. We are going around the Midwest, visiting homeschool conventions and selling my books to eager homeschooling families.

Question about toll roads: what do they do with the money? I'm convinced they do not use it to improve the toll road for which they're collecting it. There was no improvement in the quality, and in some cases the roads were worse.

Missing the homestead right about now . . .

Hungry Little Orphan Bear Cub

We had to go over to the coast (Enumclaw) this week, as Roger's father passed away and there are many arrangements that need to be made. While we're there, I've been spending my time between Chad's house and Kristel's house, a few blocks away. While walking "home" (Kristel's family rents our old place) from town today, I stopped by the game warden's house. For years, he was always bringing home "strays" from the woods; our kids went down to see fawns and . . . most often  . . . bears.

Today Bruce stopped me and asked if I wanted to see the bear cub he had collected. I rushed down to collect the grandkids and Kristel, and we gathered around to see the little guy and hear his story. Sadly, the warden had collected the cub from someone's porch (not in our area). Apparently, his mother died before hibernation and the cub had been wandering around ever since--cold and hungry (and sleepy, I imagine). Our kids, so Bruce claims, will be the last humans to ever see the orphan. He is headed to a bear haven for the winter, then he will be released into the wilderness next spring. We wish him all a happy, healthy new life!

Baking Bread on a Snowy Day

Now that we've moved over here, the wood stove is the BEST bread-raising spot . . . as long as I set the bread up high enough. Instead of four loaves at a time, our smaller oven really can only hold two, but that's plenty. The snow around here is awesome! Light and fluffy and lots of it! It's hit a couple of degrees below zero at night, and single digits during the day. I still go walking. Sort of takes your breath away! But one thing is certain: Snow and cold is better by far than RAIN, RAIN, RAIN!

The Wilderness

Getting settled in to our new homestead requires a bit of redefining the word "walk." Usually I put on my 20-pound vest and go on my 30-40 minute walk. Well, last fall I learned that it's not safe to walk up to the Nat'l Forest any longer. A neighborly fellow walking his dogs gave me the true scoop about the strange people living up there. (I agree. Anybody who calls their place the "Poison Oak Ranch" sounds a bit odd to me.) So . . . that route is out, unless I decide to invest in some concealed weapon, which seems like a bit of overkill (no pun intended).

So I changed my route and decided to stay on the back roads in the woods. Lovely walk! Took the kids and the grandkids when they visited. However, last week when I was on my usual walk in the woods, I ran into the new neighbors (I use the term "neighbors" loosely, as they are probably at least 1/4 mile away) and we chatted. Their first question:
"Do you have bear spray?" (I wonder if it's anything like insect repellent).
"No. Why?"
"We've seen a lot of bear sign lately right around here."
I guess it is fall, and I confess I thought I saw some bear droppings the other day, but . . .

My new acquaintances were quite free with all kinds of local mountain cautions, like:
~ besides the bears roaming around, there is a pack of wild dogs to be on the lookout for. "It was even on the national news," they told me. I don't remember seeing it, but I began to listen even more intently.
~ rumors of a wolf in these parts  (OK, I hear the coyotes occasionally, but really! A wolf?)
~ last winter they had a moose in their front yard.

By now I'm wondering if they are trying to pull the "newbie's" leg, but honestly, they seemed sincere and concerned for my safety. (I was waiting for a cougar sighting, but they didn't say). So we exchanged phone numbers and email addresses and went our separate ways.

So now, my hiking is limited to our 14 acres. Back and forth, around and around I go. Not quite as adventurous as the other routes, but probably wiser.

One good thing . . . my cell phone works at the top of our homestead!

Available Now! Free Rent!

What does this look like to you? If you guessed storage for extra firewood, you would only be half right.

Actually, these are the brand-new, highly anticipated chipmunk condominiums. Yes, that's right folks! When the "neighbors" see these high-class condos, they'll move right in. The features can't be beat:
~ Multiple entrances and exits
~ Solid, leak-proof roofs
~ Plenty of ventilation
~ Basement storage area for a winter supply of pine
   nuts

Two condos are finished and ready for our homestead's eager residents. This newest one at the right is a work-in-progress. It is especially high-class because the contractor (yours truly) finally figured out how to stack the building materials neatly and securely.

We anticipate four or five of these Chipmunk Heaven Condos to be completed over the course of the summer. By winter, every ground squirrel for miles around will move in. Unfortunately. Why unfortunately? Because ground squirrels are rodent pests and tunnel all over the place. They are NOT cute little Disney "Chip and Dales," I'm sorry to say.
Oh, wait! Here comes a future resident now:

My Favorite Things

Oh, goody! I have two and a half weeks before I have to head for California for a 3-week homeschool convention "loop." Since moving over here the end of May, I've had no time to pursue one of my favorite homestead activities: thinning trees and hauling forest "trash" to the burn pile.

The Ponderosa pine on our homestead grow as fast as carrots, and they need to be thinned in order to keep them healthy (and so the lower branches don't all die).

So I started up the 4-wheeler this morning, hitched up the trailer, grabbed a clippers and a saw, and off I went. It's fun to make the place look nice and it's great exercise. The only trouble is that there are fourteen acres of trees and trash (leftover piles from logging years ago).

A New Beginning

 We are here at last. Where is "here"? At our 14-acre homestead in North-Central WA state. Good-bye rainy, drizzly days. Hello sun and sixties. Our place has mostly Ponderosa pines, Douglas fir, and behind us some Tamarack (larch). We are at 3,000 feet. Yesterday, we fenced off a small section of land (very small) for a tiny garden. It is completely netted because chances are, the deer can smell the new blueberry plants a mile away. We shall see if they try to eat their way through the netting. I don't like deer.

Our homestead is very pretty in the spring and early summer. Here is a picture of the black-eyed Susans that grow wild all over the place. There is lupine too, and other flowers (I have no idea what their names are). This blog is a journal of our new homesteading life. The transition is VERY HARD. The pole barn is a MESS, with boxes all over the place, and the house is too small for all my stuff. Plus, the kids and grandkids are on the Coast! AUGH! But we hope to see a lot of them.