DEC, 2008

Hi everyone. I know that it has been a very long time since I have added anything to this, so here goes.

It is Sunday afternoon and church was cancelled for the second week in a row. Because of weather. It was cancelled last week because of a lot of ice and cold weather that made travel for most people very tough.

I did work all week though, because by Monday morning, the roads were pretty good. Thursday night, Stephen was due to fly in, so I stayed at work so I could pick him up at the airport. It had started snowing on Wednesday, so by Thursday, there was at least six inches of snow on the ground at work, but luckily, most of my runs were on pretty much flat ground. What made it really weird was that in the yard, there was six inches of snow on the ground and three miles south, there wasn't any. The roads were pretty much bare and wet.

Anyway, Stephen was due to fly in about 11:30 pm, so I just stayed at work. About 8 or so, Stephen called and said that his flight from OKC was delayed and he was booked on another flight from DEN to SEA that was supposed to arrive about 12:30 am. Ok, just another hour to wait. Then he called from DEN and said that the plane was late arriving and he missed his connection to SEA. They rebooked him on a flight the next morning, due to arrive about 10:30 am on Friday. So I went home. And then went back in the morning, but he did make it to Seattle before the major storm hit again Sat. night.

On Thursday, while I was working, Kevin decided to have a little fun.

Actually, what he was trying to do was to run down the driveway with a wakeboard as a snowboard. He said it wasn't too bad. but there was really no place to put his feet.



What you see above is a measuring stick stuck in the snow on our back deck. This was taken Sunday morning. As you should be able to see, we have nine inches of snow on the back deck.

These are a couple of planters that we have on the back deck and you can see that there is quite a bit of snow piled on them.

Here is another picture taken from the back door towards our camper. There was so much snow that the cover was sagging down quite a bit. I did go out there and knock most of the snow off, because we started getting more snow and I didn't want the cover to collapse.


And this final picture was taken out the front window down the street in front of our place. If you look real close, you should be able to see the little stub on an antennae sticking up out of the snow on the back of the car in the bottom right of the picture.

Pun'kin Chuckin'

I tried to download the video, but unfortunately, I was not able to. So, I have to do the next best thing and that is to post a link.

Yesterday, Jennie & I went to Snohomish and watched another round of Pumpkin Tossing (Hurling, Chucking, Pitching, what ever you want to call it). Again, it was a lot of fun, but it was pretty windy and there were rain showers hitting us while we were out there.

Anyway, here is the link to the newscast that did cover it. http://www.king5.com/video/?z=y&nvid=289691

I don't know how long this link will work, since it ties into the King 5 website and I don't know how long this link will be up on their web-site. But watch it if you can and enjoy it.

Burlington Fall Festival Pumkin' Pitchin'

It is the last Saturday of September, 2008 and it is time for the Burlington WA Fall Festival. Part of the festival involves destroying pumpkins using medieval type machines called trebuchets (treb-u-shay).

Here are three video's I took with my camera of three of the tosses.



For the last few years, the contest has been distance throwing, see how far you can toss your pumpkin.


This year was a bit different. Instead of seeing how far one could toss the pumpkin, the object was to hit your target. With practice on Friday and Saturday morning, the teams had the opportunity to set their targets where they wanted to for the "official" tosses during the competition.


It turned out to be a lot of fun watching the different teams attempt to hit their targets. In fact, there were a few direct hits and several very close shots. And, of course, there were many far misses.

The targets were small stacks of hay bales with a flag mounted on it. The formula for figuring the winner was something along the lines of this... distance from the flag divided by the distance of the shot gave the accuracy percentage. The team with the highest accuracy percentage was the winner. The second video was scored a direct hit, because they actually hit the pole that the flag was on.

I apologize for the quality of the video's. They were shot with my digital camera and not with a video camera. (I gotta get me one of those.)

I hope you enjoyed watching the video's as much as we had watching the actual thing.

Cousin's Get-together

This past Saturday, the 13th of Sept., was our second Cousin's Get-together. It was started last year and was held again this year. Dave & Bev live on the south fork of the Nooksack River and they have built their own beautiful little park on the river bank. That is where we all gathered. We all had a lot of fun getting caught up with each other's lives. Here are just a few pictures that I took while the food was being prepared for serving. We all brought a hot dish and a dessert or salad. There was plenty of good food enjoyed by all.

We were also very pleasantly surprised to see Don & Arlene there. It has been a very long time since I have seen them and we had a good time visiting with them again.

Making a Game

In the past few days, I have made a Ladder Golf game out of PVC pipe and golf balls. This game can be made with two 10' pieces of PVC pipe, one 1/2 inch and one 3/4 inch. Of course, the necessary connections are also needed. Below, you will see all the pieces after they were cut, along with the necessary connection pieces.

I spent most of Saturday cutting the PVC pipe into the necessary sizes and then I drilled holes in the golf balls. I bought a bag of reclaimed golf balls from Fred Meyer. It had 36 previously used golf balls in it. Afterwards, the bag makes a very nice carry case for the bolo's that I made for the game. I also painted the golf balls with some paint that I had in the garage. I needed six golf balls in each color to make three bolo's.

Here is the golf balls that I prepared, along with the bag they came in and the clothes line I bought to make the bolo's with . It is 1/2 woven line. Wrapped line does not work as well, because it can become "unwound" while playing the game.

Here is a close up of some of the golf balls with the hole drilled through them.

After cutting all the PVC pipe into smaller, precisely measured pieces, all that remains is to glue and assemble the pieces. Great care must be taken to make sure that the pieces are flat so that it makes a nice looking target. It is also designed to be taken apart for easier transporting. Each of the rungs comes apart and the base is built to part in the middle, below the rungs.

Here are all the bolo's, after taking great care to make sure that they are all reasonably close to the same length. They have to be long enough to wrap around the rungs, but not too long, so they don't wrap around two rungs.

And here is the whole thing, disassembled and ready for transport.

To play this game, all that is needed is two to four people. The distance from the target can be mutually agreed upon, but it must be far enough to make it challenging. Generally, the target will be 5 to 7 paces away. Each person takes turn throwing, under-handed, all three of the their bolo's, one at a time. After each person has thrown their bolo's, a score is taken. The top rung is worth three points, the second rung is worth two points and the bottom rung is worth one point. The person with the highest score goes first on the next toss, working down to the person with the lowest score. The first person to get to 21 EXACTLY wins the game.

During play, bolo's can be knocked off and then those points are lost to who ever had that bolo. If a player happens to go over 21, then the points earned on that toss is subtracted from their score at the beginning of their toss. For example, Player A has 19 points and he needs two to win. His first throw is on the 1 point rung. He now needs another 1 point to win. His next toss wraps around the three rung. He now has 4 points for the turn and he started with 19. He then will "short throw" his last bolo, so as to not get any more points. He now has to subtract the 4 points from the 19 points he had and he now has 15 points for his next turn.

During play, anything can be done to distract the thrower, except touching. It is not allow to touch the thrower in any way.

One interesting "rule" we added for playing this game at Lake Roosevelt this past year, was that if a player landed on 13, he (she) had to go back to 0. This can really make the game exciting.

If anyone wished detailed directions on building this game, please e-mail me and I will send them.

A Work of Art

After looking at all the food that Ri, and Lorrisa and Renee keep adding to their blog, I just had to post the following.

Now.... Isn't that a work of art? And delicious? You bet it is. Really, there is nothing better then home-made bread. This loaf will spend the night in the refrig. and then it will get sliced tomorrow. After that, it will be used as toast and for making sandwiches for lunches.

I really wish you had smell-a-vision, so you could have smelled this thing as it came out of the bread maker.

Motorcycle Ride 8/14/08

Man, oh man, what a day yesterday was. It all started right towards the end of our stay at Lake Roosevelt. Kevin told me that he and Mike wanted to go on a bike ride and they wanted me to come along. The only problem is that I don't have a bike. Soooooo, Kevin and I rented a ride. Well, I rented it and Kevin is chipping in to help pay for it. Wednesday, after getting home, and having a couple of minutes to rest, I made a phone call and put in my reservation for the next day.

Check out the next couple of pictures. It is a 2008 HD Heritage Softtail Classic. All 97 CI of a nice sounding engine. 6 speeds.

The next picture shows me sitting on it at home. Jennie brought Kevin and I to the motorcycle shop, because he needed a helmet, and the only way to "get" a helmet for him was to register him as my rider for the day. After getting home, we HAD to get some pictures.

This is Kevin sitting on the bike.

And, believe it or not, here is a picture of Jennie sitting on it. She even let me take her for a short spin around the neighborhood on it.

Here is a picture of the three bikes that were ridden on our short ride. On the left is a Honda Nighthawk. In the middle is a Honda Interceptor. Both of these bikes belong to my friend Mike. Kevin's ride was the Nighthawk and Mike's was the interceptor. And of course, don't forget the HD on the right. That, to refresh your memory, was my ride.

After meeting Mike at his house, we headed north on Hwy 9 to just north of Clearview. We swung into another friends place and he got so jealous that he decided to come along with us. The only problem he had was that he doesn't own a motorcycle. So....he decided to put the top down on his 'vette and follow us!! We then headed southeast on a very nice cycle road that ended up at the Woodinville/Duval Road. We turned left into Duval and turned right onto Hwy 203. In Carnation, we all stopped at a gas station and bought something to drink. Below, you can see that we have the 'vette blocked in.


After a quick refreshment, we continued on Hwy 203 to just past Fall City, where we stopped at Snoqualmie Falls. That place is always beautiful, as can be seen by the next two pictures.

Below is a picture of the other riders. On the far left is Bob J. Next to him is his wife's daughter Emily. Then comes Mike and then, last, but not least, is Kevin. I tried to frame the picture so that the falls is between Emily and Mike. Turned out pretty good, even if I have to say so myself.

I then asked Bob to take a picture of the "Three Amigos". Myself on the left, then Mike, then Kevin.

After visiting the falls, we returned to Fall City and grabbed a bite to eat. From there, we headed back, using Hwy 202 to head back through Redmond and then back to Mike's place. Kevin stayed on the Nighthawk and we headed home.

All in all, it was a very nice day for a bike ride. I will definitely do it again.

The rest of Lake Roosevelt

Ah, what a day today was. But, before I get into what happened today, I have to get everyone caught up on our vacation, including pictures. I had a bit of problem, as I mentioned in an earlier blog, with the internet connection not being the best at the campground. I finally had to give up on trying to keep my blog updated and ended up just checking my e-mail and such. Several times, while doing that, I would get some sort of error message saying something to the effect that the connection to the satellite was lost. So, we are home now and it is time to finish updating this thing.





Back now to the 6th. Marie and Henry arrived safely on the 5th. On the 6th, Marie wanted to go waterskiing, so, below, you will see a picture of Marie on two boards, skimming across the water with the greatest of ease. Note the look of complete relaxation. "Oh yeah, this is the life."

Meanwhile, back at the beach, what is happening? Not much, as can be seen in the following picture. We are back from giving Marie the waterski ride of her life. Jennie and my friends wife, Becky, are completely oblivious as to what is happening on the boat. They are just lazing around in the water, without a care in the world. But....something must be holding their attention, they both seem to be looking in the same direction. What gives with that?

Okay, later in the day, Marie decides that waterskiing is just too boring for her to do any more. Time for a new challenge, THE AIRCHAIR!!! Ah, ok, now things need a little explanation here. "I gotta do what? You mean this thing actually has a seatbelt? What happens if I fall? You mean, you really mean, that I am NOT supposed to separate myself from this thing if I fall? You mean this whole contraption stays with me? OoooKaaaaayyyyy, if you say so."

"Hey, waddya know, this whole thing floats. This might not be as bad as I thought. I think I got this thing licked already. Say what? you mean I gotta hang onto the rope and get towed behind the boat? You never mentioned that part before I agreed to try this. Oh well, since I am already strapped in, I guess I can give it a try. Ok, assume the relaxed pose."

"Hey, this isn't so bad, in fact "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.""

"Hey, this is easier then I thought. Look at me, I am actually skiing this thing on top of the water, and this is only my first time at it. I don't know what all the fuss was about, why all the instructions. I think these people around here just try to make it difficult, so maybe they can keep all this to themselves."

"Hey, WHAT THE HECK!!!!!! How.... what.....where am I going..... WHOA, STOP THIS THING, IT IS GOING UP IN THE AIR!!!! I NEVER AGREED TO THIS!!!!"

Meanwhile, once again, back on the beach, what is everyone else doing? Playing "King of the Hill" on a giant, inflatable Fun Island.

Ah, the end to a perfect day. Everyone is safe and sound and the boat is safely tied up again in the marina, ready for use on the morrow.


August 8, 2008

Ok, it is the next day now, and Marie wants to try something new again. "Hey, I want to try wakeboarding." Ok, Marie, here is what you do, get in the water, put your feet in the boots on the wakeboard, grap on to the handle and yell HIT IT!!! He He, let's all watch Marie as she flounders in the water, trying to get up on the slippery banana called a wakeboard. WHAT THE HEY, she got up on the very first try!!!! And here is a video to prove that she was up on the wakeboard. You will just have to take my word for it that she did get up on the first try, or ask her yourself if you don't believe me.

On Friday evening, we watched a lightning storm approach the campground, go over top of us, with quite a bit of rain attached to it, and then when the rain let up, we watched the storm head out away from us.

On Saturday, after Andrea showed up, Philip asked me if I would take them on a boat ride. I said sure, climb in. We took off and headed straight north, up a part of the lake called Sanpoil River. (Just a side note about this arm of Lake Roosevelt. When Grand Coulee Dam was under construction, the original town of Keller was located somewhere in this region. Since it was going to end up under water, the town had to relocate futher north.) About 8 miles up this arm, is another campground called Sanpoil Campground. Almost directly across the water from this campground, as we were just drifting and talking about the lake and the slight difference in terrain from further south, Philip spotted a young bear cub cruising the shoreline. We tracked him from the boat for about 20 minutes as he kinda kept an eye on us and also fed on huckleberries. At one time, he actually came right down to the water to get a drink of water. Very cool. It was a real bummer that none of us had a camera to take a picture or two of it. A few years ago, we saw another bear slightly south of this location and on the same side of the river as the campground. This one was fully grown and didn't stick around very long after we spotted it.

The next day, Jennie, Kevin and I went back up there to see if we could find it again. We didn't see it, but we did find a Bald Eagle nest up in a tree right on the shoreline. We couldn't tell for sure because we didn't see them, but we think there were some young eagles in the nest because we did hear a lot of "crying" whenever one of the parents was nearby. This time, we did have a camera, but because of where the nest was located, we couldn't get a real good view of it with the camera.

On Sunday, while sitting down on the beach, we had a deer walk right by us on the road, head towards the nearest bush and start browsing on it. Kinda cool, except that we see a lot, and I mean a lot, of deer in the area. One morning, I was withing about 20 feet of a deer while it was browsing on some bushes, right across the street from the campground.

On Wednesday morning, we packed everything up and bid good-bye to all our friends at the campground and headed home. We got home about 4:30, got most of the stuff out of the camper and called it a day. Tomorrow, I will post another blog about what happened today, so TTFN.

Camping at Lake Roosevelt

Here it is, the umm, well, um, ah shoot, I can't remember how many days we have been here now. We have been here a number of days now.

Here are a few shots from down by the lake.

Here are a few at the picnic table learning and playing a new card game.

Here is Henry playing Ladder Golf with a few others, even if they are not in the picture.

This is kinda what our beach camp looks like. Vehicles parked by the road, chairs parked on the beach, sunshine shining through the trees.

Now for a few shots from out on the water.

Here is Matt H. clearing the wake on a wake-to-wake jump with the wake board.

Another one of Matt clearing the wake.

Here are a couple of shots of Philip V. actually boarding on the wake board. He was pretty pleased with himself, and we were all happy that he got up on the wakeboard.

I have more pictures from yesterday, but they will just have to wait for tomorrow morning. Getting time for breakfast and then heading down to the beach for another day of fun in the sun.

Third Day of Camping.

It is now the third day of camping, and things couldn't be better. The water and the weather have been just fantastic. Sorry, but I don't have any pictures for this issue.

Henry and Marie showed up today, right about 7:00pm. Just in time for dinner. Grilled steaks tonight. The tent is all set up and Marie is all set, all by herself. In fact, she just asked me what time it was, I think she is thinking about getting ready to hit the sack.

It hit 103 to day for a short time and the water temps got all the way up to 79 degrees. Man, couldn't get better then that.

And for those of you who are wondering, yes, that is full size refrigerator sitting next to our camper. However, it is not ours and it will be disappearing on Friday. I will tell you one thing about having one of those things around, it sure cuts down on the purchase of ice. Our friends brought it with them in the back of their pick-up truck.

Time to go sit by the fire and maybe roast some marshmellows.

Here it is, the second full day at our camp and I am already updating this thing. No, it is not that boring around here. It is just that it is just after 7am and no one else is up and about yet. Here a a couple of pictures for all the throngs of people who are chomping at the bit to see what we are doing here.



This is our rig, all set up and ready to go. We are down at the Albertson's parking lot waiting for the other two families to show up so we can leave. We stopped at a scale house on the way over and weighed it, and the total weight of the whole thing is 14,820 pounds. Didn't slow me down one bit. We really had a good trip over. We left Albertson's about 6:20 in the morning and we pulled into the campground right at 12:15 in the afternoon. Got our camp set up, launched the boats and did a bit of boating yet on Sat.




Here are couple of shots of our gypsy campsite. Our home away from home.

The weather here has been great. Not real hot yet, but that is supposed to be coming in the next day or so. The water temps are in the low 70's right now, but they are supposed to be coming up too later on. It isn't too bad though, once one gets into the water, it does feel great.

Not much else is going on right now. The camp is starting to stir with some activity. There are a few others that are starting to emerge from their "cocoons" (tents). The sun has been up for just over an hour now and sitting in the sun is very warming. Even this early, it is nice sitting in the shade.

Well, I am going to close out for now and get on with the business of getting my first cup of coffee down and then having breakfast and then heading on down to the beach. I will try to get some pictures from down there and get them posted soon.