• Gardening

    Digging Sweet Potatoes

    On Sunday we dug up our sweet potatoes at the community garden, the last plot we had still growing there. It was a bit sad to leave but it felt right to be leaving. We grew a lot there in the year we spent at the garden but I know we’ll be growing a lot more at our garden at the house in the future. The sweet potato harvest was pretty good, though at first we were a bit doubtful. We kept pulling out the smaller, thickened roots but were finally rewarded with good sized potatoes. The smaller roots and pieces we are keeping for ‘seed’ for next summer’s crop.…

  • Outdoors,  Texas,  Travel & Places

    A Pre-Cold Front Evening Walk

    The elephant ears line the pond in the area. Chasmanthium latifolium Spanish moss Blue mist flower, Conoclinium coelestinum Bidens laevis Bushy blue-stem, Andropogon glomeratus This little pond is across the street from our house. Would love to explore these woods but I’m unsure who owns them. Pre-cold front the air was humid and thick, temperatures in the mid to high 80s. Post cold front the air is crisp in the mornings and evenings, days are mild and pleasant, skies are stark and blue. Enjoyable…

  • Travel & Places,  Washington State

    Goats! Goats! Goats! | Enchantment Lakes

    Chris’ big goal for the hike was to see goats. He was so excited about seeing them and he got his wish. They came out of the woodwork as soon as we started slowing down to look for a campsite. I swear they smelled us several hundred yards away and knew that humans equaled food and/or salt. At one point at our campsite there were six or seven goats hanging around, most were moms with their kids. A couple of times they eased themselves a little too close, causing us to shoo them away. I was expecting the marmots or chipmunks to be pesky, not the goats! Pesky or not,…

  • Hiking,  Outdoors,  Travel & Places,  Washington State

    Up Top | Enchantment Lakes & Wenatchee NF

    Climbing up Aasgard Pass was slow going, taking us about three hours to get up to the top. For the first third of the trail cairns marked the path somewhat clearly. I was leading, and somewhere near the middle of the climb I started having difficulties following the trail as the path became more scree-like instead of boulders. It didn’t help that there were smaller cairns that sometimes lead in different directions. A couple of times we slid a bit, causing us to halt in our steps and steady ourselves. Around the two-thirds-of-the-way mark I heard sounds but couldn’t see anyone. I looked up and to the left and found…

  • Hiking,  Outdoors,  Travel & Places,  Washington State

    Colchuck Lake | Enchantment Lakes & Wenatchee National Forest

    At the junction of the Stuart Lake trail and the trail that leads to Colchuck Lake we stopped on a rock to take a break. The walk from the Mountaineer Creek had left the shade of the forest and began winding its way up the side of the mountain. Overall not difficult but the heat was rising. Despite the northwest having a reputation for being rainy and cloudy, we came during a week or sunshine and temperatures upwards of 100* in the valleys and 80s and 90s in the mountains. We sat eating a snack, fending off a sneaky chipmunk and then meeting several groups of hikers, including two women…

  • Gardening

    A Day’s Worth of Dirt Rings

    Yesterday I spent practically the entire day working in the yard. Having been gone for several weekends in a row it was time to get some work done. And the title of this post…well, I was pretty filthy when I finally came in shortly after 6pm yesterday. I had arm rings, neck rings, dirt covering my legs and feet; I was awesomely filthy! All the filth was well worth it as I ticked off items on my to-do list. This photo is really for Chel because it shows our nasturiums coming up in our front flower bed. They are coming along nicely and I hope they take over the bed…

  • Travel & Places,  Washington State

    Marymere Falls | Olympic National Park

    We had a long drive ahead of us as we had to leave the Olympic Peninsula and head to Wenatchee National Forest but that didn’t deter us from making a stop or two before completely leaving the Olympics. I *may* have been a little too excited to have picked up Canadian radio stations….I mean, Canada was right there. Wanting a short but scenic hike we chose the Barnes Creek Trail to Marymere Falls for its nearness to the road due to our time constraints. The trail itself is flat until shortly after crossing the creek and then it is a decent ‘up’ but it is well graded and not difficult…