Moving on

Now that we have sort of settled, we're no longer all that lost...
Blogging has moved on to 'Little Yurt in the Woods' a little catch up, our ongoing story and new adventures!

Homer, AK
August 2012

Il Neige

It's snowing at Ghostwood.  Not for the first time this season but still, I had to drive home in the snow in the dark which is NO FUN - then walk halfway up the driveway.  Ah but I made it to shelter and there were no major dramas :)

Will it snow enough and will it stick around long enough for us to enjoy an ever elusive white Christmas?  I guess we can only wait and see!  5 days to go...

Wise Words

I'm not in the habit of sharing propaganda, but these here are some wise words....

The Mayonnaise Jar & Two Beers

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him.

When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls.

He then asked the students if the jar was full.

They agreed that it was...

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly.

The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls.

He then asked the students again if the jar was full.

They agreed it was...

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar.

Of course, the sand filled up everything else.

He asked once more if the jar was full.

The students responded with a unanimous 'yes.'

The professor then produced two Beers from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand.

The students laughed...

'Now,' said the professor as the laughter subsided, 'I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life.

The golf balls are the important things---your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favorite passions---and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.

The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car.

The sand is everything else---the small stuff.

'If you put the sand into the jar first,' he continued, 'there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls.

The same goes for life.

If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you.

Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness.

Spend time with your children.

Spend time with your parents.

Visit with grandparents.

Take time to get medical checkups.

Take your spouse out to dinner.

Play another 18...

There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal.

Take care of the golf balls first---the things that really matter.

Set your priorities.

The rest is just sand.

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the Beer represented.

The professor smiled and said, 'I'm glad you asked.'

The beer just shows you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of beers with a friend.

Bats in the Bunker

Howdy strangers!  It's been awhile...  Rest assured - time has not been wasted!  We've had some more adventures, things have been happening and our short term future is becoming slowly clearer.  I will update you on these soon!

News right now is the bat in the bunker...

Just hanging out...

Seeking Shade

Well, we now have more sun and heat than we could ever want! Perhaps too much...
We woke up to sunshine after our night on the coast, had a leisurely breakfast and flew the kite on the beach. After that we took a trip to Tillamook to check out pretty much the only thing there - the Cheese Factory! On the way we stopped at a run down looking building which housed a fish smokehouse - we'd seen it advertised as having the most excellent hot smoked salmon. We warily went in and found trays of freshly smoked fish and no one in sight - until we heard a bloodcurdling scream... Anyway, long story short, we got our hands on some very reasonably priced totally excellent treats.

The cheese factory was pretty epic, snuck through the tasting section twice, yum, and had some ice-cream too. Spent much of the time just watching the factory floor. Also stopped by the Blue Heron French cheese factory where there were more free samples although most were not cheese... On the way out of town saw the Tillamook Air Museum and had to stop in there too if not just to check out the gigantic pillar-less blimp hangar it was housed in.

Eventually we got on the road to Salem, our next stop to visit and old friend of J's and his new family. Had a great time catching up/learning about the other half's childhood. We pulled in to Champoeg State Park rather late for a well earned rest.  We had a leisurely morning, cooked up a tasty breakfast, showered and marveled at the fact that it felt like we were at an RV park as opposed to a state park.

After that we headed up to Portlandia to catch up with friends/neighbors from our previous address.  We were well fed and watered several times over, had a great catch up and stayed for 2 nights of luxury.  In the middle of this we made it out to our storage unit, put the Weekender on a tow dolly and moved all our junk into a smaller unit.  Well productive!

We hit the highway on Saturday after a delicious pancake breakfast and a return to the storage unit to pick up something we forgot.  It was not a fun drive... towing a large vehicle on a dolly which is wider than the Jeep is no easy task.  My darling husband did an awesome job and we made it into California and back to base camp without any hiccups.  That night was also the arrival of the team from Kansas, they arrive in the early hours so we had to wait until the next day to see everyone another 5 years older and/or wiser than the last time we had seen them!  That evening the rest of the crew arrived and the gathering of the maternal side of the family was complete.

The next week ensued with much talking, swimming and adventures to castles; photos, food and fun for all.  Two of the grandkids stayed a week longer for some quality time, more swimming, adventures and arts & crafts.  Then it was time for some work before the mystery guests arrived.  Shoveling, painting, cleaning, grinding, swimming, etc...  And arrive they did, in style, all the way from chilly NZ, and we proceeded to hang out and some imbibed and had a tremendously good time for the next few days.  Now we are recovering for a week or so until the next guests arrive for a grand birthday.

Summer is HOT!  And we have much to do... not exactly a good combination trying to work (or even move) outside in 35-40 celsius blazing sunshine.  But we shall get there, albeit at a leisurely pace...

Seeking Sun

We did it!  We are now two officially certified Wilderness First Responders.  An intense nine days to be sure, many many acronyms remembered, two exams passed and a bunch of new friends made.  Pretty awesome.  Oh, and we are much better prepared to assess, identify and stabilize life threatening injuries and illnesses in the wilderness.  Win!

Western Washington in late late spring can be a very wet place.  It is probably pretty wet most of the time actually and I think we were fairly lucky with the weather we had to deal with.  Our first rain didn't come until Friday night/Saturday morning, luckily this was the day of our night scenario so we had planned to drive in anyway - we were even smart enough to pack up the tarp before bed so we wouldn't have to deal with so much wet gear.  Then Saturday night we were offered an indoor place to stay which definitely made life that rainy night much easier.  It continued to rain on Sunday night, but after exams were done on Monday it started to clear a little while we had a celebratory lunch.

Now by 'clear a little' I mean it wasn't actually raining at time.  Our gear was wet and we desperately wanted to find somewhere dry so that we could dry out a little.  Unfortunately the weather forecast for pretty much all of Washington wasn't going to cooperate with us that easily.  We needed to head south although we weren't in a rush but we were tired so that's the direction we went.  We skipped on the first two campgrounds we stopped at - Washington likes to turn a lot of 'stands of old-growth forest' into state park campgrounds.  I'm sorry, but the last place we want to be when it's cold and raining out is in a dark, damp forest.  We ended up heading towards the coast and stopping at a county park with a little less forest and a view over the ocean.  It wasn't raining when we pulled in so we got dinner sorted and camp set up without too many issues.  And then it rained most of the night.  We slept in and managed to wait out the rain this time, though we did make a smart decision to pack down and move out fairly quickly because yep, it started raining again.

The view over Astoria

The Astoria Column

We were in desperate need of some sunshine.  Headed in to Oregon and stopped for a wander around Astoria and climbed up the tower.  Oregon must have been happy to see us because while we were there the sun came out.  Yay!  Continued South along 101 - the Oregon Coast Highway - with gorgeous views, stopped at Cannon Beach, a cute little coastal town, and then by 5PM we found a state park where the sun was shining, right next to the beach.  Popped the tent to dry, pulled everything out of it and had all our gear dry and sorted out before the sun went down.  A sunset we made a point of watching!  We feel so much better now and the forecast for tomorrow is pretty good too.

The Oregon Coast Highway

Sunset at Nehalem State Park

In The Middle

Wow, 10 days without a post.  Woe is me.  Let's just say we've been busy!

After waking up to a chilly, wet day in Idaho at Massacre Rocks State Park, we found 'Register Rock' which is one of several rocks where Pioneers on the Oregon Trail carved their names.  Unfortunately, probably because of only a few ignorant people, the entire rock had been caged off but it was still pretty cool.  The weather was crap so we got back in the Jeep and drove.  All the way through Idaho and into central Oregon.  We had last minute called relatives in the area to see if we could visit - for me, the first time meeting more of the extended American family.  So we stopped in Burns for some excellent company and Zuppa Toscano.  We had a great time and it would have been nice to stay longer but there were places to go.

Headed North to one of our favorite places: Bend, OR.  It was our anniversary after all and we could do as we pleased.  Stopped in at our favorite place to shop - REI - and ran into an old friend from California who we discovered had been living in Bend for the past 2 years.  We were getting hungry so we found a tasty cafe (Chow - as recommended by the shoe girl at REI) and had a yummy late brunch. After filling our bellies we made a dizzy beeline for Portland to run some errands, and then up to Vancouver to drop-off/pick-up some stuff from our storage unit.  By the time we had fished random items out from the boxes we could actually get to in the unit, it was getting late.  The weather seemed it might be turning from a-ok to somewhat worse as we headed up to Battle Ground Lake State Park while darkness crept in.  J worked in the dark with a headlamp switching our bike tires while I cooked some Salmon steaks and broccoli for a late anniversary dinner.

We woke in the morning to rain.  Steady rain.  The first rain we'd had the whole trip!  Our attempt to wait it out while sleeping did not pay off so we ended up breaking camp in a hurry and getting out of the rainforest!  The Jeep was still filthy from the days in the dust so what else would you do on a rainy day?  We headed for the DIY car wash.  Luckily these operations are under cover so we could stay (mildly) dry while we power washed, soaped and rinsed the car.  We then took our time with dust cloths and wet rags to try and remove some of the dust from the interior surfaces.  The difference was amazing!  Not quite perfect but much better than it had been.  From Battle Ground we headed North through Washington through torrential-can't-see-the-road-can't-hear-anything rain and when the sun poked it's head out an hour later we pulled into a rest area.  A beautiful rest area at that.  Moisture from the downpour was steaming off the pavement a pretty picture highlighted by the sun.  We took a break to enjoy the sunshine, J worked on replacing the tires of the second bike while I brushed my teeth, popped the tent to dry, fielded all the questions and comments from the passers-by and made some lunch.  It's amazing how many comments we get on the roof tent - a lot of people have never seen anything like it apparently.  (Obviously they've never been to an Overland Expo, there were 100s of them there!)  Once we were dried out and fed, we continued North, stopped in at REI once again (just because) and then headed on to my dear friend's place in Bellevue.  After 5 years or marriage, we only thought it was right to celebrate with our one and only guest/witness :)  We had also received some fabulous news while driving through the downpour - our new niece had arrived!  Welcome to the world little EJ!!

After spending the next day doing some normal things like shopping with a friend, we headed north a bit more, making it into Larrabee State Park - our home for the next 10 days - around 8PM.  We set up a more elaborate camp, launching a tarp off the top of the tent over the back of the Jeep (our kitchen) to shield us from the rain which, in this area, is highly likely.  We got ourselves ready for our first day of school and went to bed.

So for the last 5 days, we have been up at 6AM, on our bikes by 7, riding for 45 minutes up and down hills on gravel and dirt trail, to WWU for our Wilderness First Responder course.  It has been pretty intense and every day we are tired body and mind.  Hopefully it will all be worth it!  Today we are on our break day and still have several chores plus study/revision to do.  A delicious lunch at Boundary Bay Brewery should give us plenty of energy to get these tasks done....