Fall into Winter

Hello Friends and Family! Took the summer off to play, but now we can start off where we left off. It is now fall here and we are excited to have a change of season. We have experienced one full year of Summer Lake living and it has been such a joy. So many good times and we look forwards to more.

This is one of the petroglyphs just a few miles from our house, basically in the backyard! We have brought a few groups of friends to check them out and we have all been impressed. Our friend Douglas who first showed us the rocks says that they could be thousands of years old. I love living in a place so ancient and secretive…

Backyard Thistle

We can officially say we are in summer in Summer Lake. Last weeks thunder and lightning have turned into not a cloud in the sky and hot hot hot! Yipee, it has begun and I have a sunburn to prove it! (ouch)

I have had the good fortune to not have to go into work the past few days. Mini vacation! Actually, Josh is on a solo project at work and there is no way for me to help. He has taken on the monumental task of removing the blow in insulation from the old homestead building at the Inn. This is now day five… He is wearing a mask and using a big sucker machine that goes slow, but today is the final sucking then to the dump. His contraption is ingenious. He put up large sheets of plywood with braces on both the truck and the trailer (both have dump features) then plastic to contain the fluff that could get out and has attached a pipe to the tube running from the sucking machine to send all of the debris shooting into either the truck or the trailer. He comes home really dirty but in surprisingly great spirits!

This thistle is growing wild in the backyard. It is really pretty but mostly likely not soft! I remember when I was a kid I spent 17 days at my aunt Ronda and uncle Jim’s house in Northport. My cousin Jessica and I would take off to the hills with kitchen knives and have battles in the fields with the hundreds of thistles that grew there. I don’t plan on going to battle with these cuties but I remember that at the time it was a lot of fun. Funny the things we do as kids.

The chickes are doing good at making us two eggs every day. They have figured out our bedroom window and they come around in the early morning a squawk for their breakfast. Good girls.

The garden is doing really well. We got the grass seeds in before the rain and now we are about ready to find a mini mower. It is the tiniest little yard ever! We planted carrots and cucumbers from seed a couple of days ago. We have 13 established tomato plants, three leeks, one bean, three squash and one not so good looking basil. All of the sunflowers are almost over three feet tall with some pushing four. We transplanted some wild grass from the field, most of which has begun to established itself. My friend Jan gave us mint, comphry, fennel and some oregano all of which also enjoyed landing in our secret garden. The yard looks like my Mom’s so I know we are on the right track. I would like to get some rocks to go around the beds to help contain water and to make it look even cuter!

Cherry truck is at the mechanic. We are really doing it up this time. The original stutter is still there, so we are looking into that getting fixed once and for all plus we are getting all sorts of underside work done and some new burly desert tires from les shwabies. Lots of $ and attention so she’ll run like a dream. We haven’t been able to drive around and adventure like we have wanted because she has been in pretty rough shape. But soon, oh the back country off road driving we will do! Our friends at work have lent us his Grandma’s car until Cherry comes home, very generous of them.

The Storm Continues

Long time no write, I know, but here we are again! Summer Lake has been a wild place these past few weeks. This is the wettest year ever so says the people that are from here. This is a picture of the first real thunderstorm of the spring. Storms with lightning and thunder, big ominous clouds and then the rain, oh the rain. Every day for the past two and a half weeks we have had this kind of weather activity. Suits me just great, the storm chaser in me has to only step out the front door. So much for this place being dry! It is good for our little garden oasis. We planted grass seeds the day the storms hit and now we have almost a full grassy area.(aside from the patches of dirt that the chickies made..) We are going to wait one more week, then we are going to take our shoes off and take our first steps on our very own baby grass. It is the little things that we get our kicks from! The tomatoes are so so. But the sunflowers we got in early are doing really well. At least the birds will be full and happy this harvest season. I have not given up on the garden, it is just frustrating with the poor drainage and bad alkali soil. Still fun to play!

Josh got an amp from Mom and Dad Shu for his birthday and we solidified the deal with a brand new Ibenez and some headphones. He will go into our shared studio and not come out for hours! Usually I am in bed sleeping by the time he wraps up, but I have seen him come out looking a bit crazed and very happy. It has been alot of fun. It will be exciting to take the show on the road someday! Josh is trying to convince me to use my “jackson” pipes and try to sing! After a couple of adult beverages I get a bit more relaxed with the idea!

I have been working on a hand painted sign for an RV park. It turned out really pro looking and I am hopeful for more commissions. Anyone need a sign? The art has been slower in coming, need to make some frames… I had submitted my work to a couple of different shows, but they didn’t want me… Boo. But if you fall off the horse, get back on and ride harder! Other opportunities will surface in time, till then we have a house full of paintings! I have a show in Portland this summer, so I imagine that is where the Landscapes will land. Anyone need any art!

We are keeping very busy with work these days as well. The Inn is well on its way to being a whole new establishment. Our part in the deal is the siding. We have to take all the old bats down, caulk all the seams around windows and doors, tar paper, then measure and cut the Port Orford Cedar. It smells soo good!! On Fridays (when the crew has gone home to Eugene) we go to the site and clean up the mess they made through the week. We pick up and sort random wood pieces, haul burnable to the pile in the back forty, collect the trash, load up the trailer and get ready for the dump run on Saturday. We go into Paisley and get iced mochas at the coffee stand (a big treat that I look forwards to!), some lunch and then to the dump. The truck we use has a dump feature, so it makes us the envy of all the dump patrons! Strange, but going to the dump has always been fun for me. Not strange when I look at my family. I remember as a kid dump day was always fun. Go collecting other peoples trashy treasures. All sorts of things came from there! I don’t bring anything home from the dump these days, but I am sure if I went for fun I could come up with something to haul home.

Home is good. The warm weather has brought on the little critters and bugs…. Yikes. The only way to defeat the noseums is to slather on the deet and off you go. They drive me batty! The other night we even had an encounter with a scorpion!!! He was crawling over me while we were watching a movie. I was squealing like a little school girl on the chair freaking out! We released him a good distance from the house and hope to not have to go through that again. And then there are the mice. We are getting two rent a kitties from some friends of ours today. They are farm kitties, but hopefully we can coax them into the house, then they can catch as many mice as they want. That is the plan, we will see how it goes! LOL!!!

I hope to get back to the Adventures of Josh and Jami, so keep posted, I promise to write again.

Just Be “CUZ”

Cousins

Up getting my best sister dress made at Mom’s. Josh volunteered to stay home and take care of the “ladies” even though he really did want to come up with me…

So far the visit has gone really great. Mom, Dad and I spent the Easter weekend with Grandma and Grandpa. We had delicious food, good wine and time to take it easy looking out over the lake while talking with G&G. Yesterday my good friend Mark from high school invited me over to see his new house. It was his birthday and he made brunch for me and his roommate. Nice to see friends and their successes. Last night I had a get together with my cousins that are here living in the Kootenays. We went to Kim and Bruces house in Neslon and had a great dinner and talked the night away. Thanks so much you guys for the memorable night! Such fun to see all of you with your families. Very inspiring…

Happy Birthday Josh!

Today Josh is officially 40! We are off to work with Steve and Mimi, so no rest for the Birthday Man, but we had a weekend of fun, so a bit of work seems appropriate!

Josh and I were sitting outside shooting the #$%& and what do you know a car pulls up and it is our good friends Brent, Luke and Don from Estacada and beyond! They came all the way to surprise Josh and did they ever! Beers all around and then a tour of Anna Resevoir to see the snow geese. Steve and Mimi had a big dinner prepared and had invited us, Ed and Elizabeth and the gang of visitors for a feast. They made wonderful stuffed chicken, a tri cip roast, a fresh green salad and asparagus. Brent brought the biggest selection of desserts I have ever seen and I made sugar free banana bread for E and E. It was an intense meal! We had whiskey and wine till we had our fill. Conversations abounded and all were pleasantly joyous. The last I seen of Josh he gave me a big smooch and sauntered off into the night to hang with the boys. The next day we all had a big breakfast, thanks again to Steve and Mimi, then off to see the Sandhill Cranes and the house project. What a great time we had!

I had the “all summer bin loggin’” t-shirts printed up as a surprise for Josh today. They turned out pretty good and we are excited to take it to the next level.

Today is a beauty day and work is calling. Chow for now!

The Josh and Jami Show

Here we are at work, getting ready to demo the “Office”. We got the roof off and all its insulation removed and all the remnants stacked in neat and tidy rows. Over the course of the week the 2G guys came in and took apart the rest of it aside from the original deck that Josh and I took apart yesterday. We hauled three loads of burn wood to the burn pile and multiple runs to other storage sheds on the site. We cleaned up house and now the 2G guys are going to come and move things around (literally, the whole entire building is being LIFTED!). Who knows what our next project will be, but believe me, Josh and I can do it! We work well together and hardly fight at all! LOL! It’s alot like canoeing. One person has to paddle hard and the other has to say where we they are going. It can either make or break a marriage! Fortunately we are coming at it with acceptance and I can say now, years of learning, so what was once hard is now a treasure; a time to relish in the accomplishment of being there together, working hard and shouting: YES WE CAN!

We work hard and we play hard! Today Josh is building the pent house for the Ladies. He made it easy for me. He said “you design it the way you want and I will make it.” Not bad… After the roof is on we will move it into location, but there is still so much more work to be put into it. The pump house needs siding and a barn red paint job, as does the coop, all of it gets white trim and then there is the run… Ah, the life of the homesteader… We really have it made though to be able to run inside, check emails, make bread in the machine, sit back in easy chairs, turn off the lights, relax to a good movie or even the soft subtle sounds of the dryer in action, drive to work in dependable vehicles and to even have work… Imagine the life that our ancestors had with what little they really did have. They call it the “good ole days”. I think more like the work all day and night days! I imagine that they had their good times, but the life we live today, with all of the luxuries we have, they would think that we had it made with all of things we have at our fingertips…. they might call these days “retirement”!

Tonight we are having good ole fashioned candadian bacon pinapple pizza! I am really excited. Josh is a peporonni man, so this pineapple business is a bit freaky, but I sold him on the BBQ chicken pizza just last week, so I think I can pull off this Canadian classic, given my home country and all!

May your spring days be exciting!

“Ladies”

Our newest members of the family, The Ladies! I brought them home from Christmas Valley a couple of days ago. Josh was so surprised! He and I got to making them a temporary apartment and they seem to be doing good. Yesterday I made them a chicken run and just this morning, after only their second night with us we got a farm fresh organic free range egg! Josh thinks we should have more and here I thought two was alot!

Check out that side kick the lady on the left is doing! What a hoot!

Outback Wetlands

This is where the snow geese were hanging out the other day, right by our house (you can see them if you look close, them, the white line in the horizon). It is my first attempt at painting water and I had a really good time! Any feedback?

Josh has the day off so he is taking a well deserved snooze. He fell asleep listening to Vivaldi, how sophisticated! … Homemade pepperoni, onion and olive pizza tonight, good for lunches and leftovers. I use the dough recipe from the Moose Wood Vegetarian Cookbook that Dad Shumey bought me a few years ago for Christmas. It makes two large cookies sheet size pizzas. I make my own pizza sauce with a can of tomato sauce, pesto, sun dried tomatoes and Italian seasoning.

Spring has arrived, in like a lion and hopefully out like a lamb. The snow blew sideways just the other day, LOL!

craning to see

Cranes

There are so many cool creatures here! I got pretty close to these cranes the other day. They were honking and making a fuss so I adventured and found about 5 or 6 of them milling about. My boss says they remind him of people shopping at an estate sale, looking and head bobbing, craning their necks to see what is behind this or that. I think that the description is fitting!

Snow Geese Stop in Summer Lake!

Yesterday we went and seen this amazing site. The Snow Geese are here on a stop over; they are traveling back to Alaska for summer and are only here in Summer Lake for a short while. Every morning and evening they all get to honking and making fuss, probably talking about where they are going next. An eagle flies over and makes them all in a frenzy and then whoosh, up and off they go to a new section of water. The moment they take off an awesome sound begins to resonate from them, like no other sound. It was amazing to see this many of one creature. I took a lot of photos, but this one really shows the mass number of them, in the hundreds of thousands, if not a million… Josh and I stayed and watched them till the sun set and then drove the short five minutes back home. It is amazing that these kinds of things are literally in our back yard. Soon the Snow Geese will be gone, but we were very happy to have had the chance to witness this glorious event.