The Boy Beats the Heat

Friday was quite mellow weather-wise, around 70, light breeze, perfect day for The Boy and his Grandpa to visit the bookstore to get new "Captain Underpants" books. Then home to change into swim shorts and a visit to the summer silent college campus a few blocks away and taste the delights of one of their fountains.




Captain Swimshorts spent an hour in his own private pool. I wonder what he is thinking, he left his goggles at his cousins or he would have been swimming underwater he told me. From the look of it water in the face is okay with him.

I was home with my feet up thinking about...nothing, glorious.

Happy Birthday to my husband!

The Grandma Van Takes a Break

The Grandma Van has been in go mode all this week delivering kids to Vacation Bible School, to the Fort Walla Walla Museum Lewis and Clark Camp, and visiting the extended family with our young guest. The kids who went to camp got to learn or practice archery. My eight-year old nephew hand sewed a "possibles" bag to carry all your possible required tools to trek across country in the early 1800's. He enjoyed it so much he came home and contructed a hand sewn bear and then found himself a stick and wove a grass and straw line and tried luring crawdads from a nearby stream into his clutches.

Thanks P. Franzmann Fort Walla Walla Museum.

Today I am enjoying a quiet moment alone with a cup of coffee. My lovely daughter-in-law invited our nephew to overnight on their farm with their six kids last night. A much more lively mix, kids, room to roam, hay, tractors, piggies, goats, chickens, woo, woo! We ate take-out and watched two episodes of "Six Feet Under," from Netflix. Ah, off for another cuppa.

Sunday I drove with my son to Maryhill Museum in the Columbia Gorge to meet my sister and collect my eight year old nephew. This has been an annual event allowing us to split the 270 mile trip nearly in half, picnic, visit, and deliver children back and forth. This time we finally convinced another sister and her husband to join us, a mini-family reunion.



The weather played a joke on us though. My sister and her hubby were early and were waiting in their car avoiding the strong winds gusting through. The air was filled with dust, straw, and other detritus. It was cold. The next car of the sisterhood arrived and after a quick consult we ate in our cars. Most of us in my van. The kids ran around trying to lure the resident peacocks out of the trees where they were hiding from the bluster. This one came out of the shrubbery.

So we toured the museum. I took many bad pictures and this is the only survivor. The lovely baskets had lots of company, and there are paintings, sculpture (inside and out), collections of chess sets, small fashion dolls from Paris in WW2 when fabric was too scarce to use on models.

We also went to the replica Stonehenge here overlooking the gorge and the Columbia River. It is a WW1 Memorial. As Sunday was the solstice there were lots of visitors there that morning watching the sun come up but they were mostly gone when we arrived. The Gorge Stonehenge is aligned incorrectly but people come anyway. We hid from the wind behind the columns. These pictures too were no good. Below is the sole surviving picture with some one's boat motor in it. Sigh. At home I realized I had fiddled with the settings and not reset them.

The little souvenir store here is closing by the 4th of July, another recession decision. The owner decided to retire. Sister and husband drove off to check out the Maryhill Winery a few miles up the road with more of the gorgeous gorge view, and those of us with children headed home. After we washed the dust out of our hair and brushed the grit out of our teeth we have to say we had a good time. Now on to entertaining an 8-year old for a week, he can watch me nap.

No Reality Here

Venturing out into the world lead me to volunteer Saturday at the Fort Walla Walla Museum. They were hosting their annual Fort Walla Walla Days. Early on most of the visitors were reenactors. The grounds were teeming with men in Civil War uniforms as well as some other era military regalia. Whole families participate in this event, women in hoop skirts, children in costume, with period tents,and equipment everywhere. This year the most noticeable change was the increased number of kids who were there in costume. Small girls in bonnets and small boys in uniform for starters, on up through grade school age to high school age. Many had camped overnight and they all seemed to be having a great time.

I momentarily flashed in and out of "Gone With the Wind" as two women in hoop skirts stopped with several costumed children and a babe in arms to ask directions (but not for the way out of Atlanta). And once again I had come without my camera. Sooner or later I will catch on.

Then it was off to see the new "Night at the Museum, Battle of the Smithsonian" with a couple of granddaughters. I laughed my head off and so did the girls. Apparently I am into a weekend of history and unreality. Come to think of it, that's what we did on the Lady Washinton too. I think I see a pattern here. Yea!

What will I be when I grow up?

In the wee small hours of the morning...I wonder where I am headed. The grandkids are out of school this week and I have a summer ahead of me to ponder weighty questions and practice some better living habits. I want to turn my ship around and head out while I still can. See what happens when you get to pace the decks of a wooden sailing ship? My head is filled with seagoing metaphors. I’m finally getting some good health back, the reward for methodically dragging my behind to the gym three times a week. My round belly actually has IN-dentations in it. My noodle arms have grown a couple of bicep-like bumps in them. The best part is I am enjoying myself again while building up a reserve stash of energy. So where to spend it?

We do have company coming, young ones from afar, old college friends, and a sister. I will continue my gym visits, they are turning out to be the difference between living and just existing for me. I will read a lot (what I do in the summer anyway). I just got a copy of “Thoughts Matter: The Practice of the Spiritual Life” by Mary Margaret Funk. Yes, she’s a nun this Mary Margaret, and no, I am not going out into the desert to live for a few years until I get it right. Wait a minute! I already live in a desert. My most simple expression of my faith is the hope that I leave here an improved version of how I came into this world.

The other book I am deeply involved in right now is “Reading Lolita in Tehran” by Azar Nafisi. Most absorbing, especially with the elections going on in Iran right now. But it has given me another view of how women make their lives in a world that is often hostile to them. Nafisi was a teacher of literature as well as a writer and her discussions of Fitzgerald have sent me back to the library to read those books again. And imagine having the courage to teach Western Literature in post-revolutionary Iran. So, at 67, I find myself having the same thoughts I did when I graduated out of school and began my young adult life. Only now it’s what will I be as I grow old?

Thursday Pun-ishment

1. The roundest knight at King Arthur's round table was Sir Curmference. He acquired his size from too much pi.
2. I thought I saw an eye doctor on an Alaskan island, but it turned out to be an optical Aleutian.
3. She was only a whiskey maker, but he loved her still.
4. A rubber band pistol was confiscated from algebra class because it was a weapon of math disruption.
5. The butcher backed into the meat grinder and got a little behind in his work.
6. No matter how much you push the envelope, it'll still be stationery.
7. A dog gave birth to puppies near the road and was cited for littering.
8. A grenade thrown into a kitchen in France would result in Linoleum Blownapart.
9. Two silk worms had a race. They ended up in a tie.
10. Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
11. A hole has been found in the nudist camp wall. The police are looking into it.
12. Atheism is a non-prophet organization.
13. Two hats were hanging on a hat rack in the hallway. One hat said to the other, "You stay here; I'll go on a head."
14. I wondered why the baseball kept getting bigger. Then it hit me.
15. A sign on the lawn at a drug rehab center said: "Keep off the Grass."
16. A small boy swallowed some coins and was taken to a hospital. When his grandmother telephoned to ask how he was, a nurse said, "No change yet."
17. A chicken crossing the road is poultry in motion.
18. The man who survived mustard gas and pepper spray is now a seasoned veteran.
19. A backward poet writes inverse.
20. In democracy it's your vote that counts. In feudalism it's your count that votes.
21. When cannibals ate a missionary, they got a taste of religion.
22. Don't join dangerous cults: Practice safe sects!
23. The short fortune-teller who escaped from prison was a small medium at large.
24. If you don't pay your exorcist you get repossessed.

Sailing Away - Almost

Last Sunday we gassed up the truck and set off for a three hour cruise (that sounds ominous) on the Hawaiian Chieftain accompanied by the Lady Washington. First the gas pirates got us.

Photo courtesy S. Zumberis

We boarded the Hawaiian Chieftain around 10am. That was a good thing and a bad thing. The good part the weather turned out unseasonably hot, morning was better, and I have nothing but pity for the afternoon cruisers. But alas, there was little sailing for there was no wind. Perhaps the PM cruisers got some of the afternoon wind that can whip up on the Columbia River at this eastern end of the gorge. Now that the complaining is out of the way. I have to say we had a good time. One of the things I love about these ships and wooden boats in general is the magnificent woodwork and the brass fittings. Below is a picture of the door into the crew's quarters.

Photo courtesy P. Franzmann

We motored out into the channel and the crew went aloft and hoisted the sails. Note the sailing lingo here me hearties. And, I loved this guy's hat.

Several of the crew climbed up and unfurled the sails. Later on they let those of us who were game for it climb into the harness and climb the rigging ourselves. Yours truly chickened out and stayed on the deck, telling herself it was too hot to do that.

We chose the travel on the Hawaiian Chieftain so we could get better pictures of the Lady Washington a.k.a. The Black Pearl, and we did. I am sorry to say the pictures I got of the HC did not turn out so hot. It was another learning experience for me with the new camera. I did, however get this nice shot below of the Lady Washington firing her cannons at us. Our crew had fired their cannons several times much to the delight of all and several small boats motoring around us. The gunner gave a very interesting talk about how the little 3 pound cannons worked, how the dummy shot worked, and how they took care of them. I learned among other things that they were called 3 pounders because the ball they could fire weighed 3 pounds, duh! And that on a good day the shot could travel up to a mile. He explained the ballistics techniques and artistry that would send a large cannon ball through the front or the back of another ship thereby making a big hole possibly all the way the opposition's vessel. Scary.

I'd do it again. I think one of things that surprised me the most is the small size of the ships especially relative to distances they sailed these ships in their day. I think next time we'll try to get closer to the ocean with them. Their home port is Aberdeen, Washington. They are currently plying the waters of the Columbia River heading back towards Astoria and then up the coast into Puget Sound. If you have any interest they have a schedule on their website. In addition if you have sailing skills, or other necessary skills you could spend your vacation volunteering on one of these ships. http://www.ladywashington.org/

BBQ with the Flock, not of the flock

We spent Saturday night having a BBQ at the farm with a multitude of family. The day had been hot but the table, chairs, and picnic blanket were in the shade of the house and as early evening settled in the temperature went from hot to warm. Burgers, hot dogs, lentils cooked ala beans, fruit salad and good company, human and otherwise. The birds on this farm are free range and like the goats and piggies, they think they are dogs or maybe even people and they slowly cluck around all the chairs waiting for a morsel to drop or for a small girl to run off and leave her plate unattended. They were in luck Saturday. These are the half grown turkeys who hang out with the chicks.


And here are some of the chickens, laying hens for the most part. And these little girls lay the most delicious eggs I've ever had in my life. The shells are something, really hard to crack, not like the grocery store eggs. Thank you ladies. Somewhere out there is a totally out of control Banty rooster named Mr. Fuzzy. Mr. Fuzzy is the terror of most of the grandgirls. He has some competition now, a new little rooster named Friendly, who is just tiny. We also get some duck eggs now and again which are large and speckly and also tasty. Unfortunately last weekend a raccoon or some similar critter did in one of the duck ladies. Later we also had a visitation by two very plump does grazing in the hay field.



Then came the after dinner entertainment. My youngest son has purchased himself a new (to him) farmer toy, a harrow bed, wot? You can tell I'm not a farm girl. (The rural places I started out in had fishing boats and loggers, punctuated by sojourns in big cities). So it scoops up a bale with the whatsit, and then it lifts it up with whoozit and the next bale scooped up shoots the previous bale out onto the trailer, somehow, kind of, I guess. The whole idea is to avoid bucking bales by hand. It's 50 years old but seems to be in good shape. That's him below with his oldest girl (hoping to drive) and an uncle figuring out how it goes. One of the several black house cats is perched on a hay bale supervising. http://dalanfarm.blogspot.com/ this is his blog with a much better explanation than mine.