42 Hours

Wind Advisory...Hmmm what could that mean?

How about a long Monday night of up to 85mph winds and wind-driven rain whipping around the house, and lightning so close there was no counting before the thunder?  How about all the power poles within sight of our front door snapped like toothpicks, and debris strewn all over the highway?

It was pretty obvious that we wouldn't have power for awhile, so we got hot showers in - figuring the water wouldn't stay warm in the tank for long anyway, and took stock of our survival gear.  Luckily, we had just replenished flashlight batteries, so were sitting fine with plenty of light source, we have camping gear, and propane grills, and lots of firewood for the stove in the shop, a pantry full of non-perishables, tap water and soda to last forever, and...leftover birthday cake! 

 For some reason, we were kinda stuck in powered-life mode for the first day.  We were obviously prepared to survive a few days without it, but the first evening after work (the offices had power) was spent trying our darnedest to get a power inverter to power the fridge, the Foreman grill, a space heater, or the hot pot.  Finally, we found the fine print that said "the car must be running in order to pull the maximum wattage for the inverter."  Well, the battery wasn't in a car, and we were not about to run a car all night to cool our food, grill our tuna sandwiches, or boil water!  Frustrated, we escaped to a friend's house with power to be warm and entertained until bedtime.

Boy, was the house chilly when we returned!  The thermostat doesn't go lower than 50, and that's what it was reading.  We threw extra blankets on the bed, and gave the pup an extra layer too.

 The power crews worked all through the night, and were still at it when we left for work the next morning.  We counted at least a dozen trucks, and new power poles were going up!

 Their estimation for power restoration was 4pm Wednesday, but at 4:30, they changed it to 7:30pm Thursday.  All the poles and wires were up, but they ran into some kind of trouble sending the power through them.  We were determined to remember how to be resourceful and adventurous and enjoy the rest of our powerless hours!  We plugged the refrigerator into a borrowed generator, knowing it wouldn't stay cool enough 'til the next night, and Andy grilled up some burgers and got a fire roaring in the shop.

We were happily lounging by the fire in our camping chairs, eating burgers and reassuring the Jersey pup that the crackling sounds from the stove were really ok, when the overhead door light clicked on!  It took a moment to realize that meant the power was back on!

Call us crazy, but we were a little bummed.  We'd just discovered the fun in powerless living! :)

On the other hand, check out all our new and improved power poles!  I wish I could bake a pie for every one of those hard-working power people.  They had the weight of thousands of cold, powerless homes on their shoulders, and they worked nonstop to get us back up and running...

...just in time for our first snow of the season! 

It sure was nice to be in a warm house when we looked out to see Jersey tearing around the yard in circles, taking in mouthfuls of snow without skipping a beat.  I think it's safe to say we were all excited for this kind of winter storm!

Another Year Wiser

 You know this fine fellow?

 He's got reasons to celebrate!

Besides celebrating another wonderful year of living, working, exploring, learning, and all that good stuff, he is on a roll with his new on-the-side business and loving it!

Imagine that - a guy who is passionate about building cars also enjoys (and is good at!) running a business that supplies parts to other build-it-yourselfers!  I can't wait to see where this venture takes him in the next year.

Happy Birthday Andyman!

Company!!

In the midst of Andy's many weeks out of town, I threw a little weekend gathering at our place.  Andy ended up being home for the weekend, and we had a full house!  A few highlights from the weekend:

With 6 adventurers and only cars with 5 seats, we had to go back to the good ol' days of sharing the middle seat.  I guess we should have listened to our dad's advice to buy sensible family cars without bucket seats!

 

 

 

 Our first destination - the Arboretum:

Rolling Down Hills

Playing in the Leaves

Climbing Trees

Pooh Sticks

Sisters

Then home again, where sisters picked apples and Joseph escaped to the shop to help Andy.  Then, we just relaxed and played with tormented the Jersey pup.  She sure is obsessed with knowing where her toys are!

After dinner, a few of us went on an ice cream run to bring Blizzards back for everyone.  When we returned, the rest of them were just sitting in the living room being awfully quiet.  As soon as we were within firing range, the rubber bands started flying.  And that began the longest rubber band war of all times, I'm quite sure.  Dave stopped by after work, was ambushed in much the same way as the Ice Cream Crew, and he joined in relentlessly.  I'm still finding rubber bands all over the place!

We played some Apples to Apples, and shared Blizzards 'round the table before crashing for the night.  The Blizzards tradition goes back a few years with this group of sisters, and Joseph wasn't sure he liked it!  He just wanted to eat his Oreo treat instead of watching it go slowly around the table and show up almost gone (that's just what you get for ordering a group favorite, ya know ;)

Sunday morning, we slept in and had a big ol' breakfast before the churchgoers had to go.  While we waited for their return, we soaked up some sunshine and cleaned out the garden for the winter.  Then, we had time for a game of Taboo before having to say goodbyes.

Ya'll come again soon!

Harvest & Hunting

Now that it feels cold enough to snow outside, I'd like to share some happy Fall photos!  Andy and I had fun with the garden this year, learning more about the soil before planting and trying a few new kinds of veggies, and I think it's safe to say that Harvest is Andy's favorite part of the whole thing.

We dug the potatoes (a bit too early), and were surprised at the quantity and size we got this year!  The plants froze back in May, but recovered and thrived all summer.

We tried bell peppers of every color, and they ripened brilliantly.  I couldn't help but take pictures of our colorful little collections whenever we went out to check on the garden!

Our experiments this year were eggplant...

...and tomatillos!

They were both intriguing to watch, and had beautiful blossoms.  The eggplant plants bloomed and bloomed all summer, but only produced that one fruit.  I checked it for ripeness just over a week ago and decided it needed a few more days on the vine...and then it was frozen to mushiness the next day!  Sad, sad.  My friend Kim makes this delicious Eggplant Parmesan that I had hoped to make with our wee little eggplant (and perhaps some extras from the market), but I'm afraid I've missed the season now.  We'll try again next year!

The tomatillos on the other hand went crazy!  They sprawled all over and were loaded with the fruit in awesome-looking husks.  We picked a gallon of them before the frost, and made some delicious Enchiladas Verde, and will soon make Salsa Verde as well!

Another new thing for us this year, harvesting the herb garden...  We have a lovely herb garden that was already established when we arrived, and we were clueless about them!  We've learned a little here and there, and this year we are drying the ones we could identify.  That's progress, eh?

 

Our tomatoes are still hiding from the frost in their little greenhouses, ripening rather slowly, but we're not ready to give up on them yet! 
For some reason, I'm not so fond of the whole harvesting/cleaning out the garden process, but! I do love what comes next!

And, both of us love the warmth of a good fire in the shop's wood stove...

...and watching the sun rise over waterfowl decoys while we hide out in camouflage.

Happy Autumn everyone!

Weekend in Independence

Labor Day weekend, we hit the road to Independence, OR for a few days with Margaret and Greg.  On the way, we stopped to pick up Jersey to dogsit for the weekend.  We took advantage of good weather the first day to go to a local market and then out to Silver Falls for a hike.

Rain was in the forecast on Sunday, so we went to check out the Evergreen Aviation Museum, home of Howard Hughes' Spruce Goose.

We were all a bit surprised to see this new building as we approached (yes, that is a full-size 747 on top)

.We speculated about what it could be as we went through the Aviation museum and the Space museum.

The beautiful Jenny or JN-4 trainer used for WWI pilots:

A hot air balloon basket:

Ford's passenger plane.  Can you imagine being a flight attendant on this thing?

And, the famous Spruce Goose (well...one of her wings):

And, a little info about Hughes' bird, from a poster there:

There were more planes outside as well:

The walkway between museums featured our solar system embedded in the sidewalk:

Once inside, we were wowed by the size of this:

See Andy looking up at it?

And, what would a space museum be without a setup of the moon landing?

The collection of helicopters was impressive as well:

The space museum had interactive stations where you could try to hover a helicopter:

Or land a space shuttle:

We had a great time, and enjoyed learning and even re-learning about our history in aviation and space.

On our way out, we noticed this sign announcing the intended use of the mysterious 747 building:

Mixed feelings about that one!

Anyhow, we enjoyed our time in Independence - these outings as well as the games, walks, good food, Wii challenges, and just catching up on what had changed since our last visit.