Caroline’s Video For June/July 2021
Oregon Coast Vacation
Life has been so full that literally I have had no time to document it. But thankfully things have slowed down a bit, so I want to share pictures from our short vacation to the Oregon coast last week.
We had never been to the coast. Dustin wanted to go spear fishing, so we randomly began looking for places he could go, within a day’s drive. Then we talked some of my family into joining us, booked a vacation rental by the sea, and headed out once the big day arrived.
It was a beautiful drive the whole way. Some of the route I had been on before, but a lot of it was new. We drove the entire width of Oregon, and got to see the variety. First of course it was High Desert irrigated fields and smooth wrinkled hills (like we have at home).
We drove along the river much of the way, so the drive was gorgeous. There were trains galore – which Davy loved – and we got to enjoy the river commerce as well. Barges, enormous dams and power plants, sailboats, kite skiers, beautiful bridges, and all sorts of boats passed by our windows. The scenery was lovely everywhere.
Once we got through Portland – the one big city on our route – we left the river and drove through farming land that reminded me a lot of Pennsylvania, except that there were higher mountains in view off to the left and the woods were mostly pine instead of deciduous. Patches of woods and fields, old churches and graveyards, quiet prosperous farms and farmer’s markets.
After the farmland, we drove through a section of highway that was just a winding road through the trees. By now the pines were mixed with deciduous trees, and it was definitely more humid than what we are used to. We passed through Tillamook with its enormous dairy factory, and soon after got our first glimpse of the sea!
The children did remarkably well with spending all day in the car, and we had only 2 stops. About 8 hours after we left home, we were at our vacation rental and could explore a bit. It was a good 20 degrees cooler than at home, and very windy. The sea smell was refreshing, even with the extra humidity. The rest of the family arrived not long after, and once we duh out our jackets we all ran down through the paths in the sea grass to the beach as soon as possible.
The water was freezing, and much of the time it was windy, but the weather was lovely. We had a nice view from the upper level of the rental, and could watch the waves and the sunset. Davy loved playing in the sand – though instead of building a sand castle he said he was making a snowman, which made us chuckle.
Much of the time it was very low-key. We rested and walked along the beach, played in the sand and water on the warmest days, did much of our own cooking, read in the sunshine and hung out together. It had a funny combination of higher humidity, cooler temperatures, and refreshing sea breezes – but it was nice to have a break from our heavy summer heat and smoke at home.
Monday afternoon we girls went shopping at some of the little local shops, and I found some treasures. Even more were found the next day at an antique store in Garibaldi.
Dustin did some scouting and found a good place nearby to go spear fishing, so he went out at least once a day. He caught a few crab, and enjoyed watching the marine life. He bought some fresh halibut and did beer-battered fried fish Monday afternoon. It was incredibly melt-in-your-mouth good.
Tuesday we went on the local train ride, which wound along the coast for a few miles. The coast is rocky and very scenic.
Then we ate lunch at the fish house. I tried fried oysters, had some amazing clam chowder, and shared Dustin’s fried rockfish – the difference between fresh fish and the filets you buy in the store is just night and day!
Because it was our last day, Daddy got more rockfish and halibut to eat for supper. I ended up liking the rockfish as much or more than the halibut, and it’s much less expensive.
While on the train ride, I kept exclaiming over how many blackberries were growing wild. Ripe ones were literally everywhere, in bunches like grapes. Just going to waste. After we left, Dustin pulled over by the road and we spent a half hour picking berries as fast as we could. And it did not look like we even touched those few bushes. Some spoiled by the next day when I could freeze the, but I still had more than a gallon to freeze. Next time if we go in berry season I want to pick and freeze some while we are there!
Wednesday we packed up and drove back home, this time seeing all the beautiful scenery in reverse and driving back into some smokiness and heat. The children were glad to get home to their familiar surroundings and routine, but overall did really well. Road trips are SO much easier than flying.
I don’t know if we will make this an annual occasion, but everyone loved it well enough that Daddy is talking about going back next year, or at least every few years. Just the change of pace, scenery, culture, and seafood are worth the trip. (Plus I want to go whale watching sometime. 🙂
Moving, and Our First Guests in the New House!
Well. We have been having a very exciting time here, or at least, very exhausting. We have officially moved into the new house, praise the Lord! We never would have made our deadline without support from both our church and local communities.
A few days after moving in, we got our first guests! Our good friends the Swartzentrubers were taking a family trip out West, and we never would have forgiven them if they hadn’t come to see us. We had a lovely time, and they helped us put up some fencing, which was a HUGE help since the animals pretty much have free rein around the place.
It was interesting for me (Elsie) though, because I managed to get tonsillitis while they were here, and couldn’t speak at all for two days! It ended up being quite funny, though, because I could NOT make myself stay out of the conversation, and would burst in trying to get my point across with hands flailing, and expressions on my face that I didn’t know I could make! I may have to call them sometime in the future to let them know that I CAN talk (too much, sometimes), and I’m not quite as crazy as I seem.
Anyway. Get ready for a boat load of pictures. We didn’t get very many pictures of the actual move, because we were too frantically busy moving. So here are a lot of random pictures, not necessarily in order.
Well, I warned you there there were a pile of pictures, and I think that this post is about long enough. So here’s one more picture of Mom’s longhorns.
~ Elsie
Various Life Snapshots
Here is a roundup of various pictures taken over the past week and a half. First from last Sunday, when we decided on the spur of the moment to go check out a local lake we hadn’t been to yet, since it was a good half-way spot between us and our friends up north. It turned out to be such a lovely place!
It was such a perfect day…the lake was enormous and so blue, and very secluded. Dustin spent most of his time on the dock with Davy and the other little boys, and Davy’s new fishing rod.
Davy’s first little fish! He was so proud of it and talked about it for days. They caught quite a few little ones under the dock.
We will likely be back at this mountain lake a lot this summer.
Back Home at the Little House
With all the sunshine, Betsy has to wear a hat sometimes. She’s not really a fan.
We started getting some strawberries off our little patch. A nice little handful every few days doesn’t last long, but is very enjoyable addition to our daily menu.
Davy loves to help Janna in the garden. She says that he likely may grow up to be a gardener, which is fine with me!
The new landlord got quite a crop off of the alfalfa field. It is mesmerizing to watch the tractor go around and around the field, and the scent of new mown hay is one of my favorites.
We ended up felling the tree in our yard that had been affected by lightning, because it was so close to the house and we had no way of telling how damaged it was.
We have had more rain this June than any other June on record. It is very unusual! Here was the view of Indian Valley when coming over the hill home from a visit at Grandma’s, on one of those rainy days.
On Saturday Janna, Caroline and I took the children to the little playground in Midvale. Davy loved it, of course.
Betsy has been letting go of things, and practicing standing. This time she probably stood for almost a minute before losing her balance. She’ll be walking before we know it!
Then on up to see the progress at the new Big House. Janna brought muffins and chocolate milk, so the workers took a break on the back porch.
Elsie is in the middle of painting the house exterior. Right now you can see exactly how high the ladder goes!
Janna’s new garden came up in record time.
A construction zone with a view!
This part of the house is all painted and certainly looks sharp!
Davy is helping Opa with his woodshop, and of course when asked what this piece of wood was, he said it was a spear gun!
Lots of progress, and lots of work still to do in order for them to move by the end of July.
They certainly will be trading one lovely back porch view for another!
New Garden
It is past time to finish planting gardens here, but I have been waiting till we had a well pump and electricity to run it. We got the last of those last week, so we laid out the garden and planted it.
I neglected to get a picture of us filling the beds with soil. Another neighbor is digging out a pond, and offered us some lovely top soil. It was a bit clumpy and had some weeds growing in it, of course, but it is nice and dark. I then put a shallow layer of peat moss on top, and planted stuff.
Picnic Saturday
Last Saturday Dustin actually had off work, and nothing pressing to do, so we at the Little House loaded up to spend the day back in Hell’s Canyon. We drove back the windy road and went first to Hell’s Canyon Park, which is a lovely spot that wasn’t too busy.
There were a lot of campers, but we had the day use area pretty much to ourselves. Very family friendly, with all this expanse of green lawn, enormous shade trees, and a roped off section of river for children to play in.
Dustin went snorkeling, and Davy happily played in the edge of the river, wading out up to his knees, and throwing a million rocks to watch them “sploosh” in the water.
Betsy and I sat up by the picnic table. She crawled around and played happily, while I did some crocheting.
After a while it started to sprinkle rain, so we loaded up and headed back to McCormick Park where Dustin’s parents were camping with friends for the weekend.
We hung out with them the rest of the afternoon, talking and fishing and enjoying the children.
This park was a lot more crowded, but still a lovely place. Also it’s closer to home.
Dustin surprised Davy with a little plastic fishing rod, and Davy was obsessed. He figured out quickly how to cast (more or less) and spent the rest of the day fishing for “halibut”. After his grandpa caught a little bass, he switched to fishing for bass too.
“I’m going to catch a bass for tonight’s supper,” he explained to me. And when the boy standing a few yards away caught a bigger bass, Davy wanted to go see it, and said, “I love your fish!” even though he’s usually shy with strangers.
He would have sat on this rock all the rest of the day, playing fishing, and did not like the idea of heading home when it was time to go.
Betsy crawled around playing and trying to put rocks in her mouth.
By this time things had cleared off and the sun was out. It was hot! The overcast skies may not have been as picturesque, but it was much more comfortable.
However, the sunshine made for some lovely scenery on the way home. This canyon is so stunning.
You have to wonder why it would be called “Hell’s Canyon” when it’s so beautiful.
This is the least rugged end of it. If you follow the river far enough, the road stops and it’s just boat access from there on up. And the mountains are much taller. It’s actually deeper than the Grand Canyon, though it’s much less famous.
It was a lovely relaxing day that everyone enjoyed, just the thing after so little family time. We’re quite blessed to live so close to this remarkable place.
Have a great week!
Memorial Day Weekend
Dale and Anna came up from Colorado for Memorial Day weekend, and we thoroughly enjoyed the extra family time together.
Caroline counted the days leading up to their arrival and could hardly talk or think about anything else.
Each time he sees his cousins, Davy does better with handling all the extra people and commotion. He is old enough now to really play with them, and especially loves having a “big boy” to follow around. Johnny is usually very patient and gentle with him.
Betsy did quite well most of the time. She is more of a people person that Davy was at her age.
Baby Nancy is getting so big, she’s really not a baby at all anymore! She acted a little strange at first, but warmed up to us a little more by the end of the weekend.
It was so good to hang out and talk long over meals and in the evenings, for three whole days.
On Saturday, they were given a tour of the new Big House, and some of us girls went to a yard sale together, picking up some fun vintage things, and stopping at the Weiser Candy Store on the way.
Of course, the main event was Monday. Josiah & Alexandra came up the evening before, so we were all together for a short while. Daddy smoked brisket, and Grandma brought over birthday cakes for the two of us whose birthdays were coming up.
We had lots of delicious food for lunch. It can be hard to put together a fancier menu for that many people, but I was pleased with how well we succeeded.
While we were eating, Dustin spotted a dying honey bee on the porch floor, so he restored it with some raw honey. It was so cute to see it clutching the honey with its little feet (for all the world like Betsy does with her hands!) when Dustin shifted the spoon. After a while it flew away.
Afterwards we scattered a bit…some visited the cemetery, others played various games. Mama set up badminton, which was a hit with Davy. He called it “bad mints” and tried so hard to hit the birdie.
A lot of time was spent on the big back porch. Thankfully our cool and rainy weather (April totally was switched with May this year!) let up just in time for the weekend, so we enjoyed some lovely days. We went right from jackets and even fires one week, to fans in the windows and summertime heat a few weeks later.
The children went on ranger rides, had a picnic and a tea party, made a movie, watched the horses, helped with the chores, and generally spent a lot of time out of doors the whole weekend.
Davy and Susie, who used to have a running feud, get along quite well now. Here they got to sit on Gus after Bobby rode out to check the horses. Both of them were pretty thrilled!
Colorado is still a long ways away, but we are so grateful we get to see the rest of the family a few times a year, and make memories together.
Memorial Day Video Project
On Memorial Day weekend, Dale & Anna and their family were with us. Caroline was greatly looking forward to this, and planned together with Elizabeth to make a video that included all the grandchildren. Here is the end result!
New calf, good milk!
With all the moving plans, we intended, last fall, to dry off our milk cow. She is getting a bit old for milking, so we thought we would send her to the packing house, and get a new cow after we moved. Well, about two months ago, we discovered she must have gotten bred when the bulls got out last summer. So, instead of sending her off, we are keeping her through another lactation. Which, as it turns out, is good. Our neighbor lady who we bought milk from for a time, decided milking is too strenuous for her right now, and sold her cow. So we have to go all the way to the Valley to get good, raw milk! Corabelle calved on Saturday, so as soon as the colostrum is all through, we will have oodles of good, fresh milk! She is giving around 5 gallons of colostrum a day right now, and that will probably continue for a while. It will be so good to have lots of milk again! One of the first things I will do is make a half gallon into chocolate milk for afternoon snack time! I won’t drink it all myself, of course…quite.
The Jolly Jumble 