New Day Same Old Icy Roads--Unfortunately

Nice Deer

The first time she showed up with all her girlfriends I was so excited I never thought of getting my camera.  This morning when they showed up I finally remembered (well ok, I was reminded very sternly to "GO GET YOUR CAMERA!").  Yesterday we had 5 of these cute girls all eating right below the window.  When I first noticed them I was talking with Cathy in the livingroom and started carefully creeping up the window to get a closer look at them.  I hadn't even noticed Cathy had left the room.  Here I thought I would be all sneaky like and watch them.  Imagine my surprise when I realized I was the one being stalked!  They were bobbing their heads, walking closer and closer all the while trying to see every move I was making inside the house...about this time Cathy showed back up with a bowl of food and asked me if I wanted to feed them.  I wasn't sure what she meant so I just followed her into her bedroom.  She opened the window and started calling to the deer who were just outside the window.  They had seen us moving thru the windows and followed us.  They obviously knew better than I what was up.  They walked right up the window as Cathy started talking to them and tossing out food.  One by one they all came up till they were all within arms reach.  I could have easily reached out and petted them!  It was so cool.

She told me how she has even had elk come up to eat the deer's leftovers and spend the night at the treeline just 15-20 feet from their bedroom window.  You don't see that in Michigan!

We took this photo our last morning as the fog was just starting to burn off the lake.  It was so eerily beautiful.

Kitchen PLEASE!!!

We spent the weekend in Harrison, Idaho with Cathy and Dad at their place, Razzleberry Ranch.  Here is Cathy cooking in her temporary "canning kitchen" in the basement.  This is in use while Dad finishes her custom kitchen cabinets for the permanent kitchen upstairs.  These temporary quarters haven't deterred her in the least.  We were treated to the usual gourmet treatment.  She is such a wonderful hostess!  I have to say some of the absolute best pancakes (blueberry and walnut) and cupcakes (cranberry and vegan chocolate chip) ever and vegan to boot!  Mind she grew the blueberries herself and ground the flour too!!!

Dad is trying to teach Randy how to make something square!  How to draw and cut a straight line, etc.  Randy isn't shy about his woodworking skills.  As he says,"...it will hold, but it ain't going to be pretty!"  Here they are working on one of the cabinet bases.

Later when I asked Randy what he did all day, he said he mostly absorbed information.  I asked if he thought he could do a base on his own now.  He laughed and said maybe after a few more weeks of watching!  First he says he wants to make a squire feeder out of scrap wood and see how that turns out...baby steps.

This is where the kitchen will be once the cabinets are finished.  Yes, that is a real working wood fired cook stove! She really uses it too.

This is where the dumb-waiter will be, the 2x4 topped square.  It will allow food to be moved easily between the basement (where the canning kitchen, root cellar, walk-in fridge and freezer are) and the kitchen.  Really cool design feature, huh?

Here is Randy starting the fire up first thing in the morning.   His parents always heated primarily with wood and he loved using the bellows again :-)

Wrapping Up the Day

I had just dropped our load and was trying to get out of Seattle before traffic started.  

Good intentions, but thanks to this one little red pickup it wasn't to be.  

You would have thought this guy was sitting in the middle of the road as slow as traffic was moving.  We crawled along for a good 6 miles, taking an agonizing 40 minutes, only to find this on the side of the road!

Finally we made it out of town to our fuel stop.  In 30 minutes I fueled, gathered our paperwork together, put paperwork in the mail, my husband got supper (Subway to the rescue), made a few phone calls, fielded multiple lookers on, updated my log and gps map.  I also took a minute to enjoy the great view!  This shot was taken just before I pulled off the fuel island.

We ate our subs as I drove East back thru Snowquamae Pass.  It was a lovely end to a VERY long trip.  Only 300 some miles to go to the next stop in the morning.....

IDAHO HO

We survived our trip out west and are now sitting in Harrison, Idaho. It feels good to take a breath after our hectic run for the roses to do 2600 miles in just 48 hours.

I have video and photos of running thru ice and snow over the mountains in West Wyoming, Utah, Oregon and Washington! It took me 3 1/2 hours to run just under 100 miles in Western Wyoming and north up 84 past Ogden Thursday night on the ice. FUN FUN

Friday was the first time I have had the chance to drive thru Snowquamee Pass in Washington during the daylight. I took about a gazillion pictures. Not only did I get to run thru heading West, I also got to unload and return Eastbound an hour later. So I got to see the pass from both directions in less than 4 hours.

I was trying to show how bad the ruts were from all the snow chains.

Talk about a rough ride!  East bound was alot worse though...

This is not a tunnel, it is a snow shed.  A snow shed keeps the snow 

from coming down the mountain and landing on the cars on the road!

The amber signs had ice warnings and I thought it was cool

 with the snow blowing off the top of the mountain in the back ground.

A little bit of ice.

This picture doesn't do this snow blower justice.

It was the size of my truck and had to be throwing that snow straight up almost 100 feet!

The first time thru the sun was shinning with bright blue skies. There were ice warnings, but all I saw was wet roads :-) About halfway down on the Westward trip I got to see my first REALLY BIG snow blower in action clearing the snow away from the shoulder of the road. I wish I could get one of those for the house!

On our way back to Idaho we tried to wash the truck 3 times with no luck. It is covered with all of the sand and salt from the trip out here and looks absolutely terrible. But every time we made it back to the next truck wash they were already closed for the night. I never, ever, ever thought that I would see the day when I would wish for a Streaking Beakon. However I would have loved to see one of their glowing 24 hour signs last night. Of course not one of the 3 places we stopped had hours of operation posted either.