Visitors

We came in Wednesday, 7/23 and found pictures of visitors on the webcam.  Four legged and two legged. The four legged solved the mystery of what made noise on the porch at night when there was no Willy to make the noise.  A squirrel. The two legged were more mysterious. Four women and since the camera was pointed low to see the four legged critters, we mostly got feet and leg shots.  But after posting a couple of photos on Facebook, Janice Bay came to the rescue and told us it was Carole Shawver and friends. We had invited Carole (through Cissy VanVleet) to come in and get manzanita. So she did. Mystery solved.  And now the camera points to the entrance so we can see whoever drives in. And hopefully Lance Fink cutting down the dead trees.

Living With Nature

    

Our little log cabin has withstood the elements for almost 30 years now but it's under attack by carpenter ants. Round one, will the Grants Ants do the trick?  Did we successfully block off one of the mouse entry holes? What type of flooring should we use to replace the old vinyl that we removed? Stay tuned...

Peter and Cissy Van Vleet, wish we had a fire circle picture to commemorate our most enjoyable evening.

July 4

 Over thiry years ago we started taking pictures on 'the rock' at the fire circle. The top picture is from about 1985followed by this year's picture.  But wait, that's only the family picture. Ann and Jane reverted to their childhood and had a splendid reunion weekend with their Pine Logging childhood friends and neighbors Barbara, Gene and Peggy Bryan. No monopoly marathons or jeep rides, but we did swim in the creek and roast marshmallows. We would have roasted hotdogs too, if only..  50 years later the Bryan/Emmert friendship was as if it were yesterday. How did we miss taking a 'rock' picture that didn't include all of us, Kathy, Phoebe, Arnold - and Paul? Next time.

All Of Our New Friends and Neighbors

About those decorations on the south side of the cabin covering big holes, this is the culprit our camera caught in action this morning. A Williamson's Sapsucker? A Northern Flicker?  The rat a tat tat starts at dawn, and this time of year dawn comes early.
About Fred and George, movement high up on a south side rafter caught our eye Friday morning - one, two, no - five little chipmunks peering over the edge of the support beam for the roof. Over the course of the day they ventured out - retreated - ventured out again and eventually climbed or climbed and fell down to the deck and scampered to their favorite retreat, behind the sliding door shutters. Following close scrutiny and intense research the consensus is that they are Lodgepole Chipmunks. They're sharing the deck with the red squirrel, grey squirrel, and birds nesting in both the east and west side rafters, and of course the woodpecker and bats or ravens. That guano has been cleaned up - again.

SNOW

SNOW   

Ann, Lou and Jane drove in on bare ground Tuesday seeing only a few patches of snow under the trees.  But then overnite it snowed and by Thursday am we had this beautiful scene.
The weather station works again and now so does the rain gauge. And also we have a webcam so we can see the snow. Although Jane bought a package of 2 webcams, only 1 seemed to work.  After HOURS of trying various ways to get it working. 
So all is well. More snow is on the way, which is a good thing.

Wildlife

Next up - maybe a Spotted Owl or a Pacific Kingfisher.

Autumn Changes