Welcoming the Snow

The beginning of winter is upon us here in Walla Walla.  This past weekend, our mountains got dusted with their first snow.  From town we can see the tops of the mountains and the whole family began to think about ski season.  

To celebrate the first snow, we loaded up the car with warm layers, sleds (hopeful thinking) and hot chocolate and headed to the Umatilla Rim. Before we left as Stuart and I were getting the last minute details together, the boys put together this wonderful gift, made from 2 colors of rose petals and some very red leaves.

 The Umatilla Rim is a beautiful area about 50 minutes into the mountains from our house that we are just beginning to explore.  As we got near the summit pass, the dusting of snow turned to about 1/2 an inch saved by the shade of the trees.  As soon as we parked the boys were out headed for the first snowball fight of the year. 

Here is a short video clip of the snowball fight.

The trail was amazing.  One we had not visited before this hike.  And one we will certainly take future visitors to see.   The first thing to notice is that here in the west there is a deciduous conifer, the western larch also known as the tamarac tree. In this photo you can see it's fall color change contrasted by the evergreen next to it.  This made the stunning views all the more spectacular.  Note in the upcoming photos the stark contrast in the forest landscapes.

Wren hiking up the hill from an off-trail explore down to see where the "edge" of the canyon was.  Dakota really wanted to through his stick off the "edge" so we followed his lead and hiked down for a while all the time looking for the "edge" that we could not find.  The "edge" just kept rolling away. 

 Here is the stick Dakota wanted to throw off the "edge."

 After a while, we headed back up the steep hill.

 This was the view pretty much the whole way, looking out across the ancient basalt lava beds now uplifted and covered with conifers and open meadows. 

As we explored, we wondered if this might be bear country.  And then we noticed some bear sign.  This first tree has clear bear size claw marks.  

 And this next one is clearly bear hair.  We think this must be a good back scratching tree.

Near the end of the hike we got to pass through some wonderful forests where the snow was again captured by the shade.  

 Dakota captures his brother hiking along the snowing trail  using my iPhone.  Dakota really likes taking pictures. 

Grape Juice with the help of the Magic Steamer

Grape Juice is made in many different ways I am sure.  Through pure luck, I think I have stumbled on an amazingly easy way to get the yummiest grape juice ever. 

First comes the picking.  At our new property, we have about 30 feet of healthy concord grape vines that produced an amazingly abundant crop of grapes this year. 

This is what they look like coming off the vine.  It takes about an hour to fill up my trusty basket with grapes.

I get them home and begin to process.  This means washing them and picking off all the green grapes.  Here is the bowl at home full of grapes.

Then comes the magic steamer.  This contraption is amazing.  So I load the top layer with grapes.  This layer is like a giant collander.  The second layer with the hose coming off the bottom is like a bundt pan with a cone in the middle for directing the steam up into the grapes.  The space around the cone collects the juice that gets steamed out of the grapes. The bottom layer is the water bath where the steam comes from.   When the middle layer gets filled with juice, I just drain it off through the tube into a sterilized jar and put a canning ring on and VOILA! I have canned grape juice. 

Here the final product sitting next to an amazing dahlia.  It is so concentrated, you can't even see that it is purple.  YUM YUM YUM. 

Wren: Middle School

Wren has started middle school and loves it!  Here he is at open house by his locker.   We are very proud of him.  He tested into the Explorer's Program (Walla Walla's version of the gifted program).  And this has been great for him.  Part of this program puts him in 7th grade math which he is excelling in and puts him on track for AP Calculus his senior year. (The school had a big meeting about this and showed us a flow chart through senior year...WHOA!   The other big part is that he gets a double block period with Mr. Calzaretta, a truly inspired teacher.  He thinks outside the box and puts big questions out there for the students to contemplate.  This double block covers both language arts and social studies.  They have started by reading The Giver.  Their integrated "Utopia" project is to create a research based podcast on an intentional community.    Mr. Calzaretta wrote a grant to have ipads for every student in his class.  He is teaching them how to do research online, develop a script, record a script and then edit for final product.  Amazing!  When the finished product is available, I will share it will all of you.  Later in the year they will learn how to produce their own movies. 

He is also still playing piano where he has just recently passed into the wonderful zone of loving his lessons and really enjoying his practice.  He wanted to join the 6th grade band so we are seeing how trumpet fits into his life as well.  So far he is really liking it.  The video below shows Wren playing a piece of music he heard this summer when George was here playing the accordion.  Wren remembered the music and then was able to recreate it with emotion. 

Wren is playing soccer again this fall and really enjoying his time.  Here are some great photos of his most recent game where he played goalie for the first half and blocked many goals.  Second half he played forward and made 2 goals. 

Breaking Ground: Sewer

 So we bought a piece of property here in Walla Walla sometime in March.  We have been moving slowly toward the goal of building a home.  After much work, we have finally come to the first big step.  Putting in a sewer main.  We gathered our neighbors together to see if they wanted to do a joint project and put in a sewer main.  We were able to come to an agreement and all put our share of the cost in an escrow account and today the contractor we hired broke ground. 

He closed the street.

Here he is setting the first two pipes. Using a laser level adjusted for 1/2% grade and then siting the grade manually as well they were working on getting it right when Dakota and I visited.  We were happy to see their diligent attention to detail because water flows downhill so if the pipe is not angled down hill, it won't do it's job. 

 Here is the dirt they pulled out of the trench.  If the city deems it okay for backfill, we will be happy because it could save us a bunch of money.  So we have our fingers crossed. 

 Dakota is really into taking his own pictures with my phone.  Here is a great one of him reflected in the tail gate of one of the big trucks.  You can also see one of the backhoes in the reflection.

 This is a picture of the inside of the pipe.  Artist: Dakota

 Here is our contractor, Gary, a Walla Walla local who knows what he is doing.  We appreciate his attention to detail and ability to work with a good attitude.

Chinnies: Complete Sillyness

Chinnies are just plain silly!!!!  We have recently remembered these funny things and filmed a few in order to get a good abdominal workout each morning and evening.

I am a bit worried about the downloading of the video so I hope this works.  Please let me know if you can't see Dakota's Chinnie telling a really funny joke.

And here is Wren with his Whale Joke.

Dakota

Dakota has really come into his own lately.  He decided to learn to ride his bike with peddles on and just did it.  He wanted to go to soccer camp and had a fabulous time.  And he is beginning to inch his way up the wall when we go climbing.

Dakota's first bike ride. He has been riding his run bike (the scoot) for a while now and has really showed no interest in putting the peddles on his slightly larger bike that has had the peddles off for a while to facilitate the transition to a larger bike.  But two weeks ago, he said he wanted the peddles back on.  Stuart put them on and Dakota got on the bike and basically rode down our street.  This is his first ride.  (When does a parent get so lucky as to catch their child's first ever bike ride!)

Here are some pictures of his latest adventures.
Soccer Camp!

 Climbing at Spring Mountain. 

Eagle Cap Wilderness: Proud Parents

As our last summer trip before Stuart buckles down for the start of school, we snuck out for a overnight backpack to Echo Lake.  This was our first family trip into the Wallowa Mountains, our closest real mountains.  The hike in was 5 miles with 1800 feet of elevation gain.  We are proud parents!  Wren carried all his own stuff and did not whine at all!!!! Way to go Wren.  Dakota walked the whole way and only asked to be carried twice.  We are so PROUD!  And we are so excited to have arrived at the point where we can actually go backpacking with our children.  YEAH!

Here are the boys at the trailhead.  You can see the granite in the background.

Here we are at our break eating snacks and drinking lots of Gatorade (Reward #1, we rarely drink Gatorade) just before we hit the steep stuff.

Here we are about 1/3 of the way up the steep stuff at a break where Wren found a cool  caterpillar.
From here to the top we took a break about every 30 minutes with a single Skittle doled out at the 20 minute mark (Reward #2). 

 Heidi with her sweet boys "resting" at the break.  The boys are really just tackling me. 

 This is the view from our camp with two sweet boys after a great day of hiking sitting and discussing the meaning of life in the mountains.

 We moved down to the edge of the lake for dinner where we swam, ate tortellini with pesto and had No-Bake Oreo Cookie Jello Brand Cheesecake (Reward #3).  This was the sweetest moment because the way we eat this treat is to pass the pan around and eat one bite at a time.  But before the bite you have to say one thing that is great about the trip.  Well our list was long but the best one was Dakota after working so hard walking up the hill saying, "Climbing the big mountain was my favorite thing."
Did I say we were proud parents?

 Finishing up dinner in the evening sun.

 Alpine Glow on the mountains reflected in the lake.  (Click once on the photo and you will see it bigger.)

 Of course there is always some "STEAM ROLLER" time in the tent right before bed and until someone gets hurt.  So fun!

 We woke with the rising sun in the morning, had cold cereal and hot chocolate, packed our backpacks and headed down the "big mountain."  The boys were full of energy and hiked 1 hour and 30 minutes before we took a real break.  Did I mention we were proud parents?

 This is the view down the valley.  If you look way down the valley you can see an open meadow.  Our car is parked at the far end of that meadow. 

 We did not count the switch backs on either the way up or the way down but we were glad they were there as it made the steepness seem reasonable the whole way up and down. 

 This picture gives a little perspective on the angle of the hill when you look at the conifer trees behind us.

 One of our boy's favorite breaks on the way down was here in the forest where they promptly made a fort from big bark pieces and we became the "parent robots from planet SNERP."  We attacked with fir cones hoping to catch some children but we were defeated (of course because parents never win.)  From here, our boys hiked all the way to the car by themselves (almost 2 miles).  They wanted to beat us or be ahead of us so we could not catch them.  It was pretty sweet to see them work together crossing streams and hiking down the trail just talking and having a great time together as brothers.

 The meadows often had wildflowers that grew taller that Dakota.

Our last break placed us on this sandy beach where we took a brief swim and just played in the water for long while.  The boys once again headed out together and did, of course, beat us to the car.