Cabin Trip

Posted on August 10, 2026 by Donna

We headed to my mother’s family cabin on Wednesday amid smokey skies and lots of fires in the state.  Here’s the sunrise the morning we left the farm.

And here were the fires burning that day.

We had Ryeleigh in the truck and picked up the grandkids then headed south and east.  We stopped in Black Diamond.  Piper lead the way with the flag in the crosswalk.

We picked up sandwiches, bread and treats at the Bakery but then headed to the Smoke-shop nearby for their amazing jerky.  While waiting outside with the beagle, I noticed a vintage Lucerne milk box.

We walked back to the truck, and the William held the crosswalk flag.

Their Mountain bread looked good on the dash.

You could only barely see Mount Rainier.

And the valley looking south was pretty much obscured.

It was smokey when we got to the cabin and met up with Mom and Al.

I took Ryeleigh for a walk, and she got her toenails wet in the river.

Piper assembled her squishies into a “mansion”.

And Piper started to get her stuffies ready for puppet shows.

 

The kids asked me about these pictures on the bedroom doors.  I told them they were put up by my great grandmother Stone.   I then told them that she died pretty young and didn’t get much of a chance to contribute to the cabin.

I had noticed this in the annex and took a photo of it.  Then I started wondering what my other great gramma Stone had contributed.  She married my great grandfather after his first wife had died.  And she was my Gramma Bell.  So she was the one I knew and spent years going to the cabin.  So I asked my mother what had she brought to it, and she immediately told me about this little statue.  I thought that was funny since I was just paying attention to it.

Then she mentioned all of the below items too.

She had purchased this fabric for the curtains, but my mother had sewed them for her.

This little thing I found curious. I have seen it for years but never realized that it is a bottle opener, a cork and the light fixture is a wine bottle opener.

She contributed some depression glass items too.

And she had worked at an art gallery where this originated from.

This belonged to her father who was an avid fisherman.  It is used to tie flies.

We think this old fisherman’s basket belonged to her father as well.  As far as my mother remembers her grandfather didn’t fish but her father did.  So we are thinking that he learned from his step-grandfather.

She had the fireplace bricks painted as well.  Apparently she liked adding color to the cabin (like the curtains).

Her’s a photo of the what the bricks looked like before painting.

Back to the cabin events, after the supper show we played Black Jack.  The kids liked to call it Jack Black which I thought was hilarious.

The next morning the smoke had improved.

I took Ryeleigh on a morning walk and found a new trail that one of the neighbors must have put in.  It is really cool, wandering through the woods.  There’s even some old cans and bottles apparently discovered in its creation.

I managed to forget to pack some food items for my planned dinner that evening so Al kindly drove me to Naches.  They had everything I was looking for.

In the afternoon the kids and us went to the river to cool off as it was quite hot.  I paid tribute to the Days Between Jerry Garcia’s birth and death dates.  Tom played his music at the river.  It was really nice relaxing there.

When we got back, Piper got her stuffed animals ready for more puppet action.

I made Mini Muffulettas and Mama’s Chicken and Sausage Gumbo for dinner.  I made Cajun food because Al really likes it.  The Muffulettas were aimed at the grandkids.  I thought it was all really good, and others seemed to agree.  The Muffulettas continued to be a lunchtime hit with the grandkids for the rest of the trip.

Then there was a puppet show. It was fun.

On Friday morning the skies were even clearer.  Mom and Al left for home, and I continued to take the beagle on walks.

I made rainbow pancakes for the kids for breakfast.  The plan was rainbow waffles since I thought there was a waffle iron but apparently not.  So the backup plan was pancakes.  They were popular.

On one of my many walks to Whistling Jack’s, I noticed that they had changed the lettering on the old sign they now have in storage.  It had said Seasons Greeting for a long time.  Someone got creative with the letters.

We headed back to the river in the afternoon, and it was equally amazing.

 

The kids opened a restaurant and served us pepperoni pizza (on the ground) and a fish taco (in Tom’s hand).  They are so creative.

 

William found makeshift fishing pole and was using it to “fish”.

Ryeleigh found her hidey hole to cool off in.

I was planning roast chickens for dinner so consulted our old Joy of Cooking cookbook for cooking times.

Tom found some wild mint where we were hanging out by the river.  We kept smelling it but then finally found it.

Russ and Jay joined us with their dogs Pips and Belle.  There was another puppet show, ice cream with candy added, and more Black Jack.

We checked out the river, and the dogs slept under the poker table.

The next morning the cabin felt very summery with the drying towels and swimwear.

I admired the old elderberry bush in the driveway.  It still seems to be going strong.

I got reservations for us to be able to go to Boulder Cave.  Tom and I haven’t been in years, and I thought the family would enjoy it.

It was a warm hike, but we arrived at the waterfall which was cool.

 

Then we walked through the cave which was also cool.  Piper was scared, and she managed to fall and cut her knee too.  So she wasn’t a huge fan, but I think everyone else enjoyed it.

In the afternoon it was back to the river this time with more people and dogs.

Belle got a little cold from swimming, and Tom warmed her up.

Russ was asking me about the Green Mansions name of our cabin.  I described the book of the name and showed him the quote that Greg put in our sign in book.  Hopefully I described it justly.

I was also describing the fear associated with the Schneider Springs fire now 5 years ago.

The family was hanging out by the carport in the shade, and I brought some cocktails (mocktails for kids).

I started noticing some things missing from the cabin.  The name on the toilet seat is gone.

And the lantern that normal hangs here is gone too.  Not sure what happened to either.

After a ham dinner, we headed to Whistlin’ Jacks.

There was live music in the bar with Zach Michaud.  It was definitely country music with rodeo on the TV.  It was fun.

The next morning I hung out under the trees.  Everyone else had stayed up late watching the stars (including shooting ones) but I went to bed early.  So I was up earlier than everyone else too.

There was a spooky smoke coming up the valley.

Jay and Russ with their dogs left, and the rest of us headed to Naches to pick crabapples.  Unfortunately the tree we pick already dropped all of its fruits.  I assumed it was from the drought and heat.  But when we talked to the local fruit stand, he said it was due to the high winds they had been having.

We headed back, and it was smokey.  But gradually our smoke improved.  It just means it went to someone else though.

We went back to the river in the afternoon, of course.  The kids were singing as we drove there.

 

Piper played with the sand and rocks.

William squirted water on the old bridge support to make designs.  This is his name, but he ran out of room.

This is Walin, the nickname of their dog Pips.

Later in the afternoon I was admiring the sunlight on the river.

The ground squirrels are quite numerous this year and were aggravating the beagle.

 

I found a fish by the river.  It seemed like such a waste.

Back at the cabin the kids were vocal and annoying the beagle.

We packed up and headed home today.  Mount Rainier was out again in all of its glory.  It’s was nice to see.

We had a great trip but are both pretty tired.  It’s good to be home again.

P.S. I failed to mention all of the motorcycle riding (partly because I didn’t do any of it).  There were rides on Old River Road, to the base of the Edgar Rock Trail and across the highway.  It was mostly Tom and William, but Tom took Piper as well.  Her quad died again so she wasn’t able to ride on her own.

P.P.S. I recently finished this book.  I was reading it during the 250th year of our country.  It was fascinating in that it explores the myths regarding Paul Revere and his ride.  It examines the truth including the tremendous number of people and animals that were involved in his activities.  It also look into the history of General Gage, the British leader involved and the missteps on both sides.

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Summer, Family Day, Freedom Plane, and Jerry’s Birthday

Posted on August 2, 2026 by Donna

It has been a busy week.  On Wednesday we had Summer killed for butchering.  We made this decision after she rejected (and tried to kill) her calf.  This has cost us significant time and money (for milk replacer but also for extra farm-sitting costs) this summer.  We don’t know if she would be the same with her next breeding, but we didn’t want to take the chance.  Plus we would be breeding her with her son which is not ideal.  She should produce excellent meat as well.  But what we didn’t know is that the butcher discovered that she had bad kidney stones.  So that may have contributed to her disposition.  I doubt there was anything we could have realistically done if we knew about this so in a weird way it supports our decision to butcher her.  At least she is not in pain anymore.  This is a photo of her from last year.

I found another use of our cabbage.  My red cabbage didn’t make it, but the green cabbage did.  So I substituted it in the recipe Red Cabbage with Walnuts and Feta.  I think it would be better with red cabbage, but it was good.  There are similar recipes without paying.

On Thursday we went to the Phillips 66 Ferndale Refinery’s Family Day.  This is where our son-in-law works.  William wanted us to bring the Evel Knievel bike there to show.  Here it is at the end of some really nice cars.  It looks pretty small.

There were some old pear trees there.  I wondered about their history.

Here’s the car/motorcycle show again. We had the only motorcycle.

There was an amazing barbecue there as well as roasted corn.  It was really good. There were bouncy houses, a playground, volleyball, tether ball, face painting, ballon making, etc.  But the big hit was the foam.

Here’s Piper and William in it with Jaylene trying to help with a towel and water to wash the eyes out.

They had so much fun.  I am not sure I have seen them happier.  I visited the totem poles that were near the car show.  Russ told me that the Lummi tribe makes a new pole with each new owner of the refinery. The one time they didn’t, the refinery had poor revenue.  The newest one is placed elsewhere though.

We took a bus tour of the refinery which was impressive.  At the start, the foam pile was undulating with an occasionally kid popping point.  It was surreal.  BTW the green in the foam does stain.

When we got back from the tour William had a waffle stick.  They were really good.  We also all had ice cream treats.  So my caloric intake was quite high.

Piper had won this inflated wrist bunny at one of the games there.  It was good at preserving her water bottle which became a premium at the end of the afternoon.

The Evel Knievel bike got second place in People’s Choice and Best Restoration.  William got the “silver” metal for this.  I love the expression on his face.

Friday evening it was a deer on our back camera rather than a cougar.  This is better, but I now I worry about our corn.

 

On Saturday we went to MOHAI to see the Freedom Plane exhibit.  It is a nationwide moving exhibit that contains some of the important documents from the formation of our nation.

First was the Articles of Association.  This is an agreement to urge the colonists to boycott British goods.

It is signed by Sam Adams, John Adams, George Washington and Patrick Henry among many other patriots.

Then there are the Oaths of Allegiance of George Washington, Alexander Hamilton, and Aaron Burr with their signatures.  George Washington was at Valley Forge (where we were last year) when this was signed.

Then there was William Stone’s engraving of the Declaration of Independence, 1823. This was a little less interesting to me as it was a replica.

But the Treaty of Paris was incredible. This formally recognizing the United States as an independent nation by Great Britain.  This has the signatures of John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, and John Jay.

Next was the David Brearley’s secret printing of the Constitution, 1787.  This belonged to the New Jersey delegate whose notes were present as they negotiated the document.

Next is the state delegation votes approving the Constitution, 1787.  This is moment when the constitution became law.

After the Constitution was ratified by the states and became the supreme law of the land, Representative James Madison proposed a series of amendments. Several states advocated for additional protections for individual liberties.  This document show the changes the Senate made to the House-passed Bill of Rights.  This is the process where our rights as citizen as were determined.

In the gift shop, I purchased replicas of the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights.  I already have a booklet with the Constitution but thought the replicas looked cool.  I will post them in my house as they are the most important documents in my life (including my marriage license).

After the Freedom Plane document exhibit, there was an exhibit regarding the American flag.  There was a photo of the first Seattle July 4th celebration including an American flag in 1865.

This is the German-made flag that was carried by Joe Rantz from the UW crew team, who won the gold medal in the 1936 Olympics.

This is the inauguration of the first Washington governor in 1889 with an American flag.

This is the flag brought by Jim Whittaker to the summit of Mount Everest in 1963.  He was the first American to summit the mountain.

This is a fragment of the American flag that was carried to the summit of Mount Rainier in 1894 by a Seattle group.

This is a large American flag behind the Seattle Mayor Bertha Knight Landes in 1927.  She was the first woman mayor of a major American city.

This is a collection of medals, patches, photographs and burial flag for William Imamoto who served as a medic in WWII and died in a battle in Italy in 1945.  He grew up on a farm near Port Orchard (near my great grandparents farm) and was drafted in 1941.  His family was incarcerated in Idaho and Arkansas.

Here is a funeral service at Washelli cemetery in 1949 of six WWII casualties of Japanese ancestry.  William’s grave is the second from the right with his mother holding his flag.  I am not sure why his funeral was so delayed.

This is an American flag overriding the Jewel Saloon in 1889 after the Great Seattle fire.

This is a flag belonging to the Oso Fire Chief Seth Jeffords who lost his house, wife, granddaughter and dog in the slide in 2014.

The exhibits were very well done, and I would highly recommend you visit before it closes down on August 16.  Where else are you going to see the signatures of some amazing American heroes?

We walked our beagle around the area. Here’s a view of the area.

Then we headed to McMenamins Anderson School to celebrate Jerry Garcia’s birthday.  He would have been 84 years old.  We brought the beagle with us there too.

They had a special menu for the Days Between Jerry’s birthday and death date.

We partook in the Reckoning and I Need a Miracle Grilled Cheese.

They had a special beer release with a cool can.

They put this on a T-shirt which Tom bought for us.

Here is the view of the Shed patio where we watched the festivities.

They had Wild Geese of the West playing songs from the Grateful Dead and the Jerry Garcia band.

It was really fun for us. Less sure about the beagle although she did get petted by a number of people.  There are some other dogs too including Fenway, a Boston Chihuahua that just turned 17 years old.

Today was a farm day.  Ryeleigh had a rabbit in sight.  But Wally move in and scared it. Ryeleigh chased it but no damage done.

The turkeys moved to the hay loft and were scratching and pecking the tarp that usually is on top of the hay.  Not sure what the interest was, but I didn’t want it damaged so took it away.

I replaced the wood shavings in the nest boxes.  The chickens were not happy about this and made a loud ruckus.

 

A turkey died earlier in the week.  Not sure what happened, but there were a few feathers out front, and she was dead behind a barn door where it seems like she was hiding.  So we have 9 left with the 3 older turkeys.  Here are 10 of them enjoying the area in front of the barn.

I was cleaning the house while watching the Seafair festivities on the television.  And up comes the Freedom Plane that brought the documents to Seattle as well as 7 other cities.

There was a. cool airshow including the Blue Angels.

And there was hydroplane racing.  The current hydroplanes do not have the sound of the ones from my childhood, but they still have rooster tails.  It was fun to watch again.

That was our eventful week. I am somewhat exhausted.  But have more upcoming so need to press on.

Posted in Farm, History, NYT Cooking recipe, Recipes- farm, Trips | 4 Comments

The Farm and the Grandkids

Posted on July 27, 2026 by Donna

On the farm, Ryeleigh is trying to hunt rabbits.  Here she is on the back porch (her hunting  blind) watching rabbits in our backyard.  She is not very stealth, and the rabbits are perfectly safe.

Since the turkeys are out of their pen, they are experiencing new things.  They seem fascinated by the weeds on the other side of the fence.

 

Since Summer managed to break through the gate to get in the pasture with the other cows, they are mostly getting along.  Sometimes we see some swipes between her and Jameson, but mostly everything is peaceful.

I had moved Summer to a pasture with shade because I was worried about her, but she busted out.  I also moved the sheep to a pasture with shade worrying about them in the heat as well. They do seem to enjoy it.

Tom mowed another overgrown field.

The grapes are developing on their vines.

The blueberries are developing more rapidly.  Plus they were completely overgrown with grass and weeds.

I managed to weed a lot of them out (despite the fact that I had forgotten my gloves).  And put a net over them to keep the birds from eating all of them.

Tom started mowing another field as well.  It is the near back field.

The walnuts are also developing like crazy.  This is the first time we have seen a significant nut production. Hopefully I will finally get some nuts after about 20 years.

The coyote in back is now being seen in the back near field that Tom just mowed.  No evidence of this coyote killing any of our livestock and suspecting it is going after rodents in the mowed field.

 

The grandkids came for a farm stay on Friday.  They immediately wanted to ride their quads and bikes.

 

We noticed a vulture on on a fencepost.  We noticed them all weekend but never found what it was attracted to.

Piper and William wanted to visit Jameson, of course.  They just love our calf.

Louella is getting more interested.

The kids started unloading all of the squishies they packed.  I think it was about 20, a crazy number for a short visit.

Then the kids were able to ride out back, their favorite.

Piper is really enjoying riding the quad.  I am so impressed by her.  I was already impressed by William.

 

 

Then Piper helped me pick some blueberries.  She did a great job, even though she doesn’t like to eat them.

For some odd reason, the young turkeys were hanging out by the gate in front of the barn.  Not sure what the interest was, but the beagle was fascinated.

Piper then enjoyed the 3-D photo viewer with photos of our farm taken a while ago. Thanks Grampa Al!!!

After dinner, we went out to bottle feed Jameson. The kids enjoy that.

I was planning on having vanilla ice cream for dessert with a variety of additions from the pantry.  The grandkids chose chocolate chips, sour candy eggs and fruit wraps.  Interestingly the fruit wraps turned crunchy next to the cold ice cream.  So William made ice cream tacos that he really enjoyed.  Piper was less enamored and tried crunching them into her ice cream but didn’t really like that either.

Saturday was more quad riding after the animal chores were done.

Tom had used the tractor to clear some blackberries and other bushes to allow riding.  But in the process there was debris that Piper’s quad picked up in her back axle.

We kept noticing this bald eagle in this dead tree at the edge of our property.  I often notice an eagle there, but this time it appeared to stay there for days.  Not sure if there is any issue or not, but today it was gone.

Tom was working on improving a jump in the back field for the kids.  He gradually improved it until it was up to William’s specifications.

Piper did need to take breaks occasionally.

 

 

I had to work part of Saturday but came home with some better ingredients to mix with the vanilla ice cream.  This proved to be popular.

Then we watched Sheep Detectives. The kids had already seen in twice and loved it.  I have wonderful grandkids!

We bottle fed Jameson and Louella came closer yet with a nearly full moon in the background.

Early the next morning, the coyote was in the pasture again.

 

I made Perfect Buttermilk Pancakes for breakfast. I added blueberries that I picked that morning to some and mashed banana to others.  The kids weren’t  interested in breakfast so we had them for brunch.  They were a hit.  (As an aside, recently I have also made Sheet-Pan Chicken With Rhubarb and Red Onion and Cabbage Caesar Salad also using farm ingredients.)

After the chores and brunch, it was time to ride.  As usual I brought the beagle on the leash while the kids rode.  Ryeleigh noticed a coyote poop and pooped right next to it. Hopefully this will be a discouragement.

The jump that Tom fixed was a popular site.

 

Underneath one of our eagle nests, I found this feather.  We are thinking it may be an eagle feather.  It certainly doesn’t look like one of our chicken feathers.

The kids did a pretend nap on their quads.  They claimed it was comfortable.  I am not so sure.

Sunday was a rainy day so I decided to make popsicles that afternoon.  I was inspired by a recipe in Genuine Skagit Cooking called Edible Flowers Lollipops.  But I ended up mostly using this Homemade Lollipops recipe.  Here are some of the lollipops with the edible flowers.

Here are all of them in flavors of lemon, orange and lime.  Some have sprinkles rather than the flowers.  They were really popular with the kids.

We went to Lava Louie’s Pizza in Sedro Woolley for dinner.  They purchased Bigfoot’s Den, the grandkid’s favorite place.  So with trepidation we went back.  But they still have the Bigfoot, the games and the great food.  Service was a little slow, but everything else was great.  And the grandkids were thrilled.  This is the bathroom sign.

There were more pinball games and other games.

We were able to play pool.  We did not initially notice the sign that said the pool tables were for adults only.

All and all a great time.

Today was more farm chores, initially.  Piper found this feather.  She was carrying it around in the barn.  Then she pointed it at the goats and said, “I have a feather, it is wet, and I am not afraid to use it”.  I thought it was hilarious.

Most of the squishies moved to the charging table.  There are also rubber ducks that they won at the pizza place.

Before everyone got up, I harvested the potatoes.  They were mostly Ozette potatoes that I had planted in the old manure spreader and had succumbed to blight (I had hoped that they would be blight resistant).  Anyway we got a decent harvest anyway with some volunteer potatoes from previously plantings.

With chores, I noticed the swallows were flying like crazy over the field that Tom had recently mowed.  Must be bugs attracting them.

There was some more riding after the chores.  Even Tom participated.

 

Wally assumed her favorite spot in a box on the back porch.

And William was riding his Honda 50.  Piper asked if she could ride it.  So she did and ended up in the nettles and crying.  The first time William rode it when he was 4 ended up in the blackberries and crying.  We decided this is not a good first motorcycle.  Piper recovered, but we decided we need a different first motorcycle for her.

 

The kids were fascinated by the snakes that were hanging out by our front porch.

Their mother kindly came to pick them up in the afternoon.  I hope they had a great time. We did.

Then our attentions tuned to our truck that we sold being picked up.  It was The Truck of my Dreams that we had sold.  We purchased it 16 years ago from the original owner’s wife expecting to fix it up.  That never happened so we decided to sell it to someone who would fix it up. We found that person in Sullivan, Indiana.  He arranged for transportation.  And after many stats and stops that happened today.  Here are my last photos of my truck.

And it leaving.

So that is our eventful week.  It was great having the grandkids and nice to see the truck going to a better home.  Maybe we will visit it someday.

Posted in Farm, NYT Cooking recipe, Recipes- farm | 4 Comments