We left on Thursday to the family cabin that my great-grandfather built on the Naches River.  These are the first two photos I took after getting there of the river and mountains.

I was looking for a blanket in the loft and found these records.  I don’t think I had seen them before.  I should try to listen to them some time.

We took the dogs on a walk, and Steve jumped in the river.  He loves the cabin and its river.

I noticed these flowers blooming on the rocks across the river.

We had a yummy pork chop dinner in front of the fire.  Kyle, my cousin, showed up after dinner.

On Friday morning, I noticed these coasters.  This started me researching what become of this company.  I found this Yakima Herald article and this WSU thesis summary.  I am guessing that my grandfather really liked his beer.

One thing about the cabin is that a lot of things are old and repurposed.  A walnut box and ammo case store tools now.

Friday morning we took to cutting up the tree that had fallen on our outhouse over the winter.  Tom was cutting it into rounds, and Kyle and I were hauling the rounds to the garage area.

Here is an interesting (to me) metal container partly buried in the ground nearby.  I am not sure what it was.

This is what remains of the outhouse.  There is some of the tree under it that we didn’t feeling like moving the outhouse to get to.

This is a photo I took of the cabin and Edgar Rock.  I used it as my watch face for the weekend.

Tom started splitting the wood, and Kyle and I stacked it.  It was a fair amount of work.

Friday afternoon I spun wool on the front porch.  It was quite nice and relaxing.

In the evening I made my grandfather’s Old Fashioneds for us.  We had a nice steak dinner as well.

On Saturday, Whistling Jack’s was filling up.  There were lots of dog walks there.

Kyle and I went to Yakima to decorate graves of our relatives.  These are the graves of our great great grandmother, great grandfather and great grandmother.

This is the area of the Calvary cemetery where the veterans’ graves were flagged.

Here are the graves of our step great grandfather Merv, his first wife, our step great grandmother Isabel (Gramma Bell to me), and Merv’s daughter.

And then the graves of Gramma Bell’s parents.  I learned from Kyle that he was like a grandfather to my grandfather.  They hung out and went fishing together.  It was nice to honor these people, even if in a small way.

Back at the cabin, Kyle relaxed by the river.  We had dinner at Whistling Jack’s.  It was good.

On Sunday, I made breakfast in the cabin kitchen.  There was bacon, fried corn meal mush (a grampa favorite), rhubarb muffins and scrambled eggs.

I still haven’t gotten the fried mush as good as grampa used to make.

I spun some more wool on the porch with the beagle napping nearby.  Kyle was reading some of the books our great grandfather has written.  He was fascinated by them.

There were more dog walks.

We then headed to a spot across the river where the current is OK for the dogs to go in the river.

Kyle joined us.  He actually took a dip in the very cold river.  Then he climbed on the old bridge support and enjoyed the view.

Tom had gone on a motorcycle ride earlier and manage to find a “treasure” to buy.

After a really nice pot roast dinner made by Kyle, we threw peonies in the river as a tribute to our grandfather.

 

Tom read the old cabin log book.

Casper, Kyle’s cat, decided to come down the stairs and say hi.

She wasn’t too sure about Steve though.

On Monday, walking around I saw one of grampa’s peonies on the river’s edge.  It was there again today too.

Here are some nice flowers on our riverbank.

I spent some time on the bank and took this panorama photo of the view.  It is really impressive.

Tom and Steve joined me.  Kyle and Casper had left to go back home.

I had been watching this pair of ducks fishing most of the weekend.

This is the progress of my spinning on my miniSpinner.

Unfortunately when I wanted to spin again in the afternoon, I managed to drop my spinner and broke the controller.

I got ahold of the maker and ordered a new one that we can put in ourselves.  But no more spinning for me so I switched to knitting in front of the fire which was equally nice.

Tom read some old National Geographic magazines.  This one was on Vietnam from 1967.

And today, we drove home over Chinook Pass.  The snow was high enough I couldn’t see Lake Tipsoe but was able to see Mount Rainier.

It was a very nice, relaxing trip. I slept in each morning which does not happen at home.  Not only do you sleep better at the cabin, but food tastes better too.   But it is good to be home though with lots of farm chores needing to be done.