The many faces of Katelyn

Froggy!

I love this one! She drew the shape and details by hand (I just LOVE how GOOD she is with drawing!!!!) and then "colored" the picture and lily pads with a 'water-color crayon'. After that, she used a paintbrush dipped in water...and "blended" the watercolors to create the water-color-painting-effect. She's not quite ready for pure water-colors...and I think this is a REALLY cool step towards it! By the way -- the Kinkos copies always come out more vibrant...her originals are always slightly softer and more subtle. Enjoy! :)

Storm over the Wrigley Wranch

We had our first Thunder/Lightning Storm last night. Quite colorful...and loud. You can see the clouds 'dumping' rain on the mountian side. Although we could not capture it on 'film', at times the rain glowed orange as it relfected the the sunset...or...was it radio-active?

Timber Wolf Ridge

We walked up to a logging road I have named Timber Wolf Ridge yesterday. So named because I saw a wolf trotting on it during the winter, and because beyond it are trees (timber). The road is more or less the property line BETWEEN the logging company and the property south of us. The green you see between the road (where I am taking picture from) and our trailer/excavated area is about 9 acres of meadow (NOT ours).



One view (on the left I think) is the view the bears would have while watching for a chance to get dinner.

The other (to the right?) is what the wolf would see while trotting along the road. (he gets to see the lake).

Dad and the Hummer

We had one humming bird who just couldn't wait for us to refill his feeder. He landed on it and began drinking as I hooked it up. Here he is 5-6 inches from my nose.

Memorial Day at Santa Monica (part 2)

Right before we left the house,

Katelyn found some highlighters. Yea!

Kyle got to drive a bumper car for the first time.
Then while the girls continued to play at the carnival,

the boys went down to play in the surf.

Lake Coeur d'Alene above flood stage

We saw on the news last night that Lake Coeur d'Alene was about 1.25 feet above flood stage this past weekend but starting to decrease. So we went and took a look-see today. Apparently still above flood stage today. The 'horseshoe boardwalk' was closed off and debris was being cleared out of the parking lot. Should be back to normal shortly!

Bradbury Beach

This is, or at least will be when the lake rises, the closest beach to us. It is about 5 miles away.

We took these shots several days ago while looking for interesting places for Melissa to visit.

We will check it again when the water level is up.

Gazabo back up and running

I put the Gazabo back in service while at Idaho earlier this month. Back in services means canvas was stretched back over frame, and lawn furniture was transported from back covered patio (via truck), to site.

It may look trivial, but took several hours to complete.

Santa Monica Pier

I'm contributing one additional, so that the Sylmar Wrigley's only have to publish 3 if they want! We had lots of fun today...celebrating Memorial Day California-Style! Can you spot the "ham" in the second picture? Bottom picture is Melissa in Forest Gump's shoes (they are metal...secured into the wood), on Forest Gump's bench. Note the feather resting on the right shoe. Run Forest, Run! :)

A Vew from the Closet

Taken from our closet window (yes, I know, why does a closet have a window) this morning. In total, there were 4 deer outside the back fence and 2 more over our our neighbor's yard in addition to these two in our yard. Good little mowers, are they!

BARS Rev 3 Ver 1.0

In our latest attempt to discourage late night visits from our furry friends (Yogi and family?). I have set up a SCARE BEAR. You know, a scare crow to frighten bears.

The SCARE BEAR consists of a piece of welded art Lynda's Dad created with a solar powered light behind it. The following three views are what a bear would see in the dark, what he would see if he had a flash camera with him (digital of course) and what it looks like in the day light.

Last night was the pilot and...no bears! Not that that proves anything. We may not be on his Sunday night 'rounds' or he may have taken the Memorial Day weekend off to visit BooBoo.

Stay tuned for Version 1.1 and 1.2 (released together). They include THE SHOT GUN and UP UP AND AWAY.

360 View

Not sure if this will work, but I uploaded a 360 degree view of our property video to compare with the earlier Winter view. I have a microphone (in Idaho) so this one is with titles only. Next time I will make it shorter and maybe with a narrative. For now you are stuck with titles.

Thanks to our AVP/DIC for his help. I made several attempt at uploading to Youtube and finally gave up and uploaded to his site for handeling. It still took close to an hour.

DoD

BARS TOO

A lot of these six shots are out of focus, but it is all I got from the bear visit last Thursday Night. And I am still experimenting with the Blog. Uploaded this batch to email, then 'mailed' to blog.

We can make this a 'delete early' blog.

BTW, Idaho cell is being discontinued (someone - ME! - dropped it in the toilet). Stay tuned for second Washington cell number within next 10 days.

DoD

Sagle Bear...May he RIP

You may all remember that famous Sagle Bear Cub that predicted the coming of spring by peaking his little head out of the snow.

Well, it turns out that although it looked like a typical Northwest Chainsaw carving of a bear cub, it was indeed hollow.

The weight of last winter's snow was too much for the little guy. He collapsed under the weight.

Although he won't be with us next winter, you are ALL still welcome!

Glendale City Hall Field Trip

(These were all taken with my new phone by the way!) It just so happens that the Mayor of Glendale has a son in Melissa's classroom! The mayor & his wife organized a field trip for the class (not all 5th graders, just OUR class) to visit Glendale City Hall & the Glendale Police Station today! It was really neat-o! We met the mayor, a forest ranger, the captain of the fire department, an historian, local police officers and more. The two animals that melissa got to hold (a gopher snake and a GIGANTIC tarantula) were provided by the forest ranger. The jail picture is self-explanatory...it's Melissa making fun of my jail-time! ;)

Tombstone

Here's a picture of the boulder that flipped us. This picture was taken on our fourth run (after the flip) and is from a disposable underwater camera that we took with us on the raft.

And here are the 6 members of the Kern River Swim team. The picture was taken by our guide while we waited to launch for our first run of the day. From left to right: Jeff, Jimmy, Don, Joel (the Bachelor), Gregg, and J

Rafting on the Kern

My friend Joel Lofton is getting married in July. This weekend, six of my oldest friends (since Jr. High) and I went on a rafting adventure on the Kern River in California. This was definitely a top 10 event for all of us. The best part of the adventure was when we got high-sided on a huge boulder and the raft went completely upside down and dumped all of us. We got to ride IN the river for a few hundred yards while the guide got the raft back upright and we all climbed back in. The pictures above are from our 3rd run down the river. Each time we ran the river, we rotated positions in the raft so we each got to experience the front, middle, and back of the boat. We flipped on our second run - when I was in the front. If you ever get a chance to go rafting, I highly recommend it.