This is my third post about our trip to Wayne County. Hopefully you're scrolling down and reading the posts in chronological order, I think they'll make the most sense that way. :-)

So, on the other side of the creek was the second half of the property. Our first stop in this forest was to a huge old sugar maple that Dad and Uncle Ronnie remembered from their childhood. There used to be a whole grove of maples here, apparently they were planted over 100 years ago to start a maple syrup company before the property was in our family, but the company was only in business a few years (dad can tell you the whole story). This old tree is the last one standing...it measures 12.5 feet around! A natural spring runs out of the ground at the base of the tree and runs down the hill to the creek. She's old and hollow now but felt like the mother tree of the forest, definitely the type of tree that would talk to Pocahantas in a Disney movie... :-)

Remember the thick underbrush that covered the first forest? See the difference here?...

So according to Craig, the diversity of this forest was much better. There are a lot of hemlock, but also a good variety of hard woods scattered throughout. The problem here is the density. The canopy here is so thick that it's harder for sunlight to get through and support new growth (hence the lack of underbrush). In areas where there are some openings for the sun to peak through the ground is mostly covered with ferns (underbrush that survives because the deer don't like to eat it!)...

The little orange salamanders liked this side of the creek too!

And one last photo...down by the creek was this chicken coop...it's all that remains of the old homestead where our Great-Great-Aunt Sophie used to live. The stone wall in the front right corner of this photo is the foundation of the old barn.

The first half of the property that we hiked was the half with the flagstone quarry. We didn't actually go all the way to the quarry, we'll have to explore that during another trip. This time we were focusing on the trees, but here's a photo of the path that leads to the quarry.


This half of the property also has the old hunting cabin...our Great-Great-Uncle Warner used to live here.
Craig's main observation about this forest was that it was over-run with Beech trees that are low value, and are also plagued with a disease right now that is incurable. Unfortunately most of the Beech trees on our property seem to have the disease which means they could start dying off in the next 10 years or so. This would be the main problem that we'd have to address in this forest. That being said, the forest was absolutely beautiful and everything seemed extra green today after the early morning rain...

Craig guessed that most of the trees in this forest were ~80 years old, this particular tree appears to be much, much older...oh the stories this tree could probably tell...

We thought this tree was pretty neat, look at the way the trunk is twisted. To the left are three black cherries...great trees, but growing too close together here.

There were lots of these cool little guys all over the forest... aren't they cute?? :-)

One other thing that set this forest apart from the forest across the road was the underbrush...lots of bramble and small saplings...you'll notice the difference between this and the photos in my next post.

Mom, Dad and I travelled up to Wayne County today and met up with Uncle Ronnie, Aunt Bonnie, and Jackie, to hike the hunting grounds with Craig the forester. The property is divided into two parts by a road that runs along the creek. Craig felt that the forests on either side of the road were quite different and would actually require separate development plans to improve the health of each one. So I'll put up separate posts for each forest so that you can see the difference. I'm not sure if I'll get all of this done tonight, so for now, here are a few photos of the stream that runs along the road and divides the two halves of the property...

Hi everyone!

Kris and I went out to Eastern Washington this weekend to camp with some friends by Frenchman Coulee, close to the Columbia River. The area is the desert part of Washington, and is famous for a enormous, dry canyon and large columns of basalt formations that rise on either side (kind of like the ones above and below).


I loved the fluorescent green lichen.

Apparently at one point, lava filled the area and cooled rapidly, cracking the igneous rock into these towers as it was being formed. A flood later in history carried away the topsoil down the Columbia River into Oregon (where all the wineries are now). This exposed the rockface.

We did some hiking along and through the rock columns, and some of my friends (including Kris) tried their hand at some rock climbing. You can see in the pictures that its just perfect for climbing--lots of convenient toeholds and handholds.

I didn't try this time--I've done it before and freaked out because of the height--but Kris and I might hit the gym some more this summer and give it another go.



Kris climbing up the rock. I cheered him on from below :)



We camped below one of the rock faces (you can barely make out our tent in the photo below). The sunsets (and the stars at night) were just gorgeous! The desert landscape was so different from Yosemite.


However....you'll never believe what company we had! The second night we were there, we discovered a rattlesnake, coiled up not 30 feet from where we had our tent. He was just a little guy. We had set up camp too close to some rocks, and Kris found what he thought looked like a rattlesnake den (a triangle shaped hole snugged between two big boulders).

Needless to say, we moved the tent, and checked it good before we got in at night. We imagined there were probably rattlesnakes all around--we just couldn't see them--but we read that the Western rattlesnake is pretty docile compared to the Eastern one, so we hoped it wouldn't seek us out.

I'm ready for May to be over--it seems like its nothing but run-ins with venomous creatures!

Kitchen. Love, love, love the gas range.


Other side of the kitchen+dishwasher.


Windows are pretty big for a basement, I think.


Living space. Needs some sprucing up--I'm open to furniture arranging suggestions!

The bookshelf looking into the bedroom. I love the exposed wood beams (there are two in the apartment).

The bedroom needs the most attention, I think--I'm hoping to convert the wall where the bike currently is into a sewing area.

I'll post the last few pictures later.

Happy Easter, everyone! I can't wait to see you all soon.

Hi guys!

I'm going to start to post a few pictures, as promised. For today, a quick view of the outside of the apartment--the front yard and fence, the path leading around back to my apartment, and my new grill :)

More coming later.

Another fun day in Cali :) We toured wine country first, and stopped for a delicious lunch at a fun little spot in Sonoma:

Saw some little snowmen building a giant snowman, complete with an SF Giants cap :)
Hiding out with the snowmen:
Nice walk along the beach in Marin County:
Obligatory stop at Ghirardelli as we were passing through the city:
And of course we couldn't leave without splitting a sundae!
I was taking a close-up picture of the tree in Ghirardelli Square, and guess who popped into the picture?
Self-portrait in a Christmas ball :)
The city is beautiful when all of the buildings in the skyline are outlined in Christmas lights! I took this from the car as we were driving down Embarcadero on our way home...

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We had a great time with Laura at the Cal vs. Huskies football game today, especially when the sun came out and we got a nice break from the drizzle:


See, there were even blue skies during part of the game:
And here we are this evening, out at a local pub (yes, that's a Pictionary board in front of us):

We miss you all and can't wait to see you for Christmas!!

Hi ya'll,

Scenes from Snowvember and my lovely snow day, just to gloat even a bit more.

Above is the scene from the bedroom window. The road's not covered yet, but I bet it'll be icy tonight. Temps are supposed to drop into the teens.

Backyard.


Poor Blueberry! All covered in snow.

Happy winter everyone!

UPDATE:

Here's what Blueberry looked like at 4PM, when I went out to clean her off for the night. The snow is sticking to the roads now! We probably have an inch or so, and are supposed to get 1-2 more overnight.

Here's a couple pictures of the cake Amanda made for the church's 40th Anniversary. It turned out really good!! Everyone at church loved it, and were impressed with Amanda's cake decorating skills!! Though I did help out a little!! ;)


The tables were decorated with potted chrysanthemums, so that's the flowers they wanted on the cake. The top layer was vanilla with chocolate chips, the second layer was all vanilla, and the bottom layer was chocolate. Yummm....