More pictures of Pot Holes State Park

Susan's Vacation Alone!!!!!

About a month ago I decided that I needed to get away for a bit. We have our trailer why not park me some where and let me have some down time. Eric and I decided Pot Holes State Park was the best idea. Not too far away but far enough. Eric drove me out there on Saturday the 16th of October. He stayed till very early Monday morning. The weather was so very beautiful there. It was between 65 and 70 degrees. The trees were just starting to turn colors when I got there and were pretty into full color by the time I left. Pot Holes State Park is a very beautiful and scenic park. I could see the lake from my trailer. I brought my sewing machine, lots of movies for my flat screen tv and my Kindle for all my books. I found out I could get my email and facebook on my Kindle so I was not all that out of reach. I put together a quilt while there and watched alot of movies. I took some walks and took pictures with my new camera that Eric bought me for my birthday. I spent my birthday camping.
I came away with a better outlook. I enjoyed being by myself. I was not lonely. The trailer was great. When everybody arrived we had dinners together in our trailer, the weather had turned icky. We were able to get 8 people and two extra chairs in there and it was not crowded. I had the best time. I am looking forward to doing it again.

About half way through my alone time my friends Sandy and Bob to join me. It was great. I love it when we get together. Sandy and I went shopping in Moses Lake. OR I should say we got lost alot in Moses Lake. Niether of no the area very well. But we finally found what we were looking for.
They arrived Wednesday night so I fixed dinner for them. I made hambergers. I had some left so I cooked a little bowl of hamberger for thier dog Mac. He is now my friend for life. Of course I also bought him some dog treats. I enjoyed having him around.
Eric and Mom arrived Thursday night. Andrea came the next day. There were 8 in our party.

At the end of my week of vacation Karen and Bruce came to join us. Saturday the guys wanted to look at the lakes in the Pot Holes. There are a bunch of little lakes all over the Pot Holes. Bruce was scouting places to use his kyaks. We found some very beautiful little lakes. We came across a beautiful Heron. I turned my head away from him just as he was taking off so I missed a picture of him flying.
We came across a lake called Upper Goose Lake. Bruce and Eric got out to look at the surroundings and watched 2 men pulling out 3 trout in 10 minutes. Eric decided we needed to go on to Othello right away and go to Walmart to buy a rod and reel. He wasn't sure if he had left one in the trailer. So we bought one, got back to the trailer and found 2 more rods and reels. Andrea of course wanted to go fishing,then Bruce decided he would join in. The 3 of them took off and an hour and a half went by and I got a text from Andrea saying they got skunked. No fish. I thought, there goes that darn Clifford curse again. When they got home I told them how sorry I was that they didn't catch anything. Andrea says taa dahh!!!!! And held out a whole big bag of trout. They had caught 13 pretty rainbows. SOOOOOOO..... the next morning we had a big fish fry for brunch with the 8 of us. It was very tasty.Every body has decided that we will go back to the Pot Holes every October and fish more than the one day.

Busy Summer

I think we are going to have an early fall. For the last 2 weeks it has only been in the 60'S. The nights are alot cooler than thay should be. According to the weather people we are 12 to 15 degrees below where we should be.

We are in the process of getting all the vegetables from our garden. We picked about 300 ears of corn on Labor day from our garden. I have frozen alot of the ears whole and then I scraped the corn of the ears and got 5 gallon bags of frozen corn. I have put up 2 gallon bags of green and purple peppers. I froze 1 gallon bag of hot peppers. I have canned 12 jars of beets and 7 jars of pickled beets. I am now waiting for the winter squash to finish ripen so I can pick them. My carrots will be ready to pick in the next couple of weeks, I will be freezing them. I wish I tomatoes would ripen a little faster, I would like to make salsa. Oh Well.

The weather rumor is that we are in for a longer colder more snow year than we have had for the last couple of years. I am prepared hopefully. I caulked around my windows. Hopefully sometime this winter we will put french doors upstairs and downstairs.

We are talking about raising our own chickens on the property we are barrowing. We are going to talk to the owner this weekend. I think that would be great.

It has been a great summer for me. A little short but productive. I was able to relandscape the front yard, finish the basement and camp once of month in our new trailer. I will be redoing my mothers bathroom in the next couple of weeks. I am collecting materials I will need. I need to do the new tile floor all in one day. So I bought mud that dries in 2 hours so I can tile and grout all in one day. I bought a new vanity that does not take up so much room. I am trying to make the bathroom more senior citizen friendly. Later this winter I will gut my bathroom and redo it. I am so looking forward to these winter projects.

I need to finish a quilt for Lisa and Jacobs new daughter. I love it when life is full. I love to be occupied.

The New Bathroom

The new linen closet is an open concept with baskets. I finished the top of the shelves with tile. It put a large tile in the center and mosaic tiles around the large tile. It turned out well.

The New Bathroom

We are finally done with the girls downstairs bathroom. Okay I still have the baseboard wood to put in. Most of its in but the small pieces need to be installed. the girls and cats are enjoying it very much. The only thing we have left today down stairs is the little things. Eric is doing those in the evenings and on weekends. The carpeting is the biggest thing we have left. It is not in our budget yet but it will be soon.

The Large Family Garden

Eric and I decided we needed a bigger garden this year. We borrowed some land from a friend of ours. So far the garden is a success. This our test year. We know what we will do next year and what we will not do. Keeping up with the weeds has been fun. The garden measures 55ft by 85ft. We harvested some potatoes for dinner last night. Very wonderful. We also have our garden at home. We harvested all the peas this weekend. We got a gallon and a half of peas in the freezer now. I am planning a second crop. When the corn is ready we will have a big corn boil and have a party.

Front Yard Landscaping

We finished phase one of our front yard landscaping. The retaining wall area and in front of it is done. I am very happy with what we did. Meredith and Andrea were big help. we all worked very hard. The next phase is the slate patio in front of the livingroom window. I am also taking the sod away from around the two trees between the sidewalk and street. I am looking forward to getting the work done.

Our family decided to meet at Kyak Point this July for a family campout. It was great fun. We got to know 2 new people. We met Kendall, Ben's friend and Jachen{sp} Monicas'friend from Swizterland. We met every night at our campsite to sit around the campfire. It was so cold that we looked like we were camping in the winter months. If you look at the pictures we are all bundled up. We also met Mallory's friend Scott. It was a great time. We did miss the family members that were not there. We missed Amy and her family and Jacob and Lisa. Maybe they can all come next year.

MOSES LAKE CAMP OUT.

I had to work at my job near Moses Lake last weekend. So we decided to make it campout and drive back and forth from Shrag. Our dear friends the Eraths decided to join us at the campground. Their trailer was parked behind us. On Saturday our dear freinds the Olsens came to see us. We had a great time. We had water front property. We weren't supposed to but it has rained so much that the camp area in front of us was under water. It was kind of soothing listening the waves. Eric, Andrea and Meredith went fishing quite a bit. They did not catch anything though. I don't think they cared, they had fun. The only fish we got was the fish our campground neighbor gave us when I traded him a bowl of dutch oven chili for it. Not bad if I say so myself.

OUR NEW TOYS!!!!

A month or so ago Eric and I went camping in a tent. We froze to death. When we got home we decided we were going to buy a trailer. We found one we liked very much. The bathroom is huge. It is not a regular trailer bathroom. It has lots of shelves and drawers so that everyone can have a shelf and drawer for themselves. It has a regular corner shower. Not one of those small showers you usually find in trailers. The rest of the trailer is also roomy. After we bought it we started having nightmares about our old truck not being able to pull the trailer. We were right. So we ended up buying a new Diesel pickup. We went on our first camping trip last weekend. It was great. We were not freezing to death. We are very grateful!!!!

SPRING AND SUMMER HAPPENINGS.

I am sorry it has been so long since I posted. Besides landscaping and camping we are going to have a fun time in our new trailer. I will post pictures when we get the trailor.
I am tiling the girls bathroom and should be done by the end of the week. I will post then also.
We had a great Mothers Day. My sister Karen came to see Mother. Our friends Elaine and Bob Erath came to visit on their way to Yakima.I worked Karen and Elaine to death. I had a catering job that weekend. They helped me quite alot. They also went with me to serve. I forgot to take pictures but I did get pictures from the one event I catered the weekend before.
I think we will have a great summer this year. The Fourth Of July will be great. The WHOLE family is getting together at Kyak Point, north of Seattle. It will be a great weekend. We will be getting to know Ben's girlfriend Kendall. We are really looking forward to that. I hope we don't over whelm her. We will be getting great pictures then also.Have a great summer everyone. I will try to be more diligent in my postings.

Last week Eric and I and our friends Bob and Sandy Olsen went camping. We started camping last year and decided it should be a yearly thing. We went in May because we were to slow in getting reservations for the summer. It was so cold. We went to Steamboat rock near Grand Coulee Dam. It was a beautiful place. Eric and I slept in a tent. The first night it was so so so cold. The next not as cold but still pretty cold. We went home on the third night. And yesterday we bought a trailer. It is about time. I will have pictures later.
One thing I got while camping was ROCK! I needed rock for my new landscaping. Eric kept looking for the rock police to come and get me. They didn't. I ended up with quite a few pieces of white granite.
We had a great tour of the dam. Because the elevator was not working to get us to the tour they took us by van. And we got to go on the top of the dam. Very few people have been on the top since 9/11. We got to see the turbines spinning. I expected alot more vibration from them, there wasn't much if any at all. Great tour.Next year we want to go up to Canada to the hot springs.