Back at the Beginning

It is part of my history that as a teenager, I spent part of a summer in Northern Idaho working for Chuck Waterman, a church friend who was a National Guard pilot who had extensive timber interest that he managed as well.  Chuck needed some property "thinned" of dense second growth fir which was sold in Priest River as pulpwood for west coast paper mills.  It was no fun, hot, dirty and difficult.  The trees were skinny, covered with dense limbs, all of which had to be cut off before we could drag it out and truck it to the rail yard.  I gave it several weeks but I really wasn't any good at it and hardly made Chuck what it cost to support me.  We agreed it wasn't working and I pointedly remember telling his wife Lois that the experience taught me that I needed to "stay in school".

Well, for the last few days I've been inspired to do some maintenance on the common grounds of our neighborhood.  We have a drainage pond that we are obliged to operate since we largely cleared the hillside for our homes overlooking the Snoqualmie River.  It stabilizes runoff and smooths out discharge from rainfall.  Its most recent inspection called out the encroaching presence of multiple Alder saplings which naturally sprout on open ground such as we created at our pond. They needed to go.

I felt like I could make short work of them with my homeowner chain saw, so for the last 2 days I've spent my mornings lumberjacking the pond.  I've given it 3-4 hours both days.  Its been sunny. Its seems remarkably Hot.  Its been hot, dirty, and difficult.  At the end of my shift today, I sat on the tailgate of the truck and wondered if I could get consulting fees for the time and effort I put in. Then I thought of Chuck and Lois and realized I was back at the beginning again.  Still not very good at it. But at least I got that education behind me now.  Graduated from the 25th grade and still combing sawdust out of what's left of my hair. Stop laughing, Chuck.....

It's been a while, here's some thoughts

Tyler is right here on my lap watching me type.  So I have to be a little careful about what I say about him.  He is is really good kid and I love to give him kisses and he is very nice when he is patient and works hard. 

Now he is slipping and falling off my lap, so I can tell you that as a 2 year old, he's kind of a jerk. 

When you learn about what kids are going through in their 'Terrible twos', their behavior makes a lot of sense.  They have essentially been living in a world that, as near as they can tell, they are in complete control of.  When they want things, they get them, and any perturbations from this norm are probably just forgotten.  A two year old, on the other hand, is slowly learning that he is an entity, and the world around him spins with its own rules, rules he is often not going to enjoy.  It would bum me out, too. 

I consider it my duty to frustrate Tyler at least once a day, if not many more. I figure denying him something he wants is just part of the process of teaching him things.  I figure when he gets old and reads this, he'll probably be really frustrated with me, but tough noogies, kid.  If I didn't teach you these things, you'd be completely insufferable, as opposed to the regularly insufferable that I'm sure you've achieved at whatever age you find this.  It's part of the learning process.  Deal. 

Anyway, I figure that whatever I'm doing has to be working pretty well so far, because he's turning into a pretty great kid.  He's super curious about things, fussy, but certainly not insufferably so, and is quickly becoming a candidate for those great one-liners they always got from 'kids say the darnedest things.'  Lets try a few:

How old is daddy?:  One
How old is mommy?: Two
How old is Tyler?:  Four...um, Two!
Where does our food come from?: Ummm...the Pizza man!

That last one isn't true, by the way.  We cook. 

My recent favorite has been from last night.  I was singing him a random song I had been listening to during the day.  Obedear by Purity Ring.  The chorus goes like this:

Oh, but dear the sky is low.
Gather up your harm and gods
with grateful arms. 
Oh, but dear the sky is low...

Well as I was singing, he sits bolt upright from laying on my chest and says to me, with wide eyes: "Sky is low!  We were on the plane with the clouds!  Sky is low!"  He had evidently just figured out how the clouds had been so close to the plane window.  I did my best to explain how the plane goes up near the clouds, and he settled back down, but that's some pretty inspired science from a kid who was about to go to sleep. 

Tyler is in the 'transition' classroom now, which is theoretically a transition between the 'day care' of the younger kids and the 'almost kindergarten' of the older classes.  He seems to be fitting in pretty well, being a fan of running around, playing with sand, and sitting and reading books, some of the primary activities of his class.  I've gotten to join a couple of times.  I got to hang out in his classroom one morning and started reading him a book.  Before too long I had gathered an impromptu circle of all the kids in the class and was reading to them about things that go. 

I also got to visit for 'splash day', which has started up again during the heat of the summer.  The difference between splash day for toddlers and two year olds is primarily that the two year olds don't want to stay on the splash pad.  There is a big playground out there, one they don't often get to visit, and they have as much desire to explore as they do to get hosed down by the teachers.  Though the hosing is also a pretty big draw. 

I 'got' to travel last week, which Jessie always considers a vacation for me (and she's not entirely wrong) but Tyler is old enough to start missing people and telling us about it, which means that I got a couple of videos sent to me of Tyler saying he was sad because he misses his daddy, which breaks your heart right in two, let me tell you. 

We got to spend the fourth of July in Florida with the Florida family, and Tyler thought the fireworks were pretty neat, though he did manage to burn himself on a sparkler.  Does that sound familiar to any parents here?  First son burning fingers on hot sparkler?  Maybe it's genetic.  Anyway, we at a lot of food (Tyler liked the beans) and also got to go to the Miami Zoo, which was pretty horrible.  Oh, the zoo was fine, but it was really, really hot, and we couldn't get Tyler to take a nap while we were there, so he got pretty grumped up.  He thought the giraffes and elephants were pretty neat, but we had to head home in the early afternoon because of excessive grumpitude.  He napped on the way home and was much more personable after that. 

We also spent a lot of time in Aunt Shannon's pool, where Tyler mostly just tried to kill himself over and over.  He was better than he has been, and was a champion at shimmying along the wall, but he was still a little too squirmy for his own good while we were holding him.  He was a big fan of sitting on floaty things and getting pushed around, as well as getting surprised by Johnny and William.  Also enjoyed doing big daddy-assisted slam dunks in the floating basketball hoop.  But since he was still not holding his breath or being safe, Jess signed him up for some basic swim lessons.  It's not super-critical for us, because we don't have a pool, but it would be nice to let him learn more about holding his breath and being safe around water.  It would at least make it easier to hold him. 

I've been playing more video games recently.  Which is odd, because for a while I wasn't playing them at all.  I was practicing painting, or piano, or drawing, or something else 'productive'.  It's become frustrating, though, to spend all my time on things that are essentially just practice.  I'm not yet good enough at those things to have fun just sitting down and playing piano, or drawing, or something like that.  Every once in a while I want to just have some fun.  Ergo, video games. 

I'm trying to loose weight.  Well, that's not true.  Not really.  I've long held that the scale is not my best metric for monitoring my health, after I stared doing more exercise and lost size but gained weight, presumably in these massive guns of mine (kiss, kiss).  Regardless, I measured at 236 at the end of the 4th of July vacation, and that is too much.  I've started monitoring my food intake in an attempt to see where my weaknesses are, and so far I think I'm doing pretty good, with the monitoring, if not with the weight loss, that takes time.  I don't think of it as a diet, though, those end.  I'm trying to create a formula for selecting the things that I eat that will keep me healthy and satisfied over the long term.  That's also called a 'diet', but it's the version of the word that botanists use.  I like that one better.  The main problem so far has been that I'm still pretty hungry a lot.  If anyone has any suggestions for food that keeps you full with a low number of calories, I'm all ears.  I'm eating a lot of tuna, though. 

I mostly did this because I realized my favorite thing about the blog is going back and reading my old entries.  So this is an entry that will, someday, be old, and I'll read it and enjoy it.  Hopefully the rest of you do as well. 

-N

Summer Fun

Yes. We have been busy. Blogging is feeling more like a winter sport, more like watching tv, play video games and cooking in doors. But let you think I've forgotten to blog, or that I might be working too hard to blog (ha!), a brief photo update.

In no particular order, we have:
Taken Mom and Dad to their first Mariners game.
Been to the Olympic National Forest to visit friends from Pittsburgh
Gone camping in the Cascades
Not killed everything in the garden
Gone hiking- even once with Mom and Dad
Gotten a lot of sunshine.

It's good.

A little update from the Boonies..

Seems like this blog has lost some attention since the principle participants are now nearly neighbors.  I just wanted to make a note about our current circumstances before it totally dries up.

As you know, we live near but definitely not in Seattle.  We are actually in the officially rural part of both King and Snohomish Counties.  Our closest community, Duvall, is clearly a Redmond/Microsoft commuting complex but we live across the old 2-lane road from a dairy farm. We all have a couple of acres, we have 4, 2 of which are dedicated to a stream run-off protected area.  Some of the neighbors raise chickens, one keeps bees, we're very much in the country.

It has been a habit of mine to wake before Connie and walk down to the road for my morning newspaper (you know: sheets of paper with stories and pictures new everyday...).  I always keep an eye out for 4 legged neighbors.  I'm never disappointed in that I almost always see some bunnies, often some deer and rarely, the coyote family.  This morning was special.

I started down the driveway just below the house on the relatively long straight-away.  Around the distant corner came something smoothly running right up the middle of the road, straight at me.  Seemed about the size of a dog and for a moment I began to fear I was going to confront a coyote with a grudge about recent fireworks or something.  Still coming, I'm hard to miss. At about 50 feet I speak up loudly, "Who are you?". Ears flick forward, I recognize a small deer! Still trotting along, it comes right to me and stops. A fawn, big eyes, wet fur, nothing but legs, I am close enough to pet it. I sort of bend or bow to it, it gives me another moment of regard, then continues its trot up the hill to go past the greenhouse and the kitchen. I search for a worried or possible hostile parent, but see nothing on the rest of my walk save the usual collection of morning feeding rabbits. 

I know most of us have heard that deer are sort of a modern plague but they charm us here and haven't done any apparent garden damage to change my opinion yet.

Today I got my personalized Washington license plate for the Soobie: XAK IMD.  Feels like we're really settling in.  If only the Mariners could get it together....

Things that Grow Well in My Garden

This is a list for future reference.

Things that Grow Well in My Garden:
Roses
Cilantro
Chives
Beans
Nasturtium
Mint

Also doing well:
Swiss Chard
Rosemary
strawberry
Dandelions

Our new Worm Box

Remember that time I tried to keep worms?  Remember, it was going to be a really enlightened way to deal with kitchen scraps, except I had no idea what I was doing, and the worms had to live in the basement which was too hot, then too cold, then too wet and somewhere in the middle we unleashed a torrent of fruit flies on out little duplex the horrors of which cannot be imagined. Matt (rightfully) banished the worms outside, where they eventually froze, long before turning any quantity of household waste into dirt.  (So yes, there was a bucket for of frozen, rotting food with worm carcasses on our back porch for much too long.)

Anyway, forget all that.  I've gotten from training in worm handing from an experienced vermiculturist- my mother-in-law. She promised us works and send us hardware, and we just recently put together the box.  Just as I was on the verge of caving and buying new wood, Matt decided we could put a box together out of old pallets, and found a bunch being given away. I was all enthusiasm until I realized how hard it is to break apart pallets. Matt soldiered on an knocked together a mighty nice looking box, complete with a fairly solid looking recycled lid (and hinges!).  This weekend, as part of our Mother's Day exchange, we took home a box of worms and some starter stuff for worms.  They got settled in their in the box yesterday (Fig 1).

Fig 1. The new Worm box, made of re-purposed pallets.

So let's discuss some of the design improvements of the current box.
1) It has no bottom.  It will drain directly into the soil, the only barrier is a wire hardware cloth, which keeps out mice.
2) Wood is more breathable than plastic. The moisture thing was a serious issue for the last worms, because they were sealed in a sweaty plastic coffin. We should have worked around that this time.
3) I know what worms eat.  Betty informs me that these red worms don't do much to orange peels or onion skins. Those were the main components of the first box- which, since no one was eating them, drove up the moisture and smell. We won't be sending the worms food the don't like, especially while they are getting settled.
4) The box is outside. The requirements for compost that lives beside the garage are much more forgiving that the compost in your laundry room. This is perhaps the biggest key to success.

And, since I've figure out how to add picture from my phone to the blog, may I present, a rhododendron bush that is ready to explode with color despite a steady diet of clouds (Figure 2), and my first ever rose that I grew in my own garden and it is so big and so red you may think you've never truly seen color before (Figure 3).

Fig 2. Our Rhododendron begins to bloom. It's magenta!

Figure 3. My rose. The image doesn't quite capture a hue of red so deep your eyes ache.

Perhaps more garden pictures can be shared once the rest of the things get settled. I like how lively they look in their little pots on the porch so far, but I'm trying not to get too attached in case I've misjudged what can be grown here.

ReaperCon, Days 3 and 4

Last one!  There's two more below this, so if you just see this, scroll down a bunch and start reading down there.

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Reapercon Day 3

After another early morning and good breakfast, I didn't have anything scheduled until 4:00 in the afternoon, so I took my time in the morning. I read the forums, considered whether or not to bring pizza or other goodies, looked for interesting games, that sort of thing. After a slow-going morning, I headed over to the con to do some stuff.

On the way in, I'm sure, I got stopped and asked about my Backpack. I got noticed for it *all the time*. People were super curious and wanted to know more about it, and I can't blame them. Its primary goal seems to be looking really, really cool. I'm going to change my Forum name to GuyWithCoolBackpack.

My first stop was to talk with Jeremy Bonnot, he's the guy that taught the 'how not to suck' class. Really nice guy, I asked him about getting smoother blends, and he invited me to just sit and watch him paint. It was very informative, and I'm super glad I took the time. I watched him paint for about an hour until they announced they were going to start the VCR teardown competition. That's where you get to break apart a VCR and build something cool out of the components. I was the only one there, at the start, and so I got to tearing it down and getting all the cool parts out. I found the head of the VCR, and pulled out the innards, and made the cool thing that I made. I'm sure you've seen pictures. It took a while, and my paint job was pretty spotty, but it was an absolute blast. I spent a lot of time working on it. Eventually a few others joined in, too. Tonya and Adam, Richard, and another lady named Lynn. There were some pretty good ideas in there, though all the paint jobs were clearly pretty rush affairs. I had a lot of fun doing that.

 

(This is my guy.  the neat metal thing in the middle spins!)

After a lot of that, I joined my color theory class. Yes, more color theory. It was incredibly useful, though. Whereas the beginner class focused on more practical rules, the more advanced class talked about visual design, composition, and other graphic design ideas that really made me think about color and where to put it in really great ways. It was a super-great class.

After that, and a little more milling around, and some dinner, it was time for the awards ceremony. My piece won a Bronze, which was actually right about what I was expecting. A lot of other people won bronzes, slivers, and golds, too. We were all very pumped. Richard, Ben's dad, actually won a Silver Sophie...completely by accident, as it turned out. But he got to take the trophy and hang onto it, and I'm sure they'll just cast another if they need it. It was neat to see one of the Sophie trophies, too. Something to aim for in the future.

After all of that excitement, I went out to dinner with Ben, Aaron, Vincent, Tonya, Adam, and a whole big bunch of other people. We had sushi, and I had a couple sets of crazy rolls. We sat around and chatted, handed around the Sophie, made jokes, and met a few new friends. A very nice ending to the eve. I got back home, did some packing, and then went to sleep.

Day 4:

Got up bright and early, got some breakfast, and packed up my stuff. Managed to get it all in one trip, surprisingly enough, and then got my stuff out to the car. A guy asked for a ride, and I said I would, as long as he would stop somewhere to get bagels for me. We went to one, but it turned out to be at a University, and it was all closed down. So instead we just drove back down to to convention, getting some donuts on the way. Yum.

I got there in plenty of time for my morning class: brushstrokes. I got some more instruction on layering, side-brushing, and plenty of other techniques. I'll have to go over my notes again to make sure I've got it all, but it was a very useful class. Anne Forester, the lady that taught it, had lots of energy, and she's actually in charge of the paints for the entire company, so she is an endless font of knowledge. She gave me some good advice on my minis, the same advice pretty much everyone gets: more contrast with highlights and shadows.

After that I stumbled into a CAV game, a mech-based wargame, and played that for a while. It was pretty fun, but large-scale wargaming isn't something I'm looking to get into anytime soon. Regardless, it was neat to learn the system, and I got some Reaper Bucks out of the event.

After that, we gathered everyone together that did the VCR build, including the guy I gave a ride to the Convention with. He had built something overnight. So we all stood up there while Reaper Brian announced the winner. I was expecting the lady that made the imps tearing through the wiring to win, especially when Brian announced that it was the one that made the judge laugh the most. But in a shocking turn of events...they gave it to me! I was genuinely surprised, and really happy! I got some cool mousesling bar-goers. I really like the mundane kind of stuff, so getting such a nice set was a real treat.

(Myself, ReaperBrian, and the Mouselings I won!)

Then was the Auction. There was a lot of neat stuff, but nothing I was planning to really go after. I figured the really cool stuff would be out of my price range, so I thought I'd bide my time and wait to see if there was anything I wanted. Also, the whole event was a lot of fun to watch. Cool things going, people winning stuff, it was a hoot. After a while, me not seeing anything particular I wanted, Tonya and Adam started bidding on some magnetic character markers that they used in their gaming. Not really having anything I wanted that badly in mind, I just gave them my tokens to see if they could win with it. Turns out they didn't need it, but the gesture was kindly received...

...especially a few minutes later, when something did come up that I wanted. A case for carrying miniatures, something I didn't have but could really use. I bid on it, and it ran up to $220, which was as much as I had. It looked like I was going to get it...until someone bid $230. Tonya just gave me some of hers, putting me up and letting me win it. Very nice of them.

Of course, as the auction went on, people had less and less money, and Vincent managed to clean up on a couple of really cool things. He got to design his own mini, got a bunch of cool figures, and then, in the greatest gesture, picked up a figure case that was going for far too cheap and just gave it to Adam and Tonya. They were quite pleased, and there were hugs and smiles all around.

Then the auction wrapped up, and I was anxious to get back on the road, in case I got to see Tyler before he went to bed. I said my goodbyes, thanked everyone I met, and many people at the company for putting on such a great event, and then got on the road. There was some really annoying traffic, but it was an uneventful drive. I got home filled with figures, painting knowledge, and really, really warm memories.

-N