Moving Soon to Coarsegold

Today we had the pleasure of going with Jen and her "best friend in the whole wide world" Lynette to see the Varner's new house. It was the official walk-through since escrow closes soon. They will be moving in mid-December, and you gotta know we're pretty stoked about having them so close by. I took lots of pictures, but no pictures of the house itself. . . go figure! I realized this after coming home and uploading them to my computer. But there are lots of pictures of the owner's horse, Anna, which our adorable granddaughter drools over. And pictures of the storage areas in the house . . . the pantry, and the closet in the master bedroom. It makes me giggle inside to be taking those kinds of pictures. Could it be that I am envious of so much storage being that, in our lifestyle, storage space is the one thing there is never enough of?

The owners were gracious enough to really take time explaining living in the country. You know, things like warming the house with a pellet-fed fire place (it takes a whole bag of pellets a day to warm the house in the winter), cooling the house with a whole-house fan (even in the hot summers they will need no air conditioning), dealing with your own well, spraying the yard once a year so the weeds won't even sprout (they use a quad with a sprayer attached to do this), mowing the front yard's weeds with a ride-on-top mower, The pictures also capture how pretty the fall colors are in this neck of the woods. And their view from every window is just trees and mountains—Beautiful! The tour took nearly three hours, and it was time for the girls to head back down to the city and go home. We sure love seeing them, and look forward to the big move to the country. I know they will love it here!

Here are the owners showing the property's corner stakes. It's good to know that sort of thing when you have three acres.

The owner is a darling woman and was happy to explain anything Jen needed to know about the property, the horse, or the house. She and her husband did all the refurbishing themselves, and used such quality throughout.

Anna, an eight-year-old Arabian, is the sweetest horse and is fully trained.

The horses live in a beautiful barn and fenced in corral and a nice arena . . . pretty lucky and well cared-for horses.

Anna enjoying her lunch.

Jen was madly taking notes on the how-to's of the care of the water-softening system, the propane company, the person to call to care for the floor. Shoot, I should have taken a picture of the floor. Only the bedrooms and the family room have carpet . . . the rest of the house is floored with an interesting resin-pebble flooring. It's real pretty, but I'm anxious how it feels with bare feet! It's beautiful and seems quite practical.

Here is the pantry — about six feet of shelving from floor to ceiling! Awesome!

The master suite closet . . . walk in, about 8 feet wide, double rods on either side and straight ahead a rod for long garments. And shelves all around the three sides above the hanging garments.

The view in the back yard is spectacular.

Beautiful swimming pool.

Jen wanted to say goodbye to Anna just one more time.

Life is good!

A Jeroboam Jubilee

A combination of a Day of the Dead celebration along with a Surprise 60th Birthday Party for Louise made it the perfect time to uncork the Jeroboam of Alderbrook's 1995 Cabernet Sauvignon. We were all pretty excited, and anxious at the same time, to try this wine hoping it would be outstanding. And it was! I'm so glad our stop in Healdsburg happened to be at the same time a party was in the planning stages. We were able to help with the festivities.

Over twelve years ago the grapes for this giant bottle of wine were picked from the Long's vineyard, crushed and bottled in the Jeroboam you see here. A couple of Many, many years ago it was a raffle prize at a party held by the winery for the growers. Jackie and Rick won the raffle! They've been waiting for a special occasion to open it and share it with a crowd.

For days we couldn't figure out how to get the bottle open because the opening and the cork was much larger than a standard bottle and all the modern corkscrews wouldn't work. So Rick got out the old standby that most waiters use in restaurants and was successful in pulling out the cork.

The Jeroboam weighed nearly 14 pounds when full so we decided to pour it into a pitcher in order to serve it easily.

Here it is and I wish you could smell the wonderful fragrance, or I guess you'd call it the "bouquet" . . . it was divine!

And look at the smile on the hostess's face when she gave it a whiff!

Jackie and Rick invited a great bunch of friends and we all had a nice time sipping our wine, snacking on some nice appetizers especially prepared to go with the "Wine of the Evening!"

The party got going when Jackie got up to demonstrate that she could still "do" the Hula Hoop . . .

. . . as could the birthday girl, Louise. Not bad for a sixty-year-old, eh?

And even Mark gave it a spin. He was actually quite good!

Jackie with her friend Anna

Jackie and Louise (Birthday Girl)

At the dinner table . . . the menu included Albondigas, hot rolls, and a nice tossed green salad. The Albondigas was a hit especially since the weather, after sundown, had gotten quite chilly out on the deck.

After a cheese course (which Louise brought) the birthday cake was brought in, a wish was made, and we all enjoyed the decadent Genache Anna brought.

Life is Good . . . especially in Healdsburg with family and friends and a never-ending bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon.

Old Guys Rule

The T-shirt Rick was wearing in the last post is one we gave him for his 60th birthday in May. Pictured on the back of his shirt next to the "Old Guys Rule" is an "old" surfer standing with his surf board.

Amazing to me is that Rick is still surfing at the age of 60! Recently Rick was getting ready to go out and surf at one his favorite places and noticed a bunch of surfers hanging out waiting for the right wave. Quite a few waves started up and all but a couple of surfers rode them in. Since Rick doesn't like surfing with crowds he decided that it was a good time to head out. When he paddled out far enough he noticed the couple of surfers still hanging out were good friends of his. He looked back and noticed a big wave coming toward him and thought about letting it go by, but his buddies hollered "Take it, Rick!" and without hesitation he did! He rode that one which led into two more. This incredible 60-year-old dude rode them all the way in. It was such a good ride that other surfers were cheering him on. Way to go Rick! —Old Guys Rule!

Here's a shot of him taken three years ago , but it's a great picture and he still can ride those waves!

Life is good . . . especially having an Old Guy like Rick in the family!

Spending Time in Healdsburg

We crossed into California last night and spent the night in Trinidad north of Eureka. This campground is where there is a herd of about thirty Elk that comes out of the woods at dusk and seem to say "Hey, this is where we live, we're just going to roam around and chomp on the grass . . . don't mind us!" It's fun to watch from our window . . . they are fascinating and big animals.

Today we drove to Healdsburg after parking the trailer at the Thousand Trails resort on the Russian River in Cloverdale. We took down a nice wild salmon fillet to barbecue and enjoy the evening catching up with Jackie and Rick. We'll spend five days here before heading down to Park Sierra. It's always fun visiting in the beautiful wine country this time of year. The grape harvest is finished and the fall colors are all around.

Here Rick and Ken solve the world's problems.

The view from the deck . . . perfect weather is predicted for this week.

These are Kiwis growing next to their deck.

The bottle on the right is a normal size bottle of wine. The one on the left is called a Jeroboam which is equivalent to six standard bottles or 4.5 liters. Rick and Jackie won the Jeroboam at a "Growers Party" a few years ago. It will be opened this weekend when we celebrate a Mexican holiday called "Dia de los Muertos" or "Day of the Dead" (a holiday to celebrate and honor loved ones who have died). Jackie has always admired this holiday, and with the Jeroboam of Cabernet Sauvignon, and some homemade Albondigas and Posole (which Jackie and I will make a day or two ahead of time) the party should be lots of fun. They've been saving this huge bottle for a special occasion where there will be lots of people to enjoy it with them. I'll be sure to post after the party . . . stay tuned!

South Fork of the Santiam River

I wanted you to see the river at this time of year. We've never seen this much water in it since this is the latest we've stayed in Camp Cascadia. It's "breathtakingingly" beautiful, don't you think! According to our local precipitation recorder, we got nearly two inches of rain last night. It's time to head to dryer climate.

Looking east from the bridge at the water rushing from the mountains. This is the area where, in the summer when it is pretty dry with just a small stream of water flows, swimmers sun-bath on the flat river rock.

Looking west from the bridge at the water rushing toward Foster Lake.

And this is our street as you turn left after the bridge.

The Autumn Leaves . . .

It's apparent that it is fall in Cascadia. The maples are turning from bright green to yellows, oranges, and reds. Around here they are mostly yellow. With a storm in the air, the wind is causing the trees to throw down their leaves which creates a beautiful golden carpet below. I walked across the creek to get a picture to send to Karen of the hoop house all buttoned down for the winter and took these pictures while there. A beautiful time of year!

Here is the golden carpet I spoke of.

This shot looks like the subject of a country painting . . .

The storm is passing overhead. So far just windy . . .

This is our driveway. I always love watching our little maple trees turn color.

Life is good!

An apple a day . . .

Just wanted to share the Seattle family's little apple tree in their front yard. It produces the most delicious, crisp and sweet but with a little tang, and long-lasting apple we've ever tasted. The problem is they have no idea what kind of apple it is. And with us planting an orchard next year I sure hope they are able to find the answer to its identity for us.

Sunday in Seattle

What a beautiful sunny Seattle day—which I think is rare this time of year! It was supposed to be raining but Mother Nature put it off until tomorrow, thank you very much! We walked through a huge Sculpture Park in downtown Seattle, beautiful sculptures by famous international artists. Just a nice last day in Seattle with wonderful family . . . couldn't have been any better. Afterwards we all went out for Mexican food and Cadillac margaritas, a half dozen Pegs and Jokers games, and a football game (Seattle Sea Hawks vs. New Orleans Saints—we lost). Tomorrow we head for home in Cascadia with great memories stored up from our Seattle visit.

My great sister- and brother-in-law

We had so much fun with this sweet family.

See Samantha under the arches in the background?

The Space Needle seen through a giant sculpture.

This one is called "Wake" (you, know like behind a ship)

A ferry boat off in the distance.

Saturday with the Seattle Symphony

We were privileged to be here at a time when our nephew (Steph's husband) was asked to "sub" with the Seattle Symphony Orchestra! We've never seen him perform before but have always known that he plays the horn (French Horn as we've always called it—but if you are really in the "know" you just call it a horn.) They perform at the fairly new Benaroya Hall in downtown Seattle. Two-year-old Sammy was so good during the entire performance, sitting on her mom's lap and just as attentive as a grown up. She was thrilled to see her "Daddy play horn!"

Here are Steph, Samantha, and K walking down to buy tickets. Amazingly Steph had to pay the same charge for Sam as we did for our senior ticket—$15 bucks!

I took this picture and then my plan was to wait to get another after David took his seat with the rest of the orchestra, but I was immediately told "No photography, please!" So I don't have one of the orchestra seated . . . sorry David.

We got there an hour before the 11 a.m. concert which was aimed at children (teaching them that playing a musical instrument is like being on a sports team with all the players working together). Before the concert started we enjoyed entertainment by a ballroom dance group for kids age 12 to 18. They were fabulous and drew quite a crowd. They performed in the mezzanine of the concert hall.

Check out these costumes!

The Waltz

The dancers seemed to have the most fun with this Bee-Bop type dance.

After the concert Samantha wanted to show us how she dances. Now, how adorable is this . . . notice the concentrated look on her face!

Ron had told us earlier of the sculpture that renowned glass artist Dale Chihuly created specifically for the Benaroya Hall. He referred to them as "hideous" but I found them fascinating. The two "chandeliers" that hang on either end of the gallery each weigh about three tons and are composed of thousands of individual pieces of glass.




Following the concert we stopped at Dick's, the local burger joint, and brought burgers home for lunch. What a fun morning it was.