Bliss on Mul-Acres

This Memorial day weekend we hosted a big camping party on our land up in Oakanagon. The camping party consisted of me, John, Isabella, Mary, Jeff, Nika, Michael, Maja, Kai, Rob, Steph, Keston, Mike, Cindy, Charlotte, Heath, Greg, and 3 dogs (Luna, Ellie, and Nova). Many thanks to all of these guests who made the 4.5hr (or more depending on conditions) trek out to our property.

John, Mary, Isabella, and I arrived on Friday afternoon so that we could relax and prepare for our guests who were all arriving Saturday afternoon/evening. John proceeded to become lumberjack boy, found a felled tree, chainsawed it to a bunch of rounds, and then split the rounds into burnable wood. This was a few hours of sweaty but rewarding work, as John was enjoying working his own land.

That Saturday late afternoon the guests arrived. After everyone finished seting up their tents, we began to lay into the 30lbs of Dungeness crab that John and I had provided. For dipping we pulled out some of those fancy butter warmers (with the tea lights under the butter dish) and as Rob put it "It's like when you went to your first outdoor rave - by the end of the weekend all you have left is half a twinkie, then someone walks by and cheerily says "blueberry scones and hot chai tea?"" We all laughed, remembering being on both sides of that equation, enjoying the luxury of Dungeness crab and hot butter while camping out in the woods.

After dinner, we proceeded to enjoy Big Fire, courtesy of all of John's lumberjack efforts. What's great about owning your own property - no Forest Ranger to come by and say "Remember, your fire must not exceed 6 inches above the fire pit." Ha!

The next day, Sunday, almost everyone proceeded to become a lumberjack. John and Michael found another felled tree and chainsawed it up while Jeff and Nika handled the wood splitting. Nika was especially good at the splitting... it turns out that while living as a potter on Whidbey Island she split wood for 2 hrs a day, every day, as that was how she heated her home and fired her kiln. Go Nika!

Sunday also included much exploring of the property. It turns out to be quite a hike to get all the way up the hill to the other side of the property. Frankly, this super pregnant lady couldn't even make it all the way. Who knew one could actually get exercise just hiking on one's own land! It's great to have a whole 25 acres. Our land is bordered on two sides by public land, so some guests continued up the hill past our property line to a peak with a gorgeous view of the whole area. Here are some pics... the last 2 photos of/from the nearby peak are courtesy of Michael.

Other than that, the weekend was filled with much frolicking, eating, camp-fire-enjoying, knitting, ball kicking/throwing, chatting, reading, and general relaxing. Here are a few more pics, last one courtesy of Michael.

Thanks to all who attended. It meant a lot to us to share our newly purchased land with all of you. Special thanks to Rob and Steph for toughing it out with tiny little Keston (I know how much work it can be to take an infant camping), to Mike and Cyn for all the food (including the lovely roasted duck), to Jeff and Nika for the lumberjacking, to Maja for staying the extra day to help with take down, to Mary for all the help with Isabella, to Heath for not complaining about all the issues that came up in his long drive, and of course to Michael who always pitches in and helps with just about everything (setup, lumberjacking, takedown).

Getting REALLY huge

Yet, I still have 2 months left. How big will I get?

Pregnancy endgame

Ah the joys of the 3rd trimester. Here are some highlights -

1. Cannot bend over without grunting


2. Have to pee ALL the time. Last night I slept for 7.5 hrs and had to get up to pee 4 times!!!


3. Can only sleep in a couple of positions - can't sleep on my back (at this point in the pregnancy the baby compresses a major vein when I am on my back which makes me gasp for breath) or on my belly. Result - I toss and turn most of the night.


4. Maternity shirts are getting too small for my huge belly!


5. Totally exhausted all the time (which is exaserbated by #2 and #3 above)

Ah but the joys that are to come soon -

1. I will get to hold my baby in my arms!


2. 2 words - FETA CHEESE!!!!! (pregnant women can't eat soft cheeses, and frankly I'm going insane wanting some)

Definitions

Here are a few definitions for you -

Love - when you take your 3yr old to the zoo because you really want to make her happy, even though you are very pregnant and completely exhausted.

Bittersweet - when you are really excited about the new baby that is coming, but at the same time very sad that you will no longer have so much sweet solo time with your existing child.

Grateful - the way you feel when your husband brings pizza (the craving of the moment) home to his pregnant wife.

Danger - when a pregnant woman who is craving sweets goes to Trader Joes. Such actions may result in the following purchase, all at once - a lemon tart, mango popsicles, choc chip cookies, a raspberry/chocolate tart, and cookie/ice cream sandwiches.

What I have eaten so far today

Ah the joy of eating while pregnant. So far today I have eaten -

5am - yogurt, cereal, ground flax

9am - blended smoothie with one carrot, 3 big leaves of kale, 1 apple, 1cu frozen raspberries, 1 bannana, 1/2 cu Kefir. Produced about 24oz of thick fresh goodness.

11am - First lunch of pasta, pancetta, green peas, asparagus

2:30pm - Second lunch of pasta, sausage, red sauce, zuccini, parmesan cheese. 2 mini-doughnuts

5pm - 1 peach, some strawberries

And now I'm about to start cooking dinner - large green salad plus a Thai green coconut curry with shrimp, green beans, shittakes, and sweet potatoes.

I will never again get to eat with such abandon, so I'm making sure to enjoy it!

A sweet smile

At times there can be so much love expressed with one momentary sweet smile.

Yesterday was Mothers Day. The day was pretty quiet... John had gone out to our property in north-eastern WA to survey the land. It wasn't his fault he was gone for most of the day... we had decided together that he should go alone as the road conditions out to our land were expected to be iffy (i.e. snow melt still in progress at that high elevation). So anyway, there weren't any big plans for the day, so Isabella and I played at home until John got home around 3:30.

When John arrived home at 3:30pm, he brought me a bouquet of flowers to say happy Mothers Day. That was very sweet, but the best part was the flash of a smile when he gave them to me. It was just a moment... that beautiful moment when he smiles in a way that lights up his eyes. I fell in love with those smiles years ago... those smiles that express softness, tenderness, and that are an expression of loving me even with all of my millions of faults.

Thanks for that smile John. Thanks for the flowers too ;).

Mul-Acres

As some of you (oh faithful readers) might know, John and I purchased 25 acres of land out in the Oakanagon area recently. We had visited the property back in November, and since then the roads have been covered in snow, so we had not been back since our initial visit. The roads are plowed up to about 3mi from our property, so in the winter the only way to traverse those last few miles is by snow shoe, cross country skis, or snow mobiles.

Our property is at 3900ft elevation, so the snow typically does not melt out until early May. This year was especially cold, and we were told by a neighbor that she wasn't sure if our land was accessible yet. We had planned to all go out there for the first time this past weekend, but because of this news John went out solo. Frankly, I wasn't really excited by the idea of driving 4.5 hrs with a fussy 3yr old just to then hang out in the camper by ourselves for 2 days while John hiked over the snowy roads to the property to survey, build a fire pit, etc. So Isabella and I stayed home and hoped for John that he would make it all the way out there.

Turns out he got lucky and the trip was timed just right. The roads were quite muddy, as if the snow had just finished melting. So he was able to get to our property and setup camp.

Before John left, we joked about how little time we had spent on the land before buying it. John said "Well, if I get out there and decide I hate it, we can always sell it!" Turns out those fears were unfounded. John called me on his drive back and said he absolutely fell in love with the land all over again. Apparently there were tons of birds, owls, deer, and other wild life. The creek was peaceful, the trees were plentiful and of many varieties, while at the same time there were nice clearings so that you could still navigate through the property freely (without getting choked by constant brush). Here are a few pics -

We had plans for John to meet with a licensed Forester so that we could have a Forest Management Plan done. The county requires this if we are to continue to be zoned Forest Land, which basically means that if we follow the plan given to us (for proper maintenance and thinning of trees) then we get a crazy amazing break on property taxes.

So John walked the land with Judy, or Forester, and she commented on what a huge variety of trees we had, both in age and species. She was genuinely surprised and impressed with how nice the property was, and made specific comments to that effect. Let me tell you, it's a good feeling when a Forester tells you that your forest land is especially nice. Yay! Judy said that to get classified as Forest land, you need at least 150-300 trees per acre, which she said we easily had, so that means we own thousands of trees. Yay again!!!

After walking the land with Judy, John proceeded to one of his planned tasks for the weekend, which was to build a fire pit in advance of a big camping party we are having in a couple of weeks. Here are some pics of Ellie helping john to dig the pit, and of the resulting product. I can only imagine how satisfying and peaceful it was for John to relax by the fire in the pit he built, on the huge piece of land that we own - just him, ellie, and the creatures of the woods. No nearby campers to kill his camping buzz.

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Lastly, John spent some time doing a general survey of the land and the available infrastructure. We actually found out after we bought the land that it had even more infrastructure than we realized. Before buying the land we knew the land had barbed wire fencing, a couple of sheds on a huge concrete pad, a well, and a septic field. We found out later that the land also has a 1000 gallon holding tank (so that you aren't limited in your water pressure by the 2gal/min speed of the well pump), all kinds of pipe laid underground (to connect the holding tank to the building site with the concrete pad and sheds), spigots in multiple useful locations, and a long gravel driveway/road from the main road through our gate (so that it's easy to get campers, trailers, equip etc to the building site and to other places on the land). Basically, this land is all prepped for a cabin. Even if we don't build a cabin for a while, the work that has been done on the land makes it much more usable. Trust me, a big piece of forest is no fun if it's all brush/trees with no clearings/paths. We've been on land like that, and you can't even navigate through it.

All in all, we are tremendously excited. We can't wait to share our forest wonderland with many family and friends.

A devil or an angel

Life seems to be full of opposites.

Yesterday was a very very hard day with Isabella. She gave me one of the worst times ever at the grocery. I only had to buy garlic, carrots, and tomatillos, but it took 45min because she was running everywhere, begging me to buy her every random interesting thing she saw, and not listening to me at all. At one point she got into one of those shopping carts with a little car on the front... problem was that it belonged to another mom and had another kid inside. After pleading with her to get out, I finally pulled her out screaming, only to look up to judgemental dirty looks from moms. Ugh. And I still didn't have my 3 grocery items yet, so I couldn't make a quick exit. Anyway, that evening we had her friend Kai (along with his parents) over for dinner, and she was on her worst behavior - pushing, not sharing, throwing her silverware around, etc. Not pleasant. Somehow it's not very rewarding to savor the delicious dinner you spent 3 hrs cooking (homemade mole sauce) when you have to reprimand your kid every 5min for silverware throwing/screeching/getting down before done eating/ etc. Ugh. At the end of the evening I said to John "You know, I love Isabella to death, but I do think that 2 kids will be just fine, thanks." and he joked "I'll schedule the vascectomy for tomorrow." (which references the fact that I used to want 3-4 kids but John has always wanted 2)

Ah, but today was so peaceful and lovely. Isabella was waking up just as I was getting out of the shower, so she crawled into bed with her dad and I got back in with them to cuddle. I left my 2 favorite people in bed while I practiced yoga. John then left for work while Isabella and I made breakfast, read several books, and proceeded to take a bus downtown. We walked around Pike Place market hand-in-hand, ate a tasty lunch at Lowells by the waterfront, bought some beautiful fresh produce, shopped for cards for both of her grandmas, and then took the bus home. Once home I drew her a bath. She begged for me to get in there with her, as she often does, and I complied (for those of you who aren't parents... nudity is not a big deal to a 3yr old... they don't know any better yet). So we splashed in the bath for about an hour while I washed her hair, played with her bath toys, and sang songs.

I guess that's how kids are - they are such angels at times, so sweet, so loving and lovable, that it's pretty easy to get instant amnesia about all the times they drive you crazy.

I love you Isabella.

You know you are pregnant when...

You know you are really really pregnant when between 5 and 6am you have already -

• Eaten 2 breakfasts - yogurt and cereal at 5am, black beans and rice at 5:45am after realizing that I was still starving
• Peed 3x
• Thirstily drank 24 oz of water
• Tried on 2 sets of maternity shirts, trying to find one that fits over your huge belly (yes, these are maternity shirts, not regular shirts, and yes they are still too small in the belly).

Man, can't believe I still have 2.5 months left.

Home again

After 14 days on the road, 3515 miles, we are home again. We love our VW camper van, but it's good to be home. Time for a good long shower, more later...