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).
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