Cali and her snakes

Real snake.

Fake snake.

I prefer this one.

Chippy chase

Cali caught sight of a chipmunk and she chased the poor thing around the spa at least 10 times. I was afraid they were both going to turn into butter. You can spot the chipmunk blur in the lower left of this photo.

A brief second of rest before resuming the race around the spa. It eventually out smarted Cali and ran up a tree.

Um....Whoopsie!

Just when you think nothing of much interest happens in this sleepy town, someone rams their minivan into the doorway next to the Post Office. No human injuries were sustained, but the building's brand new facade looks severely damaged.

(I hope sweet Casey is feeling well soon!).

Disappearing chokecherries

We had been watching this chokecherry tree all summer. The fruit was really getting ripe and then one morning most of the cherries had been stripped off the branches.

Yesterday while watering the garden, I saw this bear ambling down our road headed for the chokecherry tree.

We blamed starlings for eating all the chokecherries, but now I see we have found the real culprit.

Astoria, OR

We stayed at my aunt's coast house which is just south of Astoria. This view of the bridge over the Columbia River was taken from the Maritime Museum. It's a very interesting museum, but we couldn't stay long as Cali was in the truck and it was quite hot.

The Astoria Column is a big attraction for this area. The view from up here is tremendous.

Dennis climbed all 164 steps and released a small wooden airplane from the top. I was surprised that the little plane made it into the trees. I thought it would just crash to the bottom. It was extremely windy up here.

The beach at Ft. Stevens State Park is a great place to run the dog. My aunt told us about an area where you can find intact sand dollars. We collected 10 perfect ones. If we went early in the morning we had the beach to ourselves.

Cali on the beach.

Trip to Oregon

Mt. Hood taken from Panorama Point. It's unusual to get such a clear, cloudless pic of this mountain.

Hubby in front of Mt. Hood. The valley is beautiful and full of pear and apple orchards.

Grandma and granddaughter hanging out in the gazebo. It was 90 degrees.

The ladies in my family. From left, Mom, my aunt Anne, cousin Sherri and Grandma. Also, Gigi on Sherri's lap.

Hubby chatting it up with my Uncle Butch. My aunt's friends are in the back enjoying pizza. They were headed to Maui the next morning. Lucky puppies.

Tomato crop

This year's tomato crop ripened a little earlier than years past. We made jars of tomato sauce, chopped tomatoes and a 3rd batch of roasted tomatoes. That doesn't include the tomatoes that have been eaten fresh or given away. I'm guessing we have processed between 200-300 tomatoes in the past 2 weeks. Fortunately, that is the bulk of the crop. The fruit that is left on the plants are very green and were probably hidden by other foliage. Those will take some time to ripen, but we're ready for them!

Nuthatch Hill Spa

Join us for a relaxing freshly mown grass wrap and a cool bath. It's free of charge as long as you eat your weight in grasshoppers.

Apple harvest

We harvested all the apples from our 2 small trees.

One variety is a nice rosy red.

This variety looks like a golden delicious.

Here is the chief apple picker.

The haul. Enough to make 10 jars of apple butter and still have half left for general eating. Not too bad for such small trees.

Short Visit

Father and son at a local pub after a morning of fishing. Jeff is on a plane home. It was too short of a visit, but wonderful to see him.

Visit from Jeff

Father, son and Cali on a hike up the hill this morning.

Jeff and Hubby are off to a Griz game this afternoon.

I'm home making huckleberry ice cream.

Cali's home taking a nap.

More of YNP

Everything seems to be oversized in Yellowstone. The ravens are the largest I've ever seen, the coyotes are so big they look like wolves, and these mushrooms are obviously on steroids.

What is with this tomato?

Um, these horny projections are just too funny. It's taking forever for this tomato to ripen and of course the little nub is the first to show any color.

more of YNP

A chipmunk eating grass seed heads. This pic was taken along one of the geyser boardwalks.