At the homestead

Celia said that I should talk more about what we do at home in my blog, not just the trips we take. So, here's some picture of summer at the Wilson household...

Dan does a lot of field mowing to keep the grass and blackberries under control. We've engaged in a large project to reclaim land for native plants (shown below), thereby cutting back the need for field mowing in a sizable area. Dan has done a lot of research into which native plants will do well in this area.
Below is the perennial garden.
Our friend Sheila visited from Fresno. We enjoyed wandering along the waterfront and through the farmer's market.










Right after Sheila visited I took a class in teaching reading and writing to English Language Learners. It was a week long intensive class - the first class I've taken for credit in about 25 years. The information was very practical, and I will be able to put it to use in my tutoring. At this point, I have one private student. I am working toward starting a tutoring program at our church.

The garden got a late start this year due to poor weather in the spring. Here it is at its peak in early September.





























I grew 8 cabbages like this one. Everyone in the family is making sauerkraut.

WTA "volunteer vacation"

In late July, Dan and I joined a group of hikers for a week of backpacking and trail work with the Washington Trails Association. Our volunteer vacation was in the Goat Rocks Wilderness, between White Pass and Naches.
Evening activities included lots of good food, story-telling, and scrabble. It was a really fun and diverse group of people. We were a good team.


On our day off, we were able to hike the loop trail to the high country. We also went off trail and into the snow.






















This shows some of the projects we worked on. The area of trail Dan is standing by was almost impassable because of some large rocks. He rerouted the trail and removed some of the rocks.

Lake and River outings

Banks Lake
At the end of June we returned to Banks Lake with a group of friends. The weather was cool enough that we were able to hike comfortably. We took a long hike around the top of Steamboat Rock.



























We also brought our canoe and enjoyed exploring among the rocks and swimming from the boat.




















The next weekend we took Evan and his friend to Lake Kachees.

The water was really cold and refreshing on a warm day. It was great fun jumping from the rocks.

Recently we joined a canoe club called Paddle Trails. Our first trip with the club was a paddle down the Tolt River. The river had some good riffles and rapids, but nothing too scary. Dan and I learned a lot from the leader, who was a former Olympic trainer. We learned how to surf a wave! We also learned the safety equipment we need to do whitewater canoeing.