Category Archives: what the hell are we thinking?

Better days…

We had another spell of cold crap weather. Not as bad as the first one, but when its not the typical mid 40’s it is just too cold to go outside and enjoy yourself. Well at least for me, I am not a fan of cold.

We leave here at the end of March and it really seems like we just got here. We are still looking for June to August, we think we have July and August, but still nothing set, which is something we need to work on and get finalized. We want to stay in the Puget Sound area for the entire year plus if we can.

We are always open to a new adventure in a different area of course, if the situation is good enough to go do it, but until then we want to stay in the area. Too many friends we have not had the chance to spend any of the incredible Northwest Summer days with in too long of a time.

It is a lot easier to have a night involving a spontaneous cookout when you are 1-2 hours away vs 4 hours while we was in Oregon.

I’ve started running again. I still have a long way to go to get back to the physical condition I was in 2012. I pretty much took the entire year of 2013 off from running due to living in Patagonia for 6 months. And being lazy. But if you never ran at 4100′ + elevation you have no idea how hard it is vs to running at 150′.  Add in the humidity and heat of Arizona, and it just made it too grueling to halfway enjoy a run.

I was running 3-4 miles with ease in Oregon and I was struggling to run 2 miles in Arizona and with the hard road and trails, I kept getting shin splints which is something I hardly ever had to deal with in Oregon and never with the severity I was having in AZ.

I do enjoy running on the trails here. I struggle with the hills, well at least going up, but its nice to be outside with the natural air and sounds and smells and seeing the birds, deer and even some seals every so often.

Enjoy the night.

Long time no see!

It feel’s like we have been on the go since we arrived here. Some of it feels routine but too much still feels like we have had no time to take a breath which is why we have not been updating like we once was. It feels like it was just a week since it was New Year’s Day and now it is almost February.

Time flies…

We saw a coyote once again, but no camera. We see multiple Bald Eagles daily and it never gets old. I love watching them just soar over the cliffs. I also had a great view of some seals playing just under the surface of the water.

The past 2 weeks we have been on a long, time consuming mission of taking “inventory” of sorts, of the entire park, as well as Mystery Bay SP and Anderson Lake SP.

The state of Washington has decided to copy some of the things the State of Oregon is doing with their State Parks and that means counting every trash can and sign and a million other things.

The State also wants more details regarding the size of the area’s that is considered “litter pickup” or what is considered to be “mowed” areas which means I have been walking the parameter of large areas with the GPS as well as driving a 4 Wheel Drive Gator over the larger open areas.

Not too hard of a job, but we had less then 9 days to do it all.

Pauline and I finished our task yesterday in the rain. It took a few days just to figure out what the State was asking, and how to best accomplish this. The Ranger’s have been more then helpful as always, but this was all new to them as well, so we have had a few hours worth of meetings on and off going over what the State is asking for, and talking how we can accomplish it in the time the State has given us to accomplish this.

This week alone Pauline and I have worked 41 hours (combined) so we only did a hour today and tomorrow with the weekend off.

Wednesday I was asked to help with traffic as we had some tree’s to cut down near the roads. Then I got involved with the cleanup part which ended up lasting all day long. I got home around 4:30pm. It was a very long and hard day and I am still feeling it in my arms. The chipper had a tow line for the larger pieces, but I still had to muscle the pieces into the chipper in a way for it to be grabbed, that was hard enough.

We went to Vancouver 2 weeks ago to visit the boys. They are getting so big. Jon is 14 and  Dylan is soon to be 10. It seems like yesterday they was learning to walk and now both are very good basketball players.

Dylan had a game so we went to watch that, they was playing a much inferior team so the coach asked them to not play as hard and it showed. Dylan was doing his best to be a good sportsman but at the cost of not playing anywhere near his own ability.

Jon is getting offer’s to play on more advanced teams and has the potential of going much farther so we have been talking about doing things the right way and how to be ready both for playing the game as well of what to expect as a player of the game.

Sunday is the Super Bowl… I love Peyton Manning, but he is no longer a Colt and while both teams have a starting D player from Purdue…

Go SeaHawks!

But I won’t be sad either way.

I will try and keep up with updating more in the future.

August? Already? Really? Ok.

This year is just moving too damn fast. Don’t get me wrong, I love the late part of Summer and I really love the Fall season, but it just seem’s like it was April a few days ago.

Kickoff for football is getting soooooooooo much closer.

As is our departure date. Which is like 2 months from today. We still do not have a new gig. I have to get re fingerprinted for my Washington back ground check, last set of prints was too “smudged”.

I spoke to a State of Washington Parks and Recs personal and she told me to contact the parks we are interested in letting them know our applications are being processed now, but will be somewhat late due to my finger print issue.

We had some visitors spot a Mountain Lion yesterday. But I was unable to see any fresh signs indicating it was still in the area or not.

Gallery

August? Already? Really? Ok.

This gallery contains 13 photos.

This year is just moving too damn fast. Don’t get me wrong, I love the late part of Summer and I really love the Fall season, but it just seem’s like it was April a few days ago. Kickoff for … Continue reading

Gallery

Our Craziest Week of July

This gallery contains 15 photos.

Another long post…I have a couple of weeks to make up for. But this one is just for one week, trying to break it up better. =) On 7/9 we decided to go Jeeping and explore the area. We had … Continue reading