Weather In The Northwest

This is what the weather looked like as we were crossing the 520 bridge.  On a clear day you would be looking at Mt. Rainier...

today you could only see the sun trying to break through.

By the time we got to The Drunken Bear, the sky had cleared and it turned into a beautiful fall day.



And typical of a fall day here in the Pacific Northwest, the spiders are out in full force.  Luckily for us, these are not poisonous spiders.  But, they build their webs between very wide openings and if you are not paying attention, you will walk right into them.

This is a close-up of the peak in the second photo above.  We think this peak has been loosing rock since we started building.  It is fascinating to see this peak in different positions of the sun, as the shadows are always changing.  We will be watching to see if more rock is lost this winter.

A little of the fall color in the valley of another peak to the right of the picture above.

This is another thing we will be observing to see if it changes.  We have a few Western Red Cedars that appear to be dying.  This one is on the edge of the road in back of our property.



Sealing The Wood

It all began in the spring when our friends, Joe Radoslovich and Robert Wisdom joined Steve and began the long process of sanding the cabin's logs on the outside. Off and on during the spring and summer, Steve and I continued this process when we weren't busy doing other tasks. Now if this had been a new Pan-Abode building, the sanding would not have been necessary, but since ours had sat for many years, there was quite a bit of discoloring and quite a few marks left where the logs had been stacked against other logs. Again, if you remember from the first postings, there was also some rot in some of the logs we used, so we had to use wood putty to fill in these areas. We wanted to get the cabin sealed before the onset of winter weather. Then came my accident and quess who the chore of applying the sealant fell on...the ever trusty, Steve. He came by one day and we went to the hardware store to decide on what sealant we would use. Wheeling around a big box hardware store on one of those handicap scooters was rather fun. We decided on a semi-transparent oak brown stain by Cabot. When Steve was talking to his daughter about staining the cabin, she told him that she and her husband had just purchased a sprayer that we could use. Steve had to first cover all the windows and doors to protect them from the spray. That job alone took quite some time. Luckily the weather cooperated and he was able to apply the stain...very thankful that he had the sprayer to do so. The end result was a color that appears a little more red than the color we had chosen, but I think it looks really nice and am ever so thankful to Steve for all of his work!

Stain on back of cabin

Steve's fall chores were not done however.  We have had some terrific wind storms here the past few weeks.  While talking with his brother, Mike, Steve found out that a lot of trees had fallen in the Index area.  Steve had planned to go to The Drunken Bear to drain his motorhome in preparation of winter, so he thought he would head up the first chance he got.  When he arrived, he found lots of large branches that had broken off the trees but fortunately, no trees had come down.  What he also found however, was two of the metal ridge caps had been ripped from the roof.  These are the metal strips that run the length of the roof, capping or covering both sides of the roof where they meet at the top.  One of the strips was damaged beyond use, but the other was salvageable.  Luckily for us, when we got the metal roofing, they had given us an extra length of ridge cap.  So, Steve was back up on the roof securing the ridge caps.  He had not planned on having to do this and did not have his power drill, so had to do it all with a screw driver.  He says he has some pretty sore blisters from getting the screws through the metal using just a screw driver, but at least the roof is secure now. 

Labor Day Weekend

Rich Holliday and Cris Sabaten sitting by the campfire.

Brian Landau getting smoke in his eyes.

Steve stoking the fire and getting it under the grill to cook the baby back barbecued ribs...yummy!

Baby back ribs, corn on the cob, baby back ribs, corn on the cob...

Steve and I enjoying the coals of the fire. 

Claudio Diaz de Leon

Brian Landau

Cris Sabaten

Claudio bringing the necessities for the campfire...a cooler filled with beer and Tim's Cascade potato chips.

Claudio using his dog, Griz, as a pillow.

This was a fun weekend spent with good friends.  The weather held out for the most part...we only had to duck for cover on a couple of occasions.  Unfortunately for Steve, I was in a cast and using crutches, so I was not able to give him any assistance.  The others offered and gave a lot of help, but Steve pampered all of us with good meals throughout the weekend.

Rick and Heidi's Visit

Steve's son-in-law Rick and his water-fearing dog.

 

A friend of the family who had just discovered the clay on the

beach.  Steve's grandson is directly behind "mudboy" and 

"mudboy's" sister is behind them both.

 "Mudboy" drying out.

Steve's daughter, Heidi, and her husband Rick, and their two children joined us on one of those hot days in August.  Steve and I were working on the cabin and their arrival happened just at the time we were ready for a break.  They brought us a much appreciated lunch.  Another family that are friends of Rick and Heidi also joined us and everyone took to the river to cool off.

The riverbed in front of the cabin has a lot of clay deposits.  When we finally get the cabin finished, we hope to  make some things with the clay.

A Panoramic View of the Index Arts Festival

Index Arts Festival Artist in Action

 

It is so sad to see the old Bush House in Index loose its' glory.

Many a good time and meal were had here. Hopefully it can be saved.

Steve and I were working on the cabin, but had to attend the Index Arts Festival. This is one of my favorite artists, Patrick Woods and a piece of his finished work. He puts his headphones on, has a brush in each hand, and just goes at it. He is fascinating to watch.

When the fog moves in, you can really find the taller trees. You don't notice them so much when they blend in with the other trees.

Robert Wisdom, Rich Holliday, and Mike U.

Mike Osterman, Ronnie Lundgren, and Robert Wisdom

Rich Holliday

Joseph "Yoey" Radoslovich

Ronnie relaxing and catching some rays on the rock beach.

Mike Osterman

Ronnie Lundgren toasting a bagel at breakfast.

Joseph, Mike, and Ronnie hearing another funny campfire story.

Mike U. and Rich enjoying the fire.

Our friends, Mike Osterman and Ronnie Lundgren, were in Seattle on a visit from Stockholm. This was a great opportunity to have a party for them at The Drunken Bear.  The weather was perfect for the entire weekend.  Some of us walked into the town of Index and had a coffee at the Outdoor Adventures Center...highly recommended.  Others went for a swim in the river.  Most of the weekend was spent around the campfire with lots of laughter and stories of enlightenment.

 

We have a bird feeder set up that has to be filled every time we go to the cabin. We think the Stellar jays get most of the food, but there are also a lot of finches and warblers that seem to get their fair share

This is one of the peaks we see while sitting around the campfire. There is a large rock formation that is continually loosing material...at least in our minds. The fog around the mountains is always fascinating also.

Unknown, but beautiful bug found crawling on our temporary front stairs.

The Digitalis (Fox Glove) were huge and plentiful this year. They were really beautiful. After they finished blooming, we scattered their seeds so hopefully we will have more in the future.

Another unplanned project was caused by our lovely robins. In their efforts to find a dry spot to lay their eggs, they chose the inside of our cabin. When we arrived, we found all kinds of materials for building a nest scattered throughout the cabin...along with good ol' bird poop. We knew we had to remove the nests or we would have a huge mess on our hands. After removing the nests, we had to put up temporary material to make sure the birds could not get back inside. There was a lot of space to cover and not much other work got accomplished on this particular day.

While working, we would hear this tap, tap, tap. It turned out to be a woodpecker and it was tapping on the satelite dish on the neighbor's property. These pictures show the woodpecker sitting atop the metal posts of the gazebo after it had pecked on them. Someone told us this was to attract the attention of a mate.

Two opposing pictures...one looking back at the cabin from the river and the other, looking towards the river from the cabin.

One of these days I will have to learn the names of all the peaks around us. These show a late spring snow fall. If you enlarge the close-up, you can see the snow covered trees. Viewing these on a hot day here in Seattle seems to cool me down some.

The rafters were stopping just west of us for their lunch break.

Some of the rafters floating by on the river below The Drunken Bear. These were taken in May, before the river level dropped.

View from the town of Index showing the well traveled railroad bridge with Mt Index and surrounding mountains.