From Draught to Flooding

As with the rest of the world, summers in Washington state are recording warmer temperatures.  After the last entry on this blog, the Pacific Northwest began drying up.  It was nice for those that like the higher temperatures, but for the rest of us it sucked.  And as with most things, there is the good and the bad.  The good was that with the low water levels we were able to enjoy the river quite often.  Nothing like a fresh dip in the mountain fed river on a hot day.  The bad was that the forests were really dry and ripe for fires, so campfires were not allowed.  We had our last campfire in June and did not have another one until late in September.  We really missed those nightly campfires when we had friends visit.  The drought also affected the plants.  Our wild huckleberry bushes did not produce the proliferation of berries that we are accustomed to.

When the river is low, some of the larger rocks really stick out.

It was amazing how low the river reached this past summer.

The low water levels made it nice to get into the river.

L to R:  Doug, Bob (upright), Steve, Robert (upright)

Relaxing around an imaginary campfire

Robert, Mike with Luke on his lap, and Doug

A fisherman a little downstream from the cabin -

again showing the size of some of the rocks.

Rod with the shadow of his hat giving him a 'veil'

Not the best picture of Donn, but a good one of Teddy

Our biggest gathering was over the weekend of the Index Arts Festival…always held on the first Saturday in August.  There were 12 of us that were together over the course of the weekend.  We walk into town and look at the offerings at the fair and always stop by the Outdoor Adventures establishment for a beer.  I always seem to find something that catches my eye.  And, I always buy some raffle tickets in the hope of winning one of those paintings by Patrick Woods (featured in the post of August 2010).  I won a painting the very first year, but it was not one of Patrick’s   Instead it was the painting below by local artist Jim Roberts entitled “The Last Cowboy”.  At first I was not very enthused with the painting, but its appeal has really grown on me and I am now happy to display it.  Another thing that has become a custom for me at the Festival is participating in the Index Volunteer Fire Department’s dunk tank.  You get three balls for a donation of $5.00.  There is a line you stand behind and then throw the ball at a small round release, that when hit, causes the fireman sitting on a stool above a tank of water to be dropped into the tank.  My time playing softball has paid off as each year I have dunked one of the firemen…the last two years, it has been one of our neighbors.  After our beers we walked back to the cabin and had lunch, followed by some people getting in the river and the rest sitting around our non-existent campfire, drinking, laughing and telling tales…always a fun time.

This is the picture I won as referenced above.

Having a beer at the Arts Festival

Seated L to R:  Bob, Kyle, Doug, Dan, Jim, Rod, Craig, and Scott

Standing:  Steve and Donn

No campfire - just an old propane tank turned into a drum

L to R:  Scott, me, Jim, Donn, Rod (standing), Kyle, Steve (standing), Bob, and Craig

For once, we did not have a gathering over the Labor Day weekend.  I was on the road to attend my 50th Class Reunion in Helena, MT and Steve decided he just wanted a quiet weekend at the cabin by himself.  That is something we both like to do.  As a matter of fact, that is what I am doing right now.  I came up yesterday as I wanted to paint the one wall with sheetrock in my bedroom.  I have been doing odds and ends around the cabin and have taped my wall in preparation for painting in the morning before I head back into Seattle.  We do not have internet up here, but I can write this on my laptop and cut and paste it and add photos when I get back home.

On one of my trips up, I took this picture of the tree that was

leaning over the river.  One of the last times it was

photographed.  As you can see in this photo, the smoke

from the fires in Eastern Washington were

making our air quite polluted.

One thing about the sunsets when the air is polluted with smoke,

is that you get some beautiful colors.

The sunset transformed the color of the forest everywhere.

Steve and I came up a couple of weeks ago and did a lot of miscellaneous work that needed to be done.  On the way here, we stopped at Steve’s daughter’s home and borrowed the family’s tile cutter and also picked up a shelving unit to replace the large roll top desk we had in the living room.  Once we got here we emptied out the roll top desk, then took it apart.  It was an antique desk and was very nice, but it was a little too big for the room.  We brought the shelving unit in from my truck then loaded the roll top desk in the now empty truck bed.  The shelving unit really works out nice.  It holds the stereo system plus provides all the storage that the roll top did and includes some shelves for display…all within a third of the space of the roll top.  We were taking a short break and I mentioned to Steve that we had a tree that seemed to have died this past summer.  He said he had thought about taking it down when he was here over Labor Day, but wanted to check with me before doing so.  It was about a 20 foot hemlock.  There was still some green on it but the majority of the tree was dead, so we decided to cut it down.  So out we go, cutting the tree down and taking all the branches to the campfire area.  Steve cut the trunk into manageable lengths for the campfire.  After that it was back into the cabin to start the projects we had originally planned.  Steve started working on applying the tile to the fireplace and I went into the bathroom and started applying a tile baseboard around the walls.  It was around 4:30 p.m. and I asked Steve what time happy hour was over at La Hacienda in Goldbar…about ten miles down the road.  It stopped at 6:00 p.m., so we got cleaned up as best we could and went to enjoy their Taco Tuesday.  Tacos are $.99 each and margaritas are only $4.00 during the happy hour.  We were trying to match the margaritas to the tacos, but we each settled for 4 tacos and 3 margaritas…a wise decision.  When we got back to the cabin it was time to have a fire…my first one since June…yeah!  The forest fire danger was back to low as we had been having some wet weather.  The pile of branches from the hemlock that we had cut down was quite large but over the course of the evening it all disappeared.  I used my pruning sheers to cut all the side branches off the main branches and that made for a rip roaring fire.  It was a perfect night.  Both Steve and I each had a grocery bag full of paper work that we had brought up to burn instead of wearing out our shredders at home.  Those bags had been in our rooms all summer waiting for this occasion.  There was no wind, so we did not have to worry about pieces of burning paper flying through the air.  This was one of the best fires we have had in a long time.  The following morning we started in on the tiling process again.  Steve said he did not think we had enough adhesive to finish the job, so I headed into Monroe to get some more.  While I was at the Lowe’s store, I noticed a nice backsplash that I had not seen before and thought I would stop by there on our way home and see if it met Steve’s approval.  We had looked at different backsplashes and none of them had so far appealed to us.  I was headed back to the cabin and got to the roundabout at Rice Road just outside of Sultan when I decided I was going to go back and buy the backsplash and if Steve did not like it, we could just return it.  I was just turning into the roundabout when this hit me and I just did a 360 degree turn around it and headed back to Monroe.  When I got back to the cabin I asked Steve if he thought I drove back into Seattle and he said he was beginning to wonder.  Luckily he really liked the backsplash…yeah, again.  So, after he finished the fireplace and I finished the baseboard, we started in on the backsplash.  We both think it looks really good.  And for once something worked out perfect.  The tile was just the right width to fit between the granite countertop and the electrical outlet strip.  That saved a lot of time and with no waste of material.  We did have to cut tiles to fit the space behind the stove and under the window over the sink, but the one box of tile was all that was needed.  It was great to get all of this tile work done at once.  We still have to add the grout to the fireplace and the baseboard, but even without it, we are very happy with the outcome.

The fireplace tiles awaiting the grout.

This is a heavy metal piece from the front of a stove I had found.

Steve was able to get it hung and centered, above our fireplace.

The baseboard tiles awaiting grout in the bathroom.

The backsplash tile we installed in the kitchen

Halloween weekend we had the same friends up to the cabin that were here over the MLK weekend when the tree fell on the cabin.  And guess what…it was another rainy and windy weekend.  As the title of this entry states, “From Draught to Flooding”, this is when it happened.  We knew it was going to be a rainy weekend and there were warnings of flooding, but since we had planned the weekend quite some time ago, we followed through with the plans.  By the time we arrived late Friday afternoon, you knew there was going to be some tense moments for those along the river.  Notice the difference in the pictures from July, earlier in this post.  When the winds started blowing, we were all wondering if this was going to be another MLK weekend.  Luckily the wind was nothing like it was back in January.  The trees were swaying and the leaves were flying, but that was all.  We spent the whole weekend in the cabin with the exception of about a half hour where Steve and Robert were able to be outside for a quick campfire.  Steve, Mike and I took a road trip to see what was happening around the area late Saturday afternoon.  We saw lots of flooded land, but did not see any major damage.  By Sunday morning the river had dropped quite a bit.  When looking up river from us, we could see where more of the bank was washed out where the river makes a turn.  There is another small trailer with one of the wheels now hanging over the bank.  We had just gotten rid of the last trailer chassis that had gotten stuck in the river in front of our property and now we have the possibility of a new one.  Steve called the sheriff, fire department, and other agencies to see if they could come up and move the trailer, but they told him it was not something they handle.  They made it sound like we could call a tow truck and have it towed away from the bank, but we would have to pay for that.  The person that owns the property lives in Georgia, but when I called her, the number was no longer in service…there are fewer and fewer landlines being used any more.  So now we play the waiting game to see if it goes into the river the next time the river rises.  I will write the owner and see if she replies…hopefully she will.

Okay, so I lied, here is another picture of the leaning tree with the rising river.

Looking upriver at the trailer that is now on the edge, ready to be swallowed by the river.

Where we were sitting enjoying the beer at the Arts Festival,

it is now under water in this photo.

The river kept rising.

Steve and I will be up next week as we have ordered a washer and dryer.  It will be nice to be able to wash the towels and bedding without having to take it into town each time.  And when our friends use our cabin, they can now be sure they have clean sheets.