7-26-2019 Luna with Eve in My Fabulous Tie-Dyed Shirt

Luna is such a sweet dog. We all love her very much. She goes on walks and to the river with us. Note the awesome tie-dyed shirt that Eve is wearing. Susan suggested that we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Woodstock with our own Birkenstock at the 4th of July camp out, and Alicia brought tie-dye making materials. We all made tie-dyed shirts and other things. This is my shirt from the festivities. Fun, fun, fun!

7-25-2019 Luna

Meet Luna, Jepson's new dog and companion. She is very sweet. Her owner brought her to the farm last Saturday and spent the day with us playing in the river. It took Luna a few days to settle in, but now we are walking her off leash and she is playing with Bernie and Max. She has taken a bit to warm up to Jepson, but he was able to pet her today, so progress a little at a time!

6-26-2019 Manvine

One of the native plants here at the farm is what we call manvine. The more common names are "old man in the ground" and "man root" so named because of the man-sized root that this plant produces. The daily growth of the vine on a well-established plant is amazing. You can just about see it grow. These pictures are taken in the Buffer Swamp CREP stand. We had thinning done earlier this spring, and just a couple of months later, all of the downed trees are covered in manvine. The leaves are huge! It's a challenge to get through it to limb the downed trees and cut into firewood.

6-26-2019 Bees are doing well

The 2 hives that I installed a couple of months ago are doing well. Will most likely need to add one more super in July.

6-22-2019 New Mower

We decided (with some encouragement from Leenda) that we should add a riding mower to our  farm equipment. It has been wonderful! Leenda got the grass in shape for the 4th of July camp out.

6-17-2019 Agaricus Augustus mushrooms

Eve found them in the bundling shed by the milk house. I posted the photo on the Pacific Northwest Mushroom Identification Forum FaceBook page, and they were identified by many responders as agaricus augustus. They are supposed to be delicious. We will have to try them.

6-15-2019 Big Maple in the Upper Field CREP

We are making progress on the big maple that fell into the upper field CREP during the heavy snowfall last winter. Tipped over with all of the roots. At least 40 feet across and smashed a bunch of our cedar trees. Very sad to lose both the old maple and all of those cedars that Eve worked so hard to get above the elk browse.

6-15-2019 Decks at Joe's

We started on the decks that Joe setup for us on his place. No mills are buying alder pulp right now. In general pulp prices are very low this year. Decks have big alder and maple logs so cutting firewood is a piece of cake (although the piece are heavy).

6-15-2019 Haying

Isaiah finished cutting and baling the upper field today. Middle field is cut and raked. We also finished the river take out at the bam tree yesterday. the 4th of July camp out is just a couple of weeks away, and we are almost ready!

5-6-2019 Bernie's new do

Bernie is rockin' his new haircut and bath! He looks like he lost about 10 pounds. Must have been 10 pounds of hair and dirt!

5-6-2019 New tree fungus on the elderberry by the barn

Not sure what these are. I will need to investigate. They are on the NW side of the elderberry near the barn and the milk house.

5-5-2019 Swallows are back!

The scouts were back on 4/20. Eve and Scott cleaned out the swallow houses. 1 swallow nest and 3 yellow jacket nests! Finally, the swallows arrived on 5/5 ready to build their nests.

I need to build a few more houses for next year. The ones on the barn are getting a bit worn out.

4-27-2019 Apple Trees are starting to bloom

Another treat for my bees (and Sam's bees, too). Apple blossoms! The trees that we had pruned this year look great and are loaded with blossoms. The warm, dry weather continues through the end of April.

Yellow-spotted millipede

Saw this sweet little guy the other day when I was hiking the lane.

4-25-2019 Eve continues her quest with elk protection for the trees above the Royal Highway

This is the 6th year that Eve has spent trying to reestablish this slope above the Royal Highway. She planted 120 or so DF seedlings this year, added baskets to all DF and WRC trees, and adjusted the baskets on those that were still on the trees from past years. It is looking really good. What a project. Great job Eve!

4-21-2019 An amazingly beautiful morning in April

April had many warm, dry days. The cherry trees were in full bloom when I installed two hives yesterday, April 20th. They are very happy to have such beautiful weather and so many cherry blooms to visit.

4-6-2019 Happy Birthday, Eve!

3-18-2019 A beautiful day in March

2-16-2019 Birds and a cougar!

The birds, deer, squirrels, and chipmunks have been very hungry with the snow covering everything. We have gray jays, scrub jays, stellers jays, juncos, chickadees, nuthatches, sparrows, robins, varied thrush, flickers, crows, ravens, and others. I feed the birds seeds, suet, and peanuts. The squirrels and chipmunks get seed, and the deer get apples.

Saw cougar tracks just behind the barn!

2-12-2019 Heavy snow brought down some trees

Lost 2 alders behind the barn and had to have Forrest cut another 3 leaners. The big maple between the upper field CREP and the lane fell over right into our big, beautiful, 18 year old cedars. We lost 12-15 of them. Rats.

River is high, but flooding minimal and only in the lower field.

2-10-2019 Beautiful in the sun

The snow is so beautiful when it's sunny.

These "tracks" were made by heavy snow falling off the power lines overhead.

2-9-2019 Snow!

Amazing the difference a few days makes out here in early spring. We got at least 12-16 inches of wet snow. It stuck around for over a week. The lane was deep and not able to get out except with the ATV. The good news was because it didn't melt, we only had minor flooding in the lower field.

2-7-2019 Another beautiful morning

2-3-2019 Getting drinking water at Apiary Spring

We typically bring water from town, but when we run low, we get water at Apiary Spring.

2-2-2019 Cutting down ash under the power lines on Buffer Swamp

7-8 ash trees under the power lines needed to come down. Eve secured a rope high in each tree. We didn't want them to fall into the lines, so Baker pull on the rope while Eve cut them down.

Eve cut down one of the trees last month. The beavers hauled away all of the branches and small firewood pieces, and took the bark off the bigger pieces. Hopefully, they will haul away all of the branches from the trees that we cut down today!

1-31-2019 A beautiful morning!

1/20/2019 The neighbor finished pruning the apple trees in Jepson's yard, the field, and above the pump house road.

Eve picked up all of the branches and we unloaded them along the Royal Highway.

Cut up this widow maker and other that blew down in the wind storm on 1/5. The grain is beautiful.

1/13/2019  Started work in the lower CREP project. This Grand Fir is huge! Hard to believe that it is only 17 years old.

1-12-2019 Another beautiful morning.

The daffodils have been up since just after Christmas. 

Big storm on Saturday 1/5/2019 around 11:30. Knocked out power and phones. Surge in power blew out 4 GFCIs in the barn, and a surge protector and electric blanket at Jepson's. Blew down a lot of usnea into the elderberries.