One of my favorite things is patio lights.  I like how they just brighten things up especially in the winter.  They just seem magical.  A few years ago John bought me patio lights and I have strung them up different ways in the back yard.  This summer, John decided that we should have a permanent structure to hang them on.  My original thought was to reuse the trampoline poles and place them in large garden pots and so I just jammed them in there but they were too low and the poles were angled due to the tension from the string of lights.  While John's mom was visiting, John had a few days off and we started talking about this project.  It grew and grew and grew.  Pretty soon we looking at building a large arbor that went across the back of the patio.  I wanted nice wood and to have it built with some style.  I started pinning different things that I liked.  John started pricing out wood and then started calculating costs.  Not to mention the time it would take.  Meanwhile, I kept the string of lights on the reposed trampoline poles.  Well, the cost finally snowballed so high and the time it was going to take was probably all summer that we looked at each other and threw in the towel.  Back to the drawing board we went.  One of the things I like is stone, stone walls, stone walkways, stone planters.  I love it when moss grows all over and makes it look like its been there for generations. We went back to my original idea but decided to put stone pavers flush with the ground so it would be easier to mow.  We then had a hole drilled through the pavers so that we could sink metal rods into the ground to provide stability to the poles.  We placed the pavers in the grass and measured the distance across and made sure it was a straight even line.  We dug out the grass, reused it to sod an area in the lawn that needed help, place sand down and then leveled the paver.  Next we drilled holes in the center of the pots which we purchased for a ridiculous cheap price from Costco so that they would all be the same.  After placing the pots in the center of the paver so that the holes lined up, we place conduit pipe in the ground by hammer it at least two feet deep.  The conduit pipe had to be smaller that the trampoline poles so that the poles would fit over the pipe.  However we ran into a problem being that the poles were then too low again.  So my brilliant husband came up with the idea of using pvc pipe as spacers which worked wonders.  It gave the height that we wanted and still allowed us to have the conduit as reinforcement.  Finally we sanded and spray painted the poles black so that there wasn't any rust of peeling paint, placed them in the pot and filled the pot with potting soil.  The last step was to buy plants and fill the pots.  I decided to stick with a white and green color scheme with a hint of red accents.  There were both annuals and perennials in the pot.  Final step was to string the lights.  Instead of the $5000 plus for an arbor, we have patio lights for less than $200.  And I love it.

This was Princess Buttercup. From the day Lona picked her up, she loved her guinea pig.  Her name was Buttercup but we added Princess mostly because of the Princess Bride movie.  When she was little, Lona would curl up with her guinea pig and they would both fall asleep, Buttercup on her side nestled against Lona.  They would go outside together and Buttercup would devour grass often hoping all over not content to stay in one spot.  She was daring of the two guinea pigs and often got her way. One day, I walked by the guinea pigs' cage and Buttercup was on her side which wasn't unusual.  However she didn't jump up when I opened the cage and sadly she had passed away. 

This is my favorite hike of the area. It starts out after a very bumpy pothole ridden  13 mile gut jarring drive to the trail head.  Once there its a two mile hike of switchbacks through a typical Pacific Northwest forest. We loaded up our packs, making sure to take lots of water for Isaac and headed up the trail. The clouds had rolled in making for a moody morning in the trees. We followed the switchbacks coming out into high alpine meadows and then back into the trees again. And then we top the ridge and the whole valley on a clear day comes into view with Mount Baker looming larger than life. This day we made our way up to the knoll instead of around the edge of it. Once on top, we decided to have our lunch and Isaac being 21 pulled out a beer.  Of course we needed to bring our favorite hiking treat - Anytime Toffee.  For the three hours we all got along as a family. There was plenty of teasing and roasting but they all got along. Sometimes three young adults within a family don't always get along, but when they do I hold it close to my heart and try to savor that time.  The fact that it happened on my favorite hike was a bonus.

I  love this image with these boys together.

Had Job not had these friends, I probably would have not had a party for him.  The day would have come and gone and I wouldn't have been able to pull anything off.  Thankfully the day was beautiful.  We set up tents, bought food and candy and drinks. There were games and photo booth and places to sit.  It was relaxing and nice to sit and talk to people. 

18 years we've lived here and never went to the Deming log show.  I'm not sure why we didn't take our kids but it wasn't something that was on our radar.  For some reason and I'm not sure why, we decided to go. The log show is a fund raiser to help injured men and women who work in the logging industry. Think of it like a rodeo for loggers.  There are all sorts of competitions such as pole climbing, chain saw cutting and relays, two person saw cutting, log truck wrapping, and more.  I really couldn't tell you all the nuances about it but it was amazing to see some activities that make up a loggers day.  There were also raffles and prizes given.  Large machines that could cut a log, strip the bark and place it in a pile in less than 5 minutes. Then there was an auction of cords of wood, machinery use, and landscaping that the audience could bid on. When you go to a rodeo, there is a clown that entertains between events as they get this set up.  They had one here as well.  He scaled a pole and did stunts at the top such as standing on his head, and almost losing his balance.  There was also a dialogue between him and the announcer as to why he was "hiding" at the top of the pole. Then came another event and another. These competition events are tasks that logger perform every day and it isn't easy. The work is hard, the equipment expensive and there can be hostile public opinions towards them. This was definitely an eye opener to what loggers actually do.