Archive | October, 2006

The Halloween Dogs


Porsche, the Hereford dachsund


Jazz, the “Quarter Horse”


Norman (the male Hereford), Porsche, and Lisa

Lisa (she doesn’t want to be called The Crazy Dog Lady, but I think you can draw your own conclusions about that) brought the dogs by the office today. They’ve been off to the Snohomish Critter Caper downtown. I can’t believe how tolerant these pups are…

Biology of the River


There are those who will think this is a sick post, but I find the things that float by on the river to be simply fascinating. I think this is a grebe, but won’t swear to it. We’ve seen trees, birds, gobs of unidentifiable stuff, moss, twigs…there is always something floating by. Usually, the incoming tide brings the most unusual stuff. My apologies if this one was weird, but hey, it’s my blog ~
Jamie

First Rainy Day

Yes, I was awakened by a drip of water on my head at around 3 am. And no, even that did not deter me from loving every minute of being aboard so far! According to Greg, every wood boat in the universe is going to have a drip from time to time (something about the deck planks shrinking in the summer and then swelling again when the rains come – it all sounds very reasonable when he goes on about it). I think he’s just trying to placate me, but as long as he’s willing to switch sides of the bed, that’s OK.

Dunlap Towing seems to have the market on the slough; they’re constantly moving log rafts up the river. I love watching them; it’s like a dance as they move the tug and the logs past the railroad bridge and the two Highway 529 bridges. All the bridges swing open, so they time it just perfectly to keep the train and car standstills to a minimum. The guy in the picture is amazing to watch – he leaps from tug to logs and back again as though it’s nothing.

Week One Onboard

Natalie’s new favorite spot for reading books. She loves to put the chairs together and make a little nest out on the aft deck. There’s always something to watch in the river – flotsam and jetsam of all sorts. We’re getting attuned to the rhythm of the tides. In the morning when the tide is low, it’s a mountain climb up the dock ramp. Natalie observed that it was nearly vertical the first day we left for school. Nothing like it to get your blood pumping in the morning! We have already learned to time our grocery shopping around high tide, when the ramp is level.
Sunsets are magnificent and remind me of why we’re doing this. There’s still a bunch of chaos in getting the house ready to be sold and trying to find places for everything on the boat. All 4 of us have been a bit stressed with all of the changes, but I keep reminding myself that it goes with every move. When we’re done, it will be worth it 100 times over. Our garage sale went well and we are down to the bare minimum of stuff.
Dad’s favorite heron out fishing yesterday afternoon. When I went out at 7:00am on a cold, foggy morning and saw him standing in the presumably frigid water, I was deeply grateful that I’m not a heron.