The Engagement

Our oldest son and his girlfriend surprised us all on Christmas Day by announcing their engagement. We were all so very happy to hear of this as he and Nicole (Nico) have been dating for over two years, and it was quite obvious that they make each other very happy. They surprised us even more when they requested that the Wedding Ceremony take place outdoors at our property in Index and could the reception follow at our home in Woodinville? "Would that be OK with us?" Of course it is, and we can't explain how excited and happy we are to be able to do this for them. The date has been chosen.........September 18, 2010........now the work begins. In the months ahead, I'm sure I'll be adding more details and posting more pictures, but for now suffice it to say that we are delighted and happy to welcome Nico into our family and look forward to many years of enjoying the togetherness and love they share.

Christmas in Leavenworth

We drove to Leavenworth after meeting the kids up at the cabin Saturday morning. The drive was beautiful going over Stevens Pass and down the east slopes of the Cascade Mountains into Leavenworth. Although the skies were gray and there was rain in the forcast for that afternoon, the town of Leavenworth was packed full of holiday shoppers and holiday gawkers. After taking a drive out to look at the orchards, the wineries and the awesome veiw on North Road we headed back to town. There were dozens of buses parked at the park and ride........our usual preference.....and we eventually managed to find a free parking spot two blocks off of main street. After walking into town, dodging people and dogs and cars and horse drawn carriages we headed for the cheese shop. I bought a lovely bottle of ice wine which I'm going to open for dessert after Christmas supper. Nico bought cheese and the guys stayed outside with Neeka the dog and did some people watching. We'd arrived late in the afternoon, and were thirsty so we ended up at the Muchin House where we found roaringly happy crowds, warm fires and that great Alpine Ale. We sat and drank and talked to strangers and participated in the joyous comraderie we always find there. 4:30 was drawing near and it was time to get back out to main street for the traditional tree and town lighting. There were speeches given and carols sung and Santa even came. At the thundering of the cannon and the countdown from five one by one the trees, buildings and street lamps of Leavenworth lit up. Everyone was so merry and our surroundings so festive, this was a perfect way to welcome in the Christmas holiday. We had a long drive ahead of us and a turkey and stuffing dinner awaiting us at the cabin, so along with most of the rest of the crowd we slowly made our way back to the car and settled in for the long drive over the pass. We got the car warmed up, and played Christmas songs on the radio. We sang songs and talked about the holidays and before we knew it we were back to Index and our cozy little cabin.

 

The Pinks (Humpys) are Runny Hard

The river was just chock full of Pink Salmon last weekend. We spent much time down on the bank watching the show. We saw a huge and strikingly beautiful King Salmon muscle his way up river through the hoards and hoards of Pinks. We hope he got very far up stream and found a suitable mate.

I did a Wiki search and found this:

Reproduction
Male at spawning time

Pink salmon in their native range have a strict two year life cycle, thus odd and even-year populations do not interbreed. Adult pink salmon enter spawning streams from the ocean, usually returning to the water course, or race, where they originated. Spawning occurs between late June and mid-October. Pink salmon spawn in coastal streams and some longer rivers, and may spawn in the intertidal zone or at the mouth of streams if hyporheic freshwater is available. Using her tail, the female digs a trough-shaped nest, called a redd (Scandinavian word for "nest"), in the gravel of the stream bed, wherein she deposits her eggs. As she expresses the eggs, she is approached by one or more males who fertilize them as they fall into the redd. Subsequently, the female covers the newly-deposited zygotes, again with thrusts of her tail against the gravel at the top of the redd. The female lays from 1000 to 2000 eggs in several clutches within the redd, often fertilized by different males. Females guard their redds until death, which comes within days of spawning. In dense populations, a major source of mortality for embryos is superposition of redds by later-spawning fish. The eggs hatch from December to February, depending on water temperature, and the juveniles emerge from the gravel during March and April and quickly migrate downstream to estuaries at about one-quarter gram. The fish achieve sexual maturity in their second year of life. They return to freshwater in the summer or autumn as two year old adults. Pink and chum salmon sometimes interbreed in nature to form the hybrid known as the miko salmon; the hybrids are reproductively sterile.

 
 
 

We tried to get a few good pictures, but It is difficult as the salmon don't stay still very long + they meld in with the coloring of the background. If you look hard at these pictures, you will see the fish.

Once they are through with their reproductive cycle, the Salmon die. The air was getting rather pungent, and I imagine it is even worse now. Fortunately for us (but not the Salmon) they decay rapidly. It will all be over in a few short weeks.

Ever heard of the Equiux?

Hat tip to DmAa on the "Bear Stories" thread at Siliconinvestor.com


Notice I said that day and night will be approximately equal on the fall equinox. The equinox is a specific point in time when the sun is at a specific point in the sky. Since sunrise and sunset times vary greatly across the planet depending on location, true equality of day and night -- called the equilux (EE-qwill-lux) -- occurs on slightly different dates depending on where you live. Equilux for Duluth, Minn. is on September 25 when the sun rises at 7 a.m. and sets at 7 p.m. To find your equilux date, go to the U.S. Naval Observatory website http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/RS_OneDay.php and type in your location to get the day's sunrise/sunset information. Are there exactly twelve hours separating them? If not, then go back, change the date a couple days ahead (or back) and look again. You may have to do this a couple times to find out when they're equal.

"http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/RS_OneDay.php"

Fall Chanterelles

We look forward to this time of year because of the bounty of the garden and the bounty of the woods. While I was making applesauce from my favorite apples today my husband Bob took a walk in what we call "Our Chanterelle Woods." He's been going down to the woods every other day to see if these succulent and tasty mushrooms are showing yet. Up until now he's not found many (it takes a good rain to really bring them out), but today was different. He found bunches of them growing here and there, and brought home the nice bounty you see in the picture. There are way too many to eat at one sitting, so we lightly saute them in a small amount of butter, and then pack them in freezer bags. During late Fall and Winter, we pull a bag out and enjoy them with our meal.

The lovely weather we've been experiencing is something we expect in our area this time of year. We spend as much time as we can up at the cabin knowing full well by November the days are shorter and Fall projects at home are part of our routine. We don't go up to the cabin for any over night forays until the snow flies in December or January. It is very nice to have a place to stay close to the mountain after an exhilarating day on the slopes.

The Power of the Poor

First I want to apologize for not blogging more this summer. I have been tied up with some work issues that have needed my attention, and I've also been spending as much time as I can at the river. If you read this blog from the beginning you would know I don't have Internet capabilities at the river, and so haven't had the option of blogging from there. I am giving up the idea of Summer reluctantly and have a few other forays away from home planned before the big chill descends and forces me inside where I can concentrate more on blogging, among other things.

I wanted to post this link because I think this documentary will be interesting and informative. I have only watched the trailer, so I can't comment on it's entire message, but I thought others would be interested in knowing about it before it airs in October.

I'll be seeing more of you when the rains come.

;) Maureen

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


The Power of the Poor: Blog Contest

By Alex Tabarrok on Television

On October 8, PBS will be showing, The Power of the Poor, a new documentary featuring the great Hernando de Soto and from the team that brought you Free to Choose. You can see a preview below. To increase awareness, Free to Choose Media is sponsoring a blog contest on the question:

What institutions can enable the world's poor to realize their power and achieve prosperity?

The best blog post--under 500 words--on this theme will receive $250 and a DVD of the show. See the rules for more information. Yours truly will be one of the judges.

Extrodinary Images from the WW1 Era

British photographer's extraordinary images of American icons... using up to 30,000 U.S. troops

These are the extraordinary pictures of the Statue of Liberty and icons of U.S. history captured on camera by an ingenious British photographer - using up to 30,000 soldiers.

Englishman Arthur S. Mole took the pictures of soldiers returning to America after World War I.

Now the unique collection of the remarkable pictures has been brought together for the first time at the Carl Hammer Gallery, in Chicago, USA.
Arthur S. Mole

STATUE OF LIBERTY: Using 18,000 troops at Camp Dodge, Iowa, this is one of the many photographs taken by British photographer Arthur S. Mole in army camps across the U.S. in 1918

Mole's work was the first to use a unique technique to beat the problem of perspective after he devised a clever way of getting so many soldiers in the pictures.

Taken in 1918, photographers Arthur S. Mole and his American colleague John D. Thomas took the photographs in camps across the U.S.

UNCLE SAM: 19,000 troops, Camp Lee, Virginia and (R) THE LIBERTY BELL: 25,000 men, Camp Dix, New Jersey

Arthur's great nephew Joseph Mole, 70, said the photographer was unique in the way he captured so many people on film.

He said: 'In the picture of the Statue of Liberty there are 12,000 men in the torch alone, but just 17 at the base.

'The men at the top of the picture are actually half a mile away from the men at the bottom.

'Arthur was able to get the image by actually drawing an outline on the lens, he then had the troops place flags in certain positions while he looked through the camera.
Arthur S. Mole

MACHINE GUN INSIGNIA: 22,500 officers and men at Camp Hancock in Augusta. A special 70-foot tower was built at each site especially for the shots

'It worked so well because these men were used to following orders and the flags were a well known way of communicating.

'When it came to the day of the photograph Arthur would then be able to put all the pieces together, he could say to 157 men 'move there and you can be Woodrow Wilson's ear'.

'It would take a week to get all the outlines right, but just 30 minutes to move all the men into position to take the shot, it must have been amazing to watch.'

In total they took a total of 10 photos where thousands of soldiers were posed to form giant living symbols of the USA, including a portrait of president Woodrow Wilson, the Liberty Bell, the Statue of Liberty, the Marine Corps emblem, and more.
Arthur S Mole

THE HUMAN U.S. SHIELD: 30,000 officers assembled in Camp Custer, Battle Creek, Michigan. It would take the photographer weeks to get all the outlines right but just 30 minutes to move all the men into position

The photographs were taken as part of a U.S. government bid to raise public morale.

Carl Hammer, from the Chicago gallery of the same name, said Mole and Thomas were unique for their time.

He said: 'I see modern photographers with all the technology we have these days trying to do the same as these two guys did almost 100 years ago, and I still think they did it best and they did it first.

'It really is very clever how they managed to get so many soldiers in the shots, they realised using the same amount of soldiers for each row they would lose the image in the background.
Arthur S Mole

British photographer Mole, along with his American colleague John D. Thomas, were commissioned to take the photographs by the U.S. government to raise morale among the troops

'If you look at the Statue of Liberty formation there are just a handful of men at the front, but the back row is made of thousands.

'Mole and Thomas were commissioned by the U.S. government to take the pictures as a way to raise morale among the troops and raise money by selling the shots to the public.

'It must have been incredible for the soldiers to be part of these photos and to be part of this slice of history.'

Read more:

EXTRODINARY IMAGES