Birthdays

For Zac's birthday we met up with a dozen friends from Juneau who have moved to Washington and Oregon. We took a long drive south and a little bit east to Highway 12 and a trail called "Glacier Lake". The trail description is full of phrases like "this is one of the best trails in the South Cascades for families and kids", "not only is the going easy...", "you stride up an ancient logging road". Somehow our experience didn't match the guidebook promises; we scrambled up and down (and up and down) narrow, steep trails. By the time we hiked there (in the dark, as per usual), camped for two nights, and hiked back with our packs, Tilly was so tired she collapsed in the middle of the parking lot and refused to move for the next 24 hours - I even carried her to the car, from the car to the house, and so forth for the entire next day. Somehow that isn't what I pictured when I read "easy" and "families and kids". To be fair, some of this exhaustion may have been related to the very little sleep we got, staying up late with friends around the campfire, trying to sleep in a hammock with a dog, then waking again with the early summer sun.

Carleton, Chaach, +1, Evan, Tim, Riley, Shelby, Zac, Nathan, Tilly, Ariel

at the end of an excellent camping weekend, ready to hike out.

Inspired by Zac's excellent camping birthday, we got busy transforming the property into a magical place to have friends for Ariel's birthday. 

Before

Tim marked trees for death and the chipper with red tags, gave them a final chance to be pardoned, then thinned our alders and transformed them into paths to and around the fire circle.

After

Ariel hauled rocks from the driveway and from the ditches we've been digging to make a proper fire circle and we situated the giant alder stump chairs Tim has been chainsaw carving.

Awesome electrician that Tim is, our fire circle wouldn't be complete without lighting and Tim got busy stringing warm, bright lights between the trees.

With that, our fire area was ready. we tested everything out around a practice fire, set up tables, and invited the young folks of South Whidbey over for a campfire potluck. 

Birthday cake cooking in a black pot over the fire as Sandy and *Maggie snuggle.

And what dinner is complete without the entertainment? We brought the mama goats up and put them on a running line, and let the babies get passed around from lap to lap all night long. The baby goats are now much better socialized and everyone had a great time with much delicious food. All the perspective future goat owners for our babies were at the potluck bonding.

With the fire circle operational and tested, we set about setting up the "guest cabin". Tim leveled a spot in the dirt with the excavator, we lay out large groundcloths, and set up the three-room tent for the first time, complete with opening windows and a hinged door.

Drake stopped by for a night to help us test out the guest cabin and marked it satisfactory. In exchange for his positive review of our hospitality, we gave him a turn running the digger. 

Tim has found a secluded bit of our property, deep in the nettles, to begin working on our "root cellar". With the ground opened up, we can see the soil layers: a foot or two of dirt, then 6+ feet of solid clay hard-pan. The excavator stopped being able to progress digging in to the wall, even with a smaller bucket, so Tim has now begun with a mattock pick tool.

With our property ready to entertain, Acacia, Andy, and Elias join us for the weekend. We ate dinners of grilled moose and elk, sockeye fillets, and freshly gathered oysters around the fire; breakfasts of garden kale, scallions, eggs, and goat cheese around the small table in the bus; and lunches out exploring the island. 

Elias and Christi eating fresh oysters

Everyone learned to milk goats, we made cheese and went to farmers markets, Tim enlisted Elias and Alice's help to pull trees into a living tepee, and Elias managed a flip on the high-altitude trampoline hammock net.

All the dogs ran hard and played hard an were ready for long naps (that was the other thing we did to get ready! Friday after work putting up another 160 feet of fence to keep the dogs safe).

We hope our friends will be back to visit and join us in our perma-camping lifestyle again soon, after fishing. Andy and Elias are returning to their home just north of Portland to get busy working on their own tiny house and future wilderness life.

Christi, Andy, Elias, Acacia happy with baby goats

Josie, Sandy, Una, and Maggie* happy with lovely people