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I know spring is coming when I see my first robin. To me this means that winter is on the wane.

Geepers! It’s October 28th and a freak weather pattern has blessed us with our first snow of 2013.

Not to be paranoid but someone is watching my mother. For years the Google satellite maps of our property have been icky. However, recently Bing has updated their images to show a great deal of detail. Below is a comparison between the old maps and the new ones… and something even more revealing.

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Note the white object behind (to the left of) our house. That is the trailer that mom was staying in last summer. They’re watching her. What do they know that we don’t know?

It’s been a record setting wet spring. Many roads have been flooded, washed out or worse. Below is a shot of Cocolalla Loop Rd. slowly being eaten away from below by rushing water.

This next shot was taken 24 hrs later where the river has cut the road completely away.

As you can see, it’s going to be a long time until they fix this. Those are full grown birch trees down there.

I wear a size 12 boot. Hopefully that puts into perspective the moose foot print next to mine.

Astronaut John Phillips shared a great presentation about his experience flying around in space on various space ships including multiple space shuttles, the International Space Station, Russian ships. He also shared information about the challenges & equipment used to take photos from space. I may never get to take photos from space, but I did get a picture of a guy who has. And that’s good enough for me.

And winter officially begins with our first substantial snow (about 3-4 inches). After a dozen fancy feeders that squirrels can chew right through, we found that this one allows the squirrel to eat only one seed at  a time. They’re welcome to eat our seeds but we don’t want to make it so easy that they don’t forage elsewhere as well.

Found this character on the wall. Our bug book says that they live west of the Cascade mtns. This one is a little far from home. It also says that, like this one, they can grow to be 5+ inches across their wingspan.

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This post is for my own future reference should I forget and support for men who don’t yet have that ATV they’ve been dreaming about.

This is our street. That is our neighbor’s truck which has studded tires on it. Yet it’s parked here because he cannot make it up the hill in the back ground. Between here and our house is a road coated 3 to 4 inches of ice. The ice has seen a few days of rain which has polished a glass-like finish on it. It’s difficult to stand on the ice without slipping. My car can barely make it up this hill, but definitely not the next. 3 bags of cat litter fixed that. Coming down has proven to be even more dangerous.

As with many problems, the solution is an ATV. No, not simply riding the ATV up the hill, that’s easy, but rather solving the problem with the ATV.  Enter the Rhino with chains on the tires. By putting that baby in two wheel drive, and flooring it up the hill, the chains grind off the ice and have made the road of death safe for humanity once again.

Men, if after reading the past entries in this blog, you don’t yet have enough cost justifications for a new ATV, I’m going to suggest marital counseling as your problems are very serious.

One day out of every year something magical happens. I get my way for the entire day. This is not to imply that I don’t get my way the other 364 days per year, but rather on this day, Jenny truly exercises even more patience and willingness to let me push the limits. It’s clearly insanity but she’s got this notion that the birthday boy can ask for anything and get it because it’s his “special day”. And who am I to argue with this tradition implanted in her head by her parents (many thanks to her parents for this one!). This is a picture of me taking full advantage of my “special day”.

Thanks to Anne and Doug for the picture (which I touched up with some quotes) and for the wonderful time snowmobiling.