Chev

 Yesterday I resealed the roof seams on the Chev Chalet. Every place where something is attached to the roof needed to be extra, for sure, no question watertight.. I would take a picture, but it is not really that interesting and I don't want to see the roof again for a while.
 It has been a long process getting the rig ready for winter/rainy season. Most school days for the past week I have been re-caulking the windows and scraping peeling and prepping the roof for the seam sealer. The directions for the sealer said it could be brushed or troweled on. It was thick gloppy stuff. Looked like marshmallow fluff, spread about the same, a tad less runny, and smelled toxic.
It's a good thing I finished when I did. There were a few rumbles of thunder at the bus stop today and here is our forecast for the next 10 days.

ZOO!

Odin's first full week of school was not a full week at all. The teachers had an in-service day on Friday so Odin and I went to the Zoo in Tacoma. We had a lovely day and saw and did everything that the zoo had to offer.

A camel ride!

Feeding Parakeets!

Walrus!

Meerkats!

At the Wild Encounters outdoor theater

Odinanemone!

And then last weekend it was haircut time.

Apples up on top

When Johno first found this house for us to live in, he reported to me that that ad said that there were fruit trees in the yard. No varieties listed just "fruit trees". It has been a fun discovery to find an Apple tree, a Plum tree and an Asian Pear tree. It was not a bumper crop of any of our tree fruits, we found four plums, and only one Asian pear. But Apples are another story. They are not plentiful but there are nice ones the tippie top of the tree. WAY up there. One day I got out our 6 foot ladder and I could hear the Apples mocking me form another 10+ feet up. Thanks to the internet and people wanting to boast about their accomplishments, we fashioned a fruit picker out of some PVC pipe, a wire hangar, a juice container and some duct tape. It works too!

 

Brilliant idea? Or Nightmare . . . TBD

For anyone that knows John it is no surprise that we lives to ski. He does not "like" to ski or "love" to ski... He lives for it. He is always sad when in the Spring his various ski mags stop arriving until the Fall. And then when the first one comes in the Fall he is elated.
When we arrived here last Spring to a LaNina winter the skiing was fantastic. We skied a bunch. It was the most ski days I have had in a very long time. John was very happy about it, but he wanted more. You see the ski areas are a little further away here than he would like. It takes a little planning and an early strat to get a full day of skiing in because we live about 100 miles from the hill (mountain really). So we hatched a plan. What if we did not have to come home in the evening. What if we could stay at the ski hill for the whole weekend? However paying $200 and up a night for lodging was not an option... So we came up with another idea. What if we bought a RV. Then we could ski where ever we wanted and sleep tight in the RV in the parking lot. We found what would be either a brilliant idea or a terrible nightmare. So far, we think the former. I'll keep you posted.

We brought her home last weekend. She boasts three sleeping areas, full kitchen and bath and all of the comforts of home . . . just about. We plan to try a little shakedown cruise next weekend. We are quickly doing a few repairs/modifications to make her suit our needs better. Caulking around windows, resealing the roof you know little things. Also we really need to come up with a name. We have kicked a few around, The Chalet,The Guest Room,  we looked at a Dodge that would have been the Dodge Lodge - but this one is a Chev. . .but so far nothing has stuck..

fits in our driveway with room to spare

taken through the windshield

we use an online bank so we bought it in 20's fresh from the ATM!

So far very good

I like Kindergarten. I am thrilled that Odin's world is getting bigger and he is being exposed to different points of view, people with different backgrounds, and new ideas. Sure each of those may present more challenges, but I am ready for them.
Yesterday he didn't say much about school other than he chose Legos instead of computer time but next time he wanted to have computer time. He also mentioned that some classmates had to spend a little time in the hallway sitting on chairs because they were not listening. I think that really resonated with him. I don't think he wants to spend any time on those chairs.


Today during school I am making bread, and I already went on a bike ride, you know the exercise type!
Here is my route

I went in a clockwise fashion. Almost half of the ride was on bike paths, one is an old railroad grade. It was a lovely ride. I rode 6.75 miles in about 30 minutes. Not too bad for the first ride by myself in well . . . . I have no idea how long.

South Sound

We made it out on the water last night with John's office mate and his family in their boat. We had a lovely sunset cruise and saw a few harbor seals!

First Day

Odin had a great first day of Kindergarten today. I got to go for the first little while and join on a tour of the school. He was pretty excited, but reserved. He started skipping the minute he got off the bus so I think he had a good time.

My yard at 5:20pm

I looked out the window earlier and was struck by how pretty my laundry looked on the line.

Little MTB'r

When the drier weather arrived Johno started riding mountain bike with some co-workers on Wednesday evenings. A group of people, not just from the office, rides at the same time every week. Some weeks he goes with the group, sometimes he goes in a smaller sub group, but he has really enjoyed getting back into mountain biking.
For the past few weekends he has tried to take Odin up to the forest for a ride. However, we were unsuccessful many times. There were races on the trails, lack of interest (due to the other options for the day) and there were more races. Finally on Sunday it worked. Odin got to ride trail and he did great.
The Real challenge is going to be getting a decent picture. These are all Johno's efforts (he knew the trail better and was better equipped to ride one handed and shoot with the other).

we were by no means on dawn patrol, but the fog was still burning off

A green shirt was not the best idea . . .