Margaret

Today I used the hand held thatching rake (manual Margaret). It was back braking work for about two hours. And all I accomplished was making 12 four foot long columns and a very sore Michelle. John and Odin were nice enough to pile it all into our compost can.

 

*Note that this is the same area that we used the power rake on two weeks ago. Due to the vast amount of moss, we retreated it with iron, twice. Sadly it looks way worse than when we started and still has a little bit of moss. We are optimistic that in the end it will be worthwhile, but we wonder when "the end" will be.

Ski update

the snow fort lasted almost a month!

We've seen the sun lots this winter (at the mountain)

Lenticular clouds and Mt. Rainer

We have had some great days out skiing this season. The nice part of having season passes is that we are able to go and ski a little and play a little all in the name of fun.

Mexican train Dominoes is tricky on the RV table

Yes Freki's eyes look freaky. I did a quick fix on them.

Six hundred and eighty

It has become apparent that the moss in the yard will not go away by itself. This weekend we decided to help it. Only it needed a lot more help than we were prepared for. It all stated last weekend when I mowed the lawn so the grass did not cover up the moss. Then I applied a granular moss killer (iron). Not much happened. After talking with some friends I realized that the granular was not the way to go. So we bought the liquid and a sprayer. That stuff worked FAST! Finally we rented a thatching machine (I kept calling her Margaret, haha) and by the looks of it ruined the yard. While Odin and I were at a birthday party Johno crammed a lot of the moss into our compost can ( and two neighbors cans). When we came home there was still too much moss. So we pulled out the trailer and loaded it up with 680 pounds of moss.  Did I mention that we only did half of the backyard? We wanted to leave some places to play on while all this was happening. It doesn't look very nice right now, but we have high hopes.

this is the "before"

"Margaret" at work

piles of work

this is what 680 pounds of moss looks like

Enabling

John, Odin and Freki went skiing last weekend. I stayed at home, by myself. Everyone had a wonderful weekend. On Sunday evening, as I was starting to think about making dinner, I got a call from John. He needed me to meet him with the Jeep and jumper cables, the RV wouldn't start. He was only about 15 miles from home at a rest area. When I got there, I learned that the alternator belt had broken. We were trying to get the rig up and running before it got dark out, because without an alternater belt the headlights would not last very long. We tried to jump it. No luck. And then it was dusk.
Through our insurance company we have towing coverage. So we called and got the tow arranged. Odin, Freki and I left John and headed home to get some dinner and get ready for bed. John waited for the tow truck and as it arrived so did some friends that were also coming from form skiing. He got things squared up with the tow truck and hitched a ride home with our friends. Because our mechanic was more than 15 miles away we had to pay extra for the tow. I talked to the mechanic on Monday and gave him the run-down and told him that we were in no hurry to get it back. Dreaming about how high the bill for the whole endeavor would be.
I just talked to John, and it seems as if the universe wants us to keep using the RV (for now). Our fabulous mechanic refused payment (they had replaced the belt 2,000 miles ago) and warrantied it and the coolant line that was broken. (They put in a new radiator in the fall). And the overage for the tow truck? It cost $10! We got off pretty easy this time. Please remind me of this next time . . .