Bounty and Beaches

Fall is really a time of bounty here in the Pacific Northwest. Fruit, vegetables, fish, green grass and all sorts of other treasures seem to be pouring into our coffers. Jonah took the kids and Ana's friend fishing at his ole' friend Claude's (he taught Jonah where to crab and Jonah listed and got his rv sold for him) pond and each kid got to catch, clean and eat a fish. They were especially excited about the catching part, but not so much about the cleaning part, although they did all pull the guts out and clean them pretty throughly with a lot of cajoling.

Our cellar is bursting with apples and veggies and our freezer is full of meat and fish and crab and berries, and all of it came from right in our area from either stuff we gathered or grew, or was given to us in exchange for something else we had plenty of. Lots of elk meat and deer burger in exchange for Jonahs help in butchering and making sausage and sharing recipes. Then, to make the bounty seem even fuller, I had someone respond to my ad asking for old grain for pig/chicken food... I came home with over 300 pounds of grains that kids delightfully helped me mix into "chicken soup" and "pig soup" which we then dry packed to use this winter. Just imagine the enjoyment of digging hands and feet into cold grain.

The kids spent about two hours mixing and burying their hands and feet in the grains. They especially liked the soy beans... those suckers are soft...

The bounty of autumn has included some of the nicest weather we've had in the whole year. We finally took the kids to a beach nearby that we had somehow never been too... and now its our favorite beach. The kids took about 40 minutes packing their "beach attire", which included shovels, toy horses, hats, a frisbee, and plastic briefcases to carry it all in. Luckily, I remembered a few buckets too. Somehow it is still hard to get them to adventure but once they are there mmmm boy.

This particular beach has a great view over the water AND back towards the mountains.

The kids were NOT happy that I remembered the camera. Too bad for them!

I just LOVE photographing Ana when she actually wants to pose for photos. It wasn't one of those days though.

Jonah's always up for some posing/nosing though.

This was the hat the kids brought for Elsie. It reminds me of Wilson Phillips for some reason... or maybe it's the sweater.

Once Ana finished her sandcupine, she was happier to give me some of her bright smiles.

Cam was hilarious for the whole evening, as usual... including walking around like a crab so he could keep his shorts up without having to grab them with his sandy hands.

Ana made up for her lack of photo posing by giving me 30 seconds of her version of modeling shots just before we got in the car. Gotta love that girl!

Anyway, we are just in heaven in the weather here this autumn... and maybe it was just the area's way of helping us celebrate our One Year Anniversary of moving up here! We haven't owned the house a year yet, but we arrived here October 2, 2009. Wow.

Thanks for reading and and for posting comments! Love all your blogs too! You are my inspirations...

They love playing CLUE. Who knew.

Happy October!