My favorite views & a Family Reunion

One thing about going "home" to North Central Washington is the wide open spaces. Actually I only lived there for the first 20 years of my life and have lived on the west side for twice that long...but it is amazing how the sights and smells are so evocative of my childhood - the scent of the sage that grows along side the roads - quite frankly- even the dirt smells different over there.

And sky - you can see clear to Canada from our plateau- and this time of the year, the wheat is so beautiful and green.  Soon it will be golden and ready to harvest, but right now it just looks lush over there. 



Geologically speaking, the soil on our plateau is rather new to the party.  It is essentially ground basalt and benefited greatly from the ash that fell on the area when Mt. St. Helens erupted in 1980 - the farmers use a summer fallow system of planting to add organic matter to the fields.


Many of the farmers are now also using "bio solids" - the bi-products  from sewage treatment plants around the northwest.  The dark piles in the fields at the bottom of this hill are even labeled as to what city they come from -  hmmm - Our farmer did say, however, that his yields had increased after spreading this product on the fields - and that the benefit had lasted for several years.  They are carefully monitored by the EPA to make sure no heavy metals or other pollutants get into the ground water

Sage brush in the foreground - the green bushy plants in the mid section were planted in this draw by my dad about 50 years ago.  The plantings were sponsored by the DNR to provide areas for bird and other wild critter habitat. 

A true view of "home"

With all the trees leafed out, you can't see much of the houses, but after the wheat (the green in the foreground) turns golden, it will look like a green oasis in an area of seemingly arid land.

A new view - yellow Canola blossoms - 

Another thing that is different this year is that our farmer has planted Canola in one of the fields around the houses.  This was the very end of the bloom - I guess the week before the fields practically glowed in the dark.

There is more Canola planted in Douglas county than anywhere else in Eastern Washington - There are almost 7000 acres planted in Canola right now. 

My nephew Chris

A view of family - 

The real reason for going over to "The Ranch", as we call it, was for a family reunion of my dad's side of the family.  Unfortunately many of the "younger" generation (my first cousin's children) already had plans and were not able to attend.  But my nephews and their families both attended - it is amazing how fast kids grow when you only see them every couple of years.

And, of course, we went from "oh, are we going to have enough food?" to "what are we going to do with all this food" in a matter of minutes. 

My Grandpa used to say that our family was the first to get to the party and the last to leave.  It becomes a contest of will when you all have the same last name...ha, ha...

One branch of our family tree holds some particularly talented quilters.  My three cousins delighted us with a "quilt show" of their beautiful creations.  I will show you more of them in one of my next posts. 

Our farmer and his family live in the house that I grew up in- -  this view is from the kitchen of the house my dad was born in - where my Grandpa Pete and Grandma Dot lived for some 50 or so years. 

That is the same lilac bush that is behind them in the picture below that was taken in the late 50's / early 60's.

Grandpa Pete and Grandma Dot

I think they would have had a good time at our picnic - my grandpa loved a good party - pretty soon he'd have pulled out one of his harmonicas and the music would begin.

Can you hear it?






.

Oh, give me land

lots of land, under starry skies above,














Don't fence me in -















Let me ride through the wide open spaces that I love,














Don't fence me in. -


















Let me be by myself in the evenin' breeze












Listen to the murmur of the cottonwood trees













Send me off forever, but I ask you please,












Don't fence me in.












Trip to "The Ranch" 2011 -

Thanks to Cole Porter/Bob Fletcher for the great lyrics.

On our visit home - part one

Mansfield, WA is the little town where I went to school when I was growing up. Our family's farm was about 7 or 8 miles west of town. For most of 12 years I rode the big yellow school bus with the other two dozen or so kids who lived out west of town.

We got groceries at the Mansfield Mercantile and hardware at the Mansfield Hardware Store. Sometimes, if it was open, we went to dinner at the Mansfield Cafe.

Funny - even after I was of "legal" age, I didn't feel like I belonged in the Town Tavern. According to my mom, it just wasn't a place where "nice girls" hung out.






The Fusion learns to be a "farm car" covered with dust from one end to the other!








The area Mansfield was settled in the late 1800-early 1900's - in 1907 my grandparents homesteaded the property that my sisters and I inherited from my parents. In 1909, the Great Northern Railroad finished their spur to the area bought a quarter section of land and set up streets and blocks - with sort of an "if you build it, they will come"attitude, the original town, which was a mile to the northeast picked up and moved to the new little city.

A couple of buildings on Main Street have burned in the past thirty years, but one vacant lot now has a new office - A Medical Clinic! Very cool - and necessary as the closest doctors office or hospital is 30-35 miles in any direction.

A group from the community has remodeled the old Post Office and turned it into a museum. I wish I had thought to ask our friend Doug if we could get in to see it - maybe next time. If you biggafy this picture (just click on it) you will see the big domed building at the foot of Main St. - that is the "new" school that was built in the mid 80's.

Like many small towns in Eastern Washington, grain elevators dominate the horizon.

"Last year, there were a total of thirty three farmers that delivered there crops to the Mansfield elevators. Annually, the elevators bring in nearly 1.7 million bushels of grain, the third largest intake in North Central Washington. The main grain harvested in the area, soft white wheat, is shipped around the world for production of pastries and noodles." (from the Mansfield website)

When he was alive, my father worked passionately for the marketing of our area's wheat, even making a trip to Japan and the Philippines as a member of the Washington Wheat Commission to drum up business for our wheat. I'd like to think that the ground work that he worked so hard for continues to benefit the farmers in our area.

Of course, every town has the rock or wall or some kind of landmark that the high school seniors traditionally paint with "their number" on one of the last nights of school. Ours is out east of town - a rock the size of a two story building - someplace on that rock is a little "70" painted by my class members - I was there, but it was darn dark so I don't remember where we put it....




And, we went to visit family - they mostly all reside in the cemetery now. I have always loved the headstone that marks the grave of my great grandfather.

Sorry mom and dad - It didn't occur to me to bring a trowel to cut away the dead grass around your stone - maybe next time.

Road Trip in the Fusion

Are there images that you have so fixed in your mind that you could describe them to anyone at a moment's notice?

This is one of those images for me - "home" - or as I've talked about it before "The Ranch" - where I grew up - the only other place that I have lived besides Bellingham - and that was for the first 18 years of my life.

Out of this writing will come a few more - a few book reports - stories of sisters - and stories of memories - but I have to do my church newsletter first, so I hope you'll stop back in a week or so to see what I have to say.

This picture of The Shepherd and The Blueberry Farmer (my B-I-L) was taken about two years ago on the front porch of the house where my dad was born. There are actually two houses hiding behind all the trees and greenery in the picture above - this is the house on the left hand side of the picture. We have that little house fixed up with beds, full kitchen, etc. We just - after thirty or so years - have purchased an "apartment sized" refrigerator - an upgrade from the little dorm room sized one that we had in the kitchen that would only hold enough food for one or two people for one or two days (now we actually have a REAL freezer!) - Something that was so simple we don't know why we didn't do it years ago.

If you notice in the picture above, there are two REALLY big steps and not a very big area to stand while you are fixing to open the door. Plus the area in front of it was a cement pad that, over the years had broken and heaved up - a very dangerous place to walk -

This past summer my nephews, our farmer (& good friend) Doug and my B-I-L took a jackhammer and a tractor and took out all the old bad cement and we had new cement poured and the boys build these wonderful new steps (not quite finished - face boards on the top two steps and the hand rails still need to be put up - but, again, something that was so simple, we wonder why we didn't do it years ago.


Here is a side view - an area just waiting for some patio furniture, don't you think?












If you scroll back up to the very first picture you will see this tree on the very far right hand sided of the landscape. The tree is planted on a "scab patch" about 200 or so yards in front of the house I grew up in. Farmer Doug planted it in memory of my dad about 30 years ago -

But, when I was growing up, there was no tree there - just the truck sized rock that it hides.














My younger sister and I would spend hours climbing up and around this rock - it would be a sailing ship one day - a classroom the next.

Thinking about it now, it is funny that we spent so much time out on that rock - there were no wildflowers to pick and bring back to our mom - just the sound of the wind and the buzzing of the flies and bees to be heard - and our imaginations gone wild with what adventure that we'd face next up on our big rock.







The Shepherd is checking the map and getting ready for our Saturday trip to Dry Falls State Park - one of my favorite places in the world.












One road trip and you already need a bath! Poor little car.

"Well, it's my birthday too -- yeah"

Hidden behind all those trees are the houses I grew up in. On the left is the house where my dad was born, where my grandparents lived when I was growing up. On the right is the house where my family lived. A dad & mom & 4 girls - a very "50's" type of family. It was a good place to grow up.

My grandma kept a daily diary - (I suppose you could call her an "early blogger") Every year, she would get a date book from her insurance company - it would have from six lines to 1/2 page for each day. And each day, she would write - about the weather, how many eggs they got that day, and short bits of "personal" info - "ordered seeds for next summer's garden" - "Wallace & Viola (my uncle and aunt) were by for supper" or "Went to Garden Club at Ida's today"

When we cleaned out her attic after she and my parents had all passed away, we found boxes of these yearly date books. I was most interested in finding the 1952 book. What would she have said about my birth?

Well, there it was - January 12, -(a RED LETTER day, you know) and there I was - sandwiched in between the weather and a Pamona Grange meeting. "Reid took Glennie to the hospital today. She had a baby girl. They are going to call her Tina" What? That's all? Yup. My grandma was not one to "wax poetically".

And here I am 56 years later. I got flowers from The Shepherd at work today. I brought them home so I could enjoy them over the weekend - and this afternoon, our good friend Diane brought me a lovely piece of Tiramisu cake with a candle in it. Since neither my office mate or The Shepherd like coffee flavored things, I had to eat it all myself. Ha, Ha. The Shepherd and I always take the other out to dinner for our birthday - we're going to The Black Angus this year. (Actually, if we had an Outback Steakhouse in town, that might be where I'd pick, but the closest one is 30 miles away in Burlington - so the Black Angus will do just fine.)

What? You forgot to get me a gift - well check out our On-Line Auction to benefit the Black Sheep Creamery. You are sure to find just the right special item - (OK, I was just kidding - it was simply a shameless plug for our auction)



"You say it's your birthday
Well it's my birthday too--yeah
You say it's your birthday
We're gonna have a good time
I'm glad it's your birthday
Happy birthday to you"



(The Family Shrine, as we call it - my picture is the girl in the green dress

And we are ever indebted to John Lennon & Paul McCartney (yes, the one who was in the other band before he was in WINGS) for one of the most rockin' birthday songs around.

Blog Action Day - Oct. 15, 2007

"What would happen if every blog published posts discussing the same issue, on the same day? One issue. One day. Thousands of voices. "

On October 15th - Blog Action Day, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone's mind. In its inaugural year, Blog Action Day will be co-ordinating bloggers to tackle the issue of the environment. Blog Action Day is and will ever be, simply a vehicle for bloggers to work together to create a better world. The Organizers of Blog Action Day were inspired by one member's Baha'i belief's in the unity of humanity.

I am inspired by their willingness to try to mobilize the thousands of blogs and millions of readers. Stir the proverbial pot - it causes change.

I spent the first 18 years of my life growing up on this farm in North Central Washington. My father was tethered to the environment in a way that most fathers these days don't understand - he was a farmer. Everything he did on a day to day basis depended upon, effected, relyed upon - the land.

My grandparents homesteaded this land in 1907 - for one hundred years a Thomsen has owned this property. Even though I have not lived there since 1970, the "ranch" as we call it, is still "home" - to this day, the smell of sage brings back memories of warm summer days - the sagebrush and the grasses heated thru by the sun - the acrid smell permeating the air.

As children, my sister and I roamed these fields and hills - the butte in the farground we called "The Cliffs"

"Mom, we're going up on the cliff" - we'd call out - and be gone for hours - walking, wandering, looking for wildflowers in the spring, picking through the piles of stuff and junk (in those days there were no landfills - you made your own) to see if we could find any "treasures" to take home for our play house - old plates, maybe a chipped cup or a bent spoon. Maybe that is where my younger sister developed her love for antiques...

If you look closely at this picture (it won't biggify because I cropped the original - oh, well) - you will see the rows and rows of electrical towers that march through the landscape - I think their journey either starts at Chief Joseph Dam in Bridgeport or maybe at Grand Coulee. I used to think they looked like iron maidens, marching through our fields. What would the aliens think when they landed on our plateau? Would they think these were the inhabitants - chained together with wire - marching off to some unknown place?

Hundreds of thousands of years ago, the glaciers pushed their way down into the area now owned by my sisters and I. When the glaciers melted, (dare I ask - was that caused by the last episode of global warming?) they did the biggest environmental litter-bug job in the world - they dropped all these big rocks - right where they stopped - in our front yard, and our back yard, you get the picture.

But, from atop those rocks, you can see for miles and miles (- clear to the edge of the world, I used to think - it's amazing the things we think when we are children)

The "environment" is so much more than a cause - it determines how one looks at the world - and how the world looks at us.

Sometimes, it is discouraging. We do what we can, recycle this or that - only to learn that sometimes "it" ends up in a landfill anyhow. We change the type of lightbulb we buy, only to learn that the new types of compact flourescent bulbs contain mercury and require special handling to dispose of.

I'll just say that all in all, it's a beautiful world. I am hugely excited about getting to finally see the Grand Canyon and grateful that it was preserved as a National Park, and not allowed to be filled in like one giant landfill - (I'm sure there are those who would have tried )

So, I challenge you - get involved - add your voice to the thousands - let me know what YOU think.

The Long Road Home

We went to Eastern Washington over the weekend to attend the wedding of a family friend. I have LOTS to tell you and show you, but I have to get my church newsletter done first!










So, SOON, I'll tell you about the long road "home".