Celebrate the Small Things: A Photo Opportunty

Still smokey in Eastern Washington and the fires continue to burn. Tomorrow we are on another high wind alert....not good. Vince and I are official 'weather spotters' and we've been notified to be on the lookout for damage and new fires.

Meanwhile, I shot some photos in the smokey haze (Aug 23), a photo opportunity. It was one of those 'got lemons, make lemonade' moments. The gray rocky hill in the distance (Umtanum Ridge) is normally brown with distinctive angles and shading. We were coming home from Ellensburg (up the hill), where beautiful Mount Rainier is often visible. Not so this time. Even the Cascades were buried in smoke.

View from road, Columbia River, near Vantage

View from road along Columbia River, near Mattawa

Wanapum Dam - Columbia River, near Mattawa

Columbia River, Japanese apple orchards in distance, near Mattawa

Apple orchard in distance, Umtanum Ridge, Columbia River  

 Other celebrations:

--Did some gardening. The temperature was bearable today.
--Loving SmartEdit, my new editing software
--Celebrated another birthday last week. Yummy ice cream cake with friends.

Hope your week was worth every minute

Happy Weekend!

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To join this blog hop click Celebrate page on Lexa's Blog for the rules. Posts are every Friday. It can be about writing, family, school, general life or whatever. This is the funnest and easiest blog hop ever. (Originated by VikLit)  Co-hosts are: L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge and Katie @ TheCyborgMom

Sharon M. Himsl

Writer/Author. Blogging since 2011. 
Published with Evernight Teen: 
~~The Shells of Mersing

Celebrate the Small Things: Clean Air for One

[Seattle Times] I-90 shut down due to smoke Jul 20

Eastern Washington has been 'under siege' by smoke and forest fires this and last month. Yesterday we could barely see across the lake. Today, with the wind that blew through in the right direction last night, the air is clean again.

What we really need is a good old-fashion downpour--a week's worth! The entire state is as dry as a cinder, and it's affecting the way we live. Recently I-90 was shut-down near where I live and traffic was backed up for miles.

My husband and I had planned to camp in Northeastern WA this weekend at a beautiful state park. One of our small towns there is holding a popular fly-in called Wings Over Republic, and with all the activity surrounding this event, people fly in with their small planes and air camp under the wings, or pitch tents and camp in their RVs at the adjacent state park. Not this year. Today we cancelled our reservation and I just read online that authorities are calling for cancellation of the fly-in as well. Last we heard, the town was at a Level I alert, which means some residents might be evacuated.

[KHQ TV Spokane] Current fire in Ferry County, near where we had hoped to camp.

Sadly, three fire fighters lost their lives in the Twisp, WA fire on Wednesday. Prayers are needed for the remaining crews' safety and those living near the fires! Burn victims have been reported and dozens of homes have been lost too. Unfortunately, knowing where the next fire will flareup can't be predicted. Wind and lightning strikes feed these fires. Meanwhile, I'm grateful for the 'breather' today. 

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On a different note.....
I've been swimming a lot at the community pool. Swam 18 laps two days in a row. Kind of proud of that....I could barely do 8 laps when I started two months ago. 

 Have a Relaxing Weekend!

Source: http://www.topix.com/county/ferry-wa/2015/08/kettle-complex-fire-in-ferry-county-at-42-000-acres;
http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/transportation/brush-fire-closes-i-90-near-vantage/ 

Celebrate the Small Things. To be part of this blog hop, all you have to do is visit the Celebrate page on Lexa's Blog for the rules, and then post every Friday about something you're grateful for that week. It can be about writing or family or school or general life. This is the funnest and easiest blog hop ever! (Originated by VikLit)  Co-hosts are: L.G. Keltner @ Writing Off The Edge and Katie @ TheCyborgMom

Combine Ride: Harvest on the Palouse

I have lived in the Pullman-Moscow region, which borders the states of Washington and Idaho, for over thirty years now. I have watched the dust swirl up around me surrounding these fair towns as the farmers till and harvest the deep black soil of the Palouse, as the land is known. I have stopped behind them in their large farm vehicles, as they traverse our two-lane roads, halting traffic to make a cumbersome turn. I have traveled through the scenery they create in the fields that changes dramatically from green to golden yellow each year without fail. My husband and I have been privileged to meet and know only a few.

BARLEY (about a foot tall; wheat is much taller)

As a child I lived west of the Cascades, but sometimes took trips with a friend's family through Eastern Washington to Coeur d'Alene Lake. En route, we always passed the fields of wheat and other crops. One of our favorite things to do was to stop and sample a stalk of wheat. We would remove the chaff and chew the wheat kernel, as if it were the best snack in the world. And what did it taste like? Bland, salt free flour of course, but oh what a treat. Ever do that?

Barley up close at dusk (my camera lens was dirty from the harvest dust)

Big teeth!

So imagine my excitement yesterday when my husband and I were invited to ride in a combine harvester on the Ensley farm. They were busy harvesting their barley crop. 

"Frank"

I have to admit I thought of Pixar's movie, Cars, when I saw the big teeth of the combines up close. Remember the scene where Mater and Lightening McQueen scare the 'grazing' tractors and they go belly up in the field? Then Mater warns Lightening to watch out for Frank? Ha! Combine harvesters are huge like that, and I mean HUGE.

Cathy, co-owner with Mike Ensley in front of Ensley Farms harvest truck, which follows behind the combine for grain dumps. The Ensleys currently grow wheat, barley and garbanzo beans.

Big tires! Vince climbing into Mike's combine.  Here they come! Dumping the barley

Mike at end of day. Time to shower!

Today farmers sit in air-conditioned and filtered cabs, although there is plenty of dust. Check out Mike's photo on the left! They have talk radios and music to pass the time and use cell phones for communication.
Imagine how it must have been before combines existed (or modern ones with enclosed cabs). I am told that farmers often suffered from emphysema from the heavy dust exposure.

                                       Combines were horse drawn in the "old days."

Jeremy (Mike's son) and my driver. This is a multi-generation farm.

View from inside the cab with Jeremy. It was surprisingly quiet inside. We could talk easily, but oh was it ever dusty!!

Combines get around 7 miles to the gallon, I am told. The farm uses around 100 gallons a day during harvest. That's me on the bottom step. Thanks for the ride, Jeremy!

Take a look at my shoes. I was told I would get dirty . . . and I thought I was being careful. My face was gritty with dust, too, as was my camera lens. But what a marvelous once-in-a-life time experience. Thank you Ensley Farms!! Sharon M. Himsl Writer/Author. Blogging since 2011.  Published with Evernight Teen:  ~~The Shells of Mersing

Lake Entiat: Sailing and More

Well, we did it. Vince and I took "Duet" out of storage after nearly four years of neglect and sailed for two days in a row. I must admit though we had a comical Laurel and Hardy start, rigging the boat and trying to remember which line went where. Vince was beginning to question the work-to-fun ratio. What had once been a thirty-minute process to rig this fifteen-foot wonder (a Montgomery 15) quickly turned into a two-hour fiasco, with a lot of head-scratching and staring at instructions. But our efforts did eventually pay off. 

Duet was a beautiful sight when the sails were finally hoisted. She was the only sailboat on Lake Entiat last weekend. Sailing is all about the moment, not the destination. One glides along at the mercy of the wind on a zig-zag course. In a world spinning faster the older I get, I find this pace relaxing at times, but the work getting the boat ready was hard in the hot sun. (Note to V&S: do not rig in 90-plus heat!!)

Vince at the tiller, his favorite position.

At the tiller or on the bow. Either spot, I like both!

Lake Entiat is a large reservoir located near Rock Island Dam, one of Washington's many hydroelectric dams on the Columbia River.

Near Orondo, Washington next to the Wenatchee Mountain range, Lake Entiat is a nice recreational destination for campers and boaters. It is about four hours away for us. Vince and I camped three nights on its shore at Daroga State Park along with my brother and wife's family.

Site 24. Where we camped.

Lots of food and good company!

 

 Delicious campground beef stew with home grown vegetables, made by my sister-in-law. I was surprised to learn that this is the same Coleman stove my parents used when I was a girl. My brother had discovered it recently in storage. Still works great!

Besides sailing, I also tried water skiing behind my brother's boat, but alas . . . after a hiatus of probably thirty years, my legs just were not strong enough. ~Sigh~ I so much wanted to be up on those skis. I still remember skiing under the Narrows Bridge in Tacoma, Washington behind my father's boat as a teen. The water was quite choppy that day in Puget Sound under the Narrows and there had been whale sightings nearby. I held fast to the rope and avoided jumping over the wake, as was my usual form, on the lookout for anything black and unusually large.

 (Brrr . . . Don't worry, I can do this! I think I can, I think I can . . .)
 

 My brother remembers a similar experience skiing over a swarm of yellow jelly fish when he was younger, also worried he would fall. By the way, he bounced right up on those skis when it was his turn. Way to go, Bob!!

Vince and I brought bicycles, too, and enjoyed the bike trails that run through the park and beyond alongside the lake. Five hours of sailing and and an hour or two of biking gave us a good workout, and yes, I was a bit sore when I came home. Not bad for a couple getting ready to retire in a year or so, huh?

Copyright 2013 © Sharon Himsl

Sharon M. Himsl

Writer/Author. Blogging since 2011. 
Published with Evernight Teen: 
~~The Shells of Mersing