GILBERT

The north field after harvest

We went to the farm this morning – Mike and the dogs and I. Here’s the report:

South field - smoke in canyon

Our fields have been harvested. The barley at the neighbor’s place is still standing.

Mike fixed the lawn mower, and in the process, he discovered that the original starter – the one the shop said was ruined – also works. It’s a long story – and it’s his story – but I can tell you that he was pretty upset to have paid $225 unnecessarily. Mike has always repaired our lawnmowers, but he took this one to a shop on the chance it would be covered by warranty, which it wasn’t. But – he paid the shop a visit when we got back to town this afternoon, stated his case, and received the refund he requested.

Mike bought a 50-foot commercial grade, non-kinking hose for my watering, which was certainly less work than carrying water. Connected to the present hose, the new one will stretch to the raised beds, the laurels, and the cherry tree. I noticed, though, that when I spray with water, I don’t always give the plants enough. I had to re-water in some cases.

As I worked, I saw a bumblebee. And I was buzzed by a hummingbird.  

Kitchen after drywall

The drywallers showed up late in the morning. They have made good progress. It’s just that the adjuster has not approved the cabinets and the flooring, so next steps are pending, and that’s frustrating. I have made decisions on paint colors, and that’s another post.  KW

Elberton

Elberton is a ghost town located about 5 miles southwest of Garfield, WA.  Last year I had noticed some geocaches there and decided it would make an interesting motocaching trip for son Clint and me.  For some reason it didn’t materialize last year so 08-18-18 was the day to do it.  Clint and I met at the Dynamart at the foot of the Lewiston Hill Saturday morning at 7:00 am and proceeded up the Spiral Highway.  We passed a trio of cruiser riders near the top of the grade and then took Hwy 195 north. I had planned to stop for a cache in Uniontown but it must have been annual yard sale day there so we didn't stop.  Before getting to Pullman we stopped and picked up a roadside cache on a guard rail.  I was glad we were on motorcycles due to very limited parking space.

Palouse cache

After passing through downtown Pullman we continued on Hwy 27 to Palouse where there were a couple of caches I hadn’t found.  Both of these caches were close together on a gravel road a little northeast of town.  After finding both we went back to town and continued on Hwy 27 to Garfield.  From Garfield we found Elberton Road which is paved all the way to Elberton.

Cemetery cache

Before getting into Elberton proper we took a gravel road up to a cache at the Elberton Cemetery.  These old cemeteries are always interesting and this one was no exception.  After quickly finding the cache we toured the old cemetery.  Except for the sign it was unkempt. On the way down to the town site we picked up another cache on a fence post.

Belaying equip req

Part of the course

The next cache was the most interesting one of the trip.  It was located in the woods above what had been a park across the street from an old church.  Signs at the park made reference to a “ropes” course and disclaiming liability for anyone who attempted it.  The course obviously hadn’t been used in years and seemed to be designed for extreme mountaineers.  It consisted of a series of stations some of which were beyond repair.  One required you to have mountaineering equipment and a sign said to not attempt it without belaying.  Another station required climbing a tree to access a platform to get to a cable so you could zip line down the hill to another tree about 50 yards away.  That would be fun!  It would be interesting to know when this was built and who used it because it isn’t near any population centers.  A lot of work went into building it, however.

Pretty nice old church

The next cache was “Elberton” and took us through what had been the center of town.  All that is left now is the rather large brick church.  Elberton was the last town in Washington to disincorporate in 1968 and the last store closed in 1973.  It was named after the founder’s son, Elbert.  For an interesting history of the town go to Geocaching.com and lookup GCRVNF in the Search bar.  We found the cache under a bridge over the Palouse River behind the church.

Got it!

We left town on a gravel road over to Dry Creek Road which is a good paved road.  We turned off it to get a quick cache and then I followed Clint over to Hume Road where we found his crash site from last year resulting in a badly wrecked bike and broken finger and damaged hand.

From there we traveled south to Colfax and turned on a gravel road for a rural cache east of town.  While there an old gentleman in a big grain truck skidded to a stop and asked if we were looking for that geocache.  He said it had been there for years.  It was an ammo box and an easy

Sneaky hide

find.  We went back into Colfax to look for one that Kathy and I hadn't been able to find a few years back.  They had moved it across the parking lot from the original location and Clint found it stuck in the crack of a telephone pole.  The log was encased in folded duct tape.

Cool cache

At Clint's suggestion we turned off 195 at Pullman and took Wawawai Road back down to the Snake River.  On the way down we stopped for a large and clever cache disguised as a direction marker of some kind.  It was hot down on the river (low 90's) a little past noon compared to the pleasant weather we had had for most of the trip.  We scored 11 caches with no DNF's and traveled 157 miles.  It was a great day.  M/W 

OF SMOKE AND MICE

The Snake River, looking towards Lewiston, Idaho, from Clarkston's Beachview Park

It’s still smoky in our valley, but we expected that. I took these pictures of the Snake River and Lewiston from Clarkston’s Beachview Park on Wednesday, August 15. Our yoga class is meeting in the park until further notice, which is quite pleasant.

Lewiston from Beachview Park

Mike and Ken went to the farm on Tuesday to practice shooting clay pigeons with Mike’s thrower. While there, Mike discovered the mice had once again infested the lawnmower. This time he will repair it himself, so this morning he rode his Tiger XRX back to the farm to dismantle the mower. He gave a riveting account of his eviction of the mouse family from their home deep inside his mower.

While he was at the farm, he visited with the drywallers, which reminded me that I have decisions to make on paint colors. I’m frustrated by that because how can I tell from a tiny paint chip what color I want? What difference do shades of white make, after all? But – suddenly a plan rolled out. I’ve written it down, and if they don’t like it, they can just substitute other shades of white.

Lewiston from Beachview Park

Working out the cost of this repair with the insurance adjuster has not been pleasant, just as I predicted. He doesn’t like the estimate for the cost of custom cabinets and that seems to be where we’ve stopped. He seems to say he doesn’t believe they were custom-built to begin with. He doesn’t think they were better than what we could buy at Home Depot. It’s a small, old-fashioned kitchen. Ready-made is not going to work.

Oh – but I was talking about Mike’s visit to the farm. He observed that the infestation of yellowjackets is the worst he’s ever seen, which isn’t really news. There’s not much we can do about it this year. Maybe we can’t ever do anything about it.

Sew-along update: sarong

They still haven’t harvested our fields, and I don’t have new pictures. Mike did say that the zucchini plants are still alive and the strawberries plants looked really good.

It’s another hot day here in the old town, but it appears that in the foreseeable future it’s gradually cooling into the 90s. KW

A HINT OF AUTUMN IN THE AIR

Late afternoon behind the house, August 13

We faced record-breaking heat last week. According to the Lewiston Tribune of Saturday, August 11, Thursday’s high was a record for the date of 111 degrees. Friday’s high also set a record for that date at 108 degrees. It was hot, and when it’s that hot, the lows are high, too – in the 70s – so our air-conditioner ran a lot. A cold front moved through on Saturday, bringing the temps down by 20 degrees, to a pleasant 90.

The smoke is visible to the northeast

But the thing is, the lows have been downright chilly – below 60. And the air just has that feeling of fall. I’ll soon trade my summer decorations – Americana and “red, white, and blue” – for pumpkins, witches, and ghosts. Oh! And there’s that unfinished ripple afghan in Halloween colors. With cooler temps, maybe I’ll get it finished.

More smoke

But it’s a little too soon yet for those things. I say cooler temps, but we’ll be up and down for a while. The season is just changing – days getting shorter and slower to warm. A blanket is needed before dawn and a sweater is nice in the morning. Today I did what anyone might do on a cooler day – I baked cookies. Mike has discovered frozen cookies, so most of what I baked went into the freezer. And when son Clint comes over, perhaps I’ll have a bag for him, too.

Bess

They say the cooler temperatures have helped the firefighters bring regional wildfires under control, but this afternoon our valley filled with smoke again. I can even smell it. Mike said he could barely see the Lewiston Hill from the Aquatic Center because of the smoke. And it seems to be moving right up our gulch. KW