Aunt Pat visits

It was so nice to have Pat come to visit us! She came with a car full of treasures (art, rock collections, books, dress-up dresses!) and stories and time to spend with us.

We went on several adventures to nearby nature areas that we hadn't visited yet. The weather is definitely colder now, a parka is not unwelcome in shady places or early in the morning.

One of our trips with her was to the McNary Wildlife Refuge. We spotted a coyote in addition to the birds.

 It was a beautiful morning for exploring.

 We are so glad that she could be here with us!

We see the Wienermobile once again

This time at a most convenient location close to our house.

New to us this time were the hot dog cutouts.

A fun little outing.

Field trip : Pumpkin Patch

We set our sights on early October for our pumpkin patch visit in order to try to avoid a cold, miserable experience. And it worked, we had lovely sunny, but cool weather. Liisa was in town and able to join us.
Farm Wife Julie's daughter was the one to give us our lesson this year.

There was a hayride out to the pumpkin patch to pick out our pumpkins.

Everyone loved the pumpkin doughnuts and playing on the swings.

Touring Eastern Washington

We were up early to head to the balloon rally, but the balloons didn't launch this year on account of the weather. They didn't get to go up any of the three days. We knew this was a possibility but decided to take the chance anyway (we didn't want to break Helena's attendance streak). After getting the news that it was a no-go, we got back into our cars and headed north to Wenatchee. We had brunch there. After that we went to the Pangborn Memorial Airport in East Wenatchee and saw a replica of the Miss Veedol- the first plane to fly nonstop across the Pacific Ocean.   

Our tour guide was one of the builders and pilots of the replica.

The last time my family was there was about 1990.

We stopped by Snowdrift Cider Co. and they gave us a tour of their facilities. It's a family-run operation and they were very friendly. They let each of the kids have an apple.

Then we decided that since we were so close we would go to Leavenworth. In retrospect, we should have headed home at this point. Once we got to Leavenworth we stopped for a coffee and treat (and to warm up) in one of the little shops. We all wandered around in the rain for a while. It was their Autumn Leaf Festival so there was a Bavarian band playing in the gazebo. Everybody polka!

We drove to Ellensburg and had dinner at the Valley Cafe. And then home, to bed.

Triceratops Reprise

Remember last time he did this?

Taking down the fence

We've decided that large animals are not in our future and are going to take down some of the fences in the backyard. Mark already removed the one that separated the pasture from the garden area. Even though it was just wire mesh, it feels like the view is more open with it gone.

Here is a look at the process of removing the fence between the lawn and garden area.

 Everyone was eager to help take down the wire.

Just the posts left.

All gone.

It was a lot of work for Mark, but it makes such a difference in the feel of the yard. Lots left to do, but always nice to have made some progress.

Nora on horseback

We have very kind neighbors and they let Nora ride their horse.