Winter 2008-09

Tommy was the only family member to visit the property this winter--in December he went up to cut a Christmas tree for his family. We had made an appointment with a well driller to visit the property in late December, but unusual amounts of snow caused us to postpone that. We’ll reschedule the well driller appointment for springtime. We're thankful for the very local weather reports we get from our friends Jay and Diana! Our neighbors Larry and Lynn did go up to the property in January and pronounced it snowy but lookin' good!

Our family did lots of planning this winter, though, including a decision to move the family campsite closer to the first buildings that will be built. So one of our first projects for spring will be to choose a new location and get power extended to the campsite. This will probably be near the site of Jeremy and Katrina's cabin, and they've graciously invited the family to invade their territory. That way all the adults can still gather 'round the campfire in the evenings after the kids go to bed.

Bethany has put a lot of time into orchard planning, and we are making decisions about fencing materials. This summer we'll start fencing an area to include the utility barn, orchard, garden, and henhouse to keep the deer out and the dogs in. Eventually we'll plant a wildlife food plot near the pond for deer, turkeys, and other critters in an area we can view from our homesite.


On January 29, our first Maremma pup, Gus, was born in New York. His full name is Augustus McCrae, after our favorite character in the movie Lonesome Dove. Gus will remain in NY till he's trained to guard our home and family from potentially bothersome wildlife.

Christina is progressing on her veterinary education and will be able to help us with our livestock healthcare. She'll become a veterinary assistant this spring and then proceed with veterinary technician training till winter 2010. In January, Adele started the Snohomish County Master Gardener training. She's learning a lot of new info about gardening and horticulture, planning ahead for planting our orchard and gardens. We're also taking a forestry stewardship class to learn how to manage our timberland to be ecologically friendly and safe.

Fall 2008

In October we made our last trip of the year—this time to properly close up everything for the winter! Jim and Adele spent the weekend in their new trailer, and some of the kids stayed up at the campsite. We planted wildflower seeds on the berm beside our future barn apartment and around the trailer and campsite.

Our family campsite is on Bethany and Tommy's 20-acre parcel, where they've scoped out sites for their future home and vegetable garden. Bethany has started layering a garden bed area, where we compost as much as we can. Eleora and her mommy planted some garlic this fall and tucked it in with a layer of leaves. Let's hope the garlic sprouts are not appetizing to deer!













Larry and Lynn's new cabin was a welcome sight on their hill "next door"! We checked on it and found everything safe and sound. Back on our property, we looked at the potential well sites located by a well seeker and figured out where to drill first. Before leaving the property, we closed up all three trailers--and took apart the Costco canopy this time. Okay, now let it snow!

At Thanksgiving we had a family meeting to discuss the NLA goals and potential pursuits of each adult in the family. We have a very diverse set of skills and interests that will come in handy as we work on our individual parcels and the common projects at the ranch.

This fall, Jim and Adele took the WSU Livestock Advisor Training course and a Ties to the Land Family Succession seminar. This winter, Adele is taking the WSU Master Gardener Training course and we will attend the WSU Forest Stewardship Coached Planning class. All these classes have been offered through our local county extension office—an awesome resource in any state!

After extensively researching livestock guardian dog breeds and breeders, we reserved a Maremma puppy from a litter due in January. We’ll get another pup from next fall’s litter. Windance Farm, the breeder in New York, will train both dogs before sending them to us when we move to the ranch. These dogs will be our personal/home/garden/
henhouse pair, keeping coyotes and other pests away. When we get more livestock, we’ll add more guardian dogs for the barn and pastures. Maremmas are “guardians”--not “guard” dogs. They are awesome animals that instinctively deter predators and will bond with and defend whatever humans or animals they are to protect. Our two pups will be trained with young children and most of the species of animals we plan to raise. Once the dogs arrive at our place, they'll get to know all our family members and livestock and we will become their "flock."

Summer 2008

As a blessing from Grandad, who had just passed away, the family received several pieces of playground equipment. A great climbing tower, jungle gym, and airplane teeter totter went up on one weekend. The dads built a sandbox, but the quarry was closed so the box sat empty till next trip.


For the second year, we chose to celebrate our June 30 wedding anniversary camping at the property. Staying for the July 4 week makes for a nice long vacation there. Some of the kids came and went. Though our April family time had been on a cold day, the July week was very hot! The young parents and kids cooled off at Lake Roosevelt while Papa and Grammy were refreshed by the trailer AC. Since we hadn’t yet run power up to the campsite, we were sure glad we’d brought generators!



















The kids enjoyed the playground, especially after we got sand for the sandbox. Butterfly nets were also a big hit, along with our field guides for wildflowers, birds, and butterflies.




Sarah made her annual trip to the ER in Colville, this time with Aaron. Pete and Sarah now have a nice trailer for their family at the campsite. Sarah has become our camp meal coordinator, helping us all by planning the meals and doing the shopping for the whole crowd. It works out really well for everyone. We all take turns preparing the food. We usually cook burgers, bratwurst, hotdogs, etc. over the fire for dinner. There are cereal and muffins for breakfast, with a hot breakfast scramble a couple of mornings. And of course, there is cowboy coffee perked on the fire on all but the hottest mornings. Even cowboy coffee isn’t worth building a cooking fire in that hot morning sun. We’ve got to find a shady place for a fire pit for those mornings!


Even our youngest carpenters helped build a deck and a storage shed!













Our friendly dozer man, neighbor Ron, came and did some clearing and leveling at Jim and Adele's homesite, but the heat limited the length of time he could work. Our neighbor Darren brought over a tank full of water on a trailer. There was plenty for solar showers, footbaths, and baby baths in plastic tubs. In early August we were there on another hot weekend, and there was still enough water in the tank to fill an inflatable wading pool. We also hauled over some water from Larry and Lynn’s new well.

Later that month Jim and Adele bought a larger, more comfortable trailer to put at our homesite. The kids can share the little campsite trailer. While Adele stayed in Spokane with newborn granddaughter Sophia and her family, Jim took the “new” trailer up to the property and set it up. The same day Ron completed the leveling of the site for our utility building.

Spring 2008

Last fall we never got back up to the campsite to properly close it down for winter. Our first visit in the spring revealed that our canopy shelter had collapsed under the weight of that winter’s unusually heavy snow. We also found that some mice had made themselves at home in our trailer. Adele spent a couple of restless nights hearing mouse noises in the kitchen before we managed to remove the mice from the trailer.


We had our second annual family picnic day in April. It was still chilly, and Grammy made hot cocoa and popcorn for the kids. Our day trips are convenient because two of our families live just 90 minutes away. This time, Dad and Mom (with Snick) spent a night at the Colville Inn, sharing the motel with a whole flock of turkey hunters.

Winter 2007-08

Two days after celebrating Christmas in Spokane, Jim and Adele (with faithful ranch beagle Snickers) drove through deep snow up as far as the homesite (end of our gravel road) and enjoyed a brief visit to the place. Without snowshoes we couldn’t get around much, so we didn’t stay long. But it was good to be there even for a short time. At a dry 14 degrees F. (-10 C.) we pronounced it too cold for a planned family outing, so that was the last we saw of the place in 2007. Jim’s dad, who was very excited about our N Lazy A and saw it as a revival of the Nebraska farm, had planned to go up and see it himself. Unfortunately, he took ill and flew home on Christmas Day. He would pass away in the spring, never having seen the new NLA for himself but knowing that all of us would enjoy it.

Summer 2007

We (Jim and Adele) decided our tent-and-air-mattress days were over, so we bought a used travel trailer and took it up to the property at the end of June. Though we had no electricity or running water, our anniversary/July 4th week there in the trailer was very enjoyable. We became big fans of “cowboy coffee” and other campfire delights. Some of the kids came and camped for a while, and Jim directed the machinery operator as he cleared our future homesite. Sarah and Tyler made our family’s first visit to the ER in Colville. On July 4, we were joined for dinner by Larry and Lynn (who had bought 40 acres next to ours) and later by Darren and Joy’s family (neighbors from whom we had bought our land). We had a great time around the campfire.


During our next visit, the first weekend of August, we experienced record high temperatures—104 degrees F/40 degrees C. Thank goodness for that shade! Although we’d planned to return that month, circumstances kept us out west and we didn’t see late summer or fall at the property. In our absence, electrical power and phone lines were brought in to our homesite.

Back in Snohomish County, the scheming continued as Jim and Adele took a Cultivating Success Sustainable Small Farm and Ranching class and created a “whole farm plan.” Adele also attended an orientation on small forest stewardship.

Spring 2007

Following our pre-purchase visits of January and February, the year 2007 saw us planning and scheming, preparing and dreaming. In mid-April, our entire family gathered on the property for a family picnic and land blessing. Each of the grandkids made a personal flag to plant in the ground.










Later in the spring we had a road built from the property line to the area we (Jim and Adele) plan to eventually build a home. One early May weekend, stationed at the Colville Comfort Inn, we made day trips and scouted out a family campsite.

On Memorial Day weekend, Jim and Adele (and beagle Snickers) were the first to spend a night on the property—lulled to sleep in a tent by the totally awesome night calls of a great horned owl nearby. (To Adele’s disappointment, we have never again heard that owl!)

Morning came and with it the sun--and we realized that our campsite had no shade! After Pete, Sarah, and their kids arrived, the men spent a good part of the day clearing a campsite at a shadier location nearby. Our Costco canopy shelter was erected just in time for an afternoon rainstorm to blow through. We moved everything up there and spent the next night in our new site, with Bethany and Eleora joining us.