Weekend Warrior

Yes, Saturday is weeding day.

If you want a garden, you have to weed.
If you don't, they'll go to seed.
Then the weeds will grow 'til fall
Over your flowers, which will be small.

Fortunately, in Gramma's yard
Fairies fly in and quarters discard
Into this basket and under the rocks; its
For kids like me to put in our pockets.


Hey, I'm a poet and didn't know it!

I also helped Grampa get rid of the snow tires, but Grampa has that picture.

Grampa worked so hard that he invited the neighbors to go with us to the Hartline Recreation Cafe -- with live music!  Rockin' live music. Rockabilly music with the group called the 45s.

I got to sing with the lead singer and guitar:

I rocked on bass! Whoa, am I cool or what?

And the drummer brought the snare drum out for me to really rock!

Just when I thought the roof was about to rock off, we had to go home. And just when I thought I was the rockin-est, coolest dude on the planet, a slug tackled me.

It just goes to show you: no one is too cool.

You gotta always "be real."

Yes, and Saturday and Sunday, you still have to walk Pooka. And look what was by our tire!

Fresh! Coyote! Poop!

No other sign of coyote, though.

They just disappear into the sagebrush.

Very cool.

And remember those flowers from Friday? We found some blooming! You can see the last year's wilted flowers beneath and around the new green leaves. Awesome
Balsam!

Next stop:

Democratic caucus at Mansfield High School. Very official.

We had to sign in and listen to an agenda and choose our candidate for President of the United States. We all chose delegates who would represent the candidates to nominate Barack Obama. He's already President, and we decided to keep him.


Information: PBS: Primaries   Congress for Kids on Primaries

Now we are going GEOCACHING !
That is treasure hunting !

Here we are at Yeager Rock.

Yeager Rock is a rock dropped by melting glaciers; it's called an erratic. Remember that the area north of Gramma's house was once covered in glaciers!

Grampa and I look for the treasure.

It's a huge basalt rock, split in two.

We found it!

We signed our names in the geocache log.

Then we tucked it all away, hiding everything back even better than we found it.

I checked it out by sliding in and around the pile of rocks to make sure no one could see the canister easily. It's a treasure hunt, after all.


Next stop: the world's largest waterfall-- without water!

Dry Falls.

AAAAAAHHHHHH !!!

Just kidding.

The wind kept grabbing me, so I had to always tuck my feet into crevices to ground myself.

I am here.  X

WOW!

Dry Falls.

More Dry Falls

The Ice Age

More Dry Falls

Hey, Hunter! Do you see all the boats in the water?

Great fishing!

Read it!

The flood!

Last look, hanging on!

When you go exploring, your car gets dirty!

And we get thirsty and hungry!

I even gave Pooka a treat, part of my cheese sandwich.













And, just a block from home: Grand Coulee Dam!

How about that weekend!


I thought I'd end with one of Gramma's posters.

See you later, alligator.

Flat Barnubus, Nature, and a Ukelele

Pooka was so excited to see me! We were both so tired, though, that she plopped down in the road to rest and I hopped onto a sagebrush branch to keep from blowing away. It was still breezy.

We hiked up to the bluff above Cresent Bay. You can see the back of Grand Coulee Dam!  See the arches?

Here's a fact sheet about the dam from the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation.

Right now the water behind the dam is very low because the melting snow in the mountains will fill the rivers and flow into the Columbia River. So the reservoir is left low to wait for the coming spring water. In the summer, Hunter sometimes swims here, but all that brown below the grass line is usually filled with water!

Look, Pooka found deer tracks up there before we headed back down.

Remember how the day started out with frost?  Well, the afternoon sun blazed down on us, and we were roasting. Pooka and I found some shade below a boulder.



"Watch out, Gramma!" I called out.  "There's deer poop in front of you."  I'm becoming a great hiker.







We did not walk down this hill, though, although Gramma said she thinks Uncle Jake drove her Justy car up this hill when he was a teenager.

"Watch out, Gramma, snakes!"

We looked closer.  There are a lot of sticks that look like snakes, but Gramma says she always looks because she has seen bull snakes, garden snakes, and rattle snakes on her walks with Pooka.  Fortunately, we saw nothing but sticks today.

A red-winged black bird flew up to sing to us. It's where the yellow circle is. Gramma took a recording and will try to upload it here later. But just in case she can't, click here to listen and see one up close.

We heard rustling in the cattails; it was probably the mate. This is where their nests are. Soon these will be green.

And see those wilted grey things behind me? Gramma says in a few weeks these will be balsom root sunflowers and look like this:










Aren't they beautiful? They are as bright as the sun.

Pooka and I ran ahead to the apricot tree. I couldn't resist climbing it.











I saw this moth. This is an "I Spy" picture. You have to look to find it!

Hint: It's on the left.

The next minute, though, I heard this:

Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

"Gramma," I called out. "Help! Bees!"

Gramma took a picture, and if you look carefully where the yellow oval is, you can see a BEE! They were everywhere. Gramma recorded it, and she'll try to put in here later.

By now Pooka was not only hot, but also thirsty. So she walked down her favorite path, which is usually under water, down to the water for a swim.







See how far down she is?
See how low the water is?

She is just a little white speck!

We also saw a turtle. It's the lighter spot straight up from that rock in the water.

Pooka got in trouble. The only way she could get out of the water was to swim down to the clay area. Clay sticks to her fur. We call this her "Denver" look because of this video, Denver, Guilty.

We drove up to Grampa's work at the Star to get a towel for Pooka.

I hid in the grape hyacinths in the parking lot.

Pooka found me. She still has a good nose.






Then we went home where I told Gramma she needed to weed her yard so her daffodils would look prettier.

Now I have to weed tomorrow.

Next we went to visit our friend David who is visiting from Hawaii. He used to live here and is great friends with Grampa. He made the ukelele you see me playing here. He taught me a few tricks.

Gramma recorded Grampa playing but we still haven't figured out how to get the recordings up here. Check back later.

You know, I could slip into this ukelele and go to Hawaii!  Don't worry, Hunter. I'm just dreaming....

Grampa and David chat about the ukelele.

Finally, dinner.

A loaded BLT.

Hah!  Bet you wish you were here!








See you tomorrow!