April through June, 2011

Who'll Stop The Rain

By April, Pauline was well enough to travel. An advantage of our little RV is that we have a lot of control over our environment when travelling; we can stop when necessary, have a restroom handy, can prepare our own meals and know where we are going to sleep every night. We were on the road 38 days this quarter, spent every night but one in the RV and managed to not gain any weight.

One intent of our travels is to miss much of the Spring Mud Season. This year we visited Arches National Park, Death Valley National Park, Southern California, Northern California, Napa Valley, the Oregon Coast, and Seattle. Of course, we visited many friends and family. There are too many sights, friends and family to see in one trip, so we'll have to do this again next year!

Sons Paul and Dan came to visit and ski in early April. Here, they check out the moose antler Jennie found on our property, not far from the Carriage House. We tried to find the other one of the pair after the snow stopped and before the grass grew up to hide it, but had no luck. We are wondering what to do with the one we have – perhaps we can find an artist to carve it, or we could learn how to do it ourselves.

June is the wettest month but it is not Mud Season because the sub-surface ice has melted and grass starts growing to cover up the mud. Afternoon thunderstorms are the rule and the occasional shaft of sunlight creates some wonderful views across the canyon, including double rainbows. This was a very wet June; the rain coupled with our above average snow pack has contributed much to the flooding in the mid-west and south. The only good news for those living downstream is the weather has been cooler than normal, so the snow pack is not melting as fast as it might.

We managed to do a lot of planting in the lower levels of landscaping completed late last Fall. The weather cooperated by giving us enough relatively dry days to do the planting and plenty of wet days so we did not have to do any watering. There is much more to see as one follows the path around; the path provides an alternate way up to the South Patio. We will be watering this Summer to get grass established in the bare areas. Many of the lichen-covered rocks were gathered from our property, while the timbers are left overs from the house construction.

Summer finally arrived! After the equinox, rain clouds were replaced by infrequent thunderstorms and temperatures climbed into the 80's. People living downstream will now start to see the next phase of floods as we shift from rain run-off to melting snow pack. We are at the headwaters of our drainage and don't have any problems. However, the run-off conditions will limit outdoor activities as the streams and rivers are too fast and cloudy for fishing, swimming or rafting and many campgrounds are flooded or muddy.

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