Staycationing at Home. Good times from our yard.






I've been wanting to do this all summer. Ahh.

 My next few posts are us at home.  I love my time at home, I could just be here day in and day out. Playing, resting, working, creating home is a great place to be. So this is what we decided to do for a while. Yet I bet I will look forward to some time on the road again soon, looking for another adventure. For now enjoy home.

Evenings at home.





This evening was really beautiful. The wind calmed and we built a fire. I used our first charcoal BBQ to cook a fresh fillet of Albacore Tuna and fresh veggies. The guys sat around the fire playing checkers, and a little tether ball. Later we brought out the guitars, good times at home.

Working hard at home.

We had a few limbs cut from the tall trees near our house. This left so much debris and firewood for us to collect, stack, chip, or burn. It has taken days but little by little its is looking great. We have created so much space for us too with a lot of underbrush. The sun is shining so nicely in the yard now.

Canning Tuna!

Three pressure cookers going at once! More fun when done with friends! 

Added a few jalapenos to one batch. Such lovely looking fish too.

double layer canner.

Good work at home.

Creating with gourds



Painting gourds from Florida.



One afternoon this last week we pulled the gourds out of a box the boys had received for Christmas from G'pa Tucker and Peggy. I had been waiting for the perfect summer afternoon to give the boys a chance to work on the gourds. They were delighted to again unwrap the box, it was like it was Christmas again. The box was equipped with paint too! They set up the table to stat their projects. This project will take revisiting for a finished birdhouse. We saved some seeds. The round one here in front contained a loofah like sponge inside.

Beach bums

Every night this week we enjoyed a fire at the beach. This was the bon fire! before they guys built this fire to last we had a much smaller fire that we cooked our dinner on. It was fun cooking at the beach every night this week. There was no wind, the temperature was just right, we surfed, went sand sledding, and hung out with friends. We are so lucky to have such a beautiful, free, and close to home place to gather with friends and have a good time. On Thursday we even got to watch the full moon come up, some people were still in the water surfing, truly an amazing week of nights at the beach.

Oregon Country Fair 2011



just taking it all in.



hanging out at kids loop with the hoops

Our week long camping trip to Eastern Oregon ended by spending our last day at the Oregon Country Fair. I thought it was a great way to end the week. The boys just took it all in! It was a new experience for Tres and I since we usually have the kids go to G'mas house for the fair. We enjoyed watching the two of them watching others.

Wizard Fish Hatchery and the Metolious River

We took a little break from the car to visit the fish hatchery, just outside of Sisters. Ruben and Spencer loved feeding the fish and watching them jump around in the water. The Canadian Geese were pretty fun too. Spencer did get bit by one that was anxious for him to share the food in his cup. It was pretty funny. They love interacting, viewing, and looking for animals no matter where we go. Always on the lookout for lizards when with Spencer. No luck with lizards today, just birds and fish.

The Painted Hills at John Day Fossil Beds

A beautiful sight! We had a short hike to an amazing view of the Painted Hills. All the hills are protected, so there was no real adventure in exploring or searching for anything. The view was what we went for and we very pleased. The wild flowers we abundant too. There were two more sites in the John Day Fossil Bed National Monument, but Painted Hills was the only one we made it to.

Mining for Thundereggs in the Ochocco Mts. at Lucky Strike Mine

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mining for thunder eggs, goggles and pics required.




Here we are meeting Kop, the claimee to this Lucky Strike Mine. He is the owner of two other mines also.



We let the boys take their bikes off the car and ride down the mountain, only about a mile once we hit pavement again. It was a great way to get the wiggles out and it was all down hill.

Now this was a real adventure! We drove which seemed like forever, but was only about 15 miles into the mountains at the Ochocco Summit looking for the Lucky Strike Mine. We wanted to find our own thunder eggs, and we did! The owners of the mine, Kop and Cindy were friendly, unique, and very willing to talk. We listened mostly and watch Kop look at each egg we mined. He let us know which were real thungereggs and which just needed to be tossed, or were just rock. It was quite the experience, meeting this old timer, he had a lot of stories to tell. The road to get us there was treacherous in our toyota van, but she made it! At one point after we had arrived at the mine, we had to back down a road and walk instead, since it was to rough to drive on. I love these off the beaten path tourist experiences. I don't think this is a typical tourist stop, we found it online and heard about it from our friend Cynthia. Some of the people searching for rocks and gems, were very serious about it. We we just in it for the experience and for the boys to see where the real thunder eggs came from. The boys will often get sucked into the gift shops at different stops on our travels and always want to buy the same things...thunder eggs, polished rocks, or arrowheads. So this time they got the real thing. A great time. Cindy then told us that the little town of Mitchell had free camping in its city park, so we drove on down the road and spent the night at Mitchell in the park.

Lava Cave at Newberry Volcanic N. M.





Entrance of the lava cave.

Another walk through an unguided cave, like the Indian Cave at Craters of the Moon, ID. This cave, just miles from East Lake, it's temperature dropped quickly as we walked into the cave. We could see our breath as we approached the entrance of the the cave. We rented a lantern and brought a flash light on our walk. We did not walk the whole mile length of the cave. The short walk was all we really needed, to see this great cave made by lava. We were told by a Park Ranger that there is a bacteria growing on the bats in the cave, that was transported by clothing from other caves in the country. I thought that was interesting, and how fragile all our our little eco systems are that are all connected to a much larger system.

East Lake at Newberry Caldera National Monument

Obsidean on the shore of East Lake.



Lava cliffs. The water is more than 150 feet deep.



The snow around the lake and on the mountains was fun to see. Kind of strange to see
snow when it is 85 degrees outside.




 

East Lake boat rental and adventures with Captain Tucker

The Captain and his first Mates

We found a wild hot spring at East Lake.


 

I have been eyeing this lake on the map all year. It was just as wonderful as I thought it would be. These high Cascade lakes are just so pure and beautiful. Not only the lake but there was a hot spring that I had read about on a new website I found featuring all OR hot springs, developed and not developed. We found the one here at East lake. It is not developed, but small, simple, hot, and perfect. It was so fun to get there by boat too. The kids did great riding around in the boat we rented from East Lake Resort for two hours. What a good time.

Paulina Falls in the Newberry Volcanic National Monument

Paulina Falls

These falls were amazing and the hike up the creek was magical. We stopped along the creek and explored the banks of this fast moving water. The boys and Tres crossed while I watched from the other side. I just admired the beauty all around us. We all thought we could of just stayed right here for the rest of our vacation, because it was so perfect. We decided to move on to the next adventure but acknowledged we are all easy to please when it comes to a lovely body of water, a flowing creek, and some sunshine.

Tucker's go on a road trip...



Salt Creek Falls

 Hey there! It has been a great week. We took off after the 4th of July and went on a little road trip to eastern and central Oregon. We had a wonderful time exploring this amazing state. I look forward to sharing our photos and getting you all caught up on our adventures.

Happy 4th of July!

Picture taken by Sarah Duman. Fireworks at Mapleton.

Garden works...

Garlic! from my yard. I planted this last fall. I have never made a garlic braid so I am stoked. the garlic was small, but I grew it! I don't care what size it is that case. I replaced the garlic bed with spinach and nasturtium seeds.

The beginning of the garden at Canary.

Peas are ready! in my backyard.

planted another round of peas, since the others did so well and I just love them. Already coming up!

This year I have had an insatiable need to garden...plant, weed, water, dig, rake, and more. I have my garden at home that is doing quite well, then I planted a garden up Canary Road at a friend's home, and last I planted a garden in Mapleton at my parents home. So here are a few pics of what is happening in the gardens, more to come too.

The usual...an evening at the beach. Welcome to our world.

Megan and Ruben hanging out on the jetty rocks having an apple.

looking for a hermit crab...short time pet. we believe in catch, explore, and release.

we've been watching a little bit of  karate kid lately...can you tell who the real fan is?

Here we are at S. Jetty again. Like I have said before I just never get tired of photographing us at the beach or tired of hanging out at the beach. Boys and I didn't surf tonight, since we did the evening before and suits were still wet. Plus who wants to surf when you can just play. Well I take that back...Spence did want to surf, but we talked him out of it. Then our friend Megan showed up with her Mom and we stayed until the sun went down. Good times as always.

Backyard inspiration...badminton

isn't that a funny hat Spence has on! Aunt Melisa gave it to him. It is a lions mane and face. which is way to small for him but he decided he wasn't ready to pass it on to a new and smaller owner.

To lively up the backyard I purchased a badminton kit from the bi-mart. We have all had lots of fun playing and learning how to play. We're inspired to host a little party with a campfire going and badminton tournament. Along with a badminton we bought a new tether ball for the pole. Pancho popped the last one, we let him. It was just so fun to watch Pancho play tether ball with himself. He was pretty good at it until his tooth finally punctured the ball. Well an afternoon of badminton, tether ball, pizza, and a campfire...sounds like a party to me!