Thursday

Today was a holiday, but i didn’t realize it. Last night i had a horrible nightmare that woke me up at 4am. i couldn’t get back to sleep for a long time. I tried reading, but couldn’t keep my eyes open. Then when i’d give up and turn off the ipad (where the book is), i’d lie there awake. Ugh. I hate that.

Anyway, Dad woke up first this morning as a result. And made coffee. But i noticed that he did it the way i described (the required equipment was sitting out) and it tasted just fine. Yay!

I made watermelon juice for breakfast, then got to work on the brown bananas that were sitting on the counter. After the banana bread was done, we went for a walk along the property line, and into cousin Doug’s as well. Just in case we saw a grouse (which we did, but were a little slow to react), Dad brought along a .22.

First we walked up to the stream where i used to play as a child. There had been a small waterfall back there, about 3 feet tall, but it’s long gone. The beavers have changed the path of that stream countless times over the years. This time, though, one of their dams had made a nice waterfall, not far from where we used to play, so dad and i took a few pictures at it.

Later, in the woods, we found tons of different kinds of mushrooms. We picked some lobster mushrooms, which we were pretty sure were edible, but wanted to check in the book when we got back. Unfortunately, the book said that they are only edible when growing on “safe” host mushrooms. They are parasitic. So we ended up throwing them away because we hadn’t noticed what they’d been growing on. We’d found them growing up out of the mush in the path.

There’s a bear who’s been hanging around (dad and his friend bill accidentally destroyed its den a couple of weeks ago while clearing windfall) and we saw that it’d been sleeping right alongside dad’s back road. There was fresh poop all over and tracks, and several bedded-down areas. We also saw deer, coyote, raccoon and elk tracks. The elk was so fresh we’re pretty sure we startled it. Dad’s looking forward to elk season starting up. We also followed a pair of grouse for a while, but they were a bit smarter than most grouse, and didn’t just fly up into the tree and cluck at us.

I got kind of crazy taking mushroom pictures.

When we got back, there was a message from Glesy that she’d been called into work, and could we come get the boys. So we rushed into town and picked them up, then hung out with them for the rest of the afternoon. Jack and Glesy came out in the evening and i made them spek-kaas-gember (bacon, cheese, ginger) pannekoeken. After they left, Dad and I played rummy, which i won. I’m more tired than i think i should be, so it’s 8:45 and i’m already in bed. I’ll probably read for only a short while before crashing. 🙂

Dad works tomorrow, so i’ll try to sleep in, then go into town (Centralia or Olympia) and work in an internet cafe for a while before visiting my grandparents in their nursing home and then heading over to hang out with Nathan. If i’m up early, maybe i’ll call Katy and see if i can drop by her place for a while.

Me by the new waterfall

A really pretty mushroom that we didn’t pick.

Dad in the area we first heard the grouse

Big dark ugly mushrooms, and a little one.

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