Snowboarding!

This area is a boon for the outdoor-types - tons of opportunities for all sorts of activities, which the emphasis on "active". One of those activities is snowboarding. With an elevation of 11,249ft, Mt. Hood has 3 ski facilities, including the only year-round skiing and snowboarding in the US, and it's less than an hour away¹. So we decided that we would take up snowboarding. (While Mt. Adams is only 15 miles away, it does not have any facilities; much of the mountain, including the summit, is inside the Yakama Nation Indian reservation.)

It's awesome! The best thing about snowboarding is that when you are first learning, you can have fun on the very first day. But I definitely suggest that anyone learning to snowboard take lessons. We bought a 3-pack of beginner lift tickets (restricted to the beginner lifts) which included rentals and a 90-minute lesson each time. There's no arguing that snowboarding feels really awkward when you are first learning; but once you start to get the hang of it, you're ready to head downhill (slowly).

The key to snowboarding, at least for us, is having the right equipment. So we went out and bought pants, jackets, gloves, wrist guards, helmets, and a buttshield even before we went up to the mountain for the first time.

I know what you're thinking - did he just say "buttshield"?

Yes, buttshield. We each received one of these devices from Corinne's brother Loren, who swears by them. When you are learning to snowboard, you are going to fall. A lot. And even after you learn, you are still going to fall, just not as much (hopefully). With this buttshield shoved down your pants, falling on your ass isn't so bad. And it even keeps you warm when sitting in the snow - not too shabby. The helmut and wrist guards are probably more important - spraining or breaking your wrist while attempting to break your fall is one of the more common injuries on the mountain - but neither garners quite the response of the buttshield.


Mt. Hood from the Mt Hood Meadows parking lot. You won't see any photos of us actually ON the mountain just yet; when you do, you'll know we have gotten sufficiently good to be able to carry a camera down the hill without danger of landing on it.

- Mike (& Corinne)

¹Technically, the facilities on Mt. Hood are about 40 minutes from the Columbia River, and our house is 30 minutes from the Columbia. But it's still pretty close.

Dalys visit the New House

Rather than traveling East for the holidays this year, we coordinated it so that my family would come visit us in January. And it just so happened that they arrived on the day of our closing! (We had done all of the signing the day before our closing, so that we wouldn't have to worry about.)


A toast to the new house! We didn't do any "large scale" moving into the new house while they were here, but we did make sure both cars were full before heading north.

On the Friday after our closing, we decided to host Bad Movie night at our new house, despite the fact that we hadn't actually moved in yet. (We did have some furniture that we bought - cheap - from the previous owners, so that there was something to sit on.) So we borrowed a projector from the office, connected it up to Corinne's laptop, and initiated the house with a showing of Killer Klowns from Outer Space. I can't think of a better way (although I'm sure Corinne can.)


While Drew was here, he helped me replace the battery and battery terminals. Thanks, Drew! It was good practice for me, since I don't have that much experience with machinery - and we now own a machine shop full of tractors and other implements of destruction.


During his last visit, not only did Drew & Michelle encounter the worst winter on Mt Hood in recent history, but Drew was also denied the one food he craved while he was here: Dungeness Crab. So this time, he made sure that he got his fill. They also got to experience, according to Drew, "the greatest snowboarding in my life". I guess we made up for last year. :)


A walk along the White Salmon River, exploring our own personal park.


We snapped this photo of a hawk (?) on a nearby field.

- Mike (& Corinne)

The New House!

Well, we finally did it. As of January 13th, 2006, we are now the proud owners of a 2000-sqft log house with a 60-acre estate located in beautiful Trout Lake, WA!

The quick summary:

• The log house was built in 1977 by the previous owners, The Clausens.
  
• The majority of the house is on the main floor, with only the master bedroom and bath occupying the second floor. There is one guest room.
  
• A Lindal Cedar "Great Room" addition was added in 1991
  
• The second floor of the 2-car garage is currently unfinished. Other outbuildings include a garden shed and large machine shop containing all of our newly-purchased farm equipment. You'll probably hear more about the equipment once we figure out how to use it (or even what to do with it!)
  
• Approximately 30 acres of the property is planted in coniferous trees. Originally, it was intended to become a Christmas tree farm, but the market didn't cooperate. So now it is rows of 20-year-old conifers that are managed under a state Forest Stewardship Program. (More on that in future postings)
  

The property even comes with a name: "River Ford Farm", named after a particularly low-bank section of the White Salmon River on the west side of the property. According to local folklore, the Yakama Indians used to cross the river at that section to gather huckleberries on the other side.

Since we plan to be here for quite some time, the photos below will only scratch the surface.


Just to give some perspective... the pink outline is our new property! Just under 60 acres total. This aerial photo is from 2003, so it is fairly recent. As you can see, lots of farmland around us. Trout Lake is an unincorporated section of Klickitat County with approximately 800 residents.


On the threshold of our new house!


One of the happy home-owners exploring the new lands.


Our 1977 log house! In the back you can partially see the Great Room addition that was added later.


A view down the fire lane through one stand of trees.


"The front yard". The house is visible just to the right of center behind some trees; the garage is to the left of center, also behind trees. The circular driveway runs between them.


"The front yard, pt 2" Here you can see the house again, the circular driveway, and the great garden patch in the middle surrounded by cedar seedlings.


Here's a view of the "back" of the house, consisting primarily of the Great Room addition.


Great Room via the Dining Room. Of course, it'll all look different once we get our furniture.

So much to do!

- Mike (& Corinne)

Christmas in Tulsa

"Tulsa? Why on earth are you going to Tulsa for Christmas?" That was the typical response we got when we told people of our holiday plans. Well, thankfully the trip was much more enjoyable than any of our friends could envision.


Tor & Clare's first tree!


As with most gatherings in Corinne's family, Christmas included many a "game night", 21st century style. Except most of the time it was probably closer to 11am...


We've certainly played Ultimate Frisbee before, but this was our first experience with an actual ultimate frisbee course. Who'da thunk?






A quick stop for some refreshments, courtesy of Krispy Kreme.


At the Rhema Christmas Lights display. More holiday lights than you've ever seen before in one place.


Several days of our week-long trip were spent helping Loren "get organized". I just hope he keeps it up after we leave!


The hard-working organizers... and Loren.


All crammed in Loren's Lincoln, heading out for dessert.


...and of course, lots of time spent at several of Tor's Nordaggios locations!

- Mike (& Corinne)

Diego and the Ditch

On a trip to visit Serg's parents in San Diego, Stef, Serg and Diego (the newest Moses/Rubio) managed to squeeze 2 days in to visit us! It was just long enough for us to almost make them miss their flight...

On the morning of the day they were to leave, we decided to take them for a drive north to see the primary prospect in our house hunt. While admiring the view of Mt Adams, I promptly drove off the road into a ditch. In my defence, I must say that the road was very slick and that the snow was plowed such that you could not tell where the edge of the road was. Nonetheless, we were now sitting in a ditch in sub-freezing weather with an infant.

Thankfully, a local was kind enough to not only stop to see if we needed help, but actually go to get additional help for us! His father-in-law was soon on the scene with his tractor to pull us out of our predicament. Thank goodness for good Samaritans!


Hey, who would have guessed - there are HORSES on that blanket. :)


Mike & Serg, doing what they do best - nerding out.


Serg, standing in the infamous ditch.


Immediately after our ditch-recovery. See how happy everyone is?

- Mike (& Corinne)

Now We're Cookin' (Tamales)

A mere week after Thanksgiving, and we're back in Seattle again. This time, it's a Taryn weekend!

On Saturday, we went to a cool "home cooking" class in West Seattle to learn to cook tamales. The class is taught in the home of the instructor, and it's definitely hands-on (as you can see below). The class was small - single-digits small - and at the end of the class, everyone sits down for a great meal. Lots of fun! Thanks, Taryn!

...and it just so happened that the same weekend of our cooking class, Nickel Creek was performing at the Orpheum in Seattle. It may have resulted in a ridiculously early drive back to The Gorge on Monday morning (to get back to work!), but it was worth it.




- Mike (& Corinne)

A Visit from Mr. Tulsa

After Thanksgiving, Loren spent a week visiting us in Husum. What great fun! If only we didn't have to work...


We didn't actually get any photos of him, but we sure have a whole pile of great photos that he took while we were slaving away at work.

Actually, that's not entirely true.

Here's one of the only photos we have of Loren (with brother Leif) from his visit.



Come back soon!

- Mike (& Corinne)

Thanksgiving in Seattle

We went to Seattle for Thanksgiving this year. Originally we were going to host again, but perhaps we'll do that again next year. And it sure was nice to take a break from the home-buying process for a while!



The obligatory family photo. (Hey Loren - WAKE UP!)

- Mike (& Corinne)

The Next "Big Purchase"...

We have lived in the Gorge now for 1.5 years. We have good, stable jobs that we like; there are more things to do in this area than we have time for; the climate and weather is great; and we've made quite a few friends.

It's time to start looking for a house.

This project has been on our radar for a year or so, but we've been so busy with work and travel and visitors that we never made enough time to do it. But now we resolved ourselves to make some significant progress. We may not buy anything at the end of the process, but at least we will have a better feel for how much things cost around here, and how likely it is that we'll find something we like.

After we found a realtor (through recommendations from friends and coworkers), we started to communicate with her to let her know the type of things we were looking for. Since we had already discussed that we were looking to continue the "country living" that we started with our rental in Husum, we decided that there were two possibilities for us: (1) Find a house on 20+ acres; or (2) Find 20+ acres and build a house.

Since this area is not actually very large, we knew our choices would be limited. As it turned out, within about a week we had looked at virtually all of the house options that matched our criteria, with the biggest limiting factor being the acreage. The fact that we were finished looking so soon wasn't necessarily a bad thing, though. In Boston, for example, you could look at places continuously for years and never find the "perfect" place for you; here, once you've looked at everything and knew what your options were, it's a bit easier to make compromises and not keep looking for the perfect house (which of course doesn't exist). For people who like to do tons of research before making decisions, and who find it hard to compromise (like us), I think the latter actually works out better.

We took lots of pictures, of course, and would review our options each night. Initially we were skeptical that we would find something that we truly liked, but initial indications were good. We looked at our share of "not for us" places: a country-style home with a shop twice the size of the house; and a house we referred to as the "homemade house" because it seemed to be cobbled together from spare parts. But in the end we had a list of 5 houses that we would consider buying.



Once we had looked at all of the house options, we wanted to spend some time looking at land-only parcels. For us, building a house sounded exciting and daunting at the same time: when you were finished, you'd have a house that you truly love; but getting there would be a trial, especially for people who like to research and don't like to compromise (see above). But you also had to wait a year (if you're lucky) until the house was ready enough to move in.

Man, looking for property is time-consuming! In all, we spent about a month looking. But that was just prelude to the purchase process which comes later...

(stay tuned...)

- Mike (& Corinne)

New Car (aka Big Purchase No. 1)

Living in Boston for 10 years with only a single car between us was never a problem. Corinne would walk to work, and you could always take the T to go any place in the city you wanted.

Out here, things are different.

Now that we've been living here for over a year, it has become clear that continuing with only a single 12+ year old car is perhaps not the best idea. While we do work at the same place, and thus commute together, if anything were to happen to the Civic we would be in trouble. When we added to that the fact that it doesn't handle the unimproved roads that you often take when heading to trailheads, and that it doesn't do particularly well on ice- or snow-covered roads that are prevalent in the higher elevations around here, and it became clear that it was time to look for a second car.

Requirements:

• All-wheel drive. If we are ever going to learn to snowboard on Mt Hood (and we are - eventually...), we'll need a car that can climb the mountain without any praying involved.
  
• Higher gound clearance. For those "unimproved" roads.
  
• More storage space. Over the years, packing the Civic for long trips has become an art form; but maybe we should be spending our creative energies in other places.
  
• Back seat comfort. 'Nuff said.
  
• Reasonable fuel economy. ..and that's not just because of high gas prices!
  
• Reliable. There's no point in getting a new car if it is almost as likely to have problems as your old one.

We test drove the Ford Escape Hybrid, which they happened to have at the local Ford dealer. But it seemed cheap inside, and we couldn't justify paying the high price for a Ford. Next we looked at the Subaru Forrester, but it was kinda small inside, particularly in the back seat. We considered the recently-released Toyota Highlander Hybrid, but we couldn't spend 6 months (or more) on the waiting list for it. There was a used, good condition Volvo Cross-Country wagon available locally, but we decided it screamed "kids" a bit too loudly. The Nissan Murano was next on the list, based on driving in it as a passenger with some coworkers. The Murano was definitely in the running, and made it to the final two, but was a bit on the luxurious side (which is sometimes hard for us to justify.)

In the end, we remained a Honda family with our new 2006 Honda CR-V. We love it!


Here we are testing the "off-road" capability in the alfalfa fields.





- Mike (& Corinne)

Month of the Turkeys

But wait, you say, Thanksgiving is in November, not October. Yes, but we're talking about WILD turkeys. And not the kind from a bottle, either.

We first saw them on September 30. 8 wild turkeys, wandering through our fields looking for food. We saw them off and on for the next 3.5 weeks, then they disappeared. I guess they just moved on to greener pastures.


Wild turkeys, walking single-file down our driveway. We saw 8 total - and there was clearly a leader, though we couldn't tell if it was a tom.




The neighbors cat, Anna, deciding if she could take one down. In the end, she decided against it. I think that was a wise choice.

We hope they come back and visit us again next year!

- Mike (& Corinne)

Bad Movie Night

Bad Movie (n): A movie that is bad. This isn't bad in the sense of a Hollywood cookie-cutter script with beautiful people speaking trite lines; what we're talking about here is a movie that is truly bad. A bad movie can have high production values or be done on a shoe-string; it can have big name actors or no acting at all. Sometimes the movie knows that it is going to be bad, while other times it is trying to be good (but failing). A bad movie is a movie you watch and think: "I can't believe they made this."

Bad Movie Night (n): On the second Friday of every month, a group convenes to enjoy a meal and watch an aforementioned "Bad Movie". One of the attendees is chosen as the "sponsor", and this person is responsible for bringing a bad movie that they love. The movie can't be just a movie that they think is bad; it has to be a movie that they really enjoy, and that the majority of the planet thinks is bad.

Bad is a subjective thing; and a bad movie can definitely be enjoyed as such when viewed from the right frame of mind. If you think that a movie is going to be bad before watching it, you are rarely disappointed.

Some of the selections so far:

Some Like It Hot

Godzilla 2000

Condorman

Shaolin Soccer

Zorro, the Gay Blade

Short Circuit 2

(This Is) Spinal Tap

They Call Me Trinity

The Princess Bride

N.B. There is currently some debate over what the rules should be regarding "cult" films, as several of the above (Tap, Bride) could definitely fall into that category. The difference between a "bad" movie and a "cult" movie is hard to quantify. One suggestion has been that "a cult movie is a bad movie that a majority of people (or close to it) now enjoy." However, even given such a definition there is no rule in place to prohibit cult films from the experience.

It's great fun, and a good excuse to get together with friends on a regular basis.

- Mike (& Corinne)

Bushdorfs in Seattle

Corinne's Aunt Patsy and Uncle Jim were in Seattle (from Columbus, OH) for a brief trip, so we decided to take the train up to spend a day with them. We don't get to see them very often!


Patsy, Andrea, Shane and Jim enjoying breakfast with us in West Seattle.


We found a 'dahlia show' listed in the local paper, so we decided to check it out.


Andrea, Corinne and Patsy in the dahlia fields.


I had some fun taking closeup shots of the flowers. Here's one of several butterflies we encountered.


We encountered a plethora of bees in the fields as well, as you can imagine.


Corinne seems to be pretty excited about this particular flower...


After a brief trip to the Glass Museum in Tacoma, Jim gives Leif a hand down the steps.


Sisters, enjoying each others company at dinner.

A fun weekend!

- Mike (& Corinne)