Month: September 2020

School is back in session. The Bigs are less than excited, but I am fired up! My remote teaching setup, complete with homemade webcam:

Hard at work developing tomorrow’s lecture:

I started my Cog Kids mountain bike class this week. I was NOT happy about it at first. By the end I was asking the Bigs why it was only six weeks long, and if I can do it again next year.

Weekly Rocket Man photo:

I love fall. It means I get to rake leaves,

eat pumpkin bread,

wear sweaters,

and go for hikes. Log walking on the Six Lakes Trail.

We only made it to two of the six lakes, but we had lots of fun. I was prepared for the 45 degree weather. The Bigs were not. Silly Bigs.

The trees were very mossy.

The moss makes a pretty cool tail.

The Bigs got takeout from Monkless to celebrate their 13th anniversary. I got my favorite – poutine (fries covered in gravy) topped with two runny eggs.

They got mussels. They can keep their mussels.

Smoke has cleared. Porch breakfasts are BACK!

Playdate with Hadley. 4+ costume changes. Army…

A firefighter and astronaut who help hurt animals…

Superheroes…

and chefs…

Our neighbor Becky gave me a gift certificate to Locavore for catsitting Dazzler. I spent the whole thing on wild foraged steak because I wanted to make jerky.

It turned out great. Jerky dance, jerky dance everyone look at your hands.

I spent two hours playing with a sheet the other day.

If it’s fun, it’s fun.

Grandparents and Uncle Chris, you can probably relate to this one. The Bigs take you out for some ‘fun’. We are on our way back to the car when they say ‘oh, let’s go this way, it’s not much longer.’ 8+ miles later we were back at the car. I’m 5. My wheels are 16 inches. I have NO GEARS. I toughed it out though – bribes of gelato got me through.

Gelato and jerky party!

Some other things we ate this week. Mango, avocado, black beans, and seitan burritos:

Pop’s pasta recipe (using our homegrown tomatoes):

Chocolate avocado pie with almond coconut crust. OH YES, you read that right. Avocado. And it’s delicious.

Oregon may be on fire, but don’t worry. I have everything under control.

Blowing the deck clean on one of our few smokeless days this week:

Unfortunately, the winds shifted, and we have been socked in with smoke for the past few days with no end in sight.

AQI = 448. Not good:

We’ve been stuck inside, so I’ve been weaving pot holders, doing jigsaw puzzles,

and using my jedi skills to defeat Darth Dad:

Meera turned five, so at least we got to leave the house to go to her (very small) birthday party (also inside):

Painting a pottery owl:

Some food from the week. Five-spice peach and raspberry salad:

Autumn apple, Brussels sprouts, and delicata squash salad:

The Tree was closed for a five-day weekend, so we went on a four-day, three-night backpacking trip in the Three Sisters Wilderness:

Here I am at the start of the trip, while I was still clean:

I took a lot of breaks and had a lot of snacks:

Our first night, we stayed at Teddy Lake:

I did a lot of log walking:

and swimming:

The morning was cool

and calm:

Morning coffee by the lake:

After breakfast, we were off to Snowshoe Lake.

We passed several lakes along the way, including Muskrat Lake:

When we got to Snowshoe Lake, it was time for more swimming:

The view from our campsite:

We headed back to Teddy Lake for our third night. I was in charge of route finding:

Somehow, we made it there anyway. We did lots more swimming and some world’s-strongest-man training:

Wombat made the trip with us as well:

He enjoyed swimming:

and eating our camp food:

Due to wombat’s voracious appetite (or was it mine?), we were running low on food for the trip out, so I resorted to eating peanut butter with a spoon:

We stopped at Cultus Lake for one last swim, where I did some excellent going under water: