a landmark falls

the Eureka High School (the old elementary) came down 9/28/2011...

This Is Why...

Rabbit Bush... this is the reason my eyes itch and water so. This is why I am stuffy and can't breath through my nose for a month. This is why the idea of snow is not so bad to me right now. Rabbit Bush!

our grape harvest

Our two-foot high grape vine provided this plentiful harvest. These grapes are almost as big as our raspberries! We are thinking of juicing them.

We can feel summer winding down. Monsoons (though fairly dry lightning storms) have cut the daytime temperatures to about 75 degrees F. Many of the flowers in our yard are going to seed now. We are harvesting beans, broccoli, and summer squash and putting the garden beds down for the season. We keep one eye on the weather reports waiting for the frost warnings.

And... I'm keeping an eye on our two apples!

Labor Day 2011

cloudy and cooler... summer's finally broken... fall is coming.

this summer's fullness

This summer fullness

of leaf and stalk,

flower and fruit...

abundance

feeding birds and us,

seems so far from

the cold white barren

that melted before,

and now hints a quiet promise

of its return.

I live here and now,

and in the past and future,

as nature too,

with mulch and seeds,

and migrating birds,

and shorter days

and cooler nights.

a metaphor

Summer Squash!

My Small Tomato Rebellion

OK... this is not a very pretty tomato. It's small and scarred, but it will taste good. More important, we grew it her at home. It's organic (mostly). And it wasn't a product of some big corporation worried about its supply chain and profits.

Friday on NPR's science program they talked about how in Florida agricultural laborers tending and picking the tomatoes, are kept as slaves, actually chained in sheds to prevent escape. This news angered me. I will never buy a Florida tomato. I will never have their tomatoes on my hamburgers anymore.

This little tomato (and the bigger ones we grow) is the symbol of my rebellion from the tyranny of the huge food industry corporations. I will not eat your tomatoes! I grow my own!

Afternoon Thunder Storms

It's late August and summer just keeps going on! We are getting some much needed rain in the afternoons... monsoon weather. The mornings are hot and summer-like, and the afternoons are dramatic, wet, and cool.

We have been picking peas, beans, summer squash, beets, broccoli, carrots, cucumbers, and of course a few tomatoes. We have traded peas and squash for eggs. Our yard is full of flowers... and I am watching our two apples as they grow toward ripening.

Hummingbirds duel over the feeder while sparrows squabble over the seed. Summer is just full this year.

Kevin starts school Monday... and August draws to a close.

Shaye and Braxton went home.

We had a lot of fun going swimming and going to the fair with our grandkids. I got up and made french toast or pancakes every morning. Last night I got two birthday cakes, one from each of them... and we stayed up and looked at the moon, watched the ISS sail by, and meteors flare across the night sky. They left this morning and Jean and I felt sad all day. We miss them.

We love you both!

the Palate of Nevada Colors

sky above, earth below

a mid-summer fire

our fire pit...

picking strawberries for breakfast

Shaye and Braxton are staying with us for the week. They are keeping us busy keeping them busy!

Ah! The Joy of Summer... Shorts!

Cool and comfortable!

Eureka Elementary School

This is where I work. Great children, high achieving students, highly qualified teachers who care... a wonderful place to work!

summer storms

Benjamin Thomas Martinsen (day 2)

Our New Grandson!

Benjamin Martinsen... born around 11:30 PM, August 30, 2011. 6 lbs, 15 oz., 21.5 in. Mother and father are doing fine!

Our New Grandson

And here's Kevin's sink

A Project Completed! Yeah!

After four weeks or more, the the counters and the new sinks and faucets are in our kitchen and bathrooms.

They really change the looks of our home. Updated, sophisticated.

I'm going to enjoy washing my face and brushing my teeth at the sink instead of the tub...

All the work is worth it... as long as my plumbing doesn't leak!

Thanks Jean for picking out such great counters, sinks, and faucets!

Look Out!

Kevin is about half way through his student driving. Jean and I have been riding with him every day. He's doing really well.

Getting a driver's license is one of those rites of passage for youth...

Kevin's growing up!

At Sunset

a slight breeze

last rays of sunlight

a bird lands without singing

the day is almost done

The ever-ripening flavor of summer

I know I have posted an entry about our strawberries earlier, but I just am amazed by their beauty and their wonderful flavor! Real strawberries!

under a summer sky

our outside room

I have created semi-privacy screens out of some of the branches we have collect this year. I have put them up around our back porch, creating an nice outside room.

Jean's Kindle

Our First Strawberries!

Now this is the taste of summer! Fresh strawberries from the garden. The first one is a spiritual experience... the taste of joy!

I tried out my "weed eater" this morning bringing a better trimmed look to our front yard. Jean said she could walk on the "paths" without the weeds tickling her legs.

The day has been hot and windy... brutal on plants.

and Farewell Elder Etter!

We wished my nephew, Eric Etter, a fond goodbye as he prepares to enter the mission training center on Wednesday. He's going to the Baltimore, Maryland Mission. I think he'll be a great missionary. (and I didn't think his talk in church was that "scattered.")

We're back home again... hoping to stay home for a little while now. Our next trip will be when our grandson, Benjamin, is born.

Farewell Harry Potter!

Layton, Utah.

Our extended family went to see the last Harry Potter movie and then celebrated with a Potter party. My nieces made Quidditch pies, candy wands, and butter beer.

We bid Harry well...

yesterday's Eureka sunset

New Counters, New Sinks...

They're not pink anymore!

Yeah!

New Counters Today

We are getting new counters today... well, I'll be in Carson City with Ben listening to experts explain a new statistical model for determining student achievement growth... but while I am gone...

We'll be getting beautiful new counters in our house.

(I forgot to post a picture yesterday!)

We're Back Home!

We left Sheraton Hotel in Vancouver at 7:30 this morning (cool)... flew to Las Vegas (hot) and drove to Eureka and home (cool again). A long day!

We walked around in the dark looking at our garden. A lot of things have really grown!

There's no place like home!

the End of the Conference

The last message of the conference was this:

How much control of the future do we have?

Not as much as we would like, but more than we think...

Vancouver, I say again, has been beautiful and friendly to us as visitors. Jean and I have wondered what it would be like to live in such a city. The conference has given Kevin and me things to think about. Jean's enjoyed a real relaxing vacation. It's been good.

We're coming home tomorrow...

Thinking of the Future

Kevin and I attended the World Future Society Conference today. I think the message of all the presentations has been: "the best way to predict the future is to create it!"

Vancouver continues to enchant us. It is a beautiful city... for a city.

The Vancouver Aquarium... and the Conference begins...

We went back to Stanley Park and to the Aquarium.

We enjoyed seeing the beluga whales, the white-sides dolphins, sea otters, jellyfish, and frogs...

Again every time we wondered what to do, someone stepped up and showed us what to do. People are friendly and helpful.

Kevin and I attended the opening keynote speech. It was about inspiring yourself and others... It was... inspiring. Really!

Mirror, Mirror...

As we wait for the elevator we check the mirror... notice that it tells us what the weather is like outside... "sunny"

The mirror in our bathroom has a heater behind it to keep a patch unfogged even after the steamiest shower!

Vancouver, BC

Today was cool, green, and cloudy (with some rain). We spent the morning walking through Stanley Park. We have found that we are tourists not just because we're in Canada, but because we are in a big city. Things are so different here... we had to get bus passes, get on and off the bus, and negotiate the streets of Vancouver to find food etc. What we have found is a beautiful city and friendly, helpful people.

It was day of travel... We got off at 6:00 AM, drove to Las Vegas, and flew to Vancouver, BC.

We have a nice room in a four star hotel downtown.

Vancouver has a lively, upbeat, urban feel, surrounded by ocean and the mountains.

The Day Before Our Trip

Today we are getting ready for our trip to Vancouver, BC tomorrow. Among other things, that means a trip to the county land fill in Emerson's truck It probably sounds strange but I enjoy going out there. It's a short drive up a dirt road (the way I like to go), on the west side of the mountain. The view is always good.

I've put all our sprinklers on timers, tested them out the last few days, and fixed the problems. Now we just hope they work while we're gone.

Jean's filled her Kindle with books to read, so she's ready to go. Kevin's getting a US History lesson done for his summer class; he's almost ready to go.

I went to work this morning and signed papers that needed to be signed... Yep, I'm ready to go!

The big 4th of July Parade in Eureka! This year Kevin's high school robotics team engaged their robot and had it throw candy out to the kids along the 3 block long parade route. The parade lasted the usual 15 minutes and then turned around to come back through again. Thunderstorms rumbled a bit over us but no rain.

I read that 4th of July Parades tend to influence children toward the Republican Party... Eureka is 99.8% Republican... this was a great parade!

Kevin was ordained a Priest today. It is hard to believe that he is 16 already, driving (with a permit and me riding shotgun), and reviewing all the dating rules. Jean an I are proud of him.