Lots of Action; New Pole Barn

What a busy month this has been, and it isn't over yet!

We have had a non-stop stream of welcome visitors recently. The Spring family reunion, the Reeves, the Jennings, the Anackers, and more. 

In addition, the work started on our new pole barn/tractor shed. We are so excited!

Summer Update

It has been an eventful summer and early fall since our last entry. We have begun in earnest to make this our full-time home. As a guesstimate, we are saying that we spend about 70% of our time here. It is reassuring to report that the more time we spend time here the more we love it and the the harder it is to leave! Each trip over we bring a few more items that both lessens the intensity of the move and at the same time makes the Lodge feel more and more homey.

The summer was a good one with warm sunny days and cool evenings. The garden has produced well, and we have been blessed with a stream of welcome visitors. Our eight chickens have settled in quite nicely. The older hen that we brought over from our home "on the other side" laid eggs for a few weeks. Not long after she stopped the younger hens started laying. One of the hens, however, turned out to be a rooster. After attacking several neighbors and Nancy, he is on probation. As one of our neighbors put it, "just show him the stew pot, that'll straighten him out." We started an informal neighborhood co-op around the coop. We tell the neighbors to come on by, bring your vegetable scraps, toss them some chicken scratch, and help yourself to some eggs. Three royal ladies do so regularly, which we love. We are currently getting about 5 eggs a day.

One of Nancy's favorite summer projects (and there were many) was creating The Spring Garden Room. Named not after the season but her maiden name, it is dedicated to the ever-growing number of our family that has passed on, and in particular her parents who used to use the room as their bedroom during their many visits.

At present it is disconcerting to see the smoke in the air and even the flames in the trees due to a wildfire only a few miles upstream. Our risk of fire is quite low, for which we are thankful.

Summer Fun and Activities

It was a little late, but summer has finally arrived at Glencanaan. The weather has changed from moderate temperatures and frequent rain to rather warm. Yesterday was in the 80's and today is on its way to 90. The gardens have responded with numerous flowers and harvesting out of the vegetable garden already.

We have also had several great hikes already this year as well. Yesterday it was with the "outdoors girls" Elisa, Ruth and Sky hiking to Colchuck Lake. They called it a perfect hike.

Chicks and Baby Plants

With Nancy now voluntarily between jobs, we have been able to spend more time at Glencanaan. Each of the last two weeks we have spent four days at Glencanaan and three on the “wet side.” We have really enjoyed projects and visits from friends. Last week the Reeves were here, and this weekend the O’Brians.

One of the many projects was in building the outdoor chicken coop. The indoor coop has been done for some time, and we brought the chickens over a little over a week ago. With all of the critters over here, plus the heavy snow load, we had to build the outdoor coop extremely strong. We started with using chain link fencing on all six sides, then reinforced the floor and part way up the walls with hardware cloth. We finished off the upper walls and roof with chicken wire. Partly as a support for the roof and partly as a way of providing perches, I cut a section of the tree I had removed to make room for the coop, leaving branch stubs, and inserted it between the ground and one of the top braces. I think it will work quite well.

Meanwhile, our vegetables are doing well. We have already eaten spinach, rhubarb, and asparagus from our garden. We still have many of the “babies”, as Nancy calls them, in the greenhouse, but they are looking very healthy!

We continue to have fun fixing up the garden shed (formerly the chicken coop and completely remodeled last summer). We added the stones at the base of one of the walls and planted marigolds, petunias, sunflowers and rosemary. We also put our mason bee box, a bird feeder and a bird house on the same wall.

Icicle Ridge

Our friends from Evergreen Hospital visited us the weekend of May 12-13 and we hiked up Icicle Ridge. We hadn't done this hike before but we certainly will do it again! Great views with great friends.

Hummingbird Visitor

Spring tasks are well underway, for the humans and the critters. This little guy accidentally found his way into our garden shed. This happened last year as well. As usual, getting in proved easier than getting out. After taking the picture, he let me scoop him into my hands and took him outside. If you have never held a hummingbird in your hands before, it is amazing. They feel lighter than air, and as soft as piece of goose down.

Finished

We bought this land in 1994 and broke ground for the Lodge in 1997. It has taken 15 years, but I think it is safe to say we are done building the Lodge. The event that led us to this point is the finishing of the trim work. Over the winter we hired two local tradesmen to do this. They did a superb job of finishing the place off. Don't misunderstand; we will stay plenty busy around here still.

We have talked before about the name Glencanaan, why we named our property and why that name. It is a pleasure to note that the name is definitely catching on, some on its own, some with help.

In the latter case, I recently applied to the government to name one of the nearby peaks Glencanaan Mountain. The process is underway, so I cannot report success yet. The process, however, did not go unnoticed by one of the local newspapers. An article about your application ran in The Wenatchee World recently. http://www.wenatcheeworld.com/news/2012/apr/09/family-wants-to-name-lake-wenatchee-mountain/

In a letter to the editor that came a few days later, another reader supported the idea, noting that there is a Canaan Lake not too far from here as well. I hope we make it!