Salt Creek Campground

We chose to camp next at Salt Creek Campground, a county park, 20 minutes west of Port Angles, WA. The campground has a playground for the kids, and showers for the Mama. To see the view above I just had to walk across a grassy area and look out on the water.

The campground is situated on a rise just above Tongue point which features some fantastic tide pools. Above the camp are some old WWII batteries, where they had some big guns facing out at the Strait of Juan De Fuca, just incase the Japanese wanted to move inland. Across the water is Victoria, British Columbia.

We were able to get my favorite kind of camp site, nestled back in the trees where you feel not quite as close to your neighbors as in other sites. As soon as we were set up, Emily Rose did a fantastic job of helping me fix some supper. We had pinto beans, salsa and salad. And we roasted some ears of corn in fire. They came out charred black, but once we pulled off the covering of the corn, the part that wasn't too burned to eat was just perfect. You can see them cooling on the ground near the base of the tree in the picture below.

Port Angeles

Moving farther west, we arrived in the town of Port Angeles, WA. We didn't stay there long but did stop to eat our supper by the wharf. There was a playground, a little stretch of beach and a small museum of sea creatures with touching pools and volunteers who knew that answers to my kids questions, or went and looked them up for them. I was really impressed! It was only $1 for a kid to get in!
Outside there was a statue of some crazy cormorants.On the side of the building there were some wonderful murals of times past .As soon as we were done inside the museum, Forest was down to the shore searching for what he could find.
And Emily Rose headed straight for the ship styled playground equipment and had an equally fun time. Neither kid wanted to move on and find a campground for the night.

Dungeness Spit

Earlier this we returned home from a wonderful 10 days of camping in the far northwest corner of Washington State, around the Olympic National Park. This part of the state is wonderful because it is so diverse.












It features areas of low rain, a temperate rain forest, the Strait of Juan De Fuca, high mountains, sub alpine trails and wild flowers, the Pacific Ocean, mineral hot springs, waterfalls, and both rocky and sandy beaches.












It is amazing the different environments you can see in short amount of time, and not that many miles. It is also so close to Canada, that if you have your passport, you can take a ferry ride to Victoria, British Columbia.












Our first stop on the trip was near the town of Sequim, WA. We stayed in a camp ground right near the Dungeness Spit, which reaches out into the Strait of Juan De Fuca, and provides resting and nesting areas for birds and marine mammals.













This heavily loaded container ship was a new sighting for us too. We were surprised how many of these passed through the Strait. Even when they seemed loaded beyond capacity, they moved along quickly, filled with goods headed to other parts of the world.

Bethlehem Village VBS

We recently finished a wonderful week of Vacation Bible School. It was the best VBS I've ever seen. It was called Bethlehem Village. A living history type Bethlehem village was set up outside on the church lawn. Every one who wished could choose a costume to wear from Bethlehem boutique, thanks to many ladies who gave their time to sew. The children were not divided by age, but rather divided into the 12 tribes of Judah. Each tribe had two adult leaders, a banner, and a blanket to sit on during tribe time. Every day there was a skit of a portion of the story of Baby Jesus reinacted in the village square. Children learned about Jewish culture at as Jesus might have seen it when he was a boy. They learned about Roman history and culture from the Roman Census Taker every day. They went to the Village Playground every day. And each day they were assigned to other two different booths. These booths included Synagogue School, a music shop where they made a simple 5 note pan flute, a dye shop where they tie died little drawstring bags, a market where they sampled fruits that grow in Israel and learned about other Jewish foods, a bakery, a coin making shop, perfume shop, toy shop, mosaic shop and grain mill.

The kids enjoyed every minute, and didn't want to miss a night. My husband and I were leaders of the Tribe of Judah, so we were able to be involved with our kids in everything that happened. Here are a few picture memories of the week.

The Spider and the Wasp

I don't know how this happened but I have to say that the big black guy is on my team. In past years we have had growing numbers of golden paper wasps on our deck. Some people have told me to just spray them, but I don't do that. Insecticides are poison for people too. Any one who reads the label knows that. And I don't want to wipe out the population, I just don't want them on the deck; just like I don't want spiders in the house, but they can be anywhere else they want to be.

This spring I read a little bit about the life cycle of Golden Paper Wasps and decided that if I knocked down their nests faithfully in the early spring, they just might go else where for nest building, and we could sit peacefully on the deck. I was afraid of their stingers at first. Because the nests are up under the eaves, I got my red handled broom which I hold by the bristles, out at arms length, and then I knock down a nest. I quickly learned that when the next comes down the wasps fly straight out off the deck, so I'm safe if I'm standing to the side. They don't seem to recognize the broom handles as threat, or connect me to the broom, so I've been safe. They seem to fly randomly around after that, but none have come after me. When I was first knocking down nests in early spring, I would probably knock down a dozen in a session. Yesterday there were only two tiny ones and I hadn't checked on them in a couple weeks. We had a lovely, peaceful, lunch on the deck in the fresh spring air with no flying insects checking out our food.

But this is where the photo comes in. As I put away the table umbrella, I found this 1 inch big black spider pulling a dead golden paper wasp of equal length along.. I've seen this kind before, but they have always been half the size. I instantly decided that the big guy is my buddy. He's on my team, and he gets to stay.

I got out my Field Guide to Insects and Spiders by the National Audubon Society and found out this guy is a Daring Jumping Spider phidippsu audax. They are really interesting spiders and you can learn more about them at this interesting site.

God Working in My Son

Even when I think nothing is happening, because I can't see it, God is working in the hearts of my children. This morning I cried and prayed because I felt that we were failing our children and God because family worship has become so irregular in my family. I talked with my husband about it. I talked with a friend about it, and she prayed too. Then this evening my son had to wait for me while I tucked my daughter into bed and prayed with her. When I came to his room this is what I saw. I was so touched and happy that I had to run and get the camera so I can always remember it. I've never seen this before. At age 7, my son was sitting on his bed with his Bible open to Genesis 1:1, and he was trying to read what was there.

He can read some Dick and Jane. He is in the second first grade Pathway's reader. The New King James Version isn't exactly the easy reader version, but he was so serious and excited about what he was doing that the difficult words such as "firmament" didn't slow him down one bit, once he figured them out. He told me that he wanted to read all the way to the bottom of the page, which happened to be verse 11. It took him quite a while, but I put away my ideas of getting some sewing done and sat there and listened to every word.

When he was done he was so happy. He told me what he had read about and then asked, "Mom, do I have to read only when you are with me?"

"Of course not, Forest, of course not. You can read the Bible anytime you wish, even when I am not with you."

"Could I read the whole Bible all the way through?"

"Yes, but it might take you a while."

"Could I read it through in three years?"

"Yes, and you might be done even sooner because the more you read the faster you will be able to read. Some people read the Bible through in one year, and some take even less time."

Thank you, Lord, for putting a desire for your Word in my child. Thank you that He owns a Bible in his own language, and that he has the ability now to read it for himself. May he also grow as Jesus did, "in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man."

Sew Crafty Friday - Costume

My blogger friend, Shereen, started Sew Crafty Friday a while back. You can go to her blog and see what she made this week, see what others have made, and add a link to what you have made. While I've thought it was a great idea, I haven't had something to show on a Friday so far, until today. Last week I finished a quilt for a new niece, but sent it away before I remembered to take a photo. This week I finished my Bibleland's costume to wear at our church's VBS which will start this coming Sunday. It is going to be a living history type program called Bethleham Village. All the leaders and adult helpers will be in costume and the kids can be if they wish to. I have a costume for my husband that I need to sew before Sunday evening. But it should take less time, because I have the process down, even though his is much bigger then mine. I probably won't get to it before Sunday more, so it had better take less time, or it won't be ready to wear on time.

I Passed the Exam

The day my husband has been waiting for has finally come. I took the technician level amateur radio exam this evening and successfully passed. My husband is so happy, and I'm so relieved that I will never have to study for a ham exam again in my life if I remember to renew my license every ten years. In a couple weeks I should have my call sign and then I will be able to be a better link in the family communication network. I really have no desire to have contacts with strangers around the world and talk about signal strength or the kind of radio I own. I have no need to build my own radio and antennas, but I do like the idea of avoiding cell phone fees and being able to communicate with my husband when we aren't in the same place. Now we will even be able to find each other in the local department store when we get separated, if we both have our radios charged and working. It will also relieve some of the pressure on my daughter to be my communications specialist. She has her technician license already. She took the General exam today, but needs to do some more studying before she passes. There will be another chance to take the test later in the summer.

Love-in-a-Mist

Love-in-a-Mist
Nigella damascena

These lovely little flowers are blooming in my garden right now. The are an annual in the Buttercup family, that are prolific self sowers. The foliage is finely cut, and very delicate or misty looking. These blue blossoms thrive in my garden. The seed pods are lovely in dried arrangements. My plants originally came from my elderly friend who is wonderful with plants and very generous in sharing the abundance of her garden. Many of my flowering plants came from her.

Camping

Bride's Bonnet or Queen's Cup
Clintonia uniflora

We've went camping over Memorial Day weekend to a lovely little campground not to far away. Some friends came too, including my friend with twin boys, 6 months old! It was the boy's first time out camping. They did some complaining about the different environment, kept their parents awake when they should have been sleeping, but I think they still had a good time. And their parents were talking already about next time they go camping... I got lots of opportunities to help out, holding one boy or another while their mama did something for the other boy. My kids had so much fun with them. They have cute smiles and are very responsive to attentions.

Near the campground is several trails. We hiked on two of them and enjoyed the sunny weather and the blooming wildflowers.

My birthday also falls near the weekend, so everyone surprised me with a birthday treat and some cards. My family gave me some new hiking boots I've been wishing for for a couple years. And now that I have them, I'm not sure they really fit me. Sigh. It really was a lovely gift. My son wrote his own message in my birthday card. My daughter made a lovely scrapbook kind of card, after seeing one a friend made. It is fun to see her creative skills advance.

This last week we also ended our school year. My kids were thrilled. And I am enjoying the decrease in responsibility, though I still have many, many things to do.

Today I tried to get many of those things done, but I think we added more broken things to our list then we fixed.

Burgundy Hound's Tongue

Burgundy Hound's Tongue
Cynoglossum officinale

A new flower I've learned this spring is called Burgundy Hound's Tongue Cynoglossum officinale. I'm guessing the reason I've missed it is because it doesn't grow West of the Cascades, where I grew up and first started learning wildflowers. Its scientific name of Cynoglossum is derived from the Greek, meaning ' Dog's Tongue, which the leaves resemble in shape and possibly texture. Some people consider it to be a noxious weed, because the seeds are the type that like to catch rides on animals or people and it can cause some liver problems in animals. But even so, it is still a lovely wildflower to me.

Beautiful Blue Butterflies

At the trail head where were hiked on Memorial Day weekend, there was a large wet spot in the parking lot where the little Blue butterflies gathered. Little Blue butterflies were Sir Henry's father's favorites. Besides being a biology professor, he was a entomologist, a guy who studies insects. If he was only here now to see his namesake calling out to little Blues to come and sit on his finger. Forest was so drawn to them and they were paying no attention to him at all. All they wanted to is the moisture and maybe salts from the wet spot.
But his patience paid off and one "accepted" him. He was thrilled. Everyone got to see it. And Forest had a new pet for about one minute, until the Blue flew back to the puddle to join his friends.

My Garden

So you want to see how my garden is doing too? I spent quite a bit of time out there last night checking every part of my drip system and repairing parts that needed it. By the time I was done, a big full moon was rising over the hills, and I was so dirty that I had to get a shower before I could touch any furniture.

When you check the drip system, it has to be on, and that means you get watered along with the plants. I have drippers on each of my 30 tomato plants. I have soaker hoses on some beds, and other beds do better with little circular sprayers. They not only wet the whole bed, they reach the the paths around the bed. I wish that didn't happen, because it waters any weeds that want to grow in the path, but I put up with it because it works best in my garden. You see, my garden is on the south side of our shop, where it is hot and dry. The tomatoes thrive here, and other things do quite well, as long as they have enough water.


I've made cages for my tomatoes out of field fence. I put the narrow openings on the ground and the big openings up high, so when the tomatoes are ready I can easily reach them. We have high winds at our house quite often. As you can see we are on a ridge, out in the open where the wind blows free. I have too carefully anchor the tomato cages or they blow over. This has been a learning process over time. I used to use the flimsy little cages you can buy at the garden store, but my tomatoes grow so large here, that the store cages were soon dwarfed. Also the store cages break quickly. I stager my tomatoes in kind of a rick rack pattern, if you know what I mean. Then when I put the cages over them, they are also in a zig zag pattern. I then take plastic covered metal poles, that you can find in garden stores and weave them between the a joining cages and push them into the ground as far as they will go. The bamboo poles aren't usually stoat enough. This triangular pattern makes the joined cages very sturdy. I used to put them in a rectangular pattern and when the wind blew the whole bed full of cages would blow over. It was not a good thing , nor was it easy to rescue the poor tomato plants. Last year they didn't blow over one time.

I'm excited because I' ve got some Sweet 100 Cherry tomatoes already blooming. You can see them in the photo above. I get so excited when I think of eating ripe tomatoes fresh from the garden.

Later on this summer I show you how big the tomato plants get here. And no, we don't live in Texas.


The potatoes and cabbage are doing well. This year we have purple cabbage at Forest's request. I don't know how it will do, because I've avoided too many plants from the cabbage family, because we have some many cabbage butterflies. But I'm willing to try. I have some more natural stuff from Garden's Alive to try and spray on them, in hopes we can keep the caterpillars at bay. We've got a few volunteer red potatoes in this bed. I have some seed potatoes that I want to put in cages similar to my tomaotes, but the cages will be filled with soil. You are supposed to get a huge crop of potatoes. On Sunday I am going to try to get them set up.
My broccoli is doing well. It should be ready to pick soon. I have some eggplant in this bed, and some cayenne chili peppers. There is also the end of the lettuce in this bed. It is getting too hot for lettuce.

In the garden I've also got basil, okra, more varieties of peppers, cucumbers, purslane, New Zealand Spinach, strawberries, kale and leeks. And up in some bare spots in my flower garden I have some squash, watermelon, cantaloupe and honeydew planted. That is also a new experiement. There just isn't enough room in my garden boxes for large vining plants.

Ham Test

I found out I don't have to take the ham test this week. Yea! I have one more week to study, or should I say put off studying. I think I'll go out and check on the garden right now. ; )

Black Beetles

We have some new pets. Forest found them in the yard. They are small black beetles. They like to eat apples.

Studying for the Test

I've been attending the amateur radio class my husband has been teaching all this quarter. There is one class left, tonight. Then next Thursday will be the technician level exam. Yikes. The material in the class still makes my mind turn off and wander to greener pastures. I know my husband would be so happy if I had my license, so I don't have the heart to just quit, even though every Thursday I can think of many other things that I could be doing instead of attending class. And up until this morning I haven't studied outside of class at all. I am really struggling inside of myself over this. I probably should be studying. So this morning instead of spending much time blogging, I went to a site that gives practice tests so you can see if you are ready for the real test. Surprisingly I passed the first one I took. So I took another one, which I didn't pass. I made myself take four tests altogether, and I passed half of them. So I have a 50/50 chance of passing a real test. There are 35 questions on a test, and I have to pass at 75%. The questions come from a question pool with around 600 multiple choice questions in it. I realized that there is some knowledge I am missing that wouldn't be hard to learn. So I figure that I'd better go ahead and read through the study book we have on my own before next Thursday, so I've been exposed to all the possible information, Then even if I don't know the frequencies I can operate on by heart, and everything there is to know about watts, voltage and Single Side Band, I should still pass. At least I hope I pass.

Wildflower Embroidery

I know that some of my readers are wildflower lovers. If that is you, you may want to take a peek at my friend, La Tea Dah's blog, Gracious Hospitality. Her friend Fay has been making some lovely wildflower stitching patterns that come with a watercolor print of the same wildflower. You just have to go look and see.

Seven Random Facts About Me

Carrie at Organized Chaos has tagged me. And since it appears I am one of her two faithful commenters, I'd better go ahead and do my assignment. According to Carrie, here are the rules "in a nutshell : *7 random facts/habits, *post these rules, *tag 7 other people, *leave them a comment that they are tagged.

1. I rarely eat a "normal" breakfast. If I eat cereal, it is cooked. Right now I am eating my breakfast salad, a green one with lots of veggies and covered with tahini, lemon juice, onion powder, garlic powder and salt. I know I'm nuts, but I feel really good and energetic when I eat this way, even though I drink no coffee. If I don't have a salad for breakfast, I have a green smoothie, or some fruit, or a fruit salad. Occasionly we fix a breakfast like I showed you for Mother's Day

2. I'm only 4 feet 8 inches tall. Probably the shortest person you know, but I don't have dwarfism issues. I'm just short.

3. I'd love to be a homebirth midwife. I gave birth to my children at home, and then was an assistant for my midwife for a while. Being with newborns in such a positive environment really energizes me.

4. I had an insect collection that I started in 7th grade. They were eaten by other insects by the time I was finished with college, so alas, I don't have an insect collection anymore.

5. I love pretty china plates and dishes. I love to serve food on pretty dishes. I especially like the ones that have wildflowers, leaves, pine cones or other things from nature on them. I'd buy them all, but I restrain myself, when I think about the small amount of space I have to display them.

6. Besides singing, I play the guitar, piano (some), ukulele, autoharp, and tenor recorder. I want to learn to play the Celtic harp next. I have composed music in the past with my guitar, but have a hard time writing it out with more then guitar chords. When first coming to college my high school voice teacher encouraged me to join a competition for a $200 scholarship. I can't believe I won. She had me sing a classical piece that I think was something about "lavender in her hair." I think they were hoping that I'd become a music major. Maybe I should have, because I'm not using the education major I acquired, at least for pay.

7. I've tried to sell different things before, but discovered that it is not the job for me. I hate to ask someone to buy something that they can't afford, or don't need. When I sold rubber stamps, I was always telling my customers how to do stamping in the cheapest way and still come out with nice results.

I think that is enough. Glad they didn't ask for 10 things. I can't think of anymore.

I'm going to break the rules now and not tag anyone specifically. If you are reading my blog, and want to be tagged, I hear by tag you.

Three Little Froggies

We don't have any pet snakes in the house, but we do have some pet frogs. Three to be exact. The first one was given to Forest by his friend Julianna, who also adores all God's little creatures. She has a wonderful collection of "pets" found in the forest about her home. The frog she gave him was a real croaker at first, too much of a croaker for their house, so it came to our house. Thankfully, our house is bigger then theirs, and his croaking didn't last too many nights. He was really quite cute when he croaked. His little white throat would puff out like a balloon.

Since then Forest has found two new froggie buddies on our property, and they joined "Croaker" in a larger tank. The tank has a rock, some moss, a floating boat, a stick going up, and a cardboard balcony that the kids wedged in between the two sides of glass. Amazingly, the frogs really like the balcony, and often one of the three will be sitting up there.

When Forest catches a fly for them, things get really exciting in the tank. He slips it in and quickly slams down the lid, lest a frog hop all the way out when he is jumping after a fly. As soon as the fly starts buzzing inside all three frogs are instantly alert. And within seconds one of them has propelled himself through the air and caught it before it even knew where it was. It is amazing how quick they are, quicker then the average house fly, which I think is incredibly quick. But then Forest is quicker then the average house fly now too, because he is catching quite a few every day to feed his hungry charges.

Messiah's Mansion

Last week we got to take a homeschool field trip through a full scale model of the sanctuary God told Moses to make out in the desert. Someone read the Biblical descriptions and made this full walk through model. Now it travels around the country to different places, and college students give tours through it, so you can see what it was probably like in the time of the Children of Israel. The walk through model is called Messiah's Mansion.

The purpose of the Sanctuary in the desert was to point the people to Jesus Christ as the one who separates sin from the sinner. Even though Jesus had not come to earth to die for our sins, every part of the sanctuary service beautifully points to Him, and God's plan of salvation. Walking through the model was a wonderful way to make history and the Bible and God's love for sinners come alive. The people before Jesus died on the cross were not without a Savior.




Each lamb sacrificed in the courtyard represented "The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world." The blood of Christ paid for the sins of all those believers also. It is so exciting to me to find God's love in all parts of the Bible, including the Old Testament. Some feel the Old Testament is only about the law of God and punishment for law breakers, but in the Sanctuary service you can also find God's grace and love in beautiful proportions. A sinner wasn't the one who was killed when they sinned, even though they deserved to die. They placed their hands on the perfect lamb and confessed their sins. The sins were transfered to the lamb. The sinner was forgiven and walked away forgiven. The lamb took the punishment. So also, when we sin, we confess our sins to God, our sins are transfered to the Lamb of God, Jesus. He takes the punishment, death, for our sins, and we walk away forgiven. Praise God.


In the Holy Place was the seven branched candlestick which represents God's Spirit ever burning with us. The bread represents Jesus the Bread of Life.

The alter of incense, represents our prayers ever going up before the Father.


In the Most Holy Place was a special box called The Ark of the Covenant. On top were two figures of angels, with one wing pointing up and one wing pointing down. Inside the box was the copy of the ten commandments written by the finger of God.

Aaron's budding almond branch, and some of the manna God gave the people to eat in the desert. Above The Ark of the Covenant was God's presence in the form of a cloud or fire.



There was a High Priest, the first one was Aaron, Moses' brother, who performed special parts of the service in the temple. He went into the Most Holy Place once a year, interceding for the people before the Heavenly Father. Now Jesus is our High Priest in the Heavenly Sanctuary, as it is written in the book of Hebrews. He is ministering in the true sanctuary of which the sanctuary in the desert was only a copy. A sanctuary on earth is no longer needed, because the services were fullfilled when Jesus died on the cross, and yet their meanings are still so very rich to believers today, because they all point to Jesus and what He did and is doing for us. When Jesus died the curtain to the Most Holy Place was ripped from top to bottom by an unseen hand, symbolizing that we can now come boldly before God ourself and be separated from our sins. 1 Corinthians says our bodies are also a temple of God, a special place for God to dwell. Isn't it true that God asks us to give Him our hearts? He wants to live in us. Isn't that wonderful!