Shady Bottom

Emily and Dre'

Ward and Gordon prepare to drop the tree

...and the tree is down

We spent the long weekend working on the camping property with our friends. We cleaned, cleared, restocked, dropped trees, played with a tractor, cooked meal after meal for the kids, and more. For those of you who may not know, we went in with a group of our friends last autumn and purchased 5 acres of camping property on the Cowlitz river located between Randle & Packwood. It's geographically between Mt. Rainier & Mt. St. Helens. Beautiful property! And, it's adjacent to our other friends' 5 acres, which is adjacent to yet another friends' 5 acres. So, all together, we can roam around on 15 acres of beautiful forested, secluded mountainous riverfront property. Ward went down early Thursday afternoon. Nick and I came down later Thursday evening. Nick and I came home Sunday evening, and Ward is still down there. Wondering if Ward is ever coming home.... Anyway, I posted a few pictures of Gordon and Ward dropping a dying tree that was located between the two properties. Then they got the tractor out and cleared all the bramble, so there is a wide open grassy field common area between the properties.

Here is something exciting - While I was clearing bramble, I felt a bite on my bicep. I took off my sweatshirt and lifted up my long sleeved T-Shirt to discover a TICK biting me! OMG! it was disgusting. I screamed like a girl and Ward came over to check it out. Thank God Ward knew what to do.  He heated up a nail and touched the tick with it and it killed it. Then it was fairly easy to remove with a tweezer. And yes, we got the head. Ughghgh. creepy l'il thang!  

....but not as creepy as the HUGE WOLF SPIDER that was in my blanket that night!!!!! No kidding. Nick and I went to bed in our precious little cabin and I was straightening out the blankets and this monstrous sized spider scampers off the blanket and up the wall. Again, I screamed like a girl and Ward had to kill it. Then we had to proceed with the "cleansing of the cabin" to ensure that it's creepy little friends were not lurking around. Yes, I am talking about the spider. Thank God Nick didn't seem to care.  I hate to pass on my irrational fears to him.  But that doesn't seem to be the case.  Needless to say, I did not sleep very well that night, and am about to ask for my portion of the funds back. No one told me about TICKS and SPIDERS!!!! Just kidding. It's paradise down there...

OK - so now we are back home and today is all about Concession prep and prep for relatives. The next two weeks are filled with concessions duty to support Auburn Little League's baseball tournaments. And, on June 4th we have the Kansas Bummers visiting, so that means prep and planning. They are all taking an Alaskan cruise and visiting us a few days before they depart. Looking forward to seeing them all!!

And, I watched the movie JUNO last night.   AWESOME movie.  I think that the same crowd that loved Napolean Dynamite would also enjoy this movie.  Sadly, I admit that I am in the group that totally got and enjoyed ND....