Does it count as a blog if you post once a year?

Here is it, the end of June in 2011, and I haven't written for a year. I think facebook is to blame - I started this as a way to stay connected with family far away, but I've been remiss...

Not that much has happened in a year. It's been quiet around here... peaceful... changeless... NOT!


Last fall (November 1, 2010, to be precise) Satchel went to New Zealand with his backpack, a few dollars, and a work permit good for a year. He met up with his cousin Jan Marc from Holland, and they sometimes traveled together, sometimes separately. He got work in a Backpacker (Youth Hostel), climbed Mt. Doom, went rock climbing, went surfing, went to Australia for a month (where he stayed with his cousin Isha and her husband Brenton), went back to New Zealand, camped in a free campground by the beach, found a job picking apples, made friends from all over the world, and had a fantastic time. He got back here at the beginning of May, and hit the ground running, finding work immediately.


Will spent the winter at Evergreen, his second. He concentrated on Calculus & Physics as prep for Atoms, Molecules & Reactions next year. Now he's really enjoying the home cooking, the sunshine, and hanging out with his brothers.


Reed was in third grade this year, and had our favorite teacher, Laura Honda. (I think we win the prize for most years with her as teacher - Satchel in 2nd & 4th, Will in 3rd, Carson in 4th, Reed in 3rd.) It's a year full of environmentalism, nature, science, caring, field trips, crafts, and much more. We've been lucky, and he had a great year. He also got into building stuff this year. Here's a photo of him with a catapult that he built (with very little help) over a weekend.



Carson, on the other hand, had a rough year in 7th grade. Rough enough that we've decided to give homeschooling a try for next year. Exciting and a little scary! But mostly exciting - we're looking forward to this new adventure. In this photo, he's Dan the Man in the school production of Guys and Dolls.

But right now, it's full-on Butterfield's House O' Bedlam! And chaos. And entropy. Someone asked me the other day if we've done improvements to the house, and I laughed. No, mainly we just try to patch up the damage caused by 4 boys, two dogs & a cat. And fantasize, wistfully, about the day we'll be able to afford to actually make it look nice around here! But it's worth it, just seeing how much the brothers enjoy each other's company, and how much fun they have together. That's worth the price of admission, right there.


Which brother spent the winter studying in the rainy Pacific Northwest, and which spent it in New Zealand, camping out and picking apples? Three points for guessing right!

Skipping Stones

This summer has been a little short on camping, because of various things (trips to Colorado for all the boys, a wedding, a very sick (now better) dog, having to pay for college) but we did manage to go up to Kyburz for a few days and stay in the cabin and play in the Silver Fork of the American one day, and up at Lake Tahoe another day. (Then later we squeezed in a few days at Standish Hickey.)


While we were at the swimming hole on the Silver Fork, I got into my old routine of finding skipping stones for my boys. I love filling my pockets with the hot flat rocks and walking back to the beach clinking and clanking. (The hot rocks in the pockets are especially nice when the water is ice cold, and one has just been in.) I was remembering how I used to do this at Standish Hickey for Will & Satchel (above right with their friend Randy) - it made me miss them. Then I started to think about how the tradition & skill of skipping stones gets handed down. About how my father (top photo) taught my brother and me. About the family legend that my dad skipped a stone all the way across Lake Shasta. (Hah!)


Now Carson has been skipping stones for a few years, and this year I taught Reed. I always like to imagine the river floor on the other side of the beach, and how it must be literally paved with good skippers. There's something so satisfying about watching a rock defy gravity and skip across the water - counting how many times it skips - trying to make it to the other side...

And I love how all these rocks, skipped across the water, connect us to the past as well.

So many changes

The last time I posted, it was summer. Will was preparing for college by sleeping all the time, Satchel was working hard and vague about his plans, and the younger boys were ready to head back to school - Carson to middle school for the first time, Reed as a second grader.


Now it's early December, and Will is almost done with his first quarter at Evergreen (and loving it!), Satchel lives in Breckenridge, Colorado where he's managing a small ski shop at the base of the slopes, Carson is adjusting to 6th grade, and Geoff and I are adjusting to less laundry and fewer groceries. Reed isn't adjusting to much - he's still the youngest kid and still in the same school. So the main difference in his life is fewer big brothers around to sit on him.

I've been missing my boys a lot with the holidays - but I guess I'd better get used to it! You have kids, love 'em to pieces, put your all into raising them -- and if you've done it right, they grow up, move out, and have their own lives. So I have to remind myself that my nest isn't half empty, it's half full!

Where were the bears?

One of my favorite places to camp is in Yosemite, not down in the valley but up on the Tioga road. We frequent a campground there that's 'unimproved' which means you have to bring or sterilize your own water, and the road is rough, but that just makes it better in my opinion. Ponderosa pines, wildflowers, granite boulders, a clear mountain stream - it's kid (and me) heaven. Industrial strength bear boxes are provided, which helps with the peace of mind.

We spent a week there in early August. We climbed Pothole Dome (an easy climb with kids) and played on the Tuolumne River. That day was overcast, and the river was cold, but it was gorgeous. Walking back along the edge of Tuolumne Meadows we saw deer grazing, and many wildflowers.

We spent a day in camp, with our longest expedition being a 1/2 mile 'hike' up the creek that runs through, to a field full of wildflowers where we found a mini swimming hole. We saw the BIGGEST bear poop on the trail, but that was the closest we got to a bear on this trip. Apparently they were down the road at White Wolf.

We braved the valley one day, and the crowds, and the exhaust. Carson, Reed and I swam in the pool at the base of Yosemite Falls, which was just a trickle but the pool was cold & clear (and full of people). We picnicked at the El Capitan picnic area, which doesn't have a good view of El Cap, and the bus driver forgot us there. But then he remembered us, and we ended with a lovely swim in the Merced River with a much better view of El Capitan.

And we went to the most beautiful lake, Tenaya, where you could walk out in knee deep water for such a long ways. The lake bed was sandy, the water icy, and the kids played and played. It was a perfect place to spend the last day.