Yessi, Benton and Brad go to Alpental for overnight winter camping experience.

Yessi and I got snow shoes for Christmas this year, compliments of Saint David Clause.  We used them up at Mt. Rainier when I proposed to Yessi.

Yessi on steep hard snow, only her second time ever Snowshoeing.

 This weekend we took a quick trip up into the mountains to winter camp.  We had Benton with us too.

While Fran and Ed are in Ecuador, were living at FrEdLey house and watching Benton (Worlds Cutest Aussie).

Benton, Worlds Cutest Aussie, perched on the snow shelf above our camp keeping a watchful eye on things.

Benton didn't have snowshoes but did fine.  There was a hard crust on top of the snow.  Bentons claws usually gave him purchase, but sometimes he would just slide on the snow.

Our home for the night.

At FrEdLey, Benton's home, there are waxed concrete floors than are pretty slick for dog paws.  When Benton comes charging into the house and puts on the brakes, he skids on all fours all the time-good practice for the snow!

Benton, Alpental's cutest Aussie Ever!

His paws got a little tender and there was some bleeding between the paws, but not bad.  He didn't seem to notice as he went into crazy mode for the entire outing.  He absolutely loved being on all that snow.

Yessi Ye Hankins enjoys the sun and the great views.

Benton is a very social dog and loves to meet new people.  There were an increadible number of people up at Alpental doing winter outings of all kinds.  On the trail, we had everything from babies in sleds to skiers coming in from back country runs.

Benton enjoyed meeting all the people, but didn't seem to like the skiers passing us on the trail.  It was either the sound of the skis on the hard snow or the fact that most of them had helmets or big hats.

Benton at Alpental giving us the 'whats taking so long' look!!

As for Yessi and I, we had a wonderful weekend.

Brad and Yessi Ye Hankins by the water tower at Alpental.

This is what happens when you live on Grace Lane, Grace under Fire!!

Pictured is a Volunteer Firefighter from Langley stopping to clear the road from a fallen tree after a storm.  The tree would have crushed all the mailboxes if not for the Grace Lane sign which stopped it.

Grace under Fire.  Grace Lane street sign (Langley WA) saves mailboxes

Unfortunately, due to new postal regulations, all mailboxes have to be removed and remounted higher anyhow, but it's still a nice story.

It's official, Yessi and Brad are getting married!

I proposed to Yessi Ye (Ye Chan) during her mom and aunts visit.  Twice in fact!!!

First proposal (official) at Snoqualmie Falls.
The river was flooding and the falls were very misty, as were the eyes of onlookers!!

First time at Snoqualmie falls with family from both sides.

Brad proposes to Yessi at Mt. Rainier, Paradise!

Three days later I found myself on the side of Mt Rainier snowshoeing with blue skies, family, friends, and a good camera, and decided to do it again.

Auntie, Yessis mom, Yessi, Susan, Brad, Photo by my dad.

Yessi Ye, Brad, Yessis Mom, Yessis Aunt.

What happened to Thanksgiving?

We have a traditional Thanksgiving  every year, and this year our tradition took us to Lopez Island.  Yessi and I visited Lopez this summer.  She hung out on the island for a few days while Jacaboo and I did a kayak adventure.

Benton, World's most Handsome (Used to be Cutest) Aussie,
 with Mt. Baker in background.
Anacortes ferry terminal has some new boardwalks which are very nice,
and Benton thoroughly enjoyed running on them.

The weekend before Thanksgiving we had our yearly feast, a week before everyone else.  No ferry lines, great weather, wonderful people and the beautiful Pacific Northwest made it the perfect winter weekend.

Since then, Yessi and I have been working hard on our property, clearing brush, mostly invasives, from our 2 lots.

YessiYe on Lopez Island

We had a barbecue on the 'real Thanksgiving', official with the fire department and all.  Our barbecue pit met their approval and the captain complimented our 'to code' fire: using only cut fire wood, the soup pot simmering away perched on a couple flat rocks lining the pit, a metal ring along the top and a pale of water nearby.

Yessi and Benton, the cutest Aussie and the cutest Chinese蛇怕热多iin弹劾我热烈地。

Recycled wood fence and a Heart shaped puddle!

I felt bad for interrupting their (the volunteer firefighters) Thanksgiving and have no idea who called them.  Our lot poses some interesting challenges, but I think our biggest challenges will be fitting into the odd social dynamics within this transitional neighborhood.

There will definitely be some challenges with our neighborhood, but so far we really enjoy spending time over there and the lot is looking better and better.  We've almost completed our recycled wood fence, have done restoration planting on about 800 sf of the property, and are currently working on getting power to the site.

We also had a small gathering at our lovely cottage on Coles Road, with Fran, Ed and Benton, for one "Moore" Thanksgiving.  This was Yessi's first thanksgiving since it's not a very popular holiday in China. Fran and Yessi worked together in the kitchen and the meal was fabulous.  Somehow I escaped any preparation of food by keeping busy outside!

FrEdLeYe having one "Moore" Thanksgiving, this one in our cabin!

Yessi looking out over the lovely farm land on Lopez Island.

Worlds cutest Yessi and Aussie, side by side.

We've been busy, and now another two weeks have gone by.  Thanksgiving came and went early it seems, and Christmas is right around the corner.  It's fricking Christmas already!  How did this happen?

Yessi and I, Mt. Baker in the background.

Two years ago now I was in Auckland, opening a care package from my mom in a horrible youth hostel in Auckland.  Last year I arrived at Sea-Tac from China on Christmas day.  Now I'm living in a cabin in the woods with Yessi, working on building a house, and having lots of fun along the way.

The Thanksgiving crew, walking the trail along the top of the rock bluff.

Wow, how time flies!!

Yessi gets a taste of true America

Yessi and I love our little projects around the Moore Estate. Last weekend we moved a bunch of stuff out of the cabin so we could build a 15' long counter/desk along one wall.  Since Yessi and I are working on so many projects, she needed her own work station and I needed a place to work that wasn't on my drafting table so I could do more drawing.

Yessi does some more work on the Moore tractor.

We got a few BAPOW'S from FrEdLey and hauled them over for Moore shop work.  The barn is a great work space with a large clean concrete floor and big doors that open, large enough that we could work on 16' boards without having them outside in the rain getting wet. (this actually requires 32' of space in a straight line)

Another Falcon first down!!!  Go Falcons!!

While we were working, Lance had some Moore projects to do, one working on his old Ford tractor. We have him a hand replacing a hydraulic line and then decided we'd go the the South Whidbey High School game, as recommended by Gary Piper.  For many years he's been going to the games with Willard and it seemed like a great thing to do--and it was!

It seems Yessi just got off the Plane, and here she is on a Planer again.

The Falcons are a single A team and were playing a well established AA team.  They get another single A for effort, and I feel bad for them because it was the last game of the season and they got destroyed.  As Mr. Piper said during the game though, " cheerleaders destroyed theirs so we're about even"!!!

Yessi in coveralls with yellow tractor, grease on her face and a wrench as big as her arm!  

So, our America day involved driving around in a big diesel ford Truck, milling beautiful old growth wood for a project in our cabin, working on a tractor and going to a football game.  I'm thinking this is pretty American, at least it would be pretty hard to do any of these in China!!

Yessi Ye raps

Yessi, growing up in China, has much different music tastes than mine.  Perhaps you've gone out to a Thai or Asian meal and heard music in the background, part american pop, part ancient oriental, part lost due to language translation?  It's not pretty, in my opinion. So I'm teaching Yessi to Rap.  Of coarse I'm no musician, and when I say Rap, I'm really using the slang for rappelling, which is to lower oneself down on a rope.

Yessi at Mt. Erie in Anacortes, WA, rappelling for the first time ever and not too happy about it.

Yessi has never Rapped before and was very scared.  I thought she might not make it over the cliff edge.  In fact we moved the rope to another set of anchors that had an easier start to help her out.  She was so nervous she was shaking, but we had two instructors, one above (me) coaching her and one below (Ashley of WOW and  DHT) holding onto the ropes ready to emergency break Yessi if needed.

Yessi manages a smile even as she shakes with fear during her first time on a rope, ever.

Like always, Yessi rises to the challenges I present her with and I'm very proud of her for completing her crash course in climbing without a climbing crash, of course!

Fixing up the Bruiser Cabin

High above the little town of Langley, tucked deep in the woods out of sight and far away from the reaches of the sun is a little cabin in the development of Talking Circle.

Scary little unfinished cabin back in the woods

If this building was an old trailer, only the most daring would venture inside.  It's easy to picture a horror movie a midst the large fir trees, with broken glass for windows, the stalker bursting through tattered OSB and an endless chase through the giant ferns.

Tar paper and butyl tape creating a moisture barrier for scary little cabin back in the woods.

 But it's not, it's a cabin, built by skilled carpenters with no sense of architectural detailing.  Cute but unfinished with odd details at the windows, rafters not on lay out, corners framed improperly, and connections between additions unresolved.

Shingles (and Yessi's smile) begin to transform scary cabin to cute cabin.

And for almost 20 years it's been tucked in the woods, half scary dark dungeon, half cute cabin in the woods.  Now, we're finishing some of the more important details to make it weather proof and provide protection so it can survive another 20 years.

Salvaged blue metal panels and black window flashing juxtaposed to weathered OSB and tar paper unter towering fir trees create a contemposcary architectural look.

One of my first recommendations, was to finish flashing the windows.  Ideally, window opening sills are taped with a butyl tape prior to installing the windows, then the windows is installed and tar paper, more tape, and flashing are installed from the bottom up so that they all overlap and shed water to the outside.

Cutest Chinese in the world (Yessi Ye) next to the Cutest Aussie in the world (Benton)  in front of the Cutest cabin in the world (Bruiser Cabin)

We weren't able to do these windows like I would from scratch, but we made them lots better.  And then finishing the siding which included setting sheathing nails, tar paper, butyl tape at the corners and then siding which on one section was cedar shingles and on the addition to the addition, metal siding which was salvaged from Skagit River Steel and Recycling.

This large picture window was transformed from a large whole in the wall to an architectural feature with metal trim and siding.

And it's transformed from scary to contemposcary and when we finish, it will be contemporary.  Given the history, the location, and the color of the salvaged metal siding and custom metal trim (black and blue) I'm designating this the 'Bruiser Cabin'!

Though working on this cabin under large trees is dark, needing lights even on sunny days, it's also very sheltered and dry.  Two days Yessi and I worked on the siding while the heavy northwest fog soaked any object it touched, but under the massive trees which seem to soak up even ambient water, we were able to stay dry.  All in all it's been a very fun place to work, the community is wonderful, the owner is terrific and the improvements look great leaving us feeling satisfied and with enough money for another few weeks!

Bruiser Cabin, Talking Circle, Langley, WA, USA