Traveling the Mount Baker Scenic Byway

We had an enjoyable afternoon visiting our grandson who is attending Western Washington University in Bellingham.  Got to see his new digs and meet one of his roommates.  Nice big apartment and so convenient to campus.  (Do all guys keep their apartments neater than girls?  Or was it specially clean for our visit?  Whatever.  It was nice.)
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So now that we were up in this NW corner of the state AND the fall monsoons hadn't started, we took a day to travel up the Mount Baker Highway.  Great day to travel.  Very nice green drive with big trees. 

We took a side road to Nooksack Falls and enjoyed the scenery and the thick layers of moss in the area. 

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Up, up, up we continued.  The forest was so thick that glimpses of the mountains were rare until we neared the top.  At that point, the trees fall away, the soil becomes rocky, Mt. Baker and Mt. Shuksan come into view. 

This area is called Heather Meadows

and many of the plants were showing their fall colors. 

At 4250 feet and the end of the road is Artist Point. 

Pretty appropriate name, we think.

Feeder Wars

Now that we are home for a while we are keeping our bird and squirrel feeders full and getting lots of action.  We enjoy watching the antics. 
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Not all is fun and games though as we found when Mr. Merlin, the falcon, came to prey upon our songbirds.  Because he attacks with a dive, we now understand why many of our birds were hanging out under the covered porch where an effective dive cannot be done.  We have seen him around a few times and we are sure he has got a few of our birds but there are still many around.
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Most of the peanut eaters are squirrels and blue jays (Steller's Jays in the northwest).  These are pretty brave jays to tuck their bodies into the hole of the squirrel feeder and enter the gallon jar to steal a peanut.  The squirrel feeder is up there for squirrels so Dean has added a piece of wood with a smaller hole and so far the jays have not been brave enough to squeeze in.  Don't worry.  They aren't starving.  They dig up peanuts the squirrels have buried in the lawn and gardens and the jays have mastered the technique of "bump and scatter" at the bird feeders.  They bump the bowl with birdseed with enough force to tip seed out of the bowl and then the jays eat the seed that has fallen to the ground.
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Most of our squirrels are Eastern gray squirrels.  We've been told that they bully our smaller Douglas squirrels.  Well, as we've seen, those Douglas squirrels are very territorial and they can fight off more than one gray squirrel that is trying to get a meal at the feeder while he is there.  Go Doogie!

Sister Irene's progress

To all our friends who have been joining us in thoughts  and prayers of hope for sister Irene, she has finished all treatments in her fight to cure her throat cancer.  She now needs to work at healing. 
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The accumulated effects of the radiation will continue to cause havoc for at least another two weeks.  As she's finding out, the pain is much worse than it was during the treatments.  According to her doctors, the pain will be very bad for a while longer and then will subside, the blisters in the throat will heal and she can work at weaning off the heavy medications she's been on. 
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Her doctors say she is healing nicely and she needs to be patient, get lots of rest, and try to eat (she's still on a liquid diet).  She's looking forward to a day when her energy level is up and she's able to sit down to eat a meal.
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Throat cancer is nasty and the doctors will continue to check her on a monthly basis to ensure it stays at bay.

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She deserves all the kind thoughts you send her way.

THE BOAT GREMLIN HAS BEEN FOUND

With much straining and cussing, Troob's starboard engine was stripped of more and more pieces, trying to find how the cooling water got into the crankcase oil.  A couple of early possibilities proved not to be the cause.  However, when pressure-testing the exhaust manifolds (which are water-cooled on boats, requiring a double-walled construction ---  one chamber for exhaust gas, surrounded by one for cooling water), a small leak was detected between the chambers.  The technician poked the weeping spot with a screwdriver, and went right through to the other chamber.  Shoot!  New manifolds required.



.Meantime, we had found a quarter-sized rust spot on the side of one of the cylinder walls.  An old spot, quite rough.  More than could be honed smooth.  Now we're looking at a re-bore, new rings and pistons, and we haven't even looked for possible main bearing damage yet. 

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Consensus:  New (or rebuilt) engine.  Double shoot!!

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Troob has given us a lot of pleasure over the 32 years we've had her.  I guess it's pay-back time, so she can give us some more in days to come.

'Round the Mountain - Mt Rainier tour

September weather this has been the pits with record rainfalls.  By September 20th, we had already been drenched by 4 1/2" of rain which was triple the average amount for all of September.  So when the weatherman "promised" a couple nice days at the end of the month, we decided to head on out. 

Laurie's mom went with us on a 'Round the Mountain tour
on a gorgeous fall day. 

Lots of brilliant foliage in oranges and reds.