As Bill has stated we arrived home around 1PM after a great trip. We disconnected rain collecting system to avoid freeze damage to our barrels and brought the rain gauge home for the same reason. There is a chance that I will go over in the early winter if the weather and roads permit. I am planning to evaluate our solar system and perhaps make an upgrade to a new battery and a larger solar panel. I also want to re-locate the panel to provide more sun due to the fact of our trees growing very fast and blocking the sun.

We had a good trip back. Got up at 7 AM. Packed up and shut down the complex. ended up eating B-fast at the "Our Place" Cafe. I had a Denver Omelette, Ron the Spainish.. Stopped for Coffee at the Liberty Cafe outdoor Expresso stand. We brought back the generator with us. I will keep it running thru the Winter. The new 6 day cooler sure worked well.

Last night before Sundown, Waylan Eldred stopped by and we caught up on Carter Mountain news. Gison has now moved into town n the house he owns near the State Patrol scale. One Man in the development here, was mowing his lawn with a sit down mower. It rolled over him and scalped him down to the brain! He is still alive but is moving closer to a City with a Hospital. Waylan took the initiative and fixed the main road. It Cost him $5000. We will have a one time assessment of approx. $400. We are happy to pay it. He has taken over from Gison on maintaining the roads. He is a responsible person.

Sunday AM we headed to the"Udder Place" for Breakfast. Both me and Ron felt pain in stomachs afterward. Probably our last time eating there. Also had Latte at One perk at a time stand. Came back and drained all 3 rain barrels for Winter. If we did not do this they would crack from the freeze/thaw cycle. Weather is now partly cloudy, at 11:30 AM. Temp is 54 degrees. Slight breeze. No rain.

Arrived at camp at 2PM to partly cloudy skies and a 60 degree beautiful Fall day. Stopped in Omak to eat lunch at the Breadline Cafe. It was very good food with nice waitresses. All looks OK except we have a Blue Jay that has broken into the Aljo and taken up residence. He ate the Suet cake we left in there and pooped all over the place. We coaxed him out and cleaned the best we could for the time being. Battery is at 14.5 volts. Rainfall measured by our new guage show as follows: Sept received .40", and so far in October we have received .50". Guage works fine!We see that Eldred gang are here for Hunting season and we have heard distant gun shooting.

We are preparing for the Fall shut down. Leaving this Saturday AM early. This time we will empty the water barrels and button the place up for the Winter. Should be some good Fall colors on the drive over.

Ron damaged the air mattress when he was handing it up to Lee in the loft during our Summer solstice trip. This trip we just took, he repaired it. Thinking he had "Blown" the patch job he requested the mattress be destroyed. I took it home.....blew it up.....and behold. The mattress holds air! Jolly good show Ron!

Rusty's Drive In.....always a fun place to stop on the way over to the property.

This is the new chef at Our Place Resturant in Omak!!

8202005 Saturday

8/20/2005 Saturday

Arrived in Tonasket at 1 PM today (Saturday 8-20-2005) .Ate at the Subway. We both felt sick afterwards. Tomorrow night we will eat some pot roast bought at Wally World. We also bought 2 small personal watermelons and some corn on the cob. It got up to 89.4 today. There is a slight wind that blows in from time to time so it is tolerable.We will wait till tomorrow to set up our new rain Gauge. We split the Watermelon and it had a funky taste. Full Moon rose in the SE Sky. We saw Nighthawks flying overhead. Bill had a sinus headache and suffered thru the night. Ron was very hot and moved to the trailer to try to sleep.



8/21/2005 Sunday

I woke up at 630 AM. A full Moon was above Carter Mountain. I tried to take a picture of it but it did not come out. We drove down to Tonasket at 730 and had B-fast. Good food this time. We then came back to the Cabin. I cleaned the stickers off the windows. Ron put together the rain gauge holder. We both worked to install it on the same post as the Solar panel. It looks good sitting there. We are awesome installers of Weather gear!



We gave it a test run and poured water down the spout. Measured 3/100th's of an inch. Then re-set it back to zero with much difficulty.. It is wireless. The temp is now 83.7. Sunny and hot. We took a long drive to Republic then went South to Kellers Ferry. Saw baby Black Bear alongside the road climbing a small tree. Stopped at the Koala Cafe. OK food. It is 82.8 degrees at 8:30 PM


8/22-2005

Woke up at 7 AM. Ron was already packed and ready to go. We ate at Our Place Cafe in Omak. Ran into two Highway projects on the way home.

Just returned from a 2 day trip to the Property. Good but hot trip! Managed to install new digital recording rain guage with little problem. All is well over there, dry as usual this time of the year. High temp both Sat and Sunday were around 90 degrees with nice breezes. Nights were in the 60's. The moon was big and beautiful. The big hill road is being worked on to eliminate and prevent the furrowing from returning. Hopfully this will last a few years. Saw plenty of Deer with young all over the place. On a drive on Sunday the 21st we saw a bear cub in a tree on the highway near Nespelem. We will be going over in Mid October for Fall trip.

Heading over to the ranch tomorrow morning around 7AM. Mission this trip is to relax a bit and instal new recording rain guage! This new instrument will allow us to monitor rainfall from early spring thru late Fall. We will not leave up during the winter due to the possibility of freeze damage. Weather is expected to be quite warm but due to the fact we are only going to be there a day and a half we can survive!

An Aljo paper "Flashback" from 12-10-2003

12/10/93 Arrived at property at 8:30PM. Had problems getting up hill so we
applied chains to truck and slowly charged up hill. Looks like 6 to 8” of
snow fell. Now turning to slush as a “Pineapple Express” blew thru. Battery
checked reads 12.4 volts. We are wondering how the cold affects the battery
and how much charging is happening w/ the solar panel. Rained intermittently
all night. Installed AM antennae in dark-it works ok. Listened to KGO, David
Hartman, Bernie Ward, and music from the hearts of space (They played a lot
of “Clanad”. Slept well.

12/11/93 Awoke at 8:30 AM-Major Aljo walk to direct wire cigarette connector
to battery-completed successfully. Checked property and observed Deer at 50
yards. Engaged generator to run test of space heater. Temp inside Aljo now
54.5 and rising – started at 51.3. Aljo began leaking at 8:30 PM tonight. We
try to fix, but no luck – I (Bill) will sleep on upper bunk tonight – Leak
is coming thru skylight.

12/12/93 Leak stopped. Slept well. 29 degrees outside at 9AM. 51 degrees
inside Aljo. Sunny outside. We will put tarp on top of Aljo.

Lee Franks Hardware burnt to the ground! Was it Arson?

The Okanogan Highlands. This is my favorite picture............

Our simple warter collection system. And it works!

A little late on this blog.......But what the heck. The July trip went well. Lee Franks is being built back up after the fire, Slow going by the looks of it. We tried a new expresso stand across the street from the Udder Place, and it was good. The Chipmunks were slow to come out this time after we put food out. We noticed Owls this time, so maybe a few became food themselves. We did a long drive thru the Okanogan Highlands to check out some fishing lakes. The Weather was nice. I finally finished "The Taking" by Daniel Koontz while reading on the deck. I am not fond of his writing style so it will be my last book by him. I cranked up the shower Sunday night. It is working in top form after many years. Things seem to last forever in this neck of the woods. Not like rainy Seattle.

This is The Udder Resturant in Tonasket. One time Morgue. Haunted Diner today!

Bill and I have just returned from 2 1/2 day visit to the Property. Trip was a very good one. The weather was perfect with temps ranging from the upper 70's on Sat to the mid 80's on Sun. Sat saw a few showers in the morning but Sunday was sunny all day. Things are still fairly green over there thanks to some timely summer showers. We fed the critters and found that our little packet of wild flowers are blooming. We ate Breakfast at the Udder Resturant in Tonasket both days. Good food!! Found out that it used to be the town morgue. Waitress says it is haunted! She turns out to be a nice woman! Met a Leprechan man named Richard. Nice people all around! We stayed at the property on Sat and then took a drive around the Highlands on Sunday. We ate too darned much!!

We are heading over to the property this Friday night after work for a 2 day visit. We will do a little fishing and relax. Weather looks dry and warm with highs forecast to be in the mid 80's. Hot spell is due in next week, after we come home. We plan to straighten out the shed on this trip. I will replace a battery in one of our solar beacons. I'm certain that the critters will be happy to see us.

The trip to Tonasket went well. The new rack system for the Canoe (on my truck) worked fine. Lee showed us how to tie it down even better once we arrived at the property/compound. We were so confident, we left the bungie cords off on the trip back. I and Lee went out & hooked into 2 Lahotan cutthroat trout soon after launching in Lake Omak. Since it looked easy we decided to release both fish and wait for bigger ones. Unfortunately the bite was over and we came back to shore empty handed. Trying to convince Ron that we actually caught something was extremely difficult. Ron stayed on shore and fished from the dock. Big fish swam all around this dock.......but no Bite'ers.We fished Blue Lake and Fish Lake the next day. I snagged a small (very small) trout at fish Lake..........it dropped off the line as I pulled him closer to shore. Thunder and Lightning cut the day's fishing short.

We never found time to fire up the laptop this trip (too busy).......so we are blogging "post trip" trip.

The Chipmunk population is exploding around the Cabin. The food we put out is sparking a baby boom. We saw lots of Nighthawks this time. Also spotted 2 Eagles. Deer are everywhere. No Blue Jays this time at our feeders.

We arrived Sunday June 19th around 1PM to sunny skies and temp around 80 degrees. Lee followed shortly. All was well at the homestead. Rain barrels were over half full each. System is a good one! We fished Omak Lake on Monday, June 20th, twice, once at mid day and again at sunset. Too hot at mid day. Lee and Bill took to the canoe and caught several Lahotans. Released back to freedom tho! We had Fajitas ala Lee Sunday night and slept well on the deck under starry skies. Bill slept in the tent. Tuesday the 21st we headed to Tonasket for breakfast and supplies at Toms Tackle Box. Bill got a new rod and reel to try out. We ate at "The Udder Place" and then headed north for Oroville. We headed west to Palmer Lake and then hit Blue and Fish lakes with no luck re fish. Thunder and lightning arrived so we headed back to compound for dinner. Light rain cooled things off nicely and we ate Spagetti ala Lee. We headed back home Wed morning around 7AM. Lee left a little later. All and all it was a very good trip and we all had a great time.

The 2005 Summer Soltice trip is about to begin! Ron is being a tough Task Master this time. We leave tomorrow (Sunday) at 7 AM sharp. This time we take the Canoe. I have a new system for carrying it on top of my truck. No way will it slide around as we drive. The goal is to launch on Lake Omak. We are in pursuit of the elusive "Lahotan" trout. They can get up to 25 pounds. Weather looks good. Some T-storms are predicted Sunday. We are not afraid.

Lee came through for me big on my request for some medicine! Looking forward to trip. Will stop in Brewster to pick up Tribal fishing permit. Those darned Lahotans do not stand a chance against us!

Bill and I will be heading over to property this coming Sunday to meet up with Lee for our anual Solstice trip. We plan to go after the wild Lahotan trout in Omak Lake also on this trip. Weather looks pretty good with mild temps and just a chance of scattered showers. We are bringing the canoe to enhance our chances of landing the big ones!! If water collections system stayed intact we should have plenty of rain water for all of our needs.

Left property early to head over to Winthrop. Staying at the Hotel Rio Vista. Really nice place right on the Methow River. Ate at The Duck Brand resturant. Waitress dropped my meal so 2nd one was free. Crazy family was there letting kids run everywhere acting like monkeys. OK to do if we were in park. All and all Winthrop is a nice diversion. Heading home tomorrow.

We had a good day today. Went to Wally World and it seems depressed. Bought a 100 Watt DC to AC inverter for $17......Ron's new laptop is an energy hog. The solar panel's seem to be keeping up tho. We did see some Trumpeter Swans flying over today. They were playing some Herb Alpert. We are in the process of watching a movie called "final Cut" with Robin Williams. It is good. We will have a fire tonight. All is well and peaceful here.

Awoke to clear and sunny skies. Went to Omak for breakfast at Ourplace, not that good this time. Went to WalMart and got items for new and improved water collections system. Most of the Wally World people seemed depressed. Also got new power inverter for LT opperations. Water system went up like a charm! Fed critters and Hummers. All are happy. Had Roast beef we got at WalMart, thought it was $5.99, turned out to be $14.00.

Showers fell over most of Okanogan County this evening! Hopefully this is a precusor to a wet spring. We are heading out in the morning for the 1st trip of the year.

Heading out this Sunday for the 1st trip of 2005. Hope to find everything in order after a long winter sleep. Plan to work on outhouse and check solar system. Also plan to clean out water collection system. Yahoo!!!

It's March 4th today. We are planning our first trip to the compound April 24th thru 27th. It would be great to finish the new outhouse this trip. We will need to move seat box and buy a new seat. This is shaping up to be a very dry year, possibly the driest since we aquired the land. Extreme fire awareness will be required this season unless spring rains are above average.

It's now Feb 12th 2005. We have not been to the property since fall of 2004. We have heard from Walt Gisin that a good amount of snow fell in early winter. It appears that He is still providing the road maintenence. We will head over in April for the 1st trip of 2005. Hopefully, this year will not be as dry as the past 2 seasons.