Lummi Livin' has been a little difficult this past week. I haven't taken any pictures from here. Every night has been a big wind storm sometimes with lots of rain, sometimes not. The night Gary got home from Coffeyville, Kansas we were in the middle of a major windstorm. The occasional gust of 60 mph winds adding to the already 40 plus. There was a full ferry on the 9:00pm run and the waves and water were going over the steering cab of the boat, and the boat front was going up and slapping down the way we often see small boats do when hauling butt across the water.
Once they got to the dock here on island the wind was thrashing them all over the place and they hit the dock hard, several times. Unloading was a timing nightmare. As the front of the ferry came up and met with the ramp they would hurry a car off and then wait for the next wave. Gary said it was absolutely terrifying. He even talked of moving off the island. I'm sure he's not serious but it gave him some food for thought, island life is not perfect.
Needless to say the dock sustained a lot of damage and that was the last run of the night. After that they've only been running in mild weather while work gets done trying to fix the dock. We've had to walk on a couple of times and since every evening another windstorm was coming up, we even had to go and spend the night at my sister's house cuz one night they didn't run at all. (Thanks Char and Gord)

Yesterday and today are looking pretty calm, but Desiree is taking no chances. She is going to fly out to Ft. Lee, Virginia to see Bryce over the Thanksgiving holiday and is keeping her car on the mainland side to be sure she has a vehicle to drive to Seattle with. I finally have no where I have to go and am staying on island til Thanksgiving.

So I thought for blog photos I would put in pics from the last couple of weeks. Surely you never tire of seeing pics of the Pitman crew of odd ducks. (Any Pitman will tell you it's not them that's odd, but believe me, they are)

This is at the Charleston farmers Market and Reid is looking at branches of cotton that were for sale.

We had gone to the Congary Swamp outside of Columbia, S. Carolina, and of course Reid was having to try climb the cypress trees. I have other photos of that but you don't want to see them, believe me. You can see they have a really nice board walk all the way thru the swamp.

On the last day that I worked for Cloud Mt. Farm, which was during their fall festival, my old, old friends, (they are hitting 50, believe me, they are old) Doris and Jan had come to fetch me for some partying down after work. The honey was as strong as we could handle, cuz we're all old, but we had some fun.
So, that's my update. Reid had to go back to work as soon as we got back from S. Carolina. Lots of snow coming in the mts. while the rest of us get wind and rain.

We're going to Salem after Thanskgiving to wish Lucy a happy 7th birthday. Look for grandkid photos after that.

Happy Thanksgiving! Stay safe.

I Love it when folks ask what have you been up to?

Flying Around

Do you like air travel?

Seeing new things meeting all kinds of people.

Well this last 2 weeks has been a wirlwind of fun.

Home to Houston,Texas for a 3 day training on Amine, Sulfur, Tail Gas and Sour Water units

I ask myself why didn't I get a training like this when I worked the unit 24 years ago at CP

I spent 6 years working the sulfur complex outside in the unit and the control board and never had the background training like I just got.

(we started a new business for sulfur seminars and website)

Sulfurunit.com

My seat for the training

Then to see Bryce in South Carolina with Reid see entry below

As soon as we got back home the next day Barbara (my wonderful travelmate) went to downtown Vancouver, BC for a 3 day Sulfur Seminar (more training in these units)

Getting ready for 2010 Barbara got to tour the city while I attended the seminar
Check out these Churchs in downtown just like Europe (well kind of)

Then I had a call from my buddies at DeltaValve to do an equipment audit in Coffeyville, Kansas

What Next??

Bryce has Graduated Basic Combat Training

Our youngest child is now a man serving in the United States Army! He graduated from his basic training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina on Nov. 6.
I flew down there with Reid and Desiree and we spent a nice day with him on Thursday for what they refer to as Family Day. There were 1262 graduates and a lot of them had family come for this event. For a fort that has a graduating class every week they have no room on the fort for that many people to be driving, trying to find a place to eat, and entertain themselves. Wow! That was a jam packed and screwed up bunch of parking/driving nightmare! But we did it! Spending time with Bryce was the most important and we made it as painless as possible.
The first picture is of him in front of his barracks. In 10 weeks he had only spent time in that 2 block area and then marching out into the open field and firing range. He had no idea how to get around the fort or what was there to see or do. We found a nice little park and enjoyed our Subway sandwiches there. At 5:00 that day Gary flew in from a training in Houston. I left the kids at the bowling alley and headed out to get him. We got back to the fort and found the kids and then went to find dinner. We ended up at the foodcourt in the PX. The restaurant we were going to wouldn't let Bryce in because they served alcohol and he wasn't allowed to have any, therefore he shouldn't be near it! Good grief.

The next day was graduation day which was held out in an open field with a long stand of bleachers across one end. 1262 soldiers is a lot of people and they had them march in by their company. They had some awards for top drill sargeant, top soldier, top marksman, top scoring physical fitness person from each company and then had all the soldiers walk by the bleachers. Quick and easy but we were there early and getting out was another nightmare so it was at least 3 hours of butt busting on those bleachers after nearly the same on some other bleachers the day before for orientation before family day. Our butts are in some real pain!

But as you can see the weather is sunny! Cold in the am, warm thru the day, cold after sunset.

Notice the arrow pointing to Bryce. He was the 2nd tallest in his platoon and was easy to spot.

Right after graduation all the graduates signed out and left base as fast as they could! Another driving and parking nightmare since all of them were in the same block of barracks with very limited parking around them. 1262 of them.

Our soldier was packed and ready to leave! Dirty laundry and all!

We did some eating and shopping with him, eating being his favorite thing to do. You should have seen him with a menu! So many choices! How could he decide? The simple things we take for granted like having more than 3 minutes to eat your meal once your choice has been made!

He was like a kid in a candy store. We wouldn't allow him any caffeine since he was full to bursting with energy and excitement at being free and with us for 24 hours before having to be at his next assignment.

He and Desiree got a rental car and after much eating and talking about his adventures and misadventures they have driven off to Fort Lee, Virginia where he was to be by 5pm Saturday.

The last I spoke with them they had made it there and Desiree was waiting in the parking lot for what could possibly turn into hours while he was getting signed in and finding out about a possible 3 or 4 day pass, and whether he could leave the base or not. I hope all is going well for them as she hopes to spend a couple more days with Bryce.

After they drove off Gary, Reid and I drove to Charleston. Gary wanted to see an aircraft carrier and submarine and some other military stuff that was in the harbor there. On the way to that we walked about the Charleston Farmers Market. Some very cool stuff there and interesting regional foods and crafts.

We headed out to another area of open markets and in the straight path of a few blocks time Reid and I lost Gary. We looked everywhere including a Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville store but we couldn't find him. We thought maybe he'd head to the location we were all headed for so continued on. Gary didn't have his cell phone on him and had to walk back to the car to get it in order to find us. It ended up he stayed at the car and Reid and I enjoyed the market. Lessons learned, I think. We'll see.

Once we were all together again we headed out for Patriots Point to see the aircraft carrier and submarine. We all enjoyed and exhausted ourselves touring these old junkers (oops, did I say that). There was no more time left for plantation mansions and gardens so we headed back to Columbia and Fort Jackson.

Charleston has a very lovely suspension bridge over the river and that's what you can see in the background of a couple of those photos from Patriots Point.

The 3 of us head out Sunday back to wet and cold WA. Our flight isn't until 2:30 so we're going to drive around some historical homes, look for USC Gamecock shirts or something with some part of that word on it, check out army surplus stores and whatever else we have time for.

It looks like all of us got a bit too much sun today but we're happy since it is wet and cold where we're headed. Reid has been in contact with his manager at Crystal Mt. which is near Mt. Rainier and they've got 8" of new snow overnight last night. He'll be headed to work soon after returning. So, goodbye South Carolina! It was fun.

It has been a blogging long time since I added to this! Hopefully those of you who've been checking regularly and been thinking I'm slacking off will forgive me and continue to check regularly. Sorry. I'd like to think I'm not slackin' but I may have been. So here is a recent sunset view. After months of no rain we got a dumping on Saturday. There was lightning with it in the late afternoon but this is the sunset that followed. It was fiery and the clouds were moving thru in wispy, fast moving, and rather ghostly ways. It was awesome!

We've had both Reid and Desiree staying with us lately. Reid has been working around our place while waiting for snow to descend deep enough to go back to Crystal Mt. He apparently loves French pressed coffee and thinks our individual cups that we'd gotten for our Europe trip are the cats meow! He obviously also likes tattoos and the occasional piercing. But he's still the silly/crazy boy we raised and we love him.

Our dear son Bryce, who is in the army's basic training in Ft. Jackson, S. Carolina, is doing really well. He made sharpshooter and has rather enjoyed some of the training with guns and grenades. (Boys!) We're going to his graduation there the first week of November. It'll be awfully good to see him.

Desiree has had a rough week tho. She ended up getting the swine flu and had some weird contraction that gave her a scare. (She is nearly 4 months pregnant) She tried to stay here but once she had the contraction we all decided that being close to the hospital would be a good idea and she convalesced at her mom's in Bellingham. The contraction went away as well as the flu and all is well with her now. The rest of us have remained free of the flu, thank goodness! (Lots of Lysol!)

In realizing it has been a while since I'd blogged I realized I hadn't really finished up with photos of the house remodel. I'm slowly getting pictures up. It's scary putting holes in the wall. They are perfect right now.

We still need some shelves and area rugs but those have to wait abit .

Our final cabinet was installed along the bay window wall. I finally got the glass for the doors so we could have TV components in there and shoot the controls thru it. The electrician came last week and got the electricity in the cabinet and we moved all components off the top of the cabinet and into it. What a pile of wiring!! I can barely close the doors! Good grief.

The cabinet is made of peruvian walnut. I'd wanted it to be very dark and that's what came very dark. It's stunning wood! One of the colors in it is almost a smoky gray. The whole cabinet is just gorgeous. I chose the top to be a light fir to match the fireplace mantel, bathroom and closet doors and the cabinet my Dad had made. I still need to have an upholstered cushion made for the top of the bench. For now I can put plants on the bench and keep them in a sunny spot. I've never had so much room for houseplants! My friend, Bedelia, gave me all her orchids since she has moved to Boulder, Co. I hope I can do as well with them as she had. (Miss you B)
Gary admitted to me that houseplants creep him out. What!?!? I told him, too damn bad! Get over it! I've waited for years to have a place where I could keep a houseplant alive. Here they come!

My next blog will have to be about my sewing space. It's a little ghetto since I won't be getting new cabinets anytime soon but it's functional and I've got some baby quilts to get done and finally have time to do it! Yea me.

Later folks.

Lummi Livin'

We had some company last night. The Wagter clan came out after work, bringing dinner! Landon and Shawna hadn't been out here since they've recently moved back up here from Hermiston, Oregon. The weather has been stunning so why not check out the beach here on Lummi Island!

They had a beautiful ride on the ferry. We quickly grabbed some appetizers and drinks and dashed on down to the beach. Only Lindsey had ever been to our beach so it was a treat for the rest of them.

The whales were a treat we'd seen 2 nights before! A large pod of over 20 came by just after sunset. Boy, we felt lucky! It had been a gorgeous sunset, helped by forest fires in BC. The smoke making the sun fiery red and able to be looked at directly. Awesome night.

And an Awesome night with the Wagters. It was so great to have them out.

Here's Gary, Gord, and Landon by the light of the setting sun.

And Lindsey, Char, Reid, Kestyn, and Shawna. Kestyn really enjoyed the sand, seashells, sticks and found that they all tasted good!

Kestyn and Shawna.

Reid at the beach.

It was really a fun night. So glad they came! Thanks Wagters!

Their Momma came Back!

I have to tell you, those kids were excited to see their Momma! And not just for the gift their Mom brings them. Lucy's other grandma, Abu, started getting her snowglobes a few years back and now both kids collect snowglobes. Marlea brought back 2 Calgary snowglobes for her little cowkids. Lucy's has horses and Caymus has a moose. (Marlea calls him Moose, as in Cay-Moose. He allows that altho I can't call him Cay. Whatever)

They all stayed thru Saturday and Gary took off with them on the gator. He needed some serious one on one with his grandkids. While he was gone we girls, Marlea, Desiree and I got to spend quality time in my sewing room. Marlea showed us how to do paper piecing since Des had some blocks she wanted to do and I hadn't done it but once and wasn't a lot of help to her.

The kids had a bunch of fun with Grandpa. They had some teamwork with a tire they found, getting it out of the water and off the beach.

Some of the pictures are from days I'd spent with them at the beach and in my sewing room. I didn't feel very good for a few days. I'd caught a cold and had a real lack of energy. We did ok tho and still had quality time. Schoolwork in the morning and playing in the afternoon. I never had to resort to cartoons! Yea me.

Here's a gator full of attitude. It's amazing what happens to people when you put on a hat!

We pulled out a couple of the silver salmons we'd bought earlier from one of the reef fishermen and Marlea fileted it for us. Then Desiree stuffed it. The girls teamworked dinner while Gary and I showed one of the neighbors the finished remodel. The neighborhood is abuzz, as small neighborhoods can be. Curiosity brings them up. But we love how it turned out so we don't mind.

The little team, making it work!

Time to go home. Here we are at the ferry terminal. And then my little darlin's headed off for Salem. We had fun!

The car ferry starts again next week. We've had great weather this year and it felt really special to ride the ferry this way. Pain in the ass but special too.

Calgary Seminar

Tuesday night was our big Networking dinner and Shoot out. We had a great turn out, about 75% of the attendees came. We had a nice bus ride all together and then the real fun began. We arrived at the Heritage Park and were directed upstairs of the old Dairy barn to the bar. Everyone got their thirst quenched and some good networking done.A shot rings out...we hear yelling, we are told to get out of the barn and "sit" down. The outlaws had just robbed a bank and their horses were stolen while robbing the bank. They are sure its one of us.....This begins a good 45 min shoot out and brawl, good vs. bad. In the end there is only the sheriff left standing!We then got our fill on great food and great networking.

Lots of great Action for the show

Hey what gunslingers here in Calgary

They don't mean to kill aiming there but Boy howdy that could hurt

The DeltaValve Gang ready for the shootout