Skykomish River Steelhead Fishing

Jonathan turned 10 this last February and in our family the double digit year is when you get your first knife and a special trip with Dad. Jonathan loves to fish, so seeing an oportunity we purchased a guided Steelhead fishin' trip at an auction. It helped that, Doug, the guide was a good friend from our church who has a trout pond on his property that Jon has fished in many times. We started the day by dropping my car in Sultan and heading to High Bridge in Goldbar to drop the boat for the float trip. After a short instructional period on the gear and how to reel in the big one, Jon was ready. It was a beautiful day of drifting and fishing. The river was running a little high which made for an exciting time. After a few unproductive holes Jon hooked one and fought it to the boat. It appeared the instuctional portion of the day stuck as jon fought the beast with great rod technique. It ran a few times on him and as he reached the limit of his strength, Jon swung the fish close enough for me to bring it in with the net. It was a beautiful Dolly Varden. Which was a suprise to us. The Sky is not known for its Dolly population. As you can see Jon was a little happy he caught the first fish. We released the Dolly and Jon gloated about the catch, it was great!

After the first was landed we drifted for awhile before Jon landed a smolt steelhead. It was smaller that the dolly and we released it quickly to allow it to grow. Doug and I were sensing a skunking. We had been on the river for several hours eating snacks, drinking pops and watching Jon catch fish. The final fish was a large sucker Jon pulled from the bottom in a slow moving hole lower on the river. As it turned out is was a slow day for others on the river and the three Jon caught were the only fish we heard about. A true skunking for the old guys. The river began to get crowded down below and we were a bit pinched for time so we just moved on down to the pullout in Sultan. All in all a great day with wonderfull weather. Thanks Doug.

Tony

The Table is Done!

One and a half years ago it was a big leaf maple tree threatening to fall on our neighbors pump house, one year ago it was a stack of milled wood in Sultan, six months ago it was a bunch of sanded planks and boards in a Monroe wood shop, two days ago is was an unfinished table in my garage and now thanks to a close friend and a lot of patient craftsmanship it is a 107" x 45" solid maple dining room table that will forever symbolize 2010 for our family. This table stands for the successful completion of my probation with Sno. Co. Fire District 1, the sale of our old house and the building of our dream home. This year, like the table, has been a lot of work that often times seemed endless. Now that they are complete they will both provide memories and lessons. For instance: I don't ever want to deal with mortgage and title companies when it comes to a mobile home and secondly I don't ever want to build another table again.

Tony

Longview

Recently Cheryl and I traveled to Bellingham with the boys to say our final goodbyes to, and remember the life of, her Grandmother Lucile Longview, seen here in the center.

I first met her days before this photo was taken. The woman I met was amazing. Her knowledge of the world, history, and politics was intimidating. Here life was filled with passion and action and I learned a lot from her example. She held strong opinions and beliefs and backed them up with her life. This is evident in her three children and two granddaughters. Her legacy is one of love for all others and love for nature and I am told she took the name "Longview" as a testament to her view on life. She passed peacefully with here family around. I am honored to be an adopted part of her family. She will be missed and I am glad that my boys were able to know their "GGLu".

Joy, Joy, Joy!!

Tony

Cool Quotes...

"Hope floats like lava beneath the crust of daily life." Philip Yancey Okay so think about lava, well let's think of it as magma because magma is underground and lava is above ground. (There is all that Science teacher poking thru again; igneous, metamorphic, whatever, I forgot it after I memorized it for 11th grade geology.).) No-matter, for serious. God still loves us, cuz, well, God made it all. So where is your hope? Does it burn and heat your life? Is it self sustaining in its heat when your "drive" cools? does it flow or just pool and cool off to hardened rock? Just questions I ask myself after hearing the quote this morning.......Now onto geology.....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsJn8izcKtg is a great video of pillow basalt. (Oops sorry, basalt is the rock formed by the cooling, rather quick cooling, of magma.) The faster it cools the smaller the crystals, the slower it cools the larger the crystals = granite. (go look at a granite slab supplier to see the size of the crystals.) Or just look at a kitchen with granite counter tops. So back to magma and lava.....did ya know lava cools and forms two different type as of surface rock? So those of you who did, well that's cool but for those of you who did not here are the two types. Aa adn Pahoehoe, for serious. I think Aa lave agot its name from the sound, or screams people made from walking across it...... and pahoehoe means rope in Hawaiian......like a coiled rope. Wikipedia has some great info..... Keep hope alive, or at least on a simmer below the surface, Tony

Custom Lisence Plate of the Century

Okay I have officially seen the coolest most creative plate ever, for me at least. It was a washington State Plate: PANDNH4 Here is your clue: crazy chemistry. (It took me a bit of the drive to figure it out but I have a science background.) Tony

We are in...

So the earth around us moved last night, find info from last night's Mag 2 shaker here:

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsus/Maps/US2/47.49.-123.-121.php

There is actually a link where you can submit your experience of the quake, it's pretty cool. Now on to house updates...

We finally made the big move last week and are into the house, thanks to a couple great mover helpers. It is wonderful to be moved but awuful to be reminded of how much stuff we have. We are deep into the purging process. If you come visit you will be forced to leave with something from the discard pile in Emma's room.

The two houses are but a few feet, around 60, apart. I constructed a "ramp" of sorts to bridge the gap so as to make the move smoother and track less dirt into the new house. The inspector siging off on our final pointed at it and asked, "Temporary?" To which the builder sheepishly responed, "Yes." It worked great for the move. The dollies rolled across without a problem and there were less steps to haul couches and big stuff up and down. The newly finished floor was protected with several large cardboard boxes broken down flat. The fireplace is doing a marvelous job heating the house, althought we have not figured out the wood storage arrangement yet. The two side cabinets are Ikea. Now to tackle the A/V wiring.

The kitchen flows great and we tested it out yesterday with an impromptu Easter dinner gathering of 16 folks. A bit stressful but all went well and there was even leftover ham.

Here is and entrance view of the powder room downstairs just off the kitchen and passed the now full shelved and stocked pantry.

Jonathan and the twins resting with Sodhi on Easter afternoon.

The boys upstairs "War" room is now fully opperational.

Master bedroom a-la, http://latedalove.blogspot.com/ , thanks Tisha. Now I'm not allowed to touch anything. "AND DON'T USE THOSE PILLOWS, THOSE ARE THROW PILLOWS, YOU DON"T ACUTUALLY USE THEM, THEY'RE FOR DECORATION." (You mean you don't throw them?) I think I have to levitate at all times in my own bedroom.

All for now, Tony

Video update on the house

Here is an 8 minute walking tour of the main entrance and interior. Enjoy... Tony