Our old real estate agent Jim Brown dropped by yesterday to give us a pumpkin and seasonal card. He was driving a new pickup truck that he insisted that he only used on special occasions. Like delivering pumpkins. When we were first looking at houses he was very impressed with our Prius, so he went out and bought one.
There was another coffee shop gift card with the seasonal card. Jim is a great guy. I think that is the fourth one he has given us.
Last Saturday we went on the Harvest Celebration Farm Tour; various farms in King Country were open to the public and had special events and whatnot.
We went south to Auburn and Enumclaw. First we stopped at Tree ‘n’ Bees, as one might expect, they are an apiary and holiday tree farm. We saw a demonstration of how honey is extracted from the hives. I had seen such stuff before, but Amanda had not. They also had a hay ride, but we skipped that event, although it might have been cool. Amanda made a beeswax candle later, and I sampled their various types of honey. I did buy some (blackberry and fireseed) even though they were a bit expensive.
We met Splash, one of their two cats. She was very friendly to me, although she did give me quite a nip later.
Amanda said that two kids were giving her evil pets instead of “soft pets”, so perhaps she thought I saw going to be evil as well. We did not see her sister whose name I have forgotten.
We then went to Thunder Mountain Farm & Sleeping Giant Alpacas. They were more nursery than farm it seemed. We did see a cool muscovey.
And Amanda was happy to see two crias.
I ended up buying a purple coneflower for our house for my new echinacea business.
Next was Rockridge Orchards and Bamboo Groves. We went through their bamboo maze which was almost a little exciting. They had a chef’s demonstration that we just missed… I guess we were looking at the ducks and alpacas too long. They also had a lot of cider and different types of pears. I finally tried the “rum” pears that I had seen at various farmers markets. The woman said some people said they tasted like rum, others said no. She did not know herself because she has never had rum being a virtuous high school student and all. My verdict: yes, they definitely taste like rum. Maybe I wasn’t a virtuous high schooler.
Our last visit was with Rainier Alpacas.
As one might expect, they had many alpacas. Most of them were recently shorn. There was also a one week old cria, Sugar Baby. She looked very large already.
We took the scenic route back through Auburn and Kent. I found the roads and building orientations in Auburn very odd as nothing seemed to be a right angles for some unknown reason. We stopped in Tukwila for a snack and to look at books in a Barnes and Noble. Then is was back home to the piglet piglet.
Amanda is back home now after two deliveries; she had gotten paged very early this morning and had to go in. She was cold, so I turned on the gas fireplace. Unfortunately, I had forgotten that piglet had hit it a few weeks ago, and I had not given the metal screen and glass enclosure a good cleaning. So now the house smells like a cat latrine. Yuk. Nothing like vaporized cat urine, ya know. Amanda does not notice at all, but I have always been more sensitive to smells than she.
Piglet herself disclaims all responsibility.
I found this picture recently on a website for my last high school reunion (lifted shamelessly without permission, but, hey, I never signed a model release either). It was taken at Mount Trashmore park… yes, that is its real name… during a picnic; I did not actually go to any of the other reunion things.
Blake and Mark are the other two guys.
Some interesting-to-me-anyway things:
Hmm, I definitely look thinner especially in the upper body. Perhaps I was in my T-Rex body type phase (Amanda: “humongous legs, teeny useless arms!”) since I was bicycling everywhere in the last half of the 90s.
I wish I still had the waxed floppy hat; it had been with me on countless hikes and mountains and protected me from rain, sleet, and snow for years until I lost it within the first week of moving to Seattle. Sad. I have not been able to find a replacement, although I did see one almost like it on Kaua’i, but it was too small.
So, I have been researching various childbirth books and techniques and whatnot (Lamaze, Bradley, etc.), and there seems to be a lot of us vs. them attitudes toward natural birth proponents and allopathic medical professionals. I knew that before, really, but it is very apparent to me now.