We are in the path of the wildfire named “Nelson Creek, in Elk WA”. It started downhill from us about 2 miles away on Friday afternoon burning down our neighbor’s home and garage across from the Inland Grange on Nelson. Their propane tank blew up and the fire traveled uphill rapidly coming right at us on Casey Ln Evacuation notices type 2, were issued.
better than crop dusters 
On Friday even though the fire department went into immediate action to contain it by using multiple county crews, trucks, water trucks, helicopters, prop planes, and even a jet plane. It got right up to our next door neighbors property perimeter requiring retardant on the west and northwest adjoining neighbors properties. Friday was thick smoke and lots of air traffic directly over our home. Check out how close to the trees those pilots fly WOW!
We got a surprise visit from Jake at State Farm, really, Jim and John I think because we have State Farm house insurance. They drove in working with the fire crews to assess fire preparedness. We evidently passed and they advised us to start sprinkling water around the house to deter embers from igniting. Then, immediately the electricity goes out, so we run generators to put water around.
State Farm Wildfire Response 
Retired sheriff works for State Farm wildfire team now
Saturday some of the smoke was clearing, There are still crews working the fire and hot spots still being put out. The air and ground teams were still hard at it. These pilots carrying water drops and retardent drops are so very gutsy and professional.
the top ridge of our property 
the garden
The jet, prop plane and multiple helicopters just barely cleared our hilltop coming over the top of our house and on to the neighbors next door.
see how close to our rooftop
Sunday less crews trucks planes and helicopters. Pete drove out to get our mail and saw our neighbors had their yards burnt and one even lost a truck that was parked in his yard.
We were all lucky that none of us were hurt and we didn’t loose our homes. We are going to have a lot of cleanup to do.
Diana Gabaldon’s bestselling book series, Outlander did a good job of introducing me to the role herbs play in human medicine. She is responsible for the intense interest I have in the herb section of our garden. Above is a typical day of herbal drying on our deck table. There are 3 mullein blossoms on the upper left, hyssop blossoms on the right top rack and then chamomile blossoms in the tray up front. Anything blooming gets picked and dried throughout summer.
I get out one of many handy books by 
I made up this recipe in less than half an hour, and after putting three drops in each ear, got immediate relief.
BTW, did you know that the pioneer’s used to call the mullein blossom the torch flower? Well, they did. Why? Because they’d dry the blossom stems and later fasten them to sticks and soak them in oil. They were used as torches to light their way at night. Wow. Did you think of that while you gazed at the yellow blossoms on a stick?
After a strawberry picking morning in the garden, comes a lot of prep work. Cleaning, sorting, coring the harvest. I am lucky to have a sweet husband who stands at the kitchen counter coring and sorting with me. This batch, after prep work, measured 36 cups ready to be process.
24 cups are split into 2 pans on the stove. Pete’s Mom gave me the recipe and I remember Dorothy every time I make it. 12 cups fruit to 8 cups sugar, brought to a boil then immediately add 1 tsp of butter & turn down to simmer for 10 minutes. Turn the heat off, add 3 Tbls lemon juice. This image shows it ready to foam over the top on the stove.
Beware, boiling it is where it gets a little tricky. Only fill the pans about half-way full, Be careful to turn the temp down quickly when they boil, it can very easily and quickly boil right over the top. Have a teaspoon of butter ready and drop it into the foamy rising syrup. You’ll see the level recede back down into the pan rather quickly.
I place a colander cone in the sink with a bowl below it. In the sink is lower and easier to reach, and spills are no problem. Pour through the colander to strain the fruit pulp out and put aside to make fruit roll-up’s later. Then, pour syrup into the jars and proceed with seal steps.
Making fruit roll-ups with the already sweetened pulp is easy cause you have already done all the work. I line a cookie sheet with plastic wrap that can be microwaved. Then, spread the pulp 1/8″ – 1/4″ thick on the sheets.
Place them in a 150º oven overnight to dehydrate. In the morning, it is done if it is not sticky to touch. If it is still sticky, put it back in and let it go longer.
Growing strawberries for the family took us a little while to get right. Pete and I started seriously growing them in 2015 at our place in Elk, WA. Beginning with seed, because of budget restrictions gave me very little success, but I didn’t give up and kept planting for 3 years. Looking at this picture they look pretty scraggly. Finally we determined that the location they were put in the garden was not good for them.
When we expanded our garden in 2018, I decided to move the strawberry patch to the other side. First, building a 8″ raised bed approx 16 ft long x 2.5 ft wide using old concrete blocks and then transplanting the plants. We were blessed with a gift of more starts from my friend’s beautiful patch, and she also showed me how to pull the runners as I picked. Even though this was a new patch, because of the move, these 2 suggestions really made a noticeable improvement to the strawberry harvest and fruit size.
In the spring of 2019 my strawberries were overcrowded and desperately needing thinning. I removed the concrete blocks (CMU) surrounding the raised bed. Then we tilled the area around the original raised patch, and lowered the soil level to be equal with the surrounding garden. We could disc the soil with our tractor then.
Thinning the overgrown area, I transplanted them to the newly tilled area in rows about 4-6 inches apart. The strawberry area became a 20 ft x 8 ft patch.
This is what it looks like this year and now this old gardening girl is beginning to wonder, “What was I thinking?” We are already harvesting a lot of berries this summer. Sometimes my body talks to me about it and I am making friends with Tylenol and Aspirin in the evenings.
A couple days ago was my first time picking this year and it amounted to 1-1/2 gallons.
I picked 5 gallons of fresh strawberries in the garden this morning. Looks like I am going to be real busy with these berries this year, picking, eating, processing and canning.
If you are in need, call us and we will share… or you can get permission to come pick yourself. We are considering selling at a minimal price to our friends and family or maybe a farmer’s market because we will probably have quite a nice harvest this year.
We do love these beautiful red berries. Today, I plan on making syrup, juice and fruit roll-ups after it cools a little more this evening.
This class is an artist date night for me. I get to see fellow artists and visit with what is important to us. We are a fun group of artist’s and we have all become friends. We meet for a three hour life drawing session with a live model every Monday evening at 
We discovered an entertaining sprinkler fascination for one of our dogs. He goes crazy playing with any sprinkler as he takes off running, jumping and trying to snatch droplets out of the sky. Here is his serious face as he notices that I have the sprinkler ready to spray in my hand.
Of our two children in retirement, “Max” is our tri color guy who is a running child, and the more sedentary redhead is “Hurley” who is more elderly. Hurley likes to sit in pools of water or mud instead of chasing a sprinkler around. Hurley sits in the background watching as Max sprints to catch the water.
During our rock wall adventure in landscape, sometimes, you run into a really large boulder that really should be made into a piece of solid playground equipment. Here is one that we found this week. This had to be moved so we could cut a dead tree down where we are going to build our rock wall in front of our house.
How many tires are actually on the ground as Pete moves it around with the Kubota? As we move this heavy rock, notice the squished front tires when the rock is being pushed. Do you think it just may be a little beyond this piece of equipment’s capacity? Sure hope this little tractor is up to the test.
Roll, roll, roll. Push, then tilt.
This granite guy has a flat top just perfect for climbing on, and two stairs on one side with a single stair on the other, it’s perfect for the lawn area. The grandkids have already tried all the surfaces out for us.
If you are an expert “operator” of equipment, or rock mover, anything is possible. Really, just ask Pete!
BTW. Expert, as defined by my father, is a drip under extreme pressure.
Here is a pictorial sequence of hooking up to move a big rock with a tiny garden tractor and a chain. Simple, really! Sometimes you have to start with digging a little to be able to reach underneath and put the chain around it.
Then you hook the chain to the bucket and start to back up real slow and pulllllllll.
I can see this little orange Kubota sweating as it strains.
Look at how interested Max is in seeing the rock move. Not even.
When it reaches where it is going to rest for now, placing a rock under one edge allows us to easily hook a chain around it next time without having to dig under it.
Okay, now imagine doing that all day long, to make a Ph. D pile like the one at the top of this post. Are you wondering what a Ph. D pile is? A quote from Pete, “It is a stack of rock Piled Higher and Deeper!”