They Fought Like Warrior Poets

When the duldrums of late winter hit, a man is bound to make rash choices.  I think it was back in February that this particular rash choice was made.  Winter was straggling on, spring was nowhere to be seen.  Bird season was over, fishing season had not yet begun.  All this is to say, it is not really my fault.  I was vulnerable when the Facebook ad grabbed my attention.  It promised adventure, it promised challenge, it promised glory....it was targeting middle-aged me, and it found its mark.


"The Warrior Dash", the ad read, "a mud-crawling, fire-jumping, extreme run from hell."  A small ember of excitement sparked to life in my cold February heart.

"This fierce running series is held on the most challenging and rugged terrain across the globe."  It was coming to Washington in July, what luck!!

"Warriors conquer extreme obstacles, push their limits, and celebrate with kick-ass music, beer, and warrior helmets."  You had me at hello.

What every rash decision needs is an affirmation by another rash person.  I called up my twin brother, Alex, and pitched the idea.

"So," as I wrapped up my pitch, "I thought we'd run the thing in utilikilts and blue face paint, sort of Braveheart style."  In another family, these words would rarely, if ever, be uttered in a sentence, but Alex didn't blink.  "I'm in."

Thus began our Warrior Dash adventure which reached its epic conclusion on Saturday, July 16th.  The Warrior Dash is a strange combination of an obstacle course, a 5k run, and the Burning Man.  Almost 10,000 people swarmed the event site on Saturday, a strange menagerie of folks that had turned out to celebrate the Warrior spirit.  Costumes were many and varied, but even the freaks nodded and murmured with admiration when the blue-man group (a nickname I heard a couple of times) passed by.  My wife and the kids trailed behind us at a socially safe distance.

Flights of 500 were sent out onto the course every 30 minutes.  Alex and I found our way to the starting line and were corralled there like cattle with a strange cast of warriors that included Batman and Robin, a large man in a towel and shower cap, three men in business suits, Fred Flinstone, a few luchadores, and even a couple dressed as bride and groom.  We knew that the course had a good 1.25-1.5 mile stretch of running at the start to kind of stretch the line out, so we planned on keeping a brisk pace early so that we wouldn't get bogged down by the less ambitious warriors at the obstacles.  At the sound of the starting horn we darted out, ducking and weaving our way through the crowd, following the lively pace set by three young men in rather tight-fitting lederhosen (sans shirts).

Our plan worked admirably and we took the first obstacle in style, a series of high and low obstacles that we hurdled/rolled through without much problem.  We were off and running, proving our warrior valor. The track took us through grassy farmland and it had been trampled by the feet of warriors all morning, so had become rutted and muddy in places.  Such things are of no consequence to true warriors, of course, who consider a snapped ankle a minor inconvenience.  We pressed on, working our way through several more obstacles: a tall wall with ropes for climb assist; junked cars parked as barriers and surrounded by a field of tires; a precarious balance-beam zig-zagging over the ground; a large net platform to maneuver across; another large wall requiring a slide/jump down the back side; an army-crawl through a darkened structure in the mud; a battery of tires suspended by ropes.

Alex vaults fire.  That's a required warrior skill.

All of these were just a prelude to the main obstacles waiting at the finish line, of course.  It was there that warriors would be truly tested.  After emerging from a 300 yard stretch of muddy hell just before the finish line, we were funneled into the final stretch were the last three obstacles awaited.  First, a large a-frame of cargo netting, covered with a slow-moving mass of carnival freaks.  Second, three berms of fire that tired warriors had to vault over.  Third, and most diabolical:  a mud pit of truly epic proportion and devastating quality.

We crossed the finish line exhausted and 30lbs heavier consider the mud caked to our legs, arms, and kilts.

But we crossed like warrior poets.

We crossed like Scotsmen.

It was a great time, may have to do it again next year.  I'm sure I'll wait until late February to consider it fully.

Fourth of July Fun

I was ordained into the ministry on July 8th, 2006 - since that time, the Fourth of July has always snuck up on me as a holiday.  When I started as an associate pastor I could pretty much count on preaching on major holiday weekends, what we affectionately called "Associate Pastor Sundays."  These include, but are not limited to, Labor Day weekend, the Sunday after Christmas, New Year's weekend, Thanksgiving weekend, etc.  Being a solo pastor the situation is much the same, except I can now count on preaching all of the other weekends, too.  That's called upward mobility.  

Anyway, the holiday portion of the weekend usually ends up being something of an afterthought.  As the kids get older, it seems a little lame to let a holiday like the Fourth pass quietly, so we got a little more on the ball this year.  

The girls, brimming with patriotic spirit, decided that the best way to start the day was to bake a cake and decorate it like the American flag.  Shannon has recently perfected a rather perfect yellow/vanilla cake recipe...and I mean, it's really, really good...so she and Evie got started with baking before the day had really even got going.  In the meantime, I loaded Piper and Tavish in the car for a special trip into the Yakima Nation to look for fireworks!

Fireworks are one of those pleasures from an ill-spent youth that I can't resist.  Something about the smell of sulfur and gun powder activates pleasure centers deep in the limbic center of the brain.  I wasn't about to start them off with the bottle-rocket fights and roman-candle wars of my younger days, but they seemed ready for some entry-level firework fun.  They stepped up to the roadside stand with a healthy curiosity about the colorful packages behind the counter and we left with a couple of non-descript paper bags filled with dangerous and glorious potential.

Fireworks would have to wait until the sun sank a little lower on the horizon, something that would come very late in these Northwestern latitudes.  Shannon had gotten word that a local U-Pick place was opening for raspberries, so we loaded up the kids and headed out to hunt and gather.  The owner of the place recognized Tavish from last year, and offered to weigh him before he headed off to gorge himself on the waiting crop.  Then we could weigh him on the way out and just pay for the difference.  Tavish lived up to his reputation, and as the rest of us picked busily for the next hour, Tavish disappeared amongst the thornless canes, emerging with red-stained hands and face when it was time to go.

We vacuum-sealed the berries when we got home and put them into the new freezer.  It has been slowly filling up with our harvests from the summer, including salmon, peas, berries, and soon to add blueberries and some other garden gifts.  The afternoon was spent snacking on cake and watching the sun sink lower in the sky.  We had plans to watch the local fireworks display at 10pm, and we thought we'd have our own display before that.

At long last the hour arrived and we started making fire in the backyard!  We started with colorful smoke bombs, then moved on to a package of snakes, which Evie observed looked a little like poop.  Recovering from that, we lined up three tanks in an epic battle with a plastic bluebird, a GI Joe truck, and an ice-cream truck.  There was a lot of light and sound, few casualties.  Sparklers were fun, and provided for a couple of great pictures.  We ended the evening driving out to the east side of town and parking the car near the fairgrounds.  We heaved the kids up through the sun-roof on the minivan and they sat on blankets on the top of the car watching the display.  They were all asleep by the time we got home.  A pretty good holiday...

Like Peas in a Pod

Came home to find the family unit busy harvesting some of our first crop of Alderman peas.  The 'Wall of Peas' has come to full fruition, the 6' trellis is covered top-to-bottom with pea vines, which are now showing quite a few mature pea pods.  The kids had a great time picking these and then shelling them inside.  We had to stop Tavish from eating most of them, but eventually got them all blanched and into a vacuum-sealed bag and tucked away in the new chest freezer in the garage.  We should be able to harvest for the next several weeks, as we planted seeds three weeks apart this spring.

Ocean's Bounty

Several weeks ago I got an invitation for a late June trip to go salmon fishing on the Pacific Ocean near Westport, WA.  The salmon season is heavily regulated here in the Northwest, and at times the window of opportunity to chase these beautiful Kings is slim.  This trip was going to be two days of fishing, and would require some ridiculous travel efforts.  But the chance to fill the freezer was too tempting and so I headed out of Yakima at 11:30pm on Sunday evening, June 19th and headed west for about 4.5 hours, aiming for Westport and a boat scheduled to leave the dock at 4:30am.

Westport is located at the south end of Gray's Harbor, WA, looking out onto the Pacific Ocean.  Ocean fishing has a whole different feel than fishing the Columbia River and it's tributaries.  The boat was the same one I fished on a month ago at the Wind.  It felt large there....but when I found it moored at the dock in the boat basin at Westport, it seemed like a child's toy as it nestled there between large commercial trawlers and coast-guard cutters.  Clearly we were in a different class of water.  Crossing the bar at the entrance to the harbor can be notoriously bad, as outgoing tidal currents meet incoming ocean swell.  I popped a couple of dramamine and prepared myself for the worst.  The guys I had joined there had fished the day before, enduring conditions that they were still talking about, a little wide-eyed.  But that morning and the rest of the two days we enjoyed fantastic weather and smooth seas.


One of the real pleasures of ocean fishing is seeing your prey, in this case Chinook Salmon, in the context of the rest of the ecosystem.  The sea is alive with every level of the food chain, and it was fascinating to see the chinook as part of this larger system.  We cruised looking for circling birds, which were feeding on large schools of anchovies balled up into "bait balls", sometimes just under the surface.  The anchovies were sometimes schooled up large enough to cover a large parking lot, at times stretching a hundred yards.  The depth finder would show them spread out between 20-30 feet depth, at other times they made the surface ripple like it was raining as they flashed and darted at food made just their size.


The birds preyed on the anchovies from above, but other, larger predators worked on them from below.  At times you could see the anchovies leaping up out of the water in a kind of a wave that would travel from one end of the ball to the other - something was coming at them from underneath.  Often, it would be hungry chinook.  But there were all kinds of predators out: seals, sea lions, dolphins, and even whales.  And, of course, there were the fleet of boats out pursuing the chinook who were pursuing the anchovies.  A regular circle of life.


On the Wind we pulled candy-red prawns on spinners, but here it was lures only.  This meant no bait to worry about, which was nice.  The focus becomes on color and shape, and the newest trend is in ultra-violet colors that are part of the visual spectrum of the fish.  We trolled at fairly high speed, and varied the depth from 30-80ft, picking up fish all through the water column.  The catch was more varied than on the Columbia, we saw more wild fish and more coho salmon in the mix, both of which had to be immediately released.


We limited the boat, 2 keepers apiece, the first day by about 12:30pm and motored back to the boat basin to process the fish.  Enforcement was pretty sharp - a uniformed Fish and Game officer boarded every boat that returned from fishing, examining each fish to make sure it was legal, searching the holds of the boat for any hidden catch, and checking each on of our catch cards, to be sure they were filled out.  We had a pretty impressive fish box, lots of lookers coming by to see what we had brought in.  This included a 1500lb sea lion that had a reputation for being a bit too forward when he thought a snack could be found.


 The next day we had even more beautiful weather, and the anchovies were more plentiful than the day before.  The birds seemed to be sated, but we saw more dolphins and a pod of orca was spotted nearby as well.  We even watched a gray whale plow through a large section of fish at one point, about 100 yards off to one side of the boat.  The fishing was slower, and we had to cut loose a bunch of coho in the morning, but we managed to get 4 in the boat before calling it quits around 12:30.  This was a great experience, though the guys kept reminding me that the conditions we saw over the two days were not common.  I was glad for the chance to experience it and am especially glad for the freezer full of fresh salmon!

Milestones

Evie's family picture....we look good...

Evie and Piper have both been enjoying some important events over the last couple of weeks.  Evie had her first piano recital, and Piper graduated from preschool.  Both exhibited great poise at their respective events.  The boy is excelling in his own ways, of course.....ways that are not necessarily easily measured by science or appreciated by his sisters.

Evie, Piper, and Evie's friend Maya at Evie's recital

Piper receives her diploma - the world is her oyster!

Evie is proud, and should be - she NAILED IT!

Veggie Tales

The wall of peas is becoming a reality.  This cool spring has played havoc on most of the rest of the garden, but the peas have loved it.  These pictures were taken maybe a week or so ago, the peas are now full of blossoms.  We are getting ready for a bumper crop!

Busy Bees

The bees have been busy over the past several weeks, building comb just as fast as they can and filling them with brood cells and pollen stores.  They have built about 10 bars of comb, some of it fully formed, and are working on some honey stores.  The weather has been unseasonably cool this spring, but we finally seemed to have turned the corner towards summer.

I finally received gloves and a smoker, plus fuel, that I had ordered and was all ready to check on them on Monday.  Thunderstorms and a couple of really windy days delayed those plans, but I was able to go up during lunch today and do a hive inspection.  In truth, I have very little idea what to look for.  But I have noticed that the photos are hi-res and reveal a lot of details, so I am considering making digital photos a regular part of the inspection....then I can review the photos later for details that are hard to spot in the field.The small bit of comb that these bees are working on was drawn on the bar furthest from the hive entrance.  I had added three empty bars a couple of weeks ago near the entrance in order to give them room to expand their brood area.  They have filled all three bars in that time, really amazing.  I am not totally satisfied that I have optimized the brood area/storage areas, but they will deal with it in their own way, I am sure.

As I was inspecting some of the brood comb, I was able to watch a couple of bees emerge.  It was pretty cool to see.  I have always thought of bees as a flying insect, but when in the hive they are really better thought of as a swarming/crawling insect.  They have some personality, it seems to me, and I chuckled a couple of times as I was trying to close up the hive.  The girls line up on the edges of the top bars gazing up at the sky, making it hard to get the bars positioned close to one another.  Some brave few even venture out onto the tops of the bars, fanning themselves in little groups, seeming to congratulate themselves on their bravery.  Until the bars start to get put back, in which case they scramble to get back inside.

Evie and Piper are excited about some business opportunities that might arise from the bees.  Piper is going to be in charge of honey sales, Evie has decided to focus on wax products, especially natural lip balms.  Future posts may include shameless sale's pitches.  You are forewarned!