Summer gets into that whirl phase in July. This year was no different.
July was when Christian finally decided to pull the trigger and buy a home, a condo to be specific. After looking around the market, he went for a one bedroom condo in Seattle on the Interbay side of Magnolia. It has a lovely view out toward the Ship Canal and Ballard. Now he and Kim have to make it their own.
With all the doctor, dentist, and eye exams over, Karin and I sailed out for a few days of downtime in the San Juan Islands.
This time we explored the North end of Cypress, and then slid over to Shaw and Orcas to hang out for a few days before heading back to our home port.
Home again….so we could leave for Idaho again.
Back? Again? Well, the goal here was both to close on the land we were buying, and to be of some use to my nephew Josh as he built his new shop on his land. The closing was easy. Just a few signature on E-documents and we were Idaho land owners. But helping Josh build there wasn’t a lot of clarity around when he’d start building. But no worries. Rebecca’s ranch house was full of kids and we could play with them, and go to the Camas County Fair, while we waited for building on the building to begin.
One fun thing we got to do early in August was go to the sheep roundup in the hills above Corral Creek Ranch.
It’s a huge social event. Families and invited friends gather in the field next to the sheep pens high up on the mountain for a big pot luck dinner, featuring grilled Lamb. Then, just as the sun is setting, the herders who have been off in the mountains with the sheep all summer bring them into the camp for counting and sorting. Everyone gets up from dinner to help stand the line…helping the shepherds and their dogs keep the sheep from bolting.
Once the count is done and the pen closed, the herder and dogs tuck into their share of the pot luck dinner. They all camp overnight and get up at 4am to start loading the sheep in to trucks and taking them off to market.
Getting back to owning land again. One other project I wanted to get done was to get a brand registered with the state. No I’m not going to run cattle. Well, I may buy one every few years and share it with folks. But it seems to me that if we’re going to own land we need a brand and name for the ranch. Now with the boat name, and trailer name, Endless Song Ranch is obviously going to be the name. But I’d never put that on a sign and put it up. I’ve lived too many summers in Camas County not to know that’s a stupid, foofy, Blaine County kind of name. Camas County ranches have names like Bar-C, L-7 (that was Uncle Ed’s), Corral Creek, Rocking L, etc. It’s only when you get East on highway 20…near or in Blaine County that you find “Moonstone Ranch”, “Susie Ranch” and what not. So our land will go by it’s official Idaho Brand name. Here’s the Brand we requested.
See, it’s Endless Song….it just doesn’t scream it out with some weird script or other fru-fraw that says “Blaine County.” It’s a respectable Idaho brand.
Back at his ranch, Josh was finally ready to get a move on with preparing his land. First he cut away the topsoil where the shop would go, then brought in load after load of gravel to build up to a level foundation pad.
The water well went in, and he had running water on site. Idaho Power is coming to hook up power, and then they’ll do the septic system and drainfield.
For Karin and I it was all a learning experience, as it’s something we’ll need to do when the time comes to break out our 10 acres and build something there.
After doing all we can for now, Karin and I prepared to head back to the boat. But we had one more suprise. Evie, the corgi we were hoping would soon give us new pups surprised her owner by giving birth.
So we had the time to go and see, and select, the two puppies that we’ll be taking back to Mom in another trip in the fall. They are Stuart and Sally. Stuart is the brown one and Salley is the Blue Merle, cream with lots of spots on her back. We’re very excited.
Finally it was time to say goodbye, at least for a few weeks. We’ll be going back in October to help Josh with trusses….and to pick up Stuart and Sally. We headed home to Anacortes. And it’s us, so we did it in a couple of days…with another overnight camp out at a winery. You have to love the wine growing area around Red Mountain. So many wineries and such a nice halfway to or from Idaho location.
Sailing in Endless Song 