Vacation Part 1 - Cabin and River

So after WWKiP day we started packing up the car for an early departure north. We were able to get out of town shortly before 10am and arrived up there shortly after 3pm. The cabin is just north of Skykomish on the Foss River.  The cabin:

Some inside pics of the cabin, my sister and BIL helped remodel the kitchen and bathroom recently. My stepparents have owned the cabin for twenty-five years now. 

We stayed in the downstairs 'guest' room. The loft has a double bed and two twin beds. There's a futon on the right side of the cabin, not visible that can sleep a couple more people. The other two sofas can also act as beds. So in total if you don't count floor space, the cabin can sleep ten easily. I know that it has hosted Thanksgiving dinners many times in its history with that many or a few more staying there.

The cabin is used every weekend through the fall into early summer by my stepparents when they switch over to using the boat. There's a month and a half trip planned for going through the San Juan Islands and along Vancouver Island and a bit north. Since they are twenty miles south of Steven's Pass there's skiing (I think mainly cross country these days) and snowshoeing.

We saw a squirrel and a chipmunk on arrival and lots of stellar jays. The largest population of wild life were the humming birds. I spent the week keeping the feeders full so they would stay popular. I identified Anna's and Rufous that are native to the area. Here's a video of the little things fighting for space around the largest feeder. I'd actually see some sitting on nearby branches waiting for a turn:

Here's another one with the humming birds and the river.

In general there was a lot of hanging out and relaxing while we were there. Brandon got a lot of sewing done on outfits. I managed to start cutting one, but had a hard time trying to do it while Leeloo was napping, she'd always wake up when I started, darn pattern paper crinkling noises. Brandon with his helper:

I did bring my spinning wheel and plied the Coopworth that I spun on Rachel's Ashford Traveller. Filled one bobbin, but still need to get some off of one of the bobbins. I didn't bring the ball winder, so have to finish that up this week at spinning. I got a few rows added on the fingerless mittens that I've been working on. I also started a new project, I really had planned not to start anything new until I finished stuff. I started the first rows of the Ishbel shawl with my handspun, the red Louet merino/silk I'm calling Garnet Yarn.

We took a walk down the road that the cabin is on looking for trails, but didn't find one. It was a nice walk. So we took Leeloo down to the river and she showed us that she's a little rock climber, hopping from rock to rock and up and over boulders. 

The cabin has a train track that kind of wraps around the area. You can look out the window and up the hillside across the river and see the train through the trees. Pretty much you can hear it really well and feel it vibrate the cabin when its a heavy train. It's amazing the amount of trains going through. I would hear one at 5am, 6am, 7am, and 8am then a break until later in the morning. I didn't pay attention to those times because I wasn't trying to sleep then. ;-)

We drove up to where the train goes over the river:

Brandon tried taking a picture of a Leeloo standing still, but she was in demonspawn mode attacking her flexi-leash and this is one of the shots of it.

Wednesday before lunch we felt some vibrations non-train related. I had been working in the kitchen and laid down on the couch under the window to watch a movie when I felt the couch moving. I thought it was Brandon foot jiggling it, but he said it wasn't him, both feet were on the floor. He said that he'd been feeling them for half an hour. Checked in with my sister via text messaging and the area is known for tremors and a pretty good earthquake in the past.

Brandon helped out and cut some wood while we were there:

Yes, we were using the wood stove to stay warm. It was down in the low 40s overnight. Mid-60s a few times in the afternoon.