Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Sunset

Incredible sunset from our dock tonight. Between smoke from a distant forest fire and clouds from a recent thunderstorm, it was amazing!

Monday, August 19, 2013

Storms

A series of storm cells passed by the lake. After weeks of sunshine it offers some excitement!

Mountain weather

As the thunderstorm passed over the cabin it dumped hail on us! Weston was so excited, "It's raining ice!".

Today it's a bit gloomy and sprinkling, so we headed to town a day early.

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Manzanita berries

In our quest to try wild foods, we picked manzanita berries and boiled them for cider. Today we picked wild gooseberries for jelly.

Willow basket

Weston and I wove a basket from willow branches we collected and purple raffia we brought with us.

Granite iPad

Weston and Brennan are playing with Weston's 'iPad' made of granite. They love playing with it!

Sunday, August 11, 2013

Out on the lake

We all went for a sunset paddle. The kids love to disembark on a rock island in the middle of the lake. David pretended to paddle away. "I'll be back to pick you up tomorrow!", caused lots of distress from Kelton and Brennan. They sure jumped back in quickly when Dave paddled back.

Wstercolors

Weston is sitting at our picnic table at the cabin painting an abstract with watercolors. The terrarium in the background was used the day before to briefly hold a garter snake that Brennan spotted and Kelton caught.

Teepee time

We built a Teepee near the cabin. Weston and Brennan love hanging out in it.

Baby Bear's portrait

Weston did a lovely drawing of Baby Bear with my chalk pastels. He loved drawing.

Monday, August 05, 2013

Breakfast

Everyone enjoys a hearty country breakfast at the cabin. Today it's blueberry pancakes, sausage, strawberries & blueberries, coffee and milk. Energy to hike, kayak & swim all day.

A day at our beach

Weston and Brennan were mining for gold on a little beach on our lake. We found hundreds of little fishes swimming around our toes. Weston help paddle back to our cabin.

Frost!

It's the beginning of August! I saw frost in the meadows. Only at 7000ft elevation would it frost in midsummer. Beautiful though.

Cabin life

We spend a lot of time on our deck at the cabin. Weston's working on an art project

Geodes

Brennan showing off some of the geodes Ana gave him for his birthday. We all spent an afternoon cracking them open with a hammer and chisel.

Artist

Weston drew a picture of himself holding a bucket with a little fish he caught in it.

Old time Fresh Pond

Just for fun!

Thursday, August 01, 2013

Swimming

Kelton couldn't wait to go swimming in the channel stream.

Kaleidoscopic

Weston picked out a kaleidoscope for his birthday. Here he's posing with the view through it.

Gold Discovery Park

After reading about James Marshall's discovery of Gold at Sutter's Mill, we decided to see the real place. So today's trip to town started in Coloma at the Gold Discovery Historic Park. We watched the blacksmiths work. We dressed up in old fashioned clothes for a photo. We saw the mill. We put our hands in the American River right where Marshall found gold. Then best of all we panned for real gold!! Everyone found several flakes of the real stuff. Finding that gold flake shinning at you in the pan is very exciting.

All in all its a great way to make history tangible. Afterwards we headed to Placerville for laundry, groceries, hardware store, and dinner. Now back to another lovely week in our homey mountain cabin.