Gabe's Week-long Birthday

For one reason or another, Gabe's birthdays seem like they either go on for days or they get postponed for days. This year is no exception. The reason for this year's crazy long birthday was mostly because Gabe's heart is so big that he didn't want anyone to miss out on a birthday party. Our church was having a cleaning day, to clean out the attic of our church building, which has had bat problems. Gabe wanted to postpone his birthday so that all of his friends could share his cake with him. So on his birthday day all he wanted to do was play a huge, long game of Blind Man's bluff, which was a blast!

 Janessa surprised him with a new game that he has been wanting for a long time, so we ended the day with everyone playing Bonanza, and learning his birth story again. Super fun day and 11 years went by far too fast!!

A little over a week later was the cleaning day. All the men worked so hard getting that attic cleaned out, while the women prepared the meal and the kids took over the gym for a couple hours. It really was a great day for everyone involved!

Janessa, as always, did an amazing job with his cake! 

All of the men that work in the orchard absolutely love Gabe and how much boldness he has, so they bought a Remote Control Truck for their "el nino's" birthday. So Janessa used that truck as her model for the cake.   

Since orchard season is about ready to get underway again, we took this weekend to take a good family fun day. Gabriel chose to go bowling, which we haven't done since we went with GRACE Homeschool group in Texas.

 In the bowling alley there was an arcade! So we all had to try everything.

We spent the night in an hotel, where Gabe opened his gifts, one of which was a basketball. He is playing Pee Wee Basketball this year and wanted lots of time to practice up for that.

And when we got home the evening of the next day, our mountain was covered in snow again...the last big snow of the year. 

February 5 - Ice Breakup

Okay so I'm finally getting around to updating the blog again. I am going to just jump ahead, so that y'all are more updated in recent happenings. This post is still a little bit behind, but it sure was a big deal around here. This winter was very unusual for this area, and was very cold. The snow pack was much larger, and the river was totally iced over super thick. In fact Zach had walked out on it the day it all broke up and it held him. Anyway, our horse pen is on high ground, but it's still near the river so we could bring water up for them. On a Sunday morning, Zach was down there doing chores and he went down to the river to get water. He chopped through the ice and everything looked totally normal. Then he headed back over to the pen. He said he heard what sounded like a gunshot, which at that time of year isn't all that unusual. While he was in the horse pen pouring water, all of a sudden the ground got really mushy and then he could visibly see the water rise under his feet. He was just getting ready to move animals, when it went down again. He called home and we all came down to see the river ice move down.

It lasted for about an hour, the river rose to an amazing height. Under the bridge, which usually is ankle deep in the summer, the water had raised to the height of over 7' high.

  Many of the chunks were massive, some as big as cars. When the water receded it left a wall of ice chunks high up in both banks of the river.
It was amazing to get to watch the power of this river in action!

August 22 -24 - Puget Sound

Several years ago, while our family still lived in Colorado, our music teacher and her family moved up to Washington state. We haven't kept in touch very much since they moved other than once or twice a year.

Well now that we live in Oregon we all have wanted to go and visit them, this weekend we all headed up to Puget Sound, which, by the way, is almost literally right out their back yard. We had a blast with these wonderful people. They were so great about taking us to so many of the landmarks of Puget Sound.




Janessa brought her camera along and got some really beautiful pictures of our trip.

The bridge over Deception Pass.

Our first stop on the tour was Deception Pass, which had the magnificent bridge spanning the inlet! The monument to the history of this pass reads as follows: " Named by Captain George Vancouver 10 June, 1792. Felling that he had been " deceived" as to the nature of the inner waterway. Port Gardner (now Saratoga Passage) he wrote on his chart "Deception Pass". He honored Master Joseph Whidbey who found the passage while commanding a small - boat crew of explorers, by naming the island Whidby." 

While we were walking on the bridge, Garrett yelled, "Hey guys, I think I see an otter!" and sure enough, we got to watch a couple otters playing and eating about 4 stories beneath our feet.

After that, we headed to the beach that was down a ways from the passage to have lunch and play. Even though it is August the water is still frigid! But even still there was no way we were passing up a chance to play in the ocean.

Zach playing with the "Bull Whip Kelp" that was laying all over the beach.

The Pogue family and Friends on the beach.

Being used to seeing wildlife Eastern Oregon, we were having so much fun seeing the creatures Oregon Coast style. Every tide pool had so many weird and amazing creatures!

Next stop was one of the many forts along the coast, that had been used to train troopes for years. The all time favorite part of the fort for all of us was the guns, which were huge! The nearby lighthouse had been turned into a museum for both lighthouse and fort. One of the stories we heard was of an attack on the US by a foreign sub and this fort and the one across the sound both opened fire on it and either sank her or sent her packing. 

View of the Sound from the top of the lighthouse.

Afterward it was back to the house for burgers and friend time.

The next morning we headed back home with a small detour to Mount St. Helens.

Our family had a fantastic time and are so looking forward to the next visit!

Apple Juice Pressing

 Quirk #7948 of living in an orchard is having apples running out of your ears. We spent quite a few afternoons pressing apple juice.

Both of these guys are getting so big!!

 One day Janessa brought out her nice camera and set up some beautiful shots.

August 2 - Digging out the South Pump

As the summer has worn on, the river has gone down a bunch. Dad rented a track hoe to dig trenches for some of the pipes we are putting in for the new irrigation system, so we took this afternoon to dig a hole under the South Pump. This involves driving in the river and digging under the floating screen that we use to suck water out of the river into the irrigation system. In the winter, this beach is totally underwater, but right now it is about 6" deep. It was a good excuse to play in the river.

-Peach Harvest

Summer in the orchard doesn't leave much time for huge events, but we sure do love the small ones. We are so busy during the summer with harvest. By June we literally have peaches running out of our ears. The trees produced so many peaces and nectarines this year. We were shipping fruit up about every 3 days. Our fork lift broke down permanently somewhere during the peach harvest, so the guys built a dock to load the fruit in the semi using the tractor, or we would hand load it in using the baskets that we use to pick the fruit into. 

Gabe and Shea loading the fruit baskets onto the trailer to take off the field.

As the picking crew finishes up their baskets they stack them in the shade to help preserve them. The days are hot and the rule of thumb is for every hour the fruit is off the tree and in the sun we lose an day of shelf life. So we are running like crazy to get the fruit in the cooler as fast as possible.

Peach harvest is a bunch of physical work, and a blast! Most of the harvest it takes a couple people to bring in fruit, and working with my siblings in the orchard is the funnest thing about the job.

July 29 - Wild Choke Cherries and Basket wash Factory

One of our favorite kinds of syrup is made from wild choke cherries. When we lived in Texas, we couldn't find any, as they like to be near water. We were thrilled to find that they grew all up and down the John Day river. Early this morning Momma, Gabriel, and I all headed out to pick. We found one tree and from that tree picked more than enough for what we needed this year.

Couldn't resist taking this picture of Conrad, he looks as excited about the berries as we were.

Chicken brooding is in full swing as well. This particular hen hatched out a clutch of 14 chicks early spring, this is her second clutch. 

 Meanwhile back at the office the boys had a washing system going for all the picking baskets in the orchard, getting ready for the major harvest. By the end of the day they had it down really good...and were soaking wet!

Summer is such a beautiful part of the year here. We absolutely love working all together as a family!