Fishing

Perhaps our last warm day on the boat...
Nothing like some brotherly teamwork:

Under the Stars

We slept out on the deck Saturday night. I finally talked Kendall into it. Can you believe I had to talk Mr. Bushman into that? Well, it's true. I even got him to help me drag our mattress out there. He just wanted to use the leaky air mattress so that we could easily go back inside in the middle of the night if needed. No turning back, I say!

It was so warm on Saturday. (It was up around 80, by Monday, the high was 54. Awesome.) I was all excited about sleeping out under the stars and huge moon. Of course, as we were getting ready, we heard howling. No joke. Coyotes or something. It was creepy. Kendall said we'd be fine sleeping out there. (I made him sleep by the stairway not guarded by the dog.) It was also creepy when the dog barked and growled a couple times during the night.

Eli decided he didn't approve of the whole idea a few minutes after being in his sleeping bag and went inside to sleep. Evan complained, but decided to stay outside and slept late in the morning.

The night was sort of miserable, sort of awesome. I didn't sleep well, but thoroughly enjoyed being outside while I laid there awake. It was worth it.

Still at it...

Kendall finished up the apartment plumbing. (Yay Kendall!)
Here he solders. (Notice the spray bottle to avoid the accidental burning down of our house.)


Proof that we're making progress.

Some days I just need to look at a list like this to remind myself of how far we've come. And this list will soon be covered up as the the stud it is written on should have drywall over it within a day or two!

Claustrophobia

I don't like this.

On the Boat

Monday night we enjoyed a beautiful evening.

We anchored the boat and the boys paddled the tube over to a little island.

Who's this dark and handsome stranger?

First Day of School

They are, apparently, just too cool.

Lucy Barks At Something In the Bush

Yesterday afternoon I heard Lucy barking outside. She was untied, so I thought she was barking at a walker and ran outside to call her back. But she was fiercely barking at something in the bush.

Hmmm...

Kendall came out and for some reason I said, "I think she's barking at a wolf." I'm not sure why I said that. (Maybe it was the way she was growling or the hair bristling on her back or just my overactive imagination at work.)

Kendall bravely went to investigate. Silly me. It wasn't a wolf. It was a bear. Oh dear. The bear quickly excused itself.

I wasn't particularly afraid- more just disappointed that I didn't get to see it.

Later Kendall had a chat with our neighbors across the bay. They've been having trouble with that same nuisance bear. In fact, they have a hole in the screen on their front door where the bear stuck it's paw through. Lovely.

And so much for Kendall's convincing little theory that we are safe from the wild animals because "we live on an island." When I respectfully pointed that out to him, he just said, "Turns out bears can swim."

P.S. Eli says my title is pathetic. ("Very pathetic, in fact," he adds.) He thinks I should title this post 'The Wild Thing' or 'The Mysterious and Unexpected Visitor.'