A quick trip to Colville

Well, we moved closer to SCCA, as per the doctor's orders, and while the distance is nearly the same, I can see that the traffic will be much easier to navigate on Hwy 90 as opposed to Hwy 5.

I spent much of the day setting up the motorhome and installing two Comcast DVR's for Donna. While the "park-like setting" of Blue Sky RV Park is beautiful, the trees kill any hope of our getting the satellite to work. Heather (the park manager) said she'd give us the best site in the park and she wasn't kidding. A great corner spot that opens to a small front yard and very near to the dog trail.

Donna took this photo while walking the dogs on their new trail.

Just outside the restrooms and laundry facility is this Koi pond,
with ten or more fish. Reminds me of our pond in Las Vegas...minus the maintenance.

We had two days without any appointments and I asked Donna if she'd be ok with me running to Colville for 24 hours? I wanted to shut off the water in the basement and raise the minimum temperature on the thermostat to 55 degrees. Donna of course, would have been a welcome passenger, but 700 miles in so little  time wouldn't do her any favors.

As I drove up to the house, it looked like a buzzard sitting on my fence, just waiting for me and not a welcoming sight. Turns out it was just one of the hundreds of resident turkeys in our neighborhood. There must be 6 or 7 rafters of birds, each with a population between 15 and 25 members. They tend to scratch the mulch looking for bugs and that makes a big mess on the edge of the lawn...it's hard for me to complain since I regularly feed the little buggers.

Things only got more dicey when I go out to the back patio. Seems one of the three bears (according to my neighbor) in the subdivision had visited our bird houses, that were full of sunflower seeds when we left here three weeks ago. He must of laid on top of the fence, there were two openings that had been folded in half.

The male (or female) also tore this suet feeding station apart to get at the seed suet. My neighbor Bill saw one bear last night and he said the beast hadn't missed too many meals. He/she was huge and had rolls of fat moving and jiggling as she walked the street.

Since setting the temperature and shutting off the water took all of 5 minutes it was time to think about a few other projects to fill my day, the garden was a good choice.

My next door neighbor Sue was the recipient of our garden products when we left with instructions to open the gate when she was through, and let the critters have at it. 

There was a lot of vegetation that needs to be pulled and carted off to the burn pile. If I had more time I could of turned it all back into the soil as compost, but I'll end up burning it this coming spring instead.

After pulling all the tomatoes, potatoes and squash plants the mound look rather bare. I sprayed the mounds with a weed killer in the hopes that this will make my weeding job easier in April.

My next "honey do job" was to change out my street tires with some winter ones. Here in Issaquah they get 61 inches of precipitation a year, some of which is snow. As a comparison, Colville get about 18 inches of total.

This summer at a garage sale I picked up the 2 1/2 ton floor jack which really makes removing the wheels much easier.

Newer vehicles laws today require cars to be equipped with tire monitoring systems. The tire shops in Eastern Washington will not touch a tire that does not have an active working system, they won't even add air, let alone change a flat. You can pay $65 per tire to upgrade the winter wheels, but Costco believes they are not required on "temporary" tires, whereas all other shops are too afraid of lawsuits. 

Later in the afternoon Bill, who lives across the street, offered to take me up and change the game camera and feeding tube. Bill sees bears on a regular basis, but also deer, moose and cougars on his camera... all within 100 yards of our houses.

Bill wanted to hang this feeder low enough so the camera captures the creature on all fours...most of his photos are with the bears standing on rear legs. He fills this with some concoction of sunflower and other seeds. It doesn't take the bears long to figure out by banging on the pipe, food comes out.

Below are a few of Bill's photos from the 1st week of September. The two black bears look similar but one is much taller than the younger one a few days later.

Obviously this was a short trip and I enjoy my time at our house...I missed the company of my wife...and dogs, but don't make me choose! ☺