Me...Famous!?

Look, there's me in the Washington Trails magazine!

For being so camera shy I am definitely getting my share of stardom lately!

A couple weeks ago I was approached by our marketing department at work and asked if I would be willing to make a short commercial talking about one of our products. I was so nervous, I’ve never been in a video before! Knowing it would be short and on our website I decided to take the plunge and try something outside of my comfort zone. I came in early and 2 of our great marketing guys made me feel like a star with all the lights and cameras. Unfortunately the audio didn’t work correctly (probably because I kept messing with the microphone and unplugged it a few times…I was nervous!) so we had to reshoot it later that day. The video is now edited and up on our website at www.kitsapcu.org under Gold Checking. I think I look like a goober, but maybe that’s just how I am all the time anyways! ;)

Washington Trails Association is a great organization and resource that I absolutely love and utilize for literally every hike I go on. My friend Kelsie has started volunteering for them, writing and submitting pictures. Not long ago she told me she submitted some pictures to the editor, one of which was a picture of me geocaching. The editor showed interest in the pictures as they were doing a geocaching article in the upcoming (July) issue of their magazine Washington Trails. Kelsie got word that they would in fact be using a picture of me in the article…ME! The picture was taken when Kelsie, Ken and myself went out to the coast and participated in the Annual Coastal Cleanup. We stayed and Sand Point and spend our 3 day weekend picking up trash along the coastline and on the way home we stopped for geocaches, like always. The picture probably looks like we are out in the middle of the woods but really we were at a campground/park overlooking the Straight of Juan de Fuca. I have yet to get the magazine myself and read the article, but a trip to REI soon will fix that and I will probably get a couple copies just so I can give it to my parents too. I’m so excited to not only have my picture in a magazine…but in one that I genuinely enjoy!

My third claim to fame at this time is pretty much just the same as above. Not only am do I have a pic in their magazine, but on WTA’s website that picture is posted again! On their main page it is the picture used as the link to an article about geocaching, then when you click on it…BAM there I am! It doesn’t say it’s me…but we know. ;) Check out http://www.wta.org/

I promise not to let this all go to my head. If you want an autograph just let me know. Haha. I’m totally kidding, really I am, but I do think it’s pretty neat that this has happened. Also, keep an eye out for Kelsie’s work with WTA. It’s even more fun knowing who is actually writing and taking these pictures.

I'm not sure how to post a copy of the video or pictures on here yet...but check out the sites if you want to see them.

Mount Townsend via Dirty Face Ridge



View West during hike

What a gorgeous weekend for Washington! We were in the high 70’s and even into the 80’s! We’ve been so lucky with our weather the past week. *knock on wood* What do I do with a day off and nice weather? HIKE, of course! One of my favorite day hikes I’ve done since I’ve gotten into hiking is Mount Townsend. Only about 1.5 hours from home it’s a challenging hike with some of the most beautiful views I’ve experienced. I hiked to the summit once before two years ago via the Little Quilcene Trail and oh boy was it hard, but sooo worth it…I never want to do those 20something switchbacks again in my life. This time we took the Dirty Face Ridge Trail on the other side of the mountain.

Half of our group departed by 5 am Sunday morning and the other half of us headed out of Bremerton by 6:30. It was a great idea for us to bring walkie talkies so we could find out where each other were…good thing the trail really only goes one way because we got confused on which channels to use!




Up on the peak





The Dirty Face Ridge Trail is a little shorter and a little steeper than the trail I had previously hiked. This first half of this trail was brutal, I trudged along and stopped probably every 5 mins because it was so steep. Thankfully Stephen made me a nice walking stick, he was probably tired of hearing me complain. It is 2.2 miles from the TH to the ridge, this is where we met up with the other half of our group. I couldn’t even report the time it took us to get up there because I was so hot and tired I didn’t even pay attention. We took a nice little break together on top of the ridge, took some pictures and climbed some rocks. This trail definitely had better views than the other side, we determined the names of peaks out in the distance and pointed out where other trails we had each hiked were. It’s something else to look over at a mountain/ridge/pass/valley and be able to say "I’ve hiked there". It makes me feel accomplished.

  

Entering into the Buckhorn Wilderness



The rest of the hike to the summit we pretty much stayed together. We moseyed on up taking time for photo opts and geocaching. There are 1.4 miles left from the ridge to the summit and this half of the hike was much easier. It was also more enjoyable with the great company we "ran into" for the rest of the hike! ;)

SOOOO many people out hiking today! We only saw a couple people on the first half of the hike and a few more groups once we got to the junction where there is yet another trail you can take. Once we got to the summit…goodness it was like there was a party going on up there! Everyone and their neighbor were enjoying the sunshine and beautiful views! Along Dirty Face Ridge we could see west and had beautiful views of the Olympics the entire time so we snagged a great spot below the rocks on the east side so we could look out over a new landscape. As sunny as it was it was still a little smoggy. We could still spot Mt Rainier and Mt Baker and a few other peaks I’m no so familiar with along with the Puget Sound.

We treated ourselves to a well deserved break for almost 2 hours up on the summit. It was nice to get our shoes off and be barefoot (well REAL barefoot). We found the geocache hidden up there also! We later learned that our friend Emily had ended up hiking up to Townsend today also! We didn’t know until we were already headed home and had phones turned back on…Em you should have come and said hi!!

It was difficult headed back down the mountain as well. There was a lot of lose rock to slip through and once we got back to the beginning half it was brutal on the knees. Back at the car we followed Lance’s brilliant idea and walked down a few hundred feet of the Tubal Cain Mine Trail (where the parking lot is) and soaked our feet in the super cold Dungeness River. A very long day of hiking with great friends, just the way I love spending my free time! I will definitely take this trail again when I want to go up to Mt Townsend in the future, can’t beat the views!




Trail headed up to the summit.

 

Looking East out towards the Sound.

  









So many people out today!





Here are some wildflowers I came across today:

Do all chickens go to heaven?

It’s with a heavy heart I had to say good bye to one of my chicks.

It’s been over a month since I brought home these cute little balls of fluff. Finally tragedy struck when I was awoken at 1am yesterday morning by a commotion outside in my backyard. I’m exhausted from the hike I had done the day before so it took me a moment to realize….MY CHICKENS!!!! I sprinted out of bed and grabbed a flashlight fearing the worst. I ran towards the coop in my pjs and my stomach dropped as I saw the mama hen fighting off a raccoon. Thankfully I scared it away and it bolted back out the way it snuck in. My chickens were going crazy and the mama hen did her best to protect them but it breaks my heart to say that the coon ran off with one of the chicks. I was scared and I not sure what to do next so I examine the rest of my flock, who are beyond startled…another chick is badly injured and laying in the corner.

Frantically I’m calling my parents to find out what to do, maybe my dad would come over in the middle of the night to fix the hole and "take care of" that vermin. No one answered, so I sat outside in the dark next to my coop for almost an hour shining the flashlight around and throwing rocks in to the tree above us where I could hear the coon munching on my chick! I could hear it!!!!! Talk about getting sick to your stomach. It didn’t even have the decency to take its kill back to its den or home or whatever those giant rat monsters live in. On top my already horrific night we had a thunder and lighting storm so the sky would constantly light up making this morning events a little more eerie. I’m glad I didn’t see little beady glowing eyes in the trees at every flash.

I was able to get my flock into some dog kennels I had in the garage to extra protect them until I could get that spot patched up. That was difficult in itself because they were so scared they didn’t want to cooperate. The following morning the injured chick was still alive and my dad came by to get her. Hopefully she survives, but she was bleeding and she can’t walk. L Fingers crossed she can come back from this.

I’ve been told this comes with the territory; if I want to be a farmer and raise animals I have to accept the occasional loss. I didn’t think it would be this hard though. This experience made the chick getting stuck in the feeder tube seem like nothing. I’m down one, maybe two, chicks and now I go to bed wondering if they are safe enough. I’m keeping my eye on the coop to make sure I don’t see any spots where anything is trying to get in, if the problem persists I’ll set traps and have someone more brave than myself dispose of these chicken murderers.

Thanks to all my friends for the condolences. I know some people think it’s silly to get upset over a bird, but you raise something from only a couple days old and try to not get attached.

RIP little chickie.

Chick gets stuck!

This will be quick...I just had to share my first catastrophe with my chickens today. I went out to check on them and they had knocked over their feeder and the container part that holds the food seperated from the base. To my horror one of the chicks was inside the container and it was stuck!! I baited it with food and tried to "pour" it out both with no luck. I was starting to really stress. As humanely as I could I tried pulling by her little tail and butt and she still wouldn't budge. Now I'm basically freaking out. I call my parents telling them "emergency .... chicken ...stuck...help....hurry hurry!" My mom was concerned that I had hurt myself, which with hysterical phone call she had every reason to think that. I ended up speeding over to my parents house in my pjs with a chicken in a jar on my passenger seat. Think a miniature ship in a bottle....but with a chick. I get to my parents house and my parents and uncle try to make me calm down assuring my chick will be all right. We ended up having to cut her out of the container. Poor thing, now named "Stucky", was scared and confused...but alive! I could now dry my eyes from the tears I'm not ashamed to admit to. All is well and Stucky is back safe with her family.