Our Out - Lucerne

Art and I took some time away from the village this week. Just two nights but it was enough to revive us and get us ready for the last onslaught. We leave Holden on August 25th and the time is moving much too quickly.
We decided to camp at Lucerne the first night and then take the boat up to Stehekin to spend the next night with a friend. As soon as we got to Lucerne, our dreams of a calm night of camping turned into the reality of a huge thunder storm. We wisely decided to spend the night inside Holden's "A" frame cabin by the boat dock. I did a bit of cleaning on the porch, Art opened a bottle of wine and we watched the storm roll in. Lightning can be quite a hazard in the wilderness, so we kept out eyes out for strikes.

The next morning, after some very hard rain, we got up and took a walk around the area. We spied a couple dozen geese by the forest service cabin and then later watched the barge chug down the lake.

This is Railroad Creek, still quite full and fast, just before it dumps into Lake Chelan.

Finally we board the boat to head up lake to Stehekin for our second night out. When we were about half of the way up the lake, I noticed smoke up on a hillside. The boat company people had not seen it and so I alerted them and they, in turn, alerted the park service who then came down and put the fire out. I snapped a picture of the smoke as we passed by.

Ten Mile Basin Hike

I have been battling a cold this week and wanted to hike close to home on my day off. Art and I decided to hike up into Ten Mile Basin. Ten Mile Falls is a short hike along a handicap accessible trail that leads to a beautiful water fall. We had never climbed up the much steeper trail up into the basin before.

We had heard that there was an avalanche up the basin this winter, so we set that as our destination. This year's avalanches went down to bare dirt when they ran down their shoots. The took everything in their path with them, trees, boulders, brush everything. What is left now is a huge jumble of logs and debris. Here I am sitting on a downed log looking up the basin.

We hiked up as far as we could with out risking falling through the ice.

At the end of the basin is a long, glacier fed waterfall.

Almost back to the village we spy the twin fawns hiding in the brush. Their spots are almost gone.

Busy Summer

In the summer Holden goes from a staff of around fifty to a staff of 150. Guests no longer straggle in three days a week but come in bus loads each and every day. Above is a picture of a typical dinner outside. We often have a village of over 500 people in the summer. All of this means that my time for blogging and even quiet time is rare. Managing this many people is a huge responsibility for the village. Staff is often young an in experienced with the responsibility. Narnia, our summer children's program had over 90 kids under ten last week alone. Luckily the trails are open and the weather has been great and so far everyone is loving Holden Village

What Happened to Art's Plants??

Art is the gardener in the family and even at Holden he attempted to grow a few things. He thought that our porch would be a safe place to try a few nasturtiums. We were not at home, so these photos came from our neighbor, Paul Haines who caught the action with his camera.

4th of July Parade

Every 4th of July, Holden Village puts on a day of fun, food and frolic. We began with a huge brunch out on the green, followed by poems, speeches and tom foolery on the arc. As soon as the guests arriving today settled in we had a huge parade. Above are just a few of the entries. Not the wonderful man offering "repairs in any season". That would be Art, my hubby. Isn't he cute?

First Steps

As you know, Art and I live above a family of 3, Trevor, Angela and Aubry. Aubry is almost ten months old and has been very close to walking for some time now. So close, that we had a lottery to see who could guess the day she would take 5 steps or more. Tonight when I came home from vespers, Aubry decided she wanted to crawl up stairs for a visit.

I was munching on pretzels and she wanted some so she took her first steps to me. I was so excited!! I had several people come up to watch as we put her through the drill time and time again, until she had it with us all and decided it was bed time.

Angela, Aubry's mom, glowed at her daughter's new skills. We think that Aubry is exceptional and early in most developmental stages. What a gift it has been to have this miracle downstairs.

Poppies

First there was one.

Then a few more.

Now they are everywhere. I have always loved Holden's poppies.

Pack Llamas

Trail work is a big part of the activity in the North Cascades. So many avalanches came down this January that the Forest Service decided to bring in llama to carry in the needed equipment for the crews doing the work.


The pack owners have raised and trained these llamas to work hard and be gentle. While they are in the village they allow the children to lead them around. The kids thought this was wonderful.

Here I am with a very gentle and tired llama.I caught these animals as they were coming out of the mountains and heading back home.

They are all done with their work and headed for the lake and the barge to take them home.

Outdoor Movie - The Sound of Music

Have you ever thought that it might be fun to sit outside with 200 other people and watch an old movie? Well, our utilities department thought that this would be a blast and so they set up an outdoor movie theater at the top of Chalet Hill. The Sound of Music was chosen as the movie to watch. The words to the music were displayed on the bottom of the screen so we could all sing along. The movie began at 9pm and lasted until midnight. We began with yard blankets on the grass and progressed to jackets and down comforters. A few even spent the night.

We all entered via a red carpet and a gate. As we went through we were given a ticket with a number for a chance to win a door prize. Our Utilities department really does a bang up job.

As time drew near people began to come up the hill to find their spot.

Nancy, Mark and Lee (the utilities people) made announcements in style.

The screen was a huge tarp drawn up between two buildings. The picture quality was awful but the sound was fine. We could read the words to sing along and most of us stayed till the end. We all had a wonderful time.