Oct
The next big change and positive development of the summer came about in late July or so, when we bought a house. “We” means Emmet, Kara, and baby Phoenix; Jordan; and me. We’ll all be here except when we’re working on San Juan Island or sailing or traveling somewhere, which we’ll do in various combinations and at various (but mostly seasonally driven) times.
The main house forms a big + sign with a couple of small decks on the front corners
Three generations under one roof – kinda like the Old Days, I’m told. Older than me, anyway (and at this point, that’s starting to get fairly old), as I never lived with my grandparents. The house has plenty of space for everybody, including a small, free-standing one-bedroom apartment in the back, a light and airy feeling, a great view to the south that on clear days includes Mt Rainier, lots of parking, and even a couple of fruit trees in the back yard.
The only thing we were looking for that this place fell a little short on is a two-car garage and space for a machine shop / workshop. We do have a one-car garage with just enough space to jam in the mill, lathe, drill press, tool chests, spare parts, etc., and still turn around in. Nevertheless, we’re really happy to have found this place and count ourselves most fortunate (but we also paid plenty of dues, having spent months looking and having been disappointed by a couple of potential deals that went pear-shaped).
Mini urban ski lodge, big window facing south
I’ve put a few teaser pix here; you can see the full collection, lifted from the real estate listing, on the Gallery2 page (www.witanco.com/gallery2 and click on the thumbnail). You’ll see that the house, designed and built in 1961 by the folks we bought it from, is a little unusual – overall, the house forms a two-story + or plus sign, and the interior might be called “mini urban modern ski lodge.”
This year the plum tree was prolific, very productive, but the fig tree never ripened for some reason. It’s loaded with half-size green figs that look like … well, let’s just say that they look like an anatomical feature found on male mammals and let it go at that.
The fig tree probably didn’t get much water for a couple of months, but that didn’t seem to slow the plum tree down at all. Would pruning it in some specific way in the spring help? If you have any thoughts about how to get the figs to ripen next year, send them along.
And now it’s autumn and the clouds and chilliness are starting to move in.
Mt Rainier, like an inscrutable god, a touchstone