Summer School? You bet!

We decided that since we love to learn, and because really, the learning never stops, that we were going to keep up our routine over the summer months and still do 'formal seat work' in our homeschooling.  One exciting thing, is that Outdoor Boy is also going to officially start joining us.  He is really growing up!

I thought I would give a little glimpse into our daily routines and see what we have been studying this week.  In addition to all the interesting life stuff as well.

Here is Outdoor Girl doing some reading (while we crossing the Strait of Juan de Fuca).

This is the cover of the summer reading log that she has started.  She is so, so excited to participate.  Outdoor Boy is also doing one, but you can tell he is just doing it because his older sister is as well.  We are not going to be here long, but in the four days that she has been enrolled she has managed to complete 6 of the challenges, and received a new Rainbow Fairy Book!!!  As well as a grab bag, shave ice, flexible flier, and other stuff - how is it all going to fit into her room?  I don't know.

We decided to take an inter-island ferry one day.  It goes around to Orcas, Shaw, Lopez, and Friday Harbor and is free to go around the circuit on.  One of the things they enjoyed was doing puzzles that are set up at the tables that anyone can help put together.  This one they finished, you can see another one in the background of the second picture while they decided to take a break and work on writing (Outdoor Girl) and math (Outdoor Boy).  We were waiting for loading and unloading and not moving was not quite as exciting on the ferry as being underway.

Here they are working on some math, learning about square numbers.  And the best part - mini chocolate chips!  They were so funny.  I told them they had to wait till we were done to eat them, and that they could only eat those that they made a square with.  At the end we didn't have enough blocks to make a complete square, so they came up with the idea of putting the chocolate chips where they would be as if we had enough squares to finish so that they could eat more.

Cheers,
Outdoor Mom

Going on a Shrimp Hunt

The diversity of sea life in and along the Puget Sound is really amazing.  This past year of living on the boat we have learned so much on our multiple times daily walk along the piers looking over into the water.  The sea life changes with the seasons, and also with the locations.  I know, really no surprise, but watching it unfold day by day right before your eyes and under your feet can really be a humbling experience.  I have learned more about Jelly Fish in the past year then I ever expected.  This is a picture of a Lion Mane Jelly fish we saw one afternoon in Olympia.  Just hanging out outside the door.  Good thing we were not in a hurry to get anywhere that we got to stop and really look at it.  Underneath, is has all kinds of orange and yellow tentacles, this picture in no way shows the awesome beauty and we watch him/her swim for probably 20 minutes marveling in it. 

But this post is supposed to be about Shrimp.  We did not see shrimp even once in Olympia that I can think of.  But here, here they are everywhere!  And they are exciting to try and catch with a net.  I had never attempted this before, it is an art, and it is kind of fun.  One thing we have learned, is that they come out in the evening but that you can find them all the time.


We started our search with the net that we had on the boat.  However, while our net is great for getting crabs in Olympia, we found that it did not work so well for shrimp in Friday Harbor.  The docks in the marina for one thing are quite a bit higher from the level of the water.  And secondly, the shrimp like to be much deeper.

We managed to procure two of the official 'child shrimp catching nets' that are sold in town and things became much easier.

But while we were still using the smaller net we managed to get some.  Here is Outdoor Dad helping to transfer the catch into the bucket.

Our prisoner.

Where am I?????

Here is Outdoor Boy getting into the action.

And here was out take from about 30 minutes or so of trying to catch them.  We counted about 30.  We decided to let them go this time.

But stay tuned, you never know, there might be a post about having them for dinner . . .

Cheers,
Outdoor Mom

A Beautiful Sunday!

What a nice day.  We are spending it with family that came over on the ferry.  I just thought I would put up a few pictures and try to do fill in with some more details later.

Outdoor Mom

 Outdoor Girl has been working on her knot tying, this is her first attempt at Monkey's Fist.  Outdoor Dad has promised an ice cream if she can get it and do it well without using the card at all.

 The start of a sailboat race in Port Townsend.

Lots of days spent like this one.  Playing on the beach.  Outdoor Kids made up a new on-going game where they each have empires and have many adventures with the different people, stores, and treasures in each of the empires.

A Week in Port Townsend, WA

We spent one week in Port Townsend, it was the second week that Outdoor Dad was telecommuting but the first that we had spent in 'unfamiliar territory'.  From my perspective it went well.  Trying to figure out how to organize our days on the boat, how for him to organize his days, and just how to get things done without stepping all over each other.

We spent several nights at anchor, and several nights at the city dock.  The nights at the city dock were interesting in how different they were.  The first one, no issues, just like being at any other dock.  The second, the waves were ferocious.  After several times getting out of bed to re-tie lines and mess with things we finally let out a ton of slack into the dock lines, and put out several extra fenders and tied those to the dock instead of to the boat.  Then seemed to do the trick as far as our boat hitting the dock where there were no fenders and causing possible damage.  Not a very restful night however, we were wishing we were at anchor, but didn't want to go about moving in the dark.

As far as activities, the beach was a HUGE hit.

 We went to several different ones.  In the picture below, Outdoor Girl and Boy are very involved in a game of 'Empire'.  This lasted for days and was very elaborate.  It consisted of making lands called empires, and then filling them with people and making towns, industries, and shops and then playing out their lives.

One day we met up with friends and had a grand time playing at the beach.  In this picture they found some rope that had washed up and were trying to untie it.  They also enjoyed making and playing in forts made out of all the drift wood around.

In the afternoon we hiked over to Fort Worden State Park and explored the old bunkers.  As you can see, both enjoyed making my blood pressure rise as they explored and climbed everywhere.  

On our walk we came across this statue.  We didn't make it, but I am very happy that someone did and that we were able to enjoy it.  Outdoor Boy decided that it really needed a baby, and that he could build a baby one.  So, he put the small stone on the left side and that is that baby.

Another day we spent visiting all of the toy stores in town.  That was quite a hit.  Here they are enjoying several of the games to try.

We had a nice week.

Cheers,
Outdoor Mom

Day Two

Today our membership in the local sailing club finally paid for itself.  One of the benefits is being able to get reciprocal moorage at many different places.  And today, the free moorage benefits exceeded a years membership dues.  Always a nice feeling.  And I am glad we are tied up because the winds are gale force according to the marine forecast, they are pushing us around quite a bit and we have messed with the halyards several times and can not seem to make, and keep, them from banging.

Today we saw Orca, or killer, Whales.  Very cool.  We saw them for a good three or four minutes before they dove and were not spotted again.  We didn't even try to get a picture though, they didn't come up at regular predictable intervals like the dolphins, and those were insane hard to get the, not even very good, picture that we got yesterday.

Today's bridge photo was taken under the Port Townsend Canal bridge.  It was actually scarier then the Narrows, MUCH closer and no way to not go through once we entered the canal.

As you can see, we once again were going directly into the wind.

We plan on sticking around here for the week so that Outdoor Dad can work  at his day job, we have a plan to visit all the toy stores as well as several of the museums and parks.

Cheers,
Outdoor Mom

Day One - Ice Cream Curise vs. Cruise to Nowhere

We made it - day one is down.  15 hours moving the boat.  I can't really say sailing the boat, although we did have the sails up some of the time.  The entire day the winds blew against us, we decided to motor instead of tack.  Since we were a little further away then our preferred destination due to the engine issues, we decided that we just wanted to slog through as quick as we could and use all available daylight to our advantage.

We left at first light, about 4:30 AM, here is our last pictures of our last official home port:

And Dad, this photo is just for you, do you recognize it?  I promise, the only reason we were this close was because it was tied up to the dock, engines off   :-)

The day progressed with out any incidents.  We even saw several groups of little spinner dolphins.  Outdoor Boy saw them and promptly told us it was good luck, just like in a story we finished listening too.  The picture was kind of difficult but here was the best one.  You can just barely see the fin of one of them sticking out of the water.  They would travel in groups of 4-6 and we saw several different groups.

You can just make out the Narrows Bridge in the distance.

Here we are going under the Narrows Bridge.  WooHoo! - going with the current and some wind, making good time.

But then, the tiny wind was gone.  The kids had fun being our look out.  Making sure we were not going to run into anything and being dolphin, sea lion, other wild life, and train spotters.

Making waves - East of Bainbridge Island.

Outdoor Girl thought of a new hairstyle and had me put in it, she was very excited about it.

Good Night.

Sailing Away???

This blog has been very much neglected, sorry about that.  Life was just so interesting and fun and exciting that I didn't manage to blog about it as I had intended.  I am trying to work on that.

So, the big exciting thing, we are casting off the dock lines and setting out to sail.  Yes, a whole summer of sailing.  Outdoor Dad has a job that is allowing him to telecommute for the summer and we plan to take full advantage of it.

We have spent the last few weeks getting ready.  Purchased a new life jacket for Outdoor Boy who is growing so fast, made sure that all the emergency equipment was up to date, working, and where we wanted it.  Took out the dehumidifier and put back in the toilet (it is really, really, nice to not have so much rain).  Even gave the boat a good scrubbing and it looks much nicer.  Then we brought the cushions for the cockpit out of storage.  Gave the electric system a bit of an upgrade so that we are able to have power without being plugged into the shore power.  We now have a solar charger, a solar trickle charger, and an inverter to run off the outboard engine.  We decided to forgo the generator and just use an inverter because we didn't want to add another engine.  We also took off the electric over and replaced it with a two burner propane stove.

We think we are about ready to cast off.   We have been speaking with the kids a lot lately about how sometimes you just need to be flexible and go with the flow.  That just because X, Y, and Z are on the agenda for the day, sometimes A comes along and takes precedence.  And Y or Z just have to wait, or maybe you decide to not do Y or Z after all.  What does this have to do with sailing you ask???  Well, we had planned to leave yesterday.  But, something came up (uggg, carburetor issue with our engine) and we had to delay.  Our new plan is to leave tomorrow now that it is fixed.

Today, we attended an event with quite a few of our friends.  An event that had we been sailing, we would of not been able to go.  At the conclusion of it, we are discussing what our afternoon plans were and if we had time to do X, Y, Z, M,N, O, and P (no possible way to fit all of these things in) Outdoor Girl tells me "I'm so glad our plans changed and we could come today, it made me happy to see my friends and give them a hug good bye.  Sometimes plans change for the better." And I have to agree.  In some ways, I am glad we had another day here.

And really it was a nice day.

Here is Outdoor Dad putting the engine back together, it works!!!!

Bon Voyage.