Knot Tying in Everyday Life

One of the many skills needed to be an awesome mariner is that of knot tying.  I can remember years ago after we had purchased our very first boat ever, but not yet taken in out on the water as a family.  Only my husband and his friends had taken it out up to this point.  The few days before the planned outing Outdoor Dad and I sat around the dining room table with some rope and tried to figure out how to make a few very basic knots that we would need to know.  Thinking back to those evenings, they were fun and it was exciting to think about the adventures that might be in store for us.  However, with the benefit of hindsight - the two or three knots we practiced (while they got us through the weekend) were woefully inadequate for living on a sailboat and sailing it around. 

We have managed to learn a few more, and can now generally tie the 'correct' knot for the situation.  Or at least a knot that another sailor could recognize and be able to untie and not think we were completely clueless.  But, we have decided that the kids are not going to suffer from the same fate that we have.  And so we have been teaching them a few knots.  Outdoor Boy will probably be pretty far ahead of any other Tiger Scouts at a minimum, I would be willing to bet when the time comes.

Life back in the Pacific North West

It has been quite a while since previous posts, I keep telling myself that I am going to work on it.  And I truly hope to.

Sparing everyone the back-story, I will just start with this week.  We are in the middle of purchasing a 42ft Catalina tri-cabin - woohoo!  It is all but finished, just crossing 't's' and dotting 'i's' on the final documentation and on Saturday we will do the official handing over of the keys and can commence transforming it into our new home.

Yes, you heard that right, we are planning on moving back aboard.  Not sure where we are going to have it moored, somewhere in the Puget Sound should hopefully work, not planning on venturing out to the Pacific and beyond just yet.  :-)  

This is a pretty good reflection of what we have been doing so far.  Re-grouping and enjoying our time back as a family while planning for the next adventure.  Putting all the moving pieces back together while building a new picture of how we want our lives to look going forward. 

Books we have and are reading 2013-2014 school year

I have decided to post an on-line journal of the books that we have finished (and what we are currently reading) for the 2013-2014 school year that we read as a family.  Without further delay, here they are:

Ginger Pie -  Eleanor Estes
Where the Sidewalk Ends - Shel Silverstein
The Cat in Numberland - Ivar Ekeland
Sarah, Plain and Tall, Caleb's Story, and Skylark - Patricia MacLachlan
The Boxcar Children - Gertrude Chandler Warner
Encyclopedia Brown Boy Detective - Donald J. Sobol
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH - Robert C. O'Brien
(currently) The Phantom Tollbooth - Norton Juster

Sailing on Lake Mead

Outdoor Dad and I were able to go to the sailing weekend class this past weekend.  It was nice to get on some other boats and see how they sailed.  We were able to go on a J/29 and an Ericson 25 - it was interesting to see how things were both similar and different from our Cal 29.  And also how different Lake Mead is to Puget Sound.  Here was the first view of the lake.

The wind difference from coming off an ocean and around islands vs. over the edge of a cliff.  I am sure there are all kinds of technical explanations and models, but I don't really know what they are.  But it seems to boil down to - it is windier near the edges - lol.  Quiet helpful isn't it?  Neither day that we were on the water have very strong or steady winds.  Maybe up to 5 knots of wind with a good strong gust, and not sustained.  Which I know that the winds certainly can be much stronger and nicer, just not last weekend.

Another funny, for us, experience, was that the owner of the Ericson offered to beach the boat so that we could jump out and go swimming and explore one of the coves.  The boat has a swing keel so that it can be retracted up.  The moment that the boat hit the beach Outdoor Dad and I just looked at each other with disbelief, did this just happen on PURPOSE?  It was all we could do not to laugh, it was just such a surreal experience to hit the bottom on purpose.  I will admit that we have been on boats in the past that have touched the bottom, but in the Puget Sound, most of the time, this is not done on purpose and is generally the beginning of a sad and/or costly boating story.  But, here, we all just hopped off and splashed in the warm water.  Then pushed the boat off and went on with the rest of the afternoon.

Another adventure was seeing the back of Hoover Dam for the first time. 

Best Regards,
Outdoor Mom

Big Changes

Hello - it has been a while since I have added a blog post.  Life has been quite the whirlwind.  Last update we were living on the sailboat and touring the Puget Sound.  We are now living in a 'mansion' - 25 times bigger then the sailboat, we figured this out during a math lesson one morning - in the middle of the desert - no ocean to be found.  However, there is lots of wind.  And, we are living next to a small man made lake that has a few dinghy sailboats on it.  Maybe that will be the next water adventure, or maybe not, who knows.

So you might be wondering, what? What happened?  Well, the short story is that Outdoor Dad has a new job and we had to move so that he could take it.  It is a great opportunity for him career wise, and we are expecting many more outdoor adventures even here, once it cools down a bit that is.  We are a few hours from the Grand Canyon, Death Valley, and lots of other interesting places that we have never had the chance to visit before.

There is actually a sailing possibility here as well, the main spot is at Lake Mead, behind Hoover Dam.  In fact we Outdoor Dad and I are taking a sailing class there next weekend.  I know, taking a sailing class after we have sold our boat and been up and down and around Puget Sound.  And we are not buying one here, which might turn out to be famous last words.

In closing, here is a photo of our new community swimming lagoon.  The kids have enjoyed it a ton and named the small islands that they build Mermaid Isle.

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