Okanogan Late Summer Harvest

Late summer is when everything comes too ripe, too fast and fruit flies rule our roost.  Here's a sampling from Okanogan County produce and spiders (I like photographing them, they're beautiful up really close in a picture).

Peppers; hot, very hot, and crazy hot.

Okanogan Orb Weaver spider. I found her just outside our backdoor, hanging upside down.  She was there a couple days and then disappeared.  Enlarge the picture and check out her hair, it's crazy! Yes, she's officially called an Okanogan Orb Weaver. I hope we don't have baby Orb Weavers all over next year, one's OK, a family by our door might be another thing.

Drying nectarines.

Mara's latest crop of strawberries.

Garden spider in the strawberry patch.

Mara's raspberries, still producing since June!  After Mara and her sister, April, picked berries they made calzones from scratch and I made maragaritas!

Recent hike with Mara.

Rob & Rina Come For A Visit

We've been excited to see Rob and Rina for about six months since we somehow convinced them to drive 14 hours to our place and then hike the rest of the Pacific Crest Trail with our friend, Mara.  Mara has been hiking the trail all summer, she started at the California/Oregon border.  The last four days we planned to do with her, which would end on the other side of the border in Canada.  These days would be hard, 15-20 miles each day with lots of ascents and descents.  Of course the plan was to have the two dogs, Maggie and Lucy, do all this with us.  We then would be picked up by Mara's sister in CA and drive 7 hours home (likely arriving at 2 am) and then go to work the next day and Rob and Rina would drive home.  Follow all that? Basically, lots of long, hard days of hiking without any time for recovery.

It isn't surprising then that when the weather forecast turned ugly, really ugly, that we bailed on the above plans.  The forecast was rain and snow for at least 3 days, possible thunder and lightening (did I mention that most of the hiking would be on ridges?) and the high one day was predicted at 42 F.  We shamelessly tucked our tails and let Mara finish the hike with only her boyfriend, Adam.  They survived, but reported 2 days of hiking in snow, cold temperatures and lots of wetness.

So...what'd we do since now we had 4 full days with Rob and Rina and no plans, yet rainy weather at our place too.  Went on day hikes of course.  Click the 'read more' to see the pics!