2016 Annual Report

Started the year by installing some yard art in the garden.

In April Patti and I flew off to North Africa for a loop around Morocco. It was fun and interesting visiting places a bit different from our usual vacation spots. We spent time in various Moroccan cities, a night in a tent in the Sahara, and did a little hiking in the Atlas Mountains. The complete story: Two Weeks in Morocco

The weather this summer and fall wasn't the best, and neither were my rickety knees, but I still got in a bunch of hikes in the Cascades. Some pictures are in Best Photos section.  And we still take our daily walk in the woods, with either Daphne or Lydia.

At the beginning of June I took a car-camping trip over to Devils Tower in eastern Wyoming and back across Montana, looking for birds and non-avian dinosaurs along the way.  I tried to find a Mountain Plover in the prairies of Montana... no luck... and stopped at a few of the dinosaur museums in Montana, the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman was particularly good.  Here's a Facebook post of a Minuteman silo out in the middle of Montana.  And here's the picture report: Devils Tower and Montana.

Only July 3rd Patti and I happily celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary, I think... at our age we're beginning to forget these things.  It's also the 30th anniversary of our moving into Dog's Breath Acres.  Back then the table saw was still in the living room; one of these days I'll finish building the place.

One day we had a bunch of grandchildren over to build fairy houses out in the woods.  Political advertising was starting to pop up everywhere.

Here's one (of my two) political Facebook posts of the year.

One night in September a marauding bear tore down our bird feeders, without eliciting a single peep from our ever-vigilant guard dogs, Lydia and Daphne. I have my suspicions that they knew perfectly well what was going on, but decided feigning sleep was the safest course of action.

Patti has been keeping busy lately creating hand-made books, which are quite something.  Here's an internet version of a book she made for grandchild Andrew's birthday, an illustrated story about Andrew, Michael, a friendly lion, and termite and honey sandwiches.  And here's one she made for Michael's birthday.

Cousins Randy and Cindy flew out to visit their latest grandchild, Alice Folsom; and I took the opportunity, along with Kristi Stoddard, to head down past Tacoma to to meet the proud parents, James and Harriet, who work at Joint Base Lewis McChord.  Here's a picture taken by Harriet.

Patti and I drove down to Oregon for a Thanksgiving feast, with plenty of trimmings. We also took a couple of walks at the ocean, visited Kate's and Ger's art and poetry exhibit in Lincoln City, and ticked the 2nd American record Common Scoter, conveniently diving for crabs nearby.  I got one other new bird for the year, in February a Black-headed Gull inadvertently took a left turn at Amchitka and ended up in a field a few miles from Dog's Breath Acres.

Looking forward (I guess) to a fine 2017.