Ray who is our neighbor 'across the alley' makes beautiful stained glass....and some child's foot stools... Ray and his wife, Kathe, are our good friends. I relieved him for awhile on his 2 days of Craft Sale because he was having a Garage Sale on top of all this.... He can't be in 2 places at once. Al and I adore both he and Kathe alot.

These are 3 of our neighbors.....from left to right...Karren, Linda and Margaret. They each had their own 'craft' to sell, yet Margaret's hubby, Junior makes gorgeous pens, pencils, and letter openers.

This is Elizabeth who made my gorgeous note cards and also made the recycled Wal*Mart bags into a large tote that I will take to Hawaii with me. She is adorable...

Two more crafter's from Ryderwood.. The wonderful lady on the left is Cecil and she turned in my purse when Al and I were having lunch in Chehalis a few weeks ago....her hubby makes these wonderful ferris wheels in wood...and lots of adorable homemade hats, table runners, etc.

From oil paintings to plants potted in everything from a tea pot, to an old coffee pot to a old gasoline container or whatever looked 'interesting'. Some of the vendors were not from Ryderwood as this sale was open to a few other neighboring communities as Vadar, Winlock, Toledo, Napavine and Castle Rock...

This is a Ryderwood resident, Sissy, who has weaves gorgeous shawls, and scarfs on her own loom. She wouls explain the weaving process to people who were interested and sold numerous shawls and scarfs.

These framed pictures were all quilted....yup they were quilted... She had numerous scenes from this Southwestern scene to mountain scenes, underwater scenes and even a Koi pond that was absolutely incredible... by the time I got around to her booth with my camera most of the pictures were gone and sold. I went to the sale a few times throughout the 2 days as I helped with

relief for Ray and his gorgeous stained glass.

Some of our neighborhood Crafters... There was quite a lot of exquisite merchandise. Ryderwood is thinking about having a Spring Craft Sale but for sure anyone in the vicinity really should come by sometime during this 2 day event.

Our next door neighbor made these gorgeous wreaths...some of them had twinking lites woven in the flowers. They were gorgeous.

Last customer at the Craft Sale...definitely NOT a Ryderwood resident as this is a 55+ Community...
Keep checking our BLOG for pictures from our Hawaii trip...to be posted soon.
Mahalo, Melekalekemaka, (spelling?) and Aloha....

Our friends, Larry and Connie who are in the process of building a new home in Eastern Oregon and we will be visiting them in the near future. You can tell just from this photo that they are 'fun and happy people'. We spent some time with them when we were in Memphis, TN and thoroughly enjoyed every minute.

Al and I went to Olympia last week and stayed in a super Bed and Breakfast. Unfortunately I forgot the camera. If you would like to see it: http://www.swantowninn.com

Please keep checking this Blog as I will be posting pictures of our Hawaii trip in a few weeks....

Hope you had a peaceful and plentiful Thanksgiving surrounded by good friends and family.

Merry Christmas to all, stay well and BE HAPPY.

Cute Connie and














'the guys'... Al and Larry.

I really like to use that new BBQ we bought. I decided to use Apple wood for the Chicken and it was wonderful. Looks pretty good to me.... Ummmmm! Larry was excited to try it too...

Oh Larry ...."I can't believe you ate the whole thing"..

Larry is 'lovin' this BBQ Chicken...He devoured it.

On October 30, 2007, Al and I packed a sack lunch and headed for Mt. St. Helens. The weather was gorgeous and only wearing short sleeves we proceeded to climb the Mountain.

We went right into the Blast Zone which was the topic of discussion just before the eruption, during and after she blew.

We witnessed Mother Nature at her best....and saw her re-growth and also what Weyerhaueser and the other tree farms had done to help the forest.

It was also amazing to see many animals back in the area... pretty great. So come with us on our day trip to Mt. St. Helens and through the Blast Zone.

Well, it was not the clearest day to visit Mt. St. Helens but we are looking right into the volcano from the side that was blasted away. In the middle you will notice a dome re-building with steam escaping from the dome. We are standing at the Johnson Ridge Observatory!
Pretty amazing and we hope to take all our visitors up there to experience this for yourselves.

When Mt. St. Helens erupted the loved Spirit Lake was destroyed, but in it's place a new lake was born..

This is the new lake.

If you look closely you will see a field of downed trees and some standing still that were sheltered by the side of that knoll. It certainly is much clearer in person and an awe inspiring sight.

There were downed trees everywhere and lots of tree stumps where Weyerhauser salvaged many of the trees.

Weyerhauser has done an incredible job of replanting the area. Here are some Noble Firs planted 2 years after the eruption and already are between 20-25 feet high.

Plus as we climbed higher we noticed the underbrush has grown back too, along with native trees...

Mother Nature is awesome.

We had a great time stopping at the Hoffstadt Bluffs Visitor Center. This was our first really great view of Mt. St. Helens and the Toutle River valley... and what a view it was...

When we pulled over we had a grand view of the Toutle River valley with Mt. St. Helens in the background. This valley was once a torrent of raging pyro-plastic flow traveling at a horrendous speed. All quiet now ~ thank goodness.

It was good to see this pretty building and a needed rest stop. Lots of great gifts and information about Mt. St. Helens.

When entering the building, this huge portrayal of the eruption looms overhead. Better in person.....

We stopped at Hoffstadt Bluffs Visitor Center to check out all the gift shop and the restaurant.

Since we will be having guests visiting next summer the quality of the restaurants on the Mountain are important....

As we were driving up the road this huge bird flew across the street right in front of us and then landed on a fallen tree. He just sat there for 5 minutes while we stopped to take pictures.

The road signs along the way to Mt. St. Helens, reminded us to 'watch out for wildlife'. Not only did we see this Bald Eagle, we saw a raccoon along the side of the road and a wolf that ran in front of our car and lots of Wolley Bear Caterpillars....

We stopped to visit BIG FOOT who is along side the highway.
WOW he was HUGE

We followed the Toutle River to over 4,000 ft to visit Mt. St. Helens...

Toutle River on our way to Mt. St. Helens on October 30, 2007.

At the time the volcano blew on May 18, 1980 @ 8:30 a.m. this area was about to turn into a raging river filled with blown down trees and logs from Weyerhauser's land. It is now only a trickle.