Thanksgiving

A week ago, the weather forecast for Thanksgiving in Garberville was looking ominous--heavy rain, low fifties. Micah's parents suggested it may not be wise to come up for Thanksgiving. We decided to take our chances and drove up north anyway. Glad we did: it was a beautiful time, with early morning fog, dew on the grass, and cold nights perfect for sleeping.

The dew was like diamonds,
and stayed on the grass for most of the day.

Self-portrait in the forest.  Madrone, douglas fir, tanoak, and others.

Xander contemplates the land from his moss "raft."
Micah and Kai are way downslope in the background.

We had a delicious "celebration meal" as Xander put it. The usual items, just minus the dairy and the gluten: turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, gravy, cranberry relish, pumpkin pie.

Xander made himself busy playing outside, building a "castle" out of discarded marble tiles, taking his pet whale for a walk, exploring in the woods. Grandma Ellen gave Xander a Go Fish card game and he must have asked us to play cards ten times a day. Kai went on a hike with us, played with musical instruments, and kept us up off and on every night (he's a terrible sleeper these days!).

Path leading toward the main house.
We slept in the "annex" to the right of this path.

Xander and Micah starting on the marble castle.

Xander in his dirt house.
We had to change his pants four times each day.

Kai happy to be hiking.

Temporary home while Denis and Ellen redo main house interior.
We managed to squeeze four adults and two kids in
here for Thanksgiving dinner.

On Friday, Micah went on a long bike ride out to Shelter Cove, where Xander, Kai and I picked him up. We explored the tidepools and saw an incredible sunset while waiting for Micah to finish his ride. It would have been a great evening for everyone, except Xander's motion sickness came back with a vengeance on the way out and the way back to the Cove. At least Micah got in a ride.

On Saturday, as we were leaving, we stopped by a friend's house down the road and were gifted with 21 (!) freshly laid eggs. They made it back whole on the seven hour drive home, and this morning we had the most delicious scrambled eggs ever. (Thanks Blaze, Erin, Riley-Dawn!)

Twenty-one freshly laid eggs--a gift from Blaze & Erin.
(Oh, and the table they are on is made from a scrap of
madrone wood salvaged from underneath Blaze's barn.)

This egg puts grocery-store eggs to shame.
Tall, orange yolk, thick white, and delicious flavor.