Sunrise, Grain Run, Cub Scout Campout At Diamond Lake

Yesterday morning bright and early I was out the door on my way to town to pickup grain. I was treated to a rather nice sunrise over Mt. Spokane.

First stop was to drop a few empties and pickup 2 barrels which got loaded on the trailer.

Next stop was to drop empties at the base of the stacks.

Third stop was picking up 2 more barrels which was 4 that I combined. The barrels ended up below the rim by the time the grain had settled from the bumps of driving.

I had to stop for gas on the way home which got me soaking a bit late but I was not in for long as I had to check on the water in the shower. The valve is getting old and I will probably have to swap it out for a new one soon, the hot water sometimes doesn't catch inside when it is turned fast.

At 8am I went and backed the trailer into the sheep pen and dumped the 4 barrels out. It is in the corner where there has been minimal grain piled so far. You can just see in the upper right corner on the other side of the fence there is volunteer squash plants starting. See them told me for sure next growing season I will be shutting the sheep off from this pen and I will grow winter squash, namely giant pumpkins which should have beyond enough nutrients to get super big. I still need to break into triple digits with pumpkin.

Trailer unhooked I got all our camping gear loaded into the truck and we were on the road before 9:30am.

We got to Cowles Scout Camp before 10am and it didn't take long to get tents setup while Willy worked to blow the walkways off and the tree houses out with his electric leaf blower.

The lake is only about 40 feet from the tree houses and there is a meager trail to it where there are a couple of derelict docks moored.

The tree houses have elevated walkways between them and meandering through the trees.

The boys setup their tent in one of the tree houses, the same they stayed in last time. I have to get them a new tent as the zipper is blown on theirs, though they have gotten a good bit of use out of it.

We all went on a walk to the lake and did plant identification along the way. J knows a large number of our local native plants by sight.

We headed to the dock area where we went over the swimming safety rules with the kids before heading back to camp to eat lunch then change for swimming.

We got to the water after eating and the butterflies were everywhere along the shore. Rather calm and they seemed to be going for the water just out of the waves reach.

I was standing on the dock looking into the water when I saw this 2 foot long rainbow trout swimming around looking for food in the sandy bottom of the lake. I ran and got the action cam on the selfie stick and shoved it into the water to get shots of it. After a couple minutes I had to go run for my fishing gear to give it a try. I dropped everything I had in the tackle box in front of its nose and it ignored it all. I eventually gave up.

The boys spent hours running around the dock and playing in the water.

I was standing back out watching the fish when I turned around to see a duck with her 4 young within a couple feet of R on the beach. Insanely mellow duck who came within a foot of us as she walked her young around on the shore.

It was a really nice day in the low 80s F and perfect for swimming.

J spent some time burying himself in the sand while R helped. He made it to his chest before he climbed out of the sand to go run around again.

I went out and swam around off the end of the dock for a bit to cool off after a couple of hours. We finally called it good around 3pm and headed back to the tree houses.

The boys got a fire going for the evening before deciding they wanted to play some gaga ball.

Next to the gaga ball pit I found an osprey feather from one of the birds nesting nearby.

They could only play so long before they all got too hot and were done.

Around 5 pm we got dinner ready for the kids. Hotdogs all around except for me, I brought a portion of freeze dried beef stroganoff. After eating they kept playing until smores which they got reined in this time and were only allowed a couple each.

It was after 10pm before I headed to bed and the rest of the group did the same. I woke up this morning to the horrible ravens making a hell of a racket in the trees above my tent. I eventually got up around 6am and made myself coffee.

I figured it was a better time to go try fishing again so I grabbed a rod, tackle, and my coffee and headed down. The lake was nice and calm and as I sat on the end of the dock the mist was flowing across the top of the water to my left and behind me. I didn't get any bites and after about 45 minutes I heard the boys in the camp making noise so picked up my stuff and headed back.

Willy made pancakes and sausages for breakfast then we all worked on tearing down the tents and getting everything cleaned up and packed up. Once the area was cleaned and we were packed the boys wanted to play more gaga ball which was far nicer in the shade.

I walked over to the shore and saw the barge being pushed in for the fireworks to be loaded onto it for the 4th. They will tow the barge out to the middle of the lake for the show. I'm doubtful we will go watch it.

We got home an hour ago and have unpacked the truck. The boys are both looking super tired and will sleep hard tonight most likely. I now have my work cut out for me getting all the butchering areas setup for tomorrow morning. I also have to setup the fence so I can corral the birds for easier collecting in the morning. I unpacked our new meat grinder and the thing is pretty beefy, it looks like it will be incredible for butcher days. I have to pull out meat to grill tonight and make sure to have a fire going later this afternoon.