THEE Weddin'

Well, its been over a month since THEE weddin' between youngest son Grant and Bubbly Little Claire. They got hitched good and tight, so I'm thinking it's gonna stick. It was on helluva party, about 4 days worth. Just off the hook enough everyone took home some good stories, but not so bad the cops had to return. Certainly the highlight was the power going out before the ceremony, but coming on the instant Grant was serenading his bride during the service, and singing, very loudly, "Don't worry everything is gonna be alright." Aaah if only marriage was that easy.

Anyways, rather than bore you with written details, here, thanks to the photographs of wedding photog Steve Horn, is my take on the whole affair.


That's me, all dressed up and thanking God Grant is no longer my problem.


Eldest son Seth and my bride of 35 years, (our anniversary is 2 days after Grant and Claire's), anyways, that's Janice asking Seth why HE can't find a nice girl like Claire to marry.


The two fathers..one showing off the fresh coat of mink grease on his stompin' boots.


Father-in-law giving his daughter-in-law some last minute advice..."Don't you dare back out on me."


Great day for a wedding if you don't mind no electricity, wind, rain, and yes, snow.


Well Claire, you're a Burwash now, and all that comes with that name.


A tearful, last minute break-up between groom Grant and "close friend" Thee Drew Dahlstedt. "Drew, I don't know how to say this, but I've found another..."


Magoo being Magoo.


Brotherly love...their parents must be so proud.


Enough of this bullshit...time to get your ass to the church...Jesse "Jocko" Jenks does the honors.


Grant's singing, "Everything is going to be alright," but I'm not sure Claire is buying it.


So Claire, you hear the one about when Ole and Lina got married, and Lars....


Okay, all afternoon with the "Pimp Daddy" wing-tips, time to put on the stompin' boots.


Here I am convincing my older sister that all I've had is 5 beers.


Let the stompin' begin. Doing a little dosey-doe with Grant...


..and Seth


So Claire, I don't know about you, but I've had about enough of these idiots, what say we get the hell outta here.

Countdown to "W" Day

Grant and Claire the day she said, "Sure, I'll take you off your folks' hands."

Well, the countdown has begun. Tomorrow wife Janice goes to the airport to pick-up eldest son, Seth. Friday, I'm taking the whole day off to prepare, load the rig, and get on the noon ferry for Orcas Island. Friday night, Janice and I are hosting the rehearsal dinner. Saturday is "W" Day..our youngest son Grant and his bride, Bubbly Little Claire will exchange vows and begin their life's adventures. (Well, actually, CONTINUE their life's adventures.) Sunday will be kind of a wind down day as guests leave with each ferry.

Janice and I will be staying an extra night, however. Saturday will be Grant and Claire's first day of marriage, Monday will mark me and Janice's 35th year. So what am I going to tell the young couple on Friday night when I ask the gathered guests to raise their glasses? I'm not 100% sure. Still, I think I'll ask all who have been married awhile to consider whether or not they have enjoyed an easy life with their spouse....and then ask if they are having a GOOD life with their spouse. That's the key. Life's not easy, but with a the right partner, it sure as hell can be good.

To Grant and Claire!



The Happy Family L to R: My bride of 35 years, Janice, Eldest son Seth, the Happy Couple, the Old Farmer in the back.

Anticipation

I stopped by the Evergreen Cemetery in Everett today, like I do every year at this time. I was actually a day late. 99 years ago yesterday the boys gathered on the knoll on the north end took their last mortal breaths. First I cleaned off the marker I bought for Benny Jarnigan and then moved on to check on the others. Will Raycroft, Sid Jones, Frank Martin, Johnny Parzybok, Joe Pettit, Lewis Walker and Earl Longcoy were all paid a visit. On my way out I stopped over in the "new" section and paid my respects of "the Snow King" himself, Bill Harrington, resting with a shared headstone next to his beloved Lillian.

The mood wasn't all that somber. In fact, there was definitely a sense of anticipation. 99 years is a long time to be kept silent. I came away with a definite feeling the boys want me to knuckle down and get on with it. They definitely think it's time their story is told.

I promised them the next time I stopped by, sometime this summer, I'd have "Vis Major" in hand.

"Be patient," I told them. "A guy only has one shot at a deal like this. It's gotta be done right."

Anticipation; they feel it.

So do I.

Back At It....Already

I did a little tractor work yesterday. It sure seems early.

We are going to do some early weed control in the berries. In order for Wilbur Ellis to spray, I needed to fill in most the surface ditches I all but killed myself digging 6 weeks ago.

I definitely have a few reservations concerning this whole process. Wilbur did the same thing last winter and succeeded only in rutting up the field. I can absolutely say in complete honesty they did not kill a single weed, but did kill a number of young strawberry plants because the un-trained ape they had running the spray rig kept running down the rows trampling in the berries with the wheels. I wasn't impressed. Still, my partner is buddies with the guy that oversees Wilbur's spraying operations, so I'm currently out voted when it comes to getting someone who will do a good job for us.

Beyond my suspicion that Wilbur Ellis doesn't know their asses from a hole in the ground, I'm not convinced this winter's bad weather is behind us. They are due to spray on Tuesday. I think next week-end I'll be back out in the field, putting the ditches back in.

Farming....one step forward, two steps back.

The Things I'll Do...

The things I'll do to get attention. With the debut of "Vis Major" not that far off...(I hope), I've gone all out when it comes to firing up the ol' networking...network. I'm now on BOTH Face Book and My Space. Sad but true.

So far, I've found the Face Book to be the easiest to get established, although the My Space page has some fun applications. (The biggest issue with My Space is I had somehow listed myself as "Single". It took some serious surfing to get THAT changed.) Anyways..on My Space I set up a neat little slide show of what remains of the wreck in the canyon below Wellinigton as well as the Meath snow plow photo. You can take a gander at:

http://www.myspace.com/vismajornovel

"Vis Major" was already taken as a URL.. so I had to add the word "novel" It works.

Now over on Face Book I haven't really fired up the Vis Major whoring machine, but my home page is at:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/profile.php?id=1108565869&ref=name

There is a rail/farm photo gallery set up there and I think anyone can view it without signing up for Face Book.

It's the world of the net and networking is how the world seems to now work..so to speak.

A Winter Stroll

A few weeks back I made what has become an annual winter trip to Stevens Pass. If you look back in the posts on this fine blog you will see the results of last year's treks through the snows of Stevens. This year the pass had a very different look. Not near the snowfall, I traveled over to the east side and hiked from the East Portal of the Cascade Tunnel down to the old station of Gaynor..about a 7 mile round trip. Coming and going I photographed the trains running across the pass that day and a few other sites, like this avalanche run on Rocky Ridge. It brings home why the Great Northern ended up drilling an 8-mile tunnel.



The first train that I saw was actually a westbound container train. When it arrived at the East Portal, I was still enjoying my last cup of coffee before embarking in the 16 degree F fog, so I just let her go on by. The first train I photographed was the westbound Empire Builder, stopped by a red light thanks to the fore mentioned stack train still occupying the tunnel.





My favorite spot along the siding at Berne is this little knoll that overlooks a set of "S-curves". A westbound trailer train works up the siding for a meet with an eastbound. I lucked out. The westbound stopped just far enough up the siding to give this view of the eastbound dropping downgrade. What looks like snow on the trees is actually a thick layer of frost generated by a week of freezing fog.



A long walk, and even longer wait in the cold produced this image of eastbound double stacked containers slipping through the "hole in the wall" near the old station of Gaynor.





As usual, as soon as I shot the train down at Gaynor, it was time to turn around and start the uphill hike to the car up at the tunnel. On the way I stopped off near the East Berne signal bridge to shoot as eastbound grain empty. The conductor was an old friend, Andy VanWagnen. Seconds after the first shot was taken, Andy was out on the locomotive's side catwalk waving.





Thanks to bits and pieces of scanner chatter that I picked up as well as a hunch on my part, I decided to hang tough at East Berne and set up for a possible westbound. For once I was actually right! A westbound freight came up the hill with a helper set assisting mid-train.

A good way to end a long day. Not the spectacular snow shots produced by last year's efforts, but far from a waste of time. Besides, nothing is better for the mind and soul than a little winter stroll down the tracks.

Stampede Before the Deluge

Waaay back at the end of November I was invited to join railfans Brian Ambrose and John VanAmburg for a day of shooting up on Stampede Pass. The draw was the recent assignment of helpers out of Easton used to shove loaded grain trains over the mountain. Sadly..or in my case typically...it was a dark, foggy late fall day, and the BNSF opted not to send a grain train our way! Still all was not lost as it was very much a case of "your worst day of railfanning is still better than your best day at work."

So here's a few from that day:





I arrived at Easton before my two friends so I took advantage of the time to photograph the helper set in the foggy yard.



But we didn't drive all this way to walk around a static display of motive power. Time to do some railroading. Here the same helper set has coupled to the point of a westbound rail train and are hauling the whole mess up the grade where once stood the old Martin approach signal bridge.



Waiting for the helpers to return from the west, I used the backdrop of the east portal of the Stampede Tunnel and waterfall to pose two of the Northwest's best and brightest...Brian Ambrose to the right, John VanAmburg to the left.





The light in the tunnel materializes into the helper set returning to Easton. Engineering was friend, Greg Weirich. Nearly all the track and solid ground seen in these two photos is now washed away after the floods of January '09. Repairs are due to be completed in March.





The fog never really burned off. In fact, it seemed to be a little thicker when an empty grain train came rattling down the hill.





I shot the last train of the day, a helper train at...well where else?

Martin