Wagner Newsletter

1998

Yet another year has slipped by with frightening speed - whoa! Time to slam on the brakes long enough to glance over our shoulders and see where we've been...

Hilary and Ryan are both in middle school now and doing very well. They are still avid readers, great students and good athletes. No complaints! Hilary got her first taste of real work this summer: she offered to do baby/pet sitting and house/yard work for the neighbors and landed LOTS of jobs. We are very proud to have such a hard-working, responsible kid. Ryan is a bit more of a "free spirit" shall we say, and it quite adept at doing things his own way in his own time. He has discovered the joys of acting on a stage (drama has been a strong point since birth) and gave a great performance as the gatekeeper and a munchkin in The Wizard of Oz. In fact, he was made assistant to the assistant director when it became obvious that he had learned everyone else's lines in addition to his own.

Besides filling in for two months at the Devil's Lake Water Improvement District, Dave vied for the SuperDad title by chaperoning another 6th grade field trip to Bend. What a glutton for punishment! And for spare time fun he built a huge retaining wall along our road, which was threatening to slide into the creek. This he managed to do by scrounging materials around town and painstakingly piecing them together like a jigsaw puzzle. All this and he makes a mean apple pie too - are we spoiled or what? Dave also surprised us by diving headfirst into a book collecting addiction (no known cause). We knew he was serious when he returned home from an auction with his pickup full of SIXTY boxes of books, some of them camouflaged as firestarter and woodrat nesting material. To his credit he has sold a good many of them and made a tidy profit, but we now have a critical need for bookshelves!

This summer Dave found us a great "deal" on a 17 foot fiberglass boat, trailer, and motor (very old). On our maiden voyage into the bay for a crabbing adventure this motor simply quit, right when the wind picked up and the tide started going out. No problem of course, as we had thrown in our canoe paddles, with which we could inch our way back to the boat ramp while the children questioned our parenting credentials. But we did catch enough crabs for dinner!

As for me, I continue to find myself challenged by the diversity of my duties. I still get to spend lots of my time out in the field with the critters, which keeps me happy even when I'm wet, cold, sore and tired (now that I've hit forty I can admit to this you see). This was another big year for bear problems, and we had numerous cougar sightings as well. One of our neighbors claimed that he was attacked by a cougar, which caused a major commotion, but he later admitted to having too much tequila that night. Some days are downright frantic but I still love it!

In my spare time I have been concentrating on the gardens and my soap business. I did a few craft shows this year and spent some Saturday's peddling suds at the local farmer's market, which is also a fun social event. Ryan shared my booth a few times to sell his clay creations: silly frogs, dragons, wizards and such. My herb and flower gardens were quite successful this year and I'm looking forward to the appearance of all the spring bulbs I planted this fall.

We splurged this year and took two major trips. One was the trek back east to visit relatives. The kids had a blast with all their cousins and we enjoyed the time with our families, consumed lots of lobster, and did some fun day trips. In November we escaped the Oregon rains and hopped a plane to the sunny Bahamas! My folks met us there and we stayed at their timeshare condo on New Providence Island. Just steps away from their porch is a gorgeous beach - what a treat! We had so much fun swimming, snorkeling, exploring and just relaxing in the sun that we truly hated to leave. Highly recommended if you like things starting with "c": coconut trees, coral reefs, colorful critters, clear water, cracked conch, and calm. Hilary's big treat was at the Dolphin Encounter, where she got a private lesson in dolphin training.

And some things never change... like my insatiable desire to surround myself with animals. This year I brought home a miniature lop-eared rabbit that we named Poppy. Her job is to process stray bits of vegetable matter, produce high-quality manure for my gardens, and sit quietly looking cute and fuzzy. Quite effective so far.

Best wishes from all of us,

Tami, Dave, Hilary and Ryan