Goose Alley

In early November, Matt and I traveled to the coast to join the celebration of Gram's 80th birthday. The evening of Gram's party, Emden, Diane, and Terry came down and played all kinds of fun tunes for us to sing to on their guitars and Emden's new mandolin. Emden had recently picked up the mandolin, and she was really fun to watch! She was able to pick out really quick tunes, and incorporated a really nice tremolo! I have always wanted to play a portable string instrument, but due to injuries to my wrists, I can't play the guitar or violin because of the required wrist orientation. I had never really thought about the mandolin, but after hearing Emden, I was intrigued. She let me look at hers, and I found it had a small enough neck that allowed me to play it comfortably!

I was so excited that when I got home I went to every music store in the area to look at mandolins. Unfortunately, most stores don't carry very high quality instruments, and most didn't carry any! So, I spent about two weeks doing homework on the web, and finally purchased a Michael Kelly Legacy FSE (has electric pre-amp installed so you can plug it into an amp) from a store in California, sight unseen (picture from folkmusician website). Although the finish woodwork had some issues (apparently that is common for this particular hand-carved instrument), it is supposed to have a much better sound that the average machine produced instrument. I have played every day since it arrived and am really enjoying it! First I learned all of my notes, and then many chords. Now I am working on speed when picking out melodies and practicing songs with chords. Matt and I have even managed to play some things together! We are looking forward to Christmas break when we can spend more time perfecting duets, and maybe even post some short videos! The only con to learning mandolin has been having to cut my fingernails REALLY short, and getting really sore fingertips!

Matt and I went with out friends, John and Connie, and their children to a Christmas tree farm in Elk, Washington, which is about 45 minutes north of our house. The farm had grand fir, concolor fir, and blue spruce. Although we always get grand fir, these trees had flimsier branches than we were used to, and had been pruned too aggressively. We were really disappointed because we love how they smell, but the blue spruce were very attractive, so, at the risk of severely poked fingers and rashes up our arms (not to mention the...um....interesting smell...), we decided to give the spruce a whirl. We trekked all over the farm (a good two miles - up and down hills!!!) to find just the right one, and ended up getting one 10 feet from where the hay wagon dropped us off....isn't that how it always works! They provided measuring poles and saws, so Matt made quick work with the saw and they packed it up and took it down to our car for us!
Tagging the tree for bottom of the hill pick-up!
All loaded!


After we got the tree home and got the lights on (OUCH!), we found that we didn't get too scratched up putting on the rest of the decorations, and the tree turned out to be one of our prettiest we have ever had! The color mixes well with the wall color in the living room, and it hasn't dropped a needle yet!

We have finally gotten our living room and library decorated and arranged. The living room paint looks finished but still needs to be touched up and the area under the window and behind the piano (and curtains!) needs to be finished.

We just had our first snow!  It was brief and light, but the snowflakes finally came!  The drive to school was entertaining....but we were glad we took Dad's advice and got new tires.