My Corner of The World ~ Labor Day Weekend

Everyone is enjoying spending time on the patio and loving the grassy back yard.

This is our cat, Chloe. She doesn’t get much camera time because she’s kind of a snot. But loving in her own way. Basically, she loves you when she feels like it and you’re allowed to scratch the top of her head for 3.5 seconds before she gets totally annoyed with your presence.

These two of course love to love people and typically you can hug them, kiss them, and love on them as much as you want.

They look like they’re fighting, and sometimes sound like it too. But it’s all just fun and games; they live for fun and games.

Even the back yard Hawk came for a visit. Someday I’m hoping he’ll land on our fence-line so I can get a proper picture.

I love watching the dogs watch the birds. They’re so observant! Especially Abigail. Romeo is usually preoccupied with making sure the bees aren’t after him.

My husband is a hang glider pilot. Have I told you that? He’s checking the wind speed.

He talked me into going with him last week and “helping” him launch.  It’s necessary to have someone to keep your wings steady when you’re getting ready to launch, because it’s typically windy.

Set up and safety checks are extensive and took about 35 minutes or so. Not easy on a hill like that…in strong winds.

Now, keep in mind, I’m not the adventurous one in this relationship. I like little adventures like road trips, trying new restaurants, reading, and being a food blogger. Strapping wings to my body and running off the side of a mountain?

That will never happen.

In fact at this point, it was so windy and just the thought of watching him run off that mountain made my stomach feel sick. Call me un-adventurous, but I know a storm when I see one coming.

Apparently in flying there’s some kind of mathematical formula for wind and force. When it’s windy, the gusts are 4 times that speed in force….or something like that. So I kept asking…”are you sure it’s safe, it’s awfully windy?” The wind was coming in at 18 miles an hour. The gusts were extremely powerful.

Wanting to be as positive as possible and not a negative nelly…I just tried my hardest to follow his directions and be of help. And I prayed. I did A LOT of praying.

My job was to hold the hang glider down so it didn’t take off without him. That’s how windy it was. And it was not easy.  I am 5′ 4″ and although I’m not as skinny as I used to be, I am not a big person. The glider is at least 20 feet wide from tip to tip and weighs around 58 pounds. It’s awkward. Similar to holding an umbrella in a massive wind storm except bigger and heavier.

So he strapped into his flight suit and clicked into the glider and we had to wait for the perfect wind and not so many gusts. I had to stand on the bar to hold it down, because once he’s clicked in, if he gets a gust and it’s not under control…off he goes, unprepared, and it could end up with an ugly outcome.

Sounds like great fun, doesn’t it?

We watched the weather which was getting increasingly worse and more than once, the glider tried to take off with both of us.

At the point where it lifted me completely off the ground, I finally had to tell the truth. My knees were shaking, my stomach was sick, I’d had a full body workout…and finally I admitted, “I am NOT comfortable with this.”

Luckily, we work pretty well as a team and he agreed. The weather was too crazy. So we had a few hairy moments as he clicked himself off the glider, got it turned around so it wouldn’t take off, and then began to tear it back down in the wind.

I’m not a fan of watching the people I love do dangerous things.

There will be many more opportunities to fly in safer weather…and hopefully with a stronger helper than me. I did get some really beautiful pictures though.

We are still feeling so blessed to be back home.

We loved so much about New Hampshire, but we really missed the wide open spaces of Washing state!

Moose like to hang out in that little area of dense trees at the bottom of the mountain.

Farmland as far as the eye can see.

The glider is so long the front of it rests on the dashboard.

One last check just to see what the wind speed looks like before we head back home.