While Jay is away things still have to get done around here, and now that the fence is up (I am so happy to see that fence every time I look out the window!) it's time to get back to the dirt. The plan - water the dirt to make the weeds grow. Then spray the weeds with weed killer, wait the necessary time, then finally plant the grass seed!
Two nights ago I went to Home Depot with big plans to come home with sprinklers. After staring blankly at the selection, a really helpful employee came to my rescue. After discussing the different sprinklers he took out some paper and a pen and had me draw the yard....the drawing was so good that he told me to go home, measure the yard, and come back the next day! So last night, we head back (Shep is welcome in the store and was nice enough to accompany me both times!) and find the same guy. This time I'm armed with my own drawing from home with some measurements. In the end I settled on two different styles of sprinkler and an extra hose. While the guy was helpful and shared some knowledge about weed killers (I'm going to go ahead and trust him. He has a stack of Customer Service Excellence badges tacked to his smock), he probably thought I was a little ridiculous for turning this process into such an ordeal, and really, it probably doesn't even matter what sprinkler you take home.
That was such a big task for me that I called it a night and waited until today to start. Friday. Well, tonight, really. About 8:45 pm I decide it's time to go for it. Just in time for the sun to set and the few outside lights we have to not really be of any help in the far reaches of yard I started in.
With head lamp attached, I hooked up the first sprinkler. It has multiple settings and comes with a handy spike that can be repeatedly slammed toward the hard ground and never actually penetrate it. After a few tries, I found a soft spot. It took about 8 adjustments to get the range right, but the distance wasn't enough....I had to move the sprinkler later to cover the smallest patch of the front yard! In the back I was working with a classic click-click sprinkler (that description should give you a mental image). Again with the adjusting the range setting multiple times; and I wasn't getting much distance. About 5 minutes into messing with it I realize that there's an adjustable metal piece at the front of the sprinkler to alter the spray distance! Maybe that was included on the tiny scrap of paper that came attached to the sprinkler, but I really thought I could handle these things without instructions!
And so it went, back and forth from front to back yard, in the dark, moving and adjusting sprinklers to try to cover all of the dirt. At one point I came to the back to find that the sprinkler had uprooted what tiny bit of spike I had managed to get into the dirt and was spraying willy-nilly in the air. After an hour of talking to myself and the sprinklers, and a solid 5 minute session of just holding the sprinkler and aiming it at the dirt, I called it a night.
Tomorrow is a new day with a new opportunity to make an ass of myself. At least the new fence protects everyone else from this sight. I can just imagine what those nasty chickens would be thinking.
P.S. Don't forget to keep an eye on the map for bike trip progress!
Jay and I were lucky enough to get to celebrate Thanksgiving twice - on the actual holiday evening with Brynn and Robert, and then on the following Saturday with my family in Newberg. On the drive to Newberg we stopped in McMinnville at the Evergreen Aviation Museum and met up with my family for a tour. Larry was a volunteer at this museum for a few years, though Jay didn't have the chance to visit until now. We had a great time reading the signs and walking through a history of air travel. 
Saturday Jay and I visited Larry for most of the morning and stopped to see Grandma Liz before heading back to Newberg for turkey dinner #2. 
..and fall all over our yard! Our beautiful and full trees are in the process of shedding their leaves all over the yard. While this has posed as a huge burden to us in the prior two years of homeownership, this year the leaves are quite welcome! Since the yard project is on hold for the winter we are counting on the leaves to create a nice barrier between us and the mud pit that otherwise would be our yard. In an effort to help the leaves break down over time to provide more of a mulch, we picked up a lead shredder/blower/vacuum and Jay excitedly got to work. Turns out the little machine can't really handle the massive amount of leaves we produce and wet leaves are a definite no go! So back to the store went the little machine (minus the stylish canvas bag Jay is modeling...that didn't make it back in the box. Whoopsy!)
Our CSA shares have continued to be bountiful and provide us with new produce to try. Last week we received a very pumpkin-esque squash - the Sunshine squash! I decided to prepare the squash last night, and luckily our CSA providers type up a handy sheet of cooking suggestions for us. I just cleaned the outside of the squash, put it on a baking sheet, and it sat happily in the oven at 350 degrees for about an hour, though it probably would have done well with a little less time. I took the squash out and cut it open - it looked like a pumpkin inside, too! The squash is very tasty and palatable. We didn't need to add any seasonings to enjoy some sunshine.
We then drove down the highway a few miles to go to the beach. It was one of the most beautiful Oregon beach days I believe I've witnessed. We walked down the beach and back, then made a quick stop at the Outlet Mall. On our way further south we stopped at Depoe Bay to window shop amongst all of the Labor Day Weekend tourists. We tried to grab lunch at the Rogue Brewery but were met with a long line and wait, so we headed back home. 
After Jay returned a little early from his trip to let his body heal he made an attempt at mastering the sprinkler dilemma. Thanks to my research (aka failure!) Jay had a little more knowledge going into it. The process still took a while but was considerably more successful than my efforts. And then some rain came! After just a little bit of rain we started seeing some weed growth! Never would you think that weeds would be such a welcome sight, but it was great to know that we were just a little bit closer to planting our grass seed. 
