Bye, bye beasty

It's been a busy and bustling week in the backyard!  First the "small" stump grinder gave the stump a go:

Then the big daddy of all stump grinders was backed into the yard and just went to town!:

The dude with the giant grinder even had to take his chainsaw to part of the massive beast - it surely went down fightin'! But alas, this story has a sad ending for the old Sequoia.  A year and 4 months since the battle began, we emerged victorious.  Never mind that we had the help of machinery and brute force (Jay's biceps!)...the job still got done.   We now have a beautiful pile of wood chips where the neighbors gaggle of dirty cats like to leave presents for Shep to snack on. 

We also successfully ripped 29 arborvitae, 1 mature crab tree, and countless big leaf maple volunteers from our back yard perimeter.  Jay did most of the work on his own, but my mom was down for the weekend and her skills as a farm girl definitely came in handy - she's super tough and we got our hands dirty pulling a few stalks/stumps out, too!

On Saturday morning a work crew from the local Gleaners came over to pick up all of our chopped wood - big and small pieces - and some of the arborvitae wood, too!  We weren't able to find a buyer, but this was even better - the wood will go to individuals in the community who are not able to purchase their own firewood for the cold, wet winters here. 

So now that the natural neighbor barrier is gone (arborvitae) and the makeshift neighbor barrier is gone (wood pile) we are left with a bummer view of our neighbor's yard to the west.  Here is exhibit A:

Nasty looking, nasty smelling chicken coop with nasty, smelly chickens inside.  You know it's a solidly built coop when the construction incorporates an old bed frame.....call me Debbie Downer, but I'd rather not have to look at this every time I go outside.  Enter stage left - the plan to build a fence!  It's all in Jay's head and will soon be a reality.  

Stay tuned for more after this word from our sponsor....Lobster bibs!  Modeled by my super adorable and super silly niece and her two tiny teeth!  

P.S. Karsyn loves MANGO!!!

Abracadabra!

And POOF!  The stump is gone!!  It's almost too hard to believe, but it's really true!  We had a local outfit come by with a stump grinder and work on the beast long enough to completely dull the blade.  At that point they had managed to shave off maybe 30% if what was left.  But yesterday these guys came back with a serious vengeance! A giant stump grinder...4 hours of time...and all that's left is a pile of wood chips.  Don't touch that dial!  Pictures to come.  There's some serious change underway!

Happenings in Food

We haven't been doing anything too crazy with our meals lately.  In an effort to expedite our morning juice process we are trying out green smoothies again. Today's thick, brown "juice" had carrots, romaine, apple, spinach, pineapple, banana and strawberry.  Pretty tasty, but not pretty looking.

We are also experimenting with gluten free options.  We have tried, and liked very much, the gluten free pizza dough from Bob's Red Mill. It's pretty easy to make and tastes good, too!  We also tried the same brand of gluten free pancake mix in our waffle maker.  I'd recommend it!!

This year we decided to participate in a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) program through a local farm in Corvallis.  Each Tuesday we pick up a share of locally grown fruits and vegetables from a house in our neighborhood. Last week we got 2 pounds of fava beans, half a pound of salad greens, a few zucchini, parsley, two cucumbers, a really nice bunch of basil, and some delicious strawberries and raspberries. Looking forward to what this week's box will bring!

Today I saw a recipe for raw carrot-ginger cookies on the rawon10 blog I follow.  I will definitely be making those!!

Happenings at home

The yard work continues!  We have now chopped down and dug up all of our camelias and rhododrendrons!  We definitely had some challenges along the way, but we came up with a good system.  Jay dug around the stumps and used a pick axe to chop through the roots closest to the ground surface.  Then he used a sawzall to cut through bigger roots.  And then I came in with a chisel and dug around to find the squirrely roots that tethered the whole thing deeper into the ground so Jay could chop them out.  It was quite an impressive venture! 

We took a load of branches out to the yard waste area and still have the stumps to take when we get a chance.  We know we've worked hard when at the end of the day Jay runs his hands through his hair and whole clumps of dirt come out, and when I run my hands through my hair a LIVE SPIDER comes out!! 

Yipes! 

While Jay sprayed the front yard with weed and grass killer, I was tasked with pulling up the random smattering of flagstone in the back yard.  Everything was going well until I pulled up one big piece that had about 7 billion (no exaggeration) ants underneath along with some little white "things" that looked like maggots!!  I know they weren't eggs - we've seen those in our wireless router (true story!!!) and they are much smaller than what I encountered.  It took me a minute to regain my composure, but before my expression could turn from grossed-out to hard-at-work, I found the same situation under the next one!!  And then about 4 more after that....it is a fact that I was doing the heeby-jeeby dance all over the yard! 

We are also working on organizing our garage and spent the evening with that project last night.  My back seat is full of items to donate. It's so interesting how we want all of our "stuff" but every few months when we take a fresh look we realize that really can live without a random book or belt.  Work in progress!

Choppin' and adiggin'

Amidst our wedding planning excitement we have to keep reminding ourselves that we have a house to take care of!  The yard especially. The day before we left for our week-long Central Oregon trip (you know, the one where we got engaged!) we decided to take some action on the yard.  We picked up a weed eater through an advertiser on Craigslist - does anyone buy new things anymore?  we really don't! - picked up some line for it and spent 4 hours whacking then mowing, and hand pulling weeds, too.  We overflowed the yard waste bin!  With all of the rain and the slight rise in temperature here everything is growing like crazy!  So this past Sunday, just two weeks later, we were at it again, filling our bin once again with grass clippings and trimmed branches.  We no longer have the shabbiest yard in the neighborhood and it's officially time to make the yard beautiful!

We have some big yard plans in the works, but I'll wait to share them until we have a more firm idea of how it will all work out. But stay tuned for that! 

  On Monday we spent part of the day battling our nemesis - the stump!!  We moved some of the wood piles around and dug out more of the stump, exposing some roots in the process.  I had a little deja vu from our sweet gum experience, but these guys came out pretty easy. Jay chopped the very last pieces of wood we had laying around - good job, Jay!!   If you compare these photos from previous ones of the stump you will see that the stump looks a lot taller than before, but we removed at least a good foot of dirt. 

And no matter how hard we work, Shep is always willing to take one for the team and nap right in the middle of our projects...

Taking the next step!

Well, you've probably heard the news by now - WE'RE ENGAGED!  Last week, on May 21st, in front of Sheep Rock and the John Day River (and Shep Dog, of course!), Jay proposed and I said "YES" through tears and a huge smile.  We have had a lot of discussion in the few days since then about a 2010 wedding and are planning for this September!  We are starting a wedding website and will have more information here to direct everyone over there as it is further developed. 

We are super excited and look forward to a great celebration with family and friends! 

Stay tuned!

The scenic route

For Mother's Day weekend we packed up ourselves and Shep and drove over to Hermiston to spend some time with my mom, Ramona.  The five hour drive zipped right along for me as I played DJ in the passenger seat (I'm pretty good with an iPod if you ever need someone!).  We spent Saturday helping my mom settle into her new place - she's got a pretty nice spot! - and had a nice dinner out at a restaurant that was new to me.  I have to admit I have spent very little time in Hermiston since college, so really there's a lot in that town that's new to me.  But, not surprisingly, many things have stayed the same.
  We took a drive out to the house we used to live in and I reminisced about school bus rides (have I mentioned before how I was such a big nerd that I used to actually play my clarinet ON THE SCHOOL BUS!  How I wound up as awesome as I am may never be understood!)  We took Mom out to lunch to celebrate her Mom-ness on Sunday and left town around 3:30 on Sunday. 
  Normally on road trips Jay and I are only interested in getting straight home - no lookout points or historical monuments, just a stop for gas or to let Shep stretch and that's it.  But this time we decided to spoil ourselves!  We first took the Historic Columbia River Highway to Rowena Crest, west of The Dalles.  No dogs allowed on the beautiful nature preserve grounds, so we didn't linger for long.
Then we continued to the wondrous waterfalls!    Horse Tail, Multnomah, Wahkeenah...  We stopped and hiked to a few of them.  The drive concluded with a stop at Crown point Overlook Vista House.  I have seen this from the freeway so many times over the years and never stopped.  We arrived there after sunset but tried our luck at some photos anyway.  Enjoy a few shots of our trip - and forgive the quality - they were all taken on my phone.
  And while you view these, I will be cleaning dishes from making a batch of raw oatmeal raisin cookies - they are currently "baking" in the dehydrator!!