Preparing for launch

In preparation for Jay's bike trip we made a few items for him to take along.  The photo to the left is 4 trays of fruit leather.  I had seen a recipe for raw carrot ginger cookies a few weeks back and have been planning on making them for a while.  This was just the occasion I was waiting for.  They turned out pretty good!  Dorothy gave us a box of her amazingly delicious ginger/molasses cookies earlier this week and here's a side by side of both.  Can you tell which is which? 

Don't you love how cute and tiny
this onion is?  It was delicious!

The night before Jay left I made us a healthy dinner to get him energized.  We had a very colorful plate!  All of the items in our meal were from our CSA - summer squash, red onion, garlic, green beans, sweet peppers, and potatoes.

Jay was up pretty late going over his supply lists and packing, but he's a very thorough guy!

Extreme Fence Building!

Hard to believe, but in just a
few hours  this became our fence!

Let's set the scene:  It's Friday, three days before Jay will take a 6 hour test for grad school application, 5 days before he leaves on a 3 week bike trip, and it's over 90 degrees out.  That must mean it's time to build a fence!  Larry and Dorothy drove down from Portland with some gorgeous dahlias for us and Larry stayed to help with the fence.  He also brought along a heavy duty nail gun and a box of nails, generously loaned out for the weekend by another wonderful family member, Wayne.  The guys picked up all of the boards that afternoon and when I got home from work my contribution was prying the barcodes and staples off each one (that's 225, if you're curious)!  The evening wasn't cooling down much, so we had some grub and called it a night pretty early so we could get started before the heat set in the next morning.

Jay hard at work!

So now it's Saturday, and Larry has a great suggestion to attach the top rail/cap to the posts before we put boards up.  This turns out to be a wonderful idea and made our board setting go super fast!  Just as we were getting started our good buddy Jordan showed up!  Jordan lives over the mountains in Central Oregon but hangs out with us when he is around and has some free time - and he offered to help us out!  Jordan happens to be one of the taller people we know, so he and Jay worked on the top caps while Larry and I got down to business with the fence boards!

Larry making sure the boards are level.

For the first few sections I held the boards up level while Larry  secured them with the nail gun.  Larry convinced me to give the nail gun a try - I was a little scared of that thing!  The last thing we needed was someone to wind up with a nail in their foot, but Larry trusted me and I went for it.  And everyone survived unscathed!
 Once the top caps were all in place, we each traded off using the nail gun and setting boards.  Around the posts a few of the boards had to be cut to fit and in the end it looks perfect!

The chickens are almost gone! Yes,
that's a bed frame in the background...
it makes part of the chicken coop!!!

I know this question has been on your mind - did you cry when the last board was in place on the west side, blocking your view of the chickens for eternity?  NO!  I made sure to stick my head over one last time and glare back, but we parted on good terms.

We finished everything up around 1 pm, rested a few minutes and congratulated each other on a job well done, then went out for a celebratory beer (and lunch).

Discussing the fence progress; Shep
loving the grass in the background

Rosie the Riveter has nothing on me!

There's no way we could have gotten the fence done so quickly without Larry and Jordan to help us out.  Larry's engineering prowess really made this whole project a reality.  Thank you both so much!!  Come hang out in our (dirt) yard any time!!

Jordan gives a big thumbs up
and Jay strikes a pose!

Larry cuts a board to the perfect length

Ta-da!  The finished product!
Chickens?  What chickens?

The final nail!

Jordan securing the corner top caps

Fence Building 101

Do you ever get the sense that I get to have all the fun and Jay has to do all the work?  If you answered yes, this post will only confirm that thought for you.  As I flew over to Minnesota for a long weekend of celebrating a good friend's wedding, Jay went to work gathering supplies to start building the fence!
Larry came down to Corvallis and early Friday morning the two of them picked up a post hole auger from Albany and came back to get started.  The whole project went faster than they anticipated, though a few hang ups did occur.  At one point all of the gnarly roots and rocks grabbed hold of the auger and just wouldn't give up, leading Jay to have to dig out the auger!
By mid-afternoon that day all 13 posts had been set in concrete.  On Saturday the rails were set and the posts have been curing in preparation for boards to go up this coming weekend.  I can't believe we'll soon be free of of viewing the west neighbor's yard!  And to no longer live under the wrathful gazes of the smelly chickens!  Priceless!
Here's Jay and Larry's handy-work.  In the second shot Shep can be seen soaking up his last few days of relaxing on our north side neighbor's grass.  He will surely miss that luxury until ours comes in!!

To the moon!!!

Well, not really.  But the ground around the house looks a lot like the surface of the moon!  Or so I think.  After a handful of days of tilling, scraping, raking, scooping, piling, and loads of dirt being taken away, we are left with these tracks all around the house.  The stump has now been completely annihilated after additional pieces were found buried under the bark and the grinder guy had to come back 2 extra times!!  So by the end of last week we had: in one part of the yard a big pile of bark, and in the rest of the yard hard-packed dirt with roots and rocks scattered about. 

After a hard day of labor on Sunday, Jay and I managed to create one last, very large, pile of debris from the yard.  Jay finished up the edging around the fence line and parking strips and we raked out as many rocks and roots as we could. 

Tuesday morning the new dirt arrived!  Now, I know it seems a little counterproductive to throw away a bunch of dirt, only to bring different dirt in.  But this dirt is better!  The first load arrived about 7:30 am yesterday.  The guy drove right up over the curb and into the front yard to dump about 15 yards of dirt right in front of the main window.  I managed to get out of there just a few minutes before the next truck came with another 15 yards.  Over the course of the day a total of 4 loads of dirt, equalling approximately 120,000 pounds, were spread around the house.  Jay worked with the same gentleman who did the tilling to move dirt and layer it as evenly as possible.  It was an amazing sight when I got home from work yesterday!  I will post a picture soon of the former stump spot - it's like that beast never existed!!! 

We will probably need a little more dirt in the near future to build up berms around the outer edge of the yard, but for now we have a great foundation.  The remainder of this week will bring fence work and, hopefully, seed planting!  One day in the very near future I will be able to walk in the backyard and not have smelly chickens staring me down from the neighbor's yard!!  Now that's something to celebrate!! 

Jay Dirt

Major yard overhaul is in full swing!!  A local contractor brought his giant tractor in to break up the yard, gnarly sweet gum roots and all!  He has taken a few loads of dirt and rocks away and there's another big pile waiting for him.  We borrowed a rototiller to get to some of the smaller areas and edging.  Jay has been busy!

Beach weekend!

We took a long weekend over the 4th to catch up with friends of ours whom we met when we were living in California.  Sam and Amy moved to Virginia a fews years ago and Jay visited them when their daughter was 9 months old.  They were making their way to the Northwest, family in tow, and let us be a part of their weekend!  We met up in Portland on Thursday for a wonderful greeting with Sam, Amy, Corinna (age 2.5) and Elliot (age 0.417) and drove out to the beach near Seaside.  Jay's Dad, Larry, and his lovely bride, Dorothy, were so kind as to host us for the weekend at their beautiful home.  Even sweeter was getting to celebrate their 10th anniversary with them!
  On Friday, my sister and John came to the beach with Karsyn to visit for the day.  We all went down to the beach for some play time and Corinna worked on making little sand castles.  We enjoyed a lot of catching up time, drawing on the kitchen chalkboard, and a few walks on the beach, even though the weather was quite variable for us.   Saturday took us to Astoria where we climbed the stairs of the Astoria Tower.  Corinna climbed every step up and down by herself (well, with a little assistance from her Dad's hand) and when she came out she said (in her super adorable little voice) "Let's do it again, Daddy!"
  On the 4th Sam's family rose early to cheer him on in the Gearhart Fun Run!  Jay was there to play photographer (I slept in!!).  Sam came in 2nd place - pretty awesome for someone who didn't know about the run until 2 days before and wasn't sure he was actually going to participate until the night before!  A very cool thing about Gearhart's July 4th celebrations is the parade, which is open to anybody!  Larry and Dorothy's neighbors had a great pedal dump truck that Larry decorated.  Corinna rode in the truck while we all walked along.  This is the first parade I've been in since High School with my marching band compadres and I can say with 100% certainty that it's much nicer to walk a parade route in normal clothes as opposed to a wool band uniform complete with suspenders!!
  When Monday rolled around we said our goodbyes.  The time flew by and we hope the next time we see Sam, Amy, and the kids will not be too far off.  Jay drove Larry's truck down to Corvallis to use in our yard projects - we are very grateful to get to borrow the pickup along with a pressure washer and some very helpful yard tools!
  Here are a few snapshots of our great Independence Day Weekend 2010!

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!!!