The weekend after

A week after our reception we were looking forward to just relaxing. The weather had a major change of heart and was amazing, if even a little too warm for us.  Saturday morning Jay and our pal Jordan went for a bike ride to Harrisburg.  The two of them are planning a ride to the coast pretty soon, so this was a good warm up for them.  After they took off, I packed Shep in the car and we headed out to the forest.  We took a nice hike down through the Old Growth Forest and then made a loop of about 6 miles.
  The guys made it back a little while after I did - they logged 62 miles!!  That's enough to work up an appetite for some grub...and a little beer!  Well, wouldn't you know it, Saturday was Septembeerfest in Corvallis!  Back on the bikes!
The three of us met up at the Benton County Fairgrounds and waited in line for admission.  There were quite a few beer vendors on hand and a few food ones as well.  We started with a few samples and enjoyed some nachos and a big pretzel during our afternoon.  Before we could leave we were sure to use up all our tokens (purchased bottle caps).  We were even lucky enough to be given two tokens by a nice gentleman who was leaving early - that's a free 8 ounces of beer!  (The guys took a few snapshots during our time at the fest, and when I get ahold of some of those I'll update the blog).
  We hopped back on our bikes and rode through campus, with Jay and Jordan pumping their fists in the air and giving a hearty "SeptemBEERfest!" in their manliest tones to all we passed.  I was sure to ride ahead a little ways.....  We then stopped at a local pub downtown for a more substantial meal while we caught the last of the Beaver game...we have high hopes for the rest of the season!
  Sunday was a super lazy day.  The weather switched back to gray and wet and catching up on our favorite shows online proved to be much too tempting.  What a great way to celebrate our first week of marriage!

Cookin' with Sunshine

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're back!

After a hiatus to prepare for our recent wedding celebration we are back to blogging!  The recent rains have gotten our weeds growing like crazy and the flowers in our community garden bed have been doing great!  Shep is still adjusting to less time outside, right after he got used to having the backyard to himself.  And we are still recuperating from our wedding weekend and enjoying photos of the party. 
Stick with us as we get back into our blog-groove!

Labor-free Weekend

Over Labor Day weekend my mom came down to visit us and relax for a few days.  On Sunday we drove over to the coast, first heading up to Lincoln City.  We stopped by the location of a beach house that Jay spent quite a bit of time at as a kid.  Unfortunately, the house burned down a few years ago, which Jay had heard about from Sondy.  We spent about 20 minutes there, as Jay walked around the area, reminiscing about summers at the house with his Grandma.  The area was quite overgrown and it was difficult to discern where the house had stood.  Jay noted all of the new homes in the neighborhood and the changes that had taken place in the 10+ years since he had been there.
  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.
  We had a great dinner that night at Brynn & Robert's house and eased our way back to reality on Monday.  My mom headed home mid-morning after breakfast in downtown Corvallis.
  That afternoon I went into work for a few hours and Jay rode his bike out to see me!  He was feeling so good that he made it a round trip, logging 37 miles!  Great ride on flat, paved roads to help continue the rehab process!

It's working!

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.
  Jay sprayed our little weedlings with RoundUp, and the next day we had more rain!  So now, about a week later, we have lots of little weed buddies growing all over the yard!!
  Jay will soon be out in the yard to spray again and this time he will take no mercy!

Friends and neighbors (who are not friends)

A lot has happened in the last 5 days!  My mom came to visit me and we had a great time chatting, eating, and crafting.  On Sunday my sister came down to Corvallis and we all went out to Brynn's house for my bridal shower. It was so nice of  family and friends to drive from their respective cities to spend a little time together.  We had wonderful snacks courtesy of Sondy and Brynn and the most adorable cake from my sister.  Everyone was so generous!  It was strange being the center of attention (not that I don't like that from time to time...karaoke much?) but great to have people from different areas of my life all in one place to meet and mingle.
Sunday night I worked on the sprinklers again. Larry delivered a bag of sprinklers and a hose to me by way of his lovely wife Dorothy.  The better variety of sprinklers definitely aided in watering more yard in one go, though I did have to move things around a few times.  I spend about an hour and a half setting and running the sprinklers in all parts of the front and back yard.  I learned that running all three hoses at once is just as good dumping a bucket of water on top of the sprinkler, so only 2 at a time took a little longer.  And really, one would be best, but you have to be prepared for that much force!  At one point I shut off the back hose, leaving just the front, and came around to find that what had been a perfect set up had become Old Faithful the second coming!  The watering project is still ongoing and there will surely be more on that. 
  While I was watering Sunday night I got suspicious about the chicken situation behind our beautiful fence.  We did leave just a tiny space between the boards, like just enough to see an eyeball staring back at you.  A dirty chicken eyeball!!  The deal with the homeowner had been that once the fence was up (built a generous 1.5 feet into our property) nothing belonging to the west neighbors/her tenants was to touch it.  Not the lawn mower parts, not the car tires, not the wooden pallets, not the bed frame/chicken coop/frankensteined disaster.  And certainly not any chickens!  A phone call to the home owner took care of that...or so I thought.  Last night we received a strong knock on the door to find our lady neighbor waiting for us.  She informed us that we should have gone to her first (though she was told more than once of the "deal") and that we are petty.  This could get interesting, but hopefully it won't.
  Monday brought some tough decisions for Jay.  His knee had been giving him trouble and then his achilles tendon decided to act up.  A day's rest and regular doses of ibuprofen later, Jay made the decision to stop his trip in Crescent City, CA to give his body a break.  A shuttle bus to Grants Pass, a trip to Wal-Mart for a bike box (I'm sure he'd rather I didn't share the Wal-Mart part), and a greyhound bus to Eugene brought him about an hour from home.  Shep and I picked Jay up at 6:30 pm on Monday.  Jay has been taking it easy around the house and needs to keep a supportive shoe on for comfort, but he's on the mend!  There will certainly be many more bike adventures in his future and maybe I'll be gutsy enough to tag along for a few of them!

The task at hand

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!

Feel The Burn 2010

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