Week of 16th-22nd...I'm posting sooner than a month! :-)

This week has been very busy. Between having two drywall companies out to give us bids on doing the drywall and Larry driving to Portland to pick up the geothermal unit, the low voltage wiring was completed. :-)  That included the door bell, speaker wire and the CAT 6 for phone, tv and computer.

The duct work was also completed. I didn't take any pictures of the underfloor duct work but here are some of the attic space.

We also made a couple changes to the electrical that the inspector required. One was we needed to move the two plugs on each side of the kitchen sink closer to the sink. Kind of strange that there is a maximum  distance a plug can be from a sink.

The garden is doing great.  Aunt Sally pulled the pea plants and picked the peas off the plants.  I then shucked them. They were a little tough cause we waited a couple days too long to pick them so I'm going to dry them and see how they are in soups this winter.  We harvested 4 large heads of broccoli last week. I mean large! They were at least 12 to 15 inches wide!  We have two more that will be ready to harvest in the next couple days.  The strawberries have been ripening but the birds are getting to them before Larry does.  We need to get some netting for cover.  He was able to eat one tonight and the one below will be ready in the next day or so. Hopefully he will get to enjoy it. :-)  The peppers and tomatoes are doing well and I have a few yellow zucchini that should be ready tomorrow.  We have been having lots of salads and the onions are yummy. Aunt Sally saved some seeds from a squash and she planted them outside the garden fence. Their doing great. She put a few more in 4" pots and then after they got to big for them she put those plants in the garden area.  There is a tiny round thing growing from the one of the plants. It's really cute. 

The Japanese Lantern tree in front is blooming with bright yellow tiny flowers. It's gorgeous but we can hear the bees buzzing. It's a little nerving but I'm getting used to it.

The fruit trees have some fruit on them. The plum has just a few plums and the apple tree has more than I expected. They both need pruning badly, we will probably prune them clear back to the trunk next spring and see if they come back healthier.  I put the Fuji tree in the garden fenced area and it's doing great. We hope to get peaches, pears and maybe another apple tree for the orchard area.

As I was typing this post Larry called me to come outside with my camera. Low and behold there was an Elk in our pasture. :-) It's the first time we've seen Elk on the property.

Thanks for stopping by to see what we are up to. :-)

Here we are! :-)

 Edited post: Pictures have been removed by blogspot.


Once again I am posting a month later. LOL It is always busy around here with something going on I never seem to get to the blog. I'm going to keep trying to post more often. :-)

My nephew's wedding in Edmonds was beautiful. The setting was breath taking and the ceremony was perfect. We had a great time seeing family and friends, especially some of the boys from the little league baseball team that Larry coached when we lived in North Bend. The Little League Organization at the time didn't think our kids were that good. Well, that year the kids were undefeated and won the end of the season tournament! Those kids are now in their 20's and they are still talking about it. :-) Happy old memories and we made some new ones. I was privileged to make the bride and groom their cake, Red Velvet with Cream Cheese filling and Butter Cream frosting. My dear friend Deanna let me invade her kitchen to bake it and she helped me pull it together. :-) The bride and groom Loved it, which makes me happy. :-) It was a wonderful time meeting our new family members and seeing family and friends we hadn't seen a while. 

After we got back from the wedding it was back to work. Larry and Bill, my Great-Uncle, finished the electrical and then we had a sheet metal/HVAC business come in and install the duct work for the HVAC. It has been pretty hot around here so the duct work has been off and on. They will be back this week to finish. We ordered our system. It's a Geo-Thermal open loop system. Not sure when it will be here. As I type this I realize we haven't heard from them so I need to put that on the list of “To Do's” call them and see where it's at. Always something to do around here.  Larry built his first wall with the help of Uncle Bill. He was pretty proud of it. :-) Here is a snap shot of the plumbing and electrical work they have done. It's hard to get pictures of the scope of the work they have done.

 Guest bathroom...Laundry room...Pot filler in Canning room...Electrical Panel...Canning room sink plumbing...Kitchen plumbing and HVAC plumbing and electrical

One Sunday we were able see our granddaughter ride. We have never seen her compete and we were so excited she was near enough for us to see her! She is getting to know her new horse and is progressing in her skills. It was great to see her compete and afterwords we went to lunch and had a wonderful visit. We are so proud of the young lady that she is and the commitment she has to her sport. :-)

Larry did two weeks of contract work and my Aunt and Uncle and I worked on the yard around the house. Cleaning it up and taking stuff to the scrap yard and dump. It's looking good. Now I need to find someone who has a Cat to come do some dirt work for me. I need leveling and some dirt moved away from the house. It's on the list. ;-) Uncle Bill and I rebuilt the temporary steps also. The steps were going towards where the bay window is now. They would not fit that way anymore so we had to turn them around and rebuild the supports.

While Larry was gone his cousin and her husband came for a visit with their Motor-home. We have known they were coming for a couple months but Larry couldn't turn down the work so unfortunately he was gone the entire time they were here. While they were here we went wine tasting and I learned more about the area and growing and making wine. They got to swap RVing stories with my Aunt and Uncle which was fun to listen to. It was a great visit. We joked that we were running an RV park. We had 3 RV's in the driveway. LOL And while they were here I finally caught a humming bird at my feeder!

The garden is looking real good. My Aunt tended to it while Larry was gone and Larry and her work on it a little each night. We have been eating salad, peas and broccoli from the garden and I have an artichoke to pick and eat today. :-)

Noah is still around and sweet as ever. He really missed Larry while he was gone but is warming up to the rest of us. Larry and I bought a brush and more fly spray for him. Noah seems to really like being brushed so we are doing it often and keeping the fly spray on him. Our granddaughter gave us some tips on getting the fly spray on his face. He hates it! So we now spray it on our hands and rub it on his face. He likes it much better.  It's been pretty warm here and he hangs out in the barn to keep cool. It's on the list to clean out the area he stands in and to clean the water trough.

The quail are still around and I finally found the babies. But since I found them and took pictures they have been hiding out. We also found a sparrow's nest in the grass. Aunt Sally put a stick near it so we wouldn't mow over it. This bird is so tiny and the eggs were as big as the end of my thumb!! After they hatched they were there for about 4 days and then they were gone. We think they were eaten by some other wildlife. :-( The bucks are still hanging around but are being more sneaky. I think they sense I want them in my freezer. ;-) Boy their horns are sure growing! 

This past week Larry and I went to Pasco to our storage units to get boat electronics and fishing poles. It was a long trip but we thought it was worth it. Soon we will be doing less with the house and hopefully contractors will be doing more that way we can go fishing!!! And we can't go fishing without the electronics or the poles!! We also brought the patio furniture and weed sprayers down. Since we were making the trip we took the trailer and loaded it up! It was an overnight trip so not much visiting but we stayed at my dear friends house so I got to spend some quality time with her. It was so nice she had us stay with them. :-) Larry went up to the old neighborhood and got our weed sprayers from our old neighbors/friends. He had a good visit with them but was disappointed that the family who bought the house from us wasn't keeping up the pasture. Just before we left town we had lunch with my niece. It was a short visit but enough time to give hugs and catch up. :-)

I took this next picture in Roseburg. It's by the Hospital. I was surprised to see a piece of the Twin Towers in Roseburg, OR. :-)

4th of July day we took off for the mountains and geocached all day on Camp Creek Rd. It was a nice break. Here are a few pictures I took that day...

Well, that brings us up to date. :-) I will do my best to post more often than once a month. But I can't promise anything. LOL

Thanks for stopping by and seeing what we're up to. :-)