It’s true, this time of year always just seems to be crazy packed with things going on. Here’s what we’ve mostly been up to these past few weeks.
My mom and dad came to town for a week, which was great. The kids had fun as always having grandma and grandpa around in their boundless energy as playmates, park-walking partners, and bedtime story readers. Got one nice photo of my dad w/ Milo.
My dad and I tackled a few projects in the backyard. We replaced the crumbling, moss encrusted fiberglass patio cover on our back deck, which had been on the to-do list for quite a few summers. (Of course I only have a picture of dad doing the tear-off, no photos of the finished product…it came out really nice) We also whipped up a nice little chicken tractor for our new baby chickens (did I mention we got some new baby chickens? well, we did!). Managed to build up the frame with some old window frames we had taking up space in the garage, and designed the rest as we went. I still need to put a door on the front of the nestbox (and quick too, the baby chickens are growing rapidly, but more about them later).
Nicki took everyone to a tulip festival down south of town one day while I was at work and I think the kids had some fun, though I hear there may have been some napping issues and tired kids.
I had my 33rd birthday a couple of weeks ago, and couldn’t have asked for a nicer day. Had a nice leisurely morning, and then headed out for a hike in oaks bottom, a little wetland and forest kind of right in our neighborhood. It’s one of those places you go by so frequently that you feel like you know so you forget to stop once in a while and explore it a little bit. We had a really nice walk, found a little pond full of tadpoles, some little frogs, played hide and seek, and made a promise to come back with a picnic lunch and spend a whole day down there exploring some day. Our good pal Michael Hurley was in town and he came over for the afternoon and we spent the rest of a lazy spring afternoon playing music in the backyard. Milo and Anna joined in the fun too.
Then the following weekend we were out at the coast for the westwind music/dancing/campout get together we go to every year. I’ve written about it here each year, to the point where there doesn’t seem to be much else to say. It’s in a gorgeous spot right at the mouth of the Salmon River, south of Cascade Head. We had mostly rainy/overcast weather this year, but it didn’t really put much of a damper on anything. (I know I’m about to wear out this “film grain” setting on our camera, but I’m really liking some of the pictures we’ve been taking with it. It does some really interesting things with the light, and I think it does do a pretty good job of giving it a “film” quality).
Westwind was particularly fun this year if only to watch Milo go crazy for all the guitars, fiddles, banjos, mandolins, upright basses, accordions, etc. I brought along Anna’s guitar (which for now is Anna and Milo’s guitar until I get around to making one for him) and the mandolin I just finished and we did our best to get in on some of the little jams here and there. Milo’s always happy to sit and strum for a while.
Here’s one of the few photos I have of the baby chickens where you can actually see all three of them. There’s a barred rock (Kingston), a Rhode Island Red (Rosie Featherfly), and an Americauna (Amarillo). Ok…Amarillo was much yellower as a chick. I kind of hate to say it, but for some reason these chickens are way more of a handful than our last batch. They always seem wound up, and they squawk and dart away and try to escape whenever you need to pick them up. I don’t know if we were particularly lucky with the last batch, or particularly unlucky with this batch, or maybe these ones will mellow out with time. For now they are still living in the brooder in the house, but they should be ready to move outside into the tractor in a week or two.
Last week was Nicki’s birthday. 38! I took the day off from work and we made the most of a weird schedule day. Anna had school which kind of chopped the day in half. We did some fun stuff around town in the morning, but the best part of the day was when we picked up Anna and went out to Round Lake, north of Camas, WA for a hike. Both kids were pretty tired, and the whole hike was actually kind of a struggle until the end, but when we made it to the meadow of blooming camas lilies and wild onions, everything got better. Camas is a native lily around here, it was a food crop for native people hundreds of years ago, and was once so ubiquitous in the valleys that whole fields would bloom and it would look like a bright blue lake. There aren’t many places left where big fields of camas still bloom, and it’s always a treat to see. I’m just noticing that the pictures don’t even come close to doing it justice. Some things (most things I suppose) are best experienced first hand.
We also had mother’s day this past weekend, but don’t have any photos. It was a beautiful day and Nicki had gone to the coast for the weekend with some girlfriends. We made some brunch for when she got home, but it was late enough that it became dinner instead. We spent a little time in the yard, and then spent the evening with friends. Things seem to be starting to slow down a little now. The weather is getting nice here, and we’ve got some work to do in the garden before all the summer adventures begin.
We’re just back from a really great trip to San Diego for Anna’s spring break.
We spent most of our first day at the zoo, which was great fun and also super tiring. It’s really a huge piece of property to cover, and we ended up criss-crossing it several times, taking different trails and side trails. Saw so many interesting things, but the major highlights for the kids were the pandas and the gorillas (especially the baby, Frank). They also have a really cool aerial tram which we ended up riding twice, and was pretty convenient for quickly getting from one end of the park to the next.
We don’t have many beach photos, but we did spend quite a bit of time hanging out on the beaches. The kids had a blast digging and playing in the sand, and it was usually pretty hard to get them going again once we settled in on the beach.
We were down there over Easter, and thankfully the easter bunny remembered to visit our hotel. We had a little easter egg/basket hunt in the morning, and the kids had some fun running around.
We went up to Pacific Beach later in the morning and went to an easter egg hunt they were having at the local community center. They had crafts and games and some of those inflatable bouncing things. They also had easter egg free-for-alls (by age class) where they scattered eggs in the football field and then turned the kids loose to grab as many as they could. Both kids had fun, though Milo was a bit scared of the giant easter bunny.
Next day we left San Diego, heading inland to the desert. Kids did great for most of the drive, but after about an hour of crazy winding mountain roads, Anna was starting to get a little car sick. We took some breaks along the way, and finally took refuge in the little town of Julian, California. It’s a cute little touristy town, mostly famous for its pies. Every single place in town makes pies. We walked around town a bit, then stopped in a cafe for some sandwiches. Of course we also had some pie. I got two pieces to share with everyone, but Milo wasn’t interested in sharing his piece. He was causing a major commotion in the place, so the waitress brought him a pickle (!?) to quiet him down. Milo likes pickles, and it did indeed quiet him down, but it didn’t make him any more willing to share the pie. We packed up and drove onto our destination…the Anza Borrego desert.
We were hoping our timing would be right to see the spring show of wildflowers in the desert, and we weren’t disappointed. There had been some rain and moderate temperatures, and the spring bloom had apparently gone on longer than normal.
We got in a couple really nice hikes.
We also got to experience first hand that 7.2 magnitude earthquake that hit northern Mexico. That was interesting. It happened just as we were getting our bags unpacked in the hotel. The kids were running and jumping around on the ground and it felt like the floor was sagging between the joists. I was thinking to myself that I couldn’t believe how poorly constructed the building was, when I suddenly realized what was going on. The water was sloshing out of the swimming pool. We grabbed the kids and ran outside. It kind of shook me up for a little while, not having been in many earthquakes. You never quite settle down after that, wondering if that was just the little one before the big one. There were quite a few aftershocks, some really close to where we were, but nothing as big as that first one.
A few more photos from a hike we took, a couple miles up a canyon to a little grove of palm trees. Unbelievably beautiful.
Anna was pretty interested in taking pictures on this trip, so we turned her loose with the camera quite a few times. We ended up with a lot of pictures with a finger over part of the lens, but also some good ones. The self portrait of her shadow was particularly cool, if perhaps unintentional.
I took this picture on the last morning we were staying out in the desert. Anna was prone to waking up early, and not wanting to wake up everyone else, I would get myself dressed and we would go on a morning walk with the sun just coming up.
I had to put up a picture of the pool, because it was where Anna first learned to swim by herself! Anna has been very keen on swimming since getting into lessons, but hasn’t been big on putting her face in the water or holding her breath. We had been swimming every single day so far on the trip, but while we were there at that pool in the desert she figured something out. She’ll hold her breath, put her face in the water and push off from the stairs and paddle 4 or 5 feet out to you. And she’ll keep it up for hours if given half the chance. It was pretty exciting for everyone I think, but mostly super exciting for Anna.
We spent our last day on the beaches north of San Diego. We drove from the desert out to Encinitas, and then drove south along 101 to the Torrey Pines reserve just north of La Jolla. The wildflowers were again in full bloom, and the views from the bluff were incredible.
A few more photos from our hike at the Torrey Pines reserve.
We spent the night in La Jolla, and got up in the morning and spent our last few hours on the beach in the little cove there. It was the warmest, clearest day yet and we spent some time watching the pelicans and sea lions on the rocks, and wading in the ocean. Caught the airplane (or bearplane, as milo calls it) and made it back to Portland with no big to do. An unforgettable trip.
I recently finished up this mandolin project that I’ve had in the works for close to 2 years (!).
We had a beautiful couple of days this past weekend, so I took the chance to get a few photos out in the spring sunshine.
I really had fun working through this one. It was far more challenging than either of the guitars so far, and I learned quite a bit along the way.
I’ve been playing it quite a bit these past couple of weeks, trying to get my mandolin chops back in order after several years of neglect. It is sounding and playing great so far, which is a great motivator. The kids are liking it too, as it’s closer to their size so they can get their arms around it easier than the guitars.
It’s always a little bittersweet to finish up an instrument after having it on the bench for so long. I’ve got a couple new projects tumbling around in my mind, but only time will tell what the next creation to come up from out of the basement might be.
Well, I guess it’s been a while since I got around to posting any pictures around here. Sorry about that, I just haven’t been too motivated to sit down and write up a proper post…one has to wait for inspiration to strike you know, and sometimes the inspiration it just takes it’s sweet time and meanwhile the photos pile up and the worse the photos pile up, the harder it gets to write up a post… So without making too many excuses, this will probably end up being a bunch of photos with not too much commentary.
I think these photos are from early February at the rhododendron garden. We had a very mild February, lots of nice warm days and not much rain at all (which isn’t really a great thing, but in the moment, it’s pretty nice).
We spent a fun day sledding with Anna’s school at the Mazama Lodge up on Mt. Hood.
Nicki and the kids took a trip to Cincinnati, and Anna and Milo had a bunch of fun with their cousins and grandparents and aunts and uncles. Milo and Nicki ended up getting some bad 24 hour stomach bugs, which kind of put a damper on the trip, but it sounded like all in all the kids had fun.
One Saturday morning after Anna’s swimming lesson we realized we had nothing really going on, so we decided to head out the coast for the day. We drove out to Lincoln City and just spent the day kicking around town and building sand castles on the beach. I discovered this kind of nifty “film grain”-esque setting on our camera and got some pretty nice photos.
There’s a little carousel in town and the kids really liked it.
Nicki has been pretty busy with futsal and outdoor soccer, and both teams have been doing really well. The futsal field is in the neighborhood, and the kids have had fun when we’ve been able to make it down to watch her play.
It’s always nice to get out for some early spring hikes to see the first leaves and flowers breaking out of their buds. These photos are from down in Tryon Creek State Park. The trilliums had already started blooming, and this was early March!
More spring hiking. Elowah Falls in the gorge.
I guess I’ll close it out on this note. I thought these were just too good to not post. Milo definitely appreciates a good laugh.
Hope you all enjoyed the photos…will do my best to keep posting a little more frequently, but with the springtime rapidly approaching I guess I can’t make any guarantees. Hope all is well with you wherever you might be.
While we’ve had some sadness to start off the year, I also wanted to post a few photos of the happy things that have happened for us in this new year so far.
First off this photo, which was actually from the last couple days of 2009. A forecasted rainstorm ended up turning to snow and dropped 6 inches or so of snow all over Portland right before rush hour. It caught everyone off guard, and the roads around Portland were in chaos. It was taking people 4 and 5 hours to drive across town. People were abandoning their cars on the interstate. A big delivery-type truck slid down a hill into our truck as Nicki was driving it home and she ended up having to walk to a friends place nearby. While all this was going on though, the kids and I were in the backyard having tons of fun. It was absolutely perfect snowball weather, and we put this huge snowman together in about 10 minutes.
A couple more nice pictures. We took a long hike down in Tryon Creek State Park to start the new year.
Here’s our latest fun inside activity. I’ve been running a microphone into my old amp and letting the kids go crazy with it. Sometimes I’ll plug the guitar in too, and we’ll sing some songs or just make noise. So far the most favorite activity is to run the microphone through the delay pedal for maximum echo and spacey weirdness.
Milo got his first haircut, and that was pretty fun and exciting for him. We have always taken Anna to the same place to get her haircut. It’s a nice place. Nothing super fancy, but always a pretty nice haircut for not too much money. Anna likes it because at the end of the haircut the woman brings out this box of spools of ribbon, all different colors, and ties bows in her hair. Naturally, Milo picked up on the fact that that was indeed the best part of the haircut, and he insisted that he get a bow also. I never did get to see him with the bow in, sadly, but was amazed when I got home how much older he suddenly looked. It didn’t really even seem like he had that much hair to cut, we were just planning on giving him a trim to even things out. Suddenly he looks like he’s 3 years old.
I finished Anna’s guitar a couple of weeks ago. That was big excitement for me (and Anna I think). I realized I’ve been working on it (on and off) for nearly 18 months. I think it came out looking and sounding pretty nice. I’ve had the strings on and off it a few times now, trying to dial in a good set up on it. It’s really going to be too big for her for a while, the neck profile isn’t actually all that much smaller than a standard guitar. She seems to like it though, maybe more so just for the fact that I made it for her and we’ve been talking abut it for so long. Here are a few pictures:
I wanted to take a minute to post a bit of sad news. Floyd, our beloved cat and companion of 15 years, died last week. Floydie was a great cat. Nicki got her as a kitten a year or so before I met her. She moved all over Portland with us, living with lots of other cats and dogs and people along the way. She even lived with me in Idaho for a summer. I drove her out there in my little Subaru, with her litter box behind the drivers seat and her crawling under the pedals and on my lap as I drove.
As you all mostly know, Floydie has been pretty sick these past couple of years, slowly and consistently losing weight and getting less and less active. This past week, though, it became clear that she was nearing the end, and it was pretty tough for everyone. Our biggest concern was that we didn’t want her to be in pain. We took her to the vet and ran some blood work and it was clear that there was very little that could be done for her but manage her pain. The vets were very nice, not trying to force us into long shot treatments or rush us to euthanize. They gave her a few days worth of pain medication and we took her home. We spent the next two days giving her as much attention as she seemed to be able to handle. She seemed to enjoy the time as well, but it was also clear that she was ready to go. In the end she found a quiet place to lay down and drifted off peacefully. It was all we could have asked for for her.
It was a sunny winter day, a treasured rarity, and the type of day that would have been her absolute favorite. She was always fond of a nice sunbeam. I carried her out into the sun and set to work making a grave for her at the corner of our garage. We buried her with her food and water bowls. In her last years, her favorite thing in life had become fresh, cold water. She meowed for it two or three times a day, and even if her water dish was still full we would empty it and pour in fresh cold water. It was a small luxury but the only one she requested.
The kids had been napping and when they woke up we talked a little bit with Anna about Floydie dying. This is our second pet to die in a matter of a month. It is a really hard thing to explain. We made some tea and asked if she wanted to go out and see where she was buried. It was mid-afternoon but the sun was still shining. We lit a candle and set some rocks around where she was buried. We talked about that Floydie’s body had died, but that her spirit would always be with us. Looking around the yard we could see the row after row of garlic we had planted in the fall just starting to sprout, life springing forth from the earth, and we felt blessed.
Wow, December had some adventures in store for us this year it seems. Guess I’ll start at the beginning…
It started off simple enough. We spent the month in the midst of the chaos and craziness of preparations for christmas and the winter solstice. Making gifts, entertaining cooped up, cabin fevered kids, and making preparations to head out of town for a week.
The kids and I finally perfected our couch fort design.
Nicki took Anna to see the nutcracker ballet with some other moms and daughters. I think they stopped for hot chocolate afterward too, Anna had lots of fun.
Then some sad news, a couple of days before we were scheduled to fly to Iowa for a week, something got into our chicken coop and attacked our chickens. Rosie (our rhode island red) was killed, and Sol (the buff orpington) survived, but was in really rough shape. We brought her inside and tended to her wounds, it didn’t look like she was going to survive the night, but she hung on and after a couple of days she seemed to have stabilized. It looked like she may have been blinded in one eye, but now it looks like she may have her sight back as well. We’re very happy she is on the mend.
I’ll miss Rosie dearly. She was the smallest of the three, but was definitely top of the pecking order, and she was also the most willing to be picked up, pet, etc. She was a good bird and a good friend.
With the injured chickens mostly stabilized, and with them and our cat in the capable and willing hands of a generous friend, we packed our bags and caught a flight to Omaha for a week long trip across Iowa that would prove to be memorable. Our flight arrived in Omaha around 10pm and by the time we negotiated the rental car, actually got onto I-80 (tip for future travelers, the sign says go right but DON’T BELIEVE IT!) and then made it to my brother’s place in Shelby Iowa, it was after midnight. We slept a few hours, woke up, ate some breakfast, then threw the kids back in the car and drove the 4 hours to Iowa City.
Most of Nicki’s family was in Iowa City for the weekend to celebrate her grandfather’s 90th birthday. Anna and Milo had a great time with all their cousins and aunts and uncles and Grandma and Grandpa around. The birthday party was fun, and included an amazing quantity of delicious food. Both Anna and Milo spent quite a bit of time in the hotel pool with their cousins. There was also an attempted afternoon of ice skating, but Milo was napping and Anna complained that the skates were too tight and that she didn’t want to fall, so that was short lived. She spent the afternoon with her aunt Jenny instead and I think they had fun together.
We had intended to take a few days to head back across the state to my brother’s place for christmas, but the weather reports were looking pretty bad. What was supposed to be an overnight stay with Nicki’s aunt Jean turned into a short afternoon visit, but it was still very nice. She brought out all her kids toys, including some old dolls that Anna was in love with. We watched deer and rabbits in the backyard, sat and chatted, and headed out when the kids started getting tired in the hopes of getting our driving done ahead of the coming storm.
We were in Shelby the next morning, just barely ahead of the first round of snow and ice. We did have to stop for provisions along the way though, and snapped this photo of Nicki on our way into the town of Atlantic.
There was plenty of fresh snow, and we got some outside play time in before the storm really hit.
Milo learned that he really liked playing in the snow, and he especially liked eating snowballs.
The freezing rain hit first and coated everything in a half inch of ice. then it started snowing and just kept on snowing.
Being cooped up inside wasn’t all bad though, we had some fun. Made cookies, played games, and opened a few presents early just to keep things interesting. The power started cutting in and out all day long Christmas eve day, but it never stayed off for more than about 5 or 10 minutes. We figured everything would be ok. The kids wrote a note for Santa Claus and went off to bed with visions of sleighbells and reindeer and whatnot.
We woke up Christmas morning though and it was clear that something wasn’t quite right. We figured power had been off for a couple hours, and already the house was noticeably cooler. After some cell phone calls around town it was clear that the whole town was without power. After some further calls to the regional power utilities, it was clear that it was probably going to be quite some time before power was restored. We made the most of it. Everyone bundled up and we opened presents. Eventually we sliced up some cold bagels for breakfast. Anna got some handmade dolls that she really loved, but no one was more pleased with a gift than Milo was about this little fisher price guitar that he got.
It has like four or five songs on it (love shack and message in a bottle are the two I can remember right now), and has strings that respond in key when you pull on them. Milo just held that thing right up to his ear and got this far off stare of contentment and played the songs over, and over, and over. It was hard to wrestle away from him.
It was getting colder, the kids were getting somewhat restless, and to be honest I was getting more than a little worried about the prospects of a night with no heat. The word around town was that Avoca, seven miles east, had power and that there was a motel there that had rooms available. We decided it was probably our best bet considering the circumstances. Our little rental car couldn’t even move, but there were enough four wheel drive rigs there to get us all in, so we loaded up the kids and we took a caravan down the interstate.
Here it is, the Avoca Motel 6, our refuge.
We settled in, warmed up and then headed across the street to the truckstop/cafe which came highly recommended, mostly because it was open. We ate our lunch/dinner/whatever meal it was there in the truckstop and it was then that it really started to dawn on me that this was going to be a christmas to remember.
The power came on later that night in Shelby. We drove back in the morning as we still had to get to Omaha to catch our flight. The interstate was still pretty dicey. Fine for the 4-wheel drive rigs, but I wasn’t looking forward to piloting our little rental car the 40 miles back to Omaha. My mom was headed back to Bemidji and decided to drive with us most of the way back to Omaha, safety in numbers. There were cars and semis in the ditch and buried up to their window in snow, and the overpasses were all iced up, but we made it eventually. A long day of flying and we were back home in Portland by 9pm with two exhausted kids.
As for me, I’m officially taking the rest of the year off, had my fill of excitement for a while.
Here’s wishing everyone a very happy and healthy 2010!
Has been cool and clear here lately, with a bit of winter in the air. Refreshing.
Not too much been going on, but thought I’d put a couple of photos up while I have minute.
Brussel sprout season is upon us, and we have been eating a lot of them. I get excited every time I see a new stalk full show up in the kitchen.
Anna is busy with school and swimming lessons and birthday parties and craft time mostly.
The weather has been good for walks and we’ve been out and about in the neighborhood a fair bit. Still get quite a few afternoon walks to the park. Nicki took the kids to the comic store down the street, where they can draw on the walls and share a treat.
Thanksgiving with the Ervings and crew was great fun as always (so much fun in fact that it seems we didn’t bother with many photos). A great gathering of friendly folks and a potluck feast. The kids had an especially good time. Anna had pretty much lost her voice by the end of the night.
Milo sat at the grownups table at Thanksgiving this year, but I’m thinking he’ll want to be at the table with the rest of the kids by next year.
Our friend Brian…I just like this picture.
There’s been plenty of time for craft time lately. Anna has now started flipping through craft books that Nicki brings home from the library and requesting certain projects. The other day she and Nicki spent a few hours doing these paper towel tye dyes with food coloring. Also we’ve been doing quite a bit of coloring. I have a big roll of that red drop cloth construction paper in the basement, so I cut off a long piece of it and taped it to the floor between the living room and dining room. We kept it there and kept coloring on it for a couple of weeks before we filled it all in. Last week I swapped in a fresh sheet so we’re just getting started on that one.
Hope you all are well and enjoying the last of fall.
I’ve been meaning to get a post up the past week or so, but have been having some trouble w/ the “behind the scenes” logistics here at the fourpartharmony blog. Long story short, I had to add all these photos in here by hand as opposed to the kind of fast easy way I usually do it. Hope to get things ironed out here before too long, in the mean time…
We’ve gotten a few new picture taking devices in the past couple of weeks, and as a result we’ve been taking a bunch of pictures. We finally replaced our cell phones, which we originally broke down and bought when Nicki was going into labor with Anna. They were great simple phones and we were a little reluctant to replace them…both of them were hanging by broken hinges. Mine you could peek in and see the electronic innards, Nicki’s speaker was broken so when you called her it sounded like you were talking to someone at the end of a very long hallway. Mine was an excellent beer opener. Anyway, we took a long time to finally break down, but we finally did and so we went out and got ourselves the newest, fanciest, cheapest phones we could get, and they actually have halfway decent little cameras on them. Nicki took the kids to the pumpkin patch a week or so before Halloween, and here’s some of the pictures she took w/ the phone.
See, not bad eh?
That said, we knew we were still in the market for a proper little point and shoot camera for the majority of our photo taking needs. I had been scoping out the options since our last camera died, and finally just decided to go ahead and make up my mind. We decided to ditch the canon powershots, as nice as they were, because they kept breaking on us. We got a Panasonic, and so far we love it. We went on a hike in Tryon to break it in, here’s some of the nicer photos we got that day.
See, pretty nice don’t you think?
We didn’t take a bunch of pictures on Halloween night, but we had a good time. Dawn and Doyle and Kadin came over for dinner and trick-or-treating in the neighborhood. Anna and Kadin are getting to be professionals now, but it was still pretty new to Milo this year. He caught on right away though, and after a couple of houses he knew pretty much what he needed to do. He’d walk right up and knock on the door and then try and hold his own for a good position in front of the candy bowl with the rest of the kids. All the kids seemed to have a very fun night.
Halloween 2009.
We took a walk last weekend down to the new play structure they installed at one of the local elementary schools. We’ve been checking it out for a few weeks, but hadn’t had a chance to get in and play on it yet. The kids had fun, and we got some very sweet photos of the two of them.
Took some pictures of the two instrument projects recently. I don’t work on them too often, but still manage to make some progress.
Anna’s guitar is really starting to come together. The body is all finished and bound. The binding was really touch for some reason. I bent the bindings by hand and they weren’t very cooperative. Got them in though, and they look pretty good. The neck is rough carved. The set (the angle the neck makes where it meets the body) looks pretty good on it. I’m working on the fretboard now. Will need to finish the neck and fretboard, inlay the peghead, drill tuner holes, make bridge, then it will be ready for finishing.
The mandolin has been much slower going, but I’m still making a decent amount of progress. I got the sides bent bent and glued up, got the top and back almost completely carved, and the top joined to the sides. I’m working on the mandolin fretboard alongside the fretboard for Anna’s guitar. I’ve got the neck dovetail cut and roughly shaped, thought he fit is far from perfect. Have been working on that for several weeks. Still need to inlay the peghead and cut tuner holes for the mandolin neck too. Once the neck is finished, I should be able to glue it up and close up the body and start on the binding. It’ll be a while before this one’s done I have a feeling, but I feel pretty good about how it’s coming along.
Finally, some pictures of the rhododendron garden down the street (the “duck pond” as we call it). This was last week.
Well, that’s about what we’ve been up to these past few weeks. Not sure what November has in store for us, but I’ll be sure to keep y’all posted.
Yes, once again the weeks have gotten away from me and it’s been a while since I got around to putting up any new photos.
We did have a nice last few weeks of summer out here in Oregon. We went on a couple more camping trips.
Did some hiking.
Some exploration.
Anna started her second year of preschool.
Milo helped send her off on her first day of school for the year. He’s been enjoying coming along when we drop her off and pick her up.
We’ve had a bunch of friends stay with us. Anna was super excited to have her former next door neighbor and bestest friend Nora stay with us for a few days. We put sleeping bags down for them in Anna’s room and they stayed up until 11:00 chattering and telling stories.
We harvested the end of our summer veggies and our squash and have been planting some seeds for fall and winter. We have a nice looking patch of overwintering broccoli, carrots, parsnip some onions, leeks, swiss chard…we also planted some of the garden in clover for next early spring.
We also harvested our first crop of apples off the apple trees we planted this spring. Three apples. A decent haul really, I didn’t think we’d get any. These three all came off one tiny branch of yellow delicious. They’re pretty tasty!
Both kids will be sad to see the last of the tomatoes gone. Picking and eating them was a favorite backyard activity this summer.
We’ve still been getting some pretty good weather lately. The kids had an afternoon painting session in the backyard recently.
And we’ve been on a few bike rides.
This past week, my mom was in town and she had her camera out quite a bit (ours is still on the blink so we haven’t been taking many pictures lately). Anna and Milo of course were very excited to have Grandma Jackie around, and they had a lot of fun over the course of the week. Before she left we downloaded all of her pictures onto our computer, since we didn’t really have any pictures of her trip. I think my mom likes taking the little movies with her camera more than she likes taking pictures because there weren’t nearly as many pictures as there were little 10-30 second long little video clips. This turned out to be kind of a good thing because it caused me to just spend the last two hours or so making this:
Hope you liked it! Hope the fall is finding you all well and happy and above all healthy.
