Wood Delivered

We have wood delivered to start our framing. And of course now it is raining...

https://photos.app.goo.gl/moyoi8fGswQP2Wjn7

Summer Writing Projects

We did summer writing projects again this year. We had a pretty busy summer so we did not do as much writing as last summer, but we did do a sequel to our books last year. The boys have really enjoyed seeing people read their books at the library and see them actually get checked out. So we did it again.

Here is Tommy's book "Bob's Bad Game".

https://photos.app.goo.gl/VydUzqPvQQR2UrFr9

Here is Jake's book "Jessy the Jesinader and the Evil Bunny".

https://photos.app.goo.gl/pR78WRKfBgwoCvrr6

First Day of School

First day of school. Tommy is headed to middle school and sixth grade. We are all a little nervous and excited. He is looking forward to the mountain biking class he has this semester. He also got to see (the supposed to be retired but is still there) Mr. Lopez who was substituting for math on Monday for orientation. He was excited about that. Jake is excited that he gets a little space from his brother this year as he will be going into 4th grade and riding a different bus and will have a different wake up time. After a long summer they could use a little space from each other. On to another year of school. Tommy had a great day. He seemed excited about math and computer. He really liked his social studies teacher who he said was hilarious. And of course he said the mountain biking class was so cool. The bikes are sick (in a cool way in case you didn't know). Of course Jake came home and said his school was so boring and he did nothing and he hated it. I thought he would be glad to have some space from Tom. My guess is that it will be the same reaction when I tell them they can have their own rooms instead of share.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/o8LdLQ6ytakDnBAdA

Last Day of Summer

My friend Cara came over to visit for the last day of summer before school starts. We thought maybe we would do beach time. But the weather was bad. So we tried doing some baseball for a while. That was fun as we have some little ballers. But then it started pouring rain. So we got some lunch at Thriftway and then went to the creamery to play some video games. They had a great time for the last day of freedom before it is back to school.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/PkrYWgxua3rzp2PK9

Someone Has To Do the Dirty Work

I have been working really hard. I have a bunch of vacation time I need to use up before the end of the month so I have been doing as much work as I can do. And someone has to do the dirty work. I got most of what was left in the trash pile that the dirt guys left either into the chip pile or the other piles waiting for a fire later. I have been working on it as I have time while waiting for firewood to be ready to split and move. Now it is time to finally start chipping this monster pile. And it is a wee bit dirty and dusty. Of course Eric came out to take pictures of me to see what a mess I was. But whatever, I got the job done and he didn't. Although he has unjammed the chipper numerous times for me. Stupid nut trees constantly jam in it. He even got me a new blade although it hasn't helped too much on the nut trees it does seem better. Of course I still have a lot more to do. And it is nice to be making more progress on this trash heap. We have a lot of extra dirt so we are thinking we will put a dirt berm near the entrance of the driveway for some privacy and I can use the wood chips to put on top. So that will come in handy.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/A2CjXdsb3T1HrGkB7

You Said The Wood Was Done

I know we said we were done with firewood. But we priced out wood for lumber compared with firewood and we would make more money on firewood. So we are finishing up the biggest logs. Just saving the biggest one for ourselves in case we want to do something cool with it. These rounds were so huge and difficult. Eric had to help me with some of them because it was exhausting. Then we had several more deliveries to make. But that section of the yard is now empty. I also raked it all up and put it everything on the chip pile, including a huge amount of saw dust that was filled with bits of wood. Nice to have one part of the yard done.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/NctVsP1hNef6QM7P8

Foundation Cleanup and Garage Backfill

Now that the foundation is done there is a bit of cleanup that needs to be done inside of it. Eric already clipped some nails that were dangerous and sticking out. He wants the concrete bits out of there so when people crawl around in the crawl space it is not as painful. He didn't really have time though so I did it for him. I tossed all of the junk into the garage as it needs to be backfilled up to the level of the driveway which is quite a bit. Then Eric trimmed up the rebar that was sticking out. Now it is all cleaned up for the dirt guys to backfill the garage and then the framing will begin.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/mFwPBZ4DQkm1uyoW7

Firetruck at Picnics in the Park

We tried to make it to picnics in the park as much as possible this summer to get our free lunch. Today was the last day and they had the firetruck there. They had a fun time hearing about what all the knobs do.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/HKCkyXHTi25ErEza7

Engels Car Show

The boys really enjoyed the Engels Car Show this year. We brought neighbor Lucian with us. There were a lot of cool cars. And there was a go cart this year that was very popular. And of course the burn outs. 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/n4uMjpyGSwWupS9K7

Watch Out For That Stick

Tommy was over at neighbor Lucian's house playing with him and another friend. I get a text saying you better come get Tommy. He caught a stick pretty hard in the face. He was pretty shocked and worried. Especially when he saw it in the mirror. I gave him some ice and some IB Profin and told him to relax. No concussion. But you gotta watch out for those sticks.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/beHe2y2BswfkeVKs9

Pam & Jim Visiting

Pam stopped back by the house to visit again before she headed out back home. And this time she brought her dad Jim with her from Alaska. It was nice to visit with them both even though it was brief.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/GKdVZ1ihjfKSrxNg6

Felix Hernandez Weekend

All Rise. Court is now in session. Long live King Felix! Saturday night my mom and I went to What a day at the ballpark to see Felix Hernandez inducted into the Mariners Hall of Fame. It was a great ceremony and there was a lot of energy in the stadium. They also had a full King's Court you could go to at the bar next door which was pretty cool. On Sunday I took both the boys. We had to get there pretty early and sitting on the hot sidewalk, but we got bobbleheads. During batting practice we also got a Saucedo autograph. Then we did all the fun stuff around the ball park up in the 300 hundred level. Got some ice cream to cool off and then went to our really hot seats. Thank goodness we had rally towels to put on our heads. We even went and got them wet to cool off. I think we were on the big screen like 4 times or so with our really great seats over in Kings Court today. We were given a game ball by the ball boy. The boys had their rally shoes out hoping for a win. We were an inch away with the would have been home run by France if it weren't caught. But it was a great game. And then they ran around the bases afterward. What a day. Super hot, and we are all ready to jump in the sounds or something. But it will be a memorable one for sure. I sold most of my tickets this year so I could afford all star tickets. I haven't been to a game since April. It was a great weekend celebrating Felix.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/LMvkL5o7CjN6vzM46

Backfill

Today the dirt crew put in the drainage pipes around the house. Put some pea gravel around it. And then they did the backfill. After they finished with that you could really see how they layout will look because most of the dirt mounds are now gone. Just one big one on the back side. They also took a couple dump truck loads of the junk pile including the 2 giant fir stumps. There is still a little of the junk pile left, but I will work on that. Before they packed the equipment up they unpacked our fir logs for us. We tried to sell them as logs for milling. But no one would pay firewood rates for them. So they will become firewood. Except for the big one. That we are saving. We did have them put it on some dunnage so we can let it dry out.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/SCJiBHaGByUgpTb28

Music in the Park

We went to music in the park tonight. Always a fun time. Parents can chill and listen to music and kids run around like crazy people.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/JQD5VNnDnG7Q7hLb7

Junk Pile

Now that the foundation is done the dirt work crew will be bringing their equipment back to backfill around the foundation. They are planning on taking some of our junk pile when they come back. Not all of it though. We started working on burning the junk pile in May after they cleared. Then we came up on the burn ban and had to stop. I did start a bit of a chipping pile of things that I had pulled out of there at times. But for the most part we spent the summer getting the firewood pile taken care of so we could get that out of the yard and make some money off of it. So the junk pile was just sitting there. The firewood pile was winding down so I started working on the junk pile. We had some more space around it with the firewood being out of the way. So Eric could use his truck to pull some of the stuff off the top. Since we still cant burn I sorted things into different piles on the edge of the forest to deal with later. One for chipping if I could get to it all. One for things that had to be burned. And one for things that could be used for firewood if someone wanted to take the time to do so. And I was also still pulling out things that Eric had to use the chainsaw on and was mostly giving away as junk firewood for free. I spent quite a bit of time in the last weekend before they showed up and hammered that pile pretty hard. And yes, I broke my second rake. Sorry Eric. And I was barely able to move afterward I was so exhausted. But I was able to get the pile down to maybe a quarter of what we started with. When we first looked at this pile I could hardly even imagine getting this far.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/u3YxYtmSzGNwmYpGA

Foundation

Well we spent most of the summer sitting here with an empty hole. The site was ready on May 17. We had plenty of other things going on in the yard this summer with the cleanup we had to do. But as far as the hole it just sat there empty. When they did start on July 26 it it took a few weeks for it to come together. But it finally did get finished on August 8. The boys were so lucky that they were home on the day they poured it. They got to see the pump truck and the cement truck and watched them do the whole thing. And now, we are ready to start building.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/UsY5GtLaMQXetovY7

Firewood Pile Done

Well we finished one phase of our project. The wood has all been cut and split. We lost count. But I think it is somewhere between 25 and 30 cords. I blew through another pair of gloves in just a couple weeks. We only have the really large fir logs left which we are going to try and sell as logs for timber. Time to get new gloves and move onto the next phase of the project we need to finish.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/GAPTrUmtequE73gF6

Low Tide Day With Lucian

I am still trying to use up my vacation hours over this summer. I have mostly been using them to do extra work in the yard. Today I decided to take the boys to the beach. We took our neighbor Lucian with us. We saw a lot of cool stuff in the rocks and tide pools.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/VwebYRimYwUCkPM77