Golfing with Dad

Tommy went out golfing with dad again.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/k8kYwVKJJKQtmnq18

Memorial Day

Eric went to see a ceremony at the senior center honoring Vashon soldiers lost in war. And the whole family went to the memorial day ceremony at the cemetery and visited the graves of family members.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/GVH75B9dT3ggh7o98 

Backyard Camping

We had no plans to go anywhere for the long weekend. So I offered to let Tommy, Jake and the neighbor Lucian camp in the back yard. I let the boys set up their own tent. They seemed to do OK figuring it out with a little guidance. Of course by the time it got to bed time they whined about having to go out and sleep in a tent. I told them they still had to go out there though. Man, when I was a kid I loved backyard camping.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/oabW5UjBnUgeUHHA7

Final Sign-off

It has been a pretty crazy week. After the doublewide was moved last Wednesday the bank told us we had till the end of the month to wrap our project. Inspections are done only on Thursdays. So we began working every free moment to clean up debris and finish the yard. I had to build a rock wall in a week to hold up the dirt where there was an 18" drop off. Moving rock after rock after rock. I also buried a drainage pipe below it to direct the water over to the blueberries and further from our back patio and down the hill. Thankfully we have a full quarry of rocks that we picked up each time they excavated. And thanks to my mom for letting us have her big ones she had sitting in her yard. It is not totally finished but good enough for the inspector. I will keep working on the plants and top edge rocks before the appraisal. Then we hauled endless wheel barrow loads of dirt. Throwing out grass seed and straw. I also spent a fair amount of time camouflaging the old driveway. We were supposed to remove it. I had Eric do a bunch of cleanup of his stuff from the area so as to not draw attention over there. Then I raked dozens of bags of leaves and dumped it over the driveway so you could not see it. We are sore and tired. Sleep deprived. And yes I was out there at night with a light to get it done. My hands are shredded even though I was wearing gloves the whole time. The inspector came today and we passed. Eric may have know she was former military and wore every military item he could find when she came. I was at Tommy's game but I was watching on the house camera and he gave her a tour through the boys ball field. She is somewhat of a strict inspector. We really needed this to pass to make the bank happy. And she gave us our final sign-off. We have officially wrapped this project and only have bank paperwork left to deal with. After 10 years we can sit back and relax and just play around doing projects in our new spacious yard.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/pu3pUYVS27RjJVHYA

Jake at 5th Grade Camp

Jake went to 5th Grade camp this week. He was so excited that he got into the same cabin as his best friend Lucas. It sounds like they had a great time. Jake was really hoping they would have a talent competition like when Tommy went. So he practiced signing the parmesan cheese song for about a month. But sadly there was no competition this year. He was OK about it though. Instead they had a rocking dance party in the lunch hall. He said people were dancing and jumping up and down so much it shook the walls and windows.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/PLeFFVbNiStd5Z4j8

Old House Looking Shabby

Tommy and I were driving out to Ravensdale for a tournament. It was just out past our old house near Covington. So I drove him past the old house. Things have changed a bit in the neighborhood, but also look the same. The yard out the old house is looking extremely overrun. I don't know if this is now a rental house and the people living there don't even care to mow the lawn. But it looked knee height. Pretty crazy. I knew the upkeep there would never be like we had it. The yard was set up terribly by the owners before us and was super tough to maintain. We did our best to make it easier, but it was still really tough. One of the reasons we are working to set up our new yard in easy to weed beds that are not super deep. And trying to plant things in easy to maintain ways, or putting seed spreading plants along the edges of the forest so they can fill in out there instead of them being in the way in our flower beds where it is hard to maintain the spreading. It did bring back a lot of memories driving up there.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/XmDQ7j6UYUVKek628

Manufactured Home Removal

It took us quite a while to get a title and organize this, but we donated our old double wide to a non profit to repurpose for low income housing. The biggest challenge of that was getting a title to remove the MFH from real property. Eric had to go to many offices in downtown Seattle. It required 3 different office signatures. The worst part is that one office tried to claim that our building did not exist and that they could not help us. They said take it to court. Yeah right. So I called and emailed and talked to some other people. They had to talk to someone in Olympia. They discovered that because we had the new house built on the same parcel, the MFH was changed to a secondary dwelling in their system. Most people had no idea how to look that up. After 4 months and several trips down town we finally got the title. A couple weeks ago a company came and split it in half to prepare for removal. Monday they took one half of the house and today they came back to get the other half. It is on it's way to fife to a be put to a new use. I can't say I am sad to see this thing go. It served it's purpose for our family but living in it was not the greatest. Many things the family has already started blocking out of their minds. I won't lie, I was kind of hoping I would get to take a sledgehammer to it. But, I hope the new owner can fix it up to be something they can be happy in. Now we have one last bit of yard to fix up before we can get final approval on our construction project.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/bU5kZ5VADNGXDSvQA

Working in the Yard

Eric borrowed the neighbors tractor so we could do a little leveling of the yard off the back door so that we could get the blue berries and apple trees planted before it became too late to plant. Also so that we could get the flow of water sloping away from the back patio and fire pit and rolling down the hill and toward where we were going to plant the blue berries. Jake got to sit on the tractor a little as Eric was driving it back to the neighbor.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/zCJtg7PKBteBnsHG9

Tommy Umpiring

Tommy started his first job. He did a little bit of umpiring for Pinto league. As far as I can tell he did a pretty good job. He is highly motivated to make money right now. All the things he wants cost so much money. But he is very excited to make his own spending money. He got a check in his name so we also had to go to the bank and get his first bank account.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/GwHSYeyhxCJC5Fv5A

Apples & Blueberries Planted

We got things planted later in the season than we wanted. But the apple trees and the blue berries are in. We still have a bunch of work to do in the area, but we will work around them. We are also going to get 2 dwarf Asian pear trees.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/VRLxmp3eBabxUqeC8

Car Museum

Jake went to the car museum with his buddy Lucas. Looks like they had a good time.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/UrKU3aVfg1SURoTKA

90's Dress Up Day

Chautauqua was having a 30th anniversary celebration. So they had the kids dress up in 90's clothes. I didn't have a ton of options for Jake. I did have a Wayne's World hat though. So I found him a wig and the hat. Some jeans and a black shirt. He had fun with it. I had to explain who him what Wayne's World is though.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/r6jhgg6uVDJTBHnv9

What Are They Doing

I am not sure what you are supposed to do on this part of the playground. I can't imagine they are doing this correctly. They seemed to be having fun though.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/NtJ4aybbQUVNDNq46