It's Been A While

Today I was notified that I still have blog readers out there and I should probably put out an update for some/all of you.

Dan and I are still happily married and living in Ridgefield with the kids. We have two dogs (Scooby and Bella), two cats (AJ and Fonzie) and four chickens. We are chicken sitting for a friend so right now we have 21 chickens so it's definitely a full house. We continue to work on the yard and make improvements too.

Dan is still working at BNSF as the Portland Yard Inspector. He is home every day and works locally.

Liam is a freshman at Ridgefield High School and doing very well. He will be 15 in less than two weeks! He's still playing soccer and his team, the Blazers, have only lost one game this entire season (wish I could say the same for the Seahawks).

Liam at a recent soccer game.

Pippa is now four and I would say she's ready for school. She's taking swim lessons on the weekends and although she wouldn't put her face in the water when she started, she's now swimming like a little fish. Of course she has a long way to go but we are proud of her progress.

Pippa and her friend Kinnley

I'm still working full time at PUD and we are still focusing on paying off our debt. Life is good.

More progress on the yard

It's Spring!

Spring has finally sprung here in the Pacific NW. We were able to finish the gravel path a few weekends ago and the rain has been keeping us inside since then. However, earlier this week the sun came out and we are looking at sunshine throughout the weekend! I have only taken one picture of the path since it was done and here it is:

I will do my best to take another picture or two this weekend. I have been busy replanting my tomato seedlings (and broccoli and peppers and...). We also redid Pippa's room! We started with a new bed then decided to hang some art. But before we hung the art we wanted to touch up the walls and while we were touching up the walls, we should just go ahead and repaint them. So we ended up with a full room re-do. The paint turned out great. Same color as before but a little more green, a little richer. She loves her new platform bed and sheets. Here she is hamming it up.

Last night I noticed some nice flowers blooming on our front planting area. Here they are:

Tulips and bleeding hearts...so pretty.

Well, Liam is with Nana V and Papa Dave this week for Spring Break. He just got his physical and track starts next week...soccer games start up on the 19th...it's going to be a crazy month. 

Saturday we will drive and pick him up from the beach. Sunday we are having a family brunch at our house with my grandparents and dad. Next Friday is Pippa's THIRD birthday and Sunday we leave for a short vacation - just the two of us!!! I would like to get a bit more yard work done this weekend so I will try and post more yard pictures of our progress. I hope you are all enjoying whatever weather you are having. 

Weekend Warriors

 We had some nice weather on Saturday and a little bit of Sunday so we buckled down and got a few things done/progress made!
Last weekend though, I filled in the front area with gravel while Bella "helped"

 We moved all the sod from the area by the barn to the chicken coop. I really wanted to get these pieces done so I (or anyone else) wouldn't have to put on my boots every time I went to check on the chickens. We dug out a little more ground, laid the fabric and the gravel. This took about 5 hours with three of us working and Pippa "helping"

Here it is with the gravel down. 

Notice in the picture above that the chicken coop is still really grass and hasn't been touched.

The day was about 65 which is apparently warm enough to strip down to your panties and run around all day long. At one point she had taken them off and was sitting on the asphalt driveway naked - ew. That is Liam in the background looking all grown up. You can see where we stopped for the day.

Here you can see what I did on Sunday. In the morning everyone was pretty sore so I went out alone and dug this out. By the time I was done, Dan decided to help with the fabric and the gravel. We did this in about 3 hours. The doors swing freely now (instead of being caught up on the mud) and we can wear flip flops to take care of the chickens!

Taking a bit of a break this weekend to spend time with friends but we will be back to it soon.

Yard Work

Here are just a few pictures I took on Friday. We have made some progress this weekend so I will post more soon.

This rose bush right by the walkway will be going very soon

Lilac "trees" growing over the walkway. These will be relocated

Plastic is down and ready for gravel.

 

Here is the font area with the rock removed

We plan to take the grass out and make this all bed (hostas and other plants)

River rock was relocated to the front of the house underneath the windows for drainage

You can see where the grass has been cut and rolled for removal

Taking out all this grass to make room for more garden beds

Almost all of this will be a gravel pathway. To the chickens and to the house.

Just another view.

March Update

Our work party wasn't as busy as we had hoped but we did get the sod cut out like we wanted, another area dug out and a bunch of trees down and cut up. It rained pretty much the entire time and non-stop since then so I don't have any pictures right now. I plan to have some gravel delivered tomorrow and it's supposed to be nice weather so I will try and get some then.
In the meantime, here is a picture of the front walkway with ankle-breaking river rock. Then my friend Tanya dug it ALL out! There was no barrier put down so most of the rock sunk into the clay earth. I will put a barrier down before filling back up with gravel. You can also see where the sod was cut, that will be a bed with (most likely) fern, hosta and moss - this area gets very little sun.

River rock

Now it's a pool. Will be gravel and garden soon

 Liam and I ran a 6k on Sunday and it was awful weather. He actually WON his age group, I got 5th in mine. It was a pretty small race but we were very happy to be done. After that we went out to breakfast with the whole family then lazed around the rest of the day.

Didn't want to leave the car

Before we were soaked

We ended up relisting our house with a different realtor this week. The communication has been night and day. For example, I know that someone is coming to look at the house today and they are concerned it might be too close to the truck stop. With our old realtor we wouldn't know it was shown unless I specifically asked, and usually that would be days later. We were thinking of renting the house but renters were not available until June/July so we decided to relist until then. The new realtor had us paint the interior all one color and do some mini staging with some basic furniture. You can see the listing here
Wish us luck with selling soon!

Quick Update

Good Afternoon-

Just a super quick update as this week wraps up.

Last week Dan and I were spending a quiet weekend at home and my Dad showed up and surprised us. We ended up getting some work out of him and I snapped this picture of him doing what he does a lot of...standing and staring at the view. He's got his machete strapped to his belt. He is also standing next to our one and only lawnmower. I mowed the lawn...all of it...using this. Yowza! It took a little while.

Here's a great little video of Pippa. She started making this "bridge" the night before and was jumping on it for HOURS. She took a book away and that's where I pushed record. You can see that she realizes the book is missing and must put it back before continuing. Type A?? Very likely...

Pippa Counting

Our work party is this weekend. I will take lots of pictures and post an update after it's done.

We also took the house off the market for a little while. We need a bit less stress in our lives and we will either re-list or rent it soon.

Love you all.

Outside Pictures

We finally had a decent beginning to the day so I was able to walk around while the guys were working and snap some pictures of the outside.
 Here I am walking around the house on the driveway so I can show you the different vantage points. The picture below is me standing at the end of our driveway looking east out at the road. This is a private road you must drive down to reach our house.

 Then when I turn 180 degrees and face west, you can see our oval driveway.

 Walking a few steps forward and turning left (south) you can see our side yard (and well cover). The metal fence to the left is our neighbor's driveway.

 A few more steps forward and still looking to the south you can see more of the house.

 Keep moving west and we get to our "shop" - it has a dirt floor and holds most of our gardening supplies. The blue line on the ground is where we want to remove grass and add gravel. It's pretty soupy when it gets wet and we would like to put in gravel to help us walk around without getting too muddy.

 Continuing around the corner is the barn. This one has a concrete floor.

 And finally full circle to the house. The window on the far right is Liam's room, then Pippa's room, then the living room on the far left.

  Walking a bit past the house and showing a different view.

Standing by the barn/chicken area and looking at the side of the house.

 Most of the back of the house. Our bedroom is to the far right (not pictured). Then the three decks from the dining room and mud room.

 Turning to the south shows a small garden plot. It was already there so I'm going to use it this year while we determine the best place to garden next year. Dad, Liam and Dan are trying out the new chainsaw and cutting a few trees before our big work day.

 Dad took this picture from his phone and I liked it. A few weeks ago walking down to the creek, this bridge crosses a little stream. We need to rebuild/reinforce it but it will be a fun summer project.

There you go! I hope it gives you a good idea of the upper part of our property - where we mostly live. I will take pictures inside very soon.