We've been busy with landscaping, placing some more of the plants we brought from Olympia & those we purchased recently, but a lot are still sitting in the "Plant Pile" down by my workshop.
We attended our grand daughter's 16th birthday party & sampled some of their food. Yummy! We also went to one of her track meets to see her take second place in the high hurdles.

Lynna's little Chrysler has been suffering from neglect. She drove it less than 600 miles the past year and it suffered numerous dead batteries followed by charger time. This killed a new battery in less than a year. The driver's seat is 6 way adjustable with a lumbar support but not the passenger side & her degenerative disk disease keeps her from driving more than 15 minutes or so. We can't even drive it to Salem because that's too far as a driver or passenger, so I decided to replace it. This involved 3 trips to Portland. I found several nice cars, including a Benz diesel but it's seats failed to pass the comfort test. She thought a couple others were ok, but really liked my # 2 choice, a low mileage S Class, so I haggled for the best price & brought it home. Its really plush and Lynna's color also, kind of an aqua-marine.

I've always been able to maintain and repair our cars and there were always a few people who dumped low mileage luxury cars as soon as they were out of warranty. This allowed us to drive some very nice cars over the years. At some point I will not be able to keep doing this and I will have to quit buying German cars.

Friday I finished up hanging the vintage glass door & Tim returned to create a switchback path up from the tractor path to the new sidewalk. Lynna had him add a branch to give access to the middle area of the rockery. This afternoon we are scheduled to attend a "Sweet Sixteen" birthday party for our grand daughter Rosemary, so I will have a short workday for yardwork & starting to hang the double doors on the closet in our den.

The weather has been sunny & I was able to have a couple of bike rides & a haircut. Monday I returned the left over fence parts for credit then hung the closet door in our small bath & tidied up my workshop. I spent a day pulling a lot of big weeds from the North yard, then sprayed all the remaining weeds in our yard. Tim came today & put an acid wash, then sealer on our new sidewalk and the West & South porches. The Fumes are still pretty heavy but it sure looks good.

Back when I purchased our Maple flooring, the seller gave me an old glass door complete with some neat, vintage brass handles & super heavy, 5" hinges. We had framed a 2nd door opening for it from the front entry into our den. This lets us access the closet for guest's coats. But the County made us frame that wall with 2x6 studs, leaving a wall too thick to use the 1x6 fir so I bought some 1x8 from Frere's Lumber today, made the door jambs & got the hinge side up.

This past week the North side fill & sidewalk was completed. Our fill & topsoil was delivered by a high tech, 40,000 lb. truck with an articulated boom & conveyor belt. The driver was able to control everything from a console that looks just like those used for RC models. Very impressive to see that huge truck backed into place with no driver in the cab. Lynna supervised everything while she was planting our new landscape. All I had to do was write the checks! The dogs soon got used to all the strangers working around our property & watched from a safe distance.

The four doors we purchased most recently were unfinished & Lynna wanted two of them hung ASAP. It was difficult to find room in my workshop & took most of the week for me to apply the multiple coats needed, but all four are done. During the periods they were drying, I got the grass mowed, helped my neighbor John tow his work truck to downtown Stayton for repairs & hung two more doors.

Last week we drove up to Garden World near Woodburn & picked out some plants. They were delivered Thursday & Lynna has been working at getting them in place while I continued to hang doors. Tim came back Friday & all the rocks are placed now. We just need to pour the sidewalk to finish that project. Home Depot called to let us know our custom shower enclosure had arrived & we picked it up Sunday. I will probably install it when I finish hanging the doors.

We have been having some beautiful, warm weather & the dogs are enjoying the sunshine.