More Landscaping Pictures

The first bath went well, but I may need to add some kind of back splash. This dog bath was a half price bargain. It had some flaws showing on the outside but our dogs don't seem to care. It is intended to be portable for outside use with a hose but we did a permanent installation in the garage.

Monthly Update

We made a big effort to get as many plants into the ground as possible prior to the onset of the Summer heat. There were a few very hot days late in May but we have had great weather for planting in June. Most days start with cool, overcast skies in the morning and any heat has come late in the day. Lynna had me use the tractor to till some beds. First I broke up the clay, then tilled in compost & finally a 3rd tilling to mix in coarse sand. The pure compost pile is gone now and only a small amount of sand and 50/50 compost & soil remains. I still haven't tilled my garden plot, but managed to find places for lots of vegetables in the beds I made for Lynna.

I cut, finished & installed the wood wrap on our Family Room & Master Bedroom windows then hung the blinds Lynna Lynna picked out. The blinds really help to keep the house cool on hot days & look much better than the cardboard we had been using!

When we framed the house, I had installed the ports for Lynna's built in vacuum. Recently, I spent a few days to complete the installation. I hung the new vacuum motor unit in the garage, then crawled around under the house hooking up all the piping to each port & brought the pipe out into the garage. Everything went smoothly & I managed to bring the pipe out into the garage perfectly in line with the Bonus Room pipe and Motor outlet.

Lynna wanted a dog bathing station in the garage. We found a unit that would work but Sonny is getting old & she thought a ramp would help, so I built one for her from scrap wood. I beveled the frame ends to fit & anchored the ramp to the tub with a pin. We tried the ramp out with both dogs & Sonny caught on right away. He was soon trotting up & down, showing a big smile & lots of tail wagging, but Peaches was wary & didn't trust the ramp. She preferred to just jump up over the side into the tub to get a treat. Only after much training was I able to get her to jump up from the end & put 1 foot down on the top of the ramp as she flew past. Oh well!

I found this little goldfinch lying on the deck just outside our Family Room French doors. He wasn't moving at all except for blinking his eyes. I gentlly scooped him up, then carried him out to the feeder tree. After a few minutes, he began to stir & turn his head around, so I held him against the suet cake holder until he grabbed it. He sat there for about 5 minutes, then flew off to join his buddies. Mission accomplished!

The doors are all hung now & I moved on to the wood wrap on the windows. Lynna wanted me to cut everything to fit, then do the finishing down in my workshop before installation. That way there won't be a lot of fumes.

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.

I got all my tomatoes & squash planted this week, peas have been in about 3 weeks but I still have to find a place for my Rhubarb start.

Our grand daughter just had her 16th birthday party. We attended & sampled some of their food. Yummy! We also went to one of her track meets and saw 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. The battery went dead many times, followed by a re-charge. 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 couldn't even drive it to Salem because that's too far as a driver or passenger. So, I decided to replace it. This involved replacing the battery under warranty, then 3 trips to Portland. I found several nice cars & my favorite was a diesel, but it's seats failed to pass the comfort test. She thought a couple others were ok, but really liked my # 2 choice, so I haggled for the best price & came home with this MBZ. Its really plush and Lynna's color also, kind of an aqua-marine.

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.