9 posts from September 2009

Grandma and Grandpa Newbill drove down to spend the weekend with us which was a lot of fun.  We spent most of the time just chatting and catching up and playing with Emma.  One thing Grandpa wanted to do was see if we could find a gravestone of my Great, Great, Great, Grandfather who was supposedly buried in Lookingglass, Oregon.  Amazingly enough we found the gravestone after only a bit of searching.  Kind of surprising and coincidental that we're living now in nearly the same spot that my relatives were living nearly 150 years ago!

Spent the rest of the weekend painting the garage (Dohnele did most of it), mowing and edging the lawn, cleaning the fountain and mapping out the sprinkler system.  We also hung a magnetic knife strip in the kitchen which is really handy.
I've got one day of work and then I'm taking Tuesday off to drive to Eugene to pick up Dohnele's dad and motorcycle.

Things have been pretty hectic around here - in a good way!  We're all moved into our new house and out of our apartment!  We also had Dohnele's family down for a visit.  And then there's work and all the extra-curricular work that comes with owning a house!  And we've been up to Portland once and up to Eugene twice!

In any case, there are FIVE blogs below this one.  Just keep going down until you get out of the blogs that are titled with dates.  Lots of good pictures!  Enjoy!

By this time we were entirely moved into the new house and needed a break.  We took Dohnele's family to Elkton and to Tomaselli's for brunch which was scrumptious.  Then Dohnele's mom and I sampled a few local wines from Brandborg Winery.  The two different Pinot Noir's that we tried were both delicious.

We drove a few miles to Little Wolf Creek where I did a lot of work earlier this spring.  We picked a ton of blackberries!
Then we drove a few more miles to Lower Garden Valley and to Sterken Farm where we picked about 30 pounds (no joke!) of fruits and vegies before it got too warm and we headed home.  The peaches and pears were the highlights since the nectarines had passed and the figs had mostly been picked.
It had gotten up into the 90s and so playing in the sprinkler was necessary when we got home.  Emma and her Aunt Juleah had a blast playing T-ball with the new toy that Dohnele picked up for them!

I managed to slip a few days of work here and there despite moving and having loads of company.  A contractor for one of my projects called and said he had a break in his fire work which means "go, go, go!"  I made a bunch of calls, ordered a bunch of supplies and got the project ready to go.

Basically, my plan was to dig up a bunch of stream-road crossings that had failed and replace them with some heavy duty rock.  Ideally the new crossings will pass water at a slower velocity than a culvert and will allow sediment to "fall out" while still allowing for year-round vehicle access.

I took Joseph and Ben out for some fresh air and exercise because they were bugging the girls (and everyone else).  I had to check out a proposed road which will access a timber sale.  The road is mostly along ridgeline and is less than two miles hike roundtrip, but they were still doing a lot of dragging.  They were definitely in the mood for onion rings and a vanilla malt at the Road Runner Cafe in Days Creek on the way home.  We even were able to catch some live bluegrass there; Shasta Ray and the Downhome Band were playing!

Emma and Juleah did a lot of digging in the dirt.

Nearly all of Dohnele's family showed up to visit and to help us move.  It's always sooooo nice to have visitors and we kept them just as busy as they kept us busy!

The weather was so nice that the kids spent most of the time outside.
We made it up to Eugene for the Saturday Market.  We spent a lot of money on some amazing fruit and vegies and breads and got some fun pictures too.

These are some work shots.

The guy in the self-loading log truck has a contract with the watershed council which we oversee.  In other words, I get to tell the operator where to dump the logs.  In this case, from the road right into the creek.  Later this fall, a crew will come in with a cable yarder and put the final touches on positioning the logs in order to create the optimal log jam in an attempt to reconstitute fish habitat.