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Friday, May 20, 2011

Bring Me A Kokanee

We've had just the most wonderful week with Roy and Jeff visiting!  The guys went fishing almost every day, and really knocked them dead at Haystack (remember where we froze to death and caught nothing, Meg and Emil?).



Ted has always told me that Roy could catch fish in a toilet bowl.  Apparently he has passed those genes down to Jeff, who was mighty successful with both trout and kokanee.  Here's the kokanee (a few, anyway.  I've had three for breakfast):
Delicious!

While the guys were fishing, I was transplanting and gardening in the nice weather.  Once again, we were invaded by trespassers.

These Canada geese must have thought the drive behind the barn was a pond.  Hm.  A loud pair, and they scared the chickens right into the corner of the run! 

Later that day I transplanted some seedlings and moved the tomatoes into the greenhouse.  Since the greenhouse isn't insulated (at all), I picked up a few more shop lights to hang there, and moved a fan in for sunny days.

Ever optimistic, even though we had another frost just last night.

Finally, the seedlings in the mechanical room are getting a little conditioning outside today, which is the second sunny day IN A ROW - woo hoo!

It's only a few more weeks until everything is moved outside permanently.  I wish the seedlings were a little larger and stronger, but what the heck.  To paraphrase the immoral immortal Donald Rumsfeld, you go to the raised beds with the seedlings you've got.

Good friends, good times.  We are lucky.


P.S.  Thanks to Jeff for the great fishing photos.  I especially love this one of Ted and Roy.♥

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Not Your Grandma's Chicken Coop

Remember when the coop was new?  Painted a nice neutral brown to  match the house and comply with the CC&Rs?  Here's a little reminder:
Then I got a little creative and painted the trim (also to match the house), but painted the doors and nesting boxes red (sorry, no picture). 

But one evening when I was browsing dresses online (I have two weddings coming up, after all), I became INSPIRED by the new Lilly Pulizter collection.  So now, here's what people driving by can see from the road:
And here's what we see when we go out to the coop:
Beautiful, if I say so myself.

Of course, the dress that inspired me is not quite age-appropriate (length-wise, anyway), it's still a beauty. 

I suppose Lilly might not appreciate inspiring a paint job for a chicken coop, but c'est la vie, Lil.  I like it. 

I also suppose the cows breaking in from BLM land behind us might object to the color scheme and report me to the HOA, but no one else can see it unless I invite them to look.

I do know that Bruce at the paint desk at Home Depot has practically begged me for pictures (I bought the wildest colors he's ever sold, I think), and I will be happy to comply :-)

Friday, May 13, 2011

Once Upon a Time, Redeux

That little girl is twenty today - love, love, love her!
Watch her grow up on my earlier blog entry, Once Upon A Time.   (Someday I'll learn how to do a link to earlier posts!)

Papa's Got A Brand New Bike

The Mongoose from Wal-Mart was a no-go (I was so surprised), so off we went to Hutch's Bike Shop for a Giant like mine,


only blue, with a boy-bar.

And here he is flying away from me on the upper loop.
 I dunno.  I think his rolls faster than mine.

On another note, here's the future location of my raised beds.


And here's the old man hauling lava rocks. 
I could hardly wait to get started, then promptly ran out of gas after hand placing about 1,000 lbs worth.  Ugh.

I'm headed back out to finish flower-powering the coop.  This is going to be fantastic - not your grandma's chicken coop (unless you're one of my grandchildren, that is)....

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Round up at the Embry Corral (and other stuff)

One morning last week, I awoke (much like the little lord Jesus) to the sound of cattle lowing.  Since it was louder than usual, I looked out the back of the property, and lo and behold, there were cows there.  On our side of the fence.  Ted was out of town, so while driving to the gate to get the morning paper, I was trying to figure how I was going to unhook the ATV from the battery charger to herd the cows out the gate, when a pickup trip drove in, stopped by my car and asked if I'd seen any cows.  What a coincidence!
The cowboy and girl followed me to our lot, drove out to our far corral, and unloaded their own ATV to begin the round up.



The cows made a break for the neighbors, but ended up going peaceably back to the BLM land.



Oh, life on the range here in Oregon!

On another note, here are some pics of the seedlings in the booby-trapped mechanical room.


And here are some pics of the first year tulip bed.  There's plenty of room for spread so I can hardly wait for next year when they take over that space and I can remove the little wire fence.


Of course, now there are purple, coral and striped tulips up, making for a much prettier bed.

Finally, Ted bought himself a bike today and we took the bikes out for a little spin on the upper loop.  About a mile from the house, it began to hail.    A painful race to the front door, let me tell you!