Go Capri!

A winter Project for Russ was going to be to get his 1974 Mercury Capri up to driving status again. Mostly it was tires and a tune up that it needed. He figured it would be a slow winter project. Well.. the lugs were hardly snugged down before he was ready to tune it up and drive it to work again. Needless to say, the Capri is alive and breathing and going strong these days and Russ couldn't be having more fun zipping around town in the little cruiser.

Girlfriend's Half Marathon

The day before the race, I decided if there was an opening, I would sign myself up and run it. The weather was promising to be pretty decent, cool but not rainy. It turns out there was one opening, so I got my number and I was signed up to run. The entire time, I am thinking what in the world am I doing!? Ah well. 13.1 miles around Vancover, it will be a nice stroll through the city....

The race was geared towards women, pink shirts to wear, and chocolate to eat and firemen handing out water at the finish line, what fun is that!?

Saturday morning I met up with my co-workers, stretched out and lined up for the race. The announcer said go and away we went. I stayed with my competitive co workers for the first 2.5 miles but then decided if I was going to last another 11 miles, I needed to knock the pace back a little bit. So down the Columbia River I shuffled with a mass of women all ages and builds. It was actually pretty fun being in the group. There were refueling station every 2 miles so you could pace yourself that way: just get to the next tent, there is water and energy gels (yuck - but they do provide a boost if you can choke them down) I met up with a lady that had all sorts of timers and watches going off that was going about the same pace as me so I stayed wit her and chatted for about 5 miles and then again had to slow up the pace for myself. By mile 10, I was starting to feel the muscles tighten and it became a push to keep going but the end was insight. Just go around the fort, back up the hill, through town and you are over the finish line! Becky and Denise were already across the time by the time I got to my last mile. They were doubled back and cheering me on, I sprinted the last 1/2 mile and I had done it! 13.1 miles!

June, July, August....

We were out having so much fun over the summer, I did not make it in to sit down and blog much. It is difficult when the sun is out and the days are long, to come indoors. Especially when you know the summer is so short lived and the sun will disappear for months on end. So a run down of the highlights of the summer:

Golfing - I learned to hit a golf ball and play golf- real golf on a golf course with a cart and clubs and everything! Lucky, Jade, Russ and I entered in a golfing competition - we even took home a first prize trophy. woo hoo!

Running - My co-workers got inspired early this year to run a 1/2 Marathon in August.

(that is 13.1 miles)! I have been wanting to build up my endurance so I decided to join them in their afternoon runs. We took a trip to the shoe store to get the right fit and got on a training plan. We even got skirts to run in (they are way cooler than shorts!) So we became the running skirts! We have run in a few shorter races, a few 10Ks. a few 5 Ks but the big push is the 1/2 marathon. I don't know if I can do that many miles. 6 is pretty long for me!

Clean out- Russ and I cleaned out the storage container and the garage - a MAJOR accomplishment -not only do we have less stuff - we have more have more room to put the boat in the garge for the winter instead of the chore every fall of deflating and storing it - now it can remain inflated and parked in the garage!

Man Island - Russ has this great tent hammock that sets up perfectly in between 2 tress in the back yard. He got the idea to make a rock area underneath the trees to put his feet. It evovled into what we now call man Island.. complete with rocks, a fire pit umbrella and a tiki man. Soon there will be bamboo and lights. A nice backyard island get away.

Lake - Of course we spent many hot afternooons out on the lake -

it was even hot enough for me to want to get in chilly waters of the glacial fed lake a few times. Jade and I found a log to play on one afternoon while we were paddling around!

Manteo, NC - Russ and I went to the Geidel family reunion at Granna and Pa's house. It was a lovely trip, we stayed wit Mom and Dad in a condo they rented right on the water. Russ though Nags Head was a neat beach town and loved the scenery and all the ocean going boats.

Canon Envirothon and Visit to GA - I had the opportunity to spend the week in Asheville, NC to represent Washington state at the Canon Envirothon meetings. Since I was so close to home, I spent an extra few days visiting family in Georgia. We had a lovely summer picnic at the lake and even got in some gardening.

Memorial Day Weekend

This is perhaps the most summery, warmest, non-rainy Memorial Day weekend the Northwest has ever had. What better way to celebrate the weekend than to have a backyard cook out!? Lucky and Jade came over Sunday for an afternoon cookout. We had a tasty meal on the patio of steak, baked beans, hot dogs, hamburgers, cantaloupe, and brownies! (I made deviled eggs but forgot to get them out of the fridge - that's okay, they were good the next day on the boat!)

On Monday we headed out to the lake for a day of fishing and puttering on the water. The lake hasn't warmed up enough for swimming yet (of course, I never think it is warm enough for swimming!), but it sure was relaxing and a beautiful sunny day on the water. The big fish weren't biting much but Jade did mange to hook a few little guys worth keeping.

Spring Cleaning!

The weather suddenly made its shift from damp dreary cold winter to warm, dry spring to near summer feeling temperatures in the matter of a few days! The weather inspired us to get out and do some cleaning. Russ weeded out a pile of clutter from his storage container and then decided it was time to scale down the lawnmower collection that was taking up part of the backyard. He had 2 riding mowers cleaned up and sold in just one weekend! While Russ had all the machienry up and running, we even hauled all the rugs out to the yard for a good pressure washing! It sure does feel good to have everything cleaned up and some clutter gone!

A new coop for the flock

Having a flock in the backyard has certainly been a learning experience for us! The coop that we built last year has been wonderful; it is light weight, easy to move around the yard and it keeps the Ladies pretty well contained..... for the most part......Fern has figured out how to get out coop if the house is not lined up just right and the dogs have figured out how to get in if the sides are sitting cattywhumpus. (it is not the birds they are after, it is the alluring chicken scratch that inspires them to break in) The birds flying the coop would not be such a big deal either except for the fact that they jump the fence to the neighbor's yard and while I can mostly appease the neighbors with eggs on occasion, I rather not have birds running around the neighborhood all willy nilly. Then the "Arctic Blast" hit Vancouver in December with more than a foot of snow and it became obvious that the coop was not designed for snow loads either!

So with the rough winter behind us and hens that are flying the coop in the afternoons, I decided it was time to re-vamp the ladies living arrangements.

It all began with a vision of PVC.... With a few joints, some cuts and a bit of glue I could easily build a lightweight, sturdy and secure chicken coop, right!? A pretty straight forward weekend project. No problem!

Gee, if it were only that easy!! The more I thought about it (and had Russ's guidance) the more I realised what I needed for a roof, supports and joints, I came to the realization I had a full blown engineering, design and construction project on my hands. So I hunkered down to get it done!

The first step was to figure out what parts I'd need so I had to draw it all out. Fortunately, Russ had all the tools I needed to make it to scale. There was much sketching, erasing, figuring, re sketching, crossing out and revising in the initial phases. This quickly became more than a weekend project! As I quickly realised, the complicated part of PVC comes when you want to make something 3 dimensional. Plumbing wasn't exactly designed to go 3 or 4 different ways so finding the parts for a corner of a cube isn't always easy. Fortunately, the Internet will find you just about anything you want, and I did find a supplier in Oregon that carried exactly the joints I needed for the roof and corners.

The next step was to lay the whole mess out and figure out what lengths to cut the PVC.

So far it sounds pretty easy and straight forward, but I assure you, this was quite a brain teaser to figure out how to make all the corners work, how much PVC to get, and still have an angled roof with braces to hold up to wind, snow and whatever other weather we might get in the next few years. And on top of all that to make sure all the joints are square, you really have to think hard in what order to assemble the pieces to have it all come out square.

So I measured, calculated, measured, scribbled, cut, measured and repeat a hundred times over until I had a bucket of pieces and a list of measurements ready to assemble. It was sort of like a huge Lego's project. I made a diagram and labeled everything as I cut and measured so I ended up with a bunch of different lengths of PVC with letters on each end... A-L with letter on each joint telling me where to fit everything together. I must say, it was pretty clever the way I kept myself organized.

Then it was time to start putting the frame together....

Then came the next task of calculating how to get it to the backyard before the final gluing and chicken wire installation. So more configuring and calculating, and careful maneuvering through the canopy (storage area) and I got it all in the back yard in 3 or 4 pieces. Phoenix was pretty happy to have me move the project to the backyard, as she wanted to oversee the progress too. She approved of the design.

After a few more days of attaching chicken wire and then configuring the roof tarp, the coop is complete.

It took the ladies a bit of coaxing to get in the new coop, but they seem to have settled into their new abode rather well. It is much roomier than their old pad and it even has an out door roosting option. (they have a perch inside their hen house, however this new pen has an outdoor roost as well. The roof provides ample protection form the rain and sun while the sides can be pulled up when the days get drier and warmer to allow more for more air flow. It is quite the elaborate chicken hut, that is for sure!

Even though there is still snow on Star Mountain...

..my garden is planted! I couldn't resist. We had a few days straight of sunshine and warm temperatures, not to mention the Home and Garden Idea Fair (a big plant fair and sale for local vendors and Clark County residents) I did some plant shopping and decided they all needed to get in the ground while the weather is good. I have 5 tomato plants; Brandywines (a tasty heirloom variety), Early Girls, Romas and Sungolds. I also have 4 pepper plants(bell peppers and one chili pepper for salsa), spinach, beets, lettuce, carrots, basil, beans, cilantro, broccoli, onions, peas, radishes, cucumbers and cantaloupe. The peas and carrots I planted early, they are coming up and doing very well. I think I might get a squash or two going in the next few days too. I am also trying my hand at asparagus, but I know I have to leave that one alone for a year at least. I have little sprout on it already though! I must have done something right.

I am trying to keep the garden a little more orderly this year, so I have more substantial tomato cages (some of my tomatoes exploded out of the cages and all over the ground last year) and I am going to try to teach my cantaloupe and cucumber to grow up instead of out... we'll see how that works out.

In addition to tomato cages, I also put "Kozy Koats" around the tomatoes. They are a cylinder of water you put around your plants to help them stay warm and better absorb the sun's rays on cool spring days. I have heard many gardeners rant and rave about the wonders of these protectors, so I thought I'd give them a try this year too.