I got me some raised beds

Me, in March, "Boy, keeping the paths in the garden cleared each summer is pretty back-breaking.  I wish we could lay stones or something to keep the weeds down."

Some internet searching... then, "I guess if we were going to do that, what would really look great is if we had raised beds too."

I had impossible material criteria, such as:
- Zero maintenance
- Recycled
- Pretty
- Cheap.  Ideally, free.

And I'll be damned if the internet didn't come through, with an idea to build walls and dig in paths made of "urbanite," or broken up hunks of concrete.

I posted a "wanted" ad on Craigslist for free, busted up concrete.  It took longer than I'd hoped, and we had a few false starts, but then a woman in Post Falls emailed me and said she had a 400 ft. wall made of cinder blocks that she wanted gone, and if we could come haul them away, they were ours.

 So we did (with, as usual, DIL and little brother's great assistance).  And the blocks were BEAUTIFUL.

 And a little while later, I got another email.  This time from a man who had a lot of concrete he wanted to get rid of.  Not only that, he was able to deliver it to us.  Not only THAT, but he also had some really nice dirt to unload, and he was happy to haul that to us as well, and we could use it to fill our new beds.

This has nothing to do with the garden, but aren't they cute?

 Here is where I'm super glad I was not in charge of this project.  It didn't occur to me that leveling and measuring and all that would be such a big deal.  But under DIL's advice, the hubs was meticulous about the whole thing.  And I cringe when I think of how sloppy it would look if I'd had my way and just slapped it all together.

We had a moose in our yard for a day.  It was exciting.

 Holy cow, did the hubs WORK on this thing this summer.  My job was to chip the old mortar off the cinder blocks, haul them to him, keep the weeds down, and bring him iced tea.  His job was everything else, and it was totally backbreaking and hot and TOOK FOREVER, and he's not much of a sun guy in the first place.  Total trouper.

Also, little brother was here pretty much every week, just to hang out, but really to help lots and lots and lots.
 

 And enjoy rainbows.

 We've got one more bed and a few more paths to do next spring, but it's over halfway done and it looks amazing.  The skill and strength of these guys impresses me to no end.

Love, J

White Cat Pink show

Cousin "White Cat Pink" came to play a show in Spokane.  When he was done with his set, pretty much everyone in the bar wanted their picture taken with him; they also wanted to know when he'd be back to play again.

Love, J

G's painting

G's contribution the the River's Wish auction this year is to paint an original watercolor based on the item winner's photograph of choice.  She can paint landscapes, still lifes, animal portraits, and classic cars.

I kind of really want to win this myself, though I don't have any particular photo in mind.


Also, the other day this old painting of Mom's turned up behind the record-player in the dining room at Step-Dad's:

Between her and Step-Dad, G's got this art thing in her genes, big time, the lucky girl.


Love, J

Dad's day '12

G painted this watercolor of Step-Dad with all 7 girls for Father's Day:

After gifts, we went on a hike with Luna and Cooper the wonder-dog, who can still go on hikes with just two good legs.  Imagine that.


Then we saw a marmot in someone's front yard and got milkshakes from Ron's on the way home.  There are good pictures of this part of the day, but they're on Step-Dad's camera.


Finally, we hit the in-laws' to hang out, enjoy MIL's mad cooking skillz, and play chase-the-baby for a few hours.

I'm not in any of these pictures, but I was wearing the same exact outfit as MIL.  It was weird.

Here, the Hubs is insisting he can hurdle this huge pile of jagged metal.
But MIL said, "No."

Love, J

5.5.12

G's been watercoloring up a storm at school (she's kind of amazing at it, but that's hardly news, because what isn't she great at?).  

She wanted some good animal pictures to work from, so we took a little day trip to River's Wish, where she proceeded to show me that she's also got a knack for photography.  

(She took every picture that she's not in.)

 

 

 Love, J

Christmas photo dump

Day One:
~ Fancy dinner with grandparents and mi padre y madrastra.



Day Two:
~ Grandma made slippers & cake; the Aunts made tamales. Life was good.





Day Three:
~ Beth made the hubs the coolest sweatshirt EVER; G made all the sisters stuffed animals.
~ Step-dad got BIL Airsoft guns, which he and the hubs promptly took outside to shoot at each other.
~ Beth used Step-Dad's stocking jump rope to demonstrate her mad criss-cross skillz.






Later on Day Three:
~ I lost interest in taking pictures as I grew too worn out and full to move around much, but we had another lovely celebration at the in-laws.
~ Hubs made a personalized coloring book for baby niece which turned out to be a big hit, and was nicely accompanied by some nubby crayons G and I melted for fun a few weeks ago.




Love, J