A close call

So, very nearly became a young widow this summer!  Yes, Corey could very easily have died.  It all started when we noticed that our sink was making some funny noises, after investigating we realized that there must be something wrong with the septic tank, or rather Corey did, this was more his area of expertise, not mine.  We snaked out the line between the tank and the house three separate times, but each time, the problems still continued. Finally we called in a professional who told us that the pipe was actually broken.  It was 60 years old, made from tar paper and would have to be repaired.  So Corey and our brother in law braved the sewage, dug that pipe up, and replaced it.  When they inserted the new pipe into the tank, they found a rotting cement barrier just inside the tank.  It was necessary to knock this out in order to finish the job.  Little did they realize that this was called a "baffle" and its purpose was to direct the incoming refuse below the surface level to help maintain the proper chemical balance in the tank.  Not knowing this, and having replaced the pipe, Corey filled the hole back in, and things seemed to be better, except this lingering, yucky smell.  After talking to some experts, (Dad and Brother Nelson) Corey found out that he was going to have to add a 90 degree angle onto the end of that pipe in the septic tank. Which is easy to do.  Just buy an angled piece of pipe and pop it on there.  Easy right?  nooo.  The problem was that there was a whole vat of poop between Corey and the pipe, plus the depth of the tank and angle made it impossible to just reach down there and do that. (see pic below)  So we called plumbing places to see what it would cost to have such a thing done.  Only one place even gave us an estimate and it was 1000$ and involved a back hoe?  Don't know why they would have needed that.

So, this was Corey's solution. He had his friend hold him by the ankles and dangle him over the open septic tank full of poo!  He at least did have on a full face mask.  And he just popped the piece on there.  It was actually a fast and simple process, but he could have died!  What if his friend had slipped, and Corey had fallen, he would not have come out of that tank alive I think.  So Wreckless or Brave?  Not sure, but I think he gets some extra points on his man card.

El Dia de los Muertos

I have been teaching  Spanish at a little elementary/middle Catholic School.  I don't have my own classroom, instead. I have a little box with wheels and a handle that I cart around.  At first one might, especially if one were accustomed to having their own classroom, think that this sounds horrible.  It isn't though.  I feel like a grandparent teacher.  The other teachers work hard to train their students, then twice a week I swoop in and play games and have fun with them and then leave before they get fussy. I use puppets, I sing with them, I dance with them, I joke with them and although it is a lot of work, it is also a lot of fun.

A few weeks ago, a really cool holiday took place, the Mexican holiday,  The Day of the Dead.  An important part of this tradition is building an "ofrenda".  This is essentially a little altar, piled up with "gifts" for the visiting spirits of honored and loved relatives.  For my oldest class, an 8th grade class that I actually teach everyday, we celebrated El Dia de los Muertos, and as part of the celebration, each kiddo created an ofrenda for one of their deceased relatives.  They were beautiful!  Not only did they bring in the things that are traditionally in an ofrenda but they created papel picado (colorful tissue paper with designs cut into it) at home and we painted some calaveras (colorfully painted skulls that symbolizes the Mexican's ability to laugh at and make fun of death).  The classroom was colorful and their ofrendas were thoughtful and sweet.  I actually got choked up grading them.  What made really made it nice was that all my students did a good job and I am so proud of them, and blessed to have so many awesome little students.

Wallowas

We did manage to get in a trip to the Wallowas.  The thing that makes this place so beautiful is that once you get up into the lake basin in the mountains, you don't really see that much dirt, it's all granite rock.  So instead of seeing the green trees against brown, the rich green of the trees is contrasted against white.  The Forest colors look brilliant against the rock and occasionally you see giant  boulders littering a opening in the forest beside a lake, and it looks like the toppled over stones from an ancient, and to those with a taste for the fantastic, magical castle.  You can see what I mean.

The whole valley does have kinda a magical feeling to me, but the thing that
really made me feel that way was the stillness of the lake and our closeness to the
sky.  At night, we could see the stars reflected in the water.  At least that is what
I thought at first, then I realized that I was not seeing stars in the lake, but the
lights from the mermaid city under the lake shining up from it's depths!  

It was a most refreshing and rejuvenating trip.

San Juans

Every summer now since the finally years of college, I have visited the San Juan Islands.  I love these islands so much.  These Islands are beautiful, there is soo much to see and do and the roads are soooo nice for riding!  My favorite part though is the pace of life.  Time slows down, troubles melt from my mind and I am happy.  This year Corey and I took, my brother, my sister and her husband.  

This is I think my favorite place on the islands.  The locals try to keep it a secret, and for
good reason, so I'm not going to say where it is or how to get there, unless you ask me!

We did take our bikes, of course and did some lovely riding.

Corey, looking all cute

Nina looking all cute, and can you believe the color on this starfish!

Makes a good hat too.

Ben, doing what he does.

We made a stop by Bellingham, almost everything that I used to go to during college is
closed up and changed, but this guy is still there, and Bellingham is still a beautiful town.

Summer Projects

We were very pleased with our garden.  We were a little surprised that it has produced anything at all, because we planted so late, but here it is looking very productive.! Of course, I already put it to bed for the winter, these pics are from August.  We planted only things that grew quickly, so we didn't have  lot of variety, but we did have A LOT of kale, cucumbers and zucchini.  This was my first encounter with kale, a whole army of it too.  I learned how to make kale chips! kale tart! sauteed kale!  and had a lot of kale smoothies.  This a a very versatile and noble plant indeed.  Next spring though, I will not plant so much of it.

Well, this summer was the summer of  yard projects as we both were excited to turn this bachelor pad into a home.  Here are some of them,

This used to be a dead patch of grass, we are very happy with how it turned out, and
cant wait to plant early next year!

Corey put in a fire pit!  YAY!  He did in in only an hour too!  What a man!
 We've already been able to enjoy some good
times by the fireside.

The patio was pretty messy, with recycle bins and BBQ stuff hanging around looking sloppy.  So
we decided to make some boxes to store the stuff in, and redo the patio furniture which used to be an
orangey-browney faux bamboo.  It didn't match... anything.  Sorry, I don't have a before pic.  

The table had a glass top, the problem with this is that there was some bamboo
looking iron work right underneath that was very hard to clean and always dusty, so
it was gross to look at through the glass table.  So Corey tore apart some pallets and
 put the boards under the glass, while I spray painted the table and chairs black.
We hoping it would look like something you might find on a ranch.  It turned out, not
too bad, and it certainly matches better!

Next, we wanted a little gated box for the recycling.  Corey went and found some old
fence wood on the side of the road out in the country. Then he took it!  But not before finding the
owners of the land and asking them first.  So honest.  We built it together!   Corey did most of
the building but I did do the sanding and some of the design. 

We also made a box for the BBQ implements, and I like how rustic they turned out.
Not only does this hold wood pellets, but it also serves at the kitty cat's favorite
outdoor lounge.  We also decided that there needed to be some art outside, so
Corey cut me a piece of wood and I painted a blackbird surrounded by sky.
The blackbird is in honor of Corey's Mom, who passed away this summer.  In every season
Kathy had this section of old fence outside the front door, that she would decorate
with wreaths or garland or whatever matched the season, and there would always
be a little blackbird on the fence.  Corey made a frame for the piece out
of the same fence wood and since then we have hung it up, but you'll just have to imagine
what it looks like.

Well, we did more than this. I put in a couple of flower beds and an herb garden, we organized and fixed up the garage and lean-to and finished up the chicken run.  YES, we have chickens! It is very satisfying to see the house shaping up so nicely, but even better, it is wonderful to have a husband that loves to do projects with me! YAY!

The Burg

Our first Summer adventure, we decided to go see my sister and her adorable family.  Cute on the outside, but hidden with in, party animals!  My sister never stopped, in one day she took us and the three kiddos to the sand dunes, the lava caves and then a hike up a mountain in the evening.  Everyday that we were there was like this, packed full fun and interesting things.  I was amazed at how my sister and her husband just kept going.  We often think that kids have a lot of energy, but I have concluded that they only have the appearance of a lot of energy because they choose to use it so frivolously.  You know, like dancing in the middle of the park and screaming in the car, but they always need a nap in the end.  How about Mom and Dad? Do they nap? No!  They are trains!  After each adventure packed day, they would stay up with us talking and watching movies til the wee hours of the night, I was always the first one to fall asleep.

Here they are, the cutest family I know of.

Love these boys sooo much!

A view from the top of a dormant volcano!  I am surprised at how beautiful this area is. I am also surprised that the boys made it up!  The hike was about three hours altogether, but it wasn't til the last one that we had to carry them!

 One of the days me and Corey struck out on our own and did a little bike trip to Jackson where my sis and her fam were waiting for us. It was a truely beautiful ride.

The Tetons in the background.  Were goin' to Jackson!

It's always exciting to cross a state line on a bike!  We are having a good time.....

.....despite the ominous warning of the torture to come.

BUT, WE DID IT!  Up the frigging Teton Mountain pass.  It was not pretty, and while it is nice to say we did it, and check it off our list, I never want to do it again.

 At this point, Corey really deserves a shout out!  The longest ride he has been on was 35 miles, and we had surpassed that mileage significantly before we reached the pass. Then he went up it too, and with out getting mad a me for choosing such a hard ride! In fact when he wanted to quit, he kept on going, because he knew I would be really sad if we didn't get to the top!  I love this man soooo much!

The next day at the falls, we saw a bear! Corey had to wrestle it to the ground!  Then we took his lunch money!

The ay after that I rode the carousel with the boys and seriously I don't know who had more fun!

 It was such a great week!  Thanks you guys! We love you!

Garden

This is what has been keeping us so busy! The garden! After the wedding it took us while to get organized enough to start, so we didn't even begin the project til late May.  So yes, we are getting a late start, but that is ok by me.  We set up this year and next year we will have the awesome harvest. We were going to plant it today, but it is pouring down rain, so instead, I will write about it.

Six!Six, beautiful boxes. Ah ah ahhh

This is what we started with! Before we began though, there was a bunch of wood, and even a Christmas tree to burn, so the night before we had a bon fire complete with root beer floats.  An excellent way to kick off the garden.

Alright! Now we are ready to rumble! Lets teach this lawn a lesson or two! Actually Corey looks more like he's a Muppet that is ready to cuddle, so cute.

The grass is OUT!

The Boxes are DOWN!

Now we make it classy.

We got some free brick from a friend, so we decided to brick the path between the boxes.  We had the perfect amount, and in the center, a sitting stump, I will plant some wooly thyme there too.

One of my latest hobbies has been finding and collecting broken cement!  I think it makes a beautiful path.  For the next step I am going to fill in between the stones with dirt, and plant wooly thyme.  I leave the stone above the dirt level so that I wont have to trim the thyme as much.

 I have been keeping my eye out for piles of old broken up side walk, and I have found some pretty good treasure troves (as I like to think of them!) The best one though was behind this construction company's building out in the boonies. (Actually the way this city sprawls, its more like the middle of town now.) There was everything we could want there! Piles of bark, cement, fill dirt!  In seemingly organized piles!  Then one day we were were going out there to get a load of broken cement, but the air was thick with smoke.  We figured there was a fire in the hills, but as we got closer to our plundering grounds, the way was blocked by polices cars!  When I went a little further on a different road that was higher up I could actually see our beloved piles of refuse! There they were, burning and smoking!  We haven't been back since and today was the day we were going to go back for fill dirt, but not in this rain!

A closer look at the brick work.  Here you can also see the first plants, some tomatoes.  They look terrible right now because we just ripped them out of my Dad's Garden, but tomorrow they will be fine.  Besides, it's part of the initiation into my garden.  Each plant must be able to take a little bit of abuse.  "Are you TUFF E-NUFF lil greenie?"

 I have decided that paying for plants isn't necessary. I am collecting plants like I collect memories.  I have flowers and herbs from my mother in law, and the lavender that I appropriated from my mothers garden.  I snuck it out, and then waited to see how long it would take till she noticed, I finally had to tell her. My Mom is so fun to tease. Then there are the mini roses that my mom actually gave me, and the pink flower from my aunt.  Finally there are all the plants from my Grandma's beautiful garden.  Then there is the Iris that I stole.  A house down the street had been for vacant for months, and the lawn was just weeds and the irises were parched and they were also the beautiful yellow ones that I had been coveting.  So one night, after dark, I went out with a shovel and a bucket and I got some tubers! Now whenever I see those yellow blossoms, a thrill of excitement will run up my spine!