Firewood and Other Projects

Clyde believes that you can never have too much firewood.  Jesse has suggested he seek counseling for his problem.  When we get down to twenty cords of wood in the wood shed he gets nervous.  This stuff doesn't grow on trees you know! Oh wait a minute, it does.  Maybe he does need a little therapy.   

Last weekend was all about fire wood for Clyde.

This is normally how potential firewood arrives at our house....by the dump truck or end dump load, salvaged off of a job.

 

But we also get it from our own property, when we take out a tree here and there or do some trimming.

 

 Here's Jesse 30 feet in the air trimming a tree a couple months ago.

 

And it goes with out saying that if Clyde can use an excavator for any chore, he will. 

 

 

This was a yellow fir stump that he pulled out from over by the shop when they did that bit of clearing a couple months ago.

 

It makes awesome firewood.  Check out Clyde get totally sprayed with wood chips.

 

Look how handy that excavator is...you can use the teeth on the bucket to split the wood.

 

These beams were salvaged from....

 

this job.  It was a cannery that was destroyed in a fire. 

 

The excavator comes in handy again.

 

Doesn't everyone cut firewood like this?

 

In an attempt to use every size chainsaw that Clyde owns in the same day, he also limbed a few trees along the back yard.

 

My friend calls it a "chain saw on a stick".

 

While Clyde was busy with the firewood, I was weeding and edging my flower beds.

 

I wheedled Clyde into helping with a couple gardening projects. 

 I had a couple shrubs that needed to come out of this back corner of the garden and since he had the chain saw out already...

 

Then the roots had to come out, so Clyde wrapped it with a chain and...

 

yarded it out with the quad. 

He would've used the excavator but I convinced him not to destroy my grass.   That's usually what happens...the lawn is actually looking good and we find a reason to walk the excavator across it and destroy a perfectly beautiful lawn, then you have to replant and wait a couple weeks for my grass to grow back.  

 

 

And while Clyde and I are working hard, getting projects done, Hissy had confiscated my lounge chair.  I'm only hoping she wasn't disturbed by all the racket...spoiled kitty.

Visiting Depoe Bay

We spent this weekend in Depoe Bay for my folk's 43rd anniversary.

Here's mom & dad, still smiling after being married for 43 years.

We had perfect, sunny, WARM weather which is pretty much unheard of in May on the Oregon coast.

Clyde and I went over to the Port of Depoe Bay to check things out. 

It's the world's smallest port and home to some entertaining animals.

The harbor seals are trained to wait for the scraps from the fish cleaning station there.  

This one was standing at attention waiting for a hand out.

But this mama and baby were the cutest thing ever.

We sat and watched them for a good half hour.

The pup stuck close to it's mama

especially after one these big guys tried to chase it away. 

The pup took a free ride on it's mama's back

and took a little snooze.

And gave it's mama a little love.

Too cute.

Clyde and I are pretty easily entertained.

Spring Blooms

Spring is my favorite season.  The grass is extra green, it seems to grow about a foot a week and needs to be mowed practically every other day but stuff really starts to bloom in my gardens.  Check out what's blooming at this very moment...

 My favorite thing blooming is my wisteria...

 Every year I swear Clyde tries to kill it.  Last year with our patio project and this year he pressure washed the pergola and pruned it back pretty hard but the wisteria is resilient and is blooming beautifully.

 Here's Clyde attempting to murder the wisteria by pressure washing the living daylights out of it.  But the pergola does look really nice now.

 The rhododendrons are blooming

 in red

 and light pink. 

 All my rhodies have been salvaged and brought home from projects that Clyde has done that involved ripping out landscape over the years.  They always transplant really well. 

And having an excavator handy really makes it easy.

 Then the azaleas in purple,

 orange,

and lavender.

 How can you not just love these bleeding hearts?

 Columbine is another favorite...

 it spreads like crazy

 but they're so pretty.

 These irises came from a start that my neighbor gave me.  This is their prettiest year yet.

The lilacs smell so wonderful.  This is a miniature lilac.

This the full size variety in pink, it looks HUGE in this pic!

I just love this dogwood, it's gorgeous in bloom.  This variety of dogwood has downward turned leaves, so I think it as my "downward dogwood" tree  (my yoga pose tree)

It's a beautiful time of year especially when the sun is shining! 

Now if only the flower beds would magically weed themselves...