2012 Coming to an End

Believe it or not, another year is coming to an end.

2012 has been a good year for us, and we look forward to a GREAT 2013.  We are spending a quiet evening at home -- just the three of us and a bottle a champagne!  :)

Happy New Year (a little bit early)! 

Birdhouses

It was a dry day today in Western Washington.  That being said, it was still very gray and very chilly.  However, Jared decided that it was time to put up the birdhouses he received for Christmas.  The large birdhouse that is meant for the pileated woodpeckers is supposed to be 20-30 feet off of the ground.  That wasn't really possible for us because our ladder doesn't go that high.  In addition, it is a little daunting getting that far off the ground with a birdhouse that large.  Jared ended up getting it up about 16 feet -- which we hope is high enough.  Here is a shot of it all installed, and facing east.

In addition, Jared put the smaller songbird house up as well.  The most difficult thing about getting this one up was cutting down all of the dead vines on the tree FIRST!  However, we were successful.  Here's a shot of it put up in a tree. 

 Now, if we can get the birds to nest in their new houses. 

Serious Pie

Today Jared was craving pizza.  In addition, we have been trying out new Seattle Restaurants when possible.  Since we had an extra long weekend with the New Year Holiday, we decided to drive into the South Lake Union area of Seattle and try Tom Douglas' Restaurant, Serious Pie.  It was lunch time, so we headed that way.  The most daunting thing about going to Seattle is finding a parking spot.  However, we have frequented the South Lake Union a few times and are getting more and more familiar.  Today was perfect.  We easily parked and walked over to Serious Pie.  Serious Pie shares the same building as Serious Biscuit and the Dahlia Workshop.  We were seated at a table with an excellent view of the workshop area (i.e., kitchen).  We both started with to die for salads and we shared a pizza.  Let's just say we both were super impressed with the pizza crust -- and this is a big deal for Jared because he normally leaves his crust on his plate.  However that was not the case; he polished all of the crust off!  And for dessert, we had a super yummy pear tart with a pear sorbet and a lemon thyme whipped cream.  It was an exquisite lunch and a lot of fun to try out a new restaurant.  As a bonus, we even got to see a bit of the sun as we crossed the 520 bridge.  :)

Covert Yard Activities

Anyone that has visited us knows that we live in an area with quite a bit of wildlife.  We have written several posts about things we see in the yard; however, there are a lot of things we don't see in the yard, but Indy tells us that something is there.  That being said, Kristina bought Jared a camera that takes pictures.  It is tied around a tree and has a motion and heat detector sensors and it snaps a picture when something is "sensed".  The camera has been up about a week and below is a picture of a coyote in the yard.  The date on the photo is incorrect (based on what we know, this was actually Friday, 12/28), but the time is correct.  We were both pretty impressed with the camera...now if we can capture the bear that visited us a few weeks ago!

Christmas 2012

Merry Christmas!

Santa did indeed visit us, and we must have been on the nice list!  :)  Here's a shot of the mantle and stockings!  Indy's stocking is the one in the middle, you can tell her stocking is FULL and there's more stuff on the mantle that wouldn't fit.  What a spoiled dog!

And the Christmas tree...

Here's Indy with the majority of her toys for Santa...needless to say, she is a happy dog! 

Indy is opening a gift from Rodger, Barbara, Puparoo, and Rhubarb... 

And as you can see, in no time at all Indy had the "guts" out of one of her new toys (see the plastic tube hanging out).  She has precision cutting skills...that's for sure!  We weren't even done opening OUR gifts yet.

Jared received a Pileated Woodpecker Bird House, and it is a sizable one! They are BIG birds, so it make sense that they need a big house.  The interesting part will be getting that birdhouse on a tree without Jared killing himself.

This is a table runner that Jared's Mom made for us.  As you can see, it is perfect on our table.

And here's a fun shot...Jared's new Pileated Woodpecker house is on the left; on the right is a songbird birdhouse that Jared's Mom made for him.  There is just a little bit of a size difference, don't you think?   

Merry Christmas!  

Christmas Eve 2012

It doesn't seem like it should be Christmas Eve already.  Where has the year gone?  Needless to say, we are ready and waiting for Santa Claus to make his appearance.  Even Indy is depressed that she has to go to bed so early.

Our Christmas Eve is very mellow, and exactly what we need.  We are doing nothing but catching up on our movie watching and eating a smorgasbord of snacks.  Kristina made some rock star rolls for the evening!  They taste even better than they look.  Hopefully Santa will enjoy them!

Volunteer Park Conservatory

Now that the REALLY rainy season is upon us, we have been trying to find "inside" things to do on the weekends.  We ran across the Volunteer Park Conservatory.  The actual building was built in 1912, so 2012 is its 100 year anniversary.  It is a very interesting structure and the history that goes along with it and the surrounding area is quite historical as well.  Here's the snapshot of the building...

It has a couple of different "wings" and the plants inside are quite impressive.  Thankfully considering that we spent so much time in Arizona -- a lot of the plants were very familiar.

Thanksgiving 2012

Happy Thanksgiving 2012!  It was a quiet Thanksgiving for us; we had no visitors nor did we go anywhere, so we decided to make the most of it and cook anyway.  We had a very traditional meal:  roasted turkey (that was brined), creamed peas, sausage stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, rolls, and pies for dessert.  It was a lot of work, but worth it.  We followed up our meal with a walk with Indy.  We lucked out and had a dry day, so it was perfect -- eat a large meal and then go for a long walk.  When we got back from the walk, Kristina had some homemade coconut cream pie and Jared had some homemade pumpkin pie.  The coconut cream pie was a new recipe and definitely a winner.

All in all, it was a good day!  Next up...Christmas!  Can you believe we are that close to the end of 2012?

The End is Near...for the LEAVES!

My oh my what a difference a week makes!  Last weekend was WET and while a lot of leaves had fallen, the trees seemed to have most of their leaves in tact.  But, we have had some colder weather push through and it seems like most of the leaves have now fallen.   Today was a SUNNY and DRY day, but VERY brisk.  When we woke up this morning it was 30 degrees, and it took a WHILE before it warmed up above freezing!  The high was only supposed to be mid-40's today, and we're sure it didn't exceed that by any means.

Look at all of those leaves on the ground.  You can see most of the leaves are on the ground ready for raking!

This shot shows you that the trees near the trail have lost all of their leaves too! 

And of course, here's Indy -- laying down on the job.  It figures!  She is supposed to be helping!  At least she is being a good dog and just hanging out with us!

Jared with the "ain't this just loads of fun" look on his face!  He is really making those leaves pay!

Fall Colors

Once fall arrives in Western Washington...it REALLY arrives.  We have been combating the leaves for a few weeks now, but they have really begun to fall now.  It is amazing how the weather turns and nature goes at it preparing for the upcoming colder weather.  However, before all of the leaves fall off of our trees, we thought we would share some of our wonderful fall colors.  Enjoy!

Here's a shot of the backyard.  The main tree there is the one with the bird feeder!

Here's a shot in the direction of Cottonwood stump.  As you can see, leaves every where! 

A close-up of some of the Big Leaf Maple Leaves...they are BIG. 

Beautiful yellow color...look at all of that work to come our way!

We're not the only ones with great fall colors.  The Tolt Pipeline Trail is just splendid! 

Indy checking things out and wondering why she can't be in the backyard too.  The answer would be that if one of us can't watch her, she likes to go explore.  So we keep her contained when we are busy and let her out when we can keep a close eye on her.  Regardless, she is happy! 

Pretty red...this is a smaller Japanese Maple on the side of our house.  We can't wait for it to get BIG! 

Fall has arrived!

We were starting to think that Fall was passing us by this year.  Up until October 12th, the Seattle area had been experiencing unseasonably dry and sunny weather.  However, that day Mother Nature decided to flip the switch -- and fall arrived.  Over the last TWO weeks, we have gotten approximately 3" of rain (just at our house).  Knowing this, we decided to come take a look at the Tolt River today in Carnation.  We had made quite a few trips to the river this summer...mostly for Indy's pleasure.  We had a dry day today (albeit it cloudy), so we thought we check out what a few inches of rain does to the river.

Here's what the river looked like today.  It was quite high and muddy -- and moving at a decent pace.  So much so that we decided to leave Indy on her leash while she submersed herself.

To refresh your memory, here's what the same section of river looked like Labor Day weekend.  Quite a difference, huh?  Granted the picture Kristina took today was with her mobile phone, so she couldn't zoom in the same, but you can see that the rock bar that was present in September is completely covered with running water now.

A good shot of Jared enjoying the river...

And of course, our soggy little doggie got to experience the river too!  Look how wet she is! 

Happy Fall...

Tree Hugger -- the final installment!

Tree removal turned out to be a little more involved than we would have liked.  The team did a great job, but they underestimated the job and therefore it took longer than we would have liked.  Otherwise, it was just fine.

Tree removal took 3 days and 4+ guys to remove.  First they had to cut up the rounds (which was no easy task).  After the rounds were in "manageable" pieces, they moved the pieces to the front yard and then eventually loaded them onto a trailer or into a truck.  Like we said, no easy task.

Here's what the yard looked like after clearing away the wood...

Some of the machinery used to move the wood from the back to the front caused the lawn to be ripped up and some muddy areas in the yard.

In the next few pictures, you can see how much saw dust remained after tree removal.  By the way, Jared raked all of this up today.  Come next spring it looks like we'll be buying another truckload of dirt and spreading it out on the lawn and re-seeding again.

This is a good shot of the remaining stump; you can see how large the rotten core was -- bigger than we thought.  Keep in mind that the stump is about 5 1/2 feet in diameter.

Interesting shot...this is where a large part of the tree fell on the yard while it was being cut down. 

This shot is funny because you can see Indy in her fenced in area; she is just waiting to be let out so she can cause trouble.

We sure are glad that's over with for this year.  Hopefully the other Cottonwood won't need to be cut down for quite some time.

Indy and her toys!

Indy loves to play with ropes, but she is pretty tough on them.  A few weeks back while Kristina was picking up she thought it might be a good time to buy Indy a new rope.  So, Kristina went online and found a cool Halloween colored rope.  But, you know Kristina, she just couldn't stop at a rope...she had to buy more toys.  That being said, Indy ended up with a new rope, a duck, and two new balls.  One of the balls makes funny noise when it rolls and bounces while the other one just squeaks.  Kristina did a great job of getting new toys for Indy because she has been playing with all of them since they arrived on Saturday.  That Indy sure is one spoiled little dog!

Look at that supreme concentration...Kristina told her she had to wait.

Still waiting, but she had to get closer to the toys...:)

Pumpkin Pie Time of Year!

Well, it is that time of year.  The weather has changed; we have gotten approximately 3" of rain in the last week and there is a definite brisk feeling in the air (we don't even think it reached a high of 50 degrees today).  It snowed at the mountain passes this weekend (both Snoqualmie and Stevens).  That being said, it is Pumpkin Pie time!  Jared LOVES Kristina's Pumpkin Pie, so she decided to make him one today (a practice one for Thanksgiving) -- and boy is he loving it!!  The recipe that Kristina uses makes two pies, so our lucky neighbors got the other one.  :)  Here's to Fall!

TEN YEARS!

Well, believe it or not, Jared and Kristina have been married 10 years today.  Earlier in the day we considered that 10 years ago we were on a beach in Hawaii -- that was a GREAT day!  And as the saying goes, "we've come a long way since then!".  We celebrated our 10th Wedding Anniversary with dinner at Le Grande Bistro Americain located in Kirkland, WA.  It was a spectacular meal with an awesome view of Lake Washington.  Here's to at least another 10!

Tree Hugger -- Part 2

Let's just say, getting a tree of this magnitude cut down is expensive (much more expensive that we expected), but after watching the teams over THREE days, we definitely know why.

We had called around the area and we received estimates from several different companies, but we decided to go with Arbor Magic.  When one of their arborists was out, he was truly sorry to have to tell us it was time to cut down the tree (which we appreciated over the other companies with nothing but money on their minds).  In addition, the teams the showed up to cut down the tree each day were very efficient and they did an excellent job of keeping things tidy (you know how important that was to Kristina).  In addition, they didn't take out any trees other than the GIANT Cottonwood Tree.  We would highly recommend these guys and we will definitely use them in the future.

The first team showed up on Monday afternoon (we weren't expecting them until Tuesday, but finished another job early and wanted to do some prep work on our tree) and immediately got busy.  Here's a shot of Josh climbing up the nearby Maple Tree to get to the Cottonwood Tree; we were amazed at how we just 

quickly he scampered up that skinnier Maple Tree.

Here he is on the Cottonwood, getting down to business. 

A zoomed out shot, you can see Josh in the tree, if you look closely. 

And the tree starts coming down...  As you can see, there are several people here working on taking this tree down.  There are tons of harnesses everywhere and everyone was working well as a team to get this done as efficiently as possible with minimal damage to the yard and surround trees (that was important to Jared). 

The Cottonwood is starting to look naked at the top...

Team below trying to control where the limbs fall.

This reminds us of cartoons when we were kids; you always saw the wedges being cut out of the trees just before you heard "TIMBER!".

This is what is looked like at the end of Tuesday, you can tell they didn't quite get it all down, so they will have to show up tomorrow.  Before they could even start this job, they had to buy a special chainsaw, and we're sure it was put to good use.

This is what the backyard looks like now.  When they came back on Wednesday, they brought along a newly purchased "mechanical come along" to finish the job.  Something that they didn't expect, but put to good use and they will use for future jobs.  See that Indy is checking for squirrels.  :)

From these photos, you can see that the tree was indeed rotting.  It might have lasted another year or two, no one knows for sure.  It is nice to know that we did the right thing.

Now we just have to wait for these GIANT rounds to be picked up by another company.  Arbor Magic chipped and took away as much as they could, but these rounds are too large for them and their chipper, so another company will be out on Monday or Tuesday to take the rest.

Stay tuned...