Happy Easter!

Here's a shot of one of our beautiful Daffodils in the backyard.  The color is very vibrant and just says springtime!

Today was a glorious weather day.  One of those days you just live for in Western Washington. For whatever reason, we are 15-20 degrees above normal, and we took full advantage of it. Especially, since we finished up the 2nd phase of the yard on Saturday.

As is our normal these days, we again headed over to the Tolt River.  Yeah, we know we go over there a lot, but it is easily accessible and very dog friendly.  Plus, we know if the weather is good at our house, it will be good at the river too!  And most importantly, Indy gets to hike, swim, run off leash, and just be a DOG!  She loves playing fetch the stick in the water.  There is a perfect spot in the river for us to throw the stick out and have her swim out to it, grab the stick, and then come back...all of course for a treat!  You can see, she is quite the little motorboat!

After she does a little swimming, we do a little more hiking...and posing!

Doesn't that look like a happy dog?

And then today was the ultimate...since it was Easter, we decided to head to DQ in Redmond after our escapade and you can't make a stop at DQ without Indy getting a vanilla cone.  Look at her devour the cone while Kristina tries to keep her from making a huge mess!   

We hope your Easter was as good as ours was!

March Rain

Well, today is the last day of March, so we tallied up the rain total...this March we had 3.91" of rain at our house.  This is a little short of the normal average, but it doesn't feel at all dry.  We were lucky and we have had DRY weather since Thursday.  Lucky for us, considering the amount of yard work we needed to get done.  And, looking at the weather forecast, it looks like we might not get any rain until Friday or Saturday.  It looks like we'll have to use the sprinkler on our newly planted grass seed.

Rhett Places 1st (AGAIN)!

Rhett did it again.  While wrestling the 10 and under age class, and the 61 lb weight class, he finished 1st at the Kansas State Folkstyle Championships.  This now makes 4 years in a row for a 1st place finish -- and what was even more impressive was that this year, not one of his opponents scored any points on him.  Next year he will have to have a goal for pinning all of his opponents! 

Here are some shots of his biggest supporters...

Dad (aka - coach) and Rhett

Mom (aka - logistics manager) and Rhett
(Look at those BIG smiles)

Grandpa George (aka - genetics) and Rhett
(Don't be fooled Grandpa is ELATED!)

Here are some action shots during his final match -- and when I say action, I mean of the peanut gallery.

Grandpa George yelling with all his heart!

Grandma Louise (as calm as ever), Maisie (the photographer sister), and Grandpa Dale (intent, but controlled).

Congratulations to Rhett!  You have now earned 8 months of rest...until November when it all starts again!

Yard 2013 -- Phase 2 Completed

This weekend was the Phase 2 of getting the yard into shape for the upcoming summer.  Lucky for Kristina, Jared took Thursday off from work since he already had Friday off (Good Friday); that way he got a head start on the task.

Bright and early on Thursday morning Jared prepared for the dirt arrival.  We were having two deliveries; 12 cubic yards of dirt (this equates to a dump truck load) and 6 cubic yards of bark.  Whenever we are due for deliveries, Jared sets up tarps on the driveway so that the delivery people know where to put it.

Here is where a lot of the dirt ended up.  We had our huge Cottonwood cut down last Fall because it was rotting and becoming less stable.  Having it cut down created all sorts of craters, holes, and just total unevenness in the backyard.  So the plan was to get the yard leveled out again.

And, there's the dump truck load of dirt...next up...bark.

The bark and dirt have been delivered and you can see the size of the piles.  The really "black" pile on the right is the bark.  It is a super fine bark and we spread around the bases of the trees and landscaped areas of the yard.  It keeps the weeds from overtaking everything and it creates a moisture barrier for the trees and shrubs..

This is the finished product...a more level yard.  In addition to leveling the yard out, we over-seeded the lawn and spread a thin layer of dirt on top of it.  The thought being that it gives an extra layer of protection to the grass seed and hopefully it will germinate faster.

And a clean driveway...

A couple of shots from the street...you can see the bark looks good along the landscaped areas!

Happy 4th Birthday Indy!

Indy turns 4 years old today!  Happy 4th Birthday!  We can't believe she is 4 years old.  She still has the energy of a puppy, and after she gets groomed, she still feels like a soft plush toy!  But she is indeed a big dog!

Indy was lucky enough to get to go to the doggie spa last week and enjoy a day of grooming  and doesn't she look great!  Her curls are gone, but she it a trim little doggie -- ready for action.  Since her birthday is on a Tuesday this year, we decided to take advantage of the nice weather last weekend and go to her favorite place, the Tolt River.  It is her perfect combination of good sniffing, lots of running, and SWIMMING!

Here she is looking good...

 And posing with her Dad.  You don't think she is loved, do you?

  

And her favorite activity -- fetching a stick in the river.  It combines her love of sticks, fetching, and swimming.  The current is fairly strong at this spot, and she has no problem navigating it easily.

And last but not least a family shot for our day out...she must be getting a little tired, she is sitting still and posing for a picture!

Yard 2013 -- Phase 1 Complete

It is that time of year again; we move from indoor projects to outdoor projects.  Since it snowed on Friday, we were a little worried that maybe we were jumping the gun, but it turned out that the timing was pretty good.

Last weekend, Jared finished clearing out the "stream bed" in our yard.  It had been neglected for many years before we bought the house and until now, we hadn't had a chance to clean it up.  It had been covered with moss, grass, and all kinds of yard build up from the years of neglect.  Using a pitch fork, we were able to peel that stuff off and reveal that yes indeed, there are actually rocks there at one time.  We'll have to add to the rocks, but at least for now it is ready to accept the rocks.

This weekend, our attention was the yard.  Jared has an annual routine of de-thatching the yard, and the yard looks great each year, so it is definitely worth the extra effort.  On Friday, he picked up the de-thatcher and on Saturday he started.  Here are a few shots of the front yard.  The first one is how it looked when he started and then there are a couple of "in progress" photos.

And here's how the backyard looked after he completed the de-thatching.  It looked great!  And unlike the past years, it didn't tear the yard up as much as it normally does.  The yard appears to be getting stronger and thicker -- all of that hard work is paying off!

 

After Jared got rid of the moss and the dead grass, he went over the yard with the riding lawnmower and picked up a bunch more clippings even after raking it.  When he was done with that, he spread some lime over the yard to prep it for grass seed next weekend.

In this shot, the birds return to the bird feeder now that Jared has finished in the backyard.

Next weekend...a truckload of dirt (seriously)...we have to repair the yard from having the cottonwood cut down last fall.  Wish us luck!