Hello to our dear friends! Here again is our newsy update.
French Drain: We completed (well, mostly completed our french drain this spring.) It was our biggest home improvement project we have ever attempted. Which is probably not a lot considering we were only changing lightbulbs and putting in screen windows before. LOL! It took many weekends of not doing anything else. Some friends helped us dig; and we finally hired a friend to help us haul rocks and dig and attach and paint window wells, etc. Without his help; we'd still be working on it. We had a huge truck deliver an actual concrete dry well, which was quite a sight. One of our neighbors looked on very skeptically. We hope it works to end the problem of water getting into the basement. We still have to do some work on the downspouts and grading and planting grass, but we had to put it away for the summer. Two months of working on it and we were ready to "live" again. 
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Gardening: While the french drain was in process. I did manage a side project. I built 2 new raised vegetable beds for our front yard. The sun is best there and it made sense to put them there. I used cedar. It cut the boards, stained them, and Mike and I screwed them together as well as attached some trellises. I read that vertical growing saves a lot of room; so I decided to grow my tomatoes, pumpkins, squash, peas, beans-all climbing the trellises. And now that we are in the peak; I have to say the trellises have been successful! This summer we are continuing to grow many of what we grew last year(beans, peas, strawberries, asparagus, cucumbers, lettuce, collard, chard, scallions, tomatoes) with the addition of (basil, corn, brocoli, fennel, eggplant, artichoke, onion, grapes, and potatoes!) We also have 2 apple trees, cherry tree, apricot, and a pear tree. We are also a part of a different CSA near Oregon City called Birds and Bees. We only bought a 1/2 share this year, considering all the food we are already growing.
Kittens: Lily had four kittens on Sequoia's bed on June 4th. 3 male and 1 female. We named them Sparkle, Moonlight, Twillight, and Star. Tristan and Sequoia truly enjoyed this experience. Each morning the first thing they wanted to do was to visit the kittens. So, most of the summer, we have had a kitten obsession, which I am happy to say is calming now that we recenly gave away 3 of them. (We kept Sparkle) It was more work than I expected, but definitly worth it. Needless to say, Lily will be not being having more kittens...We are going to get her fixed very soon. Sparkle is now 10 weeks old and a wonderful addition to our "family"
Camping: Coastal Redwoods: My father flew out for a visit for 3 weeks so he could join us for our 11 day camping trip in July. The "Redwoods of Northern California" are an amazing place to camp if you love the forest...The trees are ancient; I had to stop and think about just how much has happened in the world since those trees were saplings. some were as old as 2000 years! It was a little cold there...We camped under a canopy of trees(of course)..The night time went down to high 40's; the daytime low 60's. Luckily it did not rain on us. I would take that temperature, though to the heat wave we had a couple of weeks ago. What was it-5 consecutive days over 100? The temperature rose to 106!! In any case, we went on a lot of short hikes/adventures with the kids (and my dad!) The kids became exploreres often running ahead..to my worry.. (cougar and bear were in the forests too)
Mike's work: Summertime is not supposed to be the busy season at work, but it has been a "second" busy season. It is fortunate the company is doing well during this recession. That is something to be extremely grateful for, but it is not always "fun" for him to feel the pressures of many orders and deadlines to meet as well as extra hours to be away. On the upside; he has been asked by his boss to attend a managers meeting in Japan in September. (of course he is going!!) I thought it interesting to include his work's website in case any of you are more curious as to what his company does, etc..
http://www.omicnet.com/omicusa/
Family and Friends: Recenly we have been graced with a couple visitors. Cathy and Noah who live in rural Alaska visited us for a couple of days (just this past week). And shortly afterwards, my cousin Nancy and her almost 2 year old daughter stayed with us for another couple of days. It was good to become reaquainted with them and the children. Anna is an amazingly sweet, calm, talkative child! During their visits we went to Sauvie Island/Beach, Rhodedenderon Garden/ and the Zoo.
Weekend at the cottage: Before our visitors, we spent the weekend with "Grandmama Nancy" Aunt Aliyih, Uncle Robert, and cousins Laurence and Rayleigh at a cottage on a lake near Vernonia. It was actually quite relaxing (relatively)-everything is relative when you have young children! We went for a little hike, canoed, and I have to say that I think our dog Mona had the best time offleash.
This summer we have also kept ourselves busy having playdates, 2 weeks of swimming lessons, (Tristan is loving being able to go under water), going to parks, concerts, library, lounging at home doing Land Before Time coloring pages, cooking, harvesting, and trying to do some purging of "stuff". We had a yard sale at the beginning of the summer. It seemed that we got rid of a lot of things, but just as soon as it was over; the other "stuff" seemed to sneak in the gaps..So, I fear, we must do some more purging. I have also been taking a Fiddle class that is very challenging. I love it and it has me practicing about an hour a day. I don't know if I am any good, but it makes me feel really good to improve and I am doing more than I thought I'd be able to do after only playing 1 year.
There are still 3 weeks left before we are once again, locked into a "schedule" and I am hoping for some "down time" days, as well as some fun "out and about" days.
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