Chaos Theory

You've seen the Patch now you get Al's playroom, from all angles.  What would Gert think of his old bedroom?   Mr Fix-it claims that it will get better, but for now it looks like mayhem, even though he seems to know where everything is.

 

Watch out for men with chain saws

 Eight or nine trees got hacked, literally.  Al spent the next five days burning all those branches and twigs.    It might take these poor trees a while to get over the shock, but I'll keep you posted on the harvest of apples, pears and plums. 

We had a very small Fat Tuesday party.  Shrimp n Grits became Polenta and Prawns.  With Mardi Gras Cheesecake bars.  

(The swirling was fun- aren't you impressed?)

Okay, seems like you want pictures of the Patch, so here it is from almost every angle.  Come play with me!

Yes, I know that I'm the luckiest crafter of all time.  Not only do I have this marvelous room, I'm married to Al!  Who could ask for anything more? 

Not much to tell

Al was excited to use his new meat grinder with Bonnie's pink Kitchenaid.  The meatloaf was the best he's ever made.  Sorry you weren't here.

Really sorry you weren't here for this wonderful seafood Alfredo.  That is parsley right from the garden.  No, he didn't go out into the Strait of Juan de Fuca to gather all the seafood.  No, he didn't make the pasta from scratch. 

There are still so many old blue jeans that got moved to the new Patch, but now some of it is the headboard in the guest room.  When will you be here?

Never throw anything away seems to work so well for me.  Pendleton shirt scraps - thank you, Jeane. The precision quilters shudder to see these things, but I have fun in the new Patch playing at haphazard quilting.  Much more fun that cleaning house or organizing a closet.  

 

2025!

 One quarter of the way through this century!  Remember all the Doomsday frights about the world ending and every computer system crashing?  Yet here we are.

             Time to catch you up on what we've been doing so far this year.

The final cabbage at 52 - it tasted much better than it looks.

Same with the very last artichoke. 

                  And one tenatious rose hung around to greet the New Year.

Apparently it's now official because Homer made the big move down the alley.

Now we have a different view of Vancouver Island and Victoria.

                            And Mount Baker, which we couldn't see before.

Yesterday with the sun working just right and zoomed to the max - the foreground is the Dungeness Spit and way over there are the Canadian Rockies!

An old man clearing the deck/ramp of our first snow,

 So an old woman wouldn't slip and break a hip.

           Still a lot of re-arranging to do, but we're slowly settling - y'all come!

Drip, drip, drip

 The gutter guys came!  Who knew that could be so exciting?  This very old machine makes them right on the spot, which maybe everybody else knew about but I'd never seen such a thing.  See that big spool thing at the left of the machine?  The flat material (I don't know what it is) goes through some rollers inside and comes out a long gutter!  It's a miracle. 

Check one more thing off the list.  

Final stages of the ramp, built by two old fellas, not usually sitting down on the job.  Very good use of a lot of Trex.

The final final harvest from the greenhouse.  That sorry looking eggplant was the total production from one sad plant and has been in the refrigerator for far too long but Al is amused by it.   The tomatoes and peppers were picked yesterday and are filled with winter solstice goodness.   Maybe we'll leave a plate for Santa in case he is tired of all those cookies. 

Still unpacking

 Some days seem like we're going backwards, just moving boxes from one corner to another.  It will all come together, but impossible to say when.  Until then I don't have anything to show you indoors but it will happen.  Maybe. 

The Tim and Marty show just kept working on the driveway, which goes from the street all the way back to the alley, even new gravel in the alley.  They lost count at 22 loads.  I admit to a bit of the vapors when the bill was presented.

But it does mean no more mud.  Yay! 

                          Marty loves me!   Or maybe it's my checkbook.

A few loads of beautiful topsoil to fill in all the ruts from the trucks driving around there whilst moving houses to and fro.  Who knew dirt could be beautiful?

The hot tub got moved!  Three men and a truck.  With Al to supervise.

This great big truck for one small hot tub, all the way next door.

Notice the artichoke plants look pretty good, even without chokes.

Can't say much for the blueberries.

See all that new gravel in the alley?  

The key was the big lift, the ramp, and the door on the deck that swings open so they just rolled it right on over.

Too bad they didn't fix the hole where everything had to get ripped open to repair the leak.  Al says that's next on his list, but right now he's installing a new toilet.  We didn't like the puny little one that came with the house so now have a fancy skirted number, chair height for geezers, gentle close seat.  There are priorities in life, ya know.  The hall bathroom will be another day. 

Is it wine o'clock yet?

Digger Extraodinaire

                                See how good that man is with his shovel?

He loves to say that he was a professional ditch digger - for PGE between Cal and the Peace Corps.  Apparently that is a talent that stays with a fella.

                                     See how the deck is being enclosed?  

                 See how the chaos just moves from one place to another? 

                     Will we ever get 2300+ sq ft of stuff into 1400 sq ft? 

                              It's a dilemma yet to be solved. 

 

Finally!

 One Old man andThree Young Studs Moving Company (two of them live right across the street) loaded up the big furniture for the huge trip next door.  He (the old man) was smart enough to get a big truck because it had a better ramp than the smaller options.  

Just the right height to walk straight onto the new deck to unload.  

Isn't it a charming new house?  Do you admire how we've furnished it?  Where is anything?  Where did all this stuff come from?  Why do we own it?  How will we ever get all of it in the cupboards and closets?  Will the thrift shop schedule a pick-up run?  

Do you know that the word run has the most definitions of any word in the dictionary at 645?  Set is next with 430.  

Somehow it will all work out and you know I'll keep you posted on the progress.  If I can find my desk. . . . .