February, 2015

The focus this month was on the master bedroom. Rog designed a platform bed and found that it was a bit more than he bargained for as he struggled to put it all together. But it was gorgeous when it was completed and really was a welcome addition. These old bones don’t get up off the floor as easily as they once did! Then it was on to the shoji screens. They were a bear to make, a bear to paint, and a little tricky to get the paper applied. But they are up and are absolutely gorgeous. We are so pleased with how the bed and closet doors turned out!

We have also focused on landscaping with the warm sunny weather we have been having (apologies to all of you stuck in the cold Midwest and East Coast!!). We borrowed Eric’s engine hoist and pulled out the dead bushes in the front yard, then removed the bushes along the side fence and in the back yard. We transplanted a lot of them into more suitable locations which really opened up the back yard a bit. The hoist made it a lot easier than digging each one out by hand. There were only 2 or 3 that we ended up just cutting off at the ground. With the side bushes gone, I sifted all of the stones out of the dirt and planted the four bare root grapes with allysum for ground cover. Rog put in the four posts for the grape arbor, which required removing part of the sidewalk that is there. Down the road, the entire sidewalk will be replaced with a walkway of stepping stones. The final tree that needed to come down was in the corner of the lot, leaning over the fence into the neighbor’s yard. Eric came over with his chain saw and helped us drop the tree into the neighbor’s yard and fill the organic waste barrels with trimmings. His reward was a truckload of nice fresh oak for next winter. The neighbors were ecstatic…they hated the tree and were more than happy to see it go.

On the grandkid front, we started the month with Max’s birthday. Hard to believe that kid is nine years old already!!! He had a birthday party the weekend before with his friends at Petroglyph, where they each painted their own ceramic piece. His actual birthday was on a Monday so we started celebrating after school with our usual project day. His dad surprised him by taking the afternoon off and picking him up after school. They stopped for donuts then came over to our place for the project. We made matchstick rockets with minimal success. Then it was over to his house for dinner.

Our other projects for the month included caterpillars made out of valentine hearts, patriotic pretzel sticks for President’s Day, and Chinese dragon masks for the Chinese New Year.

We ended the month with a pizza lunch with the family; Ryan and Beth, Michelle, Eric and Karissa and Max. Karissa stayed with us after lunch and had her date with us. We went to see Seussical, Jr at the local community theater. What an outstanding job they did! It was so good that we are looking forward to seeing it again next month with Max for his date! Then we had dinner at the Black Bear Diner, Karissa’s favorite restaurant. She was one tired puppy when she was returned to her parents that evening.

Rog lost a dear old friend this month. Elton Geist, a contractor he worked with back in his Colfax days, passed away early this month. Rog made it up for the funeral and was able to see Joanne to give his condolences.
We also helped our neighbor, Joe, celebrate his 70th birthday. He had a party with a full spread of Peruvian food. We had a hard time believing that he is 70. He still works fulltime and seems more like 50 or 60. I guess it is all relative.

We had an enjoyable evening with Phil and Kalen Adamson, catching up with Kalen’s adventures in college. Phil and Rog are planning a trip together over to Manjack next month as well.