To start with, the last stint of our time in Portland (only because I can't change the sequence)... to celebrate our 3 year anniversary blew a glass float together in Lincoln City...a hike in the Drift Creek Wilderness near Lincoln City, OR.

These Portland shots are meant to follow those appearing below... the grotto in Portland... Sokol Blosser Winery... Lincoln City, OR...

Here are some shots of our time in Portland... Mark getting some biker tips from my brother (First, you must wear all spandex)... Our 17 year old cat who we got while living in Sweden in 1990... THE ORDINAND... friends celebrating.

An important post...
Seeing eye pony wearing tennis shoes

A house slowly becoming a home...
I'm a few weeks into my summer vacation and am really enjoying time to work around the yard. I've been splitting plants here and there and having a blast filling in all the gaps with green! Our garden is growing, growing, growing.



Our mutt is growing too. He now weighs 50.7 lbs and is turning into quite a good pup. He likes all the yard work too. (If you click the picture with Kooper in it, it will expand and you'll see that he is resting right on top of our new creeping phlox plant.)

These pics are a bit out of order... but they include a shot of the 3 ingredients in the marvelous Mel's Mix- vermiculite, peat moss, and compost/manure and Mark showing off our nearly prepped 4 x 4 boxes.

The Square Foot Garden boxes are built and planted. This is the view from out kitchen window. We spent Saturday morning making the "Mel's Mix" to fill the boxes with, but we've dubbed it "Mark and Megan's May Mix" because we had to make a few adjustments. We'll see how the tomoatoes, peppers, eggplants, green beans, zucchini, green onions, carrots, cucumbers, basil, cilantro, chives and broccoli fair in the new garden spaces.

Here is the backyard mid-May. Some signs of life. We seeded and planted a few shrubs and perennials. We're particularly proud of the new sidewalk that runs from the garage to the patio. We pounded out the old one by hand with a 16 lb sledge hammer, used the cement chunks to edge our flower beds (beautifying the yard and recycling at the same time... "eco-gardening"?), and then hauled and mixed and poured 2400 lbs of cement by hand under my dad's guidance and help on long Friday.

Here are some pics of our backyard as of early April, I think. A bit has changed since the photos were snapped-a few blades of grass have popped up here and there, we've done some more digging (and so has Kooper), and we've prepared our raised Square Foot Garden boxes and placed them in the old garden space... Stay tuned for more updates... by the end of the summer this space should be transformed into a comfortable spot ...

Family picture from New Years in da' UP with friends.

A few pics of the inside of our house...