Summer Time!

It is been a while, yes, I know!

The latest update
- I am graduated with a masters (obviously)
- I have finished a school year from .... (I have spent this last week cleaning up and out of my classroom - I had a lot of stuff)
- And now it is time to relax, and do some amazing things this summer!

This weekend Eric and I are celebrating our 3rd year anniversary. It is a big surprise for Eric, so I have to keep it a secret a little while longer. Keep watching ... I post it next week. :)

Last week, we had our neighbor come over with his excavator and cleared out and burned those massive pile s in the back. What is left? The largest pile of ash I have ever seen. He is coming back this weekend to do some more clearing for us as well as for the neighbor on our other side (he wants cleared pasture land for cows).


The last pile... Our neighbor is pooped... hahaha
This last one was taken from our back porch. If you look really close, you can see Eric between the smoldering pile and one of the excavator's buckets. These fires lasted from Friday afternoon at 2 till the following Tuesday when they finaly stopped smoking.

It was way to hot to cook smores...

Graduation Day

June 9th, 2006, 10 am, Tacoma Dome. I officially have my MEd. Yeah!

See the red head (Rachel) in the second row, middle? I'm to her right... the one with the super long hair.

Ryan and I graduated from the Ed Program at St. Martin's together exactly 5 years ago. Here we are again, at UWT, now with our MEd.

We're Graduated!! We went to celebrate by the waterfront in Ruston Way with family and friends!


At last, I have no more papers to write, no more classes to attend, no more late nights, no more taking notes. I can finally relax..... better yet, crash.

Im There

As of Yesterday at 4pm, I am officially graduated from my 2 year long Masters in Education program from University of Washington, Tacoma. The photo is of an all time Proffesor, who has just signed off on my final project. More to come! I 'walk' on Friday at the Tacoma Dome.

As an added treat, I 'won' a mariners ticket for last night's game!

Family Update

Memorial Day Weekend! A few shots of the goats and chickens and us being goofy. Parrot is chasing the goats in one of the photos.

The Chickens are in my pen... Luke is not looking happy.
Eric and Beau getting close.

Perplexcity.com

Ok, so if you know me, you know I love logic! Well, this weekend, I ventured into a game store and as I was buying this game called 'MadGab' I over heard another clerk talk about this worldwide game called 'Perplex City.' So I got involved in the conversation. Low and behold, I liked what I heard... logic, puzzles and a cash prize... well, check it out for yourself. You can play for free or you can buy in or a little of both. It is a blast!!

First Tree Out

Today, I started on the rose garden by pulling out the first of five trees... literally. hahaha

Landscaping ...

... has begun!

We are mowing with our riding mower, which has a new front tire (the first time we mowed, Eric ran over something metal and flattened it). We have about 2 acres now cleared!
Weed eating is my new favorite thing to do!









My first area of attack is this area. The plan is to make this into a rose garden. The trees on either side of the walk way are going to be removed and possibly replanted elsewhere. The area between the path and the window will be tilled and the grass removed prior to beginning the steps of planting roses. After much research, I have found my plan of attack for this project.

Here goes:

http://www.rosemagazine.com/pages/planting.asp

'Site: good drainage, and 4-5 hours of sun.
First of all, it is very important to choose a sunny area of the garden that gets at least 4 to 5 hours of sun for your rose. Do not crowd your rose with other trees and plants. Some roses, such as climbers and shrubs, don’t mind company, but most like to mix with other roses or other non-invasive plants. If you’re replacing an older rose bush, it is important to remove an 18 cubic inch area of soil and replace it with fresh soil. A newly planted rose doesn’t like to grow in the same soil that an older rose bush has been in. Picky darn thing isn’t it!

Step-by-Step Rose Planting: Here are the basics:
1) Dig a hole, slightly larger than the pot size or root system of your rose bush.
2) Add a small handful of bonemeal to the planting hole. Spade in some compost or peatmoss to loosen the soil. Mix the soil you took out of the hole with more compost or peat moss.
3) Remove the rose from the pot. Carefully place in the hole and shovel the extra soil around the new plant. Plant the rose with the crown slightly deeper than the original soil. The crown or bud union should be about 1 inch under the soil
4) Gently firm the rose into its new home and water well.
5) Stand back and watch it grow!
Important note!! NEVER fertilize a new rose bush with anything other than bonemeal. '

Our Niece

At one year old, our niece Sophia. She has expressions that make you wonder what she is thinking.

From top to bottom:

-Sophia

- Family Portrait - Neal, Sophia and Kristi

- Kristi and Sophia (straight on and profile)

- Uncle Eric with Sophia

- Papa (grandpa) Mike with Sophia

Spring Time

The weather is beautiful! And with gorgeous weather comes all sorts of special gifts. The main gift is that of spring! And in the spring comes flowers, blue skies, nice breezes and baby animals. Our back yard on a nighlty (and early morning) basis has a small herd of 5 or 6 elk that venture through keeping us from having to mow our lawn, very often. They come right up to our back deck and peek over the railing. There are tons, and I mean tons of rabbits that hop to and fro all through our front yard every morning... as I leave for work, I see their cute white tails lopping away. In neighboring pastures, which I drive past each morning, I see four sweet young colts cantering around in the crisp morning air, chasing bugs and running circles around their mothers. In the afternoons, they are keeping in shade of their mothers, or sprawled out on the pasture floor napping.

Enjoy the photos! Let me know what you think.












Elk. Can you see the two on the right, just beyond our deck?





















Cute. What is so interesting about a weed?


Being that it is spring too, it is perfect weather to begin burning some of the smaller piles that we have on our property. These piles are of stumps that we have had pulled up and piled so that we can have bon-fires like the one you see below. Check out our fun process. The last one is a super close up of the pile burning, just for effect.





























After five hours, only a third was burned down, and it took 45 minutes to put out. We have 4 other small piles like this one still to burn.



On another note, we had some friends from up north visit us. Their son is now three, super talkative and runs everywhere. On top of that, he found Eric's drums and is quite the little drummer!!


Eric and Issac.