Chapters:
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September 2006
October 2006
November 2006
December 2006
Wainscotting Project
January 2007, and another Snowstorm
February and March 2007
Land use / Parking / Right-of-way Analysis
Remodelling drawings
Porters' trip to Costa Rica
April 2007
May
Mount Rainier with "alpenglow" and a cloud cap on top. You can see how low the snow still lies on the foothills.
A frequent flyer around here, the blue heron. He usually stands around to the east of us a bit, fishing in the evening and mornings.
One of our rhododendrons has got a beautiful delicate yellow, orange, and pink coloring. It's not really doing that well, despite several years of careful pruning. It tends to get mildew or other problems, I think it would help to maybe move it and improve the soil.
A closer view of that pretty bloom! They are about at their peak right now, May 12th.
It's a swing, and a hit! Nattie got a soft bat and ball, and took her very first whacks ever. She was super excited, yelling "I can do it!!" with each swing. We made a couple videos:#1 (1.6MB) and in the second one we counted to three to get the camera ready and you can hear her keep going: "4" and "5." The #2 video is 3MB in size.
We took a "family picture" with the self timer to send to Mom & Dad so they could take it to the Porter family reunion.
Just a pretty large format picture of pretty clouds over the bay. You can see Rainier peeking out above the orange cranes.
We went for a ride on the light-rail, just a short trip over to the toy store which Natalie is always lobbying to visit.
Our 15-foot tall rhody is at its peak in May. Lots of big bumblebees visit.
She is trying to use Windows XP, fortunately with only random ineffective moves for the most part.
Working on the entryway patio, step "B." We didn't take a picture of "before" but taking off the old indoor outdoor carpet and its adhesive involved a nasty step of chemical stripper. This picture shows the cement slab underneath, plus a lot of residue that had to be ground off with an abrasive wheel. Yuck!
Step "C" was to put a skim coat of thinset mortar, actually quite thick, you can see the light line of the 3/8th inch molding used to strike it off. Underneath is the blue primer used for extra "stickum." Used 50 lbs. of mortar for this step.
It took about 4-5 hours to lay the 50-some 12x12-inch tiles, here it is with the mortar solid enough to stand on. Used 50-lbs of mortar for this step too.
Grout is done! With a warm light brown "camel" color, it shows a little dark here because it hadn't dried.
One evening we had a weenie-roast on the beach. Plus marshmallows of course.
The Saranat on the buoy, I reset the anchor during a minus tide so it is much farther out in the water.
Mia cat visiting the beach, when we're down there she likes to come visit. She doesn't like to walk on the gravel beach though.
Daisy gets a snack dropped by Natalie.
Moonrise over Mt. Rainier.
Hurray! The variance sign is up!
Natalie is still working up the courage and level of comfort to put her feet on the pedals of her bike. She thinks her helmet is fun so far. It has blinking lights when moved.
Post-popsicle cleanup opportunity. She LOVES popsicles as must all little girls! That's all the pictures for May. Please send an E-mail if you have any comments or corrections, or know something we don't!
