Rain rain go away...

It has only been since we moved here that I learned that Travis can build things.
Not just build them well, but enjoys it! Obviously renting does not merit this type of thing.
Somehow I said Yes before learning this information.





We had some 2x4s that were the wrong kind of wood for testing stain on our beams just laying around and I had a new project idea!

This is not the project--this is just fun! Here are the 2x4s used for stain testing. Got a favorite?

We believe fully in the motto is "A project worth doing deserves a new tool" so we gained an awesome staple gun for this job. The proper kind where you press against the end the staple comes out.

A couple 2x4s and a metal screen about $15 in material is all we needed...

So now if the sun ever comes out enough for the puddles to go away I can be found in the below picture!

A dirt sifter! or rock harvester as it turns out.

It is almost meditative to shovel 5 loads of dirt on the the screen, set shovel to the right, grab rake from the left and sift the dirt thru the screen, harvesting the rocks, and repeat. Especially in the sun!

The first yard I sifted by myself. Took an hour or so. I only got 1/2 bucket full of rocks. I guess that area had been pre dug last year and we hand picked a lot of rocks out. I almost stopped using the screen at this point and felt really bad for making Travis build it.

But the 2nd day I had help and we filled all 3 buckets with rocks.

Moving another yard of soil. (2 down, 8ish to go!)

This dirt is no joke. Full of rocks and roots AND clay based and WET. Really a great workout.

It was perfect timing with one person shovelling dirt on screen, 2nd person sifting and removing rocks and as soon as wheel barrow was full, Travis dumped it here.

And proceeded to use it to level out the slope in our grass!

Below is where I randomly planted my Autumn Joy and some daffodils, not realizing at the time that they will have to be raised up. So they get to stay low until after the daffodils bloom.

The reason we are getting this done now is to get rid of as much anti veggie type soil as we can, and bring in some good dirt for planting!  Reusing our bad soil for grass growing and using the rocks to place around the base of the fence posts to keep the dirt off them,

Mowing will be alot easier when we are done

This area took more than a yard to make the slope as little as possible.

A yard is equal to 5-6 wheel barrows full.

The sifted clay soil reminds me of ground beef. Hope grass likes to grow in ground beef!

The saddest part of sifting process are the worms. Some of them I picked out and thru in the compost filled Pea bed and others found there way thru the screen. But without stopping every 2 seconds to pick out a worm, they kinda parted ways with being whole. Here is one below rejoicing at making it to greener pastures. It is over a foot long!

It has been raining for 2 days now. We should host some mud wrestling! This is the hole we created so far and we still have this much more to do at least before we start bringing in the dirt. As you can see, clay does not offer much in the way of drainage. Good riddance!

While it is raining the old man will NOT be snoring. 

(I'm sure Travis approves that I haven't added yet another caught sleeping picture again so soon)
 I will finish up priming the cupboards and Travis will be working on phase 3.5 of the beams!

Down came the rain and washed the gravel out!

This weekend our area received 2.97 inches of rain. Now this isn't too unusual for this area and time of year... but it happened in less than 36 hours. Sundays usual average was .18 inches but we received  2 inches MORE than normal.

People who do not live here think it rains like this all the time in the Seattle area, but it doesn't. It is usually a light to medium rain on and off all day. Some days I managed to get to work, go to lunch, come home from work and work in the yard all without getting wet.
In fact, I have just purchased my first true rain coat this year and have lived here all my life.

So anyway it was wet. Very very wet all weekend.


We stayed inside as much as possible until it was time to go to the most amazing show ever* on Saturday night. 
But we left through the front door so we didn't notice this:

 Until Sunday night when the rains(monsoons?) stopped. We found a chasm of great proportions!
Our very own Grand Canyon! The picture just cannot portray the awesomeness.
It is 6+ inches deep and at least as wide all carved out by the water coming down the hill.

 And there goes all the gravel...

 And farther down...more gravel. This is the storm drain Travis has to keep clear of leaves or we have a large pool of water on the road. Large like all the way across the street.

Again the pictures do not show what is really going on. We have a gushing flow down from this trench dug last week. Our water meter is amphibious most the year being at the lowest point in the yard.

 A close up of the river dividing

This river doesn't look like much as it comes down the hill but it was quite soggy and around the shed had some pools of water (equally bad quality photos not provided) around it and then it was untraceable somewhere in all the greenery.

But here is a really bad video of what is going on at the top of the hill, and in to the neighbors yard.

At the very beginning if you watch the center you can see quite the river pouring out of the fence. I really should review my camera work before calling it a night.

*more awesomeness from the show can be seen here, here and here. These videos were taken by strangers at the same show. I did not watch them all the way through because I was there. So if people are doing inappropriate things, it has NOTHING to do with me. Just wanted to share some of the awesomeness that was Roger Waters-The Wall at the Tacoma Dome 2010

Rainy day in the garden

I should be used to this by now, being in Western Washington and all. But there are a few things I planned for that I am thinking twice about today.
Washing cars
Picking blueberries
Weeding the garden

Obviously a garden needs to be watered, but the state of my tomatoes concerns me now. With 5 days of off and on showers due(which I was hoping was a weather LIE) and it coinciding with our 5 days off...Im a bit saddened. The tomatoes are very cute with water droplets though.


Pumpkin blossom filled with rain.

The gorgeous patio 80% complete and wet
Cherry tomatoes after a rain
and the sun starting to peek thru the clouds

Partly cloudy with a chance of showers


Sun break on pumpkin #1
These pictures are from 8/22/10.

I have yet to venture out in to the completely cloud covered world today.

The show will go on!
Blueberry adventures MUST be had, rain or shine.

The weeds will wait for another day. They do come out easier in wet soil.