Deck in progress

When we moved into our house 3.5 years ago it came with a long somewhat narrow freshly painted deck off of the back of the house. We loved our deck and had many meals on it, hosted parties that gathered on it and even put wadding pools on it in the summer for the kids. But after a couple of years we noticed that the paint was peeling and in some spots the boards were starting to get soft. This past summer this got really bad, and before any gathering I had to go jump on the deck to see if any of the boards were rotten. On a couple of occasions I even put my foot through the deck. Then Hubby would have to go scrounge some scrap 2x4s to patch the hole. It was time to replace the deck!

So I called a few companies for quotes on expanding and fixing our beloved deck. Some quotes were fairly high and didn't really give me exactly what I wanted, and most of them didn't include replacing the underlying structure of the existing deck, just re-decking the surface boards. Other companies didn't even get back to me with a quote at all...I guess if you're not putting in a huge composite deck they don't really want your business. So after much thought, Hubby decided to just replace the deck himself. He ordered the lumber online, had it delivered and even got the contractor rate because the order was so large. Then the tear out started. He wasn't sure what he'd find when he tore off the top boards and thought that the structure might be in good shape, but that's not what he found. Basically, the deck seemed to be built out of lumber that really wasn't supposed to be used outside, and then got painted to "seal" it for outdoor use. The top boards as well as all of the underlying structure was rotten and just waiting to collapse. So it all got torn out and thrown on the scrap pile.

Now we're a few weeks into the re-build of the deck and it's looking really nice! The structure probably took the most time to build, and now the decking boards are going on really quickly. Stairs will come next and after that we'll think about railings on a couple of high places. But I'm really pleased with it. We almost doubled the width of the deck in the middle and added on a long section next to the house. The funny shaped section at the end under the trees will most likely not be re-built. I'm thinking of putting a paved patio there or using it as a garden space...or something I haven't thought of yet. And by having hubby do it himself I think we probably saved about $5k in labor costs. Yay!

What do I want to do when I grow up?

I've been thinking a lot about getting back into the "making money working world" ever since son started his last year of preschool. Next year he'll probably be in full time kindergarten, and I'll have from 9am-3pm kid free. I guess if I don't have a child to care for most of the day I'll feel kind of lazy just doing my own thing and not working at something that makes money or makes a mark on the world in one way or another. I don't really think I want to go back into the corporate, full time, cubicle world. I just don't think I'd be happy doing that even though I know it'd bring in a lot more money than any alternative. So I've made a list of things I like to do and think I'm pretty good at doing. Maybe one or more of these things can keep me busy and make me feel productive.

1. Tutoring kids in math, reading, etc.
2. Edit technical articles
3. Database/Website contract work
4. Write articles for magazines
5. Before and After school care
6. Nanny for infant/toddler
7. Teach Basic Yoga
8. Teach Basic Sewing
9. Plant Gardens for others
10. Home Organization/Remodeling plans
11. Sell Plant starts or grown plants
12. Pet Sitting including chickens or other farm animals
13. Sewing Projects for others
14. Selling sewn items
15. Selling prepared food items from garden (zucchini bread, pickles, etc.)

I love baby chicks

Baby chicks have to be one of the cutest things in the world! They're soft and fuzzy, curious, playful and just downright adorable. I love watching them. We have our 25 new chicks in our greenhouse right now. They get a little startled when you open the door and walk in, but after a few minutes they get used to having these 2 giant feet standing in their room. They love to huddle together in a pile under the heat lamp standing on top of one another. And just like babies, they want to sleep a lot. A chick will be standing there and all of a sudden it will fall forward fast asleep with it's beak in the dirt. Other chicks can walk all over it and even step on its head but the chick just stays asleep. The first time we raised chicks I got really worried when I saw this. I thought "Well, that's it, we just lost a baby chick. It's dead." Then about a minute later it'd get up and walk around. Every now and then they seem to just need to move and will run across the floor like something's chasing them or flap their little almost-wings and try to fly. They don't seem to be scared of us at this age and the kids can squat down and pick one up without it even trying to run away. They also like shiny things and will peck at my ring or at the shiny bits on my shoes. The only part I don't like about baby chicks is that they grow up into ugly in-between chicks before they become hens. I guess chickens have an awkward phase, too.

Garden update

The garden is doing pretty well right now.

I'm picking green beans every day, got 3 baseball bat size zucchini today, pulled several beets and even found a few small ears of corn in the bean vines.

Our 3 sunflower plants are probably 10 feet tall and have just headed. We call one of them the Leaning Flower of Pezzee. :)

Cabbage should be heading pretty soon, the onions will be ready to pull soon, too, and the couple of pumpkins in the garden are starting to turn orange. The pumpkins in the separate pumpkin patch have probably gotten a virus of some kind. They have white powdery stuff on the vines and they are starting to die back. There are a couple of small pumpkins in there that may still be OK, but nothing spectacular.

(Ghost Pumpkin, Swiss Chard and Carrots)

Oh, Oh, Oh! I found a handful of RED tomatoes in the garden the other day!!! Didn't think I could do that. The ones in the greenhouse grew huge, but only produced a few small tomatoes.

(The jungle in our greenhouse)

I think the insects just didn't go in there, so the flowers never got pollinated.

Overall it's been a great garden year. I haven't bought veggies all summer, which is the goal. I think every year I change what I plant and move things around to a better place. Maybe one day I'll get it just right...maybe not. :)

Beet Salad

I was talking to Kate and Sue today about beet salad. So I thought I'd post the recipe I used a while back that was very yummy!

Beet Salad:
4 medium beets - scrubbed, trimmed
1/3 cup chopped walnuts
3 tablespoons maple syrup
salad greens
1/4 cup frozen orange juice concentrate (I used this, but I think it made it too sweet, so maybe omit this one)
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 ounces goat cheese (I used crumbled goat cheese)

DIRECTIONS
Place beets into a saucepan, and fill with enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, then cook for 20 to 30 minutes, until tender. Drain and cool, then peel and cut into cubes.

While the beets are cooking, place the walnuts in a skillet over medium-low heat. Heat until warm and starting to toast, then stir in the maple syrup. Cook and stir until evenly coated, then remove from the heat and set aside to cool.

In a small bowl, whisk together the orange juice concentrate, balsamic vinegar and olive oil to make the dressing.

Place a large helping of greens onto each of four salad plates, divide candied walnuts equally and sprinkle over the greens. Place equal amounts of beets over the greens, and top with dabs of goat cheese. Drizzle each plate with some of the dressing.

Summer recap

Well, the last 3 weeks were jam-packed with summer goodness due to our to-do list. We got through all of the kids' items and all of mine except the Ballard Locks. I didn't really try too hard to cram that one into this last week. It's there all year round, so we'll go see it on a weekend sometime.

Riding the bust to Seattle to go up in the Space Needle was very interesting. The fares were very confusing as they are based on time of day, where you get on the bus and age. So I just asked the driver how much our total would be and paid that. We missed our first stop after arriving in seattle and got off the bus when I realized it. That resulted in a half mile walk through the city while aiming us toward the Space Needle that I could see above all the buildings. The kids were pretty excited to be at the Seattle Center, but I could tell when we got there that the carnival rides at the base of the Space Needle were looking way more appealing to them than the Needle itself. But we went up anyway, and they didn't ask me too many times to go back down and ride the rides.

I think my favorite wish-list item was the ferry ride to a sandy beach. We went to Port Townsend last weekend and spent 2 days bumming around the beach, touching animals in the touch tanks at the Marine Science Center, geocaching, swimming in the hotel pool and playing at a park. It was a nice relaxing weekend with the family.

Maybe next year we'll make our list at the beginning of the summer, but then I guess we risk forgetting about it and cramming it all into the last 3 weeks like this year. But either way, I think the kids and I had a fun summer to remember.

3 more weeks of summer

Starting today we have 3 weeks of summer vacation left before the kids have to go back to school. I'm starting to feel the push to cram as much summer goodness as possible into these last 3 weeks. This morning the kids and I made a list of things we wanted to do before the grind of school sneaks up on us. Here is daughter's list.

1. Go to the Space Needle
2. Go to the Woodland Park Zoo -- have to see elephants and flamingos
3. Go to KidsQuest Museum
4. Ride the bus to Seattle
5. Go to a pool (even though we've done this a lot this summer)

Here is son's list:

1. Go to Starbucks
2. Go Hiking
3. Ride Bikes
4. Play in the toy aisle at Target

Here's my list

1. Visit the Ballard Locks
2. Go to the Camlon Fair
3. Ride a Ferry to a sandy beach

I'm thinking that son's list will be super easy and daughters won't be too hard either. Mine's the toughest of the bunch, but we've got a couple of weekends left and may be able to do everything.

On the garden front, I'm getting a ton of beets, lettuce, cukes and zucchini on an almost daily basis. The green beans are growing vines but not producing many beans yet, and the soybeans will probably be ready to pick any day now. I'm seeing quite a few butternut squash growing now and could probably pick a rutabega or 2 when I want them. Pumpkins in the separate pumpkin patch are not doing very well. I only see 2 or 3 very tiny pumpkins in the whole patch. The 4 plants I put in the garden already have 3 fairly good sized pumpkins on them. And the corn is not doign well either. According to my dad I should have put a lot more nitrogen rich fertilizer on them earlier on. They are short and may not produce any ears at all. And the pole beans I planted next to them are growing huge and have started to break the stalks. I think if the corn was healthier the beans wouldn't have hurt them, but they did. Next year I won't plant pole beans around the corn, only bush beans. And Next year I'll put more nitrogen in the soil for them.

The apple tree is dropping some apples. I think the lack of rain this year has made the apples smaller, but they still taste good. I've got a good sized box of them so far and there are a lot more on the tree. Apple Pie here I come!