Bloomers!

Remember the rose bushes I planted a couple of months ago?  Two of them bloomed this weekend.  The middle one (red) hasn't bloomed yet. 

Even my rose bushes can't escape the cotton evilness!

Oh, and by the way ... for those of you who thought my backyard would never get mowed ... I was right there with you.  Especially today, while I was mowing it, and threatening to quit every foot and a half when the mower would bog down on me.

But ... I stuck with it ... cussing loudly the whole way.  (I'm sure my neighbor heard me!)

Tomorrow ... I'm going to try to focus on cleaning the inside of the house.  My sister is coming up from So. Cal. to stay for a week or so, and I'm excited to see her!  It's been a while since we've seen eachother, and we're long overdue to hang out and giggle like sisters.  I put up a puppy pen just off my deck in the front yard, so we can hang out, have a couple of beers, BBQ, and hang out with the pile of cuteness!  Can't wait!

J

How Do You Like My Big Deck?

Awesome neighbor, Dean, came over today and power washed my deck. He manned the hose, and I womanned the scrub brush, and we turned an old, oily, moldy deck into something ready for treatment.

Before:

During:

After:

Hopefully, I'll be staining and/or sealing the deck in the next couple of weeks.  I'd also like to get some new patio furniture, as the set I have is quite old and pretty uncomfortable.

It's amazing how clean the deck came.  But just like everything else in this house ... a little bit of elbow grease and you reveal the real gem of what ya got.

(I forgot ... the title was in reference to the Blue Collar Comedy "Deck Skit".  Funny as hell!)

J

Craig Mountain

Colleen took me up to Craig Mountain this weekend. Craig Mountain is just south of Lewiston and just west of Winchester, Idaho. It rained all day Saturday, but we were able to get some work done. Colleen was up there scoping the area for amphibians for a training seminar she's doing in a few weeks. (I would put commentary between the photos, but my computer is having a tough time handling this post. I'll come back and fix it when my computer gets upgraded.)

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