Category: House and home Page 2 of 12

Christian bought a VERY small little fig tree when he was in his Ph.D. program at Arizona State. When he got a job in at Cambridge, MA, he donated the tree to us. We kept it growing through a move from Washington to Texas. It produced two or three figs each year, but it did not prosper. Lorena pruned one of the two trunks last year and this year it has taken off. It looks like there are four figs growing on it (they are small, but SUPER sweet) and it is about twice as tall as last year. There is another spur growing off the bottom, so Lorena is going to try to prune that and start a second tree in the same pot. We are not sure it is possible, but we are investigating it on the Internet.

We sold our house, packed all our earthly goods, and are ready to load it on the truck so we can leave for our new house in Texas. We thought we would have been closed on the house in Texas by now, but the house was not ready on the date promised by the builder. They promised that it would be ready yesterday and that might have actually happened, but we are not sure about it. Nevertheless, we have an inspector lined up for next Tuesday, our real estate agent lined up to do a final walk-through on Wednesday, and a closing lined up with the escrow agency on Thursday. We just hope we can get to Texas in time to sign for the closing by 4:30 on Thursday and then all we have to do is wait for the truck to arrive with our stuff between May 3 and May 5. Excited to get this done!

We are on the move again. One of the things for which I am most grateful is the opportunity Lorena and I have had to live in lots of interesting places in the United States and Mexico. It would have been nice to do that around the entire world, but the USA has been good to us. Giving the kids the perspective that there are lots of nice people in lots of nice places. We enjoyed our time in Washington a LOT–especially the apples and the people. We very much look forward to Texas–we love the people and the culture of friendliness there, but will still buy Washington apples. God willing, we will be living in Texas by mid-May.

It is a spectacular fall day in the twin cities. I have not put up a picture for a long time, but could not resist this one.

Lorena called me over to the window a few minutes ago to show me this owl on a stump. He sat there for fifteen minutes or so swiveling his head every now and then. Then he flew down behind the stump so we could only see a little bit of what was going on. After 10-15 seconds, he flew back up to sit on the stump with what we think was a snake in his mouth, stayed there looking around for a few seconds, then flew off. It was an amazing thing to behold. Lorena filmed what we could see of the snake hunt.

Lorena decided to do a smaller gardening project this summer. Last year her garden got decimated by the deer and was on the wrong side of the house to maximize the sunlight. So, this year she decided to put it on our deck. We surely hope the deer do not come up there. The added benefit is that we will be able to see the garden from our bedroom. Lorena has starts for Oregon and Sweetie Tomatoes, chives, and basil. I am hoping for cucumbers and chiles, but there might not be enough room. Maybe she will put the herbs in a pot or two so we can make room. She loves her garden!

Lorena has identified our bedroom window as the best place to start her tomatoes and assorted herbs. She has Oregon and Sweetie Tomatoes, chives, and basil so far. That window really is a place that gets a lot of sun. Her next step will be to transplant them to a galvanized steel planter-tub. I am trying to talk her into growing her little garden outside our bedroom on the balcony. I think it is fun to watch all this stuff grow and maybe the deer will not eat everything if it is up on the balcony. Who knows, though, those deer are pretty wily.

Lorena is the champion of our property. This year, she decided she would take on both the weed patch that the gardens and flower beds had become and also the pruning of the fruit trees. Last spring we had our gardener clean out a lot of the weeds and put in bark dust. Lorena has kept the weeds at by in those areas with Roundup and has worked, little by little on other areas of the garden. She pruned two of the fruit trees–an apple and a pear. It was a ton of work but she really enjoyed it. Now, with spring’s arrival, they are blossoming spectacularly. Her plan for next year is to start a little earlier and do all of the trees. She also plans to clean up more of the flower beds and lawn. It is a lot of work that she can hardly keep herself from doing all the time.

Lorena has learned that the deer around her like tulips a whole lot better than they like daffodils. She is dedicating herself to planting a LOT more daffodils and some tulips, but only after she gets a fence or screen to protect them. That kind of seems to defeat the purpose, but it IS nice to have some tulips.

Lorena took this picture this afternoon. A couple of days ago we woke up with a blanket of white on the ground. Really looking forward to seeing some leaves on the deciduous trees. With the Coronavirus lurking around every corner, it will be nice to have some sunshine to give us hope for summer and health.

The mountain was beautiful this morning. The layer of crowds below the mountain covers the town and stops just below the top of the ridge where we live. We are kind of amazed that we are still getting new looks/appearances at the same scene after two and a half years of closely watching. We get this kind of scene of the mountain, foothills, and valley every morning when the clouds do not occlude the view. I need to remember to stop working long enough to look out the window at the right time. Maybe I will put a reminder in my calendar to message me.

A couple of pictures of our place at the time of my 64th birthday. I had a great birthday. Lorena and I went out with our friends, Bob, Gena, Stan, and Diane and our ministers, Gary and James for an absolutely stellar steak. It feels really good to be this age. It took me way longer than it should have to figure out that you need to enjoy the age you are because there is no other option other than to not enjoy it.

For a lot of reasons, some valid, some not, the painting of the house has taken a lot more time than expected. We are getting close to the end now. We love the colors and it looks beautiful from a distance. That being said, we ran into another hiccup. The area below the porch looks beautiful, but the paint has bubbled in a way that looks like it is due to moisture. It is probably going to take significant rework. We feel bad for our painter, but really need it to be right. We are glad he is such a good guy and stands by his work.

There was a little more progress on the house painting today. They have now painted the main walls and the trim for three sides of the garage so we are starting to get a little bit of a sense for what the whole thing will look like and we like it a lot. The one thing that is totally apparent to us now is that the garage doors absolutely have to go. We are in the process of figuring out what to do about that next.